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The Purpose of the Book 

In Same Kind of Different As Me, Ron Hall, a wealthy art dealer, and Denver Moore, a modern-day slave and homeless vagabond, share their stories of their past and how God brought them into deep friendship. While very different, both chronicle the journey from brokenness to restoration. The beautiful journey of their friendship proves the power and necessity of bridging social gaps because every human is made in the image of God, needs redemption, and has value to contribute.

The Perspective 

The story begins with Denver, a black man who grew up on a 1950s Louisiana cotton plantation riddled with racial injustice and prejudice–so much so that he never attended school. Its oppressive sharecropping system kept the poor, poor, and the rich, very rich. 

Tragedy after tragedy took its toll and finally led him to hop a train out of Louisiana with less than $20 in his pocket. Eventually, he settled in Fort Worth. With limited resources and no opportunity for education or to learn a trade, he turned to a life on the streets, sometimes making poor choices. Denver’s journey illustrates that poverty is often complex. It can result from foolish actions, systemic injustice, or a mixture of both. 

Ron also had humble beginnings. His father was an alcoholic, so for all intents and purposes, his mother raised him. Most summers, he picked cotton on his granddaddy’s farm until he left for college at Texas Christian University (TCU). While there, he met and married his wife, Deborah and upon graduation, began a career in investment banking. In his spare time, he bought and sold paintings, a side hustle that became an extremely lucrative career. After making twice as much selling art as an investment banker, he set out on his own as a full-time art dealer. 

Ron and Deborah came to know the Lord early in their marriage. Filled with zeal and passion for living a life worthy of the Lord, she volunteered at a homeless mission in Fort Worth, dragging her begrudging husband along for the ride. They met Denver, who by that time was homeless with a rough exterior and a heart hardened by years of grief. Neither man was open to a friendship at the start. But through love, persistence, and encouragement, they developed a relationship that has lasted a lifetime. Their unlikely friendship was nothing short of a divine miracle.

The Key Points 

Same Kind of Different As Me paints the ultimate picture of how you can’t judge a book by its cover. In other words, there is hurt and brokenness in everyone’s story. Often, it’s displayed in appearance and behavior –which tempts others to draw conclusions that may not be accurate. Denver struggled with making snap judgments about the rich; in the same way, Ron wrestled with prejudice towards homeless people.

Building a genuine relationship is the only way to avoid that mistake. That means looking past the way they look or act to understand them. That’s how Deborah saw Denver. She quickly learned, “There was so much more below the surface image: dysfunction and addiction, yes. But also gifts–like love, faith, and wisdom- that lay hidden like pearls waiting only to be discovered, polished, and set.” She kept encouraging Ron to see those things in Denver–and eventually, he did. 

Denver was indeed a hidden pearl. Although materially poor, he had vast wisdom and experienced life in a way Ron never could. As the two men grew to know each other, Ron learned that poverty runs deeper than a lack of possessions or resources. Ultimate poverty is separation from our Creator because of sin. 

By this definition, even the materially wealthy can be spiritually impoverished. Ron says, “I have learned that even with my $500 European-designer bifocals, I cannot see into a person’s heart to know his spiritual condition. All I can do is tell the jagged tale of my own spiritual journey and declare that my life has been the better for having followed Christ.” In other words, while our stories may look very different, we all start with a jagged tale. And while many of us will never be wealthy, our lives can be rich through God’s grace. 

Denver and Ron’s relationship is living evidence we all have more in common than we think– and every person has something to teach–and learn. As Denver writes, “The truth about it is, whether we is rich or poor or somethin’ in between, this earth ain’t no final restin place. So in a way, we is all homeless–just workin’ our way toward home.”

Details We Love

This true story is proof that a flourishing life means more than meeting physical needs. It takes deep personal connections that inspire and equip others to live the life God intended. As Ron shares at the end of the book, “Denver told me that faith-based organizations, government programs, and well-meaning individuals fed him and kept him alive for all those years on the streets, but it was the love of Miss Debbie that caused him to make a change in his life.” 

We also love how Ron and Denver’s friendship illustrates reciprocity; modeling accountability and trust by both men. Denver was empowered to live a productive life off the streets, ministering to the homeless because Ron and Deborah reached into his life “with courage and faced me when I was dangerous…” He told them, “You loved me for who I was on the inside, the person God meant for me to be, the one that had gotten lost for a while on some ugly roads in life.” 

