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Monday, November 18, 2019

POP! It works for the Poor!

With Paul, Becca, and the girls back home from their Northwestern speaking tour, it is nice to have the Community together again.  It is amazing how often one or more of us is away speaking or visiting family.

As a Community we worship each Monday evening which means praying for others and giving thanks for the good things that happened the week before.  We are different people of different backgrounds both religiously and in most ways…

We have now four Quakers, 1 Catholic, 1 agnostic, 1 Episcopalian, 1 Presbyterian, 2 ex-religion, and a baby baptized into the Community.  In our 40 years of Community life we have included a Muslim, Brethrens, a Jewish person who was an agnostic, a reformed Orthodox druid lapsed, an atheist, Methodists, Baptists, etc.  The one thing we all have had in common is lifting our brothers and sisters out of poverty.

JHCommunity 1993
Those of us who believe in a Higher Being trust that people living in poverty is not from design but by humanity’s sinfulness and greed.  We believe that there is a special place for the poor in the heart of the Divine.  This doctrine of the Preferential Option for the Poor was given voice by liberation theologians such as Gustavo Gutiérrez*.

Paul Farmer**, anthropologist, infectious disease doctor and founder of Partners in Health, calls this doctrine of the Preferential Option for the Poor “POP”, his shortcut when trying to make a point.   I think POP not only serves as an acronym but is also quite appropriate…
POP!


  • Fireworks drawing our eyes upward and dazzling
  • A thunderclap from the heavens shaking our souls with its power
  • Lovingly calling on a father or a grandfather
  • The sound of a bottle cap’s removal, with a refreshing drink to ease the dryness in the throat
  • A bubble of greed surrounding the heart bursting, to free the heart to love


When we focus our lives around ending poverty then we can work together no matter the differences… when we focus on lifting people out of poverty then we shift our whole focus and maybe, just maybe, we will see the Divine in their faces.  POP!



-Kathleen

 *https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustavo_Guti%C3%A9rrez
 **https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Farmer

Note: If you would like to give to the work of the CDCA, focusing on a Preferential Option for the Poor, give online here:


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