Issues, Etc., the War on Poverty, and Wittenberg Academy

Thanks to the world's greatest Christian talk radio program, Issues, Etc. (especially the Rev. Todd Wilken, the host, and Jeff Schwarz, the producer - along with Justin Benson, the president of Wittenberg Academy, who has the idea to have me on the program today to address the 50th anniversary of the War on Poverty).

It was, as always, great fun.  You can listen here.

There were a few more points I had hoped to make during the course of the interview, but didn't get around to it.

One quote from president Lyndon Johnson's "War on Poverty Speech" from 1964 that I found interesting was this: "The war on poverty is not a struggle simply to support, to make them dependent on the generosity of others."  But this is exactly what we've seen happen: generational dependence.

I was also hoping to link to the following video which demonstrates the difference between voluntary, private charity - such as works of mercy provided by churches - vs. compulsory government programs such as the War on Poverty.

Finally, I was hoping to mention Lutheran Church Charities and Orphan Grain Train - whose nimble and responsive actions after Hurricane Katrina were incredibly helpful to the group of us Lutheran pastors and laymen who were working at the site of the 17th Street Canal breach (providing satellite communications, boats, ATVs, and other equipment) while the lumbering dinosaur of bureaucratic government was nowhere to be found.  Supporting LCC and OGT are two examples of how the Church can continue to serve our neighbors apart from the apparatus of the state.

Thanks again to Issues, Etc. and also to Wittenberg Academy's Justin and Jocelyn Benson (and congratulations on the occasion of the birth of their daughter Miram today!).