For the past two months, leaders from the Kairos Center’s Reading the Bible with the Poor Cohort have been convening a weekly online gathering called the Freedom Church of the Poor. This formation brings together leaders from different frontline battles like the fight for living wages, immigrant rights, healthcare, and housing. We are Christian, Jewish and non-religious; leaders with the Poor People’s Campaign, scholars and clergy; and we come from every region of the country. By taking the name of Freedom Church of the Poor we join a much longer history and tradition of resistance to ideological and religious forms of control and domination.
By Nic Laccetti It is commonly believed that there has been a contemporary revival of interest in occult and alternative religious ideas, especially among young people, over the last few decades. Apart from the handringing think pieces on this trend that tend to pop up monthly in the mainstream media (“What does it mean that millennials read their horoscopes??”), the statistics seem to bear this out. Interest in spirituality is booming, but adherence to traditional religions is declining, especially among millennials. According to Gallup, about 1 in 5 adults (21%) don’t have a formal religious identity; this number is even
