Just Generosity

J. Sider Ronald

Description

Just Generosity calls Christians to examine their priorities and their pocketbooks in the face of a scandalous tendency to overlook those among us who suffer while we live in practical opulence. This holistic approach to helping the poor goes far beyond donating clothes or money, envisioning a world in which faith-based groups work with businesses, the media, and the government to help end poverty in the world's richest nation. This updated edition includes current statistics, policy recommendations, and discussions covering everything from welfare reform, changes to Medicade, and the Social Security debate."Sider's most important book since Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger."--Jim Wallis, author, God's Politics "Sider knows how to lift up people in need.... [An] important and challenging book."--John Ashcroft, former Attorney General of the United States

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Theology

Informations

• Publié par: Baker Publishing Group
• Date de parution: 01 avril 2007
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781441201621
• Langue: English

Extrait

Ron Sider displays a thoughtful commitment to the cause of justice for the poor from a thoroughly biblical perspective. . . . This is a book we have needed for a long time.
-Roberta Hestenes, former international minister-at-large, World Vision
Dispels the myths about poverty with facts and replaces pious rhetoric with practical action.
-Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, general secretary, Reformed Church in America
Sider has added another poverty-fighting book to the evangelical arsenal.
-Jim Skillen, executive director, Center for Public Justice
Bold and daring proposals that are also practical and comprehensive. This is a must-read volume for all Christians who are concerned about overcoming poverty in a rich nation.
-J. Deotis Roberts, research professor of Christian theology, Duke University Divinity School
Ron Sider effectively engages the crucial economic and moral question of our times: how can our poor and marginalized participate in the American Dream? . . . His book not only makes this case but also provides useful examples of how to transform these problems.
-J. McDonald Williams, chairman, Trammel Crow Company
Lively, readable, and believable. . . . A convincing and workable answer to the question, what should we do?
-Harvey Cox, Thomas Professor of Divinity, Harvard Divinity School
How refreshing! Ron Sider s book emphasizes the importance of both private and public responsibility in ending poverty. . . . Ron gets the balance right and then shows us how we can make a difference.
-Tony P. Hall, former U.S. Congressman (D-Ohio)
Sider s call for a holistic comprehensive framework is worthy of protracted consideration by those who would be faithful to the Jesus who had a special affection, ministry, and identification with the poor.
-Joan Brown Campbell, former general secretary, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA
Also by Ronald J. Sider
Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger Karlstadt s Battle with Luther Christ and Violence For They Shall Be Fed, editor Completely Pro-Life Preaching about Life in a Threatening World Non-violence: An Invincible Weapon? Cup of Water, Bread of Life Living like Jesus Good News and Good Works The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience
J UST G ENEROSITY
A New Vision for Overcoming Poverty in America
S ECOND E DITION
RONALD J. SIDER
1999, 2007 by Ronald J. Sider
Published by Baker Books a division of Baker Publishing Group P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287 www.bakerbooks.com
Printed in the United States of America
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means-for example, electronic, photocopy, recording-without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Sider, Ronald J. Just generosity : a new vision for overcoming poverty in America / Ronald J. Sider. -2nd ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 10: 0-8010-6613-1 (pbk.) ISBN 978-0-8010-6613-9 (pbk.) 1. Poverty-United States. 2. Poor-United States. 3. Distributive justice-United States. 4. United States-Social conditions. 5. United States-Economic conditions. 6. Economics-Religious aspects-Christianity. I. Title HC110.P63S524 2007 362.5 80973-dc22 2006036041
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture is taken from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture marked NCV is taken from the New Century Version . Copyright 1987, 1988, 1991 by Word Publishing, a division of Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture marked NIV is taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION . NIV . Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
Scripture marked NRSV is taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture marked TNIV is taken from the Holy Bible, Today s New International Version Copyright 2001 by International Bible Society. All rights reserved.
All royalties from this book are being donated to charitable causes.
