Most of the 356,000churches, synagogues, mosques and otherreligious congregations in the United States conduct worship services on weekends but supply social services all week long. Sadly, the older sacred places that serve civic purposes, often in disadvantaged urban communities, are disappearing. Their membership rolls are shrinking, their coffers are sinking and theirlandmarkhistoric buildingsare crumbling into disuse.
Public action combined with private energy is urgentlyneeded to save these iconic religious properties and all thegood works their leaders, members and volunteersdo forneedypeople of all faiths (and of no faith). The civic stakes are high.
Sevenin 10older urban congregations are actively involved in their communities, with more than halfhosting four or more outside groups like food pantries, credit unions, recovery groups anddaycare centers. One-third host activitiesfrom youth anti-violence initiatives to health screenings and home-based eldercare services.
They arealso venues for town hall meetings, issue forums and polling places. 87 percent of their beneficiaries are people who aren’t members of the congregation that serves them. Each sacred place generates, on average, $1.7 million in annual community-wide economic “halo effects.”
For example, St. Vincent de Paul in Philadelphia is not only a beautiful Roman Catholic Church from 1851, but also home to a nonprofit that serves unhoused neighbors with food, laundry services, healthcare and youth education.
TouroSynagogue in New Orleans, founded in 1828, is the oldest Jewish congregation outside the original 13 colonies, with a Beaux Arts building and vertical garden that supports food banks, integrates refugees and houses four charter schools.
AlrasoolIslamic Center in Utah, established by Shiite men fleeing Iran, is housed in a chapel from the 1800s built by the Church of Jesus Christ ofLatter-day Saints. Alrasoolhas helped more than 10,000 immigrants settle in the U.S.
East Mount Zion Baptist Church in Cleveland broke segregation barriers by relocating to Millionaire’s Row on Euclid Avenue in 1955 and served as a bedrock of the civil rights movement, while providing clothing and resources to over 100,000 families.
As Harvard’s Robert D. Putnam has observed, religious congregations “build and sustain more social capital … than any other type of institution in America. Churches, synagogues, mosques and other houses of worship provide a vital institutional base for civic good works and a training ground for civic entrepreneurs.”
Indeed. The annualnationalsurvey of volunteering in the United States we helped putin place after 9/11 shows thatmost Americans volunteer through faith-based institutions.In a nation polarized by politics,volunteering through faith-based institutions helps build rather than burn bridges amongcivic-minded souls of every demographic description and socioeconomic status.
Last month, Partners for Sacred Places,a national, nonsectarian nonprofit dedicated to helping religious congregations maintain their propertiesand serve their wider communities,brought together more than 100 leaders from government, business and religiousgroups to examine existential threats facing older local churches, synagogues and mosques that areiconic contributors to their communities.
What’s neededis a National Endowmentfor Sacred and Civic Places — acongressionally chartered nonprofit like the National Trust for Historic Preservation — thatattracts private support for preservation projects. By creatinga national institution that cangarner significant national resources, historic congregations could use catalytic funding tospark further local investment to maintain these sacred places. In turn, congregations servingpublic purposes, such as those helping the poor and needy, could apply for public support from a range of programs atthe federal and state levels.
Of course, any publicsupport would need to follow three basic church-state separationrules: no use oftaxdollarsforinherently religious activities, such as religious worship, instruction and proselytization; no discriminating againstbeneficiariesor requiring themto profess or practice anyreligious precepts; andno discriminationinhiring on religious grounds, except as already expresslypermittedunder the “ministerial exemption” clause of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and related federal laws and Supreme Court rulings.
Benjamin Franklin was an agnostic, but he preached and practiced the power of civic-minded houses of worship. His motto for the Philadelphia LibraryCompany said it all: “To pour forth benefits for the common good is divine.”
So it is. When we worked with President George W. Bush to create the White HouseOffice of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, we envisioned government doing more to promote robust public-private partnerships while recognizing and rewardingfaith-based institutions that“pour forth benefits for the common good.”
Will the next presidential administration and Congress make a National Endowmentfor Sacred and Civic Places the centerpiece of a faith-based initiative focused on saving theolder sacred places that serve civic purposes? We pray that they do.
JohnBridgelandwas director of the White House Domestic Policy Council under President George W. Bush and serves as executive chairman of the Office of American Possibilities. John DiIuliowas director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives under President Bush and is the Frederic Fox Leadership Professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
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