The Olasky Manifesto

Marvin Olasky is the editor-in-chief of “World Magazine,” among many other things, including one of the foundational thinkers of welfare reform and the one who coined the phrase “compassionate conservatism, by which he meant having churches and other non-governmental groups step in to help people instead of leaving all that to the government. He has recently written a treatise on how Christian conservatives can get their act together to influence culture and politics in a more positive way. It’s called Add, Don’t Subtract.

He argues that Christians should not try to impose theocratic solutions, but that instead they need to rebuild the Reagan coalition of social conservativism with small-government, pro-freedom libertarianism. Christians should not come across as trying to subtract freedoms (or options, or people included), but rather as trying to add freedoms (and options and people included). Read the Olasky Manifesto (my term, not his) and tell me what you think.