Genuine gifts

Even the best deeds are marred by sin, but they are still mostly good deeds | Marvin Olasky

Image isn't everything. Performance counts.

With the Hurricane Katrina anniversary coming up late this month, it's worth noting that relief work by Christian groups over the past year not only saved lives but had a public-relations effect.

For example, University of Tennessee law professor Glenn Reynolds, a libertarian who writes the popular Instapundit blog, observed that "when you look at who was providing relief after Katrina, there's not much in the way of secular humanism to be found."

The Virginian-Pilot rarely has anything good to say about its sometimes-embarrassing Virginia Beach neighbor, Pat Robertson, but it praised the work of Robertson's poverty-fighting organization: "In a forgotten corner of obliterated eastern New Orleans, where desperate locals have been without medical facilities for nearly a year, Operation Blessing has stepped in to fill the void. It has spent some $1 million on a free medical and dental clinic that serves almost 100 patients each day."