Pope Francis Reminds the World To Care About Poverty

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Jesus, Pope Francis, poverty, rev. jesse jackson, TIME

SANTA CRUZ, BOLIVIA – JULY 09: Pope Francis greets the attendees of a conference as part of the II Meeting of People’s Movements on July 09, 2015 in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. (Photo by Amanecer Tedesqui/LatinContent/Getty Images)

This is my new piece on the Pope, “Pope Francis Reminds the World to Care About Poverty,” co-written with Rev. Jesse Jackson for TIME!

Feel free to share this piece.

 

Below is an excerpt of the TIME piece. For the full article, please click here.

‘It takes all of us to change systems that impoverish our sisters and brothers’

Jesus was born into poverty, he lived with people who were poor, and he was poor when he died. Sometimes it seems that the church has forgotten that.

Christianity seems to have become a religion of powerful white male leaders who are attentive to the interests of people who were financially rich. As a consequence, many Christians have lost sight of the gospel message that calls the followers of Jesus to have compassion for the poor, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and stand with the sick. Pope Francis is reminding them and the people of the world to hear the voices of our brothers and sisters who are poor, sick, lost, marginalized, and disenfranchised.

During a recent eight-day visit to Ecuador, Bolivia, and Paraguay, the pope emphasized our connection to those living in poverty. He made it a priority to point out the evils of leaders who take too much at the expense of people living in impoverished conditions. Pope Francis said that the poor are being sacrificed at the “altar of money,” as the rich worship a “golden calf.” This sacrifice costs lives and drives more people into slums.

Please view the rest of the article on TIME.

[read also: The Nation,  What I Learned & Reconciliation Replay]

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The Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr., founder and president of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, is one of America’s foremost civil rights, religious and political figures. Over the past forty years, he has played a pivotal role in virtually every movement for empowerment, peace, civil rights, gender equality, and economic and social justice. On August 9, 2000, President Bill Clinton awarded Reverend Jackson the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. Follow him on twitter.

 

Grace Ji-Sun Kim is an Associate Professor of Theology at Earlham School of Religion. She is the author of  Embracing the Other(forthcoming); Here I Am; Christian Doctrines for Global Gender Justice co-edited with Jenny Daggers; Theological Reflections on “Gangnam Style” co-writtenwith Joseph Cheah; Reimagining with Christian Doctrines co-edited with Jenny Daggers; Contemplations from the Heart; Colonialism, Han and the Transformative Spirit; The Holy Spirit, Chi, and the Other; and The Grace of Sophia. She is a co-editor with Dr. Joseph Cheah for the Palgrave Macmillan Book Series, “Asian Christianity in Diaspora”.

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