general
From day one of the Pentecost 2007: Taking the Vision to the Streets conference - Derek Webb, Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, and Jim Wallis call a packed sanctuary at National City Christian Church to take God's concern for the poor seriously and commit to "Vote Out Poverty."
Over the course of the past year, especially this semester, I have been thinking a lot about what it means to live out justice and to be an activist. I have been trying to figure out where that fits into my goals and in my life, and whether my impact will be directly helping individuals or working to change social structures.
I feel more called to work directly with people, but I also feel the overwhelming importance of making political and structural changes in order to stop the [...]
Many people are happily conservative in their religion and politics.
For them, the dangers of what could happen for the worse are greater than the injustices of what currently is, so their bias is generally against change and toward preserving (conserving) or returning to the way we were, or the way we are.
Many people are happily liberal in their religion and politics. For them, the injustices of what has been and what currently is are so great that it's worth risking the [...]
The biblical use of the word "righteousness" is the moral equivalent of what we mean when we speak of holiness. It incorporates such concerns as a passion for justice and a concern for truth along with the need to live an ethically responsible life. It involves reflection in what we do and the Christian moral vision by which we understand who we are. Righteousness is the human expression of holiness embodying a vision rooted in moral perspective.
- James C. [...]
The righteous know the rights of the poor; the wicked have no such understanding.
- Proverbs 29:7-7
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Christ is the true philosopher because he embodies in his ministry the welcoming and caring reception of others so that they might more fully be the beings they are meant to be. Indeed, in the Christlike effort to understand, serve, heal, feed, and reconcile the earth and its communities we show forth the highest wisdom.
- Norman Wirzba
excerpt from the essay "Placing the Soul: An Agrarian Philosophical Principle" in The Essential Agraian Reader: The Future of Culture, [...]
Religious silence is silence that is undertaken as an act of worship. Whether I hear God or not makes no difference.
- Thomas Merton
quoted in Alive Now! November/December 1990
The word of the Lord came to me: Mortal, say to it: You are a land that is not cleansed, not rained upon in the day of indignation. Its princes within it are like a roaring lion tearing the prey; they have devoured human lives; they have taken treasure and precious things; they have made many widows within it. ... Its officials within it are like wolves tearing the prey, shedding blood, destroying lives to get dishonest gain. Its prophets have smeared whitewash on their behalf, seeing false [...]
For the righteous will never be moved; they will be remembered forever. They are not afraid of evil tidings; their hearts are firm, secure in the Lord. Their hearts are steady, they will not be afraid; in the end they will look in triumph on their foes. They have distributed freely, they have given to the poor; their righteousness endures forever; their horn is exalted in honor. The wicked see it and are angry; they gnash their teeth and melt away; the desire of the wicked comes to nothing.
Why do people think the spiritual life demands withdrawal drom the ordinary? Because they've been taught, at least by implication, that the physical is a block to the spiritual. When we assume that the spiritual, unlike the physical, is impervious to corrosion, then we assume that all things material are not to be honored. But the fact of the matter is, the material is the vehicle of the spiritual.
- Joan Chittister
from Alive Now! July/August 1994
You shall not defraud your neighbor; you shall not steal; and you shall not keep for yourself the wages of a laborer until morning. You shall not revile the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind; you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.
- Leviticus 19:13-14
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The Lord enters into judgment with the elders and princes of his people: It is you who have devoured the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses. What do you mean by crushing my people, by grinding the face of the poor? says the Lord God of hosts.
- Isaiah 3:14-15
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We are not disembodied spirits. God apparently values the material enough to endow it with the spiritual. That's what the Incarnation is all about. We've come at this whole notion of the exaltation of the spirit by losing respect for the vehicle of the divine, which is the body. Where do we see God? We see God in nature and the people around us.
- Joan Chittister
from Alive Now, July/August 1994
For the needy shall not always be forgotten, nor the hope of the poor perish forever. Rise up, O Lord! Do not let mortals prevail; let the nations be judged before you. Put them in fear, O Lord; let the nations know that they are only human.
- Psalms 9:18-20
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For the needy shall not always be forgotten, nor the hope of the poor perish forever. Rise up, O Lord! Do not let mortals prevail; let the nations be judged before you. Put them in fear, O Lord; let the nations know that they are only human.
- Psalms 9:18-20
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We fear so deeply what we think other people see in us, so we talk in order to straighten out their understanding. ... One of the fruits of silence is the freedom to let our justification rest entirely with God.
- Richard Foster
from Celebration of Discipline
Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.
- Luke 6:20-23
I have glimpsed intimations of baptism being fulfilled in a multitude of unexpected reminders: laughing with the inner-city children I taught as we spashed in the gushing water of a fire hydrant on a sweltering afternoon. Washing dishes at the kitchen sink with my grandmother. Sharing a canteen of icy water with thirsty hikers at a trail junction in a mountain wilderness. Hand watering my dad's newly planted vegetable garden.
- Pat Peterson
from Alive Now, May/June [...]
While he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at the table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment of nard, and she broke open the jar and poured the ointment on his head. But some were there who said to one another in anger, "Why was the ointment wasted in this way? For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii, and the money given to the poor." And they scolded her. But Jesus said, "Let her alone; why do you trouble her? [...]
In our chatty world, in which the word has lost its power to communicate, silence helps us to keep our mind and heart anchored in the future world and allows us to speak from there a creative and recreative word to the present world.
- Henri J.M. Nouwen
from The Way of the Heart
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