The flip side is Denver used the courage he gained to help face “some ugly roads in [his] life.” In the end, he helped rescue Ron from a life of hopeless grief.

Considerations 

Readers should be prepared for some course language and hard topics such as racism, prejudice, alcoholism, and abuse. 

Who Should Read This?

Same Kind of Different As Me contains a convicting message that compassionately examines those on the outskirts of society, helping the reader see them as individuals with purpose. While this story will bring hope and challenge every member of the Church, it is especially ideal for those on the frontlines of poverty alleviation ministry. 

Same Kind of Different as Me can be purchased at Amazon. If you purchase the book through this link, True Charity will earn a small amount as an Amazon Associate.

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The Purpose of the Book 

Agency, by Ian Rowe, focuses on how to give children the best opportunity for a flourishing life. It analyzes two competing visions of success (individual grit vs. systemic redress of inequity) and finds both inadequate. Instead, Rowe charts a middle way that acknowledges the moral will of the individual and the human relationships that shape it (i.e.,family, church, school, and neighborhood).

While not explicitly about poverty alleviation, it’s filled with facts easily translatable to the topic. His analysis is nuanced, intellectually honest, and well-cited; and while his conclusions are framed to empower youth, adults can benefit as well.

The Perspective 

Rowe is a second-generation Jamaican immigrant and educator who understands the plight of the poor. He grew up in poverty in inner-city New York and has seen it through the eyes of children he’s taught. Considered an education thought leader, he currently directs a network of innovative charter schools and has worked with the American Enterprise Institute, Teach for America, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and MTV.

While Rowe implies his personal Christian faith, the book is written for a secular audience and makes a pluralistically faith-friendly case that is not explicitly Biblical.

The Key Points 

“Agency” is the missing ingredient in the lives of poor children

Agency is “the force of free will, when it is governed by morally discerned choices (pg. 20).” It isn’t just the ability to act. It’s consciousness of that ability combined with the moral direction that guides it. In other words, you know what you should do and that your actions will make a difference. It may not be sufficient to accomplish everything you want, but it’s necessary to accomplish anything worth achieving.

Rowe contends the political left places too much emphasis on external forces that restrict one’s ability to thrive (i.e., the “blame-the-system” mindset). This perpetuates a victim mentality that condemns its adherents to a life of rage and self-perpetuating despair. 

He challenges the political right’s contention that youth in poverty are victims of their choices (i.e., committing crime, having children out of wedlock, dropping out of high school, and the like). He points out that pundits telling them to demonstrate more grit and character are calling for them to draw on reserves of character which they were never granted. Agency is a gift bestowed by loving families and communities. Youth in poverty are not given this gift which explains why young people in poverty make disproportionately poor choices. Although a few find it on their own, the majority never unearth it.

Agency also offers a solution that runs deeper than redistributing economic opportunity. Rowe believes the proper source of agency originates in local institutions that raise a child: family, neighborhood, school, church, and other elements of community life.

The decline of healthy families is a driver and symptom of a lack of agency

Rowe didn’t always believe agency was a critical ingredient to young people’s success. Early in his career, he focused on educational mechanics as a possible path to opportunity. 

Two important experiences changed his mind. First, he realized data-driven, billionaire-funded philanthropy failed to improve education outcomes, pointing out that children needed solutions that couldn’t fit into the school day. Second, while running charter schools in a rough Bronx neighborhood, he discovered a mobile DNA testing unit emblazoned with the moniker “Who’s Your Daddy?” The neighborhood’s “ho-hum” acceptance of this service jarred him into realizing that disintegrated family ties made classroom and eventual career success almost impossible.

The book goes on to unpack the alarming trends, causes, and implications of that level of family breakdown. “The research is clear and widely accepted: single parenthood among young adults is one of the strongest predictors of child poverty, school suspensions, incarceration, and educational disadvantage (pg. 88).”

National leaders of many stripes have tried to acknowledge that. Unfortunately, they’ve been booed into silence by “tolerant” elites who eschew any advice that sounds judgemental. Ironically, they practice what they criticize by adopting conventional family structures in their own lives.

