The U.S. has a massive shortage of affordable housing, but there are some glimmers of hope. Check out Faith Fuels Affordable Housing, an informative page put together by the Religion Newswriters Foundation about the housing crisis – and some of the things people of faith are doing about it.

A few highlights:

According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, a person working full time at minimum wage can no longer afford the local fair-market rent for a two-bedroom apartment anywhere in the country.

The faith community can't solve the shortage of affordable housing, but most observers say congregations and religious organizations are having a significant impact in some areas and that they are poised to play an even larger role.

The U.S. House of Representatives is now considering the National Affordable Housing Trust Fund Act .… The bill moved out of committee July 31, and the House is expected to vote on it after the August recess.

Elizabeth Palmberg is an assistant editor for Sojourners.

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Remember this, O Lord, how the enemy scoffs, and an impious people reviles your name. Do not deliver the soul of your dove to the wild animals; do not forget the life of your poor forever. Have regard for your covenant, for the dark places of the land are full of the haunts of violence. Do not let the downtrodden be put to shame; let the poor and needy praise your name.

- Psalms 74:18-21

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Reading is the food, light, lamp, refuge, solace of the soul, the spice of all natural flavors. It feeds the hungry, gives light to the one sitting in darkness, offers bread to the one fleeing shipwreck or war, comforts the contrite heart.

- Peter of Celle
Quoted in Essential Monastic Wisdom, by Hugh Feiss

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Yesterday our nation marked the solemn anniversary of Hurricane Katrina with news coverage highlighting the lack of progress made since the winds and water washed away so many hopes and dreams. For many Americans, the images from Katrina may feel like distant memory, even though the arduous process of rebuilding continues at a painstaking pace. I believed and hoped that Katrina would be a watershed moment that awakened national outrage over the sleeping and all-too-invisible giants of inequality and poverty.

It seems almost providential timing that at the same moment we commemorate Katrina, the Census Bureau releases its annual statistics on poverty. The Census report provides almost a national CAT skan of our nation’s health. This year’s report offers a glimmer of good news in that the number of people living in poverty declined last year by 500,000. However, this decrease represents a modest one at best and shouldn’t obscure the shameful reality that 12.3% of Americans still live in the quicksand of poverty. Even more alarming is that the number of families living in poverty actually increased from 7.6 to 7.7 million, as did the number of people without health insurance--from 46.6 to 47 million.

Katrina held up a mirror to our nation, forcing us to ask the basic and penetrating questions, Are we really our brother or sister's keeper? What kind of nation do we aspire to be? How would we want to be cared for in the midst of a national tragedy that shipwrecks lives? What are our responsibilities to and for each other, particularly toward the weakest and most vulnerable? These are fundamentally biblical questions echoed by the scathing indictments of the biblical prophets, and by Jesus’ judgment in Mathew 25 that "Just as you did to the least of these, you also did unto me." Katrina tests our nation’s compassion, mercy, and commitment to justice, and demonstrated the urgent and unparalleled need for good and effective government.

But the government response at all levels has been at best a disappointment and at worst an unconscionable failure. We have seen an abundance of bureaucratic red tape, a cycle of inter-governmental blame, and a deficit of bold leadership. The evidence is in post-Katrina conditions and statistics that are heartbreaking. An estimated 66% of residents have returned to the city but only 10% of residents have from the now infamous Lower Ninth Ward. New Orleans suffers from the highest crime rate in the country, and an estimated 20% of the city suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. Ten of the 23 major hospitals and medical facilities remain closed, creating a severe health care crisis.

I traveled to New Orleans in February to attend the Samuel DeWitt Proctor conference. The trip was like beholding two separate cities in one. In the French quarter it felt like the best of times, with tourists returning for revelry, while the worst of times are still being felt just miles away in entire neighborhoods and parishes struggling to rebuild from the waterlogged ashes. While the waters have receded, pain and trauma remain indelible. Where the government has failed, civil society has triumphed with an outpouring of charity and volunteerism, arguably providing the greatest engine behind the progress made so far.

I pray that the week of August 29 becomes a week of national repentance for the indifference we have so often shown toward our most vulnerable brothers and sisters. The week can also be a time for national redemption as we rededicate ourselves to the work of uplifting and empowering those Americans whose lives are circumscribed by inequality and destitution. There are Lower Ninth Wards across our country, both in urban and rural settings, whose social levies remain fragile and broken. On this anniversary I hope you will redouble your efforts to support the rebuilding efforts in the Gulf Coast and deepen your commitment to redress the root causes of poverty in our nation.

