Ron Sider, author of Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger died this week.

In reading about his death, I was reminded of the impact his book had on me when I read it in the ’70s and how I have become a coward in sharing what I believe in this area. The news of his death was a timely challenge to me because of a situation that happened recently at a church event.

What happened is that I found myself reacting strongly (silently) to a comment about someone who had significant money spending it on themselves.

“They made the money, they deserve to do whatever they want,” was the comment of the person seated next to me. Though as I said, I had a strong emotional reaction to what she said, I changed the subject and started babbling about something else.

I thought about it later and realized it was an episode of moral cowardice where I didn’t have the energy to say what I was really thinking and to say it calmly and discuss it thoughtfully. [Read more…]