Bibliography - The Church and the Working Poor series

Bibliography - The Church and the Working Poor series
This essay series began life as a paper I completed for Dave Diewert of Regent College (September 2010).

The Church and the Working Poor, Part 4

To this point, I have proposed that the church should consider and minister to the needs of the working poor if the church is going to be able to call herself just.  I then considered a biblical ideal of work and put the working lives of the working poor in contrast to this ideal.  My last essay gave the reasons why I believe the church is responsible to the working poor.  Now I want to ask an obvious question: How?

The Church and the Working Poor, Part 3

I’m sorry for the long delay since my last post.  I recently completed my studies at Regent College in Vancouver and relocated to Saint John, NB.  Of course, the move took longer than anticipated and kept me from reading, exploring, thinking, and ultimately writing.

In my first essay in this series about the church and the working poor, I briefly explained why I believe that the needs of the working poor are issues that the church must consider if the church is going to be just.  In my second essay, I compared and contrasted the biblical ideal for work and the working life of someone who is classified as working poor.  I now want to build on this to ask a question:  Why is the church responsible to stand alongside the working poor?  I will propose four reasons.  First, the church is made up of disciples of Jesus Christ.  Second, there are clear biblical imperatives to ensure the needs of employed people are met and that their rights are defended.  Third, everyone has dignity before God.  Fourth, the church must address its own complicity and complacency in this issue.

The Church and the Working Poor, Part 2

Our society uses work to define people.  Last week, I recalled that while I worked in a call-centre that was closing, I received a new job.  This job was as the manager of the public library in McAdam, a New Brunswick village southwest of Fredericton.  Because I do not have a Master of Library Science, I was not technically a librarian.  This technicality did nothing to stop people from saying things like, “He is the town librarian,” however.  I did my best to use correct terminology, but that still required phrases like “I am a library manager.”  That our society defines people by their work – regardless of whether it should or not – demonstrates the importance that we give to our work.  Where does this leave people identified as the working poor?   The first stage of answering that question is to develop a theological and biblical understanding of work.  I will then compare this with the working lives of the working poor to make it clear that our society is coming up short.

The Church and the Working Poor, Part 1

In my last essay, I explained what I mean by the word “justice.”  I wrote that essay partly to keep myself from jumping on social justice bandwagons without evaluating an issue before supporting it.  My intention now is to explore one issue of social justice in detail: addressing the needs of the working poor.  I have witnessed the strain that can be on members of this group and I hope that the church and wider society will begin to address and rectify the causes of this strain.  Over the next several weeks, I want to explore this issue.  Specifically, I will explain why I see the needs of the working poor to be an important social justice issue for the church to address.