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Fight Truth Decay. Brush Up on your Bible Every Day: Challenges to Researchers Studying Faith-Based Initiatives. Darrell Irwin, Ph.D. University of North Carolina at Wilmington Research Methodology Presentation. Percent of those rating importance of God in their lives on a scale of ’10’.
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Fight Truth Decay. Brush Up on your Bible Every Day: Challenges to Researchers Studying Faith-Based Initiatives Darrell Irwin, Ph.D. University of North Carolina at Wilmington Research Methodology Presentation
Percent of those rating importance of God in their lives on a scale of ’10’
The American Believer • 90 percent of Americans believe in a higher power. • Most, 60 percent, are certain that God exists. • In 1963, 2 of 3 of us believed the bible was the literal Word of God. Today it is 1 of 3. Still, 4 of 5 of us believe that the bible is the inspired word of God.
Religion Becomes Identity • Affirming that the bible is the inspired Word of God serves in part to identify oneself as part of the community of Bible believing Christians. In doing this, knowledge of the bible is not as important as establishing a group identity. • Trend is increasing variety of denominations.
Steps for Studying Faith Based Initiatives • Approaching Faith • Community • 2. Being Effective • 3. Meeting the Needs
Approaching the Faith Based Community • Initiating contact • Give positive reason for partnering with faith organization. • Agree to terms – • Access • Boundaries • Who owns information.
Being Effective in the Faith Community • Respect Church or Organization. • Religious Service may be a priority over Social Service provision. • Cultural Relativism • Know ABCs (American Born Chinese) from AMEs (African Methodist Episcopal).
Meeting the Needs of the Faith-Based Community • Give of your time • Make media contacts • Be entrepreneurial • Discover spiritual meaning of services • Hold governments and churches accountable
The truth – in Teen Challenge, Blue Nile and all Faith-Based initiatives – is universal and makes the prevention of delinquency and drug dependence possible.
The Cross, Switchblade and Christmas TreeLong Island’s Teen Challenge
Long Beach Faith-Based Organizations • Father Leo Booth Spiritual Concepts • Asian Pacific Family Center, Pacific Clinics • Dr. Ven’ble Kong Chhean, Long Beach Asian Pacific Mental Health Program
The Wealth of Faith HHS RESEARCH GRANTS Caliber Associates VA $ 236,633 Florida International University FL$210,622 University of Pennsylvania PA $ 193,456 University of Maryland, College Park MD $ 218,098 TOTAL $ 858,809
Statement of problem Ethical Neutrality Outreach Logic and Rational Goal Oriented Positive Viewpoint Committed Action Outreach/Spiritual Inreach Faithful and Spiritual Means to Transformation Comparisons with Standard ResearchStandard Faith-Based
Published Research on Faith-Based Programs http://www.uncwil.edu/news/research/2002/dec/200212-irwin.html
Thank you for listening To share further: Darrell Irwin Dept. of Sociology and C. Justice UNCW 601 S. College Road Wilmington, NC 28428 Irwind@uncw.edu