Shared sacrifice and the common good...

This morning I had the chance to take a short hike by the water with a man from our church. We shared thoughts about the state of our union, life at church and the challenges of being men of faith during this moment in history - and a whole lot more, too.  Later, when returning home, there was an email from the group, Faithful America, waiting for me. My friend hadn't sent it to me, but he might as well have as it deepened our earlier conversation. (check them out @ http://www.faithfulamerica.org/) I was struck by this paragraph:

When Michele Bachmann won, we started hearing a lot more about the "values voters" who propelled her to victory - so we perked up and listened in. We heard a lot from these groups and the candidates about protecting corporate tax breaks and fearing Muslims and LGBT people - but not so much about shared sacrifice and the common good.

That really resonated with me:  when did following the way of Jesus become synonymous with hatred, fear and mean-spirited economic policies?  Given the "end times" theology of some of the current Republican presidential hopefuls - and the ugly mood of the once middle class in many parts of the United States - I sense that the ministry of Faithful America is more important than ever.  Maybe you'll even want to join them?  I did recently - and along with ONE (http://www.one.org/us/)  and Church World Service (http://www.churchworldservice.org/site/PageServer?pagename=homepage ) - I think these folk are on the side of the angels.

These are hard times for many and they are going to get worse before they get better.  Can you help?

credits: Dexter and Blue (Belgium) @ http://blog.vandalog.com/