Compassionate Conservatism Doesn't Stop at the Water's Edge.(Brief Article)

From a speech to the American Enterprise Institute by Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair Jesse Helms, January 11, 2001:

One of our first priorities will be to assist President Bush in implementing his vision of "compassionate conservatism." Allow me to explain.

During the campaign, George Bush outlined a philosophy of empowering private and religious institutions to help the neediest Americans: Government "can't put hope in our hearts or a sense of purpose in our lives.... Often when a life is broken, it can only be rebuilt by another caring, concerned human being. Someone whose actions say, `I love you, I believe in you, I'm in your corner.' ... In every instance where my administration sees a responsibility to help people, we will look first to faith-based institutions, charities, and community groups that have shown their ability to save and change lives.... We will rally the armies of compassion in our communities to fight a very different war against poverty and hopelessness.... This will not be the failed compassion of towering, distant bureaucracies.... It will be government that takes the side of the faith- based organizations and private charities who are helping change lives, one person at a time."

I submit to you, my friends, that this "compassionate conservative" vision must not stop at the water's edge.

One of the faith-based institutions President Bush admires is a remarkable organization in my state with which I have been involved--a North Carolina foundation called "Samaritan's Purse." Samaritan's Purse is led by the Reverend Franklin Graham, son of Dr. Billy Graham, and I believe this organization does more good, with less money, for more people around the world than the entire U.S. foreign aid bureaucracy.

For instance, in southern Sudan, where a brutal civil war is tearing a nation apart, Samaritan's Purse runs hospitals and clinics which--despite repeated bombings by government forces--provide desperately needed medical services to suffering people. In a town called Lui, Samaritan's Purse operates an 80-bed hospital which has treated more than 100,000 patients--some of whom walk for days to get care. More than 40 bombs were dropped on the area in March and April last year, and they were bombed again just this week. But the hospital has remained open, and Franklin Graham reports the brave doctors and nurses have saved more than 10,000 lives.

Samaritan's Purse has similar projects in more than 100 countries. In Kosovo, their volunteers have distributed food and medicine, counseled families, and rebuilt at least 800 houses. In Central America, after Hurricane Mitch wreaked havoc across the region, they rebuilt more than 5,000 homes.