Category: Articles

America’s Wannabe Caesar

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Sojourners
By William J. Barber II and Liz Theoharis
April 20, 2020

The Treasury Department announced last week that Trump’s name will appear on the relief checks that Americans will soon receive. As Christian pastors and scholars, we remember Caesar adorned Roman coinage with his image in Jesus’ day. Caesar claimed the titles “savior of the world,” “benevolent benefactor,” “God,” and “ultimate authority” while ruling over one of the most unequal societies in history. He militarized and divided the known world, and imposed taxes on the poor while giving tax breaks to the rich. Caesar built towers with his name on them and gave the people bread and circuses.

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Worried About Inequality After the Pandemic? Start by Listening to the Women Ringing the Alarm for Decades

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Religion Dispatches
By Liz Theoharis
April 10, 2020

In 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. began to organize the Poor People’s Campaign, pulling together poor people and moral leaders from across the country to unite across lines of division. Just two months before his assassination he traveled to Chicago to enlist the women of the National Welfare Rights Organization (NWRO), which included in its ranks 10,000 dues-paying, welfare-receiving members in over 100 chapters. 

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The Evil Tucked Into the $2 Trillion Coronavirus Stimulus Bill

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Time Magazine
By William J. Barber II and Liz Theoharis
April 2, 2020

On Friday President Trump signed a third bill to address the COVID-19 crisis. The largest relief package in U.S. history, this $2 trillion bill provides direct cash payments to tens of millions of Americans, immediate relief to small businesses, and expanded unemployment benefits for some of those who are out of work while much of the country is under stay-at-home orders.

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In This Kairos Time, Will We Embody Church?

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Sojourners
By Kelly Brown Douglas & Liz Theoharis
March 26, 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed an ongoing crisis that has long been ignored — endemic injustice and growing inequality.

This current health crisis has called faith communities to account. On our watch, poverty has reached epidemic proportions; children are being neglected, the homeless are ignored, and immigrants are dehumanized.

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The Revival of the National Union of the Homeless

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The Nation
By Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis
March 20, 2020

The experiences and organizing efforts of the homeless can teach us all about taking action together in this unprecedented time.

Early last week, Americans woke to news of the largest one day oil price drop in history. Since then, stocks on Wall Street have continued to plummet and the Fed has materialized, overnight, $1.5 trillion for investors.

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Plagues Expose the Foundations of Injustice

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Sojourners
By Liz Theoharis
March 18, 2020

As the current public health emergency deepens, it is revealing and worsening broader economic and social emergencies that we have been confronted with for many years. These are emergencies caused by the lack of health care, affordable housing, living wages, labor rights, voting rights, and environmental protection, by war, police violence, the criminal justice system, and policy violence of all kinds.

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cnn

Poverty is a Winning Issue for 2020

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CNN
by William J. Barber and Liz Theoharis
February 17, 2020

As the primaries turn towards Nevada and South Carolina, there is ongoing discussion about how voter turnout impacted the outcome in New Hampshire. To understand voter participation in 2020, we need to go back and take a look at what happened in 2016.That year was the first election without the full protections of the Voting Rights Act.

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Boston Review