Photos and Story By Joe Zlomek

Real estate-related social issues, like homelessness and the creation of more affordable housing, could be helped by a revolution among church-supported non-profit organizations, a national expert believes.

John J. DiIulio, former White House director of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, suggests that religious non-profits in Philadelphia and elsewhere should consider flooding government agencies with requests for grant money to fund those and other worthwhile projects. If they're denied, the agencies should challenge the rejections in court, DiIulio adds.

"There's nothing glamorous or sexy about the effort," DiIulio acknowledges. "But it will force government agencies to get in line."

DiIulio, now a University of Pennsylvania professor of political science, was the featured speaker last Wednesday (Jan. 23, 2008) at the university's Penn Bookstore, 3601 Walnut St., Philadelphia. The talk was in part to promote his new book, "Godly Republic: A Centrist Blueprint for America's Faith-Based Future."

One premise of DiIulio's book is that church-backed groups which advocate social change often are ignored by government funding programs.

Part of the problem, DiIulio says, is a decades-old misunderstanding by politicians and public servants of the historic doctrine of church-state separation. Some government officials, he notes, wrongly interpret that to mean offering public financial support to faith-based projects is "taboo."

That's just not the case, DiIulio adds. Presidential orders, Congressionally approved charitable choice laws, and U.S. Supreme Court decisions all recognize the value of faith-based initiatives. Church-supported homeless shelters and mortgage subsidy programs should win government funding as easily as similar proposals "from their secular counterparts," he says.

America could not function effectively without faith-based initiatives, DiIulio contends. In the Philadelphia area alone, studies he cites show the volume of social services paid for and provided by religious organizations is "surprisingly wide and deep." Included in the list are health screening services, welfare-to-work programs, and child day care. Equally surprising, he says, is that such services are "provided without regard to the religion" of the recipients. "There's no test of faith, no eventual expectation for a profession of faith," according to DiIulio.

DiIulio thinks government has "no alternative but to work with these organizations" if it intends to adequately serve the poor. Government-private partnerships have proven particularly valuable in urban areas like Philadelphia, he says. But he cautions that religious service providers also must deliver the programs they promise when government money arrives.

"With shekels come shackles," DiIulio jokes. Receiving government grants also means completing government paperwork, fulfilling mandates, and demonstrating responsibility for the funds provided. He admits some church groups, particularly ones smaller or less well organized, haven't learned those lessons. Once discovered, he says, "they won't get money again."