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gochrist9436
Guest
What’s wrong with both?
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gochrist9436
Guest
People aren’t starving in America??!!
Where do you live?
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Michaeljc4
Guest
There is certainly hunger in America, but I don’t think there is actual starvation. In either case, kids going to bed with empty bellies in a nation as rich as ours is a scandal. One of the worst times for hunger is the summer: kids don’t get breakfast or lunch at school anymore, which for far too many, are the only real meals of the day. Giving to local food banks is a big help, as well as donating to groups like America’s Second Harvest.
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vern_humphrey
Guest
Stone County, Arkansas, one of the poorest counties in the country (the two poorest counties – numbers 3015 and 3014 out of 3015 counties are in Arkansas – Phillips and Lee Counties, respectively.)People aren’t starving in America??!!
Where do you live?
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KCT
Guest
Personally, I think that someone (pastors perhaps?) ought to reach out to the affluent and teach them how they can help.
We need to help the materially poor. But who can help them more - a middle class house wife donating casseroles or the rich who could donate millions? I think we’re overlooking a whole class of people who could be of enormous help. We think too small. —KCT
We need to help the materially poor. But who can help them more - a middle class house wife donating casseroles or the rich who could donate millions? I think we’re overlooking a whole class of people who could be of enormous help. We think too small. —KCT
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Michaeljc4
Guest
That’s because the poor are, essentially, invisible to the affluent. Our neighborhoods, cities, and towns are deeply segregated by wealth. People around the country who have a lot of money are increasingly living in McMansions, or in gated communities, or in places where there is simply no affordable housing. I’m not even talking about the Donalds Trumps in our country; people with that level of wealth make up a miniscule percentage of the total. I mean the upper middle class: there just isn’t much interaction between those who have, and those who don’t.
With the exception of horrible events like Hurricaine Katrina, when are the very poor ever seen on television? When is the last time rural poverty was a hot button topic in our national media? How about the lives of migrant workers? The working poor? The only time inner city neighborhoods are discussed is when kids are shooting at each other.
We live in a society deeply segregated by wealth…but it’s not “the wealthy,” it’s the upper end of the middle class, who need to be educated and engaged by this issue. The only presidental candidate taking this issue on is Jonathan Edwards. I realize he is unpalatable to many people for many reasons, but his focus on poverty–globally and nationally–is highly commendable. Even when he loses, I hope he continues his work in this area (without the $400 haircuts
With the exception of horrible events like Hurricaine Katrina, when are the very poor ever seen on television? When is the last time rural poverty was a hot button topic in our national media? How about the lives of migrant workers? The working poor? The only time inner city neighborhoods are discussed is when kids are shooting at each other.
We live in a society deeply segregated by wealth…but it’s not “the wealthy,” it’s the upper end of the middle class, who need to be educated and engaged by this issue. The only presidental candidate taking this issue on is Jonathan Edwards. I realize he is unpalatable to many people for many reasons, but his focus on poverty–globally and nationally–is highly commendable. Even when he loses, I hope he continues his work in this area (without the $400 haircuts
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Michaeljc4
Guest
I met with my pastor yesterday, and he’s getting ready to start a Social Justice commitee at our parish. I am thrilled to the core of my being. He said he feels like, as a parish, we do very well with charity, but he wants to start focusing on the causes of the social ills that create, and maintain, poverty. I’m so looking forward to being a part of this! It’s like MLKJr. said (in my awkward paraphrase): it’s important to help the man who has been robbed on the road to Jericho, but it’s equally imporant to address the reasons that the road to Jericho is so dangerous.
He said he feels like, as a parish, we do very well with charity, but he wants to start focusing on the causes of the social ills that create, and maintain, poverty. I’m so looking forward to being a part of this! It’s like MLKJr. said (in my awkward paraphrase): it’s important to help the man who has been robbed on the road to Jericho, but it’s equally imporant to address the reasons that the road to Jericho is so dangerous.
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vern_humphrey
Guest
Tell him for me that the most important thing he can do for Social Justice is to establish a Catholic school. If you already have one, the most important thing is to expand it.I met with my pastor yesterday, and he’s getting ready to start a Social Justice commitee at our parish. I am thrilled to the core of my being.
Recruit students, not exclusively among Catholics, but among the children of the poor. Offer them tuition.
