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Major Issues Lecture Series: Renewing American Compassion with Marvin Olasky — Transcript

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0:06thank you Jennifer for that terrific
0:08introduction I can see here that not
0:11only in the Ashbrook program do people
0:14learn about political philosophy and so
0:15forth but they really learn marketable
0:17skills the uh uh before coming to the
0:21University of Texas in 1983 I worked for
0:24five years in the DuPont company uh
0:26essentially as a speech writer for the
0:28chief executive uh of the company and
0:30being able to write introductions like
0:32this uh was indeed a uh a skill that
0:36allowed me to be uh remunerated well for
0:39several years and uh you are on the road
0:41to such success should you wish it uh I
0:44also recommend uh staying there maybe in
0:46a corporation uh writing speeches for a
0:47couple of years and then going out and
0:48doing something else but that's a whole
0:50another story the um Ashbrook program is
0:54uh is is probably not quite yet uh the
0:57Cleveland Indians in terms of uh
0:59dominance of the American League but
1:01it's getting there and I've heard good
1:03things about it I'm delighted to be able
1:05to be here today and see it firsthand
1:06and meet some of the students uh it's a
1:09uh uh one of the one of the handful of
1:11programs uh in the country that is known
1:14for really training students well in
1:17political philosophy and understanding
1:18of how government works and so forth so
1:21uh I'm very pleased to be here and I was
1:23also very pleased to uh to just see the
1:25various things that the Ashbrook
1:27Scholars are doing I will not ask what
1:29the uh what what exactly the ashin
1:31cookie girl does um but uh I do want to
1:36thank uh uh Tracy for her for her
1:38opening prayer I'll tell you just one
1:41Texas story before moving on the U uh
1:44one day down during the Johnson
1:45Administration uh lynon Johnson had a
1:47whole group of people at his Ranch and
1:49uh Bill Moyers uh was drafted to say the
1:53uh grace before the meal and Bill Moyers
1:56apparently was was saying something but
1:58Johnson who was way at the other end to
2:00the table a very long table could not
2:01hear him and he said Bill speak up I
2:03can't hear you and Bill Moyer said well
2:05it's not you I'm talking
2:09to there was
2:11a uh
2:13un unfortunately a certain confusion on
2:16President Johnson's part that got him
2:17into trouble but I should not be I I I'm
2:20I guess I'm throwing dur on Texas as one
2:22president and I wouldn't want to do that
2:23with Ohio since your last president I
2:25think was Warren G
2:28Harding anyway moving moving along here
2:31uh I do want to talk today about
2:33compassion your president tells me I am
2:34known for giving provocative speeches so
2:36I do want to provoke uh compassion is
2:39certainly a fashionable word uh change
2:42is another fashionable word candidates
2:44these days Proclaim themselves to be
2:47people of compassion and candidates of
2:49change but if we're going to define a
2:51truly compassionate approach to welfare
2:53reform we need to distinguish among the
2:55various kinds of change Small Change
2:58spare change chump change or real
3:02change most Americans we now see do not
3:06want to be just agents of spare change
3:10handing out a quarter here and a dollar
3:11there with people just stuck in poverty
3:14for decades and most are very cynical
3:19about the $350 billion a year that the
3:22federal government spends on welfare
3:25they know that only a small part of it
3:27spare change from the bureaucracy
3:29actually trickles down to those in
3:32need most Americans have seen that under
3:35the existing regime government officials
3:38do well uh many social work
3:41administrators do well conscientious
3:45social workers are
3:46frustrated and the result is small
3:49change if any in the lives of Those whom
3:52the welfare system is supposed to help
3:55we've seen that we know that it's a
3:58shame and more than a shame most
4:00Americans now I think are realizing that
4:02we've been Chumps spending $5 trillion
4:06on welfare over the past three decades
4:08and not having all that much return for
4:10that expenditure and that's because that
4:13money uh sunk
4:15into uh people in misery have has often
4:20not given them what they need most the
4:22the personal help the spiritual
4:24challenge the incentive to work the
4:26aspects of uh real compassion compassion
4:31defined as from the literal meaning of
4:33the word in Latin Cal with passion Pati
4:36to suffer with suffering suffering with
4:38personal involvement that's been lacking
4:40and that's why I talk about the stingy
4:42welfare state it's encouraged us to sit
4:43back and say the professionals will take
4:45care of it but we know the pros have not
4:48been able to do the job we've spent
4:50spare change Small Change Chum change
4:53but we haven't had real change the kind
4:54that actually not enables people to stay
4:58in poverty but moves people out of
5:00poverty we have a lot of good
5:02intentions um I've been traveling around
5:04the country I've been seeing lots of
5:06bulletin announcements from churches and
5:08I'll just give you three of the
5:09announcements about ways to help the
5:11homeless uh first Thursday night dinner
5:15for the homeless medication to
5:18follow second and by the way I
5:20compliment your food service uh we don't
5:22need that announcement here uh second at
5:25the at the evening service tonight the
5:28sermon topic will be seeing hell close
5:31up come early to meet homeless
5:35visitors and one more announcement don't
5:38let homelessness kill you let the church
5:42help
5:45now these are good
5:48intentions but intentions only lead to
5:51good results if we get serious about
5:53eliminating welfare as we know it and
5:55that means not just reforming a bit here
5:58and there but replacing the welfare
6:00Plantation and that's what it's called
6:01in inner cities across this country a
6:03plantation like the old plantations of
6:05slavery replacing the welfare Plantation
6:08with a new system based in community and
6:10religious organizations that's my thesis
6:12in a sense I want to go quickly through
6:15four
6:16parts um first I want to look briefly at
6:19what some of our predecessors in America
6:22did uh second i' like to look at some
6:25programs today that have the potential
6:27to replace the welfare state and third I
6:31want to examine again very briefly
6:33briefly some of the crucial religious
6:36understandings that underly these new
6:39approaches and then fourth discuss some
6:42ways to apply this understanding
6:45personally to ask what we ourselves can
