compassion

In the U.S. Capitol 30 years ago, on March 23, 1995, Rep. Glenn Poshard (D., Illinois) advocated for more federal spending for the poor and homeless. He said spending hundreds of billions on governmental poverty-fighting was not “wild-eyed liberalism [based on building] systems that end up manipulating and controlling the poor, more than liberating them.” Instead, the expenditures were biblical, because “if there is one thing evident in the Scriptures, it is that God gives priority to the poor.” Poshard criticized conservative policy analysts by quoting Jesus “from the Sermon on the Mount. Time and again he says, ‘blessed are the poor.…When I was thirsty you gave me drink, when I was hungry you fed me, when I was naked Read More ›

C. S. Lewis once said, “It is a good rule, after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between. If that is too much for you, you should at least read one old one to every three new ones.” The same goes for teaching about how to help the homeless and poor. Ever since 2013, federal policy has been “housing first”: Get homeless individuals under a roof with no pressure to get the mental health help many need, and no pressure to fight the drug addiction and alcoholism. We tend to equate compassion with giving-without-strings. That’s not the way influential poverty-fighters in the late 19th century thought. Maybe Read More ›