Poverty and Economic Justice

The Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR) works to promote social justice through human rights. In a world where poverty and inequality deprive entire communities of dignity, justice and sometimes life, we seek to uphold the universal human rights of every human being to education, health, food, water, housing, work, and other economic, social and cultural rights essential to human dignity.

Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation (EGR) is a small organization igniting and fueling a big movement … a grassroots movement of connection and collaboration for creative ministry following Christ by heeding his call to seek & serve him in the extreme poor around the world.
Includes: Bulletin Inserts, prayers, sermons, study guides and power point presentations and prayers.

"God & Imperial Power, Jesus & Economic Injustice"  by John Dominic Crossan and Joerg Rieger

 Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ) is a network of people of faith that calls upon our religious values in order to educate, organize, and mobilize the religious community in the United States on issues and campaigns that will improve wages, benefits, and conditions for workers, and give voice to workers, especially workers in low-wage jobs.

Jubilee USA Network is an alliance of more than 80 religious denominations and faith communities, human rights, environmental, labor, and community groups working for the definitive cancellation of crushing debts to fight poverty and injustice in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

The Open Door Community is a residential community in the Catholic Worker tradition (we’re sometimes called a Protestant Catholic Worker House). They seek to dismantle racism, sexism and heterosexism, abolish the death penalty, and proclaim the Beloved Community through loving relationships with some of the most neglected and outcast of God’s children: the homeless and our sisters and brothers who are in prison.

Poverty and the Bible by Edward Campbell
Edward Campbell, professor emeritus of Hebrew Bible at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, reminds us that the biblical injunction to care for the least of those among us comes from a sense of relationship, and it is in those terms that he frames a call to economic justice.

The Rich and Poor in James: Implications for Institutionalized Partiality by Duane Warden
In this article Warden, professor of Bible and associate dean of the College of Bible and Religion at Harding University in Searcy, AR, focuses on the good news for the poor in the Book of James. A self-identified evangelical, he examines the economic policies evangelicals have tended to support and questions whether they are in line with biblical ideas on the rich and the poor.

Sabbath Economics Collaborative  is a national, membership-based network that encourages cooperation and communication among theologians, economists and activists who are working with contemporary issues of faith and economic justice.

Sharing the Bread of Life: Hospitality and Resistance at the Open Door Community by Peter R. Gathje, 2006
This revised and updated history of the Open Door was published in honor of the community’s 25th anniversary. Drawing from the experiences, reflections, and writings of community members, Pete Gathje provides a portrait of the life and work of the Open Door and weaves together its various aspects including hospitality with the poor, communal life, faith and worship practice, and street activism.

The Story of Stuff
An online video that exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.

The Festival of Shelters: A Celebration for Love and Justice by Eduard Loring with Heather Bargeron
preface by Dick Rustay, 2008
This latest Open Door publication describes the recovery and reimagination of the ancient Jewish festival of Sukkoth, the Festival of Shelters, by members of the Open Door Community for the past two decades. The book documents and advocates a public practice of this liturgy in the context of homelessness to remind us of God’s good news of liberation and God’s call to compassion and justice.

What Does the Bible Say About Economics? by Rebecca Blank
This broad overview of economics in the biblical tradition argues that the economic wisdom in the Bible can inform the way we structure our personal lives as well as our public institutions. Blank is dean of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan.

Bread for the World. 2007 Reflection Resource. Summer 2007. (Note: 2007 Beatitudes Society Fellow Emily Kuhn prepared page 3!)

Congregational Study Guide for Wage Theft In America
Congregations are encouraged to use Wage Theft in America as an adult study program.

Congregational Study Guide for The Big Squeeze
IWJ offers a study guide for Steven Greenhouse's book The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker. It includes one-, four-, or six-session programs.

Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ) is a network of people of faith that calls upon our religious values in order to educate, organize, and mobilize the religious community in the United States on issues and campaigns that will improve wages, benefits, and conditions for workers, and give voice to workers, especially workers in low-wage jobs. Congregational Resources  - Includes: Bulletin Inserts, Interfaith Resources, Study Guides, Holiday Resources and Worship Materials

Homeless Sabbath Materials - Eight documents available for Homeless Person’s Memorial Day

Jubilee’s Worship and Study: Scripture for Study & Reflection

 Kinsler Jubilee Workbook     Ross and Gloria Kinsler, the authors of The Biblical Jubilee and the Struggle for Life: An Invitation to Personal, Ecclesial, and Social Transformation, continue to discover useful materials for understanding the global  economy, biblical teachings about economics, and attempts to practice economic justice.  The following worksheets are bite-sized summaries to facilitate individual and group reflection and action.  Each worksheet, which can be photocopied for all participants, provides stimulus for discussion.  The sheets are organized under three very general headings: TODAY'S WORLD, BIBLICAL FAITH, and RESPONSIBLE DISCIPLESHIP.  Jubilee spirituality requires critical thinking in all three dimensions.

Resources for Living Wage Worship Services and Community Events, 3rd edition, is a comprehensive tool kit for congregations and community organizations. Contents include:

    * Steps for organizing a living wage service or community event
    * Organizing/advocacy tools for minimum wage and living wage
    * Readings, prayers and handouts from various faith traditions
    * Working Family testimonials and Business Voices
    * Sample Op-Eds and Letters to the Editor
    * Fact sheets, charts, quotable quotes and much more

Talking Points From Catholic Social Teaching, Center of Concern

Talking Points on Global Poverty

Income Inequality

Gender and Poverty

Race and Poverty

The Persistence of Poverty in the U.S.

Poverty Questions

Bulletin Inserts - Poverty

American Friends Service Committee - action and advocacy links

Faith Leader Letter to Congress - from Let Justice Roll Living Wage Campaign - an ecumenical, non-partisan faith, community, labor, business coalition committed to raising the minimum wage to a living wage at the state and federal level.