Review: San Francisco's Tante Marie cooking school reviews Fruitcake offered by New Camaldoli monastery, Big Sur
by Peter Menkin


Festivities of Christmas are marked by various factors, food one of the important parts of any celebratory season in the Christian year. In an effort to find out about fruitcake and its favor among those who enjoy this dessert in the Christmas season, we offered to review date nut cake



Chef Frances Wilson with two students

 and fruitcake made by Camaldoli Benedictine Monks in Big Sur, California and offered to those fans of such eating during the holiday season.

The monks at New Camaldoli have a special recipe for their fruitcake and have been making and offering it to the public for about 40 years. At one point, they baked their own fruitcake on the monastery premises, but now because of the need to renew their equipment, for the past few years they have been contracting the baking out to a Monterey, California bakery (a city not so far, nor not so near the Hermitage that is located near a very small town named Lucia on the coast by the Pacific Ocean).

Of the fruitcake, the monastery says, “Our carefully baked fruitcakes and date-nut cakes are aged at least 3 months in a temperature controlled environment. Our Hermitage fruitcakes are made with cherries, pineapples, California raisins, walnuts, dates, and Georgia pecans. Our date-nut cakes are made with choice California dates and fresh walnuts, which are blended with a variety of spices. Cakes are dipped in grape brandy and aged for 3 to 6 months.”

The real test of fruitcake, New Camaldoli created or not, is in the eating. To this end the culinary school, Tante Marie Cooking School, in San Francisco offered their services. One teacher and chef with her 12 or so students tasted the fruitcake and date nut cake to give a review of what they thought so as to find out if this fruitcake etc. is a worthwhile Christmas dessert. The sum of their investigation turned up a positive



New Camaldoli fruitcake ready for tasting

result: Yes, fruitcake is a good Christmas dessert, though not officially a religious food (what does that mean we wondered). The Hermitage fruitcake it was decided is a good and yummy cake, though those weren’t the reviewer’s words, but the idea was clear that both cakes found favor with the teacher and the students, with some reservations.

Before progressing too far into the tasting, first a context of who the school may be (Tante Marie, that is), and some of the results of the details involved in the review itself, let us address the question of the Christian nature of fruitcake. It is known that in some quarters fruitcake is a joke, a kind of rejected dessert provided by relatives of various families in times of Christmas dinner. Frequently passed around after Christmas in an effort to dispose of pieces of left over dessert, the fruitcake, primarily, can be found as a rejected Christmas treat. Is this a Christ-like dessert, to put it in the humorous way, for after all Christ even before birth could not find a place to be born, let alone accepted in his lifetime for what it is that he is as Son of Man and Savior of the world. Perhaps we reach too far with our metaphors.

This is California, a land of Culture Wars and what one editor said to me were “…the Christmas Wars…” How does one say “Happy Holidays,” becomes a culture war question in California and even some other States in the Union. It is almost as though saying “Merry Christmas,” is an affront. In stores like Macy’s and Sears the Christmas Season begins in October. Advertisers in newspapers, advertisers like Macy’s in particular who is cited here, have stopped saying, “Merry Christmas.” They simply state in large letters, “Believe.”

One Facebook friend not wanting to mention Christ, so it is presumed, offers this Holiday Explanation with Greeting: It is the Christmas season, a time when all levels of emotion ride the etheric waves. What we need to remember is that Christmas is not about presents, not about Church dogma, not really about the hypothetical birthdate of a man some 2000 plus years ago. It is about the celebration of Christ Consciousness, or if you prefer Universal Cosmic Conciousness or Buddha Counciousness. Enjoy, Love.

This writer replied: Merry Christmas!! Hurrah! for Buddha Consciousness, Cosmic Consciousness, Universal consciousness and the hypothetical birthday!!

Yes,, that it is out there, or a little wacky, or dare we say, “Fruitcake.”

