LOCAL authorities should not be "squeamish" about the religious
motivations of faith-based service-providers, a new report
published by the think tank Demos argues.
Faithful Providers, published last month, says that
some local authorities fear that religious organisations that
provide services, such as drug rehabilitation programmes, might
attempt to proselytise.
But the report, which is based on 20 interviews with faith-based
service-providers, says that the author "found no evidence of
aggressive proselytising . . . and many provided services to
community members of different faiths and no faith".
The author of the report, Jonathan Birdwell, said: "This
research clearly dispels the myth that all faith-based
service-providers are only interested in preaching."
www.demos.co.uk/publications/faithfulproviders