“We [homeless people] know that $5 an hour is not enough to get an apartment without some type of subsidy,” writes Joel Alfassa in StreetWise (October 16-31). “And of course, a situation where subsidies are necessary is not good for anyone in our country. . . . We know that it takes at least $7.50 to make a living wage that would allow us to live with dignity and self-esteem. . . . A lot of experienced vendors can make more selling newspapers than they could if they applied and got the job displayed in the window of the store behind them. A sad statement for the stores behind them, right? Right, and there is no one out there who can argue about the value of capitalism with us, because we are the by-product of it. We go for the better paying job and the job that is most suited for us.”
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“Many women may be worse off because of no-fault divorce laws even though their marriages do not dissolve,” according to an Illinois Research (Spring/Summer) report from U. of I. economist Jeffrey Gray. He found that in states with no-fault laws women tend not only to be left with small settlements after divorce, but they “increase their hours in the workforce to improve their financial situation in the event of divorce, while others work more at home so that their husbands will decide not to seek divorce.”
Easy for you to say, Bub, but my congregation’s soul music is easy listening. The Chicago-based Salt of the Earth (November/December) quotes Tex Sample from the Other Side: “The captivity of the church to the aesthetic tastes of a professional and managerial class is pervasive. In some churches, for instance, classical music programs are imposed by professional musicians who believe their calling is to ‘raise’ the musical tastes of a local church. If classical music is the ‘soul music’ of a given congregation, then Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart are appropriate. But if the soul music is country or even rap, then the external imposition of classical music is an abomination which brings stench to the nostrils of God.”
Separate and equal–forever? “I used to say years ago that we were working to put ourselves out of business,” says Metropolitan Community Church’s Reverend Troy Perry in the Chicago-based Christian Century (September 25-October 20)–“that the day the mainline churches open their doors to [gays and lesbians] we would go home and there would be no need for MCC anymore. But after 28 years of ministry, I see now that we will not be shutting our doors, and that there is a need for our church. In the ’60s it was believed that with the coming of integration, black churches and white churches would cease to exist in our country. This has not happened. The historical black church in America has continued to thrive.”
