Gentrification With Justice

Gentrification With Justice

By Bob Lupton

Building a new home in a run-down neighborhood in Atlanta was a decision that neither of our parents supported. It was a bad financial move, they counseled us, not to mention the danger. But my wife Peggy and I were not relocating into the inner-city for economic reasons. We had finally come to the conclusion that our ministry would be more effective if we lived among the people we felt called to serve than continue to commute from the suburbs. And so we graciously thanked our parents for their love and concern and went ahead with our construction plans.

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12 Principles for a Just Society

12 Principles for a Just Society, an excerpt from Just Generosity by Ron Sider of Evangelicals for Social Action:

1. Made in the image of God, every person enjoys an inalienable dignity and worth that society must respect.
2. Persons are not just complex socioeconomic, materialistic machines: they are also spiritual beings enjoying God given rights and responsibilities. Each person is a body-soul unity made for relationship with God, neighbor, and earth.
3. Because the Trinitarian God created persons for mutual interdependence in community, society must be organized in ways that nurture the common good. Since persons reach their potential only in multi-layered community of diverse institutions (family, church, school, media, business, government), society must promote policies (consistent with religious freedom for all) that strengthen all institutions to play their full proper roll.
4. Every policy, both public and private, must be measured by its impact on the poor and marginalized because biblical faith teaches that one of the central criterion by which God judges societies is how they treat the least advantaged.
5. Both because God wants all persons to be dignified participants in their communities and because centralized power is always dangerous, we must strengthen the economic and political power of the poor.
6. Renewing the family must be a central goal for both government and civil society. (A family is that set of persons related by marriage, blood, or adoption.) While recognizing that today’s families come in many shapes (two-parent, single-parent, blended), all policies, both public and private, should promote the biblical norm of mother and father (united in lifelong marital covenant) with their children, surrounded by a larger extended family.
7. Every Person and family should have the opportunity to acquire and use (without discrimination based on religion, race, or gender) the productive resources that, if used responsibility, will enable that person or family to earn a decent living and be a dignified participating member of the community.
8. Everyone able to work has an obligation to do so, and society, where possible, has the responsibility to make work opportunities available to all. Everyone who works responsibly should receive a living income.
9. Society should care – in a generous, compassionate way that strengthens dignity and respect – for those who cannot care for themselves.
10. Quality education must be available to all, regardless of family income.
11. Quality heath care consistent with society’s present knowledge and resources must be available to all, regardless of family income.
12. Every community must enjoy public safety. Communities should be places where people feel physically secure, violence is rare, and the police and courts function without bias for or against anyone.

We must, as the Call to Renewal covenant insists, stop making false choices “between good values and good jobs, between personal responsibility and social justice, between rebuilding families and rebuilding neighborhoods, between sexual restraint and educational opportunity, between good parenting and livable family wages, between individual moral choices and government responsibility. Every institution in society must do its share and each one must do what it does best.”

Obama’s Speech: A More Perfect Union

Barack Obama spoke this morning in Philadelphia, PA at Constitution Center, on matters race and of the fundamental path by which America can work together to pursue a better future.

Regardless of your politics the insight and resolve Barack Obama shows in this speech deserve attention and reflection by all. The issue of race and the role it plays in achieving a just society still weighs heavily on the American people in our relationships and our politics.

Listen to Obama call out and name these issues and their root causes. In issues of race and inequality in America — what does the LORD require?.

 

Here is a video of the full speech and the entire transcript is copied below:

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The Pulpit and the Podium: Part 4

Part 4 of our “Pulpit and the Podium” series looks at what the goal Christian public policy efforts should be. Begin with Part 1, at Part 2 or Part 3 or continue reading…

What is the goal?

The goal of Christian advocacy in public policy is to protect and promote a society which accommodates the Christian life and practice using the tools, language, and methods of a liberal democracy so that Christianity can have a free, effective, and respected voice in that liberal democracy.

To protect means to defend the government that provides the most fertile ground for the Church and to fight for the values such as religious freedom and individual liberty that allow the ministry of the church to continue without persecution. The protection then is not only of the social values that benefit the Church but also of the government and nation itself when it comes under attack; whether the attack comes from outside forces or inside factions. When a society accommodating to Christian life and practice is threatened or striving to exist then Christians can be supportive of the effort to defend it.

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The Pulpit and the Podium: Part 3

Part 3 of our “Pulpit and the Podium” series looks at what the distinctions set forth in Part 2 mean for Christian public policy efforts. Begin with Part 1 here or continue reading…

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The Pulpit and the Podium: Part 2

Part 2 of our “Pulpit and the Podium” series looks at the difference between Christian Standards and Biblically based ethics. Begin with Part 1 here or continue reading…

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The Pulpit and the Podium: 4 part series

With the election season now in full swing the discussion about Christian political responsibility must fully engaged. In order to remain diligent, tactful, and properly motivated in engaging public policy Christians must constantly ask themselves what exactly they are advocating — or better — what they should be advocating. Continue reading for part one of a five part series…
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In the News: Ending Famine in Malawi

What does it take to bring an impoverished nation from famine to surplus? An excellent article in the New York Times tells how Malawi, one of the poorest countries in the world, suffering from famine, drought, poverty, and diseases like HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, and hepatitis, with at least 1 million are orphans out of a population of 12 million, has done just that…

Link to the Times article: Ending Famine, Simply be Ignoring the Experts here or for convenience the entire article is copied below:

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In the News: A New Social Gospel?

This week NEWSWEEK’s cover story is the “Politics of Jesus.” Here is the second of two interesting articles showing once again the national secular attention that the social justice movement is gaining.

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In the News: Evangelicals vs. the Religious Right?

This week NEWSWEEK’s cover story is the “Politics of Jesus.” Here is the first of two interesting articles showing once again the national secular attention that the social justice movement is gaining.

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