Adam Taylor is director of campaigns and organizing for Sojourners/Call to Renewal.

We are approaching the 11th hour in the fight to expand health care for our nation's most vulnerable children. During the last year Sojourners has been working with you to move three legislative priorities: immigration reform, the Farm Bill, and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Of these three priorities, SCHIP represents our greatest hope for a legislative win this year, with a bill recently passed by the Senate and House expanding SCHIP funding and coverage—one that will have a profound impact on the welfare of our children. President Bush has threatened to veto any expansion of SCHIP, however, based on the misleading argument that it would encourage children already on private health care to shift to public care.

Nothing speaks more persuasively to this shortsighted leadership than the testimony of those directly affected. Susan Molina is a courageous mother and leader in our partner organization PICO, which has been leading a grassroots campaign to extend SCHIP coverage to all children in need. She offered this testimony earlier this year to the House Energy and Commerce committee.

We pray that her story will inspire you to take action. If you're a clergy person, we urge you to sign on to PICO’s petitions to Congress and President Bush. If not, please send a message to your pastor asking him or her to do so.

—Adam Taylor is director of campaigns and organizing for Sojourners/Call to Renewal.

I am here as a mother to speak on behalf of my two children, Bernadette (age 14) and Joseph (age 10). I am also speaking for the tens of thousands of parents in the PICO network who lack coverage for their children.

Almost all uninsured children (83%) live in families where at least one parent works. I am a single mom who works. I am uninsured. … I was married at the age of 17 and I had two children. My husband was a very abusive man who walked out on us when my oldest was 5. I worked very hard so that I would not become a burden to my parents. Sometimes I worked two jobs. … I say all that to say this: As a single mother who has worked to be where I am now, it's hard to know that my kids don't have health care. Somehow we are punished for bettering our lives.

When my daughter was 4 she needed a lot of dental work. I was working two part-time jobs that paid $8-9 an hour and none of us had health coverage. I remember going to the welfare department and asking to enroll in Medicaid. I told them I did not need welfare or food stamps or anything else, just help with the dental work that my daughter needed. After I did the paperwork the caseworker told me I didn't qualify unless I quit one of my jobs or had another baby.

When SCHIP became available, I was able to enroll my children in the Colorado Child Health Plus Plan and get my children health coverage. And like most kids, they needed it. While they were on SCHIP, both my children sprained their ankles, my son broke his arm, and my daughter had a bad burn. Both received good care that kept them from any permanent harm and allowed them to go back to school and allowed me to go back to work. I was not worried about how much these accidents were going to put us in debt. I just knew they were going to get the care they needed.

All that changed when we lost our coverage in September, because my new job paid slightly above the 200 percent [of the poverty level] cutoff to qualify for SCHIP in Colorado.

We talk about 9 million uninsured children. Behind these numbers are real children who go to school, have accidents, and get sick. And real parents like me, who work hard to meet their families' needs.

When insurance prices are outrageously high, as a parent I have to decide whether to put food on the table or buy health insurance. I cannot afford to pay the hundreds of dollars each month that it would cost me to buy health insurance for my children.

I worry that when my children, God forbid, have an accident or get sick I will not have the means to pay for the medical attention they need.

Both of my kids were home sick last week for a number of days. The first night I felt very sad that I couldn't just take my son to the doctor because we don't have health insurance anymore. He was running a fever, and as I drove to the store to buy him some medicine, I began to cry. I felt like a failure. My kids needed something I couldn't provide. As a parent you work to make sure they have what they need. I went into the store and picked up the generic brand of chest rub and some Motrin for the fever. As I got back into the car I felt the need to tell someone that of course I would take my children to the doctor if I felt it was an emergency. I wouldn't care if I had to pay hundreds of dollars later.

I called my friend and told her. She just heard me cry for a while, and she said that it was important that I tell this in my story so that you would know that parents go through this helpless feeling every day. She was right, and I hope you do. … Thank you for the opportunity to tell you one parent's story, on behalf of millions of parents throughout our country.

the latest news on the Katrina anniversary, child poverty, Iraq, immigration, Iran, Sudan-Darfur, Senator Craig, the death penalty, and select opinion articles

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But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and herbs of all kinds, and neglect justice and the love of God; it is these you ought to have practiced, without neglecting the others.

- Luke 11:42-42

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Many students will groan when I point out these inevitable signs of the times, and an equally inevitable conclusion. August is upon us. Summer is quickly winding down. And this can only mean one thing: school is just around the corner!

