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Following the exploration of biblical norms, Sider moves to specific policy discussions. In an ambitious attempt to forge a comprehensive anti-poverty strategy, he addresses at length five topics—wages/tax policies; broken families; education; health care; and welfare reform—and then briefly covers other related questions such as crime and social security reform.

Overall, Sider's treatment of these issues is careful and reasonably balanced. Not all evangelicals will agree with his prescriptions, but his proposals are a good starting point for healthy discussion. Consider, for example, the section on work and family income. Sider acknowledges both the issue of non-work among the poor (a favorite topic of conservative Lawrence Mead) and the Left's complaints that minimum wage jobs often fail to lift the poor above poverty. Sider makes a persuasive case that too often middle- and upper-income Americans get all the benefit of certain tax breaks while the poor get none.

For example, often the working poor are uninsured because their employers do not offer health plans and they cannot afford to buy their own. Meanwhile, better-off Americans not only enjoy employer-sponsored health insurance, they also get a tax break on their part of the premiums. Wouldn't it be more just to reduce that tax break for the well-off, and use the savings to provide basic health insurance for the working poor? Similarly, the Dependent Care Tax Credit is non-refundable. This means that better-off families receive this government benefit (a tax deduction of up to $1440 for families with two children) while poor working families, who do not pay income tax, get no government help with the costs of their child care. Sider's discussion of increasing the Earned Income Tax Credit is also judicious, carefully detailing the pros and cons of this idea and noting its superiority to minimum wage increases.

Admittedly, Sider's whole discussion of tax issues would be stronger if he adopted a big-picture view that assessed the overall distribution of the tax burden in American society, rather than honing in microscopically on particular pieces of the tax code. Nonetheless, he has targeted some areas that need improvement, and Christians ought to be aware of these specific examples of bias in our current system.

Throughout the book, Sider honors the traditional Christian views on marriage and family structure, encourages public policies to reduce divorce and end the marriage penalty in the tax code, lauds abstinence initiatives like "True Love Waits," and exhorts his liberal friends to realize that "being pro-family is not a conservative agenda; it is a crucial component of any rational search for justice for the poor." His chapter on education draws heavily on the excellent work of Boston University's Charles Glenn (a favorite of conservatives and moderates) and applauds the ideas of diversity, competition, and parental choice. He acknowledges the Left's concern that sufficient funding is necessary for quality education, but rejects the notion that money is the answer.

Sider cannot be called an avid supporter of educational vouchers, but he does propose that America at least try a significant pilot program to test them. He is enthusiastic about Individual Development Accounts; thinks teen moms on welfare should finish school and live under the authority of a responsible adult; asserts that the able-bodied poor who refuse to work don't have much claim on society for help; and is excited about the potential of Charitable Choice to foster healthy government-religious partnerships to serve the poor that respect the spiritual character of faith-based ministries.

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March (Web-only) 2000, Vol. 44