Suffice it to say that this New Camaldoli Fruitcake and especially its Date Nut cake does not fall into the category of a faulty metaphor or a poor choice for a gift at Christmas time. It is not dried fruit with a cardboard texture, but a rich and moist, interesting flavorful treat that some

Publicity photo, the glamorous fruitcake

students and even the teacher-Chef found a little too much with an alcohol taste. Some will like that stronger brandy flavor, though. Neither fruitcake nor the date nut cake were found to be a failures, though another criticism in the serious tasting done in a holiday spirit of fun and celebration by the cooking school students at San Francisco’s store front culinary school was it had preservatives. For the record, here are the ingredients of the cakes:

Fruitcake Ingredients: Fruit mix (Cherries, pineapple, citrus peels, artificial colors & flavors, citric acid, and sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate—preservatives), raisins, sugar, dates, enriched flour (wheat flour, malted barley, flour niacin, iron, thiamin, riboflavin, potassium bromate), walnuts, pecans, water, brandy, butter, powdered egg yolks, wine, natural and artificial flavors, salt, bicarbonate of soda, spices, powdered egg whites, nonfat dry milk, vegetable gums (karaya & tragacanth) and starches.

Date-Nut Ingredients: Dates, diced walnuts, sugar, enriched flour (wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, iron, thiamin, riboflavin, potassium bromate), water, brandy, butter, powered egg yolks, wine, natural and artificial flavors, salt, bicarbonate of soda, spices, nonfat dry milk, powdered egg whites, vegetable gums (karaya & tragacanth) and starches.

In a telephone interview with Chef and teacher Frances Wilson at her home, she reported of the tasting: “(The date nut cake) was on the dryer side, but still pretty moist. The brandy dipped fruitcake much richer. The fruitcake reminded me a lot of English or Irish style Christmas pudding because it has whole cherries and was densely packed with fruit. It was very, very moist. And soaked in brandy. The Irish do it soaked in whiskey.”

Before going further with the review, Mary Risley, Chef, cookbook author, and school’s founder told us about Tante Marie: “We usually have fourteen to fifteen students at our storefront in north beach. The kitchen itself has everything on the home level so

Tante Marie School, Mary Risley (2nd from left)

it is not threatening, demonstrating one doesn’t need special equipment to cook. Half the school is for interested home cooks, half are those interested in wanting to go into the profession.

“We have a lot of wonderful successful students who have graduated. There are television personalities, cookbook authors. Shelly Lindgren she was a James Beard Award winner as the Wine Person of the year. She has two restaurants in San Francisco, one called A 16, and the other SPQR. She graduated in 2002. She is a successful restaurant owner, cook book author, and sommelier. I’ve had the school since 1979.”

 This is why Mary went with the tasting, to demonstrate her cooking premise again, and this assumes that fruitcake and date nut cake are civilized foods, but certainly that the Christmas festivities and eating itself are civilized. Mary Risley says, “We live in an era when people have gotten away from cooking and buying food. Cooking and eating is one of the good things in life. You can’t just pick up food like a raccoon. What makes us civilized is being able to prepare it in a delicious way. We are giving people the ability to prepare food and share it with others.” There the reader has Tante Marie’s reason to be.



Continuing with the interview with Chef and teacher Frances Wilson:

“I actually think the students preferred the date nut cake because they felt it was less of an alcohol flavor more of a cake texture. They all enjoyed both cakes and were not familiar with fruitcake, for Christmas breads we worked with were pantone and hallah, which are much plainer. They preferred them because they are plainer. They preferred the date cake because it was less sweet. Four of our students are Jewish.

“We ate about half of each one, and gave the rest away. The woman who does the dishes loved them. We give her a lot when we finish cooking. She was very excited she could take them home to her family.”

Afterthought by Frances: “The brandy dipped Fruitcake reminded me of home and friends and Christmas.” (Frances is Anglican.)

