Off to Pilgrim Point

I'm off to Pilgrim Point, the United Church of Christ camp on Lake Ida near Alexandria, MN. Camp directors Brenda Clarno and Jo Clare Hartsig asked me to spend a couple of days with the family campers to lead discussions and activities around the theme Choices Make Change, and we are using Jim Wallis' recent book, Rediscovering Values On Wall Street, Main Street, and Your Street, as a discussion-starter.

Have you read Wallis' book? Highly recommended. It is extremely accessible, comes in perfect bite-sized chunks, and what's not to like about a book that ranges from freshly told Bible stories to Jon Stewart's encounter with CNBC's Jim Cramer, and draws from the wisdom of Gandhi, Thomas Paine, and my favorite UCC lay leader and Brookings Institution labor economist, Dr. Rebecca Blank.

Here's an excerpt from Chapter 14: Regaining Our Balance where Wallis is talking about the three-legged stool of the government, the market, and the civic sector:

...Families and communities feel that their lives are lived at the behest of the market, instead of the market serving them...These feelings of helplessness and powerlessness in regard to both our government and our economy have also come about, in part, because we have neglected the strength and importance of the third leg of our stool. The third leg is made up of our churches, our mosques, and synagogues. It is comprised of all of our voluntary associations, clubs, and organizations where we come together with others to discuss and focus on the common good...

One of the important roles that the faith community can play, indeed any person who cares about the character of our country can play, is a prophetic role. [Dr. Rebecca] Blank describes it as "going to policy makers and saying, you cannot cut these programs, you have to respond to this pain—saying, 'We as a community of faith care about the widow and orphans, those who are homeless and marginalized...and we demand that the institutions within our civic society respond as well.' It is very important for congregations to keep articulating a sense of priorities about what it is that government needs to be doing in a recession to provide the safety net and help those who are hurting."

Something to ponder while on the point jutting into Lake Ida.

Brian Rusche
executive director