The lower the temperature, the longer the line out Crisis Ministries’ door.
The 124-bed Charleston homeless shelter already is inching toward its overflow capacity, although winter does not start officially for another week. Lows this week have reached the 20s, and even chillier temperatures are forecast for next week.
“We typically don’t see this kind of weather until January,” said Amy Zeigler, grants manager for the shelter.
What does the U.S. have in common with Ethiopia and Angola? Here’s the disturbing answer: The rate of HIV infection among the poorest Americans has reached the same epidemic levels as that of the two impoverished countries.
This shocking new statistic comes from a recent report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which stated that HIV was detected in 2.4% of adults living at or below the federal poverty line. That’s twice the rate of the general U.S. population and about equal to the HIV prevalence rate among Ethiopians and Angolans.
Significant progress on global malnutrition can be made in 2011, the ecumenical anti-hunger group Bread for the World said Monday (Nov. 22) in its new annual report on hunger.
The U.S. government’s “Feed the Future” initiative has the potential to reduce hunger by addressing long-term economic development and focusing on small farmers, said Asma Lateef, director of Bread for the World Institute.
If left unchecked, government-run health insurance for the poor in the state will start draining the cash South Carolina has to pay for its other top priorities, including public schools and law enforcement.
The state’s Medicaid program is projected to cost $228 million more than lawmakers budgeted to spend on it this fiscal year. And the shortfall at the state Department of Health and Human Services is just a preview of the budget crisis awaiting the state in July. That is when the $1 billion in federal stimulus cash that’s propping up this year’s $5 billion spending plan runs out.
So what happens next? Lawmakers said they will have to find some way to balance the books after they return to session in January, cutting unnamed programs and services to keep the Department of Health and Human Services afloat.
Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell said the Medicaid program will overrun the budget without some cost-controls put in place at the Health and Human Services Department.
From organizing workers to preventing war to making the economy more green, journalist Chris Hedges argues that, for decades, liberals have surrendered the good fights to corporations and ruling powers.
In his new book, Death of the Liberal Class, Hedges slams five specific groups and institutions ”” the Democratic Party, churches, unions, the media and academia ”” for failing Americans and allowing for the creation of a “permanent underclass.”
Hedges says that, for motives ranging from self-preservation to careerism, the “liberal establishment” purged radicals from its own ranks and, as a result, lost its checks on capitalism and corporate power.
“For millions of Americans, including the 15 million unemployed Americans,” Hedges tells NPR’S Neal Conan, “the suffering is becoming acute.”
A huge number of American households are still relying on government assistance to buy food as the recession continues to batter families.
Food stamp recipients ticked up in August, children consumed millions of free lunches and nearly five million low-income mothers tapped into a government nutrition program for women and young children.
Some 42,389,619 Americans received food stamps in August, a 17% rise from the same time a year ago, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which tracks the data. That number is up 58.5% from August 2007, before the recession began.
For more than 40 years, social scientists investigating the causes of poverty have tended to treat cultural explanations like Lord Voldemort: That Which Must Not Be Named.
The reticence was a legacy of the ugly battles that erupted after Daniel Patrick Moynihan, then an assistant labor secretary in the Johnson administration, introduced the idea of a “culture of poverty” to the public in a startling 1965 report. Although Moynihan didn’t coin the phrase (that distinction belongs to the anthropologist Oscar Lewis), his description of the urban black family as caught in an inescapable “tangle of pathology” of unmarried mothers and welfare dependency was seen as attributing self-perpetuating moral deficiencies to black people, as if blaming them for their own misfortune.
Moynihan’s analysis never lost its appeal to conservative thinkers, whose arguments ultimately succeeded when President Bill Clinton signed a bill in 1996 “ending welfare as we know it.” But in the overwhelmingly liberal ranks of academic sociology and anthropology the word “culture” became a live grenade, and the idea that attitudes and behavior patterns kept people poor was shunned.
Now, after decades of silence, these scholars are speaking openly about you-know-what, conceding that culture and persistent poverty are enmeshed.