6:47and should do so first briefly some
6:50history the the reason I'm here today is
6:52because I wrote a history book uh and
6:55and for you students interest in history
6:56yes you can actually write history books
6:58and people some people will actually
6:59read them uh some people actually read
7:02the tragedy of American compassion
7:03before falling asleep uh here's the gist
7:06of it during the 19th century before the
7:09federal government ever got involved
7:11there was a war on poverty far more
7:14successful than our own of recent years
7:16that was waged by thousands of local
7:19private charitable agencies and
7:21religious groups around the country now
7:24these folks did not abolish poverty but
7:26they helped millions of people get out
7:28of poverty
7:29and then other people new immigrants
7:31would present new needs but there were
7:34always Springs of fresh water flowing
7:37among the poor now we tend to have
7:41blocks of ice sitting in a Perpetual
7:44winter of multi-generational welfare
7:47dependency always winter and never
7:51Christmas if you go back a century there
7:53was optimism that optimism that
7:55contrasts so sharply with the de
7:59moralization among the poor and the
8:01cynicism among the better off that's so
8:03common
8:04today there was Hands-On involvement
8:07with volunteers following through on
8:09that biblical understanding that
8:10compassion is not passing a billion
8:13dollar bill in Washington or even
8:16writing a check but having that personal
8:19involvement with the needy suffering
8:20with them not just giving to them and
8:23there was discernment with volunteers
8:25following biblical guidelines that
8:27emphasized family respons possbility
8:29help to those who could not help
8:32themselves help to those who have shown
8:34good character or at least a willingness
8:36to
8:37work now it was a success not in that it
8:42abolished poverty but there was movement
8:46under very difficult circumstances it's
8:48not as if some three generations ago
8:50these were the good old
8:52days um and that uh that now our
8:55problems are incomparably more severe
8:58though were not they were not the the
8:59good old days they had crime they had
9:02alcoholism um it's no accident that the
9:05biggest women's organization 100 years
9:07ago was not a suffragist organization or
9:09anything else that today's feminists
9:10might like to talk about but the women's
9:12Christian Temperance
9:14Union they were involved in fighting
9:15alcoholism and it had 230,000 women who
9:17were
9:18members uh they had drugs tended to be
9:22opium rather than cracked cocaine you
9:24read accounts of Cincinnati in
9:261870 uh with uh lots of folks walking in
9:29the streets all drugged up and sitting
9:32in opium dens and so forth they had
9:35longer work days on the average as
9:37stressed out as we may feel they had
9:40smaller houses on the average than we
9:42have their cities weren't as spread out
9:44as today but travel time from Rich area
9:47of a city to a poor area of a city was
9:48about the same because we can go so much
9:51faster these days except in Rush our
9:53traffic our rate of illegitimacy and
9:56divorce is much higher so high in fact
10:00that American society will be destroyed
10:01if those trend lines don't
10:03change but there were many more orphans
10:07several Generations ago than there are
10:09today people died at a younger
10:11age so it's not as if the question of
10:13how to help children in need abandoned
10:16children is an entirely new one overall
10:20we have big problems they had big
10:23problems uh we're richer than they were
10:26six times richer According to some
10:28calculations so materially we can do
10:31more the question really is spiritual do
10:34we have the strength do we have the will
10:37a big difference certainly is that we
10:38tend to whine about our problems we tend
10:41to feel hopeless
10:43and helpless and
10:46effectless they rolled up their sleeves
10:49they
10:51persevered we do have it harder
10:53structurally in three ways first we do
10:55have a big government that passes out
10:57benefits to those who gain influence
11:00we tend to accept much of that and
11:01simply demand a bigger share for
11:03ourselves I mean people see what's
11:05what's called corporate welfare and they
11:07ask why poor people should not jump on
11:08the gravy train as well that's a good
11:11question the answer to all those
11:14questions should be to reduce power
11:15across the board in
11:17Washington that's a structural problem
11:20that we have to deal with secondly we do
11:22have governments that pay for welfare
11:26Arrangements of various kinds welfare
11:27both to Rich and and the poor by taxing
11:29middle class families heavily so that
11:32many married women have to work outside
11:34the home even though they would prefer
11:36to be home more with their children and
11:38also have the time to volunteer more
11:41women often led the way in charity a
11:43century ago and as I read about what
11:45they accomplished I often fall in love
11:47with those those women those uh those
11:49volunteers who did such wonderful things
11:52who uh managed to find uh adoptive homes
11:58for 990,000 children from New York City
12:01over a period of four decades from 1850
12:03to 1890 through the New York children's
12:06uh welfare
12:07organization uh women who set up
12:10shelters in cities uh women who worked
12:13with men to uh provide shelters for
12:16women going through crisis pregnancies
12:18so that they would not be driven to
12:20abort their
12:21children uh I fall in love with these uh
12:25with these women who uh did this and
12:28persevered for decade after decade in
12:30the late 19th and the early 20th century
12:32and and my wife doesn't even mind when I
12:34fall in love with them because they've
12:35all been dead for about five
12:38decades that's a hardship that we uh we
12:42have our our level of Taxation right now
12:46the third hardship is this that we've
12:48seen so much welfare failure that we
12:50don't have much hope for
12:52success I mean we have we have ministers
12:55now who are hopeless about moving their
12:59congregations into more active
13:01charitable activities because we've all
13:03become used to sitting back and letting
13:05the professionals handle it we've seen
13:08journalists who tend to look sometimes
13:11upon uh community-based organizations as
13:14nice little things for the uh a feature
13:17section of the newspaper but not things
13:19that really have public policy oomph
13:21things that can really make for True
13:24change about 15 months ago I met with
13:26David broer a uh fairly famous
13:29Washington Post political reporter I
13:32told him what I was up to that I was
13:33going to be traveling around a lot and
