Marvin Olasky on the Humanity of Homeless Persons
Originally published at Humanize- Categories
- Homelessness
[The following is a podcast episode originally published April 28, 2025, at Humanize, a podcast hosted by Wesley J. Smith at Discovery Institute’s Center on Human Exceptionalism.]
Homelessness has become a crisis in the United States. We live in the richest country in the world, and yet one can drive down main thoroughfares of our most prosperous cities and be confronted with tent encampments lining streets, squalor, open-air drug markets, and destitute people begging.
The crisis is multifaceted as it is seemingly intractable. What is the role of mental illness? What about drug addiction? Is the rising cost of housing part of the problem, and if so, what can be done about it? What protections does society owe these vulnerable people based simply on their humanity and what responsibilities, if any, do they owe to greater society to help themselves? The problems seem so unsolvable that it is tempting to throw up one’s hands in despair.
But that’s not Marvin Olasky’s way. He not only investigates homelessness as a journalist but has lived for a time in homeless shelters where he observed at close quarters the causes of homelessness and some of the potential solutions and he’s with us today to share his insights.
Marvin Olasky is a Senior Fellow at Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture and a team member in the Institute’s Fix Homelessness initiative. He is Christianity Today’s executive editor for news and global. He taught at The University of Texas at Austin from 1983 to 2008 and edited WORLD magazine from 1992 through 2021. He is the author of 28 books including Fighting for Liberty and Virtue and The Tragedy of American Compassion.
Dr. Olasky earned an A.B. from Yale University in 1971 and a Ph.D. in American Culture from the University of Michigan in 1976. He was a Boston Globe correspondent and has written 5,000 articles for publications including World, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, and Fortune.
Olasky is a Presbyterian Church in America elder and has chaired the boards of City School of Austin and the Austin Crisis Pregnancy Center. He has spoken on six continents and his writings have been translated into Chinese, Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese, and Russian.
Related Resources
- “Wednesday, 6:30 a.m. at Springs Rescue Mission in Colorado Springs” | Fix Homelessness
- “The Variety of Christian Homeless Missions” | Fix Homelessness
- “Springs Rescue Mission: The Things They Carry” | Fix Homelessness
- “Springs Rescue Mission: A Rare Alliance Between Church and State” | Fix Homelessness
- “Springs Rescue Mission: Spiritual Recovery Through Love, Not Force” | Fix Homelessness
- “Springs Rescue Mission: More Than Food and a Bed” | Fix Homelessness