Marvin Olasky

Marvin Olasky (born June 12, 1950) is a senior fellow of the Discovery Institute and an affiliate scholar at the Acton Institute.

He also chairs the Zenger House Foundation, serves as a Zenger Prize judge, and is the author of 29 books.

He graduated from Newton High School (now Newton North High School) in 1968 and from Yale University in 1971 with a B.A. in American studies.

He became an atheist in adolescence and a Marxist in college, ultimately joining the Communist Party USA in 1972.

Olasky married and divorced during this period and, according to Olasky, broke each of the Ten Commandments except "Thou shalt not kill".

He left the Communist Party late in 1973 and, in 1976, became a Christian after reading the New Testament and several Christian authors.

In 1976, he earned his Ph.D. in American Culture at the University of Michigan.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Olasky edited the 16-book Turning Point: A Christian Worldview Declaration series with Herbert Schlossberg, director of Howard Ahmanson Jr..'s Fieldstead Institute, which privately funded the series.

Olasky was a professor at the University of Texas at Austin from 1983 to 2007, provost of The King's College in New York City from 2007 to 2011, and Patrick Henry College's distinguished chair in journalism and public policy from 2011 to 2019.

He joined World Magazine in 1990 and became its editor in 1994 and its editor-in-chief in 2001.

Earlier, he was a reporter at the Boston Globe and a speechwriter at the Du Pont Company.

The book, an overview of poverty-fighting in America from colonial times to the 1990s, argues that private individuals and organizations, particularly Christian churches, have a responsibility to care for the poor and contends that challenging personal and spiritual help, common until the 1930s, was more effective than the government welfare programs of recent decades.

Olasky argues that government programs are ineffective because they are disconnected from the poor, while private charity has the power to change lives because it allows for a personal connection between giver and recipient.

The book eventually helped to define "compassionate conservatism" about welfare and social policy.

From 1992 through 2021, he edited World.

Olasky was born in the city of Malden, Massachusetts, to a Russian-Jewish family.

Olasky's most famous book is The Tragedy of American Compassion, which in 1995 Newt Gingrich distributed to incoming Republican representatives of the 104th Congress.

In 1995, Olasky became an occasional advisor to Texas gubernatorial candidate George W. Bush.

Olasky was prominent in the 1995–1996 welfare reform debate and came under attack when he contrasted George W. Bush's first presidential campaign in 2000 with that of John McCain: "It would be pushing it too far to talk of the religion of Zeus trumping the religion of Christ. McCain's no polytheist. But a lot of liberal journalists have holes in their souls. Some of them grew up in nominally Christian homes but never really heard the Gospel; now, they look for a purpose in their lives but do not understand God's grace. Others know more but don't want to repent. So, McCain's emphasis on the classical virtues gives them a post-Clinton glow without pushing them to confront their own lives."

Jonah Goldberg, who took exception to Olasky's descriptions of both candidates, nonetheless recognized what Olasky was trying to say:

"The Zeus reference seems to be derived from the ending of Tom Wolfe's novel, A Man in Full, in which two of the characters decide to convert to Zeus worship. And what Olasky meant by it was that McCain supporters generally, and Brooks specifically, are attracted to 'Zeus-like strength' rather than Christ-like compassion. McCain is all about honor and duty, and Bush is about charity and love. Zeus versus Christ. There you have it."

Since 1996 he has been a ruling elder within the Presbyterian Church in America.

Olasky has chaired the boards of the City School of Austin and the Austin Crisis Pregnancy Center.

His writings have been translated into Chinese, Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese, Russian, and other languages, and he has lectured and given interviews around the world.

He argues in his 1996 book Telling the Truth that God created the world, knows more about it than anyone else, and explains its nature in the Bible, so "biblical objectivity" accurately depicts the world as it is.

In contrast, conventional journalistic objectivity shows blind materialism or a balancing of subjectivities.

Bush made faith-based programs a significant component of his 2000 presidential campaign, and Olasky's academic work helped form the basis for Bush's "compassionate conservatism."

In 2001 and after that, Olasky and WORLD criticized the Bush administration for not following through on school choice or on ideas for tax credits to encourage more individual giving to poverty-fighting groups.

Olasky points out that in 2003 he published a book, Standing for Christ in a Modern Babylon, that criticized reconstructionist ideas.

Olasky has described himself as a Christian who believes in God's sovereignty and man's liberty.

Olasky diverges from the mainstream journalistic theory.

In her 2004 book Bushwomen, Laura Flanders writes, "Olasky is not a fan of high-achieving women. Women joining the workforce have had 'dire consequences for society,' he told a Christian magazine in 1998."

Olasky later said in response to this book that he was praising the high achievements of women in major philanthropic organizations: "From my study of the history of poverty-fighting in America, I found that it was women who ran the charitable enterprises. Men were involved, but it was essentially women who had the time to volunteer."

Olasky described World as a magazine that "tries to be salt, not sugar. We like to report good news but don't make it sticky-sweet. We also report bad news because Christ’s grace becomes most meaningful when we're most aware of sin. We want to be tough-minded but warmhearted."

In practice, that meant criticizing liberal policies but also corporate welfare and supporting challenging, personal, and spiritual help to the poor.

Olasky instituted a Daniel of the Year award for individuals who stood up to persecution.

He furthered "compassionate conservatism" by creating Hope Awards for Effective Compassion, given to Christian organizations that helped people rise from poverty.

Ahmanson has funded four of Olasky's 28 books, and in 2006 Michelle Goldberg, author of the book Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism, placed Olasky in a crucial role in the Christian reconstructionism movement.

In an interview with Mike Huckabee on October 10, 2009, Olasky denied that the Bush administration had implemented compassionate conservatism, remarking that "it was never tried."

He has emphasized the Christian origins of freedom of the press and investigative journalism, and teaches in a 2019 book how to advance biblical principles through street-level rather than suite-level reporting.