Amid the pressures of globalization, under the influence of interests that often remain fragmented, it is wise to propose a model of development built on fraternity: if it is inspired by solidarity and directed towards the common good, it will be able to provide correctives to the current global crisis. In order to sustain levels of food security in the short term, adequate funding must be provided so as to make it possible for agriculture to reactivate production cycles, despite the deterioration of climatic and environmental conditions. These conditions, it must be said, have a markedly negative impact on rural populations, crop systems and working patterns, especially in countries that are already afflicted with food shortages. Developed countries have to be aware that the world’s growing needs require consistent levels of aid from them. They cannot simply remain closed towards others: such an attitude would not help to resolve the crisis.
In this context, FAO has the essential task of examining the issue of world hunger at the institutional level and proposing particular initiatives that involve its member States in responding to the growing demand for food. Indeed, the nations of the world are called to give and to receive in proportion to their effective needs, by reason of that “pressing moral need for renewed solidarity, especially in relationships between developing countries and those that are highly industrialized” (Caritas in Veritate, 49).
The Pope’s homily, partially delivered in all the languages of the newly beatified saints, asked the faithful to remember the importance of prayer.
On Mary MacKillop he said: “Remember who your teachers were. From these you can learn the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. For many years, countless young people throughout Australia have been blessed with teachers who were inspired by the courageous and saintly example of zeal, perseverance and prayer of Mother Mary MacKillop,” he said.
“She dedicated herself as a young woman to the education of the poor in the difficult and demanding terrain of rural Australia, inspiring other women to join her in the first women’s community of religious sisters of the country. She attended the needs of each young person entrusted to her, without regard to station or wealth, providing both intellectual and spiritual formation,” he said.
This is a great piece–and I like her five H’s. Watch it all–KSH.
An ecumenical delegation of Sudanese religious leaders met with U.N. officials and Secretary General Ban Ki-moon Oct. 11 to express its fear of what might happen if the Jan. 9 referendum in which south Sudan is expected to vote for independence from the north is not carried out as planned.
“We told him we came to raise an alarm to the United Nations,” said Archbishop Daniel Deng Bul of the Episcopal Church of Sudan during a press conference held at the Church Center for the United Nations, following a day of U.N. meetings.
“We are the church, we are in the ground. We are with the people. And we are knowing every thing that is happening in the ground there. So because of that we are here,” Deng said.
The 13 churches that have joined the DCEH run the gamut: Lutheran, Unitarian, Methodist, Catholic, Episcopal, Presbyterian and non-denominational.
“We also have a Jewish temple and two mosques as members,” said McAllister. “It’s rewarding to learn about different people’s beliefs and perspectives. It’s challenging sometimes, too, to be on the same page.”
Despite their differences, the churches find common ground in monthly meetings for the senior clergy, and meetings for steering and interfaith committee members. During the meetings, members share ideas, discuss advocacy, and brainstorm ways to educate or raise funds.
“For the last two years, each fall, we’ve set aside time in our congregations to talk about homelessness,” said McAllister. “There have been discussions on affordable housing, mental health, photography exhibits, films and forums. Last year over 1,000 people attended the forums.”
Vinod Khosla, the billionaire venture capitalist and co-founder of Sun Microsystems, was already among the world’s richest men when he invested a few years ago in SKS Microfinance, a lender to poor women in India.
But the roaring success of SKS’s recent initial public stock offering in Mumbai has made him richer by about $117 million ”” money he says he plans to plow back into other ventures that aim to fight poverty while also trying to turn a profit.
And he says he wants to challenge other rich Indians to do more to help their country’s poor.
Now is the time for prophetic action. The world leaders have come to New York briefed by their own economists and political advisors. They are negotiating commitments and generating their collective resolve as governments to achieving the MDGs by 2015. Clearly none disputes the worthiness of the MDGs. But even as they debate the best roadmap to 2015, world leaders are also weighing the probability that any specific commitment they make will pass muster with their citizenries.