At this point in our conversation by phone at her home near San Francisco, Frances Wilson took over the conversation and began a lecture. She was responding to this writer’s comment on a student remark that they would not pay much for fruitcake, and it seemed that there was a touch of the independent sense of the student mentality regarding what was their tasting abilities as well as sensibleness of their pocketbooks. In other words, this was expensive fruitcake and date nut cake and better could be done other ways than buying it. Frances spoke to the point of their student attitude of, “I’ll make it myself,” and maybe they are right…:

I’m not sure how realistic that is (to think they can bake it so inexpensively), and these are culinary students and they do a lot of their own baking. They don’t appreciate or think of buying things. They make their own. (To another student concern…)… People are becoming more and more aware of…there are a lot of artificial ingredients and that is not a good thing. They are very aware that making a thing from scratch is better. It’s more of a mass produced thing than a hand produced thing (referring to the monk’s fruitcake). It has a lot of preservatives and artificial ingredients. (Our students are) a group that is very aware of this kind of thing.

For the monks who are selling the fruit cakes through the mail, someone may take it to someone at Christmas so it will last much longer. The richness of the cake is good, and the alcohol preserves it…that gives it a consistency of product that guarantees it when shipped. The students are hyper-aware of that preservative business as compared to the general population.

We have many people of different persuasions, and one bread is hallah. We have four students who are Jewish. We don’t think of the cake as religious, but part of the celebration. There is not a symbolism of the cake.

The English cake is Simnel at Easter and there are many different cakes associated with Easter. But they have many Pagan origins, and the eggs have something to do with fertility.

There are marzipan balls on top that represent the 11 disciples.

They are actually a co-op thing of the Pagan thing. I see a lot more connections here of a religious kind. The Christmas connection is more holiday brand, because it was made from dried fruit and nothing else was available at that time. The other cake we made on Friday was a Stollen, and somebody told me it is supposed to look like the Baby Jesus swaddled. It comes from Germany.

They had a good time and we had a lot of fun. They put a lot of effort into it. They now have knowledge they can use as a critical tool. (Tasting on a critical basis is a good lesson for students, apparently.)



Monastery Chapel

 This writer notes that The Los Angeles Times ran a story (local Front Page) on Immaculate Heart Hermitage Fruitcake, which can be ordered here. Mike Anton writes in December, 2010, referring to declining sales of the fruitcake:

But stiff competition from other monasteries and the outsourcing of baking to a company near Monterey eight years ago have cut annual cake sales to about 5,000 a year from 9,000 a decade ago.

“People bought it because it was made by us — all by hand. When they read on the package that it was made at a bakery, a lot of them probably said ‘let’s go find another monastery where they do make it themselves,”’ said Father Zacchaeus. “We were afraid our equipment was going to fall apart, and we didn’t have the manpower anymore.”

The power of The Los Angeles Times article was so great that as a result of its appearance, within a day the monastery literally ran out of fruitcakes for the year and can offer no more, though date nut remain available.

The owner of Tante Marie, Mary Risley, tells this writer that another good dessert for Christmas is the following recipe created by her for the season. Mary says, “This morning I am making cranberry red wine tart to publish on my website www.tantemarie.com

I publish recipes every month in a newsletter. One can sign up for the newsletter on the website, no charge.” The recipe is this:

This is an absolutely delicious holiday dessert that could also be made into individual tarts. Happy eating!

 

Tante Marie's cookbook
by Mary Risley



•  

Jamie Oliver’s Red Wine and Cranberry Tart

Ingredients:

Tart Ingredients

3/4 lb. sweet pastry
1 1/2 cups red wine
1 cinnamon stick
2 star anise
1 vanilla pod, split
4 cloves
juice and grated zest of 1 orange
1 lb. fresh cranberries
1 cup light brown sugar
3/4 cups red currant jelly
2 Tbs. butter
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
3 Tbs. pine nuts (or almonds)

Instructions:

Roll out the pastry to about 3/8 inch thick and line a 9-inch tart tin with removable bottom with the dough. Prick the bottom with a fork and chill for 20 minutes. Bake blind (which means to line it with parchment and fill it with beans) for 20 minutes in a preheated 425 degree oven, remove the beans and bake another 10 minutes. Remove from oven and chill before filling.

