Ending Hunger Now: A Challenge to Persons of Faith - Softcover

George S McGovern is a former US senator from South Dakota, 1972 presidential candidate and now UN ambassador on issues of hunger. Bob Dole is former US senator from Kansas and 1988 presidential candidate. He has worked with Senator McGovern on food-related initiatives, both national and international. Donald E Messer is Henry White Warren Professor of Practical Theology and director of the Centre for Global Pastoral Ministries at Iliff School of Theology, Denver. His latest book is Breaking the Conspiracy of Silence: Christian Churches and the Global AIDS crisis, from Fortress Press.

Designed to foster discussion and action within congregations, this short series of essays presents the scope of the world hunger problem and the best way to fight it in an urgent but nonpartisan manner. Messer introduces the book by laying out the problem—800 million people in the world are hungry—and then calls Jews and Christians to solve it. McGovern and Dole contribute essays that explain their joint efforts in the U.S. Senate to provide school lunches to the world's 300 million hungry children. While Messer and McGovern emphasize the moral imperative for the world's wealthiest nation to spearhead hunger elimination, Dole argues that it is in America's best interest to help as many nations as possible achieve food security and become net exporters of crops. Messer, Dole and McGovern contribute a trialogue in which they congenially share ideas about hunger work, and Messer concludes with some challenging observations about how his wealthy readers can make a difference. While the book tends to repeat some ideas and figures too often and features rather disappointing discussion questions, it also offers mind-bending facts and illustrations that will motivate congregants of all persuasions to engage this heartbreaking problem. (Oct.)
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