But prophets don’t trade in probabilities. Maimonides, the Jewish scholar of the 12th century, argued that prophetic hope is belief in the “plausibility of the possible” as opposed to the “necessity of the probable.” Likewise, biblical faith calls Christians to something more in this Kairos moment than settling for realistic probabilities. Biblical prophets and Jesus’ ministry calls us to sustain a vision where the needs of all are met in the economy of God.
At this difficult time in our human global economy, the prophetic witness asked of us cannot merely be one of words but of vociferous, concrete action. Now is the time to move from MDG education and promotion to a model that will enfranchise Episcopalians for goal-oriented action and commitment.
Anglicans from across the world have contributed to a report to the United Nations about church-supported projects that are working to meet the Millennium Development Goals.
Between the 20 and 22 September global leaders are meeting in New York for the UN’s review of its Millennium Development Goals. The Anglican Observer at the UN Ms Hellen Wangusa has compiled a report on what Anglicans are doing to contribute towards the global effort to halve poverty by the UN’s 2015 deadline.
Ms Francisca Bawayan of the Episcopal Church in the Philippines reported that the construction of post-harvest facilities and provision of a micro hydropower supply are just two of the ways in which the Community Based Development Program (CBDP) of her Province has responded to MDGs 1 (Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger) and 7 (Ensure environmental sustainability).
The Archbishop of Canterbury has urged world leaders not to use the current economic crisis as a pretext to scale down efforts to fulfil the MillenÂnium Development Goals (MDGs).
Speaking in a video message, recorded to coincide with this week’s United Nations (UN) summit on the MDGs in New York, Dr Williams said that, although progress had been made in some areas ”” for example, reducing the spread of diseases such as malaria and HIV ”” “we are all bound to be painfully conÂscious that there is a very long way to go” in achieving the goals.
“This is not just about ideals in a vacuum: this is about the lives of millions of billions of people; and our call is still to make a real difference to them.
“It’s quite easy, especially in the light of the last couple of years, to think that we haven’t really got the resources for this after all.
A senior Christian leader has warned much of the aid flowing into Pakistan to help deal with massive flooding may never be used for relief.
Retired Anglican bishop Michael Nazir-Ali, a Pakistani national who has spent much of his life in Britain, is visiting Australia to discuss issues around Islam and its growth in the West.
“The misery that the (Pakistani) people are in has been caused, to some extent, by corruption and incompetence,” Bishop Nazir-Ali told reporters in Canberra on Monday.
Few people need a census report to tell them that more people are living in poverty during this recession, but there it is: nearly one of every seven people in the United States was living in poverty last year.
It was the highest rate of poverty since 1994, and the largest number of people living in poverty, 43.6 million, since the government began keeping track 51 years ago.
The U.S. Census Bureau also reported stagnant incomes and rising numbers of people without health insurance, both of which contribute to poverty and a national trend of a declining middle-class standard of living that began in 2000.
“These are very tough times,” said East Cooper Community Outreach Executive Director Jack Little. “People are hurting who have never hurt before.”
The U.S. tied with Switzerland for fifth place in a “world giving index” by the British-based Charities Aid Foundation that measured charitable behavior across the globe.
The ranking in the “World Giving Index 2010” was based on the U.S.’s showing in three categories””60 percent of Americans gave to an organization; 39 percent volunteered for a group; and 65 percent were willing to aid a stranger.
At first, the concept of “Undie Sunday” unsettled some members of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church.
Tighty-whiteys and the Lord’s house, after all, are not a natural fit.
“Some of the older people were saying, ‘How can you talk about underwear in church?’ — but once they realized there was such a need, everyone got around it,” church member and collection organizer Lelia Druzdis said.
Five years after Hurricanes Katrina devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, survivors and those working on their behalf say work is far from finished.
Church World Service says that what progress has been made is in great part due to the support, funding and labour of the US faith community and of humanitarian agencies.
“If it weren’t for the volunteers and agencies who assisted me, I don’t know where I would be,” said Gloria Mouton, 62, whose home in New Orleans East was among those repaired by volunteers from across the US during the 2009 CWS Neighborhood New Orleans ecumenical project.
Every day, an average of 112 people — most of them the newly poor — sign up for free government health care in South Carolina.
