last decade

Jim Wallis 9-22-2011

Wall Street has been devastating Main Street for some time. And when the politicians -- most of them bought by Wall Street -- say nothing, it's called "responsible economics." But when somebody, anybody, complains about people suffering and that the political deck in official Washington has been stacked in favor of Wall Street, the accusation of class warfare quickly emerges. "Just who do these people think they are," they ask. The truth is that the people screaming about class warfare this week aren't really concerned about the warfare. They're just concerned that their class -- or the class that has bought and paid for their political careers -- continues to win the war.

So where is God in all of this? Is God into class warfare? No, of course not. God really does love us all, sinners and saints alike, rich and poor, mansion dwellers and ghetto dwellers. But the God of the Bible has a special concern for the poor and is openly suspicious of the rich. And if that is not clear in the Bible nothing is.

Cathleen Falsani 9-14-2011

The Census Bureau on Tuesday released the latest data on poverty in the United States, and the news was troubling.

In the graphics below, you can see how poverty rates have increased over the last decade - overall, as well as among African Americans, children and families.

For the complete Census Bureau report click HERE.

For a graph charting the poverty rate from 1959 to the present, click HERE.

povertyall