The Mary Martha Principles: Discovering Balance Between Faith and Works by Tommy Tenney

Author:Tommy Tenney
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Tags: Religion
ISBN: 9780768424409
Publisher: Destiny Image Publishers
Published: 2007-04-01T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five

CONTEMPORARY DEVOTIONAL

THOUGHTS FOR

COMPASSIONATE ACTION

Now we turn our eyes from the window of church history to look into our own living rooms, searching for contemporary ingredients to add to our recipe of compassion.

How wonderful it is to start with President George W. Bush. He has led the charge rallying the armies of compassion. His words and actions have been a great source of inspiration for many of us.

We will also blend in the writings of my good friend Bart Pierce, Dr. Marva Mitchell, and Rich Marshall. These are not just preachers of compassion. They are involved in compassionate ministry. Let their words be mixed into the fiber of your soul.

Rallying the Armies of Compassion

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH

America is rich materially, but there remains too much poverty and despair amidst abundance. Government can rally a military, but it cannot put hope in our hearts or a sense of purpose in our lives.

Government has a solemn responsibility to help meet the needs of poor Americans and distressed neighborhoods, but it does not have a monopoly on compassion. America is richly blessed by the diversity and vigor of neighborhood healers: civic, social, 105

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T h e M a r y / M a r t h a P r i n c i p l e s charitable, and religious groups. These quiet heroes lift people’s lives in ways that are beyond government’s know-how, usually on shoestring budgets, and they heal our nation’s ills one heart and one act of kindness at a time.

The indispensable and transforming work of faith-based and other charitable service groups must be encouraged. Government cannot be replaced by charities, but it can and should welcome them as partners. We must heed the growing consensus across America that successful government social programs work in fruitful partnership with community-serving and faith-based organizations—whether run by Methodists, Muslims, Mormons, or good people of no faith at all.

The paramount goal must be compassionate results, not compassionate intentions. Federal policy should reject the failed formu-la of towering, distant bureaucracies that too often prize process over performance. We must be outcome-based, insisting on success and steering resources to the effective and to the inspired.

Also, we must always value the bedrock principles of pluralism, nondiscrimination, evenhandedness and neutrality. Private and charitable groups, including religious ones, should have the fullest opportunity permitted by law to compete on a level playing field, so long as they achieve valid public purposes, like curbing crime, conquering addiction, strengthening families, and overcoming poverty.…

The Problem

Our Nation has a long and honorable commitment to assisting individuals, families, and communities who have not fully shared in America’s growing prosperity. Yet despite a multitude of programs and renewed commitments by the Federal and state governments to battle social distress, too many of our neighbors still suffer poverty and despair amidst our abundance.

Consider:

•

As many as 15 million young people are at risk of not

reaching productive adulthood—falling prey to crime,

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M a r t h a ’s R e

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