Robert Woodson to Receive 2018 Wilberforce Award Recognizing Faith that Transforms

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Today it is my privilege to announce the winner of the 2018 William Wilberforce Award—and to invite you to meet him next month.

Recently, Robert Woodson, an African-American sociologist, visited the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC. A display there, he later wrote, “stopped me in my tracks.”

The 1980s were, according to the exhibit, “years of paradox.” While many blacks pursued advanced degrees and entered the professions, others existed in poor neighborhoods filled with drugs and violence. Who or what was to blame?

The museum’s answer: Ronald Reagan, a president who cut many social programs.

Woodson doesn’t buy it. “Is it truly institutional racism and heartless policies that have resulted in conditions today?” he asks.

“If the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow laws are responsible for the decline in marriage and the rise in poverty and out-of-wedlock births in the black community,” he writes, “then why, during the Great Depression, did blacks have the highest marriage rate?”

And why, during the decades when blacks “had little political power and faced legalized discrimination, did they still make significant economic progress?”

Prior to the 1960s, Woodson writes, African Americans “tapped their internal capacity . . . Hard work, cooperation, academic performance and moral excellence were elements of a strategy to achieve.”

He points to the history of black churches and civic institutions as models of what African Americans could achieve. When denied access to banks, they built their own. When insurance companies turned them away, black churches created “burial societies” and mutual-aid societies to assist the poor.

Tragically, Woodson says, that “rich history of self-determination” was “abandoned” in the 1960s. What black America needs today, he concludes, is “a return to a culture based on self-determination, personal responsibility, and strong moral values.”

Which is why Woodson founded the Center for Neighborhood Enterprise (now known as the Woodson Center), to help the poor become self-sufficient. This is best achieved, Woodson believes, by placing control of community development, not in the hands of faraway bureaucrats, but in the hands of community leaders.

Woodson Center programs have spread all over the country, including the Violence-Free Zone, which sends young adult advisors into schools to mentor youth. When VFZ volunteers began work at one Richmond, Virginia, high school, arrests of students dropped 38 percent.

In Dallas, Woodson would report at a congressional hearing, one high school recorded 133 gang incidents before bringing in VFZ and zero the following year. Woodson Center programs have also transformed the lives of former drug addicts, prostitutes, and the homeless.

Why does Woodson succeed where so many others have failed? His answer is simple but sturdy: “Faith in God transforms the inside and that faith transforms the outside.”

For his tremendous work helping the poor and downtrodden, the Colson Center is awarding Robert Woodson the 2018 William Wilberforce Award, which recognizes those who exemplify the qualities of the British abolitionist and statesman, William Wilberforce. Wilberforce, more than any other single person, brought an end to the British slave trade and the reformation of morals in British society.

I’d like to invite you to meet Mr. Woodson at the annual Wilberforce Weekend on May 18 through 20 in Washington, DC. You’ll also hear speakers like Joni Eareckson Tada, Cheryl Bachelder, John Stonestreet, Andrew Peterson, J. Warner Wallace, and many others, including yours truly. We expect the event to sell out, so I urge you to register soon at WilberforceWeekend.org.

Robert Woodson to Receive 2018 Wilberforce Award: Recognizing Faith that Transforms

Find out more about Robert Woodson and the Woodson Center by checking out the links in our Resources section. And go to WilberforceWeekend.org to learn more and to register for this year’s Wilberforce Weekend event, May 18-20, in Washington, DC.

Resources

The Woodson Center

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Wilberforce Weekend

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Robert L. Woodson

Blackpast.org

Some of my best friends are Jewish

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“SOME OF MY BEST FRIENDS ARE JEWISH.” IT IS A PHRASE OFTEN USED BY PEOPLE TO DEFEND THEMSELVES AGAINST CHARGES THEY ARE ANTI-SEMITIC.

IN MY CASE, IT’S TRUE. SOME OF MY VERY BEST FRIENDS ARE JEWISH. I SAY THIS AMID AN INCREASE IN ANTI-SEMITISM IN AMERICA AND EUROPE. ANTI-SEMITIC INCIDENTS HAVE INCREASED BY 57 PERCENT FROM 2016 TO 2017, ACCORDING TO THE ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE.

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Alfie Evans’s—and Britain’s—Dark Hour A Life not Worth Living?

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Honestly, I’m not sure which hour is Britain’s darkest, the Blitz of 1940 or right now.

The recent blockbuster film “Darkest Hour” portrayed Winston Churchill’s gallant effort to save Britain from the Nazi war machine, as well as the evil ideology that fueled it—an ideology that destroyed human beings deemed inferior and unworthy of life.

Many forget that Hitler’s first target for extermination were individuals with disability. Sadly, even as the heroic British generation that kept the Nazis at bay ages and passes away, the British government today, through its healthcare system, is embracing the killing of innocents in a way that would make Hitler and his henchman proud.

Last summer, we told you about Charlie Gard, a British child with a rare genetic disorder. A London hospital decided, with the backing of the British government, that his case was hopeless, and despite his parents’ wishes, that he should be left to die.

Charlie did die after the hospital withdrew mechanical ventilation.

