Save America’s sacred places for civic purposes

Most of America’s 356,000 churches, synagogues, mosques and other religious organizations hold services on weekends but conduct community service activities during the week. Sadly, old sacred places of public purpose, often in disadvantaged urban areas, are disappearing: membership is declining, funding is dwindling and historic buildings are crumbling and falling into disuse.

A combination of public action and private energy is urgently needed to protect these iconic religious sites and all the good that their leaders, believers, and volunteers do for people in need of all faiths (and none). The public stakes are great.

Seven in 10 urban senior churches are actively involved in their communities, with more than half hosting four or more outside organizations, such as food pantries, credit unions, recovery groups or day care centers. One-third host a variety of activities ranging from youth violence prevention efforts to health screenings to in-home senior care services.

They also serve as venues for neighborhood meetings, issue forums and voting booths. 87% of the beneficiaries are non-members of the church. GenerateOn average, it creates a community-wide economic “halo effect” of $1.7 million per year.

For example, St. Vincent de Paul Church in Philadelphia is not only a beautiful Roman Catholic church built in 1851, but it is also home to a nonprofit organization that serves its homeless neighbors with food, laundry services, medical care, and youth education.

Founded in 1828, New Orleans’ Touro Synagogue is the oldest Jewish congregation outside the original 13 colonies, with its Beaux Arts buildings and vertical gardens, and it supports food banks, welcomes refugees, and houses four charter schools.

The Al-Rasool Islamic Center in Utah was founded by a Shiite man who fled Iran and is housed in a chapel built by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the 1800s. Al-Rasool has helped more than 10,000 immigrants resettle in the United States.

Cleveland’s East Mount Zion Baptist Church broke down racial barriers by moving to Millionaire’s Row on Euclid Avenue in 1955 and served as a foundation for the civil rights movement, providing clothing and supplies to more than 100,000 families.

Robert D. Putnam of Harvard University ObservedReligious organizations “build and sustain more social capital than any other type of organization in America. Churches, synagogues, mosques, and other houses of worship provide an important institutional infrastructure for civic good and are training grounds for civic entrepreneurs.”

Indeed. A national survey of U.S. volunteers that we helped conduct after 9/11 showed that most Americans volunteer through their faith-based organizations. In a politically polarized country, volunteering through faith-based organizations builds, rather than destroys, bridges between civic-minded people of all demographics and socioeconomic statuses.

last month, Partners for the Holy Landa nationwide, non-sectarian non-profit organization dedicated to helping religious organizations preserve their assets and contribute to their communities, brought together more than 100 leaders from government, business and religious organizations to examine the existential threats facing iconic contributors to their communities: old local churches, synagogues and mosques.

What is needed is a National Endowment for Sacred and Public Places, a congressionally chartered nonprofit organization that would attract private support for preservation projects, something like the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Creating a national agency that could raise significant national funding would allow historic churches to use catalytic funds to stimulate further local investment in maintaining these sacred sites, while churches that serve public purposes such as helping the poor and needy could apply for public assistance from a variety of programs at the federal and state levels.

Of course, public assistance must comply with three basic rules of separation of church and state: not use tax money for inherently religious activities, such as religious worship, education, or proselytizing; not discriminate against recipients or require them to profess or practice a religious law; and not discriminate in employment on religious grounds except as already expressly permitted by the “chaplain exemption” provisions of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and related federal statutes and Supreme Court decisions.

Benjamin Franklin was an agnostic, but he preached and practiced the power of public-spirited houses of worship. His motto for the Library Association of Philadelphia says it all: “The giving of benefits for the public good is a sacred act.”

That is absolutely true. When we worked with President George W. Bush to create the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, we envisioned our government doing more to foster strong public-private partnerships, while recognizing and rewarding faith-based organizations that “put their profits to the public good.”

Will the next presidential administration and Congress place a national endowment for sacred sites and community centers at the center of their faith-based efforts, prioritizing the preservation of ancient sacred sites that serve public purposes? I hope they will.

John Bridgeland served as chairman of the White House Domestic Policy Council under President George W. Bush and is currently executive director of the Office of American Possibility. John DiIulio served as director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives under President Bush and is now the Frederick Fox Professor of Leadership at the University of Pennsylvania.