THE COMMON GOOD

THE COMMON GOOD Surprised that the American economy is in trouble? Today the media reports that the trouble is recent big news. Yet the present economic downturn was evident as early as the 1970’s and millions of people on the bottom of the pyramid have been in recession ever since. From the end of World War II until the 70’s, the income and wealth of most Americans was improving at a comparable rate. Perhaps it was a legacy of the Second World War when the fate of the country depended on everyone working together that in the two decades following the war people in each of the five economic quintiles were benefiting equitably from a growing economy. Actually the statistics show that people in the bottom quintile were improving their lot somewhat faster than those in the top quintile. But then something happened, and “the few” found new ways of making bigger profits off the labors of “the many.” Credit cards and mortgages and student loans became not just a way to help people meet their financial obligations, but a way for the lenders to make big profits in the process. When credit cards first appeared, in my naiveté, I couldn’t understand how banks would make any money. For me, a credit card was a convenience. Pay on credit for my shopping and at the end of the month, pay the bank. Spending more than I could afford at the end of the month was not an option. But then retailers and lending organizations put immense pressure on consumers to buy more than they could afford. And the lenders were constantly finding new ways to benefit from the debts of the borrowers. Living on credit became the cultural norm, both for the nation and for individuals. Workers were then held hostage to their debts. They stayed in jobs they didn’t enjoy because they couldn’t afford to quit. Other members of the family had to take jobs to meet mounting interest payments. To pay off education loans college grads had to settle for jobs that paid the most rather than do the work they believed in. No longer was there any sense of economic solidarity – that my well-being is related to yours. Big profits, excessive profits, wealth at any price became the norm. The Congress that might have regulated economic justice was dependent on big money to get elected. Capitalism (get all you can for yourself and to hell with everyone else) had gone wild, without any moderating influences – without regulations or constraints. Often the government officials charged with providing for the general welfare were found to be profiting at the expense of the public. Today the sad reality is that the decision makers in the economy show no indication that they will learn anything from this present injustice. There will be some tinkering with the economy – duct tape and bungee cords -- until once again people will be free to exploit the system in any way they can. There is little chance in America that the spirit of the “common good” will prevail. Quite the opposite. Instead the nation will move pell-mell to privatize as much of the economy as possible. Privatization results in higher prices to create extra profit for stakeholders. Health care is a good example. Care provided by HBO’s include 17 percent for overhead; Medicare, 5 percent. There is an alternative way of living. Like the air we breathe, the earth’s surface once belonged to all inhabitants for their common use. Cattle could freely graze wherever there was food. Think Glasgow Green or Boston Common. Ships could freely sail on any ocean. Music, the arts, scholarly works were not copyrighted. Yet throughout recorded history the few continue to find ways to appropriate for their own use what rightfully belongs to all. In Great Britain this movement to privatize is seen in the enclosure movement, when the lords of the land seized the property of the peasants for their own private agricultural or recreational purposes. And many nations have laid claim to the ocean beds off their coast – at first three miles and then as much as 200 miles. Owning a home, enjoying art, travel, formal education, high tech communication, attending performances, health care and even the right to hold public office -- these ought to be available to everyone, yet they are increasingly limited to a wealthy minority of the earth’s citizens to the exclusion of the majority. In Scotland, policy is guided in part by a dedication to the common good, the commons, the common well-being (which is intended by the word Commonwealth – the name given to Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Virginia.) Public transportation is more generously subsidized than in the US, museums are free, housing is available for everyone as is health care. Education is affordable. People consider it a scandal that some people are marginalized, excluded, left behind without the options open to others. Re-read the 2008 statement of the Scottish Parliament in my last blog posting. If decision-makers in the US could test their decisions against the plumb line of the common good and decide in favor of the commons, we’d be taking a giant step toward economic justice. This is not without a struggle. In the Church of Scotland, where all clergy receive the same pay, adjusted only by their length of service, the wealthier churches help to subsidize the poorer churches. When some people wanted to re-think this policy, the majority voted that any change in policy should have no negative effect on the poorer churches. This is a culture of economic justice which appears to be lacking in America. Beware! The assault on the common good hides in many disguises and may be implicit in tax reforms, wage and price controls, privatization, free market initiatives, anti-inflationary measures and what is euphemistically called welfare reform. A simple question should always be asked. Does this measure, this change, benefit the majority or just a few? Economic justice requires that we work constantly towards a redistribution of the earth’s resources.