13:34seeing lots of inner city places and he
13:36said with a little smile well come back
13:39if you see any successes and he clearly
13:41did not expect to see me again but I am
13:43going back and the reason why I'm going
13:46back makes up the second part of my
13:47remarks today I'm I'm going to go back
13:49to tell David broer good news that there
13:51are many individuals and charitable
13:53groups doing a far better job than
13:55government does or can do I can say to
13:59him Mr bro or I have seen programs that
14:01do not provide entitlement they offer
14:03Challenge and they work I've seen
14:06programs that do not live off
14:08bureaucracy they offer personal Heth and
14:11they work I've seen programs that do not
14:14ban God from the premises they offer
14:17spiritual help and they work they change
14:20lives we're tracking them at the at the
14:23Center for Effective compassion the new
14:24organization we set up in Washington to
14:26try to network some of these groups with
14:28others and be able to teach people about
14:30what makes for Effective compassion what
14:32makes for it I've seen programs in every
14:33area of the country that embody
14:36effective compassion and by that I mean
14:37compassion that's challenging personal
14:40and spiritual CPS for short effective
14:45compassion just like CPR can revive a
14:47dying person CPS challenging personal
14:52spiritual help can bring back to life
14:54American charity and can bring back to
14:55life folks who are walking in the street
14:57mostly dead
14:59I've seen it work across the country you
15:00named the problem there's a an effective
15:04charitable private program somewhere
15:06that's working on that problem whether
15:08it's how to help pregnant inner city
15:10teens how to provide job opportunities
15:12in the POR inner city
15:14neighborhoods um I can mention names the
15:17names here probably wouldn't mean much
15:18to you but I've been writing about them
15:20in in World magazine I see you have a
15:22copy at your uh your table and I've been
15:25trying to tell those stories don't have
15:26a whole lot of time to tell them today
15:28I'll maybe I'll tell a couple of them
15:29but uh how to provide basic Healthcare
15:32in inner cities uh uniting people in
15:34churches with kids who need tutoring
15:36helping kids stay out of trouble uh care
15:39for kids who are orphaned abandoned
15:41badly abused uh I'll tell you one how to
15:45help aftc moms get off welfare because
15:47this is something that you hear people
15:49sometimes saying that the only choice is
15:51to either provide uh afdc Aid uh for
15:56years and years and years to come or
15:57else uh throw them off and if you throw
16:00them off you are of course being
16:01mean-spirited and
16:03nasty um here's one program in Milwaukee
16:06the right alternative family service
16:08center it's a program that emphasizes
16:10personal
16:11change there they uh the welfare moms
16:15challenge each
16:17other uh not to swear not to shack up
16:21not to do
16:23drugs leaders there challenge the people
16:25to keep to their pledges and when they
16:27do it's interesting that even with
16:28whatever structural economic
16:30difficulties there may be in the city of
16:31Milwaukee when they do the lives of
16:33those people change they get married and
16:36marriage by the way is the leading way
16:37for women to get off afdc I saw in a
16:40governmental office in Milwaukee a sign
16:42saying to women who were there uh don't
16:44wait for your prince charming his horse
16:46broke
16:47down well yeah I mean they shouldn't be
16:49waiting for Prince Charming but still
16:51marriage is a real possibility in these
16:52women are showing it they they say
16:54things like you know when I became a
16:56whole woman I was able to attract a
16:57whole man
16:59uh they do get
17:01jobs uh those who are who are single
17:03parenting and and are putting their
17:05lives in order they're able to get jobs
17:07and their kids are in school and they
17:09find their kids start to obey them and
17:11do better in school the kids start to
17:13say yes sir and no ma'am and they say it
17:16themselves and the kids pass it on they
17:18pass it on to their
17:19kids um you go to a situation that seems
17:21almost entirely hopeless helpless
17:24helping homeless alcoholics and addicts
17:26there was a recent study by the
17:27inspector general of the Department of
17:29Health and Human Services in Washington
17:32showing that 99 out of 100 alcoholics
17:35and addicts who receive government
17:36benefits fail to recover or get a
17:38long-term job that looks pretty hopeless
17:41and sometime the alternative is saying
17:43well either you're going to uh provide
17:46material help for these guys who are
17:48helpless drunk stics or or else uh
17:51they're just going to freeze on the
17:53streets uh that's all you can do with
17:54them they can
17:56change uh of uh spend time in a program
17:59in Denver called Step 13 it was started
18:02by uh Bob cotay an ex-boxer who had
18:04become a homeless drunk in the early 80s
18:07Bob decided he didn't want to kill
18:08himself drinking he pulled together a
18:11few of his fellow wios and junkies as he
18:12says and he started Gathering support to
18:15create a shelter where residents would
18:16not be treated like pets you know here's
18:19some food in your bowl uh be nice go
18:22away boy no instead Bob cotay challenges
18:25his people every step of the way they
18:26make their own beds they cook their own
18:28meals they clean up afterwards they
18:30attend Bible studies they submit to
18:32random uh urine screens and breathalyzer
18:35tests then they get jobs of increasing
18:37responsibility they get better living
18:39conditions within the
18:41shelter well what's the success rate
18:43there uh well one out of every three of
18:47the lowest low comes to Step 13 and
18:50cleans up his act and stays that way
18:52they've check this out and is and moves
18:54on to the building of careers and
18:55families two-thirds flunk out
18:58now you need to keep challenging those
19:01folks rather than just enabling them to
19:03stay on challenging them it's not again
19:05as if this is a new problem they had
19:07this problem 100 years ago too but they
19:09kept challenging them and pushing people
19:11and folks came out of it when they were
19:13physically able to do
19:14so these are tough programs that work
19:17for many who would Otherwise Die in the
19:19alleys I mean Bob cotay talks about that
19:22the real danger in in Denver uh the real
19:25killer in Denver is not uh homeless
19:28Skies passing out in the winter and
19:30freezing to death uh it's that they uh
19:33when they get their monthly checks from
19:35the government uh they go on a spree and
