The Bob Edwards Show, Sister Simone Campbell and Brandon Jones, July 11, 2012

After Congressman Paul Ryan said that his Catholic faith helped shape the Republican budget plan, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops responded by calling it an immoral document. And now Ryan has another group of Catholics questioning his theology: Nuns. For two weeks, a group of nuns traveled by bus through nine states to protest the Republican budget, which includes major cuts to safety-net programs like Medicaid and food stamps. Along the way, the "Nuns on the Bus" have visited homeless shelters, food pantries and hospitals to bring attention to the services they say will be "decimated" by the Ryan plan. The Vatican recently got involved and criticized the group for focusing too much on poverty and keeping "silent' on issues like abortion and same-sex marriage. Sister Simone Campbell is the executive director of Washington, D.C.-based social justice lobby Network, which organized the bus tour.

Then, Brandon Jones is the author of All Woman and Springtime, a novel that Pulitzer-prize winning author Alice Walker calls an "absorbing, chilling, and important" novel. A story of girlhood and human sex trafficking, Bob talks to Jones about the intersections of his research and creative writing. [Broadcast Date: July 11, 2012]