Category Archives: Social justice

August 17, 2010 · 5:33 pm

Food Fight

Well, not exactly.  At least not yet.  But there is an incipient movement to create a constitutional right to adequate nutrition.  Some progressive folks in India think it’s time the right to food is recognized as fundamental to human existence.  The challenge is how to actually guarantee adequate food, leading some to suggest that the effort is an empty gesture.  Just because a “right” has been enshrined as such does not mean there is an effective mechanism for ensuring compliance.

We live in world where millions go hungry each and every day, and far too many right here in America, where we produce enough food annually to feed the world.  I heard a radio interview just this morning where the interviewee observed that the Michigan crop of just about everything will be especially abundant this season.  What are the socio-ethical implications of such abundance when so many are starving?

Jesus fed the five thousand with five loaves and two fish.  Laying aside the seemingly supernatural aspects of that gospel story, there is something more at work here.  In a world where scarcity is the engine that drives the economy, it is good to recall Walter Brueggeman’s observation that scarcity in the Kingdom of God is unknown, that in fact there is only abundance.

Do we therefore create shortages as a matter of economic policy?  I am not suggesting that policymakers actually set out to manufacture scarcity.  But in a world that clearly has the capacity to feed everybody,  why can’t we?

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August 5, 2010 · 3:17 pm

Our Daily Bread with Fresh Vegetables on the Side

A recent national survey reveals that more U.S. states now have greater numbers of obese persons living within their borders.  It should come as no surprise that states with especially high numbers of overweight residents are those with the largest metropolitan centers.  Big cities have lots of poor folks, and the poor are less likely to have healthy food choices. So much for good, wholesome daily bread–or anything else for that matter.

In my own city of Detroit, where more than a third of the citizenry have no automobile access, the neighborhood shopping is often limited to convenience stores and high-priced local grocers. The larger, cheaper, and cleaner supermarket chains pulled out of the city years ago, preferring to relocate in the suburbs.  With no car and a nearly non-existent public transit system, the poor are forced to pay exorbitant prices for  produce and other food that is often only marginally fresh.

Jesus taught that we should pray for nothing but our daily bread.  If we believe in the essential goodness of God, we understand what he meant.  But what if business decisions and public policy pronouncements effectively impede the divine prerogative vis-a-vis food access?  I submit that the shalom of God is violated every time a single human being is denied sustenance because of accident of birth or place of residence.  What might be the mission implications for a congregation looking to engage in a non-patronizing  inner city ministry?  Food pantries are one thing, but systemic change is much more faithful to what we are called to do as the people of God.  And consider the societal benefits of lower incidences of diabetes, hypertension and the like.  Less wear and tear on an overburdened health care system, and maybe even lower health care cost for all of us.

It seems to me that every human being has a basic right to good, healthy food.  It is, after all, a  fundamental matter of justice.  Have we ignored this issue because it is an inner city thing?  If so, shame on all of us.

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