allenges are the following: 1) cumbersome grant applications that can test the capacity of many potential faith-based partners to comply with government requirements; 2) daunting start-up costs for new programs that might be well-delivered by such organizations; 3) extensive and potentially onerous red tape and limited administrative capacities; and 4) a lack of a ôtrack recordö or proven capacity to successfully implement a program such as juvenile/drug addiction counseling or crisis intervention for at-risk youth.
Generally, these considerations can be categorized as ôpracticalö or organization-specific challenges that may well impact upon the capacity of a faith-based organizations to compete for and receive federal funds. Many such organizations lack the technical expertise that is needed to navigate the often difficult paths to a successful grant application (Unruh, 2002).
On a somewhat different and potentially more controversial level, it must be recognized that there are still concerns regarding the potential of faith-based social service organizations to impose parochial and particularistic ideological and religious values and beliefs on clients, thus threatening the tradition of the separation of Church and State in the this country (Hopkins and Cupaluolo, 2001). There is the potential that the more well-funded faith-based organizations with promi
...