Lost and Found

Somewhere I read about two neighbors. 

Both grew up in a community of opportunity. 

One neighbor lived a cautious, responsible life.  He worked hard, saved his money and made his family proud--a real dependable guy.

The other, younger man lived in a more carefree manner.  It wasn't that he resisted work, he just had a different vision for his life--a real restless guy.

At one point, the younger man left the neighborhood of his family.  He cashed in his inheritance card with his father and set off to make his way in life. 

Things didn't turn out so well for him. 

He didn't use his resources wisely.  He romped and played hard for a while, but he allowed his initial freedom to sour his heart. 

He fell into poverty.

He knew, firsthand,  desperation, hunger, homelessness, hopelessness, exploitation and oppression.

He violated all of the principles of his upbringing--he really left home.

When at the very end of his rope, he "came to himself." 

He recalled his community, his neighbors, his family.  He went back home with a speech all ready to deliver.  "Please give me a job doing whatever is needed." 

He threw himself on the mercy of his lost, but beloved community. 

And, his community responded! 

They welcomed him home, threw him a party and supported his quest for reestablishing himself in a respectable life.  The community lived out of its strength to lean into the weakness and need of a fellow community member. 

However, not everyone was pleased.

The man's older neighbor threw a fit, organized a public policy response and opposed the younger man's attempts to get reestablished.  He urged the community not to assist the lazy, no good man who left and was now back expecting the community to help him out of a crisis for which he was responsible.

Finally, the white-haired mayor of the community confronted the older neighbor, "You don't seem to remember what sort of community we have here, a community we've worked hard to establish on principles of honesty, fairness, compassion and hope," the old mayor explained.  "We've all been in tough scrapes at one time or another.  We've depended on each other for support, second chances and the hope that comes from loyalty, understanding and high expectations.  Just remember, your opposition to your neighbor is revealing the true nature of your heart."

The lost neighbor, relieved to be at home again among supportive friends, thanked one and all for his new lease on life.  The last I heard he was working hard and making progress thanks to his new shot at a good life. 

[This parable provides a contemporary--some might say liberationist--re-framing of Jesus' parable of the lost son found in Luke 15.  This interpretation assumes the worst about a victim of poverty in terms of cause.  Such a view is necessary to adequately display the radical, counter intuitive response of the poor man's beloved community.]

2013 Community Prayer Breakfast

Twitter wisdom from Mayor Cory Booker

Newark, NJ mayor, Cory Booker will headline CitySquare's annual community breakfast on Thursday, April 18, 2013.  More details will follow. 

For now, consider the string of wisdom that the good mayor posted to Twitter recently.  Each entry reveals something grand about the heart of this special leader:

When they heap scorn upon you, love them for helping you discover your resiliency.

When they doubt you, love them for giving your dreams greater courage.

When they point out your faults, love them for their accuracy.

When they wound you, love them for showing you your capacity to forgive.

When they try to stop you, love them for making your resolve even stronger.

When they cast you into darkness, love them for helping you discover your inextinguishable light.

And when your love has conquered the impossible challenge, invite them to stand with you so they too can see love’s power and possibility.

Wealth of the Poor

At last, I'm proud to announce that my new book, Wealth of the Poor:  How Valuing Every Neighbor Restores Hope in Our Cities, is finally available. 

Well, almost widely available.

Let me explain. 

We missed the sales deadline to place the book widely in retail establishments and on-line.  So, what we have is a pre-release option on the book.

You can order it today directly from ACU Press by calling 877-816-4455 or by visiting their website at www.abilenechristianuniversitypress.com. 

Wider distribution will begin in May 2013, as you'll learn by going to Amazon!

Naturally, I hope the book sells to broaden the reach of the CitySquare story and its model for urban renewal. 

Let me know if you order one! 



Justice and Judaism

"Sightings" appears on the website of The Martin Marty Center for the Advanced Study of Religion at the University of Chicago Divinity School.  I remember in my seminary days I read everything that Martin Marty wrote, both his books and his columns in The Christian Century. 

What follows is David Gottlieb's interesting assessment/summary of the work of Rabbi Jill Jacobs presented in her book, There Shall Be No Needy:  Pursuing Social Justice through Jewish Law & Traidtion. 

