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When Stephen V. Monsma—formerly a political scientist at Pepperdine University and now a research fellow at the Paul B. Henry Institute for the Study of Christianity and Politics at Calvin College—completed his four-year study of 500 welfare-to-work programs in four cities (Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Dallas), he concluded that "much of conventional wisdom was wrong" about religious organizations. He talked about his stereotype-defying findings with senior associate editor Agnieszka Tennant.

What fallacy does your study correct?

It's that mainline Protestants are more active in social service programs than evangelicals—and that evangelicals merely serve their own congregations and are more concerned with evangelism than with social welfare programs. I found the opposite to be true: Of the welfare-to-work programs in the four cities that I studied, there were more evangelical programs than mainline Protestant programs.

How many programs were faith-based, both mainline and evangelical?

Of the 500 programs we studied, 117 were faith-based. Of the 96 Protestant programs, 61 were evangelical and 35 were mainline.

When did you classify programs as evangelical?

I considered them evangelical if they identified themselves as interdenominational, evangelical, or Pentecostal, or as one of the denominations traditionally considered evangelical, such as Assemblies of God or Baptist or Salvation Army.

What are these programs like?

I made the distinction between evangelical and mainline programs on the basis of their theological orientation. This meant that a number of the programs that I classified as evangelical were predominantly African American in terms of their church sponsorship, though some [African American church programs] fell into the mainline denomination category as well.

Of the evangelical programs, 46 percent were predominantly African American—at least 80 percent of both their staff members and the recipients of their services were African American.

Many studies separate out African American from white evangelical programs. Why didn't your study?

Most of these studies examine individuals rather than social welfare programs. But I was interested in studying the impact of theological orientation upon social welfare activities, irrespective of ethnicity or race.

What did you find regarding evangelical programs?

Both from the surveys and the visits, it was clear that evangelical programs tend to integrate religious aspects into their services, whereas in mainline programs, Christianity tends to be more implicit.

For example, 48 percent of the evangelical programs reported that they encourage their clients to make personal religious commitments. And an impressive 77 percent reported that they would use religious values or motivations to encourage clients to change their attitudes or values.

What did that look and sound like?

In some classes, evangelical staff would talk about how God loves persons who are out of work, who are on welfare, who are trying to become economically self-supporting. They would talk about work as a way to honor God: that Jesus himself had been a carpenter and worked with his hands, and that work is more than just a way to earn money—it's a way to honor the Creator.

Did you notice any difference in how the beneficiaries of evangelical and mainline programs spoke of them?

They both would tend to speak positively. But what impressed me about the clients of evangelical programs were their frequent references to the caring nature of the staff. One group of homeless recipients said, "This is the best program in all of Chicago."

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July 2006, Vol. 50, No. 7