Politics & Power Quote by Tony Campolo

Campolo’s line lands like a polite sermon with a sharpened edge: he opens with the ecumenical pose of “both parties,” then pivots into a frank moral ranking. That structure matters. The first clause is a pastoral invitation, signaling he’s not interested in partisan tribalism so much as ethical accountability. The second clause is the harder truth he feels compelled to say out loud, and the “I feel” isn’t hedging so much as a preacher’s way of grounding politics in conscience rather than ideology.

The intent is corrective. As a prominent evangelical voice, Campolo is pushing against the long-running assumption that “religious” automatically maps onto Republican. He’s also calling out a familiar American loophole: praising the poor in rhetoric while outsourcing their care to private charity. The subtext is that compassion can’t be treated as a lifestyle brand; it shows up in budgets, healthcare, wages, housing, and whether the safety net is designed to catch people or punish them.

Contextually, Campolo sits in that strand of Christian social witness that treats poverty as a theological test, not a talking point. He’s speaking to believers who want to keep their faith “above politics,” and reminding them that neutrality often protects the status quo. By naming Democrats as “doing a better job,” he’s not canonizing a party; he’s insisting that measurable outcomes matter more than pious language. The quiet provocation is aimed at his own camp: if you claim moral seriousness, your politics should bear the weight of the vulnerable.