Jubilee Forum 4, December 3, 2015
Reverend Troy Jackson is Executive Director of the Amos Project. He speaks in a personal way about how debt becomes isolating and something we feel we must hide. He connects the Jubilee idea to the civil rights movement. We now have the opportunity to create an alternative economy, which is the unfinished business of that movement.
Jubilee Forum 4, December 3, 2015
Professor Waleed El-Ansary, Islamic Scholar and Xavier Professor of Islamic Studies, speaking from the perspective of the Koran and Islamic culture on debt and economics. This includes how the land and earnings were committed to the common good. This means there was no such thing as consumer debt. He also explains the close connection between art, production and the presence of God. There was never a separation between science, work and spiritual meaning.
Jubilee Forum 3, October 29, 2015
Reverend Rob Rhodes, host of Jubilee Forum 3 at Christ Church Cathedral, speaks in a very personal way about how financial institutions can draw us into debt almost without notice. The ease and subsequently high cost of debt pairs with the seduction of a certain life style to put us into very difficult conditions. He also notes that debt has become a substitute for increased wages. In the end Jubilee is not just about forgiveness, it also about liberation.
Jubilee Forum 2, September 3, 2015
Commentary by Xavier theology Professor Adam Clark. Jubilee is about a shift in culture, consumer culture. This begins with an inward look. The earliest Christian communities were about sharing one’s possessions in meeting community needs.
Jubilee Forum 2, September 3, 2015
Rabbi Miriam Terlinchamp, hosting Forum 2 at Temple Sholom, opens the window to Jubilee from a Jewish perspective. She speaks of a history of exile and building a future in today’s world and what burden this places on us. She says, “Pray as if everything depends on God, act as if everything depends on you.” How taking care of our own is not enough, we need to question the systems that have maintained us and cast the net as widely as possible.
Jubilee Forum 2, September 3, 2015
Reverend Rob Rhodes of Christ Church Cathedral speaks of the Kingdom of God in contrast to the Kingdom of Pharaoh, and the presence of Jubilee in the New Testament. The idea of Jubilee has existed at times, now is the time of remembering it, living the Gospel, bringing it into our community, embracing an alternative economy, as the center of Christianity.
Reverend Damon Lynch III welcomes us to New Prospect Baptist Church as the Village Well. He connects the biblical idea of Jubilee to our modern cultural struggles. He quotes extensively from the Randall Robinson book: The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks and narrates the story of a black male over the generations. He explores what this means for us today.
Jubilee Forum 1, August 13, 2015
Walter Brueggemann, retired (supposedly) Old Testament Scholar and author, speaks to our relationship with money. He speaks to the exodus story and the wilderness from the Old Testament and the Pharaoh economy. It is about our passion for austerity and the possibility of creating an alternative.
