{"id":6896,"date":"2018-09-25T07:12:21","date_gmt":"2018-09-25T12:12:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/faithlens\/?p=6896"},"modified":"2018-09-24T13:00:20","modified_gmt":"2018-09-24T18:00:20","slug":"september-30-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/faithlens\/september-30-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"September 30, 2018–Priority of the Poor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jocelyn Breeland, Sunnyvale, CA<\/strong><\/p>\n

Warm-up Question<\/strong><\/p>\n

What is your congregation or community doing to help the poor?<\/p>\n

Priority of the Poor<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) launched the Poor People\u2019s Campaign, a multiracial effort to address the causes of poverty in America and achieve economic justice. Dr. King was in Memphis, Tennessee to support the sanitation workers strike \u2013 a major element of the campaign \u2013 when he was assassinated in April of that year.<\/p>\n

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The campaign continued after his death, advocating an Economic Bill of Rights, eventually erecting Resurrection City, a shantytown where thousands of people lived on the National Mall in Washington, DC while demanding economic justice. Resurrection City lasted six weeks. The campaign did not achieve adoption of the Economic Bill of Rights, but did result in some lesser victories such as additional funds for free and reduced school lunch programs and Head Start.<\/p>\n

Fifty years later, Rev. William J. Barber and Rev. Liz Theoharis have launched a new nationwide effort called The Poor People\u2019s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. (You can learn more by visiting their website here<\/a>.) The new campaign\u2019s website calls out the \u201cdistorted moral narrative\u201d that perpetuates systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation, and militarism.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, the campaign held rallies and organized groups of supporters in communities across the country, believing that many of the solutions can be achieved locally. More recently, the campaign has added a focus on voter registration. The founders are committed to non-violent action to finally achieve Dr. King\u2019s vision. Like the original, this new campaign is a multi-faith, multi-racial effort.<\/p>\n

Discussion Questions<\/strong><\/p>\n