Heaven Help Us: How Faith Communities Inspire Hope, Strengthen Neighborhoods, and Build Futures

Former presidential candidate Kasich (Courage Is Contagious) offers upbeat if somewhat underdeveloped profiles of ordinary people who made the world a better place with the aid of their faith communities. Among those highlighted are Mary Scullion, a scrappy Catholic nun who founded a charity organization that provided food and shelter to unhoused women in Philadelphia in the 1980s; Naser Hajar and Nadeem Khan, members of an informal association of Muslim doctors who created a Toledo, Ohio, medical clinic for uninsured patients; and Tracey Beal, who sought refuge from a volatile upbringing in the stability of her local church as a child, and as an adult founded Schools Connect, an initiative that provides children with social support by connecting schools with “area churches, businesses, nonprofits, and civic organizations.” Throughout, the author highlights how faith communities can tackle societal problems by uniting people through a common sense of purpose, utilizing shared resources, and generally making groups of people more than the “sum of their parts.” Unfortunately, those solid insights are marred by clichés and tone-deaf grousing about the decline in public religious affiliation that fails to seriously consider its causes. Despite its good intentions, this falls short. (Apr.)