Roll out pastry

Pour the wine into a saucepan and add the cinnamon stick, star anise, vanilla pod, cloves, and orange juice and zest. Bring this mixture to the boil and then simmer gently for 15 minutes to infuse. Remove the spices; add the cranberries and 1 cup of the sugar. Stir in the red currant jelly and bring back to the boil; then leave to simmer on a low heat for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally, until thick and the cranberries have burst. Let cool.

While the cranberry filling is cooking, make the crumble topping. Cut the butter into the flour in a bowl until it resembles fine breadcrumbs; then fold in remaining brown sugar, cinnamon, and pine nuts.

To assemble, pour the cranberry filling into the tart shell and sprinkle over the crumble topping. Return the tart to the oven and bake for another 20 minutes until golden and crisp on the sides. Let cool on a rack. Serve with crème fraiche, ice cream, or lightly sweetened whipped cream on the side.

Serves: 12

Copyright © Mary S. Risley

Recipe adapted from jamiemagazine.com

Tante Marie’s Sweet Pastry

Ingredients:

1 2/3 cups pastry or all-purpose flour
2 Tbs. sugar
9 Tbs. butter, chilled
pinch of salt
1 egg yolk
3/4 Tbs. cold water

Instructions:

In a large bowl, put the flour, sugar, butter, and salt. Using a pastry blender, two knives or a fork, work the butter and flour until it has the texture of oatmeal. Make a well in the center of this mixture, and pour in the egg yolk, beaten with the water. Mix with a fork, then use your hands to press the dough into a ball. Knead the dough for a few seconds to distribute the fat evenly, then re-form into a ball. Wrap in wax paper and refrigerate for at least 20 minutes. It will keep for 3 or 4 days in the refrigerator, or several weeks in the freezer.

When ready to use, put on a board that is lightly floured and roll out to slightly larger than the size desired. Roll back onto a rolling pin, slide over pan, push down in corners, cut off excess dough, crimp edges, and refrigerate until ready to use. Makes 3/4 lb.

Copyright © Mary S. Risley

This article appeared originally in Church of England Newspaper, London.



Front door

Interview: Vibrant show of Pacific Rim work
at University of San Francisco

by Peter Menkin

Your gallery in San Francisco at the Jesuit oriented University of San Francisco has such a wonderful show going on about Pacific Rim History involving Religious art from various parts of that area brought to California. Will you tell us how a school gallery was able to gather such a small, but impressive gallery of works that tell about the movement of various influences in the Catholic art that is displayed, and let us know when the gallery show ends?


The show closes on the December 17. The Gallery has generous hours and is open until midnight Sunday through Thursday, until 8 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. The library is open, and students study until late hours. That’s part of the advantage of being in the library, we get wider usage.

I visited all 21 of the California Missions and talk to the Curators. Everyone knows something, and everyone knows someone else. I was able to take a trip to Asia. I went to Macau and the Philippines. There I was able to do work with Museums in Manila and Macau. There was another Jesuit who was affiliated with the Jesuit University in Tokyo, and he arranged for the rare books and other artifacts. The name of Sophi is the name of the University in Tokyo. In all, we borrowed from 30 different lenders.


On an average day 700 students track through the space. It has been very well attended by people outside the University.



In your own work as Curator and teacher, will you give us an idea of the special influence of the various regions with an emphasis on which region was really the most influential, as evidenced by the work you have on display?


I think the most interesting piece for me was the central position of the Philippines in Trans Pacific Trade. Philippines was the emporium of Asia (we’re talking about 1565 until 1815). There is no one interesting piece, it’s the collection of pieces from all Asia from India, from China, from the Philippines that brought the Pacific in this 250 year period, ending up in Mexico. Then many pieces came north to the Missions in California.

