Just Generosity: A New Vision for Overcoming Poverty in America

by Ronald J. Sider

Book Overview

Just Generosity calls Christians to examine their priorities and their pocketbooks in the face of a scandalous tendency to overlook those among us who suffer while we live in practical opulence. This... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 080106015X
• ISBN13: 9780801060151
• Release Date: October 1999
• Publisher: Baker Books
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Fair and Balanced

The debate over how best to help the poor seems to be polarized around the logical conclusions of two seemingly opposed assumptions. The conservative assumption is that most people are poor because of the personal choices they make. The liberal assumption is that people are poor because of bad environments and injustice. The conservative point of view leads to public policies that reward personal initiative while allowing families to suffer the consequences of their bad decisions as a means of discipline. The liberal point of view initiates policies that redistribute the wealth through entitlements and public projects while attempting to change the environment through the force of law. The weakness of the liberal position is that it tends to enable poverty rather than eradicate it. The weakness of the conservative position is that it tends to ignore injustices and do nothing to remove the very real barriers to the upward mobility of the poor. Ronald Sider in his book Just Generosity: A New Vision for Overcoming Poverty in America argues that these are not competing assumptions but complimentary ones. "I have lived and worshiped with he poor far too long to side either with the liberal who quickly dismisses the way personal choices contribute to poverty or with the conservative who ignores the way complicated structural barriers make it difficult for many hardworking people to escape poverty" (p. 35). Sider's "Twelve Principles of a Just Society" is the foundation for his policy suggestions that make up over half of the book. While one may quibble with the details of the suggestions, on the whole they are a way out of the political rancor that characterizes the current debate. I highly recommend this book to all. It educates. It makes reasonable suggestions to open the discussion on how best to address these problems. Most of all it is irenic and offered in the spirit of brotherly love as opposed to the power politics that have come to characterize our political discourse.

Do we care?

In 1995 the poverty level for a family of four in the United States was $19,806. 37 million people in the US live at or below this level. Ron Sider correctly asserts that it is morally unacceptable for 37 million people to live in poverty in this country while the wealthiest people are gaining a larger percentage of all wealth. In Just Generosity, Sider presents his vision for overcoming poverty in America. And it is a compelling vision. Sider's vision is distinctive because he acknowledges that poverty is caused by both systemic injustice in society's structures and by poor moral decisions by impoverished individuals. Both must be addressed in order to stop cycles of poverty. Drawing upon biblical study, Sider presents the goal of an economy of justice: "Every person or family has access to productive resources (land, money, knowledge) so they have the opportunity to earn a generous sufficiency of material necessities and be dignified participating members of their community" (81). Sider deals with a vast array of programs and issues like welfare, minimum wage, tax credits, health care, and education reform, showing how each could be employed in ways that encourage work, empower the poor, and strengthen families. Sider ends with this troubling question: Do enough Christians really care? This book should be required reading for any that do.

A Covenant of Compassion

Just Generosity Ron Sider Ron Sider is a writer committed to several agendas. He is a strong advocate for the word of God, an unconditional submission to Jesus Christ, and a deep desire to see poverty in America eliminated. Sider begins chapter four with a question that seems to drive his passion for the subject this book addresses. "If a person works fulltime all year, can that person earn enough so that his or her family can escape poverty? For millions of Americans today, the answer is no." The closing chapter offers the hope for America's poor. Sider says we can end the scandal. He offers what he call a Generous Christian Pledge. He proposes that all believers adhere to the pledge. He says, Generous Christians and other people of good will can transform our country. We can end the scandal of widespread poverty in the richest nation in history.

Christians should read this

I agree with the review by Jean-Luc for the most part, but I also wanted to add a few of my own thoughts. As Sider says early in the book, he's not a policy wonk, so that is his weakest point. Trust him on that one. As a more policy oriented person, I agree that some of those things would be great, if implemented, but that's the hard part of all policy - getting it passed and implemented. Some of his suggestions are not politically feasible (yet). Some of his other policy ideas are, IMHO, just questionable. Not just politically difficult, but I'm not convinced that all the ideas are that great. His Biblical framework is wonderful. I enjoyed reading his perspective on that, as he exegetes quite well. I also was biased to begin with, in that I had already done some thinking on my own about this issue, and was finding myself just saying "Wow, that's kinda what I was thinking." yeah. so good book. read it. don't take the policy stuff to seriously. but take the Biblical stuff seriously. He does a good job there. and the principles of the more holistic view of things, too. Those are good.

"Beyond Charity - A Critique of Sider's 'Just Generosity'"

At the end of the introduction to his new book "JustGenerosity", Sider sets forth the agenda of this book. He writes: "This book seeks to define the problem, sketch a biblical framework, outline a comprehensive holistic vision and then develop ...................." (p. 23) Accordingly, I will structure my critique and reflection of his book in reference to this phrase.Definition of the Problem: Who the poor are is well described by Sider, including age groups, family-types, education-level of poor and the relation between poverty and race. He sketches well the major factors that cause poverty. I fully agree with him, that structural reasons, as well as behavioral ones, as well as sudden catastrophes all contribute to widespread poverty. Even though structural reasons play a major influence in facilitating wrong moral choices, the latter should yet be ascertained as a cause for poverty. All negation of this point of view tends to take away responsibility from poor people and thus disqualifies them as whole persons. I also appreciated Sider's good assessment that it is basically the wealthy who contribute to political campaigns, which as a result brings people into positions who represent the interests of those few wealthy, rather than the masses'.Biblical Framework: I fully agree with Sider's analysis and presentation of the biblical material and believe it is compelling in its call to do justice. Love without justice is simply unbiblical, because the Bible is clear that those who follow God are called to live justly and love mercy.Comprehensive holistic vision: Sider is consistent with the biblical material and with sociology when he brings the role of civic society into the discussion. It confirms the "biblical anthropology" that humans are not mere autonomous individuals, but are interrelated beings. In the same way it acknowledges a holistic view of people, who are neither solely directed by bureaucratic decisions, nor by individual moral choices. Hence, civic society plays a detrimental role in solving the pressing problems, because it is in civic society that people learn the values that make this very society function in a healthy way. Inner moral and spiritual renewal cannot be mandated but is nevertheless crucial if family renewal, for instance, is to come about. Sider displays a balanced view with regards to the role of government and civic institutions and their interaction as well as contribution to each other, which I deem to be the only way in which long-term solutions can be reached. However, Sider presents too few concrete examples of realistic ways, in which civic societies (like inner city churches) can be strengthened, who in turn would raise local leadership and thus strengthen the political power of the poor from within. Social Analysis: His explanation for the low work-effort of poor people, for instance, as well as his interpretation of how the inability of low-skilled men to earn