The pH factor

Too much charity can be acidic; too little can be alkaline | Marvin Olasky

Rich hunters offset the costs of their African safaris by donating mounted heads of exotic animals to a Nebraska museum and claiming huge tax deductions. A Tennessee foundation created to improve education among the poor pays its director several million dollars. A tax-exempt hospital charity in Minnesota sends employees on trips to Hawaii and Grand Cayman Island, and executives on a three-day wine tour of Napa Valley to help them find their "moral center."

Those are some of the stories that emerged from a U.S. Senate Finance Committee hearing last month on charitable-giving abuses. Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) concluded, "It's time for comprehensive reforms to shut down personal enrichment at the needy's expense." He's right, but the arrogance of government and foundation officials at the needy's expense is an even greater problem. Many public and private philanthropic wannabes ignore the bonds of attachment that churches have built in inner cities and instead rely on gossamer cords cut from parachutes of dropped-off activists.