Lifting Up The Poor

People who participate in debates about the causes and cures of poverty often speak from religious conviction. But those convictions are rarely made explicit or debated on their own terms. Rarely is the influence of personal religious commitment on policy decisions examined. Two of the nation's foremost scholars and policy advocates break the mold in this lively volume, the first to be published in the new Pew Forum Dialogues on Religion and Public Life. The authors bring their faith traditions, policy experience, academic expertise, and political commitments together in this moving, pointed, and informed discussion of poverty, one of our most vexing public issues. Mary Jo Bane writes of her experiences running social service agencies, work that has been informed by "Catholic social teaching, and a Catholic sensibility that is shaped every day by prayer and worship." Policy analysis, she writes, is often "indeterminate" and "inconclusive." It requires grappling with "competing values that must be balanced." It demands judgment calls, and Bane's Catholic sensibility informs the calls she makes. Drawing from various Christian traditions, Lawrence Mead's essay discusses the role of nurturing Christian virtues and personal responsibility as a means of transforming a "defeatist culture" and combating poverty. Quoting Shelley, Mead describes theologians as the "unacknowledged legislators of mankind" and argues that even nonbelievers can look to the Christian tradition as "the crucible that formed the moral values of modern politics." Bane emphasizes the social justice claims of her tradition, and Mead challenges the view of many who see economic poverty as a biblical priority that deserves "preference ahead of other social concerns." But both assert that an engagement with religious traditions is indispensable to an honest and searching debate about poverty, policy choices, and the public purposes of religion.

A compelling call to carry God's mercy and compassion to the hurting people of this world This eminently practical book by two leading experts in the field of poverty reduction offers a clear plan to help ordinary Christians translate their compassion into thoughtful action. Authors Peter Greer and Phil Smith draw on their personal experiences t...

The book covers the research on economic inequality, including the social construction of racial categories, the uneven and stalled gender revolution, and the role of new educational forms and institutions in generating both equality and inequality.

When the Supreme Court declared in 1954 that segregated public schools were unconstitutional, the highest echelons of Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish religious organizations enthusiastically supported the ruling, and black civil rights workers expected and actively sought the cooperation of their white religious cohorts. Many white southern clergy, however, were outspoken in their defense of segregation, and even those who supported integration were wary of risking their positions by urging parishioners to act on their avowed religious beliefs in a common humanity. Those who did so found themselves abandoned by friends, attacked by white supremacists, and often driven from their communities. Michael Friedland here offers a collective biography of several southern and nationally known white religious leaders who did step forward to join the major social protest movements of the mid-twentieth century, lending their support first to the civil rights movement and later to protests over American involvement in Vietnam. Profiling such activists as William Sloane Coffin Jr., Daniel and Philip Berrigan, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Eugene Carson Blake, Robert McAfee Brown, and Will D. Campbell, he reveals the passions and commitment behind their involvement in these protests and places their actions in the context of a burgeoning ecumenical movement.

Too often believers are convinced that Christians should never be unhappy. But Scripture records many instances of men and women who glorified God while facing a season of discouragement and despair. In "A Lifting up for the Downcast", Puritan Pastor William Bridge reasons that there is no reason for discouragement, no matter what cause and conditions may arise. Hyperlinked with hundreds of embedded Scripture references and helpful footnotes, this edition is an entirely new, gently modernized text that is approachable to today's readers while retaining its original character. Includes a biographical preface.

In the late 1820s Sarah and Angelina Grimké traded their elite position as daughters of a prominent white slaveholding family in Charleston, South Carolina, for a life dedicated to abolitionism and advocacy of women's rights in the North. After the Civil War, discovering that their late brother had had children with one of his slaves, the Grimké sisters helped to educate their nephews and gave them the means to start a new life in postbellum America. The nephews, Archibald and Francis, went on to become well-known African American activists in the burgeoning civil rights movement and the founding of the NAACP. Spanning 150 eventful years, this is an inspiring tale of a remarkable family that transformed itself and America.

An insightful and passionately written book explaining why a return to Enlightenment ideals is good for the world The greatest challenges facing humankind, according to Deirdre McCloskey, are poverty and tyranny, both of which hold people back. Arguing for a return to true liberal values, this engaging and accessible book develops, defends, and demonstrates how embracing the ideas first espoused by eighteenth-century philosophers like Locke, Smith, Voltaire, and Wollstonecraft is good for everyone. With her trademark wit and deep understanding, McCloskey shows how the adoption of Enlightenment ideals of liberalism has propelled the freedom and prosperity that define the quality of a full life. In her view, liberalism leads to equality, but equality does not necessarily lead to liberalism. Liberalism is an optimistic philosophy that depends on the power of rhetoric rather than coercion, and on ethics, free speech, and facts in order to thrive.