19:38just uh kill themselves drinking their
19:39their livers fall apart very
19:42quickly um and they they fall prey to
19:45all sorts of other diseases from living
19:47in that condition they need Bob cot says
19:50and he's lived this life himself they
19:51need to be pushed every step of the way
19:53and when they push when they're pushed
19:55uh most eventually do respond and then
19:57you got to keep pushing pushing and
19:58pushing and pushing it's
20:00hard uh it's suffering with it's
20:04persevering and um lots of programs like
20:08this and again I'm not just
20:10concentrating on problems among the poor
20:11in a sense there are big problems among
20:13the rich as well there's alcoholism
20:14among the rich the rich alcoholics
20:17though tend to drink in their homes uh
20:19they need help for both rich and poor
20:22alcoholism is a symptom not a
20:25fundamental problem the basic problem is
20:27that people have have holes in their
20:29souls holes that only God can fill and
20:32the programs that understand this and
20:34work on the basics can succeed the
20:37programs the government funded programs
20:39that don't get to that uh have success
20:41rates at best measured at uh 7 8 9% and
20:46so forth and sometimes just completely
20:50uh
20:51counterproductive now what makes these
20:55programs interesting to to budget
20:57cutting members of Congress is that they
20:59generally these successful programs
21:01generally cost far less from the failed
21:03governmental welfare state approaches uh
21:05Step 13 cost about $3,000 per man
21:08annually it's 1/10th of what the
21:10government often pays for programs with
21:12success rates in the single
21:14digits um give you one other example
21:16here hope house it's a program I visited
21:19last month in Nampa Idaho near
21:21Boise um program for badly abused kids I
21:24mean they've been psychologically abused
21:27physically abused usually sexually
21:29abused um relies heavily on volunteers
21:33who spend a couple of years there
21:34receiving only room and board and a very
21:36small stip and they volunteer because of
21:37their Christian
21:39commitment um it costs $5,000 per child
21:43per year the state of Idaho pays $21,000
21:47for its subsidized facilities Southern
21:49California typically pays about
21:51$40,000 so here's a program again hope
21:54house is enormously effective because
21:56they give kids time and love love and
21:58they teach them that no matter how badly
22:00they've been abused no matter how often
22:02they've been told that they're worthless
22:04they do have worth they are wonderful
22:06because they're created in the image of
22:07a god who's wonderful and that makes the
22:10difference when people persevere in that
22:12and give them a loving
22:13environment there's a program in South
22:16Dallas that I like a lot it's a very
22:17poor area of Dallas that that passes out
22:19t-shirts saying twice the results at
22:20half the
22:21cost and that's exactly what I've seen
22:23around the
22:25country so I don't think the reason to
22:28cut to to to uh reform welfare is for
22:31Budget cutting the reason to reform
22:33welfare in a radical way right now is
22:35because the program is a miserable
22:37failure it's hurting poor people it's
22:40hurting poor
22:41kids but it's interesting and useful
22:44politically that the need to change it
22:46in a way that particularly people who
22:49have biblical faith can understand goes
22:52along with this budget cutting
22:54approach so here you can have a
22:56coalition of two groups basically
22:58Christian conservatives and fiscal
23:01conservatives working together on this
23:03and if they keep at it and they and they
23:04explain they will eventually be
23:07understood it's hard because there's so
23:11much of a uh built-in sense that
23:13compassion is equated with spending
23:15money it's not compassion is equated
23:17with time and love and concern and
23:19Challenge and spiritual help and that's
23:22why I'm going to have to go very briefly
23:24through this uh um section three here
23:27that that's why the news from Washington
23:29as far as welfare change is not good uh
23:33welfare reform is
23:34gridlocked President Clinton indicated
23:37throughout the first half of last year
23:38that he was serious about sticking to
23:41his campaign pledge to end welfare as we
23:42know it but then the children's defense
23:45fund and other elegantly named pressure
23:47groups weighed in and Mr Clinton changed
23:49his tune and that's where we are today
23:51unless there's a breakthrough
23:52everything's on hold until the election
23:54and who knows what will happen there's
23:56action going on in a number of states
23:59uh there are good things happening in
24:00Michigan and Mississippi and Virginia
24:02we're starting to do some good things in
24:04Texas uh but this year essentially is an
24:06opportunity to catch our breath in a way
24:08in Washington and look again at first
24:10principles and sometimes this whole
24:12question of how to really help the poor
24:14just got La lost last year in the
24:16screaming about budgets and and and uh
24:19and those money calculations which again
24:21are important but should be
24:23secondary and the reason one of the
24:25reasons they got lost and I'm going to
24:26have to go this very quickly is is uh is
24:29because there's a there's a religious
24:30sensibility at stake here that seems to
24:33me to be a serious misreading of the
24:34Bible but one that's very popular among
24:37groups on the religious left and we hear
24:40a lot about the religious right but
24:41actually the religious left is a lot
24:42more powerful uh inside the Beltway and
24:44certainly in on the pages of uh of our
24:46newspapers and uh and our uh networks
24:50and so forth um give you just one
24:53example here the um the Congressional
24:55debate last year uh included uh if you
24:58look at the Congressional Record
25:00included a statement by Representative
25:01poshard of Illinois who was quoting
25:04Christ's famous statement in chapter 25
25:06of the Book of Matthew about um uh what
25:10you do to what you did to the least of
25:11these my brethren you did to me if you
25:13gave food to someone who was starving
25:15it's like giving it to Christ himself if
25:17you gave shelter it's like giving it to
25:18Christ himself but what we have to
25:21understand is that the deepest poverty
25:23in America today is a spiritual poverty
25:25and not a material poverty you have
25:27severe material poverty obviously in
25:30many countries around the world and you
25:32have to go and provide food to those
25:34folks as best you can and help them to
25:36develop their economy so there won't be
25:37starvation but we're not facing