As always, I'm looking for your reactions.

Sightings
November 4, 2010

Tikkun Olam: Jewish Sacred Repair, Secular Action or both?
— David Gottlieb

In an attempt to address the well-documented and growing gulf between the economic fortunes of the rich and poor--and almost in tandem with the onset of the recession and the collapse of the housing market--Rabbi Jill Jacobs published a book on the Jewish imperative to practice tikkun olam, or repairing the world, as seen through both rabbinic and contemporary activist perspectives. The book, There Shall Be No Needy: Pursuing Social Justice through Jewish Law & Tradition, affords an intimate look at what Rabbi Jacobs calls “a de facto pillar of progressive Judaism.” In this book and other writings, by unfolding some of the phrase’s shades of meaning, Rabbi Jacobs works to reveal how tikkun olam refers not only to our relationship to the physical world but also to establishing an unceasing commitment to spiritual sensitivity and religiously-based moral and ethical development. Although it may be too late to rescue the term tikkun olam from overuse, it is still valuable to begin to understand its many and nuanced meanings.

Rabbi Jacobs is rabbi-in-residence at Jewish Funds for Justice (JFJ), a progressive organization dedicated to “build[ing] a resurgent movement for justice with a significant Jewish presence at its center.” JFJ is part of a broad movement in contemporary American Judaism, in which tikkun olam takes on the practical tasks and commitments of social action. The Jewish social justice movement, of which JFJ is at the vanguard, sees the pursuit of economic justice as a contemporary articulation of the rabbinic imperative to go beyond the letter of Choshen Mishpat, or Jewish civil law, in working in partnership with God to repair Creation. Jacobs believes that “Jews should openly bring Jewish text and experience into public policy discussions.” Doing so is a means of upholding a central covenantal commitment while expressing Jewish identity in a modern manner.

The term tikkun olam was used by the rabbis who compiled the Mishnah (the comprehensive compendium of rabbinic teaching compiled circa 200 C.E. and comprising a major portion of the Talmud). It refers to laws designed to afford extra protection to the disadvantaged. The term took on a different meaning in the Jewish mystical tradition of Kabbalah: the followers of the sixteenth-century Kabbalist Rabbi Isaac Luria saw tikkun olam as a kind of cosmic repair of God’s fractured creation. In Lurianic Kabbalah, to which Rabbi Jacobs refers, the shards from shattered vessels of creation have trapped divine energy, and human souls, which must be restored to their divine Source through prescribed mystical and contemplative acts.

In its contemporary context, tikkun olam is often used as an umbrella term for any form of Jewish social action. The Kabbalistic imperative to address mystical imbalance is either folded into the work that seeks to address social imbalance, or elided altogether. This has led to a kind of "tikkun olam fatigue," tempting many Jews to retire the term from both the activist and mystical lexicons.

In an article on the history of the term, Rabbi Jacobs notes its ubiquity and its concomitant devaluation: “I have come across puzzling references to the ‘prophetic value of tikkun olam’ or ‘the commandment of tikkun olam.’ As a post-biblical term, tikkun olam neither appears in a prophetic book nor constitutes one of the mitzvot. However, as this concept has come to be equated both with a general call to justice, and with specific philanthropic and volunteer activities, the definition of tikkun olam has been merged with those of tzedakah (financial support of the poor), g’milut hasadim (acts of loving kindness), and tzedek (justice).”

Rather than advocating tikkun olam’s retirement, Rabbi Jacobs promotes a diverse and sustainable four-fold definition: “the anticipation of the divine kingdom in the Aleynu prayer; the midrashic (homiletic or interpretive) call to preserve the physical world; the rabbinic desire to sustain the social order; and the Lurianic belief in our power to restore divine perfection.” Such a definition would inform the Jewish social justice movement with both social and spiritual goals, encouraging the practice of world-healing in as inclusive and just a manner as possible.

References
Jill Jacobs, There Shall Be No Needy: Pursuing Social Justice through Jewish Law & Tradition (Woodstock, Vermont: Jewish Lights Press, 2009).