On a more encouraging note, Rowe unpacks the success of a national campaign to reduce teen pregnancy initiated by President Clinton. Funded almost entirely by the private sector and fueled by wide media attention, it appeared to make a very sizable dent in the teen pregnancy rate over the next decade. Unfortunately, many teens who delayed pregnancy ended up single mothers by age twenty. So, while the campaign suggested a powerful guiding coalition can affect a deliberate cultural shift, it also showed the inadequacy of not directly addressing non-marital births.

The FREE framework is the key to instilling agency in the next generation 

While family is central to the formation of agency, it doesn’t exist in a vacuum. For maximum impact, Rowe outlines four key points of public emphasis that should be promoted at all levels of society. These elements will increase agency in children and give young people their brightest possible future. The elements of the “FREE” acronym are:

Family: Children should be literate about the success sequence (i.e. graduate high school, get a job, get married before children) and the impact it has on one’s economic success. They should understand that while they have no choice about the family they are from, they can control the family they form (two committed parents, then children). 

Religion: Religious communities have the power to speak with the moral authority other institutions lack. All levels of government should pay homage to faith leaders and actively include them in public coalitions and conversations. Children should be instructed in their religious traditions and be informed about the positive impact faith has on life outcomes.

Education: Primary and secondary schools should focus on increasing academic achievement with particular attention paid to the gap between each student and proficiency standards for their grade level (rather than gaps between racial groups). For instance, many schools decry the “inequity” of black children who underperform their white counterparts–even though those white students only perform at 40% of grade level. “Raising” black children to 40% proficiency would be a hollow victory because then both groups would be left with 60% of their students below grade level. Rowe advocates bridging the “gap to 100” through national school choice, expanding content-rich curricula, and replacing racial affirmative action with income-based preferences in admission.
 

Entrepreneurship: Stewardship, initiative, and selfless service are the defining terms of the entrepreneurial spirit. They apply to everyone in the workforce (whether they start a business or not). Thus, they should be taught to all children through entrepreneurial activities like self-reliance and micro-investment clubs.

Details We Love

Ian Rowe shares our desire to revitalize civil society, not only as a way to uplift the poor but to build a flourishing life for all. He challenges left and right-wing reductionism, offering instead complex diagnoses skillfully distilled into a compelling vision for how children should be taught; and concrete ideas for policymakers, philanthropists, and educators. It’s full of innovators’ anecdotes and enough charts and graphs to give you confidence he hasn’t conflated facts with opinion. In short, Agency will significantly enhance your understanding of poverty and its solutions.

Considerations 

Depending on one’s faith orientation, some may find it too religious; others may be dissatisfied it doesn’t explore God’s Word enough. By the same token, its bi-partisan challenges may make party loyalists uncomfortable. In the end, we think those tensions make Agency a book worth sharing widely. It stakes its claim to the shrinking territory known as “common ground.”

Who Should Read This?

Agency will be a valued resource for anyone looking for a quick summary of the history and trends among America’s poor. Those working with youth will find its focus on education especially useful. The reader should be aware that while the principles of the FREE framework apply to all levels of intervention, it emphasizes big-picture, national policy solutions rather than micro-interventions to be used by teachers or case managers.  Therefore, it’s best suited for those seeking to “zoom out” from their neighborhood to see the bigger picture.

Agency: The Four Point Plan (F.R.E.E.) for ALL Children to Overcome the Victimhood Narrative and Discover Their Pathway to Power can be purchased at Amazon. If you purchase the book through this link, True Charity will earn a small amount as an Amazon Associate.

JOEY OTT
Network Manager
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The Purpose of the Book

As a child, Pastor Tom Nelson wrestled with the disconnect of growing up in a materially impoverished reality while pursuing a flourishing faith. As an adult, he became a pastor and realized that economics and faith should go hand in hand in the pursuit of human flourishing and the pursuit of loving our neighbors. Nelson believes we are called to be stewards of God’s creation and that it’s important to learn stewardship over all areas of life. This book aims to provide a space for those conversations.

The Perspective

In Nelson’s words, “I am delighted that so many have recently written on the deep and significant connections between faith and work, making the case that our individual work truly matters to God and to our neighbors. Yet while our personal vocations do, of course, matter a great deal, they are by no means the entire story. Our work always takes place within larger economic realities; we are part of a much bigger story.”

Often there is a large separation between conversations of faith and conversations of economics in what the role of money, work, and free markets have in the Christian faith. But shouldn’t these go hand in hand? As a pastor, Nelson has conversations with many people in his congregation asking how they should navigate the economic realities of capacity, wealth, and value, and he guides them with biblical principles.

