TheSocialEdge.com

by Gerry McCarthy

I first heard United Church Minister and politician Susan Eagle speak at a “Faith and Public Life” Conference held at Queen’s University in Kingston almost two years ago.

Eagle was facilitating a session entitled “Poverty and Welfare.” My notes tell me the session addressed three questions: How do people of faith respond in order to take political action in the face of poverty amid plenty? How can these concerns be heard? And in dealing with social justice are they leaders or followers?
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by Gerry McCarthy

Howard Zinn is a renowned historian and author of A People’s History of The United States. He taught at Spelman College, where he was novelist Alice Walker’s mentor. He was also a professor at Boston University for many years.
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by Gerry McCarthy

Jeff Faux is the founder and former president of the Economic Policy Institute. He is a contributing editor of American Prospect, and a member of the editorial board of Dissent. His articles and commentary have appeared in numerous publications including: The New York Times, The Nation, The Washington Post, USA Today, and Harper’s.

Among other things, Faux has been a consultant to governments at various levels, businesses, labor unions, and community and citizen organizations. His new book The Global Class War was published by John Wiley & Sons earlier this year. I reached him in Washington, D.C.

Gerry McCarthy: In The Global Class War you write that: "The lack of a language that accurately reflects the evolving class politics of the global market hardly seems accidental. Just as the discussion of economic class is resolutely ridiculed by the national media as some loony ‘conspiracy theory,’ the idea of a global governing class with its own interests is similarly dismissed in the echo chambers of the international punditry." When you raise the issue of a corporate investor class do you find people dismiss this as a conspiracy theory?

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Michael Swan is a staff writer at The Catholic Register. His photo essay Cityscape of Desire: Toronto at Prayer opened at the Newman Center in Toronto on May 2. It’s scheduled to run until June 3. I spoke with him about his work, and some of the specific photographs in the exhibition.

Gerry McCarthy: I was struck by two photographs from your photo essay The first was Elizabeth McCurnin walking and praying in a park. The other is Eneyath Hosein. There is a serenity about both of them. Is that something you found too?

Michael Swan: I saw various attitudes from people.

Throughout her five year battle with leukemia, Elizabeth McKernan has prayed the rosary, which she remembers praying as a child on long drives north to the cottage. She’s been cancer free for the last year, but still prays the rosary on walks in the park by Ashbridge’s Bay with her dog Bally.

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by Gerry McCarthy

Gregory Baum is Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at McGill University in Montreal. A prolific author, he’s published 20 books. Some of these include: Nationalism, Religion, and Ethics (McGill-Queen’s University Press), The Church for Others: Protestant Theology in Communist East Germany (Eerdmans), and Karl Polanyi on Ethics and Economics (McGill-Queen’s University Press)....

by Gerry McCarthy

Angela Bonavoglia is a nationally recognized writer on Church reform. Her work has appeared in The Miami Herald, The Chicago Tribune, The Nation, Ms., Cosmopolitan, Redbook, and Newsday.

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by Gerry McCarthy

Marcus Borg holds the Hundere Chair in Religion and Culture in the Philosophy Department at Oregon State University. He is known internationally as a Biblical and Jesus scholar....

by Gerry McCarthy

Sasha Abramsky is a journalist who has written for numerous magazine and newspapers, including: The Los Angeles Times, The Nation, Rolling Stone, The Atlantic, The New York Times, and the London Independent. He is a graduate of Balliol College at Oxford University, and earned his masters from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.

     Currently Abramsky is a Senior Fellow at the New York City-based Demos Foundation, which is a national non-partisan public policy organization. His new book Conned: How Millions Went to Prison, Lost the Vote, and Helped Send George W. Bush to the White House was just published by the New Press.

     I reached Abramsky in Sacramento, California, where he lives with his wife Julie Sze and their daughter Sophia.

Gerry McCarthy: Early in Conned you write about the historical roots of disenfranchisement in the U.S. You explain that: "Felon disenfranchisement, in other words, is not a mere side effect of misguided social policies or strategies of law enforcement. Rather, pruning the voter rolls has been, in the view of a significant portion of the American power elite since the end of the Civil War, a good in and of itself." Do you think there’s more recognition of the importance of putting this issue in historical context?

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by Gerry McCarthy

Richard Layard is a leading economist who believes that the happiness of society does not necessarily equate to its income. He is founder of the Centre for Economic Performance at The London School of Economics. Since 2000 he has been a member of the House of Lords.

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by Gerry McCarthy

Juliet Schor is a professor of sociology at Boston College. Before that she taught at Harvard University for 17 years. Her work over the past 10 years has focused on issues pertaining to trends in work and leisure, consumerism, the relationship between work and family, women’s issues and economic justice....

by Gerry McCarthy

Mary Grey is a leading British theologian and social activist. She is currently the D.J. James Professor of Pastoral Theology at the University of Wales. Some of her numerous books include: The Outrageous Pursuit of Hope, Beyond The Dark Night: A Way Forward for the Church, Prophecy and Mysticism: The Heart of The Post Modern Church, Redeeming The Dream and Feminist Images of The Sacred....

by Gerry McCarthy

Theodore Zeldin is a fellow and former dean of St. Antony’s College, Oxford. The Magazine Litteraire in France has called him "one of the hundred most important thinkers in the world." He is best known in North America for his book An Intimate History of Humanity. His most recent book is entitled Conversation: How Talk Can Change The World. The book began as a series of talks first broadcast on the BBC. I reached Zeldin by telephone in Oxford.
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by Gerry McCarthy

Dr. Sallie McFague is currently Distinguished Theologian in Residence at Vancouver School of Theology. She recently retired as Carpenter Professor of Theology Emerita at Vanderbilt Divinity School. She has a Bachelor of Divinity from Yale Divinity School and a Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees from Yale University....

by Gerry McCarthy

Bill Blaikie has been a Member of Parliament for Winnipeg-Transcona since 1979. This past June, he announced his intention to seek the leadership of the New Democratic Party of Canada.
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