It was Harry Truman who said, “My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician. And to tell the truth, there’s hardly any difference.” Mark Twain wrote, “Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.” H.L. Mencken was ruthless in his criticism of the political class, “If a politician found he had cannibals among his constituents, he would promise them missionaries for dinner.” Will Rogers, while kinder overall, still found politicians easy targets during the Depression, “The United States Senate opens with a prayer and closes with an investigation.” So, it…

In “Where Good Ideas Come From” Steven Johnson uses the illustration of a coral reef as an example of a structure that is both fragile and still able to withstand the incessant pounding of waves and storms. He quotes Charles Darwin’s first experience with reefs and his amazement they were able to withstand the violent surges of water, “The ocean throwing its waters over the broad reef appears an invincible, all-powerful enemy; yet we see it resisted, and even conquered, by means which at first seem most weak and inefficient…Yet, these low insignificant coral-islets stand and are victorious: for here another power, as an antagonist, takes part in the contest.…

Roger Thurow was a longtime foreign correspondent in Africa and Europe for The Wall Street Journal and was also the co-author of ENOUGH: Why the World’s Poorest Starve in an Age of Plenty. He visited with me several years ago as he was writing his book and doing interviews for other projects. His first question was, “Why is it just now that evangelicals like Rick Warren and others are getting engaged in social justice issues?” This was in 2007 – the 200th-year anniversary of the signing of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act that ended the slave trade in the British colonies. That date seemed like a good place…

I mentioned last week that tomorrow I am moderating a panel, “How To Help The Poor: Religious Perspectives on the Least of These,” for the annual meeting of the Philanthropy Roundtable. I’ve been reading a sampling of the writings of the panelists — Brian Fikkert, Samuel Gregg and Yossi Prager — and came across this essay in The American Spectator by Samuel Gregg, “Our Sentimental Humanitarian Age.” I was so taken with it that I asked him if I could republish it for my blog today. He agreed and I want to encourage you to read it. I’ll be back next week.   I always thought it would be difficult to imagine…

There has been a recent flurry of articles by the World Bank, Nick Kristof in The New York Times, Andrew Mayeda in Benchmark and others about the progress in the elimination of extreme poverty in the world. Multiple studies are showing better than expected results in the reduction of extreme poverty around the world. Their main measure of success is based on the World Bank’s decision to raise its definition of extreme poverty to income of $1.90 per day, from $1.25. Of course, there have been other articles, notably Jason Hickel writing in Al Jazeera, that these reports have been intentionally distorted and based on faulty data. Hickel believes that…

At a dinner this week I was asked the question, “Would you vote for an atheist for President?” In the past that would have been rhetorical as I have yet to meet an atheist running for political office so have never thought about the notion of how that might affect their decisions. Of course, we’ve had brushes in the not-too-distant past with well-intentioned evangelicals deeply worried about electing John Kennedy as a Catholic President. More recently, Dr. Ben Carson, a Seventh Day Adventist, has been criticized for doubting a Muslim could serve as President because their theology and worldview would be incompatible with the principles of a democracy. Catholic, Mormon…

Nicky Gumbel, the Rector of Holy Trinity Brompton Anglican church in London said, “Movements grow from the intersection of a personal story and circumstances.” It’s true. Movements do not begin without an extraordinary individual, but they are not just a series of rallies around that charismatic individual. That person must come at just the right time and under the right set of particular circumstances to make change possible. Because so much of what I believe about human behavior and group dynamics comes from stories in the Bible, I’ve looked at the number of times mobs came up against the movement of the early Church—a movement founded in hope in the…

Like some of you, I grew up singing the old hymn, “The Haven of Rest,” taken from the account of the Apostle Paul’s sea journey as a prisoner of Rome. I can still hear the congregation singing this line: “I’ve anchored my soul in the ‘Haven of Rest,’ I’ll sail the wide seas no more; The tempest may sweep over wild, stormy, deep, In Jesus I’m safe evermore.” Until recently, I had not thought about it, but when I went back to look at the story again I realized this may be one of those many instances when an enthusiastic songwriter unintentionally distorted the biblical text. There are three harbors…

Normally, when I read pieces on the woes of church denominations I toss them into the “ain’t it awful” stack. After all, have we seen any articles lately on denominations growing or re-inventing themselves? I don’t recall seeing any of them used as illustrations in “Good To Great” or “Where Good Ideas Come From.” Just the opposite. Growing numbers of observers believe denominations are going the way of once-thriving organizations like TWA, Montgomery Ward, General Foods and RCA. Having outlived their purpose, they are institutions where ideas go to retire. So, I was not surprised when I read the recent article in Christianity Today on the new president of the…

I don’t think there is a topic more widely discussed and fretted about in family philanthropy than that of donor intent. Horror stories (both true and fabricated) are floated by institutions and endowments warning parents there is a high likelihood that their children will abandon their values and wishes almost as soon as both parents have been laid to rest. The classic example is that of the Ford Foundation whose trustees, according to the story, were so blatant about diverting from Henry Ford’s instructions that his son resigned from the Board in disgust, claiming the trustees had betrayed their responsibilities by funding causes that would have been abhorrent to his…