The Key Points

This book reflects the complexity of human flourishing, generosity, and poverty, and how to understand those from a biblical perspective.

1. The Pursuit of Human Flourishing

“We were created with community in mind. We were created to flourish, to be fruitful, and to add value to others in the world.”

Nelson talks about the pursuit of human flourishing as a pursuit of overall well-being, peace, and joy in every aspect of life. We often see this expressed through healthy relationships with others and God, as well as the opportunity to create value for ourselves and others. It’s important when trying to help people flourish that we remember both how vital relationships are to every human being and that a flourishing life is a fruitful life that in turn aids in the flourishing of others. 

Nelson focuses a lot of attention on the “Sunday-to-Monday” gap. He says, “I believe the wind of the Spirit is blowing across our nation and the globe, stirring up churches and church leaders to strategically address the Sunday-to-Monday gap, to more passionately and intentionally bring faith, work, and economics together in a seamless fabric of missional faithfulness and fruitfulness.”

2. Generosity

“Stewardship is not a subcategory of the Christian life. Stewardship is the Christian life.”

This book points to three main concepts to consider with your generosity.

In this book, Nelson encourages the church to live with an understanding that God is the giver of all good things and has entrusted us to be good stewards of creation. The author emphasizes that God puts a radically important calling on our financial decisions to reflect and honor that calling of stewardship. Consequently, we should be quick to consider how we can support God-honoring work, whether that be your church or a local gospel mission. We should make these things priority number one of our budgets, and not an afterthought.

Finally, Nelson alludes to the concept of subsidiarity in his belief that investment in the local church is the best route toward human flourishing: “[L]ocal churches are able to establish an ongoing faithful presence in a community that transcends any one individual. This faithful presence allows for the continued fulfillment of the church’s mandate to be salt and light in a particular cultural context.” Solutions closer to home provide a personal relationship that large-scale solutions simply can’t replicate.

3. Poverty

“The image of a common table should shape our engagement with the materially impoverished. There are no vertical relationships at a common table, only horizontal interactions. As image bearers of God, humans are to extend neighborly love on a level playing field—person to person, not helper to helped.”

Poverty is so much more complex than a lack of resources, so the solutions and paths to aid those in poverty are much more complex than gifting resources. There can often be a poverty of spirit, a poverty of relationships, a poverty of direction. These problems can’t be solved by material means, so we must look to different avenues if we want to love neighbors who are experiencing poverty.

Nelson observes that, “Short-term, quick-fix solutions to poverty may alleviate guilt or overcome initial inertia, but they do not work when it comes to addressing the complex and systemic dimensions of poverty. Often quick fixes do more harm than good.”

Details We Love

Nelson understands the complexity of poverty and communicates well that complex issues take complex, long-term solutions. He believes in a local church solution that affirms the dignity of those being helped. His robust conception of human flourishing is not merely material, but The Precognizes that flourishing comes from meaningful relationship, meaningful work, and peace and hope sourced in God. 

We also appreciate the way Nelson encourages the reader toward generosity. The reality is that not everyone has the time and talent to serve people in poverty as a vocation, but anyone can take part in effective and uplifting solutions by generously investing in effective churches and charities. Nelson’s conception of stewardship makes readers account for their allocation of finances, relationships, work, and time.

Considerations

As a pastor, Tom Nelson is writing much of this book in how economics relates to the church. However, nonprofit workers and those running outreach missions can also benefit from these lessons. Though secular organizations are not the primary focus of the book, a lot of sound economic insight can be applied to determine the relative efficacy of secular organizations. 

Also important to consider is that while Nelson encourages a heart of generosity, he does not go into detail on how to give in a way that empowers the individual being served; his primary response is to support the local church. He briefly touches on creating value through exchange but leaves out the importance of challenge in a charitable context, as his primary focus is not developmental charity work.

Who Should Read This?

This book is written for Christians and church leaders wanting to ask questions and be advised on how to navigate the world of economics. It equips pastors to lead their congregations in God-honoring stewardship. It would also benefit donors who want a deeper understanding of how to steward the finances that God has entrusted to them. 

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The Purpose of the Book

Alienated America starts off as a reporter’s search to answer a fascinating question about civil society (i.e. institutions of voluntary associations like families, churches, clubs, and charities). On the surface, the question seems to be political, but once you get past the first few chapters, you realize that the political question at issue is only a door to a broader social problem.

