Everything must change -final notes.

Part seven
Here we begin to look at the equity system and we begin to consider this by asking not so much how we can improve the lot of the poor, but why it is the poor are poor. I couldn't help thinking of Oscar Romero musing on the way he would be applauded for giving to the poor but vilified for asking why they were poor. In many ways, McLaren's thinking here echoes the kind of concerns that have been promoted by agencies such as Christian aid about trade justice: the equity system was developed in conditions that don't now pertain and which have become biased towards the already-haves. In the course of this chapter, we are reminded of some shocking figures about global inequality, not least if which is that the ratio-gaps are getting greater, not smaller and makes the point that seamstresses working 18-hour days for peanuts in appalling conditions are almost certainly working far harder than fat-cat executives: this is clearly not about just rewards for hard work. that said, in chapter 28 McLaren points out that it is too easy to say that the wealth of the rich causes the poverty of the poor. He offers a model which says that systematic injustice gives the double outcome of over-rewarding the haves and under-rewarding the have-nots (my phrasing). In reflecting on the story of the unjust steward and the parable of the labourers hired at different times of day, McLaren points out that God's concerns go beyond mere fairness to sustainable community and includes grace. He notes that the so-called 'unjust steward' was actually restoring things to those who had found their goods and labour exploited under an unjust system. In this chapter, I was particularly interested in the recovering of theologies that recognise social or collective sin.

In chapter 29 we are encouraged to ask productive questions: what benefits will come to the rich if the poor are better off? What dangers and negative consequences will follow for the rich if the poor are not better off?
Chapter 30 begins to envision religion that is not so much organised as organising for the common goods. Much of this is not really new (at least not to me), but I'm really pleased to see it all brought together in an easy-to-read way to bring the concerns and ideas to a wider audience.

Part eight
In this part we consider the role of hope and some encouraging stories about living differently. It is a call to disbelieve the dominant stories that the book exposes and to trust that outlined in this book as being the truer or fuller understanding of Jesus's message. It is a call to action at different levels and a reminder that though things may seem difficult, even impossible, but Jesus is all about the mustard seed faith.

I suspect that this book won't convert hardline believers in the theocapitalist system, and it will have a hard time with those who are in churches where the conventional piety is preached. However, it will help those who are beginning to explore these kinds of issues to be able to think about them from a Christian point of view.

Books etc to investigate further.

Boff, Leonardo. Cry of the earth, cry of the poor
Daly, Herman. Beyond Growth, the Economics of Sustainable Development.
ptsem.edu/iym/lectures/2001/Beaudoin-after.pdf
highbeam.com/doc/1G1-93610958.html
Rauschebusch, Walter. A theology for the Social Gospel