Beatitudes Blog

Summer Fellowship: Mobilization to End Poverty!

Submitted by oalston on August 1, 2008 - 7:09pm.

Some say that the issue of poverty is the most pressing issue of our time. Everyday millions of people die due to poverty related causes. As people of faith dedicated to the Beatitudes we are called to deal with the issue of poverty in a responsible manner. This summer at Sojourners I worked on the Vote Out Poverty Campaign and The Mobilization to End Poverty. The Vote Out Poverty Campaign is a grassroots campaign that seeks to hold voters and elected officials accountable to cut domestic poverty in half over the next decade, and achieve the Millennium Development Goals, a set of international goals for reducing global poverty. The Vote Out Poverty Campaign will culminate with the Mobilization to End Poverty from April 26-29, 2009 in Washington, DC. Christians from all over the country will come together to hold our elected officials accountable to putting poverty at the top of our nation’s agenda.

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Summer Fellowship: Building the Beloved Community: 40 Years After MLK's Poor People's Campaign

Submitted by oalston on July 29, 2008 - 5:47pm.

By Onleilove Alston

"As I attended Pentecost 2008(Sojourners annual conference) I was reminded that Dr. King's Poor People's Campaign is celebrating its 40th anniversary. On Friday, Mary Nelson (Board Member of CCDA) and I facilitated a workshop on "Building the Beloved Community." Building the Beloved Community was one of the central messages of Dr. King's ministry. The Poor People's Campaign of 1968 serves as a tangible example of what the Beloved Community looks like when lived out. In November of 1967 Martin Luther King, Jr. and SCLC met to discuss what direction the movement should go in after the passage of civil rights legislation and the urban riots of the previous summer. SCLC decided to launch the Poor People's Campaign in response to the economic injustice that plagued many Americans of all races. The Poor People's Campaign was to be a widespread campaign of civil disobedience. The poor from across America would come to Washington, D.C. to challenge the government to pass an anti-poverty package that would include a commitment to full employment, a guaranteed annual income and increased construction of low-income housing.

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Summer Fellowship: Bless the Hands that Prepare Our Food

Submitted by oalston on July 29, 2008 - 5:45pm.

By Onleilove Alston

This blog was first posted on Sojourners God's Politics Blog. For more information please visit Justice at Smithfield-http://www.smithfieldjustice.com/

During this BBQ season we have to carefully consider what products are apart of our seasonal celebrations. Recently I attended the DC campaign kick-off for the Justice at Smithfield Campaign. "Smithfield Foods is the largest pork processor and producer in the world, the fourth largest turkey processor and fifth largest beef processor in the U.S." In the early 1990's Smithfield opened its Tar Heel, North Carolina plant, with 5,500 workers who slaughter and process 32,000 hogs per day. The Tar Heel plant is not unionized and overall only about 56% of Smithfield pork processing plant employees are unionized.

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