Heaven Help Us
How Faith Communities Inspire Hope, Strengthen Neighborhoods, and Build the Future
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- 13,99 €
Publisher Description
Discover the antidote to cynicism and despair in this dynamic, revelatory, hope-inducing exploration of the extraordinary work and extraordinary people who are transforming communities around the country--motivated by faith.
The mother of a man with autism manages a network of group homes through her local Greek Orthodox congregation. The director of an Islamic cultural center hosts a national interfaith conference to foster better relationships with the Jewish community. A student counselor starts a free immigration services program through her church. Sometimes we forget that good is not only happening in America, it is flourishing--in the fertile soil of our churches, synagogues, and mosques.
Few people are better poised to speak to the value of religious institutions in civic life than former Ohio governor and presidential candidate John Kasich, who is both a public servant and a man of faith. In Heaven Help Us, Kasich reminds us through gripping stories that faith communities are vital to healthy communities and our nation. Heaven Help Us offers:
Unforgettable stories of people making an extraordinary difference because of their faith communitiesInsights into what sets faith institutions that transform their neighborhoods apart from those that don'tPractical ideas for making positive changes in our own communitiesHope to dream about what is possible in our country instead of what is impossibleEncouragement that religion can bring us together rather than break us apart
As Kasich shows us, faith institutions can magnify the power of an individual in ways that almost always exceed the expectations of the person who jump-started the initiative in the first place. More than a collection of "feel-good" stories, Heaven Help Us reminds us of the resourcefulness and ingenuity of our fellow congregants and religious leaders that make it possible to turn our good intentions into even better outcomes. Good is happening in our country. Join in.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Former presidential candidate Kasich (Courage Is Contagious) offers upbeat if somewhat underdeveloped profiles of ordinary people who made the world a better place with the aid of their faith communities. Among those highlighted are Mary Scullion, a scrappy Catholic nun who founded a charity organization that provided food and shelter to unhoused women in Philadelphia in the 1980s; Naser Hajar and Nadeem Khan, members of an informal association of Muslim doctors who created a Toledo, Ohio, medical clinic for uninsured patients; and Tracey Beal, who sought refuge from a volatile upbringing in the stability of her local church as a child, and as an adult founded Schools Connect, an initiative that provides children with social support by connecting schools with "area churches, businesses, nonprofits, and civic organizations." Throughout, the author highlights how faith communities can tackle societal problems by uniting people through a common sense of purpose, utilizing shared resources, and generally making groups of people more than the "sum of their parts." Unfortunately, those solid insights are marred by clichés and tone-deaf grousing about the decline in public religious affiliation that fails to seriously consider its causes. Despite its good intentions, this falls short.