“The History of ‘Tikkun Olam’,” Zeek, June 2007.
______________________________
David Gottlieb is a PhD student in the History of Judaism at the Divinity School. He is also co-founder and executive director of Full Circle Communities, Inc., a philanthropic nonprofit developer of affordable housing and provider of supportive services.

America Now

Ann Curry's Dateline report on Sunday evening brought many tears to my eyes. 

You need to see it here.  It is very important work and it is real.

This is what we see every day.  It is what we've seen every day for the past 16 years.

I confess:  these experiences completely define my life and worldview.

Request: resist any temptation to judge.  Decide to simply settle into the reality. 

Then, decide to do something about it.

Images from the Dallas' Mega-March for immigration reform. . .

Cornell West: Brother West--Living and Loving Out Loud

Gerald Britt turned me on to Dr. Cornell West's new book, Brother West:  Living and Loving Out Loud.

No doubt worth a careful read.

Ever hear this in church?

Religion and Poverty: God and the Poor, By Michael Kinnamon, General Secretary, National Council of Churches

For the 45 million persons who attend congregations related to member communions of the National Council of Churches, poverty ministries are not a sideline. They are at the very heart of our faith.

Even a casual reader of the bible, including those familiar with the Psalms and Proverbs, is immediately struck by the sheer volume of references to God’s concern for the poor. The theme is repeated relentlessly in all holy writ, including the Torah, the Qur’an, the Bhagavad Gita, the words of the Buddha, and in millions of lines of religious verse.

The message is clear: God has an unabashed focus on persons living in poverty.

For Christians, the message is unmistakable, and Jesus makes the point with varying degrees of subtlety. In Luke 4, he asserts that God has anointed him “to bring good news to the poor,” which is nice, but in Matthew 19, he is unnervingly direct. When a rich young man asks him how to get to heaven, Jesus tells him to obey God’s commandments and “sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor.” For two millennia, we have blanched at this radical suggestion and convinced ourselves Jesus is being hyperbolic. But I doubt it. I think he’s making it unmistakably clear how much God loves the poor.

Given all this evidence, it boggles the mind to consider how little attention we have paid to poverty. The one bright spot in our long history is the emphasis churches placed on giving alms to the poor, but principalities felt no such largesse. Less than a century ago in our own country, few politicians felt government had any obligations to help the poor, and people without means were left to fend for themselves. As the industrialization of the world intensified, the rich got richer at the expense of the poor. At the turn of the 20th century, workers – including their young children – were forced to labor in unbelievably degrading conditions while their employers luxuriated in extravagant homes.

Conditions were, to state the obvious, sinful. It was amid the squalor of early 20th century America that churches and persons of faith came together to right these terrible wrongs. In December 1908, at the founding of the Federal Council of Churches, Methodist cleric Frank Mason North delivered a report on poverty in America that evolved into the Social Creed of the Churches. The Creed called for safe working conditions, the abolition of child labor, a living wage for all workers, at least one day off per week, and for “the abatement of poverty.”

Considering the ample evidence of God’s prejudice for the poor, it’s hard to believe that the Social Creed was regarded as a radical document, but labor conditions in the U.S. began to improve.

A century later, in 2008, the General Assembly of the National Council of Churches and Church World Service unveiled an updated document called “A Social Creed for the Twenty-first Century.” Among other things, the new creed calls for:

· Abatement of hunger and poverty, and enactment of policies benefiting the most vulnerable.

· High-quality public education for all and universal, affordable, and accessible healthcare.

· An effective program of social security during sickness, disability, and old age.

· Tax and budget policies that reduce disparities between rich and poor, strengthen democracy, and provide greater opportunity for everyone within the common good.

· Just immigration policies that protect family unity, safeguard workers’ rights, require employer accountability, and foster international cooperation.

· Sustainable communities marked by affordable housing, access to good jobs, and public safety.

· Public service as a high vocation, with real limits on the power of private interests in politics.

Amid the strains of the current economic downturn, many of the proposals have become political hot potatoes as politicians in both parties fret that they will beget programs that the nation cannot afford or that will benefit persons who do not deserve them.

The fact that the abatement of hunger and poverty or the provision of universal healthcare or the assurance of just immigration policies are subject to political debate is, to put it mildly, sinful. And God has gone out of God’s way to make that clear to us.

