Renewing American compassion

by Marvin N. Olasky

In a ringing call to churches, community leaders, and ordinary citizens, Marvin Olasky points the way to a reinvented War on Poverty and a renewal of faith-based charity. Only in recent decades have we relegated compassion to the government and lost touch with the poor. We can do much better. In Renewing American Compassion, Olasky reminds us that the original meaning of compassion is "suffering with": from this definition, he constructs an entirely new framework for helping the needy. Olasky shows how dozens of charities and individuals have connected to, and uplifted, the needy. He offers specific guidelines for offering a helping hand, and describes how true compassion renews all of us. He advocates the restoration of family and community bonds, and a return to a moral code that emphasizes the value of hard work, self-sufficiency, and self-respect. Olasky recounts dozens of success stories, and a summary of history's lessons, to show that through faith, by "suffering with," each of