My Upcoming Conversation with Chuck Collins on Nov 13th
22nd Week after Pentecost, 2025
As we near the end of lectionary Year C and our journey through Luke, we are happy to announce that the Center and Library for the Bible and Social Justice will host a conversation between Chuck Collins’ and me on Thursday, Nov 13, from 7:30-9 pm EST. Chuck’s Burned by Billionaires, now out from The New Press, is the best “companion volume” to my work on Luke’s Jesus and Sabbath Economics.
In my opinion, BBB is the clearest, most accessible primer on why and how to battle the pandemic of extreme Affluenza by its foremost “epidemiologist.” Chuck will talk about Plutocracy as the leading cause of all political, socio-economic and ecological ills impacting our world today. I hope you’ll join us for this online conversation hosted by our friends at the Center (register here).
Chuck is a friend, researcher and campaigner based at the Institute for Policy Studies, where he directs the Program on Inequality and the Common Good and co-edits Inequality.org. He is author of ten books about the impact of inequality on our lives, including The Wealth Hoarders: How Billionaires Pay Millions to Hide Trillions.
Last week I blogged about the Zacheaus story as the “culmination” of Luke’s series of stories about the rich, and the next day presented this material at Sabeel’s weekly Bible study (you can see it here.) The Zacheaus Triptych prefaces Luke’s Jerusalem narrative (19:28ff), which concludes with one more vignette about the exploitation of the poor by the rich. In the CLBSJ program , I’ll offer a reflection on “Jesus’ Last Warning: The Rich Bring Hell on the World (Lk 21:1-19).” We’ll see how the infamous “widow’s mite” episode in the Temple (20:46-21:4) inspires Jesus’ “Little Apocalypse” rant (21:5-36), which in turn ushers in the Passion narrative (22:1ff). These are formidable texts which I didn’t explore much in HARP, so don’t miss the 11/13 program—where I’ll also announce how you can purchase both BBB and HARP at cost!
Registration ends on Dec. 15th for the upcoming online class on Healing Haunted Histories, facilitated by our BCM colleague Steve Taylor and Dr. Lynne Caldwell(right)! More details here.
Note: My last 2025 blog on Lukan lections during Year C will be next week, which have tried to popularize and summarize my more detailed study of texts in HARP. I hope you will buy and engage the book, and find in it a resource for doing the important work of reading our scriptures in this time of crises. We also need your partnership in getting word of it to “seminaries, sanctuaries and streets.” Given how the publishing industry is now, it is up to authors and their readers to spread the word about volumes that matter—but together we can build capacity to heal Affluenza and resist Plutocracy.
Thanks, Ched
