10 posts categorized "Books"

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[This blog post is an excerpt from an article written by Bread for the World board member Gabriel Salguero, president of that National Latino Evangelical Coalition. The full article is available on The Washington Post.]

It may come as a surprise to you to learn that Hispanic evangelicals are a key constituency in swing states. The Jan 31 Florida primary has hastened an all-out blitz for this group’s attention. What do Hispanic evangelicals want from a presidential candidate?

Since our coalition of Latino evangelicals launched a national voter registration campaign, I have fielded multiple interviews about this growing--and increasingly politically influential--demographic. As many have noted, historically, Hispanic evangelicals are social conservatives that simultaneously advocate for issues of justice for the most vulnerable. Anyone who ignores this reality, particularly in swing states like Nevada, Florida, Colorado, New Mexico and Ohio, has not understood this emerging and increasingly vocal group. As a group, we are quintessential independent voters.

In 2004, George W. Bush won the majority of Hispanic evangelicals and in 2008 Barack Obama won that vote by a slim majority. Now in 2012, politicians, pundits, and prognosticators want to know which way we will lean. I’d like to recommend a way forward.

Hispanic evangelicals are not a monolith. Moreover, it would be the height of hubris for anyone to claim to speak for the 10 million or so Latino evangelicals. I personally agree with David Neff of “Christianity Today” that we as evangelicals should resist the temptation to try to be kingmakers. There is much seduction in the “will to power” and we should run away as fast as they can from this temptation. Martin Luther King, Jr. was correct, when he wrote: “The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, it must be the guide and critic of the state and never its tool”(Strength to Love, 1963). Hispanic evangelicals should simultaneously bring moral and public pressure to bear on behalf of legislation we feel is consonant with our conscience and convictions. Our community should work hard to develop our own national agenda that holds all candidates accountable. In short, we should shy away from endorsing candidates --while backing agendas that are consonant with our worldview.

So what are Hispanic evangelicals passionate about? In 2012, many Latinos in Pentecostal and evangelical congregations have divided allegiances. On the top of their mutual agendas is humane, common sense immigration reform. This is a moral and family values issue. We take “welcome the stranger and love your neighbor” seriously. We are looking for legislation that provides an earned path to citizenship and keeps families together. This type of legislation has been endorsed by presidents from Reagan to Obama and yet nothing has changed. Both parties have lacked the political will to make policy changes that will impact Latino families in profound ways. 

To say Latino evangelicals are disappointed by this inaction is a severe understatement. Moreover, the rhetoric by some GOP candidates to veto a DREAM Act or to not provide a path to earned citizenship for the 12 million illegal and undocumented immigrants is raising the ire of many Latino pastors. Our message to the GOP is to stop the anti-immigrant rhetoric. Meanwhile, this present administration’s spike in deportations has left us disillusioned with the left. In short, Hispanic evangelicals want real solutions now and they want both parties to be accountable.

On the social issues Latino evangelicals overwhelmingly hold to a pro-life and pro-marriage platform. This is no secret. Latino evangelicals have historically been social conservatives on the issues of marriage and what Catholics call a “seamless garment” of life. This means that many Latino evangelicals advocate for a broad agenda that protects children--both before birth and after. We are thoroughly concerned about the health of the most vulnerable.

While Hispanic evangelicals are for the most part social conservatives, they also value the power of good governance on behalf of the ones Jesus called, “the least of these.” Many Hispanic evangelicals, myself included, signed-on to the Circle of Protection to protect programs for the poorest and most vulnerable in our country. In addition, we realize that the global economic recession has displaced thousands of Latinos from homes in the foreclosure crisis. Latinos look for a government that understands that among the things the Constitution calls for is that the government “promote the general welfare.” This is at the heart of Latino evangelicals’ advocacy for anti-poverty programs at home and abroad, immigration reform, and educational equity. Pew researchers have said that Latino evangelicals are “big government social conservatives.” I would say we are people who seek the common good. ...

[Keep reading this article on The Washington Post.]

Gabriel Salguero is a board member at Bread for the World and president of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition.