25:39starvation in the United States uh
25:41people are not going hungry except by
25:44choice uh or Insanity which is a special
25:48problem that we do need to deal with or
25:49parental abuse which again has its own
25:52could be a a lecture in itself about
25:54that the uh there there spiritual
25:57starvation many of the poor Starving in
25:59that way as are many of the rich but
26:01neither group simply needs more of the
26:03food that just
26:04spoils we have to ask some basic
26:07questions and so I I I think through
26:09that verse which went which
26:10representative Posh had made it and and
26:12went unopposed as far as the way he used
26:14it saying that this what you did to the
26:15least of these you did to me means that
26:17you have to be voting for various uh
26:21Federal Federal welfare programs even
26:22though we know they're failures still
26:25it's our religious obligation to
26:26continue with them because uh if we if
26:28we go away from that we are violating
26:30Jesus's mandate but think about it does
26:34Jesus include in his list of commended
26:37charitable acts when I was strung out
26:40you gave me
26:41dope but that's exactly what we're doing
26:43when we just pass out money either
26:45ourselves in the street corner or
26:47through government funds to alcoholics
26:48and addicts I mean most of that money is
26:50going to be used to fuel their
26:52addiction um if you a liberal rewrite of
26:57the those statements and this is the way
26:58it's often it it works out in reality
27:01you'd hear Christ saying when I was an
27:02addict you gave me money for drugs when
27:06I abandoned the women and children who
27:07depended on me you gave me a place to
27:09stay and helped me justify my action or
27:13even when I was in prison you helped me
27:14get out quickly so I could commit more
27:16crimes that's not
27:20compassion our tendency today is is to
27:22have programs that are a mile wide and
27:25and 3 Ines deep and we forget that an
27:27alcohol can drown in 3 in of water we
27:30congratulate ourselves on our compassion
27:32as the government programs enable us to
27:35sit back and say I don't have to get
27:38involved and that's what I mean by
27:40talking about the welfare state where
27:41that's $350 billion a year of spending
27:43as a stingy welfare
27:45state we have too little help for people
27:49who are really in situations of
27:50desperate need we spread it around to
27:53anyone who statistically qualifies
27:55regardless of the reason and we don't
27:57inv invest our own time and our own
28:00energy and given the time here let me
28:03just say that if you want to know more
28:04about some of the biblical principles
28:06involved uh I've written about this um
28:10uh you could call well you can call my
28:12uh my magazine world uh um 800 uh
28:17951
28:194974 ask for June MCG and ask her just
28:23to send you a paper I wrote about uh
28:25biblical principles of poverty fighting
28:28but here's the fourth and concluding
28:30section how then should we
28:31act how do we promote true compassion
28:34suffering with let me conclude with
28:35three ways to do it in order I think of
28:37increasing Effectiveness I mean first
28:40and again we'll have to see what is
28:42politically doable but this is a chance
28:44to to to take our breath to catch our
28:46breath this year and and what do we want
28:47to do in 1997 and Beyond we should work
28:50to Sunset every program governmental or
28:53private that merely goes towards
28:55creating dependency among among those
28:57capable of
28:58Independence we should continue programs
29:01only if we see that they are
29:03actively effectively producing real
29:07change and right now there are programs
29:09that actually Place barriers in the way
29:12of true compassion we have to get rid of
29:15those
29:15programs we have to stop supporting
29:18programs that are based in entitlement
29:20bureaucracy and the attempt to banish
29:22God now second along with eliminating
29:25that negative we need to accentuate the
29:28positive to emphasize compassion that's
29:30challenging personal spiritual to get
29:32additional resources to programs that
29:34work to replicate those programs in
29:36other
29:37cities we need a Grassroots campaign to
29:41make the giving of time and money the
29:44expected thing that people do and we may
29:47be able to cut taxes in accordance with
29:49that and encourage people to give more
29:51but let me just say that that the debate
29:55in Washington last year dealt so much
29:56with money
29:58that I'm quite willing at this point to
30:00say let's forget the question about
30:02money let's discuss
30:05power let's eliminate Federal control of
30:07Welfare by moving towards empowering
30:10individual
30:11taxpayers let me ask you this if each of
30:14you had if each of you could take $1,000
30:17doar of the money that many of you had
30:19had to send to Washington on April 15th
30:23a couple weeks ago if in If instead of
30:24having that money spent by
30:27Lea the head of Human Services Health
30:30and Human Services in Washington uh with
30:32her tender Mercy If instead you could
30:35send that, directly to a religious or
30:38private
30:39charity any kind of Charity that fights
30:42poverty how many of you would send that
30:44money still to Donna
30:50Shala my goodness uh this is this is no
30:54no
30:55hands um
30:57why then do we keep doing it uh Senator
31:00coats from your neighboring state of
31:03Indiana uh along with uh Senator sorm
31:06also from a neighboring state
31:08Pennsylvania and Senator Ashcraft uh
31:10have been promoting uh a uh tax
31:15credit for fighting poverty that would
31:17enable taxpayers to send money directly
31:20to organizations that practice
31:22compassion and take the money off their
31:24taxes in other words it's not a
31:25deduction it's actually a credit and the
31:27amount of money allocated to
31:29governmental welfare programs would also
31:31decrease dollar for dooll as the private
31:34taxpayer TRS and programs were enabl to
31:36grow I think this is the public policy
31:38way to
31:39go uh I'm I am I I talk a lot with folks
31:44who are who are saying well let's just
31:45cut the taxes
31:47entirely and uh let citizens do as they
31:50wish but I do and and I would like that
31:52to be the case but I suspect that we're
31:54in the situation of a mugging victim who
31:56had a a knife stuck in him uh you can't
31:59just pull out the knife and expect the
32:01person to get up and go walking along
32:02we've had our sense of citizenship of
32:04suffering with so decreased by Decades
32:08of uh the sense of let the pros do it I
32:10think we need some time to readjust so
32:14uh this is the public policy proposal
32:16I'll be glad to discuss that more could