How the Churches in Scotland's Poorest Areas Tackle Poverty

Ecclesia semper reformanda As long as religious leaders are quite content with the status quo, they will not be interested in looking at alternative ways of doing church. On the other hand, when church people realize that present structures are no longer relevant in view of a rapidly changing cultural context, then something must change. In the past decade, it is the churches in the poorest neighborhoods of Scotland that have realized most urgently the need for reform. It is these churches and their members – struggling against poverty – that are pioneering new church life for the rest of the denomination. In 2001, the Church of Scotland (in the Presbyterian tradition) received a report[1] that listed the ways in which the church no longer had much influence in the lives of the majority of people. Acknowledging that the church has often not kept up with the many changes in the society and is often being left behind; the report called for significant changes in the ministry and mission of the church: Our changing social context can be symbolized by the microchip, the Internet, shopping malls and the mobile phone. Changing social relationships are seen in the attitudes to sexuality, marriage, racial equality and gender roles. Changes in political dynamics may be seen in …the shifts in power through globalization from nation states to trans-national companies….The underlying core of [today’s cultural] values is that individual choice is the only absolute. The right to choose is the one inviolate principle for shopping, politics, relationships, genetics or religion. The authors of the report recognized that there is a great deal of spiritual openness within the society and that there are many people committed to following Jesus “but they will not or cannot express that commitment within the context of the local church.” While this openness to change was being expressed, there was increasing awareness that the very existence of poverty in a wealthy society is a judgment against the church that has failed to raise its voice in condemnation of the evil of poverty. The resolve of the church to address poverty is clearly stated in the report of the Priority Areas Committee to the General Assembly of the Church. Throughout the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament the message of God is clear: to ignore those in poverty is to ignore the face of God… Through its witness, ministry and care the length and breadth of Scotland, the Church seeks to address the causes and symptoms of poverty. At the same time it seeks to concentrate its efforts – and to bend its resources – towards the very poorest areas. Priority Areas Sixty neighborhoods corresponding to the poorest 5 % of the poorest communities in Scotland have been designated as Priority Areas and it is here that we are concentrating our efforts. Of course poverty exists in pockets throughout urban and rural Scotland, but the Priority Areas are a specific place to begin. Considerable resources have been made available to these vulnerable church communities with heartening results. The report to the 2008 Assembly continues that in the midst of the fragility of these areas, there is also “immense creativity, resilience, determination and hope.” From these poorest communities come impressive stories that “demonstrate some powerful but often forgotten realties. They are not stories about poverty. They are stories of true wealth – the richness of faith and the wonderful resilience of communities to bring about life-transforming change. “They are not about places to which the Church brings God to the people but rather they are communities in which we recognize that God has always been present.” As the project developed, after much listening, people throughout the church and especially in the Priority Areas developed several guidelines for their work: The mission of the church is to serve. It was agreed that 70 percent of the congregation’s time and money would be dedicated to the surrounding community. The mission is to be engaged with the realities of today’s society and not to be culturally wedded to a world now largely gone. There is little attachment to grand narratives be they religious, political or technical. Most of life is lived locally to satisfy individual needs and desires. The new model for the church is different from anything that we have seen before. The congregation would live less by historical precedent and more by the future expectation by becoming part of God’s new creation. It is necessary to go beyond the usual statistics to find alternative measures of a healthy church. To overcome isolation, community is found today not so much in the neighborhood as at the workplace and even in Cyberspace. Church members gathered to discover who comprised the local neighborhood and to ask what are the compelling local issues. Congregations then assessed their own resources and generally concluded that their building (that had heretofore been seen as a burden having been built a century ago for a congregation ten times the present size) could be a valuable resource. How could it be used to serve the community? Many of the churches have since removed the pews, creating a smaller and more flexible space for worship and using the remainder and other underused areas in the building for all sorts of community activities. The most common feature is a café where people can meet for breakfast or lunch or just to have a coffee. One pastor reports that most of the pastoral work of the church takes place there, often with people of the congregation ministering to each other as well as to the needs of the wider community. In addition, there are a number of other activities that take place in the church building, ranging from exercise classes and yoga to Internet classes, English as a second language, debt counseling, teaching healthy menus on a limited budget and job training classes, for example, for restaurant work, a before and afternoon school apprenticeship for bicycle repair and senior citizen clubs. People in Priority Areas churches have come to realize that their whole community is comprised of God’s people and not only the Sunday people; the measure of a healthy church is not just those who are on the rolls or who attend worship. “I do believe that our life should be in the community rather than just behind the walls of the church and we in fact have a remit now to develop our church for the community. I think it is essential for people professing Christianity to be able to relate to the folk without their door. Our building could be such a good facility for the whole community.” --Jean McQuaker, from a Priority Areas church Economic justice As these Priority Areas congregations have found new strength, they have become aware that social change requires participation in the structures of government and the voluntary sector as well as service to their neighbor. The people struggling against poverty are beginning to speak out in the pubic square, and their participation has so far been welcomed by the municipal Councils and the Scottish Parliament. It is to help local people exercise their power in cooperation with others that the Poverty Truth Commission is being planned for March, 2009. There is no doubt that this extraordinary concern within the Church of Scotland for ending poverty is enhanced by the Scottish socialist tradition and society’s continued resolve to end poverty, as manifest in the 2008 report from the Scottish Parliament: We believe Scotland must tackle poverty because of the blight and strain which it places on individual lives, on the communities in which they live, and on society in general; we believe Scotland has a proud history and ethos of being a compassionate nation with a strong sense of social justice and addressing the needs of the vulnerable, and we want to embrace this ethos on the basis that it is simply morally unacceptable that over 20 percent of our children still live in poverty.[2] [1] A Church without Walls, a report from the Special Commission anent Review and Reform for the General Assembly of the church. [2] Tackling Poverty, Inequality and Deprivation in Scotland, Scottish Government, January 2008

