Helpful Score: 3
First let me say I admire anyone who dedicates their lives to helping the needy. Shane has helped the poor all over the world and I have nothing but respect for that.
I also more than understand his frustrations with churches whose idea of helping the poor is giving food to one of their members who is in the middle of a divorce while living in his parents $500,000 house. Yes, that was one of our local churches.
HOWEVER. What I cant understand is his insistence on everyone giving away all of their possessions and living nomadic lifestyles to cure the poverty problem. He constantly quotes communists (Dorothy Day "an activist and a communist"), and talks down about people who "just send checks" to help the poor. If we all became the possessionless nomads he so reveres, it would do nothing but ADD to the poverty problem, it would just be voluntary. Someone needs to keep a job so the hospitals can stay open to help the sick, so the colleges can train more doctors, so the farmers can grow the food to help feed the poor and so the trucks can keep delivering the food to people who need it.
Bashing people who keep a job and send part of their income to those who have the time to dedicate to the poor isnt going to help the situation, it just makes him look unappreciative of the donations he gets from those of us who work for a living.
I also more than understand his frustrations with churches whose idea of helping the poor is giving food to one of their members who is in the middle of a divorce while living in his parents $500,000 house. Yes, that was one of our local churches.
HOWEVER. What I cant understand is his insistence on everyone giving away all of their possessions and living nomadic lifestyles to cure the poverty problem. He constantly quotes communists (Dorothy Day "an activist and a communist"), and talks down about people who "just send checks" to help the poor. If we all became the possessionless nomads he so reveres, it would do nothing but ADD to the poverty problem, it would just be voluntary. Someone needs to keep a job so the hospitals can stay open to help the sick, so the colleges can train more doctors, so the farmers can grow the food to help feed the poor and so the trucks can keep delivering the food to people who need it.
Bashing people who keep a job and send part of their income to those who have the time to dedicate to the poor isnt going to help the situation, it just makes him look unappreciative of the donations he gets from those of us who work for a living.
Helpful Score: 1
Challenging. Thought-provoking. I read it a year ago and I'm still thinking about it.
Jennifer O. reviewed The Irresistible Revolution : Living as an Ordinary Radical on + 2 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Wonderfully different. Challenging, and eye opening.
