Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis and Noam Sandweiss-Back are the authors of ‘You Only Get What You're Organized to Take: Lessons From the Movement to End Poverty.’ Reverend Mike Denton of United Church of Christ Pittsfield on South Street says their work dovetails with both the spiritual and material values of the community.
“Jesus talked about poverty a lot. It was, if not his central theme, one of the central themes," Denton explained to WAMC. "And the Bible also talks about economic oppression regularly within the Bible. So figuring out a just economic system is both a, I think, a civic commitment, as well as, for me, a spiritual and religious commitment too. If you read about Jesus and you take Jesus's words seriously, you have to take poverty seriously too.”
United Church of Christ Pittsfield is the home of the South Community Food Pantry, which serves upwards of 1,500 families in the Berkshires a month.
Theoharis and Sandweiss-Back’s swing through Pittsfield on their national book tour begins at 4 p.m.
