THE LINE (THIS IS WHAT POVERTY LOOKS LIKE IN AMERICA) & HAVING OUR SAY (AMERICAN POVERTY AND THE PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES) 8&7SEP12

THIS is the trailer for The Line, a nonpartisan film about what happens to ordinary American families when they cross the poverty line. Click the link to watch the trailer and you will also have the opportunity to tweet Pres Obama and mitt romney and ask them what they are going to do about poverty in America. The film opens 2OCT12.

I want to make sure you got a chance to see this.
We just launched the trailer for Sojourners' new upcoming film The Line, and it’s already taking off across the web and across the country! It’s written and directed by Emmy Award-winning producer Linda Midgett, and chronicles the very real stories of four real people struggling with real poverty in America today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=RGkqh5x6scw 
You’ll meet a banker in the suburban Midwest who used to earn six-figures a year and now, after the economic collapse, must go to a food bank to feed his three kids; a fisherman on the Gulf Coast of Louisiana who has watched his livelihood and his culture wash away in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and a devastating off-shore oil spill; a blue collar guy in North Carolina who worked hard his whole life but lost his job, became homeless, and started over as a restaurant busboy; and a single mom in Chicago who battles daily to ensure that her son is safe, healthy, and has the opportunity to go to college.
You can watch — and share — the official trailer for The Line, which debuts next month, right HERE.
Thanks,
Jim Wallis
http://thelinemovie.com/

Watch 'The Line': The Most Important Film You'll See This Year
Last week, millions tuned in to watch the Republican National Convention. It was a party for a political party funded by wealthy interests seeking to appeal to middle-class voters in an election year.
This week, millions are tuning  in to watch the Democratic National Convention. It is a party for a political party funded by wealthy interests seeking to appeal to middle-class voters in an election year.
Today, I want to introduce you to a film that just might be the most important thing you watch this week — or this year, for that matter.
Significant things, no doubt, have and will be said about our country during the political conventions. Competing visions for our future will be presented at both events. And there will be a lot of grandstanding, empty promises, half-truths, and deceptions (as their always seem to be in politics).
The media already is obsessing about how many times the word “God” is used in each party’s platform as a measure of faith or religiosity, as if crying “Lord, Lord” and vain repetition has replaced obedience to God’s command to love our neighbors. And yet, it's the actions of each party during the last four years that gives us true insight into who and what is important to them, much more than what gets written down on a party platform or said in speeches during these three-day self-congratulatory celebrations.
Yes, a strong middle class is important for a nation. But I also believe many more people need to be lifted up into economic security.
Matthew 25 doesn’t say, “As you have done to the middle class, you have done to me."
What it records Jesus saying is, “As you have done to the least of these, you have done to me.” Chances are that will never be the central message of political conventions during election years.
But every four years for the last 40 years (even before we were called Sojourners!), our community has done what we can to lift up the issue of poverty during presidential elections. While political party platforms have changed, our commitment to the least of these has not.
So it is with that spirit, this election year, that I am proud to present a new short film called The Line.
Written and directed by Emmy award-winning producer Linda Midgett, it chronicles the very real stories of four real people struggling with real poverty in America today.
You’ll meet a former banker in the suburban Midwest who used to earn six figures a year and now, after the economic collapse, must go to a food bank to feed his three kids; a fisherman on the Gulf Coast of Louisiana who has watched his livelihood and his culture wash away in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and the devastating  BP oil spill; a blue collar guy in North Carolina who worked hard his whole life but lost his job, became homeless, and started over as a restaurant bus boy; and a single mom in Chicago who battles daily to ensure that her son is safe, healthy, and has the opportunity to go to college.
You can watch — and share — the official trailer for The Line, which debuts next month, right HERE.
The idea of the film is simple: People living in and struggling with poverty telling their own stories. They are beautiful, inspiring, challenging, and full of grace.
In a word, their stories are powerful. The kind you never forget. The kind that make you not only feel something, but compel you to do something.
My Sojourners colleagues and I want to share The Line's stories and message with as many people as we can. That's where you come in. We need your help.
The first thing you can do is watch the trailer. As soon as you've seen it, I'm sure you’re going to want to share it with everyone you know.
Next, I invite you to join us. The Line premieres at 8 p.m. (EST) Oct. 2 — the night before the first presidential debate. With your help, I believe we can make sure both candidates understand that they will need to address the issue of poverty during that debate.
But, before we can get there, I need you to help us spread the word. So please, take just a couple of minutes today to watch the trailer and share with everyone you think needs to hear these stories.
And it’s with a lot of gratitude that I get to thank our partner — World Vision —  as well as the generous support from Oxfam America, Bread for the World, and the Christian Community Development Association that made The Line possible.
If you'd like to host a screening of The Line in your town (at your house of worship, a local theater, school, or anywhere else) or find a screening near you, click HERE.
Jim Wallis is the author of Rediscovering Values: A Guide for Economic and Moral Recovery, and CEO of Sojourners. Follow Jim on Twitter @JimWallis.

