Not by Faith Alone

Religious organizations have a long history of providing a social safety net in society. The role of congregations and religiously affiliated groups has varied from being the sole providers of charity to playing a small, but important support function in multifaceted social service systems. Over the last three decades, U.S. social welfare policy has increasingly shifted responsibility for social services to faith-based and community organizations. This study evaluates the income and employment outcomes of participants in a single faith-based, welfare to work program implemented in urban and rural communities in the Southern United States. Despite the best efforts of the volunteers, staff, and participants in the faith-based and secular programs, the findings suggest low wage work is unstable and unlikely to help families move out of poverty in the short term, implying poverty in the U.S. is a structural problem woven into the fabric of society. Addressing the systems that keep people impoverished will require more than faith alone. However, faith and faith communities can motivate efforts to reform the structure of low wage work creating a more just and caring society.