In the presidential primaries for the 2016 election, Donald Trump asserted that “sadly, the American Dream is dead.” This claim didn’t resonate with the majority of Americans or even the majority of politically conservative Americans. Still, it struck a strong chord with a vocal group that propelled him to the top of the Republican ticket. Tim Carney sets out to answer why these working-class people and their white-collar next-door neighbors feel like a flourishing life is so far out of reach that a pronouncement of its death struck them as obvious.

The evidence he uncovers goes deeper than simple partisan or economic narratives to deeper forces weakening civil society and the poor most of all.

The Perspective

Carney is a reporter with a genuine curiosity who values both data and context. He not only cites scientific studies, but he sits with alienated people in bars and diners to learn their stories. Though the book is more academic than religious, Carney is a dedicated Catholic, and his faith comes through even as he pays homage to other strains of Christian and Abrahamic thought. While his political views are also conservative, he is heterodox enough to question unintended side effects of free market processes like economic centralization. He generally sticks close to data and addresses possible objections well, rather than generating a work of unsubstantiated opinion.

The Key Points

1. Civil society has broken down among most of the working class

Carney starts by laying out a version of the American Dream based on more than material prosperity. He frames a broader vision of flourishing involving a vibrant community and strong family and shows that these things still exist in pockets of America. 

Unfortunately, these relational networks are in steep decline, not so much among the college-educated elite, but among the working class. In rust belt towns, Appalachia, and inner cities, families are smaller and more broken, churches are empty, PTAs are unattended, and the towns have long since canceled their annual Independence Day parades. So-called “deaths of despair” from suicide and drug overdoses are reaching record highs in these communities.

“The good life” is harder to come by than it has been, but not for simple economic reasons. Objectively, many of these places where people are so dissatisfied with life and so cut off from their neighbors are economically better off than a generation or two ago. The people convinced that “the American Dream is dead” generally make more money than their parents, but they are also isolated from community and more lonely than ever.

We no longer feel like we can make a difference in the world because the easiest place to make a difference is in our own communities. When no one is asking you to sit on a local park planning committee or coach tee-ball, we often retreat to bickering about national issues on social media, where our opinions drive strife but not impact.

2. Natural forces and policy choices drive this alienation

Carney evidences numerous contributors to growing isolation. Most of these generate “vicious cycles,” which means isolation increases them, and they increase isolation. It’s difficult to tease their exact magnitudes apart, but together, they are certainly a toxic brew for civil society.

Market forces: Economies of scale raise living standards by making commerce more centralized, efficient, and affordable. This economic approach has the unintended side   effect of making it less personal as well. “Third spaces” like the corner market and drug store soda fountains are less common, less frequented, and less likely to be within walking distance of your house. Rising standards of living provide access to more immersive and impersonal entertainment. Gig services like ridesharing and dog walking mean we no longer have to ask a neighbor for a favor.

The creative destruction of manufacturing brought on by automation and competition benefits the nation on average but often leaves multi-generational scars in communities built around defunct factories. Even if the children of the factory workers move off to the big city and find better work than their parents, the community itself withers and loses what history and tradition it once had. In Carney’s view, these are mostly unfortunate by-products of a largely effective economic system, which should be mitigated rather than eliminated by some other economic regime.

Technology: America has been a highly individualistic society since its inception, but it was historically balanced by tight-knit communities. In more recent times, technology has freed people from constraints that locked them into local life. 

Better technology for travel and communication makes it easier for people to follow economic opportunities and move frequently. The internet allows people to participate in faux communities around hyper-specific interests, which provide some of the appeal of a flesh-and-blood community but lack most of the benefits. 

Birth control and abortion made the birth of a child a medical choice for a mother, and subsequently turned marriage into a social choice for the father. Out-of-wedlock conception didn’t change dramatically among the poor with the advent of contraceptives. What changed was the decline in “shotgun weddings” prior to birth.  

Government policy: Policy choices about neighborhood and community design have made them less walkable and more drivable, minimizing the chance that you will ever meet someone you know when you’re out on the town. Federal government promotion of home ownership and local zoning laws designed to keep neighborhoods low-density have helped make our homes and yards larger and us less likely to ever meet our neighbors. Onerous local or state regulations make it more difficult to donate bagels to a homeless shelter or open a “mom and pop” business that can anchor a neighborhood. Centralized welfare has made it easier to provide for the needy with minimum human interaction and crowded out the need for relational private charities and church communities. 