And today, Alfie Evans is a 23-month-old toddler with a “mystery illness” that has left him in “a semi-vegetative state.” Some suspect that Alfie suffers from the same neurological disorder that afflicted Charlie Gard. Now, while that’s speculation, Alfie definitely has something else in common with Charlie: Doctors and the hospital have given up on him as well, and they’re in an indecent hurry to see him die.

And believe me, “indecent” is putting it charitably, especially when you consider that, like Charlie, Alfie’s parents wish to assume full financial and legal responsibly for Alfie’s treatment. In fact, the entire nation of Italy has, once again, lined up to help, even granting Alfie citizenship after a British court upheld the hospital’s decision to withdraw life support.

In fact, there’s “a specially-equipped plane from the Italian defense ministry . . . on standby to fly to Britain to pick up [Alfie] if he is released.” The Vatican’s pediatric hospital Bambino Gesu—“Baby Jesus” in Italian—has offered to treat Alfie at no charge. Since it’s fair to say that the Catholic Church knows a thing or two about medical care, and since allowing Alfie to get on the Italian government plane won’t cost the British treasury a single pence, this isn’t a difficult decision: Let Alfie Go!

But like Pharaoh, the more heartless and absurd Britain looks by its insistence to end Alfie’s life, the more obstinate British officials get.

Why? Oh, you know… all that stuff we’ve heard before by those who legalize killing in various forms: they’re “acting in Alfie’s best interests.” They don’t want to “prolong his suffering.” They’re not being callous, they’re being “compassionate.”

Their compassion is killing Alfie—who still clings to life as I record this commentary.

This nonsense brings to mind something that Flannery O’Connor wrote: “When tenderness is detached from the source of tenderness,” that is, Christ, “its logical outcome is terror. It ends in forced-labor camps and in the fumes of the gas chamber.”

As Rod Dreher rightly pointed out, this isn’t the stuff of a post-Christian nation; it’s the stuff of a “post-humane” nation. And that’s always the order this goes. A nation that rejects God untethers itself and its institutions from the only stable, solid, and trustworthy grounding for human dignity. So, we’ll continue to see in the post-Christian west post-humane things in all kinds of ways.

Ideas have consequences, and bad ideas have victims: Charlie and Alfie won’t be the only ones.

Please pray with me that Britain changes its mind before it’s too late for Alfie and his family, and that God would use His church to dispel the darkness descending on the Sceptered Isle.

Alfie Evans’s—and Britain’s—Dark Hour: A Life not Worth Living?

Please pray, as John has urged, that Britain’s government has a change of heart in this life-and-death situation–for the sake of Alfie and his family, but also for the sake of humanity and human dignity.

Resources

Let Alfie Evans Go to Rome

Editors | National Review | April 25, 2018

Alfie Evans Foreshadows a Dark American Future

David French | National Review | April 26, 2018

Better Feminism

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Many tributes to Former First Lady (and First Mom) Barbara Bush describe her 1990 Wellesley graduation speech, which placed her, at least according to the Washington Post, “at the center of a national debate about the nature of feminism that would continue for decades.”

Feminists claim their movement is about making choices, but 150 Wellesley students protested that Mrs. Bush had “gained recognition through the achievements of her husband.” Not quite the Wellesley way.

In the end, she wowed the crowd, telling them that “you are a human being first and those human connections — with spouses, with children, with friends — are the most important investments you will ever make.”

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I need dog like this what about you ?

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Shults the Next Sully?

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First Sully, now Shults.

When Airline pilot “Sully” Sullenberger safely landed a doomed US Air jet on the Hudson River without engine power, he became a national hero. That was several years ago.

Last week, Southwest pilot Tammie Jo Shults safely landed a Boeing 737 after its left engine blew, sending shrapnel through a passenger window, shredding part of the wing, and leaving the plane depressurized. Tragically, a passenger perished.

Shults, a former Navy fighter pilot, kept her cool despite the chaos, safely and quickly piloting through a descent of 32,500 feet to an emergency landing in Philadelphia.

“Passengers hailed the 56-year-old for her ‘nerves of steel,’” WORLD magazine wrote, “but friends who go to church with Shults …” weren’t surprised. “That’s just Tammie Jo,” one said.

When Shults landed the plane, she texted a friend, “God is good.”

Yes, He is a good God, and Tammie Jo Shults is a heckuva good pilot.

Even Sully said he was “impressed.”

For more on faith and culture, come to BreakPoint.org.

Abnormal America

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Is what is happening these days in America normal? I doubt very few people would answer in the affirmative. But you would probably get different answers depending on a person’s political persuasion.

Republicans might say America got off track when the Supreme Court nominations of Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas got so political. They might point to the actions of the previous president and the development of a swamp in Washington. Democrats might talk about the vast right-wing conspiracy against the Clintons and the elections “stolen” from Al Gore and Hillary Clinton.

But as Christians, we should look at the harsh reality that America has not been normal for a much longer time. For example, since the 1973 Supreme Court Roe v. Wade decision, there have been about 60 million abortions. That is the current population of Italy.

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The right to die culture and what are you doing

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A question Joni Eareckson Tada has been asking over the years is “When Is It Right to Die?” That is the title of her book that has recently been updated. She understands this issue for many reasons. One of the most significant is the fact that she has spent more than 50 years in her wheelchair.

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A dog honors his owner by going to church even death won’t stop him

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Professor: Why Are You a Christian? – When Challenged, Can You Defend Your Faith in Christ

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