The Gospel of Father Joe Revolutions and Revelations in the Slums of Bangkok

by Barrett, Greg; Tutu, Desmond M.

• ISBN13: 9780470258637
• ISBN10: 0470258632
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-03-21
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass

Summary

Three decades ago in a cordoned-off corner of the developing world an angry Catholic priest armed only with pencil, paper, and crayons, declared a revolution. From a shanty school shared with Buddhists and Muslims in Bangkok's squatter slums, Father Joe Maier began his advance on abject poverty. Today, his Human Development Foundation and Mercy Centre charity is responsible for thirty-two preschools that have taught more than twenty thousand children how to read and write. Despite the crippling neglect found in impoverishment, he is raising international scholars and injecting a sense of purpose into shantytowns and squatter camps that used to have neither.

Author Biography

Greg Barrett is a twenty-year veteran of local, national, and foreign reporting for wire and newspapers in Georgia, the Carolinas, Hawaii, and Maryland. He was a roving correspondent based in the Washington, D.C., bureau for Gannett News Service/USA Today when he met Father Joe Maier, and most recently he worked as a state correspondent for the Baltimore Sun. He lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and two sons.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. v
Prologue	p. ix
The Crucible
Mustard Seeds	p. 5
The Joe in the Know	p. 11
Undeveloped, Unpaved Parallels	p. 27
Rise of the Underground	p. 41
Smitten	p. 55
Where Right Equals Might	p. 77
Manifest Change
Sticks, Stones, and Bags of Bones	p. 93
Dead End or Turnaround?	p. 107
The Sanctity and Sanctimony of Life	p. 123
Wars on Terror	p. 133
Religious Medal, Spiritual Mettle	p. 145
Forged	p. 171
Any Dream Will Do	p. 189
The Light
Weapons of Mass Construction	p. 203
Fruit of the Spirit	p. 213
Elvis	p. 227
Devil in the Details	p. 245
Mercy's Mercy	p. 259
Slaves of the Economy	p. 269
Of Mothers, Sons, and Holy Spirit	p. 289
Home	p. 307
Acknowledgments	p. 317
The Author	p. 321
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