ABOUT THIS BOOK

As Charles Strobel, beloved Nashville priest and champion of the unhoused, reached the end of his life in 2023, he began to contemplate the last message he wanted to leave his family, friends, and community. With the help of his niece, Katie Seigenthaler, and his colleague, Amy Frogge, Strobel began to dictate The Kingdom of the Poor. He wrote, “Mark Twain, the great American folk hero and writer, has said, ‘The two most important days of your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.’ The following pages help to explain why I was born.”

The “why” of Charlie Strobel’s life, which was devoted to helping those without support systems and homes to call their own, was a simple belief that we are all poor and we are all worthy of love.

The Kingdom of the Poor is the story of the people and experiences that led him to this understanding and inspired him to live his life accordingly.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Charles Strobel (1943–2023) was the founding director of Room In The Inn, a continuum of care for unhoused people living on the streets of Nashville and beyond. A Catholic priest, Strobel was known for his innovative advocacy on behalf of human rights and economic equity, his ecumenism, and his opposition to the death penalty. He is the author of Room In The Inn: Ways Your Congregation Can Help Homeless People. He played in amateur baseball leagues into his seventies and was a passionate New York Yankees fan.

Katie Seigenthaler, the niece of Charles Strobel, is the coauthor with Dr. Alex Jahangir of Hot Spot: A Doctor’s Diary from the Pandemic, published in 2022 by Vanderbilt University Press. She is a managing partner with FINN Partners and a former journalist with the Chicago Tribune.

Amy Frogge is a long-term volunteer for Room In The Inn. She is an attorney, grant writer, former member of the Metro Nashville school board, and current member of the Nashville Symphony Choir.

REVIEWS

“If we’re lucky, we’ll meet someone who truly opens our eyes to the suffering of others, and so our hearts to the healing power of forgiveness, compassion, and simple kindness. That someone for me was Charlie—our Charlie full of Grace.”
—Emmylou Harris, singer-songwriter and activist

“A saintly man, Charles Strobel took to heart the words too many of us hear but do not heed: ‘Love thy neighbor as thyself.’ In this moving meditation on service and sacrifice, heartbreak and home, he has left us an enduring testament to the power of good works—and a reminder that all of us have the capacity to bend the arc of the moral universe a bit closer to justice.”
—Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize–winning historian

“In this fractured, furious world, it’s all too easy to forget that forgiveness is the path to wholeness, that service to others is the passageway to peace. In The Kingdom of the Poor, Charlie Strobel reminds us again and again what true light looks like in even the most unbearable darkness. It looks like communion. It looks like mercy. It looks like love.”
—Margaret Renkl, author of The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword by Ann Patchett

How The Kingdom of the Poor Came to Be
A Note from the Editors

The Beatitudes

Prologue: Why I Was Born

Part I: How Much Is Enough?
Chapter 1: Mutt
Chapter 2: Sadie and Tony
Chapter 3: Horace Tidwell
Chapter 4: Clayton
Chapter 5: Mr. Orskiborsky

Part II: Worthless Servants
Chapter 6: Aunt Mollie and Aunt Kate
Chapter 7: Mr. Albert
Chapter 8: Mama

Part III: Change Your World
Chapter 9: Father Dan
Chapter 10: Prof Al
Chapter 11: The Anawim
Chapter 12: Ol’ Grange
Chapter 13: Larry Munson
Chapter 14: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Chapter 15: Myles Horton

Part IV: Room In The Inn
Chapter 16: Mrs. Hopwood
Chapter 17: Lulabelle
Chapter 18: Michael “Bear” Hodges
Chapter 19: Madeleine DeMoss
Chapter 20: Gwen Benford
Chapter 21: Melvin Scates
Chapter 22: Rachel Hester

Part V: The Miracle of Forgiveness
Chapter 23: Billy Denton
Chapter 24: Antony and Cleopatra
Chapter 25: The Murderer
Chapter 26: The Japanese

Part VI: Getting Ready to Die
Chapter 27: The Pastor
Chapter 28: Vince
Chapter 29: The Man in the Morgue
Chapter 30: The Chaplain

Epilogue: Pick Up the Burden

Acknowledgments

Appendixes
Appendix A: Charles Strobel’s Eulogy for His Mother, Mary Catherine Strobel
Appendix B: Strobel Family Statement after the Murder of Mary Catherine Strobel
Appendix C: Charles Strobel’s Statement in Opposition to the Death Penalty for William Scott Day
Appendix D: Room In The Inn Rights and Responsibilities
Appendix E: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Principles of Nonviolence