Photo by Flickr user thejester100

In this next installment of hunger resources, I've created a short list of articles that cover farm subsidies, black unemployment, the federal budget and more. Got any hunger resources of your own? Share them in the comments section below.

• “Why Fruits, Vegetables are Excluded From Farm Subsidies: Fairness Factor is Who is Covered, Who is Not,” by Alli Condra, Food Safety News, Nov. 9, 2011 (3 pages). 

• “High Black Unemployment Widespread Across Nation’s Metropolitan Areas,” by Algernon Austin. Economic Policy Institute, Oct. 3, 2011 (8 pages). 

• “Feed the Future: Navigating Through the U.S. Budget Tsunami,” by Larry Nowels, Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Oct. 12, 2011 (7 pages). 

• “Quantifying Poverty’s Global Decline,” by Laurence Chandy,  Brookings, Oct. 2011. 

• “Food Security Experts Review Mixed Outcome of the Green Revolution,” by Kate Johnson. Center on Food Security and the Environment, Oct. 18, 2011.

+Click here for a full list of what we're reading at Bread for the World.

Chris Matthews is the librarian at Bread for the World Institute.

Bread for the World Librarian Chris Matthews curates a list of resources for readers who want to stay on top of the latest information about hunger.

In this next installment of hunger resources, I've gathered a collection of articles on how people suffer from hunger and the overall cost of hunger in a society. Got any hunger resources of your own? Share them in the comments section below.

• On the Brink:  Who’s Best Prepared for a Climate and Hunger Crisis?  (Casey, Leora and Alex Wijeratna. Actionaid, Oct. 2011):
  "Accelerating climate change, growing population and rising food prices pose a triple crisis that could lead to a collapse in global food systems."

• Right to Food and Nutrition Watch 2011.  Claiming Human Rights:  The Accountability Challenge.  (Brot fur die Welt, FIAN and ICCO, Oct. 11, 2011)
  "Despite the growth of a worldwide Right to Food movement and the existence of international frameworks and mechanisms to protect human rights, an unacceptable number of violations remain unpunished, according to the Right to Food and Nutrition Watch 2011, an annual publication released today that monitors food security and nutrition policies from a human rights perspective." 

•  Food Sovereignty:  Reclaiming the Global Food System. (Branford, Sue. War on Want, Oct. 2011.)
   "The scandal of global hunger stands as a rebuke to humanity. The fact that record numbers of people are classified as hungry, at a time when there is unprecedented wealth in theworld, challenges the very concept of human progress."

• Farmers Facing Loss of Subsidy May Get New One (Neuman, William, New York Times, Oct. 17, 2011)
  "It seems a rare act of civic sacrifice: in the name of deficit reduction, lawmakers from both parties are calling for the end of a longstanding agricultural subsidy that puts about $5 billion a year in the pockets of their farmer constituents. Even major farm groups are accepting the move, saying that with farmers poised to reap bumper profits, they must do their part."

• Hunger In America:  Suffering We All Pay For (Shepard, Donald S … et al, Center for American Progress & Brandeis University, Oct. 2011)
  "The Great Recession and the currently tepid economic recovery swelled the ranks of American households confronting hunger and food insecurity by 30 percent. In 2010 48.8 million Americans lived in food insecure households, meaning they were hungry or faced food insecurity at some point during the year."

• Interactive Map:  Costs of Hunger (Cooper, Donna, Center for America Progress, Oct. 4, 2011)
  An interactive map on the costs of hunger created by the Center for American Progress. 

+Click here for a full list of what we're reading at Bread for the World.

Chris Matthews is the librarian at Bread for the World Institute.

Bread for the World Librarian Chris Matthews curates a list of resources for readers who want to stay on top of the latest information about hunger.

In this next installment of hunger resources, I've gathered a collection of articles on the connection between agriculture and food resources, and how aid enables global development. Got any hunger resources of your own? Share them in the comments section below:

• Special Food Issue, (The Nation):
  Michael Pollan, Michelle Chen, Frances Moore Lappe, Eric Schlosser, Raj Patel, Bridget Haber, Daniel Imhoff, and others write about the food movement, why hunger is still with us, the inner workings of the Farm Bill, and more.

