Implementing the faith-based initiative

Part of a special issue on religion in the United States. The media coverage of President George W. Bush's faith-based initiative is grossly misleading. Bush has been seeking equal opportunity for faith-based programs to gain federal support rather than funding exclusively for them, and although there has been little legislative action, progress has not been halted because many of the necessary reforms can be made within existing law. Bush's administration has been working to reform the practice of federal officials and their state and local partners to conform to the equal-treatment standard. The Bush administration did not invent government partnerships with faith-based providers of social services, and the faith-based initiative is not the first reform movement to try to secure equal opportunity for these partnerships. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]