Study, Celebration, & Thanksgiving for Kairos' 5th Anniversary!
Getting started here @UnionSeminary as @liztheo and Willie Baptist join @adam_m_barnes in a conversation on the history and mission of the @Kairos_Center and its contributions to the #PoorPeoplesCampaign!pic.twitter.com/rUq2VF6h5u
Kairos has spent the past 5 years and 10 years as the Poverty Initiative before that @UnionSeminary growing a network of grassroots religious leaders to build a movement to end poverty, led by the poor! Learn more: http://kairoscenter.org #PoorPeoplesCampaignpic.twitter.com/C50sUArGmk
“What we thought needed to happen for social movements across the US and the world was to build a movement from below...@UnionSeminary was the natural home for building this movement.” @liztheo on the early days of the Poverty Initiative at Union. #PoorPeoplesCampaignpic.twitter.com/vcnfsMLqXg
“If the first step of doing social justice work is raising a lot of money, social justice probably isn’t going to happen.” @liztheo on building a movement from below in the early days of the Poverty Initiative @UnionSeminary.
“When we launched the @Kairos_Center 5 years ago, at the forefront of what we wanted to do was relaunch the #PoorPeoplesCampaign. We had spent the previous decade doing the groundwork.” @liztheo on the origins of the reignited #PoorPeoplesCampaign here at Kairos @UnionSeminary.
“Kairos is a moment not of chronological time but of radical change. Our understanding is that we’re in one of those moments. We’re in dire economic times that are getting worse, and struggles of the poor are breaking out all over.” -Willie Baptist #PoorPeoplesCampaignpic.twitter.com/2swA22uFpJ
Willie Baptist telling us the story of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union’s St. Edward’s Church takeover in Philadelphia in the 1990s: “We talked to God and God told us to stay put.” #PoorPeoplesCampaignpic.twitter.com/67JMcztVVZ
“We had polarized the city through this theological battle...It went around that ‘Jesus is being evicted from a church in North Philadelphia.’” -Willie Baptist #PoorPeoplesCampaign
“We projected the need for a new #PoorPeoplesCampaign a few decades ago and we’ve been studying it ever since. Those who are inflicting these miseries on us have sophisticated levels of study and thinking, and we need to match that with our poverty scholarship.” -Willie Baptist
“We are becoming a more secular nation, but I think that’s more about relating to religious institutions and less about the moral values and beliefs underpinning people’s work for justice. It’s also different demographically and geographically.” @liztheo #PoorPeoplesCampaign
“Christ being #homeless, ‘No room at the inn’...these are the things that influence people. At KWRU we always had a shack for prayer, because for our people who they are and what they are was inseparably connected to God.” -Willie Baptist on religiosity beyond the churches.
“We think that the theologians of our time are the people with their backs against the wall.” @liztheo on the theology emerging out of the #PoorPeoplesCampaignpic.twitter.com/KUzJOXemRm
“It is the duty of people of faith, especially those who are working in organized religion or faith-based work, to help the poor take action together, as Dr. King said. If we do that, all of our institutions will be transformed.” @liztheo #PoorPeoplesCampaignpic.twitter.com/1vqxsysK8g
“It’s from the poor that theologies emerge, that these sacred texts emerge.” @liztheo #PoorPeoplesCampaign
“It’s not an accident that almost half of this world lives in squalor...the same edifice that produces billionaires produces beggars. We have to build a movement in response, one led by the most impacted.” @liztheo on the long range view of the #PoorPeoplesCampaignpic.twitter.com/HXjdmlDTDV
“Change won’t really happen for the long term unless we build a movement. We talk about the next activities, but these are steps on a staircase to a movement. This country is ready for a movement.” @liztheo #PoorPeoplesCampaign
“The question about the poor and the least of these is about all of us. None of us are immune from where this country is heading.” -Willie Baptist #PoorPeoplesCampaignpic.twitter.com/FejrKkvgN7 – at Union Theological Seminary
Wrapping up our afternoon class on the @Kairos_Center & the #PoorPeoplesCampaign here @UnionSeminary. Join us next here at Union for a reception celebrating the 5th year of Kairos (5-7pm)! http://bit.ly/Kairos5thUTS pic.twitter.com/5ASD9g077g
“The next stage of the @Kairos_Center has begun with the #PoorPeoplesCampaign. For that, @UnionSeminary is deeply grateful, for keeping these issues at the forefront.” -Fred Davie welcoming folks to the Kairos Center’s 5th anniversary reception.pic.twitter.com/629GUQKi1p – at Union Theological Seminary
“These are explosive times we’re living in, and people are beginning to fight.” -Willie Baptist @Kairos_Center #PoorPeoplesCampaignpic.twitter.com/T1ycRzHRpO – at Union Theological Seminary
“We have to make commitments that are larger than ourselves...it’s about community, about building the real church that we’re talking about.” -Willie Baptist #PoorPeoplesCampaignpic.twitter.com/jsGX0EvBn6 – at Union Theological Seminary
“The need to ignite a movement of the poor is upon us with the #PoorPeoplesCampaign and we have to get on board.” -Willie Baptist
“Poverty and homelessness are growing by leaps and bounds, and they’re growing despite our ability to eradicate them...To stop this, we need a moral revolution that will stand with the poor and the dispossessed.” - Willie Baptist of Union’s @Kairos_Center #PoorPeoplesCampaignpic.twitter.com/xSjvP7kIm1
“Racists are emboldened, there is violence everywhere, and it seems evil is reigning supreme...but we see in the ashes of this world breaking down a phoenix rising—a movement that says we don’t need to live this way.” - @liztheo of Union’s @Kairos_Center #PoorPeoplesCampaignpic.twitter.com/mJ54BLnqv7
“In the future we’ll be able to say, ‘I lived in a moment when raw sewage was in folks’ backyards, when children died from lack of healthcare, when someone could go into a synagogue to shoot people.’ The question will be, did you stand up?” @liztheo #PoorPeoplesCampaignpic.twitter.com/CDNjSmbRxo – at Union Theological Seminary
“We’re a year into the #PoorPeoplesCampaign, 5 years into the @Kairos_Center, 15 years into the work of the Poverty Initiative here @UnionSeminary. And we’re just getting started.” @liztheo