Faith-Based Initiative

By Barbara Bradley Hagerty

Published January 13, 2003 at 12:00 AM EST

NPR's Barbara Bradley Hagerty reports on the status of President Bush's plan to bring religious groups into government social service programs. The initiative bogged down in Congress, so the president issued executive orders allowing faith groups to get government contracts to offer such services as housing and substance-abuse treatment. Now, those groups face issues, including whether they can use government money to hire only members of their own faith, or to build facilities that might be used for worship.

Barbara Bradley Hagerty

Barbara Bradley Hagerty is the religion correspondent for NPR, reporting on the intersection of faith and politics, law, science and culture. Her New York Times best-selling book, "Fingerprints of God: The Search for the Science of Spirituality," was published by Riverhead/Penguin Group in May 2009. Among others, Barb has received the American Women in Radio and Television Award, the Headliners Award and the Religion Newswriters Association Award for radio reporting.

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