By Dan Nonte, University Relations
Contact: (336) 334-5371
Posted 1-26-07
GREENSBORO, NC – The White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives was established six years ago to “rally the armies of compassion” in America’s churches to fight social ills.
That stated goal was merely camouflage for an offensive in the conservative-led culture wars with no strategy to attack poverty at the grassroots, charges Dr. Robert Wineburg, Jefferson Pilot Excellence Professor at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
The initiative seeks instead to demolish government programs; mobilize the evangelical Christian voting block; and shift government money to churches and other “Bush friendly” faith-based organizations, the social work professor argues in “Faith-Based Inefficiencies: The Follies of Bush’s Initiatives,” his new book from Greenwood Press.
Wineburg joined the UNCG faculty in 1980. He served as chairman of the Department of Social Work from 1990 to 1994 and has written extensively about social welfare policy. He wrote the book “A Limited Partnership: The Politics of Religion, Welfare, and Social Service” (2000) and co-wrote the book “The Newer Deal: Social Work and Religion in Partnership” (1999).
