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Hoosiers are comfortable with faith-community service providers. After all, some of the largest hospitals and, hence, employers in our state bear names like Methodist (Indianapolis), Lutheran (Fort Wayne), Baptist (Evansville), St. Mary’s (Lake County) and Jewish (just outside of Indiana, in Louisville).
But a push by faith leaders and elected leaders is coming in 2025 that seeks to broaden the engagement of the faith community in meeting pressing Hoosier needs.
At the state level, broadening faith-community engagement in public life became a focal point of Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch’s efforts to address Indiana’s growing mental health needs during and after the pandemic. The pandemic also underscored tensions between religious freedom and health policies and practices, with many faith leaders developing even deeper skepticism about the possibility of the two sectors working together.
Adding to Crouch’s work is the goal of this emerging coalition. The time appears ripe, with new state officials open to this approach with a foundation laid to build upon. One good beginning point is expanding foster care options (13,000 Hoosier kids need foster homes, with some kids literally sleeping in government offices due to a lack of available foster families). Church-based addiction and recovery initiatives are a close second. These efforts would also begin to educate state employees as well as our fellow residents about the already rich and robust role the faith community plays in improving Hoosier well-being.
During their campaign, Gov.-elect Mike Braun and Lt. Gov.-elect Micah Beckwith, both Republicans, expressed an openness to greater collaboration with the faith community. Beckwith is well suited as a pastor. He can help address the skepticism of those who believe church and state should never cooperate.
The sheer magnitude of our needs should also help state government leaders and faith leaders look for alternatives to our current practices. On just about all indicators of health and well-being, Hoosiers are struggling, and our children and youth bear a disproportionate share of that burden. Again, the pandemic accelerated some of the problems, such as educational attainment.
Among the models being lifted up by leaders like Jay Height, executive director of Shepherd Community Center (near-east side of Indianapolis) and state Rep. Dale Devon, R-Granger, is the work underway in Tennessee. There, Republican Gov. Bill Lee has asked his lead social services executive, Clarence Carter, to bring innovation and change. Carter has spent time in Indiana with several policymakers, offering to share the insights and lessons learned.
Chief among them is that we do not have a resource problem. There are more than 100 well-meaning federal programs designed to help the less fortunate. Some are school-based, some are community-based, some are operated by the state or county governments. Many nonprofits also get funding from the federal government, especially for health care and mental health services.
Carter argues that we just need to coordinate and collaborate better. He eloquently espouses an ethic of streamlining the system before seeking expanded reach or resources.
Iowa also has valuable lessons for Indiana in championing church-state cooperation, with all due safeguards and boundaries, in meeting social service needs.
For those who measure compassion by dollars budgeted, Carter’s message is disheartening. But for those who measure compassion by lives touched and problems addressed, his message is winsome.
Beckwith, Braun and the many leaders coming together to form a new administration have the opportunity to redouble our efforts to serve Hoosiers. They would be well advised to listen to the faith community, seek greater flexibility in combining federal funding streams, and tap into Hoosiers’ good-neighborliness to redesign our social services system.•
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Smith is chairman of the Indiana Family Institute and author of “Deicide: Why Eliminating The Deity is Destroying America.” Send comments to ibjedit@ibj.com.
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“Beckwith is well suited as a pastor. He can help address the skepticism of those who believe church and state should never cooperate.”
He could, but he won’t. Beckwith believes that God has called him to impose his religious and political beliefs on the rest of the state.
By the way, Clarence Carter knows a lot about surplus federal resources. Tennessee had amassed a $790 million dollar surplus and they’re still not able to figure out how to spend the money on their citizens. Further, they rolled out a new software system and kicked tens of thousands off SNAP.