• A Push to Farm Smarter -- Not Bigger -- to Feed the World's Hungry, (The Christian Science Monitor): 
  "For more than 30 years, Porfirio Bastida never considered changing the way he farms his 1.2 acre cornfield in Texcoco, in the central Mexican highlands .... So he joined forces with a nearby research institute called the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). It helped him switch from the practices he'd employed his whole life to conservation-agriculture techniques: rotating crops, not tilling, leaving residue from the previous harvest to act as a sponge atop the land."

• Bringing Agriculture to the Table, (The Chicago Council on Global Affairs):
  "The agriculture and food system plays a significant role in the illness and early death that arise out of the imbalanced diets, empty calories, and overconsumption that are rampant in high- and middle-income countries and increasingly apparent in the nutrition and epidemiological transitions under way in developing countries."

• Millenium Development Goals Progress Index 2011, (Center for Global Development):
  "Last year, as international attention focused on the Millennium Development Goals, the international community committed to redouble efforts toward achieving the highly ambitious MDG targets by the 2015 deadline. CGD’s MDG Progress Index showed how countries were doing. Now, with new data for 2009 and 2010, the Index has been updated."

• Comer Bien: The Challenges of Nourishing Latino Children and Families, (National Council of La Raza):
  "Millions of American children are suffering from hunger or obesity, nutritional deficits that place them at great risk for developing health conditions that plague them into adulthood ... Latinos' -- the fastest-growing segment of the child population -- have some of the highest rates of child obesity; nearly 40 percent of Latino children are overweight or obese."

• From Aid to Global Development Cooperation, (Brookings):
  "The context for aid is changing. Globalization has spurred economic convergence, upending the 20th-century economic balance and creating a smaller world where both problems and solutions spill across national borders more readily."

+Click here for a full list of what we're reading at Bread for the World.

Chris Matthews is the librarian at Bread for the World Institute.

Author Neil Gaiman says, "Google can bring you back 100,000 answers. A librarian can bring you back the right one." That's why we at Bread for the World appreciate our librarian, Chris Matthews, who gives us the right answers to all of our random queries.

Now, in this regularly appearing blog series called "Hunger Resources," Chris Matthews will curate resources for you on hunger, poverty, and justice. Here is this week's list:

• Special Report: Crisis Grips North Korean Rice Bowl, (Reuters): 
  "In a pediatric hospital in North Korea's most productive farming province, children lay two to a bed. All showed signs of severe malnutrition: skin infections, patchy hair, listless apathy. 'Their mothers have to bring them here on bicycles,' said duty doctor Jang Kum Son in the Yellow Sea port city of Haeju. 'We used to have an ambulance but it's completely broken down. One mother travelled 72 kilometers (45 miles). By the time they get here, it's often too late.'"

• How America Turned Poverty into a Crime, (Barbara Ehrenreich, Slate):
  "The poor aren't just struggling during the recession; they're being actively hounded by urban officials."

• Partners in Help: Assisting the Poor Over the Long Term, (Foreign Affairs):
  Paul Farmer, Kolokotrones University Professor at Harvard University, gave a commencement speech at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government on aid, his theory of accomplishment, and Haiti after the earthquake.

• Top 10 Striking Findings From the Latest Data on Poverty, (Center for American Progress):
  "Yesterday the Census Bureau released the latest data on poverty, income, and health insurance in America. The data confirm that millions of Americans continue to cope with the Great Recession’s enduring effects, and they show the strength of our safety net and our need for good jobs now. Here are the top 10 most striking findings from the data.

+Click here for a full list of what we're reading at Bread for the World.

Today, on the  Kojo Nnamdi Show, the topic of conversation was the future of foreign aid, and the guests included Jim Kolbe, Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network co-chair, and Paul O’Brien, Vice President for Policy and Campaigns at Oxfam America. This was a very timely discussion considering the current political climate over the budget; furthermore, this week marks one year since President Obama issued the first ever Presidential Policy Directive on Global Development (PPD). The directive elevated development to one of the key pillars of foreign policy, along with defense and diplomacy, and put a strong emphasis on reforming how we do aid and development.

