Holiday Book Guide: Top 3 Books for Social Change
In my work I have been focused on some of the moral issues associated with the financial world - especially as it relates to retirement and aging in America. This year I have had the opportunity to meet several authors with unique additions to the space of thinking differently about money and the way our systems work. Here are three books I recommend that you read from three authors I have interviewed this year.
Building Belonging by John Cleghorn
I had the pleasure of meeting John Cleghorn via zoom back in November to discuss his book. My short summary is that this work is about how faith communities are taking seriously the affordable housing crisis. They are doing this by repurposing their land and buildings since religious organizations have a lot of both. Two sides of this equation are the obvious need for housing and the declining need for land and property given attendance decline across the country. Cleghorn argues that what worked at the height of American Christianity a couple decades ago is not what is going to work going forward. It is time for something new. This is a much larger movement than a couple isolated congregations or a particular denomination and has a longer history than I had realized. He goes through his own church journey, details the challenges and highlights the sense of mission and ethics required to be change in the world. It also can be a source of joy and renewed faith in religious organizations by reading about the good work that is out there.
The Social Justice Investor by Andrea Longton
Early this year I got to review this book and meet with Andrea. She has also endorsed my book The Future Poor. This book calls for us to consider different aspects of the economic world and how much of the way Wall Street, banks and financial institutions operate leaves the majority of people on the outside. These inequities further create social problems and prevent the upward mobility required to create a better life for us, our families and communities. Many of these follow the traditional lines of gender, ethnicity, socio-economic status and how women are less likely to receive funding or how low income populations cannot get loans. What Longton does is open up a door for readers to see past the traditional mindset and learn about all the programs and people that are working to break down these walls and create opportunities. There are also opportunities for you as an investor to be more social justice oriented within your own portfolio. What adds to the weight of this book is the use of personal stories and narratives from the people involved and those that have benefited from the work of programs designed to meet this need. It will cause you to have a new outlook on investing, the US economic system and ways we need to cooperate more than ever before for the benefit of each other.
The Moral Teachings of Jesus by David Gushee
David Gushee is my ethics professor that I trained under when getting my degree in ethics. I got to interview him several months ago about this book and recommend it highly to everyone in and out of religious circles. A lot of what people think Jesus said he did not. Much of what is preached about Jesus probably misses the mark or is not taken serious enough. I recommend this to religious and non-religious people, not to convert or press an agenda, but to take seriously the human ethics that are linked back to Jesus. It is hard to argue against the teachings and the serious nature with which Gushee interacts with them. They are radical and they are hard. Where this is most challenging is when Gushee interacts with several of Jesus’ teachings on money. What if we really took those serious? Most of us run the opposite direction in our current economy from the instruction of Jesus. Most churches probably leave much of this out of their teachings as well. They challenge us to keep money in its proper place when it is so easy to make money more than it ought to be.
In an individual and capital intensive economy as ours it is hard to remember that we are in community and that we only have what we do because of our context and not our own efforts alone. These three books remind us of that and they remind us of the power of better visions for people working together than the isolating vision of personal finance offered by much of the world.