Class and Faith

An important discussion is taking place in Quaker blogs these days regarding whether (liberal) Quakerism has become elitist, making it hard for people from a working class or poor background to feel included. Unfortunately I think this conversation has applications in many other denominations, too. http://www.quakerquaker.org has links to these posts, many of which are truly thought-provoking and prophetic. They are speaking […]

A Time to Mourn

I have been rereading Ron Sider’s book Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger: Moving fom Affluence to Generosity. He starts by taking us through accounts of real men, women and children’s experiences of poverty and gives statistics that show just how many people are affected. One of those numbers is that 30,000 children die every day because of poverty. I also […]

Resurrection Faith Is Incomplete

This summer I spent some time with a group of evangelizers as they considered the hardships and persecution of former Muslims who had recently become Christian due to their mission efforts. These new Christians had been blocked from access to their village well, had been physically attacked, and were ostracized by their own families. The converts’ lives were in perpetual danger, and several of […]

Crucifixion Faith Is Incomplete

The last three months of my blogging life have turned out to be an exploration of different facets of abundance. In November, I explored it from the individual perspective and concluded that a person’s ability to experience abundance doesn’t seem to have much to do with how much money or “stuff” we have at our disposal. In December, I looked at whether […]

Gratitude Is An Attitude

We chaplains and spiritual directors are supposed to maintain strict confidentiality, and this rule has come about so that we may protect those we serve. At the same time there are groups of people whose voices are rarely heard, and part of their disenfranchisement and suffering arises from being voiceless. Part of my calling to empower and give voice to the […]

Rich Liberals In an Age of Hunger

One of the more startling things to me during 2007 was the discovery that evangelicals give much more to charity than liberals do. This came from my favorite book about faith approaches to combating poverty in the world, “Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger”, by Ron Sider. After hanging out with liberals (both ideological and religious), as a […]