So how are things looking one year later, and where are we headed? Those were the questions Kolbe and O'Brien discussed on the Kojo Nnamdi Show. Both believed that the PPD, as well as the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review, were major policy frameworks that ensured that the foreign affairs budget is spent wisely and that American tax dollars are used most effectively to serve our interests in an increasingly interconnected world. In the year since these documents were released, Kolbe and O’Brien said that we have seen progress. O’Brien noted that the Partnership for Growth initiative is seeing major success; for example, Ghana’s growth rate, one of the PFG countries, is currently at 18 percent. O’Brien and Kolbe also referenced better cross-agency coordination since the release of the PPD and increased transparency from the State Department and USAID with the launch of the Foreign Assistance Dashboard--an easy-to-understand website that allows visitors to track U.S. government foreign assistance investments.

That said, both Kolbe and O’Brien emphasized that a rewrite of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (FAA) was a crucial part of reform. O’Brien agreed with Kojo in that the piece of legislation is now widely regarded as an obstacle and needs to be brought into the 21 century. Kolbe pointed out that the world has changed drastically since the FAA was written, and it is not useful for us to just keep tacking things onto it rather than fixing the law as a whole. Earlier this month, Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA) released his Global Partnerships Act as a working draft of an FAA rewrite. O’Brien and Kolbe were hopeful that Congress would start work on it, though neither saw much possibility for passage in this Congress.

+Listen to the full interview here.

Mary Deering is outreach associate for the Modernizing Foreign Aid Network.

On a long train ride out to Montana for field work, I read David Beckmann’s new book, Exodus from Hunger: We Are Called to Change the Politics of Hunger. I underlined so many passages and the margins are so filled with “yes!” that I don’t think I could ever lend my copy. The book is a roadmap to end hunger with the very foundation being our relationship with God. I was so inspired by the stories of everyday people who helped create huge changes with small acts of living out their faith.

Beckmann, Bread’s president, situates the work of ending hunger and poverty as an opening to allow God to work in our lives. “God did not send Moses to Pharaoh’s court to take up a collection of canned goods and blankets,” he writes. “God sent Moses to Pharaoh with a political challenge: To let the Hebrew slaves go free.”

I was so inspired by the book that when I finally landed in Kalispell, Montana, and gave my presentation at Northridge Lutheran Church, I was filled with excitement about what is possible when we let God work in those spaces. Pastor Dan called me yesterday and said they sold 25 copies of the book since then to their church members, and now I’m excited to tell him about the new study guide!

The guide’s three sessions provide a great opportunity for small groups to really dig deeper into what living out our faith means—both as individuals and as the body of Christ. Digging through the great discussion questions together may open up new spaces where we allow God to work through us and our community.

Robin Stephenson is the field organizer for Bread for the World’s Western regional office.

Cureton Johnson once worked in Bread for the World's communications department and helped lead Bread’s effort to mobilize emergency U.S. aid to Ethiopia during a developing food crisis in 1983. Bread founder Art Simon describes Cureton’s work in his book, The Rising of Bread for the World:

In 1983, we began getting reports of a serious food shortage in Ethiopia, which was gradually turning into a catastrophic regional famine, so we began to campaign for emergency U.S. aid. We got there well ahead of the national media, which had not yet given coverage to the famine. In addition to alerting members, we convened a national one-day summit on the African crisis that drew representatives from forty-seven church-related agencies.

We later did a media blitz in 30 cities, led by our media specialist Cureton Johnson. The public response to those efforts prompted Congress and the administration to move more quickly with increased U.S. assistance.

Cureton recently published a new book, Bible-based Spiritual Stimulus Plan, which the publisher describes as a “virtual ‘revival in a book,’ offering a prophetic voice of encouragement to all living in this breathtaking world of change! Its 12 key scriptural stimuli help fashion readers into God's masterpieces for good in society.” 

