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When radio and TV personality Glenn Beck spits out the phrase “community organizers,” it sounds like a curse. President Obama, of course, was a community organizer in the Altgeld Gardens public housing project in Chicago when he was in his early 20s. That fact alone seems enough to sour Beck on organizers, about whom he has said, “These people are bullies. These people are thugs.” At other times he’s called them “agitators” bent on establishing a “thugocracy.”
As writer Danny Duncan Collum explains in this issue, Christians are involved in community organizing as public witness to their faith. Churches recognize that sin is not only personal, but also social and economic. Community organizing empowers disenfranchised people to redress the structural sin that leaves them in poverty or at the mercy of corporate greed. When churches address issues of social justice and act with dignity in the public square, they provide an effective—and evangelical—witness to the gospel.
Beck articulates the fears of the rich and powerful when he warns, “So, while these community organizers appear to be agitating for one seemingly noble goal or another, their underlying mission is ... ‘how the have-nots can take power from the haves.’” On that score, Beck may be right. Congregation-based community organizing puts into action Mary’s Magnificat: “God has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted those of low degree; God has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent empty away” (Luke 1:52-53).
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Cover Story
Why Does Glenn Beck Hate Community Organizers?
The Main Reason: They upend the power structure to give people at the bottom a better chance. By Danny Duncan Collum
Features
A Higher Calling For Higher Ed
Trinity University found the future of education -- hiding in its own neighborhood. By Julienne Gage
Game Changers
Insights on being the first in the family to graduate from college. By Julie Polter
Commentary
The Content of Our Character
Why do so many try to lighten the impact of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech? By Vincent G. Harding
More than Dollars and Cents
The moral implications of our growing debt burden. By David M. Walker
Hurting, Angry, and Hopeful
Looking forward after Katrina and the BP spill. By Kristina Peterson
From the Archives: September 1983
The Silence of God By Elsa Tamez
Columns
Hearts & Minds: Time to End This War
Soldiers are dying for a failed, arrogant, theologically unjust, and immoral war policy. By Jim Wallis
Global Engagement: The Worst Place on Earth to Be a Woman
In the DRC, soldiers use women's bodies as a battlefield. By Lynne Hybels
Bridges: Campuses Take the Lead
College campuses have been in the vanguard of most major social movements. By Eboo Patel
H'rumphs: Election Year Blues.
Politicians can't help it when they lie. By Ed Spivey Jr.
Culture Watch
All Who Labor
Is Sabbath only for the privileged few -- or for all of us? By Lauren F. Winner
Gaming the Curriculum
A school claims video games help students learn to "manage complexity." But will they understand culture? By Danny Duncan Collum
Star Wars Memorial
George Lucas may have had a role in my childhood, but it's not up to him to tell my story for me. By Gareth Higgins
Laughing With The Infidel
Comedian Omid Djalili on being funny about faith. Interview by Becky Garrison
Songs of Funk and Freedom
The ArchAndroid, by Janelle Monáe, Atlantic Records. Reviewed by Abayea Pelt
New and Noteworthy
By Julie Polter
Departments
Letters
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Swayed By Fear | For Further Reading | Acceptable in God’s sight? | Unfilled Niche? |
Poetry: Last Autumn Song
By Jesse Nathan
Living the Word: Reflections on the Revised Common Lectionary, Cycle C
September 2010: 'Come, Rejoice With Me' By Walter Brueggemann
Living the Word: Reflections on the Revised Common Lectionary, Cycle C
October 2010: Will Faith Be Found On Earth? By Walter Brueggemann
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