What do "the poor" in the Bible have to do with people who sleep on the streets of our town, who live in the next block, who worship in the next pew? How does what the Bible says about poverty affect my attitudes? How can I best help to ease and end problems of poverty that seem so overwhelming? These and other hard questions shape four lively, dramatic study sessions for adults. Keeping Covenant with the Poor links portraits of poor people in North America from the study book, Breach of Promise, with situations in our own communities. here is helpful guidance in examining the covenants by which we order our lives, in playing the parts of people caught in poverty who have their "day in court," and in increasing biblical understanding.
Groups using this guide can choose to extend and enhance the basic study with special sessions. One of these presents plans for a service of worship; others outline ways to explore the relationship of poverty to women, to racism, and to health, age and other circumstances. Lists of books and audiovisual materials, as well as several useful charts, add to the guide's usefulness. Study groups that follow Keeping Covenant with the Poor will find valuable assistance in looking carefully and seriously at poverty in the midst of our wealthy nations and in joining with the poor to build compassionate and just communities.