Spiritus: A Journal of Christian Spirituality

Chabolla, Thomas A.
Faith in Action: Religion, Race, and Democratic Organizing in America (review)
Spiritus: A Journal of Christian Spirituality - Volume 4, Number 2, Fall 2004, pp. 254-257

The Johns Hopkins University Press

Thomas A. Chabolla - Faith in Action: Religion, Race, and Democratic Organizing in America (review) - Spiritus: A Journal of Christian Spirituality 4:2 Spiritus: A Journal of Christian Spirituality 4.2 (2004) 254-257 Faith in Action: Religion, Race, and Democratic Organizing in America. By Richard L. Wood. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002. 288 pp. $52.00 In December 2003, nearly five hundred people filled St. Agatha Church in South Los Angeles, for its first public action as a member of the Pacific Institute of Community Organizations (PICO). With their City Councilmember and a Deputy Police Chief on the dais, leaders won commitments for two full-time officers to work with residents on closing drug houses in their neighborhoods. While the action culminated months of individual meetings, research, and training for parishioners at St. Agatha, it also marked the beginning of a long and intentional process to build power and train leaders to address other issues facing people in this community. The work being done at St. Agatha is being replicated across the country as parishes and congregations engage in the political arena as members of faith-based community organizing. In Faith in Action, Richard Wood studies the "organizational symbiosis between religious institutions and faith-based community organizing efforts" by observing the work of two Oakland-based projects: Oakland Community Organizations -- affiliated with the Pacific Institute of...