To friends and neighbors in North Philly and Germantown who have taught me so much
Contents
Foreword by Charles W. Colson and John J. DiIulio Jr.
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part 1 Poverty amidst Abundance
1. What Does Poverty Look Like?
Part 2 A Holistic, Biblical Vision for Empowering the Poor
2. A Biblical Foundation
3. A Comprehensive Strategy
Part 3 Implementing the Vision
4. If I Work, Can I Earn a Family Income?
5. Broken Families and Rising Poverty
6. Does Justice Include Health Care for the Poor?
7. Quality Education for Everyone
8. Could Welfare Empower the Poor?
9. Other Important Issues Affecting the Poor
Part 4 The Generous Christians Generation
10. We Can End the Scandal
Afterword by Eugene F. Rivers III
Notes
Bibliography
List of Organizations
Foreword The Least of These, the Rest of Us
I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. . . . I was in prison and you visited me. . . . Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me (Matt. 25:35-36, 40 NRSV). Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord (Prov. 19:17 NRSV). Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor (James 2:5-6 NRSV).
We Americans enter the twenty-first century and the new millennium as the most economically prosperous people in the history of the world. By any historical, comparative, or cross-national measure, we Americans enjoy unprecedented private affluence and enormous national wealth. Despite huge gaps in income and high concentrations of wealth, most poor Americans today are better housed and better fed and own more personal property than average Americans throughout much of this century. 1 In the light of history, there is a pardonable excessive optimism in the claim that, at least for present-day America s least of these, the problem of poverty, defined as material scarcity, has been solved. 2 There is, however, no denying that, even today, a significant minority of Americans still struggle to survive under economic conditions that the vast majority of us would consider impoverished and find intolerable were we suddenly forced to trade places with them.
To be sure, America s poverty problem has been, if not solved, then reduced since the mid-1960s because Americans have done ever more to honor the poor. Each year, the country s civil sector, led by the nation s religious charities, congregations, and community-serving ministries, provides billions of dollars in cash assistance and social services for the poor. For example, the average big-city urban religious congregation, during the course of a year, provides over 5,300 hours (or 132 weeks) of volunteer support to needy people, and a total of about 144,000 a year in community programs that primarily serve the poor. 3 The public sector s federal-state anti-poverty programs for children and families (food stamps, Medicaid, and other programs) provide billions of dollars annually in cash assistance and social services for the poor. 4 Thanks to those efforts, by 1996 only 14 percent of all families with children were in poverty (over a third fewer families in poverty than would exist without government aid); 5 and in the year 2002, all persons age nineteen and younger were eligible if in need for publicly financed health care. 6 Most hopeful, as a result of recent changes in federal law, it is possible that in the first decades of this new century we will witness greater cooperation between government and faith-based social-service delivery and anti-poverty efforts. 7
We also honor the nation s poor by recognizing that most poor adult Americans are decent, law-abiding citizens who, if given half a chance, will choose work over welfare. 8 Amid a tremendous national economic boom, and with new welfare-to-work laws being implemented in most states, the total number of people on welfare in America fell from 14.1 million in January 1993 to 8.9 million in March 1998 (a 37 percent decline), with many states reporting promising trends in the percentages of former welfare recipients who are finding jobs. 9 Between 1994 and 1998, the welfare rolls in thirty of the largest American cities declined by 35 percent. 10
Still, as Ronald J. Sider reminds us in this new, important, and provocative book, let no one suppose for a moment that we live in a post-poverty America. Yes, welfare caseloads are down dramatically, but state welfare caseloads are increasingly concentrated in minority big-city neighborhoods that the rest of society has left behind. 11 Yes, more formerly dependent adults are working, but there is yet a rising tide of child-only welfare cases, children being raised by grandparents or other relatives because their parents are in jail, are on drugs or have lost custody as a result of abuse or neglect. 12 Yes, recent rates of black poverty are the lowest ever recorded, but about 1 in 5 black children still lives in high-poverty neighborhoods where there are fewer resources for families, fewer jobs, fewer successful role models . . . , more schools with lower academic achievement, and a greater exposure to crime, drugs, alcohol, and violence. 13 Both of us know this to be true because we encounter it daily in o