A decade ago, the United Nations proposed Millennium Development Goals that call on the nations of the world to pool their resources to accomplish many of the objectives cited in the Social Creed for the 21st century, including the elimination of the level of poverty and hunger that kills millions of people around the world.

Many social scientists, most notably Dr. Jeffrey Sachs, believe we have the means of doing just that.

Of course, there are many critics who believe the elimination of killing poverty will never happen, and some of them suggest with dark Malthusian tones that it would not be worth the effort.

That’s the kind of reasoning that breaks God’s heart. God has been trying to get our attention since the dawn of creation, and in written scripture for millennia:

“Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth,” the Lord said, “I therefore command you, ‘Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land.’” (Deut. 15:11, NRSV).

Working together, we can accomplish the abatement of poverty worldwide.

But even if we fail, it is clear God is commanding us to make the effort.

God is not on the side of social scientists, politicians, or cynics.

God is on the side of the poor.

[The Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon is General Secretary of the National Council of Churches.]

.

More on health care debate from T. R. Reid (Final)

Here are the final collection of quotes from The Healing of America:  A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care:

There are useful approaches, ideas, and techniques we could learn from health care systems that are fairer, cheaper, and more effective than ours (pp. 44-45).

Most nations try to drop the Out-of-Pocket Model as they grow richer (p. 151).

In the process (of trying different reforms), the basic moral question that should drive reform --- do we want to give everybody access to health care? – gets swept aide… “The Clinton defeat,” argued political analyst Ezra Klein, “taught many that health care is simply too big, too complicated, and too dangerous to touch” (p. 163).

Both countries (Taiwan and Switzerland) decided that society has an ethical obligation – as a matter of justice, of fairness, or solidarity – to assure everybody access to medical care when it’s needed. The advocates of reform in both countries clarified and emphasized that moral issue much more than the nuts and bolts of the proposed reform plans. As a result, the national debate was waged largely around ideals like “equal treatment for everybody,” “we’re all in this together,” and “fundamental rights” rather than on the commercial implications for the health care industry… President Clinton emphasized economics. The moral issue that drove major change in Taiwan and Switzerland never got really moving in the USA (p. 182).

Whereas all other nations work from the time the line turns blue to introduce a healthy new person into their health care system, the United States first attends to its poorest mothers and newborns in the hospital on delivery day… Until we adopt a health care system that encourages it, preventive health care will remain largely inaccessible to far too many Americans (p. 202).

Which inequalities will society tolerate? Is it acceptable that some people are left to die because they can’t see a doctor when they get sick? That question encompasses a more basic question: Is health care a human right?... Is medicine a commodity to be bought and sold, a product like a car, a computer, a camera?... The creation of a national health care system involves political, economic, and medical decisions, but the primary decision to be made is a moral one (p. 212).

Twenty two thousand Americans (USA) die each year from treatable diseases (because they do not have health care) (p. 217).

Does a wealthy country have an ethical obligation to provide access to health care for everybody? Do we want to live in a society that lets tens of thousands of our neighbors die each year, and hundreds of thousands face financial ruin, because they can’t afford medical care when they’re sick?... Every developed country except the United States has reached the same conclusion: Everybody should have access to medical care. Having made that decision, the other nations have organized health care systems to meet that fundamental moral goal. . . .

At the start of the twenty-first century, the world’s richest and most powerful nation does not have the world’s best health care system. But we could… We can heal America’s ailing health care system – and the world’s other industrialized democracies can show us how to do it (p. 239).

(Though there is legitimate debate re. the health care rankings of countries, this is clear and not in dispute): there is a coterie of developed countries that are providing quality health care, distributing it fairly and equitably – and doing all that for much less money than the United States is spending (from the conclusion, at end of appendix – p. 256).

More on health care debate from T. R. Reid (Part 3)

The following from T. R. Reid's important book, The Healing of America:  A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care:

Even if we found good ideas in other countries, could the United States find the political will at home to use them? One basic political truth about American health care is that our system is strongly resistant to change. The vested interests that are doing well in the health business now – insurance companies, hospital chains, pharmaceutical companies – have blocked significant restructuring of our system (p. 22).

