My post today will be in response to the reading I completed covering chapters 3 and 4 of Michael O'Neill's book Nonprofit Nation. The first chapter focused on Religion and the latter on Social Services. Reading through O'Neill's book this weekend came to me with quite some enjoyment surprisingly (since normally readings for academics can be dry to say the least). His chapters are short and for the most part to the point. It is somewhat hard to take note of the statistics he throws in the book though because they are so out dated. I am not sure what if any relevance such numbers would have today.

On the topic of Religion:

I learned quite a bit about this particular aspect of the United States that I had not known before of my own Country purely because I personally do not identify as a religious person. I have had personal experience with how religious most are in this country through being brought to church as a young child, attending a private high school founded of Christian beliefs and attending Chapel there, and having friends that highly identify with one specific religion. Having this experience, I was still quite shocked to learn just how religious America is, especially in comparison with other developed countries. Once reading further however, I came to understand that our history in social crisis and movements would be the reasoning behind why there were increases or decreases in the number of members participating in religious services, memberships to certain congregations, and donations to such. Not yet established religious churches were America's first voluntary associations in our history, and continues to be the largest in the nonprofit sector in our country. It is hard to know just how large this part of the sector is however. Because of the 'separation of church and state' that is found throughout our country on which the foundation of which this country was built, all religious organizations do not have to file annual financial reports to the IRS and state agencies. Therefore only estimates are found on the size of such congregations along with their expenditures, revenue, assets, and the like. Researchers do know through consistent findings throughout our history that around 70 percent of Americans or more consider themselves affiliated with a certain religious congregations. O'Neill also states that "a consistent finding of survey research is that more people do volunteer work for religious organizations than for any other type of nonprofit" (O'Neill 62).

It is not really surprising once you think about it that religion directly touches way more people than other parts of the nonprofit sector because it is something that has been part of not only our society, but humanity as a whole for so long. Religion ties people together no matter where you are geographically, it is through faith in God that so many individuals put everything towards because in times of desperation, it seems as though faith is the only true constant. Communities where everyone attends the same religious congregation than are much stronger than those that do not. This falling back on faith in seen multiple times over and over again throughout our countries history, especially during or after wars. The most vivid example is seen during the two decades after World War II when America fell into a slump. Religious organizations cam to the rescue with a heavy increase in international relief programs, missionary activity, religious hospitals and health care centers, and along with the number of congregations in the rise we saw the membership and volunteering increase.

Religious congregation within a community really creates a tighter nit community when it is one of the same faith. O'Neill quotes Putnam that to me touches on just what a big role religion can play within communities.
"Faith communities in which people worship together are arguably the singe most important repository of social capital in America... Churches provide an important incubator for civic skills, civic norms, community interests, and civic recruitment... [C]hurchgoers are substantially more likely to be involved in secular organizations, to vote and participate politically in other ways, and to have deeper informal social connections" (O'Neill 63- Putnam, 2000, p.66)

One aspect that I do not agree with that O'Neill states quickly and subtly in this chapter is his reasoning behind possible declination of religious involvment in America. One reason he states is the recent increase on 'spirituality', "a non denominational and largely self-directed pursuit, [that] may also signal a move away from traditional religion" (O'Neil 69). Being that I do not personally affiliate with the idea of religion, I do consider myself a highly spiritual person. Although he never directly states that this growth of 'spirituality' would be a negative thing, it is quietly heard in my ears when reading off what a high pedestal he puts the Religious chapter in the nonprofit sector for how large it is in participants and contributions to society. I would not of stereotypes all types spirituality to be mostly self-directed for there are those that are not, and of those that are, there are groups that meet together to find conquer this pursuit. If there is in fact a movement towards spiritually and away from traditional religions more well known, there is no telling if these types of spirituality will form congregations, take the role of traditional religious organizations, and ply such a huge role in society in contributing to education, health care, social service, and international aid.

On the topic of Social Services:

I have somewhat of a shorter response to this topic because it is one that I have more involvement and background knowledge of. Social services in America that are contributed by some of the most well known nonprofit organizations include helping victims of sexual, mental, and child abuse, the homeless, elderly, disabled, drug and alcohol addicts, mentally ill, single parents, foster children, natural disaster victims, immigrants, the jobless, and much more. Helping the needy is for the most part universally agreed to be what is morally right to do. How this is done is still debated however, along with what duties this specially includes or not. Unlike the Religion chapter in the nonprofit sector, social services are considered a small part on this sector with little revenue and very few employees. Most of the work done for these services then is volunteer work. I was a little shocked to find though that "sixty percent of social service revenue comes directly or indirectly from government, under grants, performance contracts, and fee-for-service agreements" (O'Neil 77). I apparently had thought less of our government and their involvement with truly taking care of their people, due to my somewhat negative mindset with the general way our government works.

One area I did learn something in my interest was that of child day care services. "In child day-care services, for-profits have 60 percent of nongovernment revenue and employees, and three-fourths of the firms" (O'Neill 78). To me this hsould be one place that the government does have a foot in. America provides free public education for it's children except college, AND before grade school. Many still have the thought process that this time in a child's life is not one with heavy importance since they are so small and not yet capable of indept thought processes. Yet what most people are turning their backs to is the fact that this is fact is one of the most crucial periods during a child's life. This is when they first establish many of their emotional ties to things or people, view of life, eating habits, and the like. Because this is not a service widely given by the government, it creates great stratification as to whom gets the greater quality service. That would of course be those who can afford it. Day care providers to the majority of our society, middle or working class, get paid very little in general because they are not usually educated, and those that need to go back to work before their child reaches grade school are obviously those who need the income from their jobs to support themselves and families, so can not pay a lot for day care. The government should have more of a presence in this area of social service and not just rely on nonprofit organizations to put forth the accommodations to those in need of such. These children are our future! They should not be watched over (or some case not) but uneducated, and unqualified carers who live in ridiculously dirty places over packed with children; which in unregulated by the government!

Conclusion:

Of those social services that nonprofit organizations do offer to society, the great majority of them are from religious congregations... Who would of thought! Well maybe you, but not me! Our country is much more religiously oriented than I had ever imagined. I still have not decided if this is a good thing or bad. Due to all of the social services they do provide and the money and volunteer work by their members, so much religion in America seems to truly be our savior. However, in those services offered and vast degree of nonprofit organizations that are funded by religious congregations, there are very few to hardly any of them that focus on ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS. This to me is one of the top most important and URGENT issues of our time. I do know all too well that there are nonprofit organizations that are purely created for these issues, however they do not get the support from the community through religious congregations like social service organizations do. It makes me wonder if the Christian way of thinking (that many Westerners were brought up into whether they realized it) and ideal of Eden in the Bible along with the general theme of wilderness as a gift from God to do what we wish with, will ever change....