The Humanitarian Jesus Interview Series

Tony Campolo 

If you don’t know Tony Campolo you should want to.  Not because you will agree with everything he says, but because you can’t disagree with his passion and relentless pursuit of doing things better. 

When we sat down in an old hall at Eastern University, I didn’t expect to leave understanding him completely, but I also didn’t expect to leave respecting him as much as I did.  It wasn’t that I agreed with everything he said, but at 33, I was struck by the intensity and irreverence to ideology and labels I discovered in a man of 75 years who had advised at least one president and countless other leaders and students.  The following few minutes of text is how our hour + interview launched off...

If you asked 100 people what philanthropy or humanitarianism was all about, my bet is that almost all of them would very quickly begin to talk about circumstances. 

Some might talk about education and healthcare - others about poverty, disease, deforestation, or hunger.  Many would begin to describe the conditions in the “inner city” or Haiti or Africa.  Perhaps a few would talk about solutions or their experience in reaching a need or touching a life.  In the end, most, if not all, would in some way talk about circumstances.  And, in many ways, they would be right.

“Circumstance - which moves by laws of its own, regardless of parties and policies, and whose decrees are final and must be obeyed by all - and will be”

                                               Mark Twain