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.
[9] 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.
[10] 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.
[11] 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.
"[10] 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.
[4] 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.
Olasky points out that in 2003 he published a book, Standing for Christ in a Modern Babylon, that criticized reconstructionist ideas.
[14][15] He has emphasized the Christian origins of freedom of the press and investigative journalism,[14] and teaches in a 2019 book how to advance biblical principles through street-level rather than suite-level reporting.
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.
In practice, that meant criticizing liberal policies but also corporate welfare and supporting challenging, personal, and spiritual help to the poor.
He furthered "compassionate conservatism" by creating Hope Awards for Effective Compassion, given to Christian organizations that helped people rise from poverty.
In 2007, Olasky gave up his tenured position at The University of Texas to try to keep alive a struggling Christian college in New York City.
Olasky received about 1,500 critical letters when he wrote a cover story called Trump "unfit for power" and proposed that he step aside because "we set the stage for even worse behavior when we ignore blatant offenses.
"[24] In 2019, Olasky wrote a book laying out his journalistic philosophy and emphasis on God's objective sovereignty and man's liberty.
Olasky has served as a PTA president and a Little League Baseball assistant coach, and has partaken in cross-country cycling.