Are people to blame for being poor and homeless?
Please join in Poverty & Homelessness Action Week January 2013 and call for an end to this blame game.
Are people to blame for being poor or homeless? Media stereotypes make huge assumptions – benefit claimants don’t want to work; homeless people are addicts or alcoholics; they have big families to milk the state. Politicians – who should know better – repeat these distortions as if they were the whole truth. The public swallows them; it seems we need an ‘us against them’ world. But we want to show the other side of the picture. Poverty & Homelessness Action Week 2013 tells stories that don’t suit the press agenda. The people who don’t work because there are no jobs in their area. The people turned away by landlords because of benefit changes. The communities that are building strength through organising.
Jesus was being tested by the Pharisees when they brought him the woman ‘taken in adultery’. Jesus never said she was blameless. He simply showed that condemnation will not change her ways. We won’t tackle poverty and homelessness by casting the stone of blame at these people. Please join us in Poverty & Homelessness Action Week 2013 and call for an end to this blame game. We’ve prepared some great resources to help you get involved:
- Worship guides, including readings, sermon ideas, prayers and hymns
- Ideas for fundraising
- Online prayer calendar with a video for each day of Action Week showing the real stories of those experiencing poverty and homelessness
- Action Week DVD
- Action Week prayer card
- Promotional posters
Links no longer active
Click here to download free resources or order printed copies.
When you decide to hold an Action Week 2013 event, click here to register the details.
We’ll add your event to our online map, and offer our support with promotion and planning.
Ambrose McCarron, Church Action on Poverty
ambrose@church-poverty.org.uk
0161 236 9321
Tags: Homelessness, poverty, Poverty Analysis, strategies