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Fox News
11 hours ago
- Politics
- Fox News
John Kasich: Faith Institutions Are Key To Powerfully Heal Our Communities
Former Ohio Governor John Kasich believes the power of faith is not just a tool for personal happiness and fulfillment, but a great resource to help build communities and solve some of our most pressing concerns like poverty, health care, and building strong neighborhoods. Not content to leave civic involvement to government agencies, Kasich, who's also a former Fox News Channel contributor and GOP presidential candidate, sees religious institutions as the best hope for trench warfare against the evils of our time. On this episode of Lighthouse Faith podcast, Kasich discusses his book, 'Heaven Help Us,' and how faith groups don't need government to strengthen communities; only a person with a great idea whose willing to work, like the man who was inspired by his meeting with Mother Theresa and went home and delivered groceries to a couple of homes, and now is feeding over a half a million daily. Good works are infectious. And it's the kind of virus that brings positive changes all around. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit
Yahoo
06-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Faith, Beyond Worship
I have been thinking a lot about agency lately. Politics in America over the last decade has felt designed, scripted even, to rob people of their own sense of agency. I think many people feel as if our politics is happening to them—affecting their livelihood, their relationships, their neighborhoods—and is beyond their reach or influence. But agency is not only essential for a healthy democracy, agency is an essential aspect of what it means to be human. John Kasich's new book, Heaven Help Us, is an effort by the former Ohio governor and presidential candidate to renew citizens' sense of agency and responsibility to contribute to the well-being of their neighbors and communities. It is a relentlessly positive book, though its affirmations offer implicit critiques. The book, which was written with Kasich's longtime collaborator Daniel Paisner, offers vignettes of modern, faith-motivated Americans who have made a significant difference in their communities. The stories are the message, and Kasich offers them all as positive, inspiring examples to spark an imagination in readers for what they could do, how they could serve, now. That is to say, there is not much diagnosis in this book. While a number of recent books have cataloged religious disrepair and hypocrisy, and conclude with limited gestures toward a better way, Kasich argues that we're missing the role faith is playing in real people's lives today, for the good of others. Kasich focuses on faith because of his concern regarding growing skepticism and cynicism toward religion, and the great capacity he believes religion has to contribute. 'We are living in perilous times. People are adrift, divided, conflicted— young people especially—and I'm struck by the ways many are stepping away from organized religion,' he writes. After expressing his understanding for some reasons for this, he continues, 'And yet I've come to realize that the ordinary people doing extraordinary things I looked to celebrate in my first book are out there today in even greater force, and that their noble acts of goodwill and community building are being strengthened by the support they're receiving from their religious institutions.' Kasich is less animated by convincing the non-religious that religion has something to offer than he is in convincing the religious of that fact—and getting them to act on it. Kasich describes a meeting he called with religious leaders and theologians. 'I was becoming increasingly concerned at what I was hearing about all of these ministers around the country who were under fire from their congregations, with members trying to get them to take a political stand or endorse a particular candidate or issue,' he writes. 'They were being knocked off balance because of it. I didn't believe these types of discussions belonged inside the church, so I thought I'd bring together a group of faith leaders to see whether we could come up with a statement these ministers could rely upon— you know, a patch of firm ground on which they all might stand.' But it wasn't as fruitful as Kasich had hoped. 'Well, sometimes what seems like a great notion is not so great after all, because it turned out that we couldn't get these religious thinkers to agree on much,' he writes. 'They were all brilliant, make no mistake, but they all had their own ideas—which, looking back, I might have anticipated. … But trying to get this group to produce a single declarative statement to articulate our shared view of contemporary Christianity was even harder than herding cats, because these cats each had their own deeply held convictions, their own agendas. We went round and round and never really got anywhere.' It is frustrating enough when the good work that religion promotes and makes possible is left out of media coverage or popular narratives. But it's bewildering when religious leaders themselves can't get past their own parochial issues in order to say and do good, true things. I should know: I worked in the White House during the Obama administration helping to form partnerships between the federal government and religious communities and other nonprofits to serve those in need. I saw the best of religious life in America, and I left government in 2012 both more hopeful and more aware of the tremendous good religion already motivates in this country, and the transformative potential of religious goodwill in action. Kasich seems to share this awareness, telling the stories of people like Sister Mary Scullion, who moved mountains (and institutions) to serve the unhoused in Philadelphia; Bob Freeman, a former president of a synagogue in Omaha who, while he wasn't very religious by his own description, spearheaded the creation of a remarkable interfaith collaboration; Dr. Nadeem Khan and Dr. Nasser Hajar, two of the founders of the Halim Clinic in Kasich's home state, who provide medical care to those who could not otherwise afford or access it; and Jillana Goble and Ben Sand, who are