Rising secularization: Concurrent with the growth of government in providing services formerly provided by religious institutions, is a growing insistence that religion be excised from the public square altogether. Catholic hospitals are sued when they refuse to perform abortions and Colorado bakers are sued when they refuse to service same-sex wedding ceremonies. 

Religious instruction or even acknowledgment in public schools is inconceivable. Religious practice has been exiled to the inner sanctum of private life and anyone who is unwilling to violate their religious beliefs is in growing danger of losing their livelihood. 

Where public leaders should be celebrating the central role of religion in civil society, they are in fact engineering its decline.

3. The secret to restoring civil society among the poor is restoring the church.

While civil society has collapsed in much of the US, it is still vibrant in two types of communities.

The first is the communities populated by the “elites.” Carney documents how the 2,000 residents of the village Chevy Chase, Maryland, are able to staff ten volunteer committees for the local government, plus numerous clubs, and a robust outdoor recreation scene for its families. People know their neighbors in Chevy Chase, and no one there is bowling alone. Unfortunately, for the ability to include the poor in this robust community, the median home price is $1.5 million, and the average annual income is $420,000. Wealth and education at this level is simply not a viable solution to curb the alienation the working class faces. 

The second, and more scalable solution, is communities populated by the strongly religious. In towns like Oostburg, Wisconsin, the ethnic Dutch and German protestants worship together, hang out at the local diner together, and assist each other in raising their families. The local school plays and concerts are packed to overflowing because even non-parents show up to see “their kids.” They have significantly higher marriage rates than the national average, but the median home price is only $148,000, and the average household income is $58,000–on par with the national average.

This vibrant community isn’t a feature unique to reformed Protestants; Carney documents robust civil society in dozens of communities with religious affiliations ranging from Latter-day Saints to Orthodox Jews to Muslims. Furthermore, this isn’t a new phenomenon. In America, the church has always been the central organizational institution of civil society. It is a training ground and launching point for other voluntary associations as well. Many charities, sports leagues, and city beautification projects originate with conversations in church foyers.

Most importantly, religious communities don’t require you to be wealthy. The wealthy have many ways to access human connection; the poor primarily have the church.

Details We Love

Market advocates often point out that the standard of living has increased for the American poor in the past 50 years. When properly adjusted for inflation, shrinking household sizes, technological innovation, and taxes/transfers, we find that the poor in America today have higher incomes and can afford more goods per person than ever before. However, if we end the analysis there, it seems like the War on Poverty is on a glide path to sure victory, which provides no explanation for rising rates of deaths of despair. 

Carney’s critical addition to this conversation is that while a working-class man is more likely to have air conditioning and a large-screen TV than a generation ago, he is also more likely to be sitting at home alone watching it than a generation ago. His counterpart from the past was more likely to be sitting at a church picnic with his wife and two kids. We’ve figured out reliable institutions to improve our economy (e.g. property rights and trade), but have abandoned reliable institutions to improve our relationships (e.g. marriage, extended family, church, and volunteerism).

In adding this to the conversation, Carney reminds us that “the good life” isn’t just about stuff; it’s about relationships. The materially poor are more relationally poor than at any time in living memory. If the poor are more likely to have food and less likely to have friends than at any time in recorded American history, our charitable interventions should clearly be food co-ops rather than drive-through food distribution.

Carney explicitly talks about subsidiarity, a guiding principle that we agree is essential to navigating the overlapping roles of family, community, church, and government.

Considerations

Carney believes the alienated, unchurched working class and their middle-income neighbors from their broken communities rallied around Trump’s candidacy. He documents that Trump was soundly rejected by the tight-knit religious communities that Carney upholds as ideal. Given the two-party system, most of these politically conservative locales overcame their distaste for Trump in the primaries in time for the general election. In Carney’s words, “Secularization gave us Trump.” Regardless of whether you agree with the connections Carney draws between the sociological phenomenon of alienation and the rise of Donald Trump, he evidences the social change itself quite well, and this is the point we find most interesting to the effective charity movement.

Carney also admits he has a difficult time making concrete recommended solutions for the significant problem he has unearthed. However, we think that a good grasp of the problem is an important first step.