I was reminded of this fact yesterday as I sent off my book order for the course I’m teaching at Harvard Divinity School this fall. If you’re looking for some late-summer reading, consider the following titles:

H. Richard Niebuhr, Christ and Culture

John Howard Yoder, The Politics of Jesus

E.J. Dionne Jr., One Electorate Under God?

Susannah Heschel (ed), Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity: Essays

Richard Land, The Divided States of America? What Liberals AND Conservatives are missing in the God-and-country shouting match!

Reza Aslan, No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam

Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Failing America's Faithful: How Today's Churches Are Mixing God with Politics and Losing Their Way

Donald Dayton, Discovering an Evangelical Heritage

Randall Balmer, Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts the Faith and Threatens America

David Kuo, Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction

Michael Gerson, Heroic Conservatism: Why Republicans Need to Embrace America's Ideals (And Why They Deserve to Fail If They Don't)

Ronald Thiemann, Religion in Public Life: A Dilemma For Democracy

Michael Kazin, A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan

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[Y]ou cannot judge the value of an action based on whether or not it brings success. You have to judge the value of an action in relation to the action itself.... I think we may fail in our attempt to do things, yet we may succeed in the correct action when the action is authentically nonviolent, based on understanding, based on love.

- Thich Nhat Hanh
Interview by Catherine Ingram, In the Footsteps of Gandhi

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There are those whose teeth are swords, whose teeth are knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, the needy from among mortals.

- Proverbs 30:14-14

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Here are some key quotes from a Christianity Today interview with "Beirut-based journalist Rami Khouri, a Palestinian-Jordanian Christian. ... An American citizen, he is editor-at-large of The Daily Star, the largest English-language newspaper in the Middle East. He is also director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut."

American Christians could look at Christian Palestinians or Christian Arabs as a potential window into the minds of millions of Muslim Arabs. You would find that what Christian Arabs are feeling is very similar to what Muslim Arabs are feeling. So the real issues at play, in Lebanon and throughout the Middle East, are not religious but political. People may call on their religious vocabulary and metaphors and iconography, but we should look beyond the surface manifestations of those religious symbols to the political realities.

I'd add some nuance to the somewhat categorical assertion that the "real issues" are "not religious but political"--at least some of the real issues are religious. But I will take every opportunity I can to relay the views of Middle Eastern Christians to their brothers and sisters in the U.S.

Khouri also makes some interesting observations on the role of the church--and all religious leaders--in resolving political conflicts:

Sometimes, it's not just about getting the ear of politicians. Sometimes, the church needs to shame politicians. Go over their heads. The vast majority of people in the Middle East want the same thing. But the politicians are the problem in many ways. So it would be good if various religious leaderships together explored a way to make the moral values of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism more pertinent to the resolution of political conflict. Political leaders need to affirm the relevance of moral and faith values and somehow get them to underpin the political process and negotiations. One way to do that is to get these religious leaders together to explicitly talk about political issues.

This was exactly the goal of Sojourners' participation in efforts to prevent war with Iran.

Ryan Rodrick Beiler is the Web editor for Sojourners/Call to Renewal.

Cities of Light: The Rise and Fall of Islamic Spain aired this week on PBS in my viewing area. The film, which looks at the period of "Moorish" rule in European history when religious diversity was accommodated within a social and political system, and culture among Muslims, Christians, and Jews thrived, is part of a renaissance movement to reclaim the history of religious tolerance in Islam.

The Unity Production Foundation, producers of Cities of Light, is a nonprofit educational foundation that works through the media to produce films and documentaries that serve the cause of peace and understanding. Many of UPF's current projects focus on creating greater understanding about Muslims and Islam. (See American Muslim Teens Talk and Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet.)

Additionally, An Esoteric Quest for the Golden Age of Andulusia is a conference to be held this September in Granada, Spain. Theologians, authors, artists, poets, and others will come together to examine the extraordinary culture of religious tolerance in medieval Spain that produced works of enduring spiritual and artistic genius—such as the mystical traditions in Judaism and the writings of Spanish Christian mystics St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross. (Sojourners writer Mirabai Starr will be making a presentation on both these saints. See her article, A Garden of Righteousness, in the August 2005 issue.)

According to Irshad Manji, author of The New York Times' bestseller The Trouble with Islam Today, many Muslims are attempting to restore in Islam the spirit of ijtihad (pronounced ij-tee-had), Islam's own tradition of creative reasoning. "As globalization persists and pluralism spreads," writes Manji in her column On Faith, "both Muslims and non-Muslims need to know that Islam offers a positive alternative to the tribal mentality.

