Ronald J. Sider - Just Generosity: A New Vision for Overcoming Poverty in America

Ron Sider displays a thoughtful commitment to the cause of justice for the poor from a thoroughly biblical perspective.... This is a book we have needed for a long time.

Roberta Hestenes, former international minister-at-large, World Vision

Dispels the myths about poverty with facts and replaces pious rhetoric with practical action.

Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, general secretary,
Reformed Church in America

Sider has added another poverty-fighting book to the evangelical arsenal.

Jim Skillen, executive director, Center for Public Justice

Bold and daring proposals that are also practical and comprehensive. This is a must-read volume for all Christians who are concerned about overcoming poverty in a rich nation.

J. Deotis Roberts, research professor of Christian theology,
Duke University Divinity School

Ron Sider effectively engages the crucial economic and moral question of our times: how can our poor and marginalized participate in the American Dream?... His book not only makes this case but also provides useful examples of how to transform these problems.

J. McDonald Williams, chairman, Trammel Crow Company

Lively, readable, and believable.... A convincing and workable answer to the question, what should we do?

Harvey Cox, Thomas Professor of Divinity, Harvard Divinity School

How refreshing! Ron Siders book emphasizes the importance of both private and public responsibility in ending poverty.... Ron gets the balance right and then shows us how we can make a difference.

Tony P. Hall, former U.S. Congressman (D-Ohio)

Siders call for a holistic comprehensive framework is worthy of protracted consideration by those who would be faithful to the Jesus who had a special affection, ministry, and identification with the poor.

Joan Brown Campbell, former general secretary,
National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA

Also by Ronald J. Sider

Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger
Karlstadts Battle with Luther
Christ and Violence
For They Shall Be Fed, editor
Completely Pro-Life
Preaching about Life in a Threatening World
Non-violence: An Invincible Weapon?
Cup of Water, Bread of Life
Living like Jesus
Good News and Good Works
The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience

JUST
GENEROSITY

A New Vision for Overcoming Poverty in America

SECOND EDITION

RONALD J. SIDER

1999, 2007 by Ronald J. Sider

Published by Baker Books
a division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.bakerbooks.com

Printed in the United States of America

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meansfor example, electronic, photocopy, recordingwithout the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sider, Ronald J.
Just generosity : a new vision for overcoming poverty in America / Ronald J. Sider. 2nd ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 10: 0-8010-6613-1 (pbk.)
ISBN 978-0-8010-6613-9 (pbk.)
1. PovertyUnited States. 2. PoorUnited States. 3. Distributive justiceUnited States. 4. United StatesSocial conditions. 5. United StatesEconomic conditions. 6. EconomicsReligious aspectsChristianity. I. Title
HC110.P63S524 2007
362.5'80973dc22 2006036041

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture is taken from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture marked NCV is taken from the New Century Version. Copyright 1987, 1988, 1991 by Word Publishing, a division of Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture marked NIV is taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Scripture marked NRSV is taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture marked TNIV is taken from the Holy Bible, Todays New International Version Copyright 2001 by International Bible Society. All rights reserved.

All royalties from this book are being donated to charitable causes.

To
friends and neighbors
in North Philly and Germantown
who have taught me so much

Contents

by Charles W. Colson and John J. DiIulio Jr.

by Eugene F. Rivers III

The Least of These, the Rest of Us

I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.... I was in prison and you visited me.... Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me (Matt. 25:3536, 40 NRSV). Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord (Prov. 19:17 NRSV). Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor (James 2:56 NRSV).

We Americans enter the twenty-first century and the new millennium as the most economically prosperous people in the history of the world. By any historical, comparative, or cross-national measure, we Americans enjoy unprecedented private affluence and enormous national wealth. Despite huge gaps in income and high concentrations of wealth, most poor Americans today are better housed and better fed and own more personal property than average Americans throughout much of this century. There is, however, no denying that, even today, a significant minority of Americans still struggle to survive under economic conditions that the vast majority of us would consider impoverished and find intolerable were we suddenly forced to trade places with them.

To be sure, Americas poverty problem has been, if not solved, then reduced since the mid-1960s because Americans have done ever more to honor the poor. Each year, the countrys civil sector, led by the nations religious charities, congregations, and community-serving ministries, provides billions of dollars in cash assistance and social services for the poor. For example, the average big-city urban religious congregation, during the course of a year, provides over 5,300 hours (or 132 weeks) of volunteer support to needy people, and a total of about $144,000 a year in community programs that primarily serve the poor.

We also honor the nations poor by recognizing that most poor adult Americans are decent, law-abiding citizens who, if given half a chance, will choose work over welfare.

Still, as Ronald J. Sider reminds us in this new, important, and provocative book, let no one suppose for a moment that we live in a post-poverty America. Yes, welfare caseloads are down dramatically, but state welfare caseloads are increasingly concentrated in minority big-city neighborhoods that the rest of society has left behind. Both of us know this to be true because we encounter it daily in our ministries.

Sider, nationally known as the president of the Philadelphia-based Evangelicals for Social Action, is a politically progressive yet steadfastly prolife evangelical Christian who has spent much of his adult life living and working among and on behalf of the poor. Over the years, and despite the differences of public policy vision and theological understanding we have with him, each of us has gotten to know Sider as a brother in Christ and to admire him as one who practices what he preaches about the biblical imperative to serve the poor.