Who Should Read This?

While political sociology books aren’t for everyone, this one is very accessible and unpacks a fundamental shift in American life that is often missing from our national conversation about the poor. Effective charity classics, like When Helping Hurts, lay the theoretical groundwork for why relationships are so important in a flourishing life, and for the poor in particular. This book provides a jarring description of their current situation and puts flesh on a vision of what is possible in 21st Century America.

Leaders who want to be able to effectively articulate the dominant problem the American poor face should add this to their reading list.

“Alienated America” can be purchased on Amazon. If you purchase the book through this link, True Charity will earn a small amount as an Amazon Associate.

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The Purpose of the Book

This field guide aims to uncover the role and contributions of Christians serving the poor through business and economic development referred to as “enterprise solutions to poverty (ES2P).” Because “despite its many contributions to date, the full potential of the Christian community in the enterprise space is still largely untapped. The Christian mainstream is still largely beholden to a charity mindset and a relief model of care that makes enterprise and economic development approaches less compelling or even imaginable.”

The Perspective

The primary authors, Amy Sherman and Josh Yates, have decades of experience in Christian poverty reduction with a developmental lens. However, rather than lean primarily on their own insights, they synthesize the perspectives of the diverse people who make up the ES2P field. They survey and interview people with a wide range of theological and political beliefs, which may differ in their diagnosis of the problems but largely agree on the solutions.

The Key Points

History

The work begins with a historical overview of Christian contributions to ES2P stretching back to the middle ages. Benevolent Catholic pawn shops offered low interest loans in the 1500’s. Methodist businessman Arthur Guinness offered exceptional working conditions for employees of his breweries in the 1700’s. And faith-based community development corporations strove to improve conditions for African-Americans during the Civil Rights era. Other historical Christian models include microfinance, credit unions, mutual benefit societies, community land trusts, and economic co-ops.

From this rich tradition of serving the poor through business, emerges a dynamic modern landscape of free-enterprise Christians.

Mapping the Field

The authors divide the enterprise solutions field into three segments: Entrepreneurs, Investors, and Capacity-Building Organizations. They provide numerous examples, as well as key trends, insights, and recommendations for each sector. Each segment is also rich with case studies, survey results, and human stories.

1) Entrepenurs 

Entrepreneurial Organizations work directly with the poor to provide them with better paths to employment, business creation, and equity ownership. Note that this definition includes all front-line poverty-fighting organizations and is broader than the conventional definition of entrepreneur. Their models include social purpose businesses, earn-it models, work and entrepreneurship training programs, matched savings programs, and community development corporations, which are locally controlled developers seeking the improvement of a neighborhood for its existing residents, among others.

Trends & Insights: Interest in social entrepreneurship is rapidly expanding and Christians are becoming more involved in the field. Books like When Helping Hurts have accelerated the interest. Participants have a wide range of theological and political perspectives and have mixed opinions on modern capitalism. However, they agree on a holistic definition of poverty, the importance of opportunity, and the dignity of work. They reject the idea that the economy is a “fixed pie” that can only be redistributed.

Recommendations: Church leaders should preach and teach that care for the poor is central to a Christian’s responsibility and leverage congregational assets to build effective outlets for this duty. They should shift their mission funding from income-supplementing strategies to wealth-building strategies.

Domestically, they should explore the promise of wealth-protecting strategies like community land trusts and economic cooperatives. Entrepreneurs should redouble efforts to measure spiritual and social returns.

2) Investors

Investors are Christians who finance entrepreneurs and existing businesses that serve the poor, expecting a joint financial and spiritual return. These investors move beyond the “do no harm” approach of socially responsible investing to an “impact investing” mindset. Their platforms include specialized mutual funds, equity crowdfunding, and solo accredited investors.

Trends & Insights: Interest in impact investing is increasing among Christians but is far from dominant. Christian investors tend to prioritize spiritual returns over social or financial returns. There are few agreed-upon ways to measure spiritual impact, and measuring social impact is still a new concept.

Recommendations: Church leaders should teach that stewardship encompasses “not just your charitable giving, but your full balance sheet.” They should promote ways their congregations can invest for their own futures while simultaneously building the Kingdom of God. There are over 90 investment funds that use faith-driven investing; Christians should be made aware of them.