All the developed countries I looked at provide health coverage for every resident, old or young, rich or poor. This is the underlying moral principle of the health care system in every rich country – every one, that is, except the United States (p. 23).

Every country on earth faces difficult problems in providing medical care to its people. Nobody’s system is perfect. There are health care horror stories in every wealthy country – and they’re true… But for all of their problems, the other industrialized countries tend to do better than the United States on basic measures of health system performance: coverage, quality, cost control, choice. What are we doing wrong? (pp. 26-27).

When it comes to the essential task of providing health care for people, the mighty USA is a fourth-rate power (p. 28).

How many people go bankrupt because of medical bills? In Britain, zero. In France, zero. In Japan, Germany, the Netherlands, Canada, Switzerland: zero. In the United States, according to a joint study by Harvard Law School and Harvard Medical School, the annual figure is around 700,000.

For all the money America spends on health care, our health outcomes are worse on many basic measures than those in countries that spend much less (p. 31).

The United States is the only developed country that relies on profit-making health insurance companies to pay for essential and elective care. . .

All the other developed countries have decided that basic health insurance must be a nonprofit operation. In those countries, the insurance plans – sometimes run by government, sometimes private entities – exist only to pay people’s medical bills, not to provide dividends for investors… The U.S. private insurance industry has the highest administrative costs of any health care payer in the world (pp. 36-37).

If insurance companies have to cover everybody who applies, they need to have everybody in the insurance pool to cover the costs. All other developed countries require both “guaranteed issue” and the “individual mandate.” The United States has neither (p. 38).

More on health care debate from T. R. Reid (Part 2)

As promised, here's more from the important book, The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care, by T. R. Reid:

Our nation's healthcare system has become excessively expensive, ineffective, and unjust. Among the world's developed nations, the United States stands at or near the bottom in most important rankings of access to and quality of medical care. (pp. 8-9).

The thesis of this book is that we can bring about fundamental change by borrowing ideas from foreign models of health care. For me, that conclusion stems from personal experience. I’ve worked overseas for years as a foreign correspondent; our family has lived on three continents, and we’ve used the health care systems in other wealthy countries with satisfaction. But many Americans intensely dislike the idea that we might learn useful policy ideas from other countries, particularly in medicine. (p. 11).

Anyone who dares to say that other countries do something better than we do is likely to be labeled unpatriotic or anti-American… The real patriot, the person who genuinely loves his country, or college, or company, is the person who recognizes its problems and tries to fix them. (p. 13).

Eisenhower’s strategic plan envisioned months of painful slogging across a shattered German countryside. But then his forward commanders reported an amazing discovery: a broad ribbon of highway, the best road system anybody had ever seen, stretching straight through the heart of Germany. This was the autobahn network… “I decided, as President, to put an emphasis on this kind of road-building.” (President Eisenhower – which led to the “Dwight D. Eisenhower System of Interstate and Defense Highways” – the Interstate Highway System). Eisenhower, the pragmatic commander, was willing to borrow a good policy idea, even if it had foreign lineage. (pp. 14 & 15).

Each nation’s health care system is a reflection of its history, politics, economy, and national values. (p. 16).

More to come. . .

A book to read. . .

Over the next few days and posts I intend to share quotes from a rather remarkable book, The Healing of America:  A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care [New York: The Penguin Press (2009)] by T. R. Reid. 

The subject of the book has grown in importance to me as this past week I learned of a young man who is my friend who is facing brain surgery and has no health coverage, public or private.  Unless something changes, after any treatment he receives his "pre-existing condition" will end any chance of coverage going forward. 

T. R. Reid is not afraid to bring a moral argument to this discussion.  I appreciate that about him. 

Here's the first installment:

Government and academic studies report that more than 20,000 Americans die in the prime of life each year from medical problems that could be treated, because they can't afford to see a doctor. That doesn't happen in any other developed country. Hundreds of thousands of Americans go bankrupt every year because of medical bills. That doesn't happen in any other developed country either. Efforts to change the system tend to be derailed by arguments about “big government" or “free enterprise" or “socialism" -- and the essential moral question gets lost in the shouting (p. 2).