I would hope they would be interested in Europe, because this is the first globalization of culture. The Spanish empire extended from Madrid to Manila. And the trade in artifacts as well as books points to vivid curiosity and intellectual engagement across the Pacific. This was trade for the sake of trade. The importation of primarily luxury goods into the European and American market from across the Asian Pacific.


The buyers were the Spanish population of Mexico and much of the trade was Europeans both in the new world, and much of the trade material returned to Europe as well. The money to do the trade was the silver mines in Mexico and Bolivia and Peru.



How would you characterize the work? In other words, when I visited with you at the gallery and we talked, you told me that the work in many cases came from aboard ships and some from specific places of the Pacific Rim nations. Please find a moment to give us a perspective on these works that helps readers define the vision involved in the choices, but mostly in the religious attitudes represented by the works?


I would characterize the work in this exhibit as mostly religious, although there are examples of luxury goods that were for common. The pieces that you see that we can trace were pieces that were traded for Spanish silver. None is the personal devotional life of the sailors, for use in homes, Churches and Monasteries and the like. The image of the Chinese Madonna was based on both European models of the Immaculate Conception and shows the influence of the Mexican influence of the lady of Guadalupe that ended up in a private home that came from China.

Looking at the case containing rare manuscripts: Father Tom (Thomas Lucas S.J., PhD, USF's first University Professor of Art and Architecture and director of the Thacher Gallery), Peter Menkin, writer (on right).

These are all works of the Catholic Counter Reformation, and are mostly in the Spanish baroque style with significant influences of Asian art. For example, Chinese porcelain in the Ming style (blue and white), decorated with Christian images and emblems. It’s not a question of purity; it’s a question of making hybrids. And it is precisely the hybrid nature of the art that makes it so interesting and intriguing.



My friend who is an architect and photographer took pictures while we visited with you, and I noted that some beautiful books were part of the collection. As well, Terry Peck, my friend commented that this was in contemporary parlance a look at globalization in its time. Would you concur with his statement about globalization and compare or contrast it with the present notion of globalization by Americans.


The intellectual curiosity of the Missionaries (Jesuits, Franciscans, and Dominicans) is clearly seen in the variety of books that include grammars, dictionaries, ethnographic and cartographic works as well as theological tomes. Europe was eager to learn about the cultures of Asia and the Americas, and these works, some of which are elegantly illustrated with engravings were immensely popular among educated readers in Europe and the New World.


It’s not either or but both And. The globalization of culture now isn’t just McDonalds. It includes modern technology, the sharing of philosophies and world views that transcend national lines. My point here is that globalization is not just about commerce—as important as that is—but also about the free exchange of ideas.

You know Reverend Doctor Tom, the British had an empire. In your own study, do you think there was something comparable in a larger way with their sense of world travels in a similar time, and did denominations of the Christian persuasion influence work in other places or regions of the world in a similar manner as the Pacific Rim’s development?


The difference between the Spanish colonial strategy and that of Britain and Holland is that the Spaniards used the Church, and the diffusion of Catholic belief as part of their imperial strategy. The goal, albeit a paternalistic one, was too eventually to make of the native people Christian citizens of the realm, farmers and village merchants who were part of the body politic in general, the British and Dutch colonizers never sought the integration of the native peoples in their cultures. And this I think is one of the major differences between the Catholic and Protestant approaches.

Is there anything you would like to add about the gallery display and art that I haven’t asked, or a statement you want to make as a closing comment?


The message of the exhibit is that cross cultural dialogue is not a contemporary novelty, but rather has existed in a greater or lesser form over the centuries.












Images: Photos by Terry Peck, though first photograph on page is courtesy University of San Francisco.

Review: Yale University's 'Reflections' No More Excuses...Confronting Poverty

by Peter Menkin

With permission to quote at length as a spin off report on Yale Divinity School's Fall, 2010 Issue of "Reflections" magazine, this writer is taking liberties with their thematic statement ("No More Excuses: Confronting Poverty").


