ABSTRACT
Communities of faith function, in part, to provide a view of reality at odds with that of the larger culture, society, or government. In endorsing the recent expansion of the charitable choice provision, the vicepresident insisted that faith is often "essential to spark a personal transformation and to keep that person from falling back into addiction, delinquency, or dependency." In the early years of European settlement of the colonies, informal networks of family, neighbors, and community were the primary means of support for the poor and destitute. The vital role that faith communities play within democratic societies requires their independence from governmental interference or control. The government's extensive net of regulations encompasses religious institutions in countless ways; and communities of faith not only influence the values expressed in democratic government but also, as the people have seen, carry out a significant portion of government's initiatives to assist the poor and needy.
