+ The Witherspoon Society offers "Help Haiti -- Drop the Debt." Excerpt:
This call to action comes from "Avaaz". “Avaaz” means “Voice” in many Asian, Middle Eastern and Eastern European languages.
Avaaz.org is a new global web movement with a simple democratic mission: to close the gap between the world we have, and the world most people everywhere want. Across the world, most people want stronger protections for the environment, greater respect for human rights, and concerted efforts to end poverty, corruption and war. Yet globalization faces a huge democratic deficit as international decisions are shaped by political elites and unaccountable corporations -- not the views and values of the world’s people.
+ Spirituality and Practice offers "Groundhog Day, Candlemas, Imbolc" by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat. Here's a quote from the Values and Visions guide to the film Groundhog Day:
Spirituality means waking up.
Most people, even though
they don't know it, are asleep."
— Anthony DeMello
+ INCOME INEQUALITY: The Guardian offers "The theory of everything" by John Crace. He reports that " ... two British academics argue that almost every social problem, from crime to obesity, stems from one root cause: inequality." Excerpt: "'It became clear,' (Richard) Wilkinson says, 'that countries such as the US, the UK and Portugal, where the top 20% earn seven, eight or nine times more than the lowest 20%, scored noticeably higher on all social problems at every level of society than in countries such as Sweden and Japan, where the differential is only two or three times higher at the top.' The statistics came from the World Bank's list of 50 richest countries, but Wilkinson suggests their conclusions apply more broadly. To ensure their findings weren't explainable by cultural differences, they analysed the data from all 50 US states and found the same pattern. In states where income differentials were greatest, so were the social problems and lack of cohesion."
4 comments:
Next Sunday we will read Isaiah 6.1-13; why did Isaiah resist God's call? Just read Isaiah 5 and the curses/woes the Lord wanted the Priest of King Uzziah to proclaim against the rich and powerful few who could kill him!
Andrew Blackwood, the 1940s-
50s conformist homiletician warned students against preaching through books of the Bible one chapter at a time because, preaching James, they would have to object to rich people 3 times and might offend some members of their churches. (Not to mention Jesus according to Luke 6!)
Is our calling to conform to earn a comfortable living? R.
Niebuhr said his call was "To comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." Ours, too?
R.G. Clingan
Thanks Ralph. Some one once said that one-sixth of all the verses in the New Testament deal with Economic Justice.
There are 2000 verses abouit taking care of the poor, justice, etc...I don't know why church folks who read that ignore it. Barbara
The Andrew Blackwood avoid-offending-the-rich problem only multiplied the problem of spiritualizing justice texts that Broadus cited as a large problem to overcome in his 19th century homiletics text as revised by Weatherspoon. Too bad Blackwood came later, but then, as your blog illustrates, some folks now and then wake up.
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