This report from the U.S. Census Bureau published in September 2012 shows that the nation’s official poverty rate in 2011 was 15.0 percent, with 46.2 million people in poverty.

The mission of the Law Center is to prevent and end homelessness by serving as the legal arm of the nationwide movement to end homelessness. It is based in Washington, D.C.

The mission of the National Coalition for the Homeless is to end homelessness. It posts facts about homelessness in America and a page of links to other organizations dealing with homelessness.

More cities and states are enacting laws that target homeless people. Read this July 2009 report by the National Coalition for the Homeless.

Read this August 30, 2005, article by Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky.

Read this column by Terry Mattingly published on September 1, 2005, on GetReligion.org.

Read this September 2005 Beliefnet.com article detailing apocalyptic theories about what Hurricane Katrina could have meant for society.

Edward Phillip Antonio is associate professor of Christian theology and social theory, associate dean of diversities and director of the Justice & Peace Program at Iliff School of Theology in Denver. He wrote the article “Black Theology” in The Cambridge Companion to Liberation Theology.

John Burdick, Syracuse University professor and anthropology chair, is the author of Legacies of Liberation: The Progressive Catholic Church in Brazil (Ashgate Publishing, 2004). He says the emphasis in liberation theology has shifted from the poor to those marginalized by race, ethnicity or gender – though not yet sexuality. Contact , .