Resources to fight poverty

According to my colleagues at Faith in Community Scotland, there are Scots who don’t believe that poverty really exists in Scotland, imagining that the extensive network of charities and the governmental benefits have solved the poverty problem. And there are others who say to themselves that their own hard work has brought them prosperity and therefore those who don’t share similar material benefits are to blame for their own situation (often overlooking the head start or the lucky breaks they have had, or not realizing that for many young people today there are simply not enough fair wage jobs for everyone.) For the most part, Scottish citizens are not only aware, but determined that the scourge of poverty shall be eliminated from the land. As I’ve written before in these pages, there is a very comprehensive anti-poverty here sponsored by the churches and other voluntary agencies as well as by the government. There is scarcely a day when the daily papers do not address the issue of poverty. And I was impressed by the most recent newsletter from our own group that identified a substantial list of programs and resources that are of interest to poor people. Here follows a sample from our monthly publication Poverty News In each edition we will try to share just a little bit of the many news stories affecting people living in poverty in Scotland and the organisations working alongside them. Drama at the Service of Poverty The women’s drama group has been running workshops in Pollokshields helping women to explore issues of poverty through drama techniques. This initiative is being co-facilitated with Fablevision with involvement from Roshni Women’s group from Pollokshields. A DVD release of the performance will showcase the hard work and effort being put in by the women, who are extremely vibrant and innovative in highlighting their concerns. Government Launches £10m Global Volunteering Programme Starting in summer 2008 with placements to Ghana and South Africa, over the next 3 years, 2500 young adults (18-25 yrs.) of “all faiths and none” will be sponsored to do 10 weeks of voluntary work in a developing country working on local community development projects such as environmental conservation or HIV / Aids awareness and raise awareness of development issues back home in the UK. The £10 million global volunteering scheme is funded by the Department for International Development (DFID) and will be run in partnership by Christian Aid, Islamic Relief and BUNAC. The scheme expects to offer young adults from less advantaged backgrounds the opportunity to live, work and learn about life in poor countries while making a real difference to people’s lives. For more information, read www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/6852 Impact of Glasgow’s Antisocial Behaviour Task Force With an estimated 170 gangs in Glasgow (compared to only 169 in London!), the city’s antisocial behaviour task force, established in 2005 has acknowledged that limited progress has been made in reducing acts of poor conduct in task force areas (www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/01/30141010/0). The study added that most of the problems were caused by young people, gangs and others abusing alcohol. The government meanwhile has launched a new initiative – using money seized from criminals to fund opportunities discouraging young people from taking up to crime. Inspiring Scotland Fund A new funding initiative is bidding to change the face of charity finance in Scotland and beyond. Inspiring Scotland has been developed by Lloyds TSB Foundation for Scotland and will seek to invest between £70m-£100m in a selected number of charities over the next seven to 10 years, by assembling money from a combination of private individuals, trusts, foundations and the public purse. With promises of long-term funding, support for core costs, minimal bureaucracy and the investment of time, energy and skills - as well as cash - Inspiring Scotland reads like a wish-list for voluntary sector funding. Read on at www.theherald.co.uk/features/features/display.var.2000722.0.New_fund_aims_to_change_Scotlands_charities.php. Scots Third Sector Coalition Campaigns for Community Empowerment A coalition of third sector organisations has urged Scottish ministers to adopt a range of measures including creation of local budgets where communities would have control over a percentage of public spending in their areas. The Scottish government is expected to publish a community empowerment strategy in March. Scottish Government Consultations Over the last month the Scottish Government has issued two major consultations which will be of interest to people living and working in our poorest communities. At the very end of January it published A Discussion Paper on Tackling Poverty, Inequality and Deprivation in Scotland (www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/210689/0055711.pdf) and in February it published Glasgow 2014 – Delivering a Lasting Legacy for Scotland (www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/212495/0056525.pdf). Tackling Obesity in Scotland The Scottish Government has earmarked £40m, including £15m to tackle obesity, in health improvement initiatives over the next three years. Initiatives include free fruit for pregnant mothers, pre-school children and adults who are severely overweight. The government also has plans to ban the sale of sugary fizzy drinks in schools. Urban Forum Chair Quits to Take Empowerment Message to Government Ed Cox has stood down as chair of Urban Forum, an umbrella body for voluntary and community sector groups involved in urban regeneration across the UK, to become a special adviser to Communities Secretary Hazel Blears. Ed is an ordained minister in the United Reformed Church and helped develop the Community Pride Initiative, a voluntary organisation enabling people to have a greater say in neighbourhood regeneration.

