Ideas on Crossleft and Poverty
Last weeks call was very productive and I appreciate everyone's passions for economic justice. I learned a lot, especially about the role of unions and the power of certain right wing religious groups to try to undermine more progressive Christian denominations and churchgoers. In an earlier post a few weeks ago, Benj noted how churches should do more to help the poor. Here are some ideas that I brainstormed for ways for Crossleft to do that.
1 For lent this year, my pastor wants the congregation to research various issues that the Episcopal Church has taken as Millenium Development goals. These include eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, universal primary education, promoting gender equality and empowering women, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, combating HIV AIDs, ensuring environmental stability, and developing a global partnership for development. She gave us a list of possible books to read and I thought that was a great idea. For Crossleft, one of the great ways to influence people is books to recommend specifically on poverty and poverty solutions. I've been reading Howard Zinn's books and he is having a great influence on the way I see grassroots struggles. Possible books recommended by my church:"Ending Hunger Now" by George McGovern and Bob Dole, "Poor People" by William Vollmann, "Ending Gloval Poverty: A Guide to What Works" by Stephen Smith, "There Shall Be No Poor Among You: Poverty in the Bible" by Leslie Hoppe, and "Ending Povery: We Can Make It Happen in our Lifetime" by Jeffrey Sachs.
2 I don't think churches could take on poverty alone without government help, but I do think it can do its part to alleviate poverty. In my church, there is a program called Our Daily Bread that serves lunch to poor and homeless people every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. It is manned mainly by volunteers, usually retirees and students who are doing community services. Trader Joes, a grocery store, provides surplus food. Our church also takes part with other churches in a rotating homeless shelter. One month a year, our church opens its facilities to use as a shelter for homeless people to eat and sleep. It seems to work well. I went to an evengelical church in San Jose 15 years ago that had a mentor program where an adult would help a grade school student with their homework one night a week. I was thinking that members of Crossleft could write about how their individual churches help out the poor, and it could tell us about innovative ways in which churches help out the poor.
3 Crossleft could try to ally with more grassroots movements or unions like SEIU. In reading a biography on Dorothy Day, I noticed how she would take part in demonstrations and strikes to support workers' and civil rights. Steve does a very good job of posting petitions and protests that are going on in the East Coast in the Crossleft site. I used to be a secretary in my local SEIU chapter in Sunnyvale in the late 1990s and I learned a lot that I didn't know before and it took away some stereotypes I had of unions.
4 Instead of reinventing the wheel, maybe we could learn from established Progressive Christian groups like the Catholic Worker or such that seem to have already traveled down the road of helping the poor.
5 I checked out some books that support micro-lending as a way to fight poverty. I only have superficial knowledge of microlending, but maybe that could be an avenue that we could support as a way of alleviating poverty. I like what I've read about Muhammad Yunus and the micro-lending idea, although I have a feeling it has its weaknesses as any idea does.
6 We could lend support of politicians that are especially known for their support for poverty issues. I know Dennis Kucinich and Barbara Lee have lead a Progressive Caucus to try to push for more Progressive issues in the House.
