Why do the values of Gospel justice we hear preached on Sundays seem so different from the reality we see in our communities? How can our churches actually change policies and laws that deeply violate the teachings of Jesus?
Drawing on long experience working in churches and faith-based communities around issues of social justice, Alex Tindal Wiesendanger offers a handbook to translate a commitment to social justice into effective action. Beginning with the need to move beyond charity to justice, he then guides readers from being activists to becoming agents of transformation within their church and the world. This involves learning how to build power through relationships and listening. Finally, it means developing congregations capable of wielding power in the public sphere.
Alex Tindal Wiesendanger has worked with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps and lived in a Catholic Worker community. He served as director of organizing for the Community Renewal Society in Chicago and as associate director of the Tennessee Coalition to Abolish State Killing. He lives with his family in New York City.