A few examples of Cureton’s spiritual stimuli:

• Alligator Courage: The author, in a small boat on a storm-tossed river containing alligators (caimans) in Guyana, shows us the power of Psalm 121.
• Your Holy DNA: Tap into your holy DNA, which carries wonderful spiritual resources. Old things pass away and, behold, you become new creations in Christ Jesus!
• Joy—A Yummy Recipe: Discover how a pineapple-upside-down-cake can change your life! "Taste and see that the Lord is good" every day (Psalm 34).
• Spiritual Blind Dates: You never know when God will put you in a particular place, at a particular time, with a particular person, for a particular reason. Get ready to walk through doors of opportunity! God used a dog on Dr. Johnson.
• Kindness/Vitamin K: Kindness produces ripple effects of good works, like a stone thrown into a lake makes ripples on the water. Kindness is a doorway into the kingdom of God. Find out how a young girl in Scripture is a perfect example for us to use this gracious gift.

North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Patricia Timmons-Goodson, Howard University School of Divinity Dean Alton Pollard, and others have endorsed the book. So has Bread regional organizer Larry Hollar, editor of the Hunger for the Word Scripture series. “Cureton Johnson's wise, Bible-based reflections challenge us to be prophets of a new time—especially for those on the margins of society.”

Cureton has pastored First Baptist Church in Fayetteville, NC, for 19 years. He holds a doctor of ministry degree from Drew University and master’s degrees from Shaw Divinity School and American University.

He describes how the book came about:

In 2006, I attended my first writer's conference in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina. I had been writing most of my baby-boomer life and I decided to write a book. Armed with paper and a laptop, I spent a week in training sessions and writing. After a week, I returned home and wrote for several days, but a clear purpose for the book eluded me. So I stopped.

Three years later, while observing a beautiful sunrise over a NC beach, God instructed me to write this book and return to the mountains for another writer's conference. From there, the Lord poured out the Holy Spirit upon me, set me to writing, and endowed me with wisdom from on high. There was a good reason for the delay; I had to know that God was in charge and crafting the book. It would not be completed by human might but by the Creator's power and for his glory.

We’ve got a few more books on hunger and poverty for you—any would be great for a church or community small group this fall. Of course, don’t forget to pre-order your copy of David Beckmann’s new book! Exodus from Hunger will be published next month.

Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. Knopf, September 2009. The authors argue that global poverty can’t be alleviated until gender inequality is addressed. They focus on women and girls in the developing world, covering issues such as sex trafficking, maternal mortality, and gender-based violence (including mass rapes and “honor” killings). What makes the book fantastic is the writing and the storytelling—included among the crushing statistics about poverty are compelling stories about individual women and girls who have survived horrific abuses to transform themselves and the communities around them.

In the River They Swim: Essays from Around the World on Enterprise Solutions to Poverty, by Michael Fairbanks, Malik Fal, Marcela Escobari-Rose, and Elizabeth Hooper. Templeton Press, 2009. These writers argue that enterprise and technological solutions to poverty are the best hope for poor nations. Because they were asked to write about their actual experiences working in poor countries, the essays are interesting, informative, and personal. The writers are also candid about poverty-alleviating failures, which is refreshing.

Bread for the World’s work is highlighted in two new books aimed at inspiring Christians to help others. Children of the Light, by Bread member Bob Violino, and Zealous Love, by Mike and Danae Yankoski, profile Christian leaders and organizations working to bring about God’s justice and compassion.

In Children of the Light, Violino offers a biographical reflection on the faith life of Bread’s president, Rev. David Beckmann. He gives a short history of Bread -- from its humble beginnings to the dramatic progress that has been made against hunger, due in part to the committed advocacy of its members.

Zealous Love introduces readers to eight of the world’s most pressing challenges: human trafficking, unclean water, refugees, hunger, lack of education, creation degradation, HIV/AIDS, and economic inequality. Beckmann contributes to the hunger section of the book, urging readers to call on our nation’s decision makers to pass laws that are more fair and compassionate for hungry people. “God’s grace in Jesus shapes our lives,” Beckmann writes. “It moves us to reach out to others in love and seek justice where human dignity is at stake.”