32:17be done by the way on a state basis too
32:20in terms of a state income tax and I
32:21suggest in in that book I wrote renewing
32:23American compassion that's that's out
32:24now that uh here's a way to go also
32:26could be done St could be done federally
32:28but it shifts the debate from one of
32:29money to one of authority influence
32:32power who's going to control that
32:34money and I I would suggest that the
32:36result of a change of that sort would be
32:39more resources flowing to good groups
32:41some resources flowing to very bad
32:43groups but more to good groups and less
32:46into our clearly failed governmental
32:48welfare program but now that I've talked
32:51about eliminating the negative and
32:52accentuating the positive here's my
32:53third and last
32:54proposal let's work on the on the micro
32:58let me ask each of you one other
33:01question uh each of you uh now if I were
33:04liberal I would say close your eyes and
33:06and visualize this but since I'm not
33:10I'll just say uh can you can you picture
33:12in your mind's eye uh with your eyes
33:15open uh at least one poor person whom
33:19you have directly personally helped
33:23during the past
33:24year and again I'm not talking about a
33:27check although that's good if it's still
33:28a good organization I'm not talking
33:29about going to a shelter and working in
33:32a food line either talking about
33:33onetoone involvement compassion
33:35suffering with if there's someone that's
33:38excellent I commend you I hope you'll
33:40continue and perhaps do even more over
33:41this next year but if there's no one
33:43there my prayer would be that you take a
33:47a small step this year and then maybe
33:48larger ones uh uh the way often to begin
33:51on this is by tutoring a a child often a
33:54poor child who's uh uh who maybe can't
33:57read in elementary school tutoring a
33:59child for one hour a week or being a big
34:02brother or big sister or a little league
34:03coach uh mentoring an adult perhaps has
34:06gotten into trouble that's a little more
34:07difficult at times but uh becoming a
34:10counselor or Mentor at a Crisis
34:12Pregnancy Center helping a young
34:13unmarried pregnant
34:15woman uh for those of you willing to
34:17take a larger step uh providing room in
34:20your
34:21home uh for a woman going through a
34:23crisis pregnancy or a homeless person
34:25who is uh uh not physically
34:28dangerous uh or perhaps a larger step
34:31still adopting a
34:33child that's suffering with and all
34:36those things now there's also joy in
34:38that
34:40um uh my wife and I have have done these
34:43things I've just mentioned and uh um I'm
34:46I'm not at all a hospitable individual
34:48I'd rather spend time in libraries so I
34:51look at my poor qualities and once in a
34:53while I can do something decent and then
34:54I look around at people with much better
34:56qualities and I suggest sure of course
34:59uh folks can do this it's very
35:02doable uh as individuals in community
35:05groups in churches and synagogues and so
35:08forth what's the big
35:11motivator
35:13um there is as people get into their 40s
35:15or 50s there's often what uh folks in
35:17Dallas who are involved in uh who
35:21successful businessmen who are now
35:23involved as social entrepreneurs working
35:24in uh uh working still in their
35:26businesses by using part of their time
35:28for inner city projects they they refer
35:29to the uh the tombstone question how do
35:32I want to be
35:33remembered and it's very good to be
35:35successful in business and provide goods
35:37and services that people in the
35:38marketplace actually want to buy but
35:40it's also good to reach out beyond that
35:42and people think in those terms there's
35:44the tombstone question there's also the
35:45empty tomb question and that's as you
35:48recall what many of us got off
35:51celebrating three weeks
35:52ago if you remember that Christ rose
35:56from the dead
35:57after he suffered with us and died for
36:00us then you have motivation to suffer
36:04with others because Christ taught us the
36:06meaning of true
36:08compassion we can also remember God who
36:11adopted us uh but it takes
36:15perseverance my favorite Psalm these
36:17days has become Psalm
36:20131 which uh goes uh like this
36:25um my heart heart is not proud O Lord my
36:29eyes are not
36:30hoty I do not concern myself with great
36:34matters with things too wonderful for
36:37me but I have stilled and quieted my
36:40soul like a weaned child with its mother
36:43like a weaned child is my soul within me
36:47oh Israel put your hope in the Lord both
36:50now and forever
36:52more and I tend to focus on those lines
36:55about uh let's not concern ourselves
36:57with with the great matter so much with
36:59things too wonderful for us let's still
37:02inqu our souls and work on the things
37:03close at
37:05hand we don't have to worry so much
37:07about what's going on in Washington we
37:09have to be work on that but if we
37:11concern ourselves and help one person we
37:13are doing a huge amount and so for all
37:15the Ashbrook Scholars uh as you're
37:17studying political philosophy and the
37:19great and wonderful things please also I
37:22hope now and in the future uh and all of
37:24us here uh think about one person close
37:28at hand and help that person thank
37:53Youk yes yes I was wondering um whether
37:57you had ever done a systematic study of
38:00the Black American political thinkers uh
38:03because I think that they are the ones
38:05they of all the prominent uh political
38:08thinkers in our tradition uh they're the
38:11ones who most uh directly address these
38:14questions that you've you've just raised
38:16I'm thinking of Frederick Douglas Booker
38:18T Washington and I I think you could do
38:21an immeasurable Service uh by putting
38:23out a compilation of their writings on
38:26on this subject um which I think really
38:30do speak to these these themes that you
38:33uh yourself uh have address so
38:35thoughtfully do you uh have any leads in
38:38that area well it's something I've
38:40thought about because uh one of the
38:42classes I teach at the University of
38:43Texas is a class on journalism history
38:46and I do Trace among black journalists I
38:49mean going back to the 1830s with the
38:50first black newspaper in the United
38:52States in New York City uh this debate
38:55that's been going on it's been going on
38:56ever since the 1830s in the black
38:57community uh most Salient form was uh
39:00between Booker T Washington and web Deo
39:03around the turn of the century where
39:04Booker T Washington emphasized in fact
39:07his expression was you know throw down
39:08your bucket where you are that is uh
39:10work where you are uh gain job skills uh
