Fighting the good poverty fight

While Washington fiddles, charities across America do the hard work of helping the poor. WORLD profiles some of the most effective | Marvin Olasky

Compassionate conservatism is dead in Washington but alive and well across the country. Over the past year researchers and reporters have uncovered new evidence, both statistical and journalistic, that backs up the good news in that sentence.

The statistical evidence is in a book published late last year, Arthur Brooks' Who Really Cares (Basic, 2006). He showed that, measured by the giving of both money and time, conservatives are more compassionate than liberals, and religious conservatives are far more compassionate than secular conservatives (see "Money, time, blood," Dec. 9, 2006).

This issue includes some new journalistic evidence—profiles of 13 programs that are the 2007 finalists in a contest run each year by the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty, a Michigan-based think tank. (Disclosure: I'm an Acton senior fellow.) This year 311 organizations applied for the $10,000 grand prize award (second- and third-place winners receive $1,000 each) plus the recognition they can receive from stories in WORLD and favorable mention in Acton's Samaritan Guide (acton.org/guide).