Poverty Truth Commission - March 21, 2009

I am constantly impressed that the Scottish Government and the Church of Scotland are both very serious about ending poverty. This is not empty rhetoric. Major time and resources have been allocated to this end.

When the Annual Assembly of the Church of Scotland meets in May, the delegates will be given a report on progress toward that goal. Excerpts from that report appear below. The report has been prepared by the Priority Areas Team (See blog entry for September 23, 2007) where Gayle and I are working.

A milestone toward our goal of overcoming poverty will be a Poverty Truth Commission (inspired by the Poverty Initiative at Union), hosted by the Moderator of the Church, David Lunan, and chaired by Tricia McConalogue, a noted leader from one of the poorest communities in Glasgow. Between now and the Commission, we are occupied with organizing within poor communities to encourage local people to have a greater voice in policies that affect their lives. Here are excerpts from the report to the Assembly, which begins with a statement from Parliament.

"Priority Areas...Big Hearted Communities

" 'We believe Scotland must tackle poverty because of the blight and strain which it places on individual lives, on the communities in which they live, and on society in general; we believe Scotland has a proud history and ethos of being a compassionate nation with a strong sense of social justice and addressing the needs of the vulnerable, and we want to embrace this ethos on the basis that it is simply morally unacceptable that over 20 percent of our children still live in poverty.' (Tackling Poverty, Inequality and Deprivation in Scotland, Scottish Government, January, 2008)

"The Scottish Government is to be congratulated not only for such a strong statement of intent but also for its clearly articulated commitment to reducing poverty and tackling inequality. It is much needed in a country where, according to official Government figures, 880,000 people (including 210,000 children) are living in relative poverty and 240,000 are living in severe poverty. This latter figure represents 5 percent of Scotland's population

"The Church has an additional reason to speak out and act against poverty. Throughout the Old and New Testaments the message of God is clear: to ingore those in poverty is to ignore the face of God. In recent years the General Assembly has regularly articulated this understanding through its statement that 'commitment to the poorest and most marginalized is the gospel imperative facing the whole Church, not just the Church in the poorest communities.'

