JUST/FAITH - A CRITICAL ANALYSIS - PART 2 OF 4 OR 5

Just/Faith – A Critical Analysis – Part 2 of 4 or 5
In pursuit of the truth – www.cinopsbegone.com – Saturday, Nov. 26, 2011

“JustFaith sees many prominent social problems such as poverty, race, planetary care, war, and the death penalty through the lens of the Catholic faith. Its rhetoric sounds like something adapted from a Marxist handbook as its process groups meet weekly to discuss their textbooks, videos, listen to guest lectures and participate in active discussions of all aspects of the faith, especially those regarding the poor. Many faithful Catholics seem to have missed the point that JustFaith’s appeal to social justice is little more than an infusion of progressive social solutions and the political networking.

“In an interview in the St. Louis Review, Pat Dougherty of Catholic Charities was ecstatic about the new program, which he saw as a fascinating journey where he encountered the Gospel understanding of the wonderful rich Catholic tradition we have on social justice. With robotic precision, he boasted that JustFaith had challenged him to look and think about things differently and change the way he lived.

“Unsurprisingly, JustFaith has spread like wildflower to over three hundred areas in the U.S. with the tacit support of a growing number of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, many of whom were active in the civil rights movement in the 1960’s. Archbishop Michael J. Sheehan of Santa Fe made a spirited defense of the justifiable beleaguered “Catholic Campaign for Human Development” (CCHD) in his column in the archdiocese’s April 2010 issue of its monthly newspaper People of God.

“In the Valley of Jezreel: Jack Jezreel is the founder and director of JustFaith, which began in Louisville, Kentucky in 1989. From a biblical standpoint, Jezreel is a fascinating name. The Valley of Jezreel was where King Jehu had the apostate Queen Jezebel slain (2 Kings 9:1-10). It is also purported location of the Battle of Armageddon at the end of time.

“A professed Catholic who holds a master’s of divinity degree from Notre Dame University, Jesreel tells his interfaith audiences that he feels a special kinship with those committed to the poor and vulnerable, regardless of their religious background. His ecumenical notion of spirituality includes a dismissal of doctrinal truth in favor of common dedication to social work. Jezreel vaguely describes his goals as making the world a more hospital place and ending the cycle of failure for people of good will.

“Jezreel’s first principles is to establish a lasting relationship with the poor, rather than just writing a check or pulling a “celebrity parachute jump” into impoverished areas to dole out food for a day or two. He cites the lives of “saintly” people like Dorothy Day to illustrate his social message. Sounding more like a born-again Barack Obama, Jezreel sees the importance of building lasting change through community. JustFaith is his way to radically transform parishes, with all parishioners’ goods being held in what he called shared economics.

"He believes that the biggest obstacle to bringing justice to America is segregation of the poor, the oppressed, the exploited, and neglected from the well off. He sees America’s cities like little apartheids, leading the wealthy into a dangerous illusion of security & the poor into hopelessness. What Jezreel fails to mention is that this is usually the fault of liberal politicians who have controlled most major cities since the dawning of the Progressive era...

George H. Kubeck

I had for more than a decade in the 1980’s distributed a Weekly Consumer Buyline in Long Beach. It taught all including the poor how to fish and shop for best buys and get out of poverty. I believe that poverty is something temporary in America. We are not to be enablers for poverty in one family from generation to generation.