All the other developed countries on earth have made a different moral decision. Countries that are just as committed as we are to equal opportunity, individual liberty, and the free-market have concluded that everybody has a right to health care -- and they provide it. One result is that most rich countries have better national health statistics -- longer life expectancy, lower infant mortality, better recovery rates for major diseases -- than the United States does. Yet all the other rich countries spend far less on healthcare than the United States does.

The primary issue for any healthcare system is a moral one (p.3).

[Note:  this book was the subject of our discussion at CDM's monthly Urban Engagement Book Club.]

A knock on the door. . .

Dr. King and his family paid a price to secure justice for millions and to liberate both oppressed and oppressors.

In the following clip we witness his own inner struggle with the work he had been called to perform.

Powerful.

Can our religion come to grips with our world today?

Enough

I'm really liking what Todd Bouldin writes in a recent blog entry.

Here's a taste of how he begins:

Over the past two days, I’ve seen numerous Tweets and Facebook messages vilifying Pat Robertson for his comments about the disaster in Haiti that he alleged was the result of a pact Haiti made with the devil. Of course, Pat also must have made some deal with the devil to even espouse such comments in the wake of enormous human suffering. These posts were right to point out his evil ways, but is anyone really paying attention to Pat Robertson anyway? Some of my more progressive Christian friends were outraged, but in all fairness, I hope they understand that most evangelicals are not even listening to Pat anymore. Katrina put the nail in his coffin when he blamed the hurricane on voodoo, homosexuals and feminists.

Pat Robertson is not the problem. Rush Limbaugh is.

To read on click here.

Everyday people. . .a vision, a gritty vision

Justice Revival Dallas. . .who'll step up and how?

Gerald Britt, VP of Public Policy here at Central Dallas Ministries, published the following essay on the Op-Ed pages of The Dallas Morning News on last Tuesday, December 15:

After the Justice Revival

This isn't a criticism, just a reality: Getting church leaders across denominational, theological, racial, geographic, class and ideological barriers to work together can be like getting cats to march in a parade. But that is the challenge in the aftermath of Dallas' Justice Revival.

The Justice Revival is a concept introduced in the book The Great Awakening by Jim Wallis, the leader of the progressive Christian organization Sojourners. It harkens back to church revivals that resulted in spiritual conversions and social justice movements that helped bring about the abolition of slavery; produced child labor laws; and addressed issues of public health and poverty in northern slums area.

Can churches still provide the spark that ignites a spiritual-based revival with social implications in Dallas?

Although attendance goals for the November gathering fell short of expectations, the Justice Revival was always promoted as more than a specific event. The real test will be whether churches achieve their goals involving education and housing for the homeless. That, in turn, involves how well participating congregations are able to draw the distinction between "justice" and "charity."

The November "Day of Service" focused on deploying Justice Revival participants throughout the city to help with service projects at schools and Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance's March to Help the Homeless. These weekend events were meant to symbolize commitment through acts of compassion. Justice, however, means addressing the failures of the systems associated with these issues.

The spiritual "great awakening" – of which this revival should be both symbol and catalyst – should seek to play a more robust role than simply being campus volunteers. Substantive engagement regarding public education is a vital need in our schools.

We all should heed and repeat former DISD board president Sandy Kress' warning that this involvement avoid becoming "charity around the edges" of much-needed reform. Churches must be careful not to be used to mask real systemic failures with feel-good success stories or to be relegated to the margins, where real impact is almost impossible.

Serious involvement demands rejecting stereotypes of poor families, instead listening and becoming allies with parents in their dreams for their children's future. It means dealing with issues of health and safety as well as asking whether schools have textbooks and up-to-date technology. It should involve helping parents understand the relationship between classroom grades and standardized testing. Plus partnering with existing community programs to provide enrichment opportunities to enhance classroom learning. It could mean establishing academies to help parents better understand school culture, the politics of public education and parental rights and responsibilities within the school system.

In short, congregations should bring an appetite for tough-minded engagement as well as tenderhearted volunteerism.

Justice Revival congregations also are asked to lead the way in supporting Dallas' official goal to provide 700 units of affordable housing, a goal that should be embraced by the entire city. Churches can be invaluable allies, educating themselves on effective strategies addressing the problem that can be adopted here in Dallas. Churches also can promote the housing goal as an opportunity for a ministry of inclusion.