"Through its witness, ministry and care the length and breadth of Scotland, the Church seeks to address the causes and symptoms of poverty. At the same time it seeks to concentrate its efforts -- and to commit extra resources -- towards the very poorest areas. It has designated these priority areas parishes. These correspond to approximately the poorest 5 percent of communities....

"Over the past year the [Church] has continued to pursue its strategy of developing work in three inter-related spheres of activity. These are (a) finding ways to help the wider Church and society to take more seriously the poverty which is on our doorstep; (b) enabling churches within our poorest communities to play their fullest part in tackling poverty and in making their comunities better places for everyone to live in; and (c) encouraging people of faith in priority areas to develop ways of being the Church which resonate with both the call of the Gospel and the reality of their context....

"One of the more exciting developments of the last year has been development of plans for a Poverty Truth Commission to be held in March 2009. This event -- modelled on Truth Commissions in other parts of the world -- will bring together people who are strugglinig to overcome poverty to share their aims, ideas and proposals for the future. These aims will then lead to an ongoing campaign for action and a determination to make others accountable for what they promise to deliver. The Rt. Rev. David Lunan has agreed to act as host of the Commission as part of his Moderatorial duties over the coming year.

"Plans for the Poverty Truth Commission have been spearpheaded by Paul Chapman, who is with us as a volunteer from the Poverty Initiative (Union Theological Seminary) in New York and Tricia McConalogue (Project Manager of Bridging the Gap in the Gorbals.) Paul frequently points out with the wisdom which comes from a lifetime spent in the struggle for the rights of the marginalized that an anti-poverty movement without poor people at the helm is not going to succeed in eradicating poverty no matter how well intentioned its leadership."

Cathie Kelly

The blog entry of February 28, 2007 introduces the work of the Transformation Team. I've now observed Cathie Kelly, Community Development Worker, who is usually the first person from the Transformation Team to meet with a congregtion or community group that may be interested in the renewal process that is promoted by the Transformation Team. These are organizations in the most depressed neighborhoods in the city -- depressed in spirit as well as materially. And the members are almost without hope for the future . "For too long the've been going down hill." Enter Cathie with a series of Toolkits "to harness the power that lies within the local church." Called Discovery, the program "works with people where they are at and helps them decide what the needs of the comunity may be."

Cathie will go with me to the next meeting of Cracking the Shell, a group of Asylum Seekers with whom I have been meeting regularly. (Cracking the Shell means coming out of the shell and entering into the life of the larger community.) The group has lately been very demoralized ever since one of their leaders was deported back to Africa. She suffered from a cruel process. The authorities of the Home Office simply knocked on her door in the night, without any warning, and took Deborah and her baby away, after she had been in Scotland for three years applying for refugee status. Her friends from Cracking the Shell were able to visit her in detention and then one day she was gone -- put on a plane to her home country, without money -- to face the dangers that brought her to the UK in the first place. We are working with the Asylum Seekers and a legal team to try to change the process.

But for now, Cathie's challenge -- using simple, interactive and practical learning resrources -- is to help the group recover its bearings by reaching out to their community. She follows a six-step process, beginning with an exercise to help them discover who they are and realize the power and resources that they already bring to the situaiton they find themselves in. One of the many Discovery exercises uses story-telling. For churches, Cathie places 8 1/2 by 11 posters on the floor, each of which would help someone tell a story reflecting on a truth that applies to their church and then asking each person to choose one that best fits their story.

My best moment in this community was.....
I am proud of my church because.....
The person I most admire in this community is.....
I feel safe when.....
The funniest thing that happened to me in this community was.....

This serves as a review of the strengths of church and community and is a step toward enabling churches to respond to the needs of the community. Many differenct exercises are used over a period of several meetings, each of which concludes with a Spiritual Exercise.