If every child in America received a first-class, world-quality education, there would be little more we would need to do to achieve Social Justice.
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Michaeljc4
Guest
I concur: education=essential. I will mention it to him.
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vern_humphrey
Guest
And remind him, Social Justice is not charity. Charity is the Corporal Works of mercy, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked and so on.
Social Justice is fixing things so people don’t need charity – which is why the first step in Social Justice is education.
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Michaeljc4
Guest
I am a great proponet of education, Vern my friend, for both children and adults (I am a teacher; you might recall having a posting debate with me a few months back, during Lent). I don’t think it’s likely that a Catholic school will open in the town where I live (the public schools are excellent, and we have a very low rate of poverty), but there are certainly plenty of places nearby that could use all the support we can muster.
What about where you live, in Arkansas? Are there many Catholic schools around? And what can you tell me about this Huckabee guy?
What about where you live, in Arkansas? Are there many Catholic schools around? And what can you tell me about this Huckabee guy?
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vern_humphrey
Guest
My position is we should establish Catholic schools for two reasons:
One is to enhance the Catholic upbringing of children and to promote vocations – to paraphrase Tertulian, “The Catholic schools are the seed of the Church.”
The other is Social Justice. We should seek to educate not just our children, but other people’s children – and concentrate on the poorest districts with the worst schools.
As Julian the Apostate said in The Letter to Arsacus
We impous Galileans have forgotten out duty to care for all the poor.
We do have a few, but Arkansas has only a small Catholic population, and there were few Catholic schools to begin with. There is no diocese-wide push to support and expand them. We are presently without a bishop and perhaps we will get one with some leadership ability one of thes days.
I know Mike personally. He is a Baptist minister – and lives his religion. Let me give some examples:
He got a lot of flack over his clemency program, releasing from prison people whom I would not have released. But he did it out of his belief that people can redeem themselves. He did what he thought was right, and didn’t count the political cost to himself.
He was under fire for his plan to consolidate schools. The State Supreme Court had taken over the education system as inadequate and ordered the Legislature to fix the problems. Mike could have sat back and let the Legislature struggle with the problem – the court order was not addressed to him, after all. But he considered it his duty to prepare and present a plan to meet the court’s order.
So I say, he is a man with solid values and can be counted on to do what he thinks is right – even if it costs him political support. Which is one reason why he won’t win the election.
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KCT
Guest
I think we have not taught the ‘rich’ about social justice. God wants their contributions just as much as he wants mine. Theirs will help more people than mine.
I find it frustrating that groups like Planned Parenthood have tons of funding and can send doctors on nice vacations to promote their agenda. What’s the Catholic answer? “Let’s have a bake sale.”
We need to get out of the bake sale mentality and teach those with money how they can help. To me, part of social justice is teaching people how to help. —KCT
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Future_Prodigy
Guest
where are you getting your numbers from? These numbers are horrible! I really hope you are referring to a isolated country and not the world! Aboriton is nothing but a shadow in compairison to the deaths caused by starvation, malnutrition, AIDS and malaria
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vern_humphrey
Guest
I think we are too full of envy against those who have more than we do to teach them anything.
It there is any group who does not benefit from charitable thinking, it’s those who are more successful than we are.
In fact, there are plenty of wealthy Catholics who donate generously – our church is built on 20 acres donated by a parishioner. Much of the cost of building the church was donated by well-to-do Catholics.
Maybe first of all we must teach ourselves humility.
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PauloFreire2
Guest
“We can all do more in practicing Catholic Social Teaching.”
Definitely. The fight to make the world more human is still the greatest fight of all.
Definitely. The fight to make the world more human is still the greatest fight of all.
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Al_Masetti
Guest
Absolutely right!
The United States is an amazing place. People from all over the world want to get here to participate in building their own personal prosperity.
What we should do is to encourage and assist other countries to adopt the free-market economics and true representational democracy and freedom of religion and freedom of speech that make this country great, so that those other countries can become equally great.
There is no need for a wealthy country like Mexico to have 10% of its population in the USA.
The United States is an amazing place. People from all over the world want to get here to participate in building their own personal prosperity.
What we should do is to encourage and assist other countries to adopt the free-market economics and true representational democracy and freedom of religion and freedom of speech that make this country great, so that those other countries can become equally great.
There is no need for a wealthy country like Mexico to have 10% of its population in the USA.
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