The twice yearly published slick magazine approached the September, 2010 United Nations discussion on Millennium Development Goals (MDG), and a seminar at Yale on that subject, by a panel of noteworthy people, speaks to the issues and is companion to the issue on confronting poverty. The video of the panel is worth viewing and is found here. The University is located in the American New England State of Connecticut in New Haven and has approximately 11,250 students in attendance. It is a University of renown known to people throughout the world. Nonetheless, as one friend who attended another school said of it and the roundtable on MDG with its "Reflections" magazine, "That's what Yale thinks."

Well said by my friend, for the magazine has much to say on poverty, as does the video presentation. But then she was being dismissive.

Dean Attridge

Before turning to Katherine Marshall's article, "Climbing Up to the Light," this writer wants to introduce the Dean's statement on the issue, The Reverend Henry L Slack Dean of Yale Divinity School & Lillian Clause Professor of New Testament Harold W. Attridge, 64, was a Fellow of the widely publicized Jesus Seminar in the United States. The Staff page at the University says, "Dean Attridge has made scholarly contributions to New Testament exegesis and to the study of Hellenistic Judaism and the history of the early Church."

Katherine Marshal according to Georgetown University: "Katherine Marshall has worked for over three decades on international development, with a focus on issues facing the world's poorest countries. She is a senior fellow at Georgetown's Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs and Visiting Professor in the Government Department. She is also a senior advisor for the World Bank."

Dean Attridge answers the question, "Why bother with poverty, for the poor will always be with us, "saying the following in his comment on the magazine issue:

Confronting the reality of global poverty is not a pleasant task. Being reminded of the immensity of human suffering and deprivation can in fact be a very depressing experience, not the kind of thing that we would choose to be doing on a lovely autumn day. When we hear of the statistics of poverty, recounted in this issue, it is easy to be discouraged. That 20,000 children die daily from preventable malnutrition is horrific. That a billion people suffer from unsafe drinking water is an even more overwhelming fact of life. Yet hopeless resignation in the face of such facts is not the response that we as Christians are called upon to make. As Dorothy Day once said, "No one has the right to sit down and feel hopeless; there is too much work to do."

The serious work of addressing global poverty has been underway for some time, spurred on most recently by the widespread adoption of the Millennium Development Goals a decade ago



Editor Waddle

 Ray Waddle, editor of "Reflections" makes some stunning remarks on Poverty and this Yale magazine's 21st Century's approach to dealing with poverty in the Christian context. His lengthy introduction to the issue stands alone quite well. Though not really quoted in full in this article that reports on the magazine and tells of this excellent issue, that like other issues is available at no cost to those who request it (the magazine can be ordered here), he says of himself on his website:

Journalist/columnist Ray Waddle is the editor of Reflections journal, the publication of Yale Divinity School. He also writes about faith and culture for various magazines, newspapers and web sites and produces commentary regularly on spiritual trends and the politics of religion

His work has appeared in The New York Times, Christian Century magazine, USA TODAY op-ed page, Sojourners Magazine, Interpreter Magazine, United Methodist News Service, Episcopal News Service, Vanderbilt Magazine, and Image Journal. He provided the prefaces to two recent books, Disciplines 2007 and Journeying Through the Days 2007, both by Upper Room. Ray has a B.A. in journalism from the University of Oklahoma and M.A. in religious studies from Vanderbilt University. He was religion editor for 17 years (1984-2001) at The Tennessean daily newspaper in Nashville, one of the nation's busiest religious hubs, and still writes a regular guest column there. He also writes columns for the Presbyterian Voice and Interpreter magazine. He now lives in Connecticut.

