Doing Justice: Congregations and Community Organizing.

Doing Justice: Congregations and Community Organizing. By Dennis A. Jacobsen (Fortress, $14). J., pastor of Incarnation Lutheran Church in Milwaukee and Director of the Gamaliel National Clergy Caucus, shares in this book stories from his ministry devoted to doing justice and seeking the public good. He is also a lead pastor in MICAH, the Milwaukee Inner-City Congregations Allied for Hope. He has been active in congregation-based community organizing as participant, pastor, and teacher of others. Two quotations will do for now: "Those Christians who feel at home in the United States can do so only because they have buffered themselves from the brutal conditions of poverty, blinded themselves to the realities of racism, and deluded themselves into imagining that the vast military force of this country is the agent of justice." And: "Those summoned to do justice will get battered around in life. Over the decades the early idealism may be covered with the soot of repeated disappointment.... But the Spirit who first summoned them will fill them with light and grace. Deep within, deeper than any discouragement or defeat, deeper than any regret or resignation, there lie the beauty and the joy of a life well lived." I once read a story about a seminary professor who bowed to his class in recognition that a future bishop might be there. Metaphorically I bow to my classes because I sense that a future Dennis Jacobsen might be there.