Most important, churches can work with city officials and nonprofits to make this housing a reality. That starts with congregations recognizing the homeless among us as fellow citizens and thus serving as advocates to build support within their respective communities for the housing.

Justice Revival congregations' impact can be totally out of proportion to the event attendance itself if their commitment to justice is as great as their compassion.
__________________

So, what do you think?

Urban Engagement Book Club 2010

Take a look at what follows for a list of the book selections for Central Dallas Ministries' Urban Engagement Book Club for 2010.

The club convenes on the first Thursday of each month from Noon until 1:15 p.m. We never go over our time limit! We meet at the Highland Park United Methodist Church (at SMU), Room 120 (3300 Mockingbird Lane Dallas, Texas 75205).

For more details and ready reference visit http://www.urbanengagement.org/.

January 7
The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care, T.R. Reid

February 4
Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America, Barbara Ehrenreich

March 4
The Working Poor: Invisible in America, David K. Shipler

April 1
Just Like Us: The True Story of Four Mexican Girls Coming of Age in America, Helen Thorpe

May 6
The Hole in Our Gospel: What does God expect of Us? The Answer that Changed my Life and Might Just Change the World, Richard Stearns

June 3
Imprisoning America: The Social Effects of Mass Incarceration, David F. Weiman

July 1
Push: A Novel, Saphhire

August 5
Rhetoric for Radicals: A Handbook for 21st Century Activists, Jason Del Gandio

September 2
Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard, Chip Heath and Dan Heath

October 7
There Goes the Neighborhood: Racial, Ethnic, and Class Tensions in Four Chicago Neighborhoods and Their Meaning for America, William Julius Wilson and Richard P. Taub

November 4
To Serve God and Wal-Mart: The Making of Christian Free Enterprise, Bethany Moreton

December 2
Social Justice Handbook: Small Steps for a Better World, Mae Elise Cannon and John Perkins

To be added to our email invitation listing, please send an email to kgoldberg@CentralDallasMinistries.org.

Standing on the shoulders of a hero

The iphone photo quality leaves something to be desired, but I wouldn't take anything for the moment or the image. 

Rev. Dr. Zan Wesley Holmes has led the way for two, and likely now three, generations of Dallas folks concerned about pursuing a community ethic defined by a commitment to and a concern for justice. 

For years Dr. Holmes led the influential St. Luke's "Community" United Methodist Church here in Dallas.  From his days over 50 years ago at Perkins Theological Seminary until this past week at the Justice Revival, Dr. Holmes has demonstrated an unyielding commitment to seeing justice established in our community. 

Arguably the most influential voice in the Dallas Civil Rights Movement across five decades, Dr. Holmes has pointed the way, paid the price and prompted all of us to join in the fight. 

This photo, taken on the last evening of the Justice Revival Dallas, captured a wonderful moment that I shared with him. 

I remember years ago when I was considering a job change, Dr. Holmes was the first person that I called.  He gave me good advice.  More than that, it was very clear to me that he cared about my life, my work and my future. 

Just before this photo was taken, I told Dr. Holmes that my generation and those younger than me were indebted to him and his leadership, that we are "standing on your shoulders" as we pursue our work.  He responded with his trademark humility. 

Dr. Holmes provided the keynote address on the first night of the Justice Revival.  But he returned each of the two following nights to lend his support to the effort.  Typical Zan Holmes. 

I consider myself blessed to know him and to count him as a dear friend and a trusted, proven guide.

Awakened from my sleep while thinking out loud. . .

Please refer to yesterday's post.  Go ahead.  I'll wait for you.
_______________________________

Okay, now. 

Cost to keep a person locked up in Texas:  $140 per day or $51,100 per year.

Ready for this? 

Cost of one month of mental health care via Medicaid per patient:  $145 per month or $1,740 per year.

Anyone out there see any clue as to why we have a few problems in the Great State of Texas?

Anyone, just anyone at all awake in Austin? 

Hello, down there? 

Any preacher gotta sermon to preach?

Any voter a letter to write?

Any business owner a call to make?

Any neighborhood association a trip to organize? 

Come on, people, let me hear it for some better thinking! 

How on earth did we get here? 

Long way from "thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."