The Quixotic Deacon

My eagle-eyed editor spotted an article in the December issue of The Atlantic entitled The Walmart Effect. Having written three blogs on Walmart early in the life of The Quixotic Deacon, I was naturally interested in the article. If you’d like to read it before reading my reaction, here’s the link.   https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/12/walmart-prices-poverty-economy/681122/   The ...

I’ve seldom seen a new book of nonfiction spawn so much lengthy and serious coverage as Matthew Desmond’s Poverty, by America. Every periodical that I read regularly seemed to come out with long reviews or excerpts from the book.  Right off the bat, though, I confess that this probably says a lot about my choice ...

Of the many historic figures of the Reformation, John Calvin is probably the one for whom I have the least affection. This is natural since my branch of the Jesus Movement (as our Presiding Bishop Michael Curry calls the Church writ large) is Anglicanism, and Anglicanism bears little resemblance to the type of Protestantism espoused ...

Indulge me, please, as I revisit the topic of stock buybacks. It might seem more appropriate for a publication like The Wall Street Journal, but when you look beneath the surface you’ll see that it’s a moral issue.   Buybacks, a common practice among big corporations, are great if you’re on a company’s board, in ...

  About 30 years ago I was dining with a French family I knew, and the conversation turned to our countries’ differing attitudes about safety nets for the poor. France, then and now, has what amounts to a minimum guaranteed income for its citizens.   My friends explained that the French tolerate only a certain ...

When I think of the working poor, the image that comes to mind is the housekeeper in a hotel chain who I pass in the hallway on the way to or from my room. Housekeepers are usually female and women of color. Their work is hard physically and can be demeaning because guests often treat ...

Earlier this week, my wife Lucy called my attention to an opinion piece in The New York Times many of you might have seen. The writer was Dr. Sabrina Strings, an African-American associate professor of sociology at the University of California-Irvine. She recalled attending a meeting five years ago with experts on public health and ...

About 20 years ago, I was introduced to the work of an organization called The Rural & Migrant Ministry. It was led by an inspirational and determined Episcopal priest named Richard Witt, and it was my good fortune to be assigned to work for his ministry upon my ordination as deacon. Because I speak Spanish, ...