39:13build a strong family gain economic
39:16success uh and that will translate into
39:19Political success down the road whereas
39:21web de boys tend to emphasize the
39:22political a lot more and saying that's
39:25the way to go and we have to ize that
39:27and then the other stuff will come along
39:28later on and we see that same debate
39:30today carried on Through The Years uh in
39:32a sense uh you know Clarence Thomas and
39:34Jesse Jackson I mean with different
39:35political philosophies uh so it's still
39:37there and I think the evidence shows
39:40people uh like a friend of M Charles
39:43Murray I mean look at questions of uh of
39:45uh black achievement and wonder whether
39:47there are genetic factors and so forth
39:49involved I think it's a lot simpler than
39:51that uh the the problem is that is that
39:54many many blacks have have adopted I
39:57mean over over Generations the web Deo
39:59approach which emphasizes government
40:01which emphasizes political power and
40:03they haven't built up the uh the
40:04businesses and the small businesses and
40:06therefore they haven't had that degree
40:08of economic success uh then there are
40:10family problems that uh that continue
40:12and so forth so it's not uh it's not
40:13genetic I I think that'd be a good it'd
40:15be a good study for someone to do maybe
40:17I'll do
40:20it Sally H do you have a
40:23question um yes I'd like to find out um
40:26in your travels have you seen anything
40:29in relation to children on a grade
40:32school middle school high school level
40:34that um a movement to doing things that
40:38they are not receiving a monetary value
40:40for but the pure joy of doing something
40:42for people and the feeling of how good
40:44it feels to just give you're saying
40:47you're saying ways of ways of teaching
40:50uh more affluent kids about volunteering
40:52in essence or or any any any level of
40:55child to just learn the uh the value of
40:58compassion do you see anything in your
41:00travels that's starting to take place in
41:02that level that's interesting I I
41:04haven't been looking specifically for
41:06that and I should uh I've seen lots of
41:09programs designed to get adults uh
41:12involved some of which are very
41:14successful um but I see no reason why
41:17why you shouldn't have programs that
41:18would for example uh have older kids
41:20tutoring younger kids uh I I haven't
41:23seen a successful model of that and that
41:25and that's striking now that I think
41:27about it and thank you I'm going to
41:28start looking and asking about that
41:30thank
41:42you I'm trying to promote the idea that
41:46uh instead of raising the minimum wage
41:48by 90 cents that money should be used
41:51for healthc care benefits the one of the
41:54main reasons that people on welfare
41:55don't get job is because they lose their
41:57health care benefits and this way the
42:00government would save money they may
42:03have to subsidize those health care
42:05benefits but that would be a lot cheaper
42:06than paying for both welfare and all of
42:09their all of their healthare well I'm
42:13all I'm always tending to be bottom up
42:15rather than top down so here here would
42:17be my alternative proposal there uh and
42:19that and that's that's that's an
42:20interesting interesting notion but uh uh
42:23I'd suggest instead that we really start
42:27uh rebuilding a system of inner city
42:30health clinics that's fallen into
42:31disrepair uh there are some
42:33extraordinary examples of of success uh
42:35in well in Jackson Mississippi and
42:37Phoenix there are some very good health
42:38clinics but all in lots of other places
42:40that's Fallen apart what they need in
42:42those clinics to really make them go is
42:45to have more doctors and nurses and
42:46dentist volunteering and one of the
42:48things I'd propose uh is that there be a
42:52this is my public policy proposal here
42:54uh that there be a special provision
42:55where where by medical personnel because
42:58this is such an urgent need uh could be
43:00encouraged to devote uh 10% of their
43:04time to that is a day every other week
43:08uh working in such an uh an inner City
43:10Medical Clinic and be able to get a tax
43:12credit uh worth uh uh 10% of their
43:15income because that's what they would be
43:17spending there this would be a provision
43:19to encourage doctors and dentists and
43:20nurses to be involved in personal
43:22compassion suffering with in that way
43:25now uh the people who run these clinics
43:28in Jackson and Phoenix for example tell
43:30me that if the if if they get the
43:31volunteers then everything else you need
43:33in the way of equipment and resources
43:34and so forth comes with that uh that
43:37they'll that they'll be able to pull
43:38other things and you would have very uh
43:41uh well developed programs that would
43:43actually serve people in in uh in poor
43:45communities that's the type of bottomup
43:47suffering suffering with approach that I
43:49would prefer to government
43:53mandates
43:55Dr well uh since you raised this
43:57question of the black political thinkers
44:00um let me follow up on that um uh as you
44:05as I've read you and as I've heard you
44:07today uh you you've written very
44:09effectively on this question of the
44:12spiritual void uh not addressed by
44:15welfare programs and by other government
44:18programs uh but I I think the uh
44:21personality who has most injected uh
44:25spirituality into politics are not
44:27people on the religious right but a
44:29figure by the name of Lewis farakhan and
44:33uh perhaps you might give us a guide as
44:36to understanding farahan first of all
44:39and then secondly um how does one
44:42distinguish how does one distinguish
44:44between uh the spiritual and the Demonic
44:48uh when uh uh in in in the political
44:52realm and and doesn't the uh emphasis on
44:56the spiritual lead to the obligation of
44:59people who emphasize that approach uh to
45:03uh distinguish that uh between the
45:06between that and the
45:10Demonic well that uh and and you have
45:14three
45:17minutes
45:19um the uh uh the faran phenomenon is
45:23interesting if you're asking me what
45:24makes him tick I don't know I don't know
45:26the individual I've uh uh I've uh read
45:31some of the things he's written and and
45:32seen him in action on on television at
45:34least he's clearly a very effective
45:36speaker uh in many ways but uh um that
45:41is something that I I suspect we are
45:44going to have to live with and it's
45:47going to be
45:48primarily uh black pastors who are going
45:51to have to fight that uh again I don't
45:54want since you mentioned I don't want to
45:56uh well constantly refer to uh to world
45:58but if you look at our our section on uh