One such exercise forcuses on the story of Blind Bartimaeus, found in Mark 10:46-52. After the story is read, it is discussed using several illustrations. The first is of Jesus going from Jericho to Jerusalem, surrounded by such a crowd that the bling beggar is not noticed. Next Bartimaeus' situation is imagined with reference to outcasts throughout the world -- impoverished and forgotten. When Bartimaeus cries out, the crowd tries to shush him lest he disrupt the focus on Jesus, but then Jesus challenges the crowd to bring Bartimaeus to him. Finally, Jesus asks him what he wants and responds by giving him sight. The Discorery material enables people to draw an analogy to today's church. "The crowd represents the church and Jesus challenges the church to focus on the vulnerable and marginalized... The way Jesus responded to Bartimaeus was by finding what his needs were and acting accordingly, involving others in meeting those needs." (The Discovery material was written and illustrated by Bill Crooks and Jackie Mouradian and is owned by Tearfund.)

The Discovery process helps the church or community group build its own confidence and prepare to take action for community change. As the group begins to see the possibilities, other members of the Transformation Team can help with more ressources and information for change.

WHAT'S MISSING

In contrast to the United States, Scotland in general is very aware of the extent of poverty in both city and countryside. With a long history of providing for the general welfare, here there is a stated determination to develop programs that leave no one behind -- and narrow the yawning gap between rich and poor.

In 1999, when the Scottish government gained partial independence from England, it nobly resolved to focus its full attention on the evils of poverty with the ultimate goal of ending poverty. It embraced the UK anti-poverty goals targeting children, young people, families, older people and then communities. The eradication of child poverty was an explicit UK goal with a success date set for 2020 when childhood poverty would be defeated and injustice successfully wiped out. Progress would be realistically assessed at milestones along the way, citing both successes and failures. A new government report is just now being released.

Facing the hard reality that between 1999 and 2003 not much progress had been made, the initial "Social Justice" program was replaced with a program called "Closing the Opportunity Gap" that focued on far fewer issues. Even with a change of government in 2007, the public, private and voluntary sectors of the Scottish society remain determined to tackle poverty. There is always the danger of losing zeal for the cause, but generally the determination has held firm.

Since 1999, there have been many studies of the day-to-day experience of people living in poverty and this vital information has been passed on to the policy makers. Research studies that include listening to people in poverty have proved very revealing and have in some cases resulted in refining the goals of the various anti-poverty programs.

The problem is that even with this surfeit of hearings, studies and programs in which poor people relate their story, there are very few poor people at the table when decisions are made. Policy decisions continue to be made without the active participation and the passion of those most affected. Top-down decision-making, rather than bottom-up.

There are many reasons why poor people should have a major voice at the policy-making level. Most obviously, solutions should be tailored to the real problems. Consider this: some of the high-rise dwellings with dozens of subsidized apartments concentrated in one building may indeed be a breeding ground for social problems; the decision to raze many of them is well founded. Yet, the residents tell me that they do not want to move. They want to continue to live in these apartments among their friends rather than be scattered in new public housing around the city. I'm not aware that this conflict-of-interest is being ironed out in the halls where policy is being made. Top-down decision-making leaves poor people disempowered, disillusioned and suspicious of government.

Furthermore, poor people, who have the most to gain, bring a zeal to the anti-poverty movement that is unmatced by the dedication of professionals. It may be harsh to say, but the truth is that some professionals have a vested interest in the continuation of poverty.

After the hurricane Katrina devastated the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans, the residents loudly proclaimed, "Nothing about us without us is for us." The same is true for poor people everywhere. Personally, I don't want decisons being made about me without me being part of the process.

We sometimes hear the complaint that poor people are not really capable of considering social policy on a country-wide basis. And it is true that people unrehearsed in formulating systemic development projects don't always know the language or are shy to speak up. Yet when people are taken seriously they find their voice and their wisdom emerges. One of the consequences and curses of poverty is that self-image and self-esteem are low. As a poor people's movement to end poverty develops, people gain confidence.

When impoverished people are not heard, the society as a whole is denied a major resource that would help immeasurably in advancing the goal of ending poverty. The words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., spoken when he launched the Poor People's Campaign just forty years ago, have important meaning for the country of Scotland today. "There are millions of poor people in this country who have very little, or even nothing, to lose. If they can be helped to take action together, they will do so with a freedom and a power that will be a new and unsettling force in our complacent national life..." (Martin Luther King, Jr., Trumpet of Conscience,1967

It's wonderful to be in a country that is not totally complacent and that faces its injustice and inequities and seeks to overcome them. But with poor people in leadership roles, the possibility of success will be greatly enhanced.