poverty

I'm afraid I want the good news of Christmas without the challenge.

James Bailey has written a superb, creative and timely book whose
primary audience should be the U.S. Congress. Unfortu­nately, the
current members of Congress do not seem to possess the intellectual
wattage necessary to profit from it.

At a book signing,
Steve Earle was speaking when someone leaned
on a light switch and the windowless room went dark. "Did I die?" Earle asked in a quiet voice.

The passage from Micah raises some important theological questions related to God's revelation. Micah is clear that focusing solely on our well-being and declaring war on the poor will lead to a cessation of revelation and vision.

The new poverty numbers came out today, and they aren't pretty. The Census Bureau reports that more than 15 percent of Americans are living in poverty--a number that's gone up for three consecutive years and is the highest it's been since 1959.

Drew Westen is right: Obama would do well to name the villains in the economic story he tells the American people. But the villains aren't individuals; they're powers and principalities.

Sarah Posner is not impressed by the latest faith-based-coalition effort to prevent lawmakers in Washington from sacrificing the nation's poor on the altar of deficit hawkery.

It's great to see David Beckmann convince Mark Bittman to join the fast against attempts to cut federal programs
that help the poor and the hungry. Bittman's dismissal of the religious element
of the effort by Bread for the World and others--"I doubt God will intervene
here"--betrays his unfamiliarity with Christian thought. (I'm tempted to send him
one of my ELCA "God's work, our hands" fridge magnets.) But thanks to Bittman's
involvement, now even the Nation is
giving the progressive evangelical effort positive coverage.

I should have seen my road to Damascus moment approaching. I’d been warned.