(Note: Spoiler Alert. This post is writing commentary on the book Toxic Charity: How Churches and Charities Hurt Those They Help (And How to Reverse It). This book is being discussed on April 11 by the Avondale United Methodist Book Club. Those who want to read the book before forming opinions are advised to read … Continue reading Chapter Four: Need vs. Relationships
Chapter Three: The Anatomy of Giving
(Note: Spoiler Alert. This post is writing commentary on the book Toxic Charity: How Churches and Charities Hurt Those They Help (And How to Reverse It). This book is being discussed on April 11 by the Avondale United Methodist Book Club. Those who want to read the book before forming opinions are advised to read … Continue reading Chapter Three: The Anatomy of Giving
Pop Goes The Weazel
Boy, the lyrics to this song aren’t like anything I learned in elementary school! A whole lot of Anglophobic lyrics about the British needing to watch out for the Americans. Still, the catchy tune is familiar. And one can learn a lot about period politics if we avoid inserting our own period’s biases into the … Continue reading Pop Goes The Weazel
Chapter Two: The Problem With Good Intentions
(Note: Spoiler Alert. This post is writing commentary on the book Toxic Charity: How Churches and Charities Hurt Those They Help (And How to Reverse It). This book is being discussed on April 11 by the Avondale United Methodist Book Club. Those who want to read the book before forming opinions are advised to read … Continue reading Chapter Two: The Problem With Good Intentions
Chapter One: The Scandal
(Note: Spoiler Alert. This post is writing commentary on the book Toxic Charity: How Churches and Charities Hurt Those They Help (And How to Reverse It). This book is being discussed on April 11 by the Avondale United Methodist Book Club. Those who want to read the book before forming opinions are advised to read … Continue reading Chapter One: The Scandal
#2: Love Divine
(Part of a series singing through the hymnbook I grew up with: Great Hymns of the Faith) 1 Love divine, all loves excelling, Joy of heav’n, to earth come down; Fix in us Thy humble dwelling, all Thy faithful mercies crown. Jesus, Thou art all compassion, Pure unbounded love thou art; Visit us with Thy … Continue reading #2: Love Divine
Crossing Class Boundaries
In chapter 13 of Class Matters Hook discusses moving back and forth between classes. She started in a working class family, and moved through college into a middle-class educated environment. Her fear was losing who she was as a daughter of the working class. But she learned through practice that she could maintain who she … Continue reading Crossing Class Boundaries
Class Claims: Real Estate Racism
Chapter 12 of Class Matters is about racism in real estate, and how class is used to reinforce race. She discusses her experiences trying to buy property in California, Florida and New York. NYC, one of the most ethnically diverse city in the world, and yet is still so ethnically and racially segregated. And class … Continue reading Class Claims: Real Estate Racism
Solidarity with the poor
In the opening of Chapter 11 of Class Matters, Hook makes one of those common, but also logically flawed uses of words. Poor and poverty are not the same thing. To go from “the poor will always be with us” as the words of Jesus, to talking about poverty is to cloud an issue that … Continue reading Solidarity with the poor
Old Folks at Home
A Stephen Foster song, earned him a lot of money – but his name never appeared on it during his lifetime. The Swanee river is acutally the Suwannee river of Florida. I never realized where it was until seeing it accidentally on a map one time. But the river comes to represent the stereotypical Southern … Continue reading Old Folks at Home
