Social Work and Religion
Discussions about Christians and social work often turn to whether it is possible for a Christian to live out their faith in what is aften seen as a fiercely secular environment (Kandiah 2018, pp. 7, 22). This also forms a background to questions of how it may be possible for Christian foster carers to bring their parenting vales and practices to the conversation around corporate parenting by the LA. In this section therefore I review literature which specifically addresses interaction between social workers and those who have a religious faith, often Christian faith.
Writing about values and ethics for social work students, Beckett, Maynard and Jordan (2017) discuss various possible sources for values and ethics, and observe that the Children’s Society, Barnardo’s, and other providers of child welfare services were started by religious, often Christian, organisations, and that many of the founders of what developed into social work were “motivated by their Christian faith” (Beckett et al. 2017, p. 37). This is not unique to the UK. In the Dutch context it has been noted that “Traditionally, major Christian organizations are active in social work” (Van De Koot‐Dees et al. 2023, p. 1193) and in the US that “religious precepts exemplified by the divine mandate for charity guided early social work” (Stewart 2009, p. 36).
However, it is also widely noted that significant shifts have occurred subsequently. In their review of the context of faith and social work, Woodcock Ross and Wright describe social work’s professionalisation as “a secular–liberal–humanist project on behalf of a secular–liberal state that sought to negate its residual confessional Christian heritage, and embraced psychological and social scientific epistemologies” (Woodcock Ross and Wright 2021, p. 2441). Stewart refers to “the influence of humanism, postmodernism, and liberalism” on social work and a corresponding “movement away from strict reliance on traditional Judeo-Christian values to those implementing secular or humanistic tenets” (Stewart 2009, p. 36).
A number of writers have seen that this results in various parties involved in the care of children holding quite different worldviews. N.T. Wright helpfully described worldviews as “vital, but invisible. They are that through which, not at which, a society or an individual looks” (Wright 1997, p. 125 italics original). They include deeply held beliefs and understandings about such questions as the existence, or not, of God and how culture and society is or should be organised (Wright 1997, p. 123).
The Dutch research mentioned above focussed on the skills of foster care workers (equivalent to social workers in England), asking which skills are important for a foster care worker “when supporting a foster child, birth family and foster parents in potentially troublesome worldview differences?” (Van De Koot‐Dees et al. 2023, p. 1192) There it is noted that Christians are over-represented in the foster carer population and that religion or religious conviction can be a motivating and supporting factor for foster carers (Van De Koot‐Dees et al. 2023, p. 1193). As noted, this research is focussed on the foster care workers, and it is acknowledged that it is important for them to have “a basic knowledge of worldviews” (Van De Koot‐Dees et al. 2023, p. 1196).
Woodcock Ross’s initial research (Woodcock Ross 2019) and subsequent paper (Woodcock Ross and Wright 2021) focussed on communication skills required of social workers in England dealing with Christian families, some of whom were being assessed for registration as foster carers. Woodcock Ross describes a contrast between a secular worldview consisting of “a matrix of naturalism, secular humanism and secular liberalism” (Woodcock Ross 2019, p. 2443) and a Christian worldview identifying “God as the self-generating, self-sustaining and self-perpetuating bedrock of reality” (Woodcock Ross 2019, p. 2444). These definitions helpfully try to capture the essence of the difference between an approach to life which acknowledges a transcendent God and one which does not, while still allowing for the wide ranges of views that may be held by Christians and non-Christians (Woodcock Ross, private communication). A fundamental difference in worldview became apparent in various ways. Some Christians reported that their beliefs and values were seen as merely add-ons to normal life, or that their faith was seen as problematic (Woodcock Ross 2019, p. 2448). Social workers tended to refer to ‘the church issue’ (Woodcock Ross 2019, p. 2450) and not to notice parents’ “insistence that their Christian faith was not an optional ‘lifestyle choice’ but the fundamental basis of their daily life and parenting.” (Woodcock Ross 2019, p. 2451) Woodcock Ross’ focus is on communication and ultimately on the social workers. However, the lack of understanding illustrated by the findings of this research indicate potential difficulties which may arise in conversations around how Christian foster carers might contribute to the ‘parenting’ of children in their care.
