There is not enough bread to go around, and the bread we have is not equitably shared. Hunger calls us to repent of our economics of affluence, our politics of oppression and our religion of immanence.
Is federal policy endangering the American Indian ‘species’? The U.S. government is performing irreversible surgeries upon what is in some critical ways a population at the mercy of the state.
On a recent trip to the Southwest, Dean Peerman encountered a variety of viewpoints among anthropologists, museum curators, antique dealers and Indian tribespeople toward proposed federal legislation called the Native American Grave and Repatriation Act.
As Americans we want to foster democracies, not dictatorships; deal fairly with sovereign nations and treat them as friends, not subjects; respect our neighbors more than our corporate markets; and create jobs, not food dependencies. We will rightly earn the respect of other nations when we recognize the Dominicans and the Haitians as partners, and ease the Haitians’ forced labor and fight for their freedom.
What happens when a dalit attempts to seek justice from the courts? Especially in a feudal, conservative state like Rajasthan, where he or she runs many challenges before a case is even registered? In most cases, the struggle may be just getting to the courts, never mind what happens once they do. And the process is calculated to discourage all but the most determined. Both the data and a ground level investigation suggest that even the most high profile of cases may end with a whimper. In some instances, even charges are not framed years after going to court.
The conditions under which Colombian coal miners labor is appalling and is detailed in this Special Report by "C. Towers," a pseudonym of a writer whose identity must be concealed to protect his sources.
Many political leaders are symbolically turning their backs on the moral problems of the day, creating a climate which lends legitimation to prejudice, hate and worse. We have a long road to travel.
An interview with social ethicist Joseph Flecher which delves into the ethical issues of the "triage/lifeboat" approach to world hunger relief.
Runaway kids may be locked up for offenses that are not punishable if committed by adults. Unfortunately, the tendency among charitable and church-related organizations has been to duplicate tax-supported efforts to institutionalize and professionalize means of child care and treatment.
This article appeared in The Christian Century, April 22, 2008, pp. 20-23. Copyright by the Christian Century Foundation; used by permission. Current articles and subscriptions information can be found at www.christiancentury.org. This material was prepared for Religion Online by Ted and Winnie Brock.
Dr. Brueggemann reviews a book concerning classical views of poverty. In earlier times it was the wealthy who contributed to the well-being of society as a civic virtue, giving to an undifferentiated cultural system, making no social distinctions on the basis of need, thus keeping the poor invisible. In contrast, the Christian bishops brought the poor in to sharper focus. They funded hospitals and houses of care that were concerned especially with the poor.
The lack of food and micronutrients is due not to acts of nature but to acts of people. There is enough food to feed everybody in the world now; in the year 2000 there will still be enough food for everyone. And yet 500 million people are malnourished. The means of helping the malnourished could be relatively simple if the affluent nations resolved that the reduction of deprivation is an important goal, and if the governments of developing nations made it an important priority.
Slavery still occurs and is on the rise in the new global economy. The author suggests what we can do about it.
We are the only industrialized nation for which children are the largest group in poverty. Hunger has become a fixture in our country, the wealthiest nation on earth. Doing something about it means changing the way we think about our responsibilities.
An analysis of: the popularizing and exploitation of Native American culture. The author is a longtime advocate of the rights of Native Americans.
The author gives a detailed account of the ubiquitous slave trade of our times (12 to 27 million in the world at present). 87% of the trade involves women and children in prostitution. He discusses the reasons and the difficulties of solution.
Which Bible do you read? Have you read Matthew, chapter 25? Jesus tells a strange parable there. He says, "How is it going to be determined how you go to heaven or to the warmer place? Did you feed the hungry? Did you clothe the naked? Did you visit the sick? Did you visit those who are in prison?" Jesus says, "Inasmuch as you have done it to these you would have done it to me." So if you want to know where I am in South Africa, you go to the KTC squatter camp. That is where I am.
McKibben reviews The End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs. Sachs convincingly presents world poverty as a manageable problem; offering a plausible and very nearly painless plan for dealing with it, and all with an unruffled self-confidence. Although the much of the optimism may be replaced, it’s a sign of hope.
Two books on South African apartheid show how it was possible for 40 million South Africans to avoid a disastrous civil war and create a new society that raised the hope for peace among long-alienated peoples.
There is a dire need for a comprehensive solution to the broken U.S. immigration system and Ralston Deffenbaugh, in this interview, discusses many solutions.
People are starving -- yet there is no scarcity. Before the crisis resolves itself, countless millions -- perhaps as many as 1 billion persons -- will perish. To stop the holocaust in the underdeveloped world, important moral choices have to be made in ours.
Shelters are not the real answer to homelessness in the richest and most powerful country in the world. They are a Band-Aid on wounds whose source lies in the very structure of our society.
As Christians, we must learn to treat mentally retarded people with dignity -- not with pity or ridicule -- and to help change our society’s attitudes toward them.
The author tells about what one Catholic priest is doing to improve the status of the undernourished and depraved children of the poor in the tropical seaport of Guayaquil in Ecuador.
There are no laws on the books enforcing segregation, but the social and economic forces at play In Haiti are so powerful they create a de facto apartheid.
The women-church movement is an initiative of the Holy Spirit among those who are religiously marginalized and oppressed.
(ENTIRE BOOK) An analysis of "low-intensity conflict" -- the United States global strategy of warfare waged against the poor -- as seen in Nicaragua during the 1980s.
For millions of Americans employment does not offer an escape from poverty. The Census Bureau information shows us that it is more likely today than it was seven years ago that poor households have a working family member.
The author details the cross boarder problems of a family of several generations whose members lived in both Mexico and the United States, and who through birth, were mixed in citizenship. "Family Values" are not considered in U.S. immigration policies.