3) Capacity builders

Capacity builders are organizations that support and coach enterprises. In some cases, they support the poor directly, such as by equipping them to start their own businesses. In other cases, they support ministries that serve the poor such as social enterprises and work training programs. Some also promote and advocate for better government policy. Examples include groups like Jobs for Life, the Chalmers Center (a True Charity partner), the Acton Institute, and the True Charity Network.

Trends & Insights: As in the other two sectors, capacity builders are also expanding rapidly. Enterprises that use capacity builders like business incubators enjoy significantly higher success rates. These incubators are more successful when they focus on “hands-on” instruction and mentoring rather than just classroom assistance. Social enterprises accomplish more social impact when they focus on growing deep roots in their communities, rather than simply scaling as quickly as possible.

Recommendations: Understand the “Redemptive Entrepreneurship” framework as a means to guide social impact. Blend charitable contributions with investment capital to increase investor returns while offsetting costs to philanthropists. Focus business incubation efforts on clear business types to achieve better results.

Barriers

The report identifies five general barriers to the growth of enterprise solutions to poverty. These include a relief-oriented mindset among congregations and nonprofits, under investment in  employment-oriented programs, and a lack of investment in medium sized enterprises (investment tends to be concentrated on micro businesses and solo entrepreneurs).

The guide also points out that businesses owned by African-Americans tend to have a more difficult time launching and expanding because they have less personal capital and less access to informal capital networks that drive the growth of small businesses.

Finally, they identify an unhelpful “two-pocket” mentality by which Christians expect solely financial returns from their investment dollars and solely social returns from their charitable dollars. While there is room for market-driven investing and philanthropy, there is also a place for “social impact investing” (consciously choosing to accept below-market rate returns in order to equip people in poverty to provide for themselves).

Since American Christians hold 22 times more in investments than they give to poverty-related charities annually, even a small shift of some of those investment dollars to enterprise solutions could have a big impact.

Details We Love

We couldn’t agree more about the problematic nature of a relief-only mindset. Many of our True Charity Network members provide developmental and enterprise-oriented solutions to poverty, such as a work shuttle, education, social enterprises, and earn-it models.

This guide analyzes how each sector measures its outcomes—a critical element of making a real difference and something we strongly encourage our members to do.

We echo the challenge to Christians to view service to the poor and marginalized as integral to their lives, not merely as an isolated fraction of their budget. It’s encouraging to learn that Christians in the past few centuries have pioneered many of the enterprise solutions in this guide. 

Considerations

The report tends to use the word “charity” as a synonym for “relief,” which we don’t think is necessary. Our conception of “charity” is broader and includes empowerment—and it isn’t new. The Jewish Rabbi Maimonedes proclaimed in the 12th century that the highest level of charity was to help someone find employment “so that he will not need to be dependent on others.”

While we agree that social impact investing can certainly generate better spiritual and social returns when done well, it’s worth noting that normal, ethical investment also generates social returns, and not necessarily at lower rates.

Traditional investments seeking the best return in increasingly trade and investment friendly regulatory environments over the past two centuries has yielded a massive reduction in global extreme poverty from 94% to 10%. The many entrepreneurs, inventors, and investors who facilitated that explosive economic growth may not have always been “socially conscious,” but their positive social impact is beyond comparison. 

We do well to recognize the benefits of the current economic system before we begin work to repair its shortcomings. Some groups interviewed in the report lament that capitalism has failed, but there is a difference between a system with flaws and a system that needs to be jettisoned. All efforts to get the hundreds of millions with wealth to more effectively aid those remaining in poverty need never to lose sight of how we arrived at our current advantageous situation. Generally speaking, Christians should be encouraged to invest more and not merely repurpose existing investments to more socially conscious ends. All ethical investing leads to positive social returns.

Who Should Read This?

This is an interesting read for Christians who want to be better stewards of their whole giving and investing portfolio. Church leaders will benefit from exposure to a wide range of models, perspectives, and frameworks to help them engage congregations on the topic. Poverty fighters may want to skim the well-structured guide and find segments and case studies similar to their line of work and adjacent models that are worth considering.

While the length of this guide is equivalent to a short book at 170 pages, it is available for free online and intended for wide distribution to promote and advance the Enterprise Solutions to Poverty field.

Enterprise Solutions to Poverty field guide can be downloaded for free at https://www.enterprisesolutionstopoverty.com.