Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Pluralism and Freedom: Faith-Based Organizations in a Democratic Society

Faith-based organizations play a major role in providing a host of health, educational, and social services to the public. Nearly all these efforts, however, have been accompanied by intense debate and numerous legal challenges. The right of faith-based organizations to hire based on religion, the presence of religious symbols and icons in rooms where government-subsidized services are provided, and the enforcement of gay civil rights to which some faith-based organizations object all continue to be subjects of intense debate and numerous court cases. In Pluralism and Freedom, Stephen V. Monsma explores the question of how much autonomy should faith-based organizations retain when they enter the public realm? He contends that pluralism and freedom demand their religious freedom be respected, but that freedom of all religious traditions and of the general public and secular groups be equally respected, ideals that neither the left nor the right live up to. In response, Monsma argues that democratic pluralism requires a genuine, authentic-but also a limited-autonomy for faith-based organizations providing public services, and offers practical, concrete public policy applications of this framework in practice. Review In this book Monsma (emer., Pepperdine Univ.) examines the contentious issue of the proper place of faith-based organizations (FBOs) in the public square in the US through the important lenses of freedom, pluralism, tolerance, and diversity. In particular, Monsma wants to determine how much religious autonomy FBOs should legally retain when entering into the public sphere, and how much religious diversity and pluralism should be willingly accepted in the public realm. Monsma correctly asserts that answering these questions is crucial given the large role that FBOs play in critical areas of US public life, and also convincingly argues that current thinking across the ideological spectrum is of little use in providing usable answers. In his attempt to address this dilemma, Monsma turns to western Europe, specifically to the Roman Catholic teaching of subsidiarity, the neo-Calvinist idea of sphere sovereignty, and the tradition of Christian Democracy to flesh out a solution he labels structural pluralism. Structural pluralism reserves an important place in the public realm for all intermediary institutions, religious and nonreligious alike. All will not agree with Monsma's take here, but all will benefit from considering his ideas. Summing Up: Highly recommended.--CHOICE In Pluralism and Freedom: Faith-Based Organizations in a Democratic Society, Monsma looks beyond our borders for a fresh perspective on this most contentious issue.--Christianity Today Monsma's recent book Pluralism and Freedom: Faith-Based Organizations in a Democratic Society, examines the challenges confronting faith-based services that are funded by the United States government. . . . His work complements a growing body of existing research that explores church-state responses in conditions of diversity across the United States, Europe and other parts of the world. Monsma's work will be of interest to those scholars who closely follow religion and politics issues and church-state issues literature. ... The book successfully describes the challenges of protecting religious freedom for all. The idea that an overarching framework or standard can be developed to safeguard the freedom of persons and organisations of all religions is laudable and worthy. . . . The book marks a fresh direction for church-state research.--Journal of Social Policy The book provides resources such as Supreme Court decisions and information on constitutional interpretations of religious freedom that will be useful for readers of any political background....the assembly of primary sources will be useful for readers from all parts of the political spectrum.--Conscience Few scholars have thought harder or more productively than Steve Mons