The question of government and morality is raised by public clashes over the proper role, if any, of government regulation of morals, or government fostering of things conducive to moral behavior. There are minimalist and maximalist views, akin to the failed ideologies of complete laissez-faire and full government ownership in the economic realm. Between the extremes, which have failed in the moral as well as the economic realm, there is a proper sphere for government support of morality, and institutions that produce virtue and civilized citizens. In particular, there is a need restore authority to the family, moral education to the schools, and parental responsibility and choice in education.

Western culture, at its best, has been a continuous effort to move from the low, the necessities of the body, toward the high, an eternity toward which all men aspire in their capacity for goodness. The purpose of politics, now understood as democracy, has been to regulate the low, the base desires that set men apart from each other. Politics, then, follows culture. But this linkage has been broken by the feminist demand for equality in romantic union, thus destroying the connection between lovers, farmily, and the culture which seeks to protect them The attack on courtly love through the leveling of male and female relatedness is a vicarious effort to undermine hierarchical love, natural and divine.

The thesis of this essay is that the family is the primary socializing agency and that present-day American families are breaking down under socio-economic pressures and new philosophical approaches to life. The institution of the family, which ideally gives its members physical, emotional, and educational support, and teaches them high moral and civic values, is undermined not only by rapid economic and technological changes, but primarily by the lack of personal and social responsibility of its members. Contemporary sociological thought explores some of the negative consequences of the crumbling of the American family. The essay concludes that the reintegration of the family presupposes individual spiritual renewal within the supporting and fulfilling presence of religious institutions.

Since 1965, Daniel Patrick Moynihan has advocated a comprehensive national family policy for the United States. The ups and downs of efforts to advocate family policy initiatives over the last thirty years reveal an increasing polarization over family-related issues. Since public policy affects families, family policy is inevitable, whether purposeful or not. But the lack of public consensus over what values should guide family policy is a serious obstacle to meaningful efforts at improving conditions for American families. This essay proposes an approach to family policy drawing on the best insists of conservative and liberal advocates, based on the values of compassion and personal responsibility.

Researchers, housing program administrators, and others assume housing costs are affordable if they represent up to 30 percent of a household's income. This standard appears to be skewed against families with children. Michael Stone's "Shelter Poverty" offers a new, in some respects more precise, measure of housing affordability. Both measures were calculated to explore housing affordability among an estimated 30 million families with children, using the 1991 American Housing Survey. One-third of families had housing difficulties under either measure, but "Shelter Poverty," concentrated among lower-income families, provides a more realistic classification for families. Adopting "Shelter Poverty" would, thus, offer a more credible guide to "affordable" housing policies for America's families with children.

This essay examines the causes and consequences of poverty and homelessness in America. In comparing the homeless historically, research shows that the more recent homeless tend to be more visible, younger, more women with children, more ethnic minorities, fewer receiving economic benefits, and numerically there are more homeless. Major policies and programs directed at the problems associated with homelessness may be divided into legal approaches; housing health, economic, and social programs; and religious approaches. The essay concludes that a variety of programs and approaches are needed which provide meaningful short-term intervention and rehabilitation, while encouraging personal responsibility for recovery, and reforming the welfare system break the culture of dependency.

Many suburban evangelical churches are failing to respond to urban poverty in America, The relationship between these churches and the urban poor may be described in terms of detachment. Biblical passages such as Deuterononvy 15 propose a theological agenda in which a community's relationship to God turns on its ability to relate to its individual parts. People in the ideal community bridge gaps between the "haves" and the "have nots" since God has already bridged the gap between divinity arul humanity. Implications of this perspective include the example of life skills training and other progjrams as a means to implement the theological framework, thereby forming practical partnerships with the urban poor to help lift them out of poverty.

The erstwhile consensus on morality has disintegrated with deleterious consequences the family and the American community. The disappearance of a moral consensus has undermined the American social contract. Daniel J, Boorstin and Russell Kirk identify religion as the underlying bedrock of the American community. Kirk emphasizes the religious nature of tradition, while Boorstin celebrates God's role in humanity's creative activities. While both authors are devoted to a transcendental moral code or "essence," Boorstin suggests the trait of pragmatic adaptation as a uniquely American phenomenon. Kirk's return to tradition and Boorstin's notion of a generalized religion may offer a solution to the contemporary crisis of moral community.

The Fifth European Conference on Science and Theology, held in Freising and Munich, Germany, 1994, exemplified the growing worldwide interest in science-religion dialogue. The keys to this dialogue care the emergmg linkages and interfaces among all the sciences, on the one hand, and the enigmatic complexity of questions concerning the origin, nature, and destiny of man and the universe, on the other. Both increasingly address issues of meaning values, and ultimate causes, which lie well beyond the ken of science as presently understood. Underlying the current science-religion dialogue is a sense of awe, humility, and wonder in the face of incomplete knowledge seeking understanding and transcendental faith seeking rational foundations.