c. 2008 Religion News Service
Jewish charity to launch microloan program for Gulf Coast businesses
(RNS) A Jewish charity will launch an online campaign to use small loans to help the Gulf Coast’s struggling businesses recover, three years after Hurricane Katrina devastated the region.
Jewish Funds for Justice’s 8th Degree campaign, named for Jewish medieval philosopher Maimonides’ term for the highest form of charity, will commence Wednesday (Aug. 29). It is modeled on similar microlending programs aimed at helping entrepreneurs in the developing world.
Loans from $5,000 to $15,000 will be distributed through the New Orleans-based ASI Federal Credit Union.
Among government programs and nonprofit efforts to rebuild the Gulf Coast region’s economy, the 8th Degree program is unique because donors can track each borrower’s progress on the Internet, organizers said.
According to a 2007 report published by the Institute for Southern Studies,up to 25 percent of New Orleans stores and restaurants remain closed after Katrina, and many that reopened are still not operating at pre-storm capacity. Campaign organizers are asking members of the Jewish community to donate any amount they can to improve these findings; JFSJ will match every dollar raised toward the first five loans.
“The truth is that a loan as small as $5,000, made possible by donors who give $5, $50 or $500, can make a critical difference in a person’s life and help move them solidly into this country’s middle class,” said Simon Greer, president of Jewish Funds for Justice.
As each loan is repaid, generally within seven years with an 8 percent interest rate, the money will be reinvested into other small business initiatives.
“There is no doubt a long road ahead in rebuilding the Gulf Coast, and the 8th Degree is only a single step along the way, but as Jewish tradition teaches, though we are not obliged to complete the task, neither are we free to desist from it,” Greer said.
_ Nicole Neroulias
Labor Day is time to celebrate link between faith and work, group says
(RNS) American houses of worship should commemorate Labor Day weekend not as the last hurrah of the summer but as a time to celebrate the “sacred link between faith, work and justice,” according to a national social justice advocate.
“If a congregation was ever going to lift up labor issues, it’s Labor Day weekend,” said Kim Bobo, executive director of Interfaith Worker Justice, a Chicago-based organization.
Bobo’s organization, which builds alliances between faith communities and the labor movement, is promoting “Labor in the Pulpits” services that focus on various themes of work and justice.
A major focus this year are the lives of low-income workers and the faith community’s support for their “struggles for living wages and family-sustaining benefits,” the network said. The project is also supported by the AFL-CIO.
Labor Day religious services _ sometimes called “Labor Day Sundays” _ were prevalent throughout the early and mid-20th century. But Bobo said the tradition began to fade during the 1950s, just as labor unions began to lose membership.
The tradition was revived in the mid-1990s, and now thousands of congregations _ including Jewish, Christian, Muslim and Buddhist houses of worship _ participate in Labor Day weekend-themed events.
Only about one in 10 U.S. workers is now a member of a labor union, and Bobo acknowledged that the overall cultural shift away from unions has made it difficult for faith communities to embrace the labor movement.
_ Chris Herlinger
Popular pastor McLaren works to reunite religions
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (RNS) Brian McLaren, a leader in the “emergent church” movement, says the three Abrahamic religions _ Christianity, Judaism and Islam _ are very dangerous.
“Christians, Muslims and Jews are, in some ways, the most dangerous people on the planet, and probably Christians being the most dangerous because their fingers are closer to the most nuclear weapons,” he told an audience here at Baker Book House.
But a new series of books on ancient religious traditions _ including an introductory tome by McLaren _ seeks to find unity in the ancient practices these religions share.
“If (Muslims, Christians and Jews) can find points of contact, maybe it will help us avoid pressing these buttons,” he said.
McLaren, a pastor, speaker and activist, spoke last week about some of his books, including his latest, “Finding Our Way Again,” which explores a return to ancient practices held in common by these three religions, such as fixed hours for prayer and observance of the Sabbath.
“What did we know in church history that we’ve forgotten?” he said.
His book is the first in a series that will feature seven books by other authors, each focusing on practices that were first Jewish, then adopted by Christians and Muslims.
McLaren is a proponent of the emerging church movement, though he prefers to call it an “emerging conversation” in a changing world.
“The church as it’s existed, as it’s developed in modernity, is going to have to do some rethinking and retooling to remain faithful during these changes,” he said.
Conservatives have criticized McLaren, and that likely will continue since he promoted Democratic presidential candidate Sen.Barack Obama in a commercial.
McLaren said he never before involved himself in a political campaign, but he feels strongly that Obama is the best candidate to lead the U.S. The ad touched on families to reach out to evangelical viewers of the forum.
As to whether religious voters will be shocked to hear an evangelical supporting a Democrat, McLaren replied, in part: “The Gospel can never be contained by one party.”
_ Kristina Riggle
Quote of the Day: Bishop C.M. “Sweet Daddy” Bailey
(RNS) “I pray that the waters of the District of Columbia be converted by faith to the rivers of Jordan.”
_ Bishop C.M. “Sweet Daddy” Bailey, new leader of the Washington-based United House of Prayer for All People, at a mass outdoor baptism Sunday (Aug. 24), where fire hydrants provided the baptismal water. Bailey was quoted by The Washington Post (Aug. 25).
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