Since the recession officially hit in December 2007, some 3,300 people a month, on average, have signed up for Medicaid in a state that outpaces the nation for poverty, obesity and diseases such as diabetes. Yet, South Carolina’s political leaders have been among the most vocal in the country in opposition of the new health care law….
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Mr. Fisher, who is African-American, was arrested in upstate New York and returned to Oklahoma, where he pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. He faced execution if convicted, a prospect that, records show, his well-respected lawyer did little to avoid.
The lawyer, E. Melvin Porter, a civil rights advocate and the first African-American elected to the Oklahoma State Senate, later said that at the time he considered homosexuals to be “among the worst people in the world,” and Mr. Fisher to be a “very hostile client.”
Mr. Porter was shockingly ill-prepared for trial ”” “unwilling or unable to reveal evident holes in the state’s case,” a federal appellate court later noted, yet “remarkably successful in undermining his own client’s testimony.” He exhibited “actual doubt and hostility” about his client’s defense, the court said, and failed to present a closing argument, even though the state’s case “was hardly overwhelming.”
Inside the drab district hospital, where dogs patter down the corridors, sniffing for food, Ratan Bhuria’s children are curled together in the malnutrition ward, hovering at the edge of starvation. His daughter, Nani, is 4 and weighs 20 pounds. His son, Jogdiya, is 2 and weighs only eight.
Landless and illiterate, drowned by debt, Mr. Bhuria and his ailing children have staggered into the hospital ward after falling through India’s social safety net. They should receive subsidized government food and cooking fuel. They do not. The older children should be enrolled in school and receiving a free daily lunch. They are not. And they are hardly alone: India’s eight poorest states have more people in poverty ”” an estimated 421 million ”” than Africa’s 26 poorest nations, one study recently reported.
Customers who walk into the Saint Louis Bread Co. in Clayton, Mo., often stop, glance up at a sign and gape. Too many choices? Hardly. “We encourage those with the means to leave the requested amount or more if you’re able,” the sign reads. “And we encourage those with a real need to take a discount.” Huh? I’m about to buy lunch at a fairly upscale sandwich joint, and I can name my own price?
Two greeters are available to confirm my suspicions: at this establishment, you can pay what you want….
South Carolina had more than 7,500 licensed gambling locations. This number was much higher than Nevada, and the city of Columbia had more licensed locations than Las Vegas. There were more than 37,000 licensed video poker machines ”” roughly one for every 100 people in the state.
The gambling industry was taking in a reported $3 billion a year.
The money came disproportionately from the poor: In a 1997 survey of video poker players, 48 percent reported making less than $20,000 per year.
The cost far outweighed the gain….
Blame Tom Sawyer: Americans have a skewed view of childhood and summertime. We associate the school year with oppression and the summer months with liberty. School is regimen; summer is creativity. School is work and summer is play. But when American students are competing with children around the globe who may be spending four weeks longer in school each year, larking through summer is a luxury we can’t afford. What’s more, for many children ”” especially children of low-income families ”” summer is a season of boredom, inactivity and isolation.
Deprived of healthy stimulation, millions of low-income kids lose a significant amount of what they learn during the school year. Call it “summer learning loss,” as the academics do, or “the summer slide,” but by any name summer is among the most pernicious ”” if least acknowledged ”” causes of achievement gaps in America’s schools….
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Watch it all
Two completely different conversations about food are taking place around the world. One is among the well-fed, who ask themselves, “What should I eat?” The other is among the underfed, who wonder, “How can I keep from starving?”
Christians influence these two conversations significantly, according to Wall Street Journal reporters Roger Thurow and Scott Kilman, authors of Enough: Why the World’s Poorest Starve in an Age of Plenty(Public Affairs). They believe Christians should better understand that most cases of malnutrition and chronic hunger and nearly all starvation can be prevented if the right reforms are put into place. Rob Moll, an editor at large for Christianity Today, recently interviewed Thurow, now a senior fellow with the Chicago Council of Global Affairs.
Why use moral and theological language in a mainstream book about world hunger?….