What is a Faith Community Government Rhetoric and Local Reality

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What is a Faith Community? Government Rhetoric
and Local Reality

• Greg Smith
• Centre for Institutional Studies
• University of East London
• Presentation for BASR Conference Cambridge
  September 10-13th 2001

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Introduction

• In the UK and USA governments are wanting Faith
  Communities and religious organisations to enter
  partnerships to deliver policy
• JRF have funded our research on Engaging Faith
  Communities in Urban Regeneration
• But what do they / we mean by Faith Community?

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Why is Government Interested?

• Faith Groups may reach people government cant
• Contracting out saves expenditure (Best Value)
• Participation and Partnership is seen as good
• Faith groups have and build on identity and
  social capital
• Faith Groups have volunteers available
• Faith Groups have socially beneficial values
• Managing and diffusing ethnic conflict
• Faith Groups may have extra motivation and
  dynamic
• Votes!
• Maybe God is at work!

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Why are Faith Groups Interested?

• They are genuinely concerned for local
  communities
• They may have values which challenge social
  exclusion
• They need funding support to survive
• They want to be good stewards of their resources
  such as buildings
• They want to promote their reputation by doing
  good
• Their own members are struggling
• They want to recruit new members

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In this Paper we

• Locate contested definitions of faith communities
  in various sociological traditions
• Attempt a typology of faith communities and
  religious organisations
• Examine faith communities in an inner city
  neighbourhood
• Analyse official discourse on faith communities
• Sketch implications for policy

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Sociology of Community

• Hillery (1954) listed 94 definitions
• Geographical Communities and communities of
  interest or identity
• Durkheim and social cohesion and the role of
  religion
• Tonnies on Gemeinschaft and Gessellchaft
• Urbanism and the loss of community
• Weber on processes of association and status
  groups

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Sociology of Community ctd

• Marxism, class and conflict
• The tradition of Community Studies (Young and
  Wilmott etc)
• Social Network Analysis
• The eclipse of community studies
• Re-emergence of Community (e.g Wellman)
• Putnam and Social Capital
• Post modern, post Marxist approaches
• Gender, ethnicity and the power of identity
• Global and virtual community (Castells)

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What then are Faith Communities?

• Poorly theorised unidimensional concept
• Rests on Durkheim, Wilmott Young and Putnam
• Rather than on Weber, Marx, Castells and
  postmodernists
• Assumes a pathology of lost or fragmented
  neighbourhood community

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Faith and Participation in Religious Organisations

• Belief is not the same as belonging
• People belong and participate at different levels
  
• Many faith traditions are communities of
  opposition to the state
• Variation in cultures and structures of faith
  based organisations

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Towards a typology1. Levels of participation

• Individuals can be located in terms of their
  relationship to a faithcommunity along a familiar
  ladder of participation Logically all of these
  steps on the ladder are independent of content or
  strength of religious belief, although there may
  well be a positive correlation.

Leadership (external representative) Leadership
(internally) Activism (as volunteers doing
work internal or external to the
organisation) Membership (paying
subscriptions, voting rights) Participation in
public worship / prayer / festivals Affiliation
/ Identity Affirmation
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Towards a typology2.Relationship with world
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Towards a typology3. Types of organisation
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URBAN CASE STUDY NEWHAM
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Religious Affiliation Newham Children

• of the 42, 254 children attending Newhams
  primary schools in 1998,
• 43 were from Christian households
• 30 were Muslim
• 7 recorded as Hindu and
• 5 Sikh.
• It is very difficult to interpret the
  significance of the label Christian as this has
  traditionally been the default option for the
  white community who often say Im CofE but I
  never go to church. For black people in Newham
  Christian as a term of affiliation may well
  represent much higher levels of commitment and
  religious practice.

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East London 400 Christian congregations
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Networking

• organisations in the directory listed
  affiliations to over 75 different bodies (mainly
  in Christian community).
• 205 groups reported just under 200 significant
  one to one relationships with other local
  religious groups within their own faith community
• links across the boundaries of other faith
  communities were extremely rare (reported by 7
  Christian groups and two others)

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Government Discourse

• Funders should recognise that faith groups may
  well be the most suitable voluntary and community
  organisations to deliver general community
  objectives, and should be prepared to provide
  sustained financial support for this.

• .the vital role of faith organisations as a
  key focus for many poor neighbourhoods as a
  large and relatively well resourced part of the
  voluntary and community sector,.

• Home Office Policy Action Team on Community
  Self-Help Report September 1999

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• Partnership with faith communities will be
  central to the renewal of civil society, Home
  Secretary David Blunkett said today.
• SourceHome Office Date 19/06/2001
• In a speech to a multifaith audience, celebrating
  the Diamond Jubilee of the Churches Main
  Committee, Mr Blunkett affirmed his, and the
  Government's, commitment to 'strengthening the
  part faith communities play in promoting the
  values which bind us together as a nation.'

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• 'This Government has made two commitments. One is
  to look at how Government consults and works with
  faith communities, including their representation
  at and involvement in community and state events.
• 'The other is to enable faith communities to
  contribute to the 'active community'.
• 'From the fight against racism, xenophobia, and
  division, through to
• global poverty and environmental sustainability,
  we see the role of faith communities working for
  progress and decency.

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• 'The Home Office will need to provide support to
  foster this partnership. We are therefore giving
  grant funding to the Inter Faith Network of
  360,000 a year to help us identify the issues to
  be addressed.
• Mr Blunkett suggested that faith leaders had a
  key role in tackling social exclusion. He said
• Every faith has a 'development worker', full or
  part-time, paid or voluntary. In other words, the
  priest or pastor, the vicar or minister, the
  teacher, Imam, or Rabbi.

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• 'This is a resource available to all areas of our
  country, even the most deprived, the least active
  and the most likely to be disengaged from the
  political process. This is a resource that even
  Government regeneration programmes and the
  development of community leadership cannot match.
• Today we need to heal communities. We need to
  provide a voice against undercurrents of
  hostility and violence in society. This cannot be
  a matter for politicians alone, but for the whole
  of our community.'

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Features of this Discourse

• Roots in CofE Faith in the City Report and Inner
  Cities Religious Council
• An inter faith agenda.. not recognising conflict
  between faith traditions. (although clearly
  government has an evident interest in managing
  diversity and minimising social conflict)
• A strong communitarian sense about social
  cohesion, stakeholder involvement in civil
  society.
• The discourse of social justice, social
  inclusion..
• A desire to capitalise on the resources and staff
  of faith groups to deliver government objectives

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Unanswered Questions

• How many faith communities?
• Who belongs to a faith community?
• Is their trust, networking, solidarity, social
  capital ? (Within and between religious groups)
• Are all faith communities equal Can they all be
  treated the same way?
• Are there Faith Based organisations with capacity
  to represent and deliver programmes?

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Policy Implications

• Government needs to clarify what it means by
  faith based involvement.
• May need an education in religious literacy
• Needs to distinguish between the politics of
  religious identity and the delivery of services
  through voluntary organisations with a faith
  base.
• Should not presume all religious values serve the
  common good as government defines it

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Implications for Faith Groups

• Be suspicious of what government is up to.
• Be aware that all funding has strings attached
• Be clear about your social mission and whether it
  applies beyond your own community and on what
  terms
• If you enter partnership make sure you build an
  organisation with capacity to represent, deliver
  and sustain