"Ijtihad has a history of achievement. In the early centuries of Islam, 135 schools of interpretation flourished. In Muslim Spain, scholars would teach their students to abandon 'expert' opinions about the Qur'an if their conversations with the living, breathing Qur'an produced better evidence for their peaceful ideas. And Cordoba, one of the most sophisticated cities in Muslim Spain, housed 70 libraries. That rivals the number of public libraries in most cosmopolitan cities today!

"From the 8th to the 12th centuries, the 'gates of ijtihad' - of discussion, debate and dissent - remained wide open. This is also when Islamic civilization led the world in ingenuity. If ever we Muslims needed to renew our commitment to ijtihad, it is now. From the emerging generation, I continually hear this question: 'Is there a way to reconcile our faith with freedom of thought?'"

Manji's own organization, Project Ijtihad, is an international network of reform-minded Muslims who want to work with Christian and Jewish allies in promoting religious diversity and a renewal of the creative, life-promoting Spirit that is the original impulse of our faiths.

In the midst of extreme religious intolerance and violence, celebrating the richness of the arts together is one way to move beyond simply "religious tolerance" or "interfaith understanding" to deep enjoyment and savoring of the flowering imaginations in our shared and diverse heritages and traditions.

Rose Marie Berger, associate editor of Sojourners, is a Catholic peace activist and poet.

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Study is hard work. It is so much easier to find something else to do in its place than to stay at the grind of it. We have excuses aplenty for avoiding the dull, hard, daily attempt to learn. There is always something so much more important to do than reading. There is always some excuse for not stretching our souls with new ideas and insights now or yet or ever.

- Joan Chittister
Quoted in Essential Monastic Wisdom, by Hugh Feiss

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You have heard that it was said, "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." But I say to you, do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.

- Matthew 5:38-42

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Here's a collection of quotes about Gonzales' resignation from the AP. A few to start with:

"Al Gonzales is a man of integrity, decency and principle. ... After months of unfair treatment that has created a harmful distraction at the Justice Department, Judge Gonzales decided to resign his position and I accept his decision. It's sad that ... his good name was dragged through the mud for political reasons." — President Bush.

"The rampant politicization of federal law enforcement that occurred under his tenure seriously eroded public confidence in our justice system. The president must now restore credibility to the office of the attorney general." — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

"Alberto Gonzales was never the right man for this job. He lacked independence, he lacked judgment, and he lacked the spine to say no to Karl Rove. This resignation is not the end of the story. Congress must get to the bottom of this mess and follow the facts where they lead, into the White House." — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada.

"It is my hope that whomever President Bush selects as the next attorney general, he or she is not subjected to the same poisonous partisanship that we've sadly grown accustomed to over the past eight months." — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky.

"I have said for a long time that I thought the president would be best served if the attorney general resigned so I think it's the right thing to do." — Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

"His mistake was underestimating the ferocity of relentless partisan attacks and not preparing more to address them." — Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.

"This is a great, great development. ... The next attorney general has to understand that his primary loyalty is to the Constitution and the rule of law and that sometimes he has to tell the president no." Former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias of New Mexico, one of the fired U.S. prosecutors.

I sat with Elvira Arellano at a press conference last weekend with representatives of our sanctuary families in Los Angeles. Several of the reporters asked her if she believed that she was the Rosa Parks of the immigrant rights movement. Her response was simple and clear – “I am Elvira Arrellano, just a mother who does not want to be separated from my child nor to take him away from his country.”

Of course, she is now deported and has to face the terrible choice of being apart from her son or keeping him from all of the benefits and opportunities that are his birthright as an American citizen.

Why did Elvira risk deportation by leaving sanctuary? Elvira’s stated purpose in risking deportation was to renew attention to the plight of the hundreds of thousands of families like hers – families that are facing the threat of being broken by a broken immigration system – and to issue an urgent call for comprehensive immigration reform.

We have been asked repeatedly about the impact of Elvira’s arrest on the New Sanctuary Movement. Across the country, the impact is consistent. We are saddened by her arrest, and we know that many immigrant families are experiencing greater trauma and fear as a result. However, her courage is also inspiring the families in sanctuary and their allies to strengthen our efforts to make visible the unjust suffering of children and their families.

We are committed to continue and to expand the New Sanctuary Movement because we believe that true immigration reform will require that many more native-born Americans and immigrants across the nation understand the contribution of immigrants to our society, the path to a humane and effective immigration system, and the current suffering of families.

We believe that this understanding will only come when non-immigrants know immigrant families personally as members of the same human family, beloved by God.

