Description:
With so many injustices, small and great, across the world and right at our doorstep, what are people of faith to do? Since the 1930s, organizing movements for social justice in the U.S. have largely been built on assumptions that are secular origin--such as reliance on self-interest and having a common enemy as a motivator for change. But what if Christians were to shape their organizing around the implications of the truth that God is real and Jesus is risen?Alexia Salvatierra has developed a model of social action that is rooted in the values and convictions born of faith. Together with theologian Peter Heltzel, this model of "faith-rooted organizing" offers a path to meaningful social change that takes seriously the command to love God and to love our neighbor as ourself.
Brief description:
Alexia Salvatierra is an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. For over eleven years she was the executive director of Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE). She teaches and trains people throughout the United States in the principles and methods of faith-rooted organizing.
Review Quotes:
"Organizing is an old tradition, but for years there was a mindset that it is all about self-interest and manipulating power, whatever the collateral damage. Peter and Alexia bring us to a new/ancient place, social justice with sleeves rolled up, grounded in organizing for good as the deepest expression of faith. Faith-Rooted Organizing weaves Scripture with practice and the prophetic voice with practical steps, presenting organizing as a spiritual act of partnering with God in repairing the world."
--David M. Elcott, Taub Professor of Practice in Public Service and Leadership, Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service, New York University