reimagining child welfare in Oregon. In total, Kasich highlights 15 initiatives, led by people of all faiths. Remarkably, I could not find one instance of Kasich referencing the politics of those he highlights. Kasich does not seem to be seeking to advance religious contributions for the sake of a partisan end, or even to show his magnanimity as a politician. Indeed, the diversity of stories he tells reflects, I think, a desperation for religious people themselves to stop allowing politics and its logic to prevent and distract them from taking action themselves to address the problems we face as a society. There are things you can contribute that are more powerful and meaningful in our civic life than your vote. Kasich shows a disregard in this book for partisan ends, but aims to inspire people to do good, regardless of their political disposition. That does not mean politics is absent from this book. The second thing readers will notice is how the narratives often weave together individual initiative, the power of community, and the capacity of philanthropy and government to partner with, clear pathways for, and scale these projects and initiatives for the common good. Instead of viewing the charitable initiatives of individuals and communities as at odds with the government, Kasich promotes a vision of mutuality. In this way, politics is indeed present—but it's politics as service, as one way communities solve problems together. Kasich himself is a serious Christian, and his book opens with a quote from Dallas Willard, the Christian philosopher. Still, while Kasich commends faith in this book, he does not press sectarian convictions as essential. He writes as someone who served and represented diverse people in a diverse country, asking citizens to bring the best they have to offer, from whatever source they feel is accessible to them, and to use what they have to help others. If we can allow for the possibility that faith, and people of different faiths, can help to heal our communities and our politics; if individuals were willing to stop grousing about all that is wrong in our shared life, and instead do their share to make things better, it would actually reduce the room the cynics and the bullies have to operate. We'd be less likely to think we need them to get things done. Kasich's book is a timely provocation to take responsibility in our communities and national life. And it's not a hypothetical—people are already doing this all across the country. We could use more of it, and we could use more people like John Kasich who are willing to encourage it. And perhaps if we do our part, even with all of our flaws and differences, heaven will help us, too.
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Former Ohio governor speaks about current political climate
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Former Ohio Gov. John Kasich said he knows how to move America forward without relying on the Statehouse or Capitol Hill. Kasich has a new book called 'Heaven Help Us,' and he said everyday Americans and American faith communities can team up to make a difference. His sixth book is a collection of real-life stories of Christians, Jews, and Muslims who use faith to lift their communities. Ohio bill would mandate 'success sequence' education, including marriage before kids 'So the fact of the matter is, a person can use either a church, a synagogue or a mosque to take an idea whether it's solving human trafficking or poverty or homelessness or literacy, any of these things you hook up with your, with your organization, and they're going to give you support,' Kasich said. Kasich calls his new book 'Heaven Help Us' a collection of true-life anecdotes, inspirational people doing remarkable things. 'One is the shootings in down in Charleston, South Carolina, and how people forgave the shooter and what forgiveness is all about, or a guy who started passing out groceries in the back of a pickup truck inspired by Mother Teresa, who's now feeding over a half a million people every single day,' he said. Good people of all faiths doing God's work, Kasich gathered stories from across the country hoping to inspire everyday Americans, and maybe American leaders. 'What has surprised me, Colleen, about politics is it seems as though too many of these folks are just interested in their own political hides and not the country,' he said. Kasich worries about the Trump tariffs, what's happening in Ukraine, and the failure of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to stand against it. Kasich was known to stand up for what he believed in, even in the face of angry opposition like the controversial Senate Bill 5 attempt to block collective bargaining for public employees. Columbus school staffer arrested in alleged murder-for-hire plot 'Or when I expanded Medicaid, it created a hubbub,' he said. ''You know, he's a Republican and he's an and, you know, what's he doing there, expanding things.' and it didn't matter to me. This is what I needed to do when I fought my own party on a number of things. That's why I was there to accomplish something. I look at a lot of people today and I say, I asked them, 'Why are you there?' Or ask themselves, 'Why am I here just to be a political operative working for a party?' I'm a Republican, but it was my vehicle and not my master. So I've been a little surprised that we haven't seen more people sort of speak out and go their own way, even if it cost them an election.' The last American balanced budget was hammered out by President Bill Clinton and House budget leader Kasich in 1997. He says it's time for today's leaders to make tough decisions. 'And that's back to what is your purpose, what are you trying to do, and it's okay to be a leader,' Kasich said. 'It's okay for people to be mad at you. You know, a leader walks a lonely road, but over time, if it's just, people will come. This has to happen. Colleen, I'm, I'm, I'm just begging people to understand it. It has to happen before we end up in a catastrophic situation.' Kasich is a political analyst for CNN as well as a best-selling author. For more on Colleen Marshall's interview with the former governor, tune in to The Spectrum this Sunday at 10 a.m. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
