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The Role of Sacred Public Partnerships in Serving Those with Developmental Needs During COVID-19

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The Role of Sacred Public Partnerships in Serving Those with Developmental Needs During COVID-19

In such a short amount of time, COVID-19 has changed our whole way of living. As we look forward to a time when the virus will be gone, it’s hard to imagine anything could go back to the way it was before. While there has been substantial coverage on how the virus is evolving, predictions on “flattening the curve” and increased public education hygiene and social distancing, minimal attention has been given to how COVID-19 is impacting organizations that support individuals with developmental needs. Ryan Slaughter, a 2018 Sacred Sector Fellow, shares how he learned, through serving, employing and advocating for people with disabilities, the ways that faith-based nonprofits can holistically live out their faith in the ways they engage with people with disabilities. Slaughter shares how this work is even more important amid the health and economic impacts of COVID-19, and how faith-based organizations can creatively partner with government to better serve this community.

PPP Loan Program Restarts, with Improved Access for Faith-based Organizations

PPP Loan Program Restarts, with Improved Access for Faith-based Organizations

The President signed into law on April 24 a bill providing extensions and modifications of the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the EIDL emergency loan and grant program. This action gives nonprofits, including churches, small businesses, and self-employed individuals and independent contractors another opportunity to receive federal support designed to counteract the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Organizations and individuals needing this help should act quickly. The PPP program is likely to begin again on Monday, April 27.

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Organizations as Embodied Ideas: Towards A Theology of Institutions

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Organizations as Embodied Ideas: Towards A Theology of Institutions

Public justice holds that each sphere of life has an accompanying institution or community and that government ought both affirmatively live out its distinct roles while preserving space for all other distinct civil society organizations to fulfill their unique responsibilities. Public justice is a concept closely tied to the act of embodying theological ideas in institutional contexts. As someone who had spent the last few years primarily studying ideas, this framework provided a way for Sacred Sector Fellow David Tassell to see those ideas come to life. Tassell shares how this public justice framework provided a means to see theology inform the structure of organizations and institutions, as well demonstrate how the mission and purpose of a faith-based organization is a means for theological notions of justice to become embodied in entities that actively make society more just.

Principles for Effective Sacred Public Partnerships During COVID-19

Principles for Effective Sacred Public Partnerships During COVID-19

In this editorial response to a Berkley Forum post, Chelsea Langston Bombino responds to the questions, “What weaknesses in the American social welfare system have been exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic? How can religious ethics inform continuing debates on social welfare, especially in light of the coronavirus crisis? How can faith leaders mobilize their religious communities in action on policies that protect workers and ensure access to affordable health care? What are the broader challenges and possibilities of incorporating religious perspectives in policymaking on social welfare?”

COVID-19 Relief and Recovery: A Strong, Multi-Dimensional Safety Net is Needed

COVID-19 Relief and Recovery: A Strong, Multi-Dimensional Safety Net is Needed

In this editorial response to a Berkley Forum post, Katie Thompson responds to the questions, “What weaknesses in the American social welfare system have been exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic? How can religious ethics inform continuing debates on social welfare, especially in light of the coronavirus crisis? How can faith leaders mobilize their religious communities in action on policies that protect workers and ensure access to affordable health care? What are the broader challenges and possibilities of incorporating religious perspectives in policymaking on social welfare?”

Resources: Work Loss in a Pandemic

Resources: Work Loss in a Pandemic

The U.S. unemployment rate is surging, and faith-based organizations and their workers are feeling the effects. The Center for Public Justice hosted a webinar on what the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act changes to unemployment insurance could mean for faith-based employers and workers in the sacred sector. CPJ also published a resource that provides sacred sector employers and workers with helpful information regarding the unemployment insurance system and work-share programs.

Sacred Sector Resource: Public Policy Principles for Considering Faith-based and Government Partnerships to Provide Services

Sacred Sector Resource: Public Policy Principles for Considering Faith-based and Government Partnerships to Provide Services

Sacred Sector has created six different “Toolboxes” to guide organizations and emerging leaders in the faith-based nonprofit sector through the common challenges that they face. Each toolbox is composed of three parts: Public Policy, Organizational Practice and Public Positioning.

This resource is an excerpt of the Sacred Sector Government Partnerships Toolbox - Public Policy, which is available to members of the Sacred Sector Community and Sacred Sector Fellowship. This resource outlines the major public policy issues involved when faith-based organizations (FBOs) receive government funding to provide services. It also offers key principles for organizations that are considering competing for government funding. FBOs do not become an extension of government, required to act in the uniform secular fashion required of government, simply by receiving government support to provide services. On the contrary, government supports private organizations with a range of different views and practices.

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Making a Sacred Impact During COVID-19: How One Historic Black Church Incarnates its Mission during a Pandemic

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Making a Sacred Impact During COVID-19: How One Historic Black Church Incarnates its Mission during a Pandemic

Reverend Harold Dugger shares about how his congregation, First Baptist Church of Capitol Heights, is navigating the impacts of COVID-19. Pastor Dugger’s church, a historically black congregation, is a Sacred Sector Community participant organization, and has a long history of serving its local community. In this article, Pastor Dugger reflects on how Sacred Sector’s learning community has helped his congregation understand how public policy, even during COVID-19, impacts the sacred sector and civil society as a whole. Pastor Dugger emphasizes that it is vital for congregations to understand that government, in times like this, has a distinct role to play.