46:01our quote section um we have uh a a
46:06leading a lead
46:07quotation uh by a uh a black Minister
46:11who is now taking a very strong and
46:13courageous stand against farakhan uh we
46:15need more folks like that to be active
46:17in the black community and fight it out
46:19uh as a spiritual battle the uh the the
46:23public policy aspect of this is that if
46:24we move to a tax credit approach again
46:27the there'd be much more in the way of
46:29resources going to good groups but there
46:31would probably also Mr farkin has his
46:33poverty fighting activity some of which
46:35may actually fight material poverty and
46:37be successful in that uh although
46:39bringing about uh very very sad uh
46:43spiritual consequences you know there'd
46:45probably be additional money flowing to
46:47uh to farakhan too and that that's why I
46:49say this is something we would have to
46:50think through and I suspect live with
46:52because I don't want to have a system
46:54where once again government start starts
46:55imposing all kinds of regulations about
46:57who or what uh you can give to in this
47:00way but I do uh recommend we have the
47:03citation from which that quotation is is
47:05taken concerning Mr farakhan and I do
47:07recommend looking at that uh that
47:09article in fact in the next issue world
47:11uh we're going to uh reprint that whole
47:13article because it's such a tremendous
47:14piece of writing uh and I hope it will
47:16be very effective in the black
47:19community one last
47:23question I I found it interesting that
47:26you you mentioned the the uhu the places
47:28in which uh your philosophy and the and
47:31the fiscal conservatives come together I
47:33I would submit that in the area of of
47:36the interent medical problem it's it's
47:37an area where they they sort of have
47:39diverged as the fiscal conservatives in
47:42in Washington are driving us all in the
47:44in the direction of Managed Care uh and
47:47managed care and and hmos and that sort
47:49of thing uh are are in effect in a lot
47:52of places destroying the the clinic
47:54systems that that exist in some of the
47:56the inner city areas uh but that isn't
47:59my my primary question has to do instead
48:02with with your feeling about you you
48:05mentioned that you would like to see tax
48:06credits so you would like to see private
48:08organizations take over the the function
48:10of of uh of welfare uh in Ohio and a lot
48:15of other places now and you mentioned
48:17Wisconsin uh government is also moving I
48:20think with the mood of of people in in
48:22public toward more responsibility uh
48:25work before you get welfare signing a
48:28contract when you come in for for
48:30welfare benefits that sort of thing and
48:32and sort of focusing on that aspect of
48:35it getting people moving through the
48:36system and getting them out uh into the
48:39workplace do you see that as a as a good
48:42thing and and is something that that can
48:43be built upon or do you think it would
48:46be better if the whole system were were
48:48stopped dead now and and uh the
48:52communities at the local level were
48:54forced to pick up up in a charitable and
48:56a private way uh whatever the Fallout
48:59was well I'm not in favor of eliminating
49:01the whole system instantly but I am in
49:04favor of replacing it and moving
49:05methodically to replace it over the next
49:0730 Years and here's why I think that uh
49:09that that governmental programs even
49:11with reforms won't work I mean I could
49:13point out historically that there's
49:14there's a pattern of those programs even
49:16when they try to to require some
49:19particular performance at first they
49:21tend to move rather inexorably towards
49:23an entitlement mentality I mean that's
49:25half in program after program and it
49:27would be radically over optimistic to
49:29think that that that's not going to
49:30happen even in these these with these
49:32reforms but secondly there's the element
49:34of uh can there be personal help I mean
49:37even a a typical uh social worker today
49:40has a case load of 150 or 200 people I
49:42mean even if you uh you have that that's
49:44still not enough to be personally
49:45involved 100 years ago the emphasis of
49:47charitable organizations was to have uh
49:50one volunteer for every person or every
49:52two persons uh it's that you you need
49:55that a type of personto person
49:56relationship uh in order to be able to
49:59to make that progress people respond
50:01personally not to bureaucracies and then
50:03the other reason why government programs
50:05why I don't hold out a whole lot of hope
50:07that government programs even if
50:08reformed would be successful is because
50:10we do have a a religious problem here I
50:12take first amendment concern seriously
50:14even though the first amendment has been
50:16badly uh misunderstood still I do not
50:19want government bureaucrats deciding
50:21passing out grants to religious
50:23organizations uh that to me is a cause
50:25of enormous would would would result in
50:27enormous Mischief enormous uh um
50:30Temptation for the religious
50:31organizations uh uh and I could give you
50:33lots of case studies of exactly how that
50:35occurs so I want to keep an arms length
50:38relationship between government and
50:39religious organizations and that to me
50:41is why the replacement model with a tax
50:43credit would be superior because there
50:45the money never gets to Washington at
50:46all it goes directly from Individual
50:48taxpayers to Charities and doesn't have
50:51and and could resist having those
50:53requirements imposed on it

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This page contains the full transcript of Major Issues Lecture Series: Renewing American Compassion with Marvin Olasky by Ashbrook Center, generated from the public captions YouTube serves with the video. The transcript has 8,737 words across 1,288 segments, with the original timestamps preserved so you can click any line to jump to that moment in the embedded player.

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Use the transcript to take notes, quote the speaker, build a study guide, generate a summary with ChatGPT or Claude via the YouTube Summary tool, or export it as a timed subtitle file with YouTube to SRT. You can also re-open it in the transcriber to choose a caption track available on the video.

Free YouTube transcript tool

YouTube2Text is a free YouTube transcript generator — no signup, no daily limit. Paste any YouTube link and get the full transcript instantly, with timestamps, click-to-jump, caption language selection, AI prompts for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, and exports to TXT, SRT, VTT, or Markdown.