Hope in the Battle Against Poverty

North Carolina group organizes

In previous posts, I mentioned Pentecost 2006, a DC conference for people of faith seeking to alleviate poverty. Today some NC attendees met in Greensboro to harness the enthusiasm that gathring kindled in us. It was an interesting meeting of interesting people. We talked out what we wished to become and reached some conclusions.

First, we do not want to duplicate the work done by other organizations that alleviate the symptoms of poverty, such as hunger and homelessness. Instead we want to focus on political efforts to keep poverty in the public mind and to pressure public officials to act on poverty issues. The only hope is a dramatic change in the political landscape, similar to the civil rights movement.

Second, although many of us deeply believe in fighting other forms of injustice, we will make poverty our single cause. One reason is our desire to find common ground with conservative Christians. Everyone believes poverty is bad and was a central focus of Jesus’ ministry. Despite our differences, we can unite on this. Also, if we don’t draw in a wide spectrum of the public, we will have very little political clout here in NC.

Finally, we want to remain centered in our religious compulsion to act. Although we welcome anyone, we are progressive Christians, inspired by the teachings of Jesus, hoping to unite with others in this awesome battle.

We are inspired by other states and local communities that are forming similar organizations and hope to inspire others. I’ll keep you posted on our progress.

Without hope, nothing can change.