We believe that by continuing to make visible the faces and stories of immigrant families facing deportation, in the light of spiritual principles and moral values, we will, in God’s time:

• Change the hearts and minds of those who currently want to deport immigrant workers and their families.
  
• Inspire supportive community members to active and ongoing civic participation.
  
• Heal immigrant workers and their families who are traumatized by the current waves of hatred and rejection and enable them to participate actively in education and advocacy.
  

Rev. Alexia Salvatierra is the executive director of CLUE (Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice), an organization of religious leaders in Los Angeles county who support low-wage workers in their struggle for a living wage, health insurance, fair working conditions, and a voice in the decisions that affect them.

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I consider a room without reading to be a hell without consolation, an instrument of torture without relief, a prison without light, a tomb without ventilation, a ditch swarming with worms, a strangling noose, the empty house of which the Gospel speaks.

- Peter of Celle
Quoted in Essential Monastic Wisdom, by Hugh Feiss

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When you make your neighbor a loan of any kind, ... If the person is poor, you shall not sleep in the garment given you as the pledge. You shall give the pledge back by sunset, so that your neighbor may sleep in the cloak and bless you; and it will be to your credit before the Lord your God.

- Deuteronomy 24:10-13

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More Bible passages ignored by the Left Behind books.

It's particularly ironic that the judgment scene in Kingdom Come, the 16th Left Behind book, quotes verbatim from Matthew 25, in which Christ sends those who do not help the hungry, the naked, the sick, or the stranger to hell. A priority on helping the sick was nowhere in evidence, say, when protagonist Buck was responding to the huge cataclysms featured earlier. After the giant earthquake, for example, Buck makes a very brief attempt to help one victim, then decides to be a Bad Samaritan, keeping "his eyes straight ahead as despairing, wounded people waved or screamed out to him" for help (and never repenting of this later).

With regard to the hungry, the Left Behind protagonists also flout Matthew 25:

"... the Bible predicts inflation and famine - the black horse. As the rich get richer, the poor starve to death ..."
"So if we survive the war, we need to stockpile food?"
Bruce nodded. "I would."

In other words, if you see your neighbor hungry, build yourself bigger barns. Later, authorial mouthpiece character Tsion Ben-Judah offers his huge flock "practical suggestions for storing goods." The image of middle-class Christians stockpiling while the poor starve is all too close to today's ugly reality – so the storyline avoids the problem by skipping virtually any mention of famine (in sharp contrast to the other three horsemen).

The Left Behind books do make a big deal of a threat that can fit into their paranoia about government: the economic boycott of those without the mark of the beast. But this boycott isn't so literal either: when I left off reading the books, the heroes were planning to circumvent it by creating a food co-op selling to "a market of millions of saints," from which they would take "a reasonable percentage, and finance the work of the Tribulation Force." It's hard not to see this as a thinly veiled metaphor for the Left Behind franchise itself - and even harder to see this as having anything to do with Matthew 25.

Worse still, the body of Christ is not just seen as a market, but reduced to an audience. TheLeft Behind books I've read have surprisingly little use for church except as a place for one-way transmission of information. And, after the giant earthquake at the end of book three destroys the sanctuary of Buck and Rayford's church, the church community just disappears from the story, without explanation (they can't all be dead)! So much for meeting together to encourage one another, all the more as we see the Day approaching (Hebrews 10:25).

Instead of group worship, we get the image of Ben-Judah, hiding in an underground shelter, beaming his prophetic interpretation out via a Web site that grows to be "ten times more popular than any other in history." "Pretty much every … believer in the world" logs on – apparently, if folks in the global South, or poor neighborhoods near you, can't afford DSL, they might as well not exist.

The novel repeatedly shows the protagonists exulting as the Web site's visit counter registers higher and higher numbers - a perfect image of the Body of Christ reduced to an impersonal mass market. Later, the antichrist inexplicably lets Ben-Judah MC a huge conference in a stadium, broadcast to "the biggest TV audience in history." But, while you focus on those onstage, there's no need to relate to the brother or sister next to you. Even at the last judgment, in Kingdom Come, God stage-manages things so that you only hear the "well done, good and faithful servant" of biblical celebrities and your personal friends, not "strangers."

So go ahead, Left Behind, be literal: tell me to dig up the lawn (if I had one) because Revelation 8:7 says all grass will be burnt up, even though grass still exists in Revelation 9:4. But don't tell me that, because Jesus is coming soon, I should act arrogant, hoard belongings, and ditch my local church community. That's just literally unbelievable.

Elizabeth Palmberg, assistant editor of Sojourners, recommends Sojourners' discussion guide on apocalypse and the other contents of