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Making a Sacred Impact During COVID-19: One Church's Response

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Making a Sacred Impact During COVID-19: One Church's Response

Victory Church, a 2018-2019 participant in Sacred Sector Community, has a longstanding, mutually-beneficial relationship with the Center for Public Justice. In this interview with pastor(s) Jamé Bolds and Mark Shanks, Sacred Sector Director Chelsea Langston Bombino talks with both pastors about how they see Victory Church and CPJ’s Sacred Sector initiative strengthening each other as they seek, in community with other congregations and faith-based organizations, to live out their sacred animating beliefs, in every area of their organizational lives. In light of the current COVID-19 pandemic, Pastor Bolds sees the health crisis as an opportunity to live into his congregation’s faith-based commitments in everything they do, with respect to how they engage their own faith community, how they serve the broader community, how they coordinate with other churches and community-based organizations, and how the church interacts with government. This principled pluralist, public justice framework shapes Victory Church’s approach to living into God’s good purposes as a congregation, and recognizes that each institution in society must live into their God-given strengths and innovate based on those strengths, while at the same time, encouraging and working with other social institutions and government to live into their right roles.

SBA Affirms Churches and Ministries as Eligible for PPP Loans

SBA Affirms Churches and Ministries as Eligible for PPP Loans

In a Frequently Asked Questions document published April 3, the Small Business Administration affirmed the eligibility of religious organizations, including houses of worship, for the new payroll protection (PPP) forgivable loans, and confirmed protections for their religious identity and practices. Although not every issue has been resolved, churches and other faith-based service organizations needing assistance should contact their bank or other financial institution right away.

Resources: What New COVID-19 Legislation Means for Faith-Based Employers

On March 27, 2020, the President signed into law the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act which provides a variety of forms of emergency relief. The Center for Public Justice and the Institutional Religious Freedom Alliance (a division of CPJ) have been monitoring the ways that the necessary relief will support essential components of civil society, notably faith-based organizations and their employees. This document highlights select elements of the CARES Act as well as the previously enacted Families First Coronavirus Response Act, noting their potential significance for faith-based organizations, their employees, and those they serve. 

Policy Paper: Safeguarding the Sacred Sector During the COVID-19 Health Crisis

Policy Paper: Safeguarding the Sacred Sector During the COVID-19 Health Crisis

A unique public health crisis requires compassion, care, and resilience from all sectors of society. Religious communities have sprung into action, sustaining social ties in a time of social distance and caring for those most at risk of homelessness, food insecurity, and isolation. These same religious communities and faith-based institutions will need support now and as the crisis persists. As Congress and the Administration undertakes emergency measures, it should take care to safeguard the sacred sector, attending to both faith-based organizations and their employees. The COVID-19 crisis presents our nation with not a sprint, but a marathon. Public policy responses must respond to urgent needs while protecting those institutions -- including religious communities, faith-based charities, and the family -- that help keep our society strong.

COVID-19 Policy Response Resources

COVID-19 Policy Response Resources

The Center for Public Justice’s animating framework of public justice offers something unique to the global conversation surrounding COVID-19. The virus has dramatically impacted the institutions within which we live our lives, including faith-based organizations.

For faith-based organizations to comprehensively embody their missions to the fullest in challenging times, they must consider public policy, organizational practices, and public positioning. We believe this integrative approach can provide a helpful framework for thinking and acting through complex and challenging situations as they arise, including public health crises like COVID-19.

We invite you to read some of the resources written by CPJ staff for helpful information and perspectives regarding policies written in response to COVID-19 and living out public justice during the spread of the virus.

Living Out Our Public Justice Responsibilities During COVID-19

Living Out Our Public Justice Responsibilities During COVID-19

The Center for Public Justice’s animating framework of public justice offers something unique to the global conversation surrounding COVID-19. The virus has dramatically impacted the institutions within which we live our lives – the institutions that make up the fabric of our daily lives. Institutions like our families, schools, hospitals, workplaces, houses of worship, museums, and our government are all impacted. The very relationships and institutions that provide meaning, livelihood, connection, and joy to our lives are disrupted and leave us collectively wondering: what’s next?  This article will focus specifically on how people of faith and their institutions can rise to the challenge of loving their neighbors during this unprecedented challenge by instituting thoughtful and positive organizational practices. This will require diverse faith-based organizations to be both proactive and adaptive.

The Basis and Orientation of Public Justice: God's Sabbath with Creation - An Interview with James Skillen, Part 2

The Basis and Orientation of Public Justice: God's Sabbath with Creation - An Interview with James Skillen, Part 2

This is the second in a two-part interview with James Skillen, the founder of the Center for Public Justice (CPJ). CPJ’s Chelsea Langston Bombino discusses with Skillen the themes of his newest book, God’s Sabbath with Creation: Vocations Fulfilled, the Glory Unveiled (Wipf and Stock, 2019) and how these themes connect to institutional pluralism, including the diverse spectrum of faith-based civil society organizations with varying mission focus areas. In his new book, Skillen explores how every part of human life, including the associational relationships and organizations we form, point beyond themselves to God’s purposes for creation and its fulfillment through Christ in the age to come. The first article of the two-part series explored both the perspectival and practical implications of this new body of work for sacred sector institutions. This article will expand on those themes, with a particular emphasis on how the creation story both reveals and anticipates the fulfillment of all things in the sabbath glory of God. In particular we focus on what Skillen identifies as the sixth-day identity of human creatures exhibited in associations and institutions. We take up complex questions about human organizations, specifically faith-based civil society organizations, that resist easy answers. We also attempt to make explicit how these biblical themes can impact and shape institutions that are established on the basis of explicit confessional principles and for distinctive confessional purposes.