David Beckmann: Poverty Abolitionists
Nobel Peace Prize nominee David Beckmann and Rev. Adam Russell Taylor examine faith-based activism as a force for ending poverty in the U.S. and worldwide.
Why we picked this
Beckmann has spent decades at the specific intersection of hunger policy and religious organizing — this is less a moral argument and more a strategic one, grounded in what has actually moved legislation.
David Beckmann leads Bread for the World, a Christian anti-hunger advocacy organization that has spent decades lobbying Congress and administrations on food policy — an approach that deliberately treats faith not as background motivation but as a political organizing tool. He has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for this work, and his book “Poverty Abolitionists” makes the case that ending poverty is achievable, but requires coalitions that include communities of faith as active political participants, not just service providers.
The conversation with Rev. Adam Russell Taylor, president of Sojourners, brings a complementary voice — one rooted in the prophetic tradition of Christian social justice activism and equally focused on the practical mechanisms of change. Together they represent a strand of American political thought that is sometimes underestimated by secular progressives but has driven some of the most durable policy victories on economic justice.
This is a free event at Politics and Prose. The argument being made is empirical as much as moral: poverty can be reduced, has been reduced in living memory, and the question is one of political will and coalition strategy.