Tonight, my church is holding a timely lecture on “The Gospel, Race, and Wealth Inequality” at our Center City Philadelphia Campus (17th and Sansom St). The talk will be given by University of Pennsylvania Professor of Social Work Dr. Amy Castro-Baker.
The event was planned months ago, but one would be hard-pressed to imagine a more appropriate week in which to explore this topic. With the events in Charlottesville this weekend, and the President’s response(s), it’s important to talk about not just the moral and spiritual roots of such division and racism, but to explore its structural rootedness in the very way we structure society and economies.
I don’t know the specific of the talk, or its general direction, but I know Dr. Castro Baker enough to trust her and to know this evening will be challenging, hard, but beneficial to us all. Join us if you can. Here’s the event description:
In this conversation, University of Pennsylvania professor, Dr. Castro Baker will be discussing how the Gospel and substitutionary atonement can shape how we think about and address racial tensions and wealth inequality in the United States and Philadelphia. Despite upscale housing booms in the city and Western suburbs, Philadelphia has the worst poverty rate in all ten of the largest US cities and we lose on average 20% of our affordable housing each year. This puts many families of color at risk of eviction and stunts opportunities for financial stability. Dr. Castro Baker will discuss what these trends mean for people of faith who care deeply about their communities and desire to wrestle with the question of who is my neighbor.
the long way home 