ONE Sabbath Updates
Share
Today, leaders and activists from across the Muslim, Christian, Jewish and Hindu faiths joined ONE for a phone call announcing some news on ONE Sabbath, which is ONE’s multi-faith effort to engage congregations on global poverty and disease issues.
You can listen to the call here.
I listened in on the call, which included several very impressive leaders: Imam Johari Abdul-Malik (Director of Outreach at the Dar Al Hijrah Islamic Center), Rabbi David Saperstein (Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism), Ishani Chowdhury (Director of Public Policy for the Hindu American Foundation), and David Kinnaman (Christian author and president of the research firm the Barna Group). Each talked about the importance that responding to poverty plays in the teachings and basic philosophies of all major faiths, and that this common link between religions to care for the world’s poor provides ripe opportunity to speak out and work together.
Each leader had some thoughtful insights on why America’s faith community will play a key role in responding to global poverty in the months and years ahead, and how ONE Sabbath can help. You can listen to some excerpts here: Ishani Chowdhury, David Saperstein, Imam Johari Abdul-Malik, David Kinnaman.
While all the speakers and their respective organizations are already very active on these issues, each said that there is a widespread yearning across the country shared by congregations and individual believers alike to do more on international health issues. On the call, pollster David Kinnaman put some empirical evidence behind this belief. Kinnaman discussed a new survey he conducted among Christian clergy that found that around two-thirds of clergy believe churches in America should increase their efforts to address global poverty and health, and that 90 percent want political leaders to make these issues a priority. The survey—which will be released in full by ONE soon—also found that compared to domestic poverty, many congregations find it difficult to engage in the fight against global poverty, although they’d like to. Among the barriers to getting involved include not having enough information and not feeling connected enough to the problem.
And this is where ONE Sabbath comes in. The idea behind ONE Sabbath is to provide congregations with often simple, yet profound and concrete ways to make a difference. Whether it’s through a small study group, a meeting with an elected official, a sermon, a service project or a scriptural teaching, ONE Sabbath participants will help connect their congregations and the power of their own faith to the fight against poverty and disease. ONE partnered with several faith-affiliated organizations to develop a wide array of materials, which can all be found on the ONE Sabbath site.
On the call it was also announced that the ONE Sabbath season will now run through the first 100 days of the new Presidential Administration and Congress, a critical time when leaders will be setting budget and foreign policy priorities and will be laying out their vision for America’s role in the world.
As Rabbi Saperstien said today, “We are obviously at a crossroads right now where we are going to be deciding on priorities for our nation, and the ability of the religious community to be a moral goad to the conscious of our country on global poverty issues is key….Giving pastors, giving rabbis, giving priests, giving imams, giving religious leaders of all kinds a way to organize this is a very helpful thing to do, and that’s one of the sources of power of ONE Sabbath. ”
-Steve Wilson
- Previous Post Announcing the OCC Power 100!
- Next Post World AIDS Day: Seattle
 |
 |
 |
Featured Series
About the Blog
The ONE Blog is a daily log of the anti-poverty movement. The site is operated by ONE staff, with frequent contributions from volunteers, members and partner organizations.
The ONE Blog updates readers daily with the latest in global development news and analysis and what ONE members and our partners are doing around the world to influence world leaders in the fight against global poverty.
The content of each post and each comment represents the views of that author and does not necessarily reflect the views of ONE or ONE Action. ONE does not support or oppose any candidate for elected office, and any post expressing support or opposition for a candidate is not endorsed by ONE.
December 3, 2008 at 7:28 pm
I find the polling results very interesting, and I’m looking forward to when all the results are released in full. On that point, the audio clip of David Kinnaman is great and raises some important points. For one, it’s clear that many congregations feel more confident in their efforts to address domestic poverty than they do in addressing global poverty (which is understandable), and an initative like ONE Sabbath I think can be very helpful to a lot of people in helping make this huge issue easier to grasp and connect to. The answer is clear, we should care for our neighbors here in America who are struggling, and care for those overseas who are struggling against extreme poverty and diseases like malaria. At least among my faith community, there’s definitely a thirst for making faith more of an active pursuit, so I think something tangible like ONE Sabbath is great.
The audio clips of Imam Johari, Rabbi Saperstein and Ishani Chowdhury also are all eloquent and they all make great points.
December 4, 2008 at 2:07 am
That’s going to require a WHOLE LOT of money. Where are you suggesting we get it?
December 4, 2008 at 9:46 am
Some of us have become aware that most exhortations to do good are based on “shoulds” This tends to cause resistance. In my experience a better approach is helping people assess the quality of their llives. Most of us settle for a whole lot less than we could attain. As long as we see ourselves as separate from others we will live in fear. Many of us are beginning to realize that our struggles with the economy are shared all across the globe. The more people realize that we are all one the more we will look out for one another. Thus I recommend appealing to people’s sel f-interest rather than to their moral obligations.
December 4, 2008 at 10:05 pm
I’ve tried it both ways. I lived in fear neither time. I’ve gone back to seeing myself as seperate. When you say, “The more people realize that we are all one the more we will look out for one another.”, you are assuming that people are going to look out for you in return. They won’t. How are you going to appeal to someone’s self-interests? Tell them that they have enough or could do with a little less? That’s the mantra around here. If you have any doubt as to the outcome of those potential conversations, I suggest that you give those a shot. On a lot of people. You’ll find that peoples self interests are gauged on them(time and money). Giving their money or time away is generally deemed not to be in one’s self interest.
December 5, 2008 at 8:21 am
The solution ito Steve B’s dilemma is very simple: whenever I witness “unacceptable” behavior, I tell myself
December 6, 2008 at 5:07 am
I actually don’t have a dilemma. Please enlighten me. lol
December 22, 2008 at 12:04 pm
One Sabbath is a wonderful idea – as a Hindu, it really reflects what I believe and my faith reflects about giving and helping. The audio presentations are also very interesting, from all of the religions.
December 22, 2008 at 12:09 pm
Steve B, with all due respect, you’re missing the point. It’s not about our self-interest, as in “everyone’s going to look out for you if you do the same for them”, but rather just helping, working to eradicate (or try to) the problems that face our world. A little selfless attitude wouldn’t hurt here either. That’s the point of One Sabbath – not to satisfy anyone’s self-interest, but rather bring attention to the world’s problems (through faith in this case) and garner support to eradicate or at least lesson their effect in our world.