HAVING OUR SAY (AMERICAN POVERTY AND THE PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES) 7SEP12

"The great enemy of freedom is the alignment of political power with wealth. This alignment destroys the commonwealth - that is, the natural wealth of localities and the local economies of household, neighborhood, and community - and so destroys democracy, of which the commonwealth is the foundation and practical means.”
- Wendell Berry
from The Art of the Commonplace

 
TAVIS Smiley has long been an advocate for social justice and a moral budget and moral economy. Here he offers a way to make sure our concerns about the number of Americans living in poverty or facing the prospect of falling into poverty are brought up and addressed at the presidential and vice presidential debates. Twitter, if you tweet, the debate moderators and insist they include the plight of America's poor in the debates. From HuffPost....
Now that the conventions are over, time to prepare for the presidential debates. The candidates have homework to do, but so do we.
There are roughly 300 million American citizens. Each one with an equal right to be heard. But four Americans have been given special status. Jim Lehrer, Bob Schieffer, Candy Crowley and Martha Raddatz: the four journalists selected by the Commission on Presidential Debates to moderate the upcoming presidential and vice-presidential debates.
I have the utmost respect for my distinguished broadcast colleagues; they have each earned their way onto the debate stage. That said, I reiterate my deep disappointment with the obvious lack of diversity in this group; a group that could have been and should have been more representative of the most multi-cultural, multi-racial and multi-ethnic America ever. But I have an even greater concern at the moment.
As we move closer to the first debate, October 3, in Denver, Colorado, how do issues that should matter actually get raised in the debate? Case in point: four years ago in the three debates between Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain, the word "poor" or "poverty" did not come up one time. Obama didn't raise it, McCain didn't raise it, the moderators never asked about it. By the way, two of those moderators are back on stage this year.
This year, both Governor Romney and President Obama at least mentioned the "P" word in their convention speeches, but neither pledged to make the alleviation of poverty in America a priority. Both continued to address the "middle class" when everybody knows that the new poor are the former middle class. Candidates for high office love sharing personal narratives of overcoming poverty, but can't seem to fully commit themselves to lead in creating a bi-partisan plan that could significantly reduce and eventually eradicate poverty in the richest nation in the world.
So, how do we get the impolite topic of poverty on the agenda for the debates? It's hard to ignore that 1 in 2 Americans is either living in or near poverty. Hard to ignore the 16 million children now living in poverty. Hard to ignore that more Americans are experiencing long-term unemployment than at any time in recorded history. Hard to ignore the growing lines at food pantries. Hard to ignore all the FORECLOSURE yard signs. Hard to ignore all the recent -- and not so recent -- college graduates who can't find work. Hard to ignore the millions of Americans falling through the cracks as government inexplicably draws up the social safety net, diminishing Medicaid, food stamps and other vital social service programs. Hard to ignore the direct link between poverty and joblessness. Hard to ignore.
Yet, I fear that's exactly what may happen if we don't remind the candidates and the moderators that poverty in America ought to be abnormal, not the new normal. So, what to do? I say let the moderators hear from you. I don't know too many of my colleagues who outright refuse to review their mail. It matters to most. And since they're representing US, why not hear from US?
Greg Kaufmann of The Nation magazine has been doing his homework, chronicling potential questions about poverty in America for President Obama and Governor Romney. Sample questions: What is the appropriate role of government in improving the likelihood that an honest day's work earns a living wage? What do you think is most important in securing economic mobility for all children, regardless of the incomes or educational attainment of their parents, and how will you accomplish this? As president, what would you do about America's growing hunger crisis?
So here's your assignment: I'm sure you have a question for Obama and Romney about how to tackle poverty, and you ought to share that with the debate moderators. Here's how:
JIM LEHRER - PBS
twitter.com/NewsHour
newshour@pbs.org
BOB SCHIEFFER - CBS
twitter.com/bobSchieffer
facethenation@cbsnews.com
CANDY CROWLEY - CNN
twitter.com/crowleyCNN
MARTHA RADDATZ - ABC
twitter.com/martharaddatz
Poor people cannot be rendered invisible in this campaign. This time around, let's do our homework and make sure that ALL voices are heard.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tavis-smiley/debate-questions_b_1864091.html?utm_hp_ref=daily-brief?utm_source=DailyBrief&utm_campaign=090712&utm_medium=email&utm_content=BlogEntry&utm_term=Daily%20Brief