Van De Koot-Dees, et al. report that foster care workers sometimes discuss worldviews with foster parents (Van De Koot‐Dees et al. 2023, p. 1197) and aim to increase foster parents’ self-awareness (Van De Koot‐Dees et al. 2023, p. 1198) to help handle differences in the worldviews of the foster parents and those of the children they care for and their birth families. However, some of the reported comments in this research suggest that worldview differences may remain hidden because foster care workers can find it a difficult subject to raise, recognising that it is closely bound up with identity (Van De Koot‐Dees et al. 2023, p. 1197) and that “You cannot manage being a foster parent without being yourself” (Van De Koot‐Dees et al. 2023, p. 1198). In addition to the focus on the skills needed by foster care workers, this research relates to worldview differences between foster parents and birth families rather than between foster parents and the state agency which is legally responsible for the children. While it does not directly address the experiences of foster parents themselves, this again illustrates potential difficulties for Christian foster carers arising from them having different worldviews from those they care for or work with.
Bell’s MA dissertation is titled “What Motivates Christians to Foster?” (Bell 2019) and describes research conducted among Christian foster carers in Nottingham, UK. As part of this, she captured and reported some foster carers’ comments on their recruitment process and how they felt their faith had affected that process. 24 out of 54 participants felt that their recruitment process had not been affected by their Christian faith. Of the rest, there was an even split between those who felt their faith had a positive or a negative effect on the process (Bell 2019, p. 34). Comments from the participants indicated that the process was more positive when the carer “felt the social worker understood or was open-minded about their faith” (Bell 2019, p. 35). However, others felt that social workers did not understand the fundamental place of faith in their lives, with one commenting, “I was asked ‘how will you keep your faith separate from a child in your care?’. This is like asking me to keep my ethnicity separate from a child in my care” (Bell 2019, p. 36). Carers also reported feeling that they had to hide certain beliefs for fear of being misunderstood (Bell 2019, p. 36) and being cautious about the language they used, being conscious of social worker’s lack of understanding (Bell 2019, p. 37).
Overall, this literature shows that there are some quite fundamental differences between a Christian worldview and the worldview that sits behind social work and affects the ways in which social workers are required to operate. This can have practical effects, such as Christians feeling that unwarranted assumptions are being made about them and their lives, social workers failing to communicate fully with Christian parents (including foster carers), and Christian carers feeling unable to be open in communication, fearing misunderstanding. Thus, a lack of understanding and trust can arise between social workers and Christian foster carers which potentially raises questions in the context of corporate parenting. For example, does a lack of understanding and trust about what carers, perhaps especially Chirstian carers, might bring sit behind the apparent reluctance to acknowledge the place of foster carers in the delivery of corporate parenting?
BECKETT, C., MAYNARD, A., and JORDAN, P., (2017). Values and Ethics in Social Work. 3rd edition. SAGE Publications Ltd.
BELL, Z., (2019). What Motivates Christians to Foster? Unpublished Masters Dissertation, Luther King House, UK.
KANDIAH, K., (2018). FAITHEISM: Why Christians and Atheists have more in common than you think. London: HODDER & STOUGHTON LTD.
STEWART, C., (2009). The Inevitable Conflict Between Religious and Social Work Values. Journal of Religion & Spirituality in Social Work: Social Thought, 28(1–2), pp.35–47, [Available from: DOI:10.1080/15426430802643315].
VAN DE KOOT‐DEES, D., NOORDEGRAAF, M., and REITSMA, B., (2023). Child of two worlds: How foster care workers perceive their skills in dealing with worldview differences in foster care. Child & Family Social Work, 28(4), pp.1191–1202, [Available from: DOI:10.1111/cfs.13037].
WOODCOCK ROSS, J., (2019). Issues in Social Work Communication with Parents who are Christian: An Empirical Study Under-laboured by Critical Realist Principles. Doctoral Thesis (PhD). UCL.
WOODCOCK ROSS, J. and WRIGHT, A., (2021). Social Work Communication with Parents Who Are Practising Christians: An Empirical Study. The British Journal of Social Work, 51(7), pp.2439–2457, [Available from: DOI:10.1093/bjsw/bcaa041].
WRIGHT, N.T., (1997). Christian origins and the question of God. 1: The New Testament and the people of God. 4. impr. London: SPCK.