This writer's interest in reporting on the issue was prompted by the need to get a definition of poverty. To get some kind of sense of what poverty is in the global meaning, and even in the individual meaning to people and communities. The issue speaks to these areas, and Editor Waddle in his introduction to the issue begins a definition of what poverty is about by talking of what is published in the issue:

Mathare Valley in Nairobi, Kenya, is considered one of the worst slums in Africa. What that means is 600,000 people are crowded into three square miles, including thousands of children orphaned by parents who died of HIV/ AIDS. It means the unemployment rate is 70 percent, people sleep on cardboard and dirt, and the stench of feces is unforgettable. It means no running water, no paved roads, no police protection

The magazine does not spoon feed, for it is so easy to use his statement and go on with a sense of shock, a sense of dismay, and continue even to be overwhelmed by the facts and turn towards despair. Editor Waddle joins with a featured photographer's vision whose statement about her photographer's eye with its sense of beauty and possession of imagery reflects a kind of hope. The hope is reflected in the Editor's statement about what he calls this century's bold vision of eradicating poverty.

Photographer Bethany Mahan, 39, senses this spiritual drama in the faces of young people she befriends on the streets of Spokane, WA, her hometown. Working at a downtown street ministry some years ago, she got to know their stories, and they came to trust her. She saw a spark of nobility in them even if society had written them off. She started taking their pictures in order to testify to that overlooked dignity.

The Matthew 25 House, Haiti
by Bethany Mahan

"I was looking at people and seeing their beauty," she says. "There is more to people than their poverty."

Our issue includes some of her images from Spokane as well as from her recent visit to Haiti. Her work was featured last year in a "Faces of Poverty" exhibition at Gonzaga University in Spokane.

"We have such prejudices against people we don't understand," she says. "We really need to look at our own poverty."

A paradox lurks inside the rich world's turbulent relationship to poverty: the indictment persists daily that the west's glittering materialism and noisy sense of entitlement have made us spiritual paupers who have lost our way. Poet Tomas Tranströmer once wrote,

We made an effort, showing our homes.


The visitor thought: you live well.


The slum must be inside you.



Stirred by our century's bold hope of eliminating poverty from human experience, the writers contributing to this Reflections identify many of the world's encounters with the dynamic of poverty, and they share their moments of truth.



Bike on Beach in Grey
by Bethany Mahan

 Do not the words presented in this issue in their thoughtful approach turn towards hope, and the photographs used in the issue reflect on a generational sense of renewed plans and visions in finding "no more excuses in confronting poverty." This writer thinks it does a successful job of doing so. That is no small feat, and on reflection, and continuing in the search for meaning in and definition of poverty, one that takes into account the forces of globalization in our time, the issue contributes well to the quest. That is what makes Katherine Marshall's article unique and timely. Her article is titled, "Climbing Up to the Light."

Author Katherine Marshall refers to the interconnectedness of our current world. Her first paragraph speaks to globalization, and it seems to this writer that means it is harder and harder for any of us to turn away from poverty in our time:

In this media world of instantaneous images, we cannot hide from a disturbing contemporary reality: vast gulfs separate the enormous, avoidable poverty of billions of people from achievable living standards, decent healthcare, and basic nutrition that could ease their suffering. We face an unmistakable gap between what is and what should be.

In her essay, it is clear she has a good understanding of the situation in the world, and she uses the word "global" many times. Somehow, the word takes on a manageable sense of size when she uses it repeatedly, and the daunting and even what she calls "intimidating" reality of poverty in our time, in its global sense (there the word is again) offers a promise of what we can see, what we can "measure", and what we note makes for approachable reality that requires a moral imperative. Or at least aids in the creation of a more moral imperative. She claims in the global village, everyone is our neighbor. She uses that phrase in her article: "everyone is our neighbor."

What is humankind's accepted fate is another question she raises. This creates a kind of newness to the subject, and again the approachability of the meaning of fate that in a simpler sense asks the reader by implication; must we accept humankind's fate?


