Nuns On The Bus: Catholic Sisters Embark On Tour Protesting Republican Federal Budget Proposals

[sweet-a-kins]

Nuns On The Bus: Catholic Sisters Embark On Tour Protesting Republican Federal Budget Proposals

DES MOINES, Iowa -- A group of Roman Catholic nuns have left Des Moines on a two-week bus tour of nine states to protest Republican federal budget proposals that the group believes hurt the poor and vulnerable.

The Nuns on the Bus tour left Monday for Ames. It is scheduled to finish in Washington on July 2.

The nuns will visit Catholic-sponsored social service agencies and the offices of Republican members of Congress, including Rep. Steve King's office in Ames, House Speaker John Boehner's office in Chester, Ohio, and Rep. Eric Cantor's office in Richmond, Va.

Organizer Sister Simone Campbell and three other nuns received a send-off from about 20 local Catholic nuns, parishioners and the priest from a Des Moines church. Network, a Catholic social justice lobby is sponsoring the tour.

[rachelrothchild]

Of course I do, but I'm not sure people even know what SJ means.

Social justice generally refers to the idea of creating a society or institution that is based on the principles of equality and solidarity, that understands and valueshuman rights, and that recognizes the dignity of every human being.^[1][2][3]

Social justice is based on the concepts of human rights and equality and involves a greater degree of economic egalitarianism through progressive taxation, income redistribution, or even property redistribution.

Social justice came out of the social gospel movement.

The Social Gospel movement is a Protestant Christian intellectual movement that was most prominent in the early 20th century United States and Canada. The movement applied Christian ethics to social problems, especially issues of social justice such as excessive wealth, poverty, alcoholism, crime, racial tensions, slums, bad hygiene, child labor, inadequate labor unions, poor schools, and the danger of war.

Social Gospel leaders were predominantly associated with the liberal wing of the Progressive Movement and most were theologically liberal, although they were typically conservative when it came to their views on social issues.

I associate social justice/social gospel with liberal church bodies, like the ELCA and evangelicals, not the RC church.  My church body doesn't believe in it.

I think people are confusing charity and caring for the poor with social justice.  They aren't the same thing.  The aim of social justice is to rid the entire world of poverty, and while that is a noble quest, a real Christian knows it is not possible for humans to rid the world of poverty and make every single person on this Earth equal because there is sin in the world.

Quoting Mommy_of_Riley:

Have you never heard of Mother Theresa?

Quoting rachelrothchild:

I didn't realize the Catholics believed in social justice.