 

A Different Palm Sunday Shout 16APR11

MORE on the lessons of Christianity and our responsibilities to the world around us, including morality in politics, economics, the treatment of and providing for those among us in need. From David A Davis in HuffPost....
It's time for the Palm Sunday shout! Palm branches in the air, familiar hymns to sing, bible readings we've heard before. The congregation cries out "Hosanna! Hosanna in the highest!" We shout out "Lord save us!" Save is what hosanna means. Come save us! It is a Palm Sunday shout that affirms our craving for God's way in our lives. The shout announces our yearning for God's way in the world. Save us Lord. Hosanna!

If it were only that easy; God's way not our way. In his recent book, God's Ambassadors: A History of the Christian Clergy in America, historian E. Brooks Holifield traces a few themes present in the life of the clergy in every generation in America. One of those ever-present realities for clergy is what the author describes as "a paradox at the heart of Christianity." The paradox is a Gospel that is at the same time world-denying and world-affirming. God is above or beyond culture, institutions, our way. God is revealed in and through culture, institutions, our way. God's transcendence and God's immanence are the fancy terms. So clergy embody what Holifield labels as the Gospel's "irreducibly paradoxical relation to American culture ... Priests and ministers called to serve within the culture and yet offend it repeatedly."
Irreducibly paradoxical. That means it's not easy proclaiming the Gospel in the world in which we live. In the Reformed theological tradition that gave birth to the priesthood of all believers, that means that every one, every single disciple, each and every person living the faith has the privilege of joining clergy like me in the paradox of living in our world and offending it repeatedly.
Have you ever had a coach or a teacher or driving instructor who helped you to know the right way by showing you the wrong way to do something? Have you ever gone about the process of picking a color of paint by eliminating the ones you clearly didn't like? Have you ever tried to describe something complicated by telling someone what it isn't? Helping someone understand a word by giving its opposite, its antonym? As difficult as this whole God's-way-our-way conversation is, when you look around at the world, at your own life, at life all around us, when you look around, there are those moments, those times, those instances, those relationships, those realities, when you find yourself saying, "No, this isn't it." When it comes -- the kingdom, abundant life, resurrection, hope, the promise of God here and now -- there can be a different shout. Instead of looking down the Palm Sunday road and shouting "Hosanna!" you can look around and shout, "No, this isn't it!" This isn't God's way. This can't be it! No, this isn't it. It's another Palm Sunday shout.
A week or so ago, a report was released on the compensation of Hedge fund directors. Twenty-five people made $22 billion. Just after I read that story, I clicked on another that quoted statistics on poverty in America. Poverty has reached the highest rate in 15 years. Forty-four million people. One in seven people. One in five children. That's a poverty line defined as $11,000 for a single person. Twenty-two thousand dollars for a family of four. If one adjusts for the "real poverty line," how much it really costs to live, think how many millions more are really suffering. Twenty-five people, $22 billion. Forty-four million people and many millions more barely making it? No. No. This isn't it! This can't be it.
God's way; our way. It isn't all that easy. But nothing is made clearer by just elevating the religious rhetoric in the public square. It doesn't get any easier just because leaders invoke the name of God. With your own piety you just can't settle for living in the world without being of it. It doesn't get any simpler if you just cling to doctrine, patting yourself on the back for being right, while those around you are hungry or cold or lost or lonely or oppressed or abused or bullied or invisible. And you can't make the whole challenge of life in the world go away by announcing that religion and politics don't mix; that your prayer closet is for God and the voting booth is about your own best interest; that what goes on in church, stays in church; that wishing that the preacher would just stick to the Gospel and leave life "out there" out of it.
Maybe it won't get easier, but it will get a whole lot more holy when justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream. Maybe it won't get any easier, but it will get a whole lot more sacred when you love your neighbor as yourself. Maybe it won't get any easier, but it will get a whole lot more divine when the wolf and the lamb start to lie down together, when there is no more hurt or destruction on God's holy mountain, when we learn war no more, when swords are made into plowshares.
Maybe it won't get easier, but it helps to shout.
No, no, this isn't it! Hosanna!