She writes:

Tough Boy in Haiti
by Bethany Mahan

It is easily forgotten that the vast majority of people, through most of human history, lived short and difficult lives. Until rather recently, a quarter of all children died before they were five, hunger was a constant, slavery was commonplace, and education was the privilege of a tiny minority. This situation was, for the most part, viewed as humankind's accepted fate: the poor would always be with us. Charity was a duty; it could ease suffering, but would not solve the underlying fact of inevitable poverty.

By again offering limitations to, and definition of poverty, and in bringing it to a manageable though daunting picture, she draws the picture that again implies we are looking towards and with hope rather well as we take a telescope to view what was far away and realize we can even now put the telescope away and see what is before us in this global village, where everyone is our neighbor.

Is this a Christian message. This writer offers, let us hope so for in that agreement that this is a Christian message offered in her essay titled, "Climbing Up to the Light," we find more than common ground, we find a common sense of approach and definition. What some have called a look at the interests of history and found belief has merit, belief has power, belief of the Christian kind can help us in our direction in life and in living with others in constructive and meaningful ways.

Is hers an exhortation? Not really, but no doubt in her search for solutions and her manifesto of specific points of direction, there is the well of conviction. She argues that eradicating poverty is fair and just. Shee proclaims in a quiet way that it (the work of eradicating poverty) adds to human dignity's spark in human life, and gives people a fair chance.

So why should we care? There are many reasons, but I propose a "priority ladder" to help order the responses of our minds, our hearts, our souls, and our hands to this new and demanding challenge. The principles behind each rung can be found in the teachings of the great religions, epitomized especially in the Golden Rule to do unto others as you would have them do unto you. They are captured in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and other wise calls to action and justice. Yet it's still a fresh, even intimidating idea to regard poverty as something that can and must be eliminated from our midst.

Haitian Mom
by Bethany Mahan

Calling the poor the "bottom billion," and the philosophical belief that human beings are endowed by their creator with inalienable rights, this high minded and effective blueprint approach to poverty continues in a definition of it by way of its approach to helping eradicate poverty. She calls for compassion and charity in the face of suffering. Then getting practical, she writes:

giving poor people the chance to prosper is good for everyone. People who get access to resources spark production and innovation and contribute to the global economy in countless ways. So helping people at the "bottom of the pyramid" to prosper, for example with microloans to start a tiny business or access to appropriate pharmaceutical products, is a third rung on the ladder: we should work to end poverty because it is good business.

Author Katherine Marshall ticks off many points, one after the other in this positive, well crafted essay. There is more here than this writer can report on at this time in this space, let alone enumerate all she has to offer in justice. Hers is almost an executive paper on the subject, and in looking at it there are many such dimensions of sensibility in it that can be written about. Mostly, though, it is the newness, that sense of beginning and ongoing engagement with approach and attitude driven by a vision of globalization that catches the eye of this writer.

Here is a likely ending for this look at the piece she's created. The essay goes on for a while, providing what could be said of in a critical look at her writing, another of her points like some kind of shopping list of solutions and reasons for actions and belief. Frankly, this writer found her method of numbering her sections and argument effective, and if a shopping list, maybe it fits that someone with her kind of job must be organized and effective, clear in her communication, and administratively oriented. This is not to excuse her form, but to justify it because it is effective.

Again, a quote from the essay that shows both the practical and the moral imperative of eradicating poverty, and participating in Millennium Development Goals:

Fifth and finally, we must recognize the contemporary element of fear as another reason to care and to act: the harsh truth is that an unequal and unfair world is dangerous for all. The anger that is fueled by the lethal combination of perceived unfairness, lack of opportunities, and a sense that others lack respect takes many forms, and many of them are violent. If we want our children to be safe we need to address the root causes of justifiable anger and create a fairer world.

Each of these arguments points us to an urgent obligation to care about poverty and seek new ways of fulfilling our duties to our neighbors.

Towards the physical end of her essay, the Author says the kind of work involved in eradicating poverty needs individuals with a courageous soul. She writes brave Christian words.


This article appeared originally in The Church of England Newspaper, London.