Today is
Blog Action Day, and I'm late in posting, but still under the wire...
We recently spent a couple of weeks exploring the critically important issues of wealth and poverty in our
New Light LIFE Groups, and thinking about how, as followers of Jesus living in the richest country in the world, we have a reponsibility to care for our sisters and brothers who live in poverty.
The question for us, as people of faith: In a world where someone dies of hunger or hunger-related causes every 3 1/2 seconds -- 25,000 people a day! -- can we simply go on with our lives as usual?
Our
United Methodist Social Principles acknowledge that "In spite of general affluence in the industrialized nations, the majority of persons in the world live in poverty." A resolution adopted by the 1996 General Conference and amended in 2004 states this: "As people of faith and religious commitment, we are called to stand with and seek justice for people who are poor. Central to our religious traditions, sacred texts, and teachings is a divine mandate to side with and protect the poor."
True. So why is eliminating poverty and the suffering it causes not a primary concern for most who consider themselves followers of Christ?
Several years ago I had the opportunity to hear a lecture by Christian scholar and author
Ched Myers, a prophet in the field of economic justice. In his talk, he focused on what he called the most often misunderstood Biblical text in the debate over the church's relationship to the poor: Mark 14:7, words of Jesus typically translated, "For you always have the poor with you, and you can show kindness to them whenever you wish; but you will not always have me." Says Ched Myers, "This text has notoriously been used by politicians and preachers alike to justify the existence poverty, as if Jesus is stipulating its inevitability as a condition of nature or, worse, as a divine plan." I remember that he went on to exegete the text in a way I'd never heard before, arguing that this text is emphatic: not giving Jesus' followers permission to put off caring for the poor for another day, but rather, creating a sense of urgency -- establishing the social location of the church, or of Jesus' followers, among the poor, always. Jesus was giving his followers their marching orders.
The poor are with us always. But only if we begin to see them. Isn't it easy, from our place of comfort and privilege and relative prosperity, to ignore them? To insulate ourselves from the suffering? To bury our heads in the sand and plead ignorance? To look upon those who are suffering as faceless commodities? They are with us, and they are real people, our sisters and brothers, with all the same hopes and dreams, needs, and emotions that we have. And they are children of God, loved by God as deeply and passionately and completely as you and I are.
It seems to me the situation of global poverty demands demands both individual response and government response:
Individual response:
I own a car and a refrigerator, and I'm not wondering if there will be food on my table tonight. That puts me in the wealthiest 5% of the world's population. By the world's standards, I am rich. I have to acknowledge, that's nothing I accomplished on my own. I got the luck of the draw. I find the words of Scripture, and particularly the life and witness and words of Jesus, to be absolutely convicting: I have a responsibility to do my part to care for the poor and to seek justice for those who live in poverty. Sara and I struggle with how to do this most faithfully, but it's clear to us that it means living simply and giving generously. I applaud the work of organizations like
UNICEF, the
ONE Campaign,
World Vision,
Oxfam,
UMCOR,
Heifer International,
Compassion,
Society of St. Andrew, and local food pantries everywhere -- especially those which respond by providing compassionate care as well as seeking long-term solutions to systemic problems by pursuing social justice. All of these provide opportunities for individual response.
Government response:
It's important to realize that the resources exist to end the suffering. What is missing is the collective will. In September 2000, the 189 countries of the United Nations developed a clear plan to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, with unanimous approval. As illustrated in
this chart, some of the countries are already doing their part. Sadly, our government here in the United States -- the wealthiest country in the world -- has no plan in place to fulfill its commitment. That is simply unacceptable. I've heard the estimate that $19 billion would eliminate starvation and malnutrition globally. That's roughly the same amount Americans spend on ice-cream annually; it's a tiny fraction of our $481 billion U.S. military budget for this year alone. Something is terribly, terribly wrong. We must insist that our government fulfill its commitment to the
UN Millennium Development Goals and do its part to eliminate poverty.
I think it's important to
learn as much as we can and to wrestle with the realities of poverty, rather than simply looking for quick and easy answers or dismissing the problem altogether. We must think about how our own actions, habits, lifestyles, and behaviors impact others, as well as how changes in our own actions, habits, lifestyles, and behaviors might make a positive difference. Additionally, it's essential that we communicate clearly with our elected officials that we are deeply concerned about poverty -- that we insist upon government response, and particularly that we take seriously the commitment our leaders made to the
UN Millennium Development Goals.
Ultimately, it comes down to this: If my life has been impacted by Christ, shouldn't my heart break over the things that break the heart of God? And so I'm praying: What can I do? What can we do together? The situation is enormous, but it's not hopeless.
