the thing about being poor (2)
Jan 26th, 2012 by ljkim
Middle class folks LOVE getting free stuff. I mean, who doesn’t right? So when we give generously to the poor, we think “O man, we just made their day! What great people we are!” And so this is what a lot of good people do or aspire to do… and we don’t understand when people in soup kitchens snicker, or a homeless person doesn’t want your food leftovers. “So ungrateful!” So we take it overseas or across the border to shower our generosity on more deserving poor, who smile as we bring them toilet paper and teach their children Jesus songs – and they bless us in God’s name, but then at some point we sense a hint of resentment, a snicker, or something… What’s going on? If you really just want to make yourself feel better and earn your title of “good person” by your generosity – and that’s all you want, then just keep doing what you’re doing. But if you want to understand why people (sometimes) don’t seem to want your charity, or scam you when they’re clearly in need, or resent your generosity, then read on.
In the public elementary school where I grew up, certain kids qualified to get free breakfasts and lunches. At lunch time they would file in and get their lunches first, and pay nothing; only then could the rest of the kids go get their food. What a great deal right? Free food AND you get to go first while everybody waits! The reality was that those kids did the walk of shame up to the lunch line. Sometimes kids would purposely not eat so that they didn’t have to make that walk. The kids that did get their free food didn’t look like they enjoyed it. Because even in elementary school they felt shame because of their situation… I know it’s not rational, none of the other kids actually worked for their lunches or earned their own money – and yet these kids felt like they were less because their parents couldn’t afford to pay for their meal plans.
Now imagine people coming into your home to bring you food for a Thanksgiving dinner, and your family expressing gratitude for the stuff that you could not provide them. It doesn’t make you feel good, it makes you feel worse. Because being poor is not about not-having-stuff, being poor is about lacking the power or ability to do stuff for yourself. Plenty of “rich” people in history have had less material goods than the “poor” people of today – and yet they felt rich! It’s not just because they compared themselves to neighbors – it’s because the poor lack power.
What happens when you give great free stuff to people who are poor? Free stuff in this context says “you can’t provide for yourself, let me provide for you” – it reinforces the problem of poverty, the inability to do for oneself, a lack of power to shape one’s own life…
I think this is important to understand… because in Jesus’ mind, being poor, or being poor in spirit was the starting point for all his Kingdom wisdom: the poor know stuff that we don’t, and we need to learn and partner with the poor because in God’s book, they’re chosen. Our world “chooses” the rich and gives them a special status; but God chooses the poor…
[Here's an excerpt from Robert Lupton's Compassion, Justice and the Christian Life]
Ancient Hebrew wisdom describes four levels of charity. The highest level is to provide a job for one in need without his knowledge that you provided it. The next lower level is to provide work that the needy one knows you provided. The third level is to give an anonymous gift to meet an immediate need. The lowest level of charity, to be avoided if at all possible, is to give a poor person a gift with his full knowledge that you are the donor.
Perhaps the deepest poverty of all is to have nothing of value to offer in exchange. Charity that fosters such poverty must be challenged. We know from 40 years of failed social policy that welfare depletes self-esteem while honorable work produces dignity. We know that reciprocity builds mutual respect while one-way giving brews contempt. Yet we continue to run clothes closets and free food pantries and give-away benevolence accounts and wonder why the joy is missing.
Perhaps it is our time and place in history to re-implement the wisdom of the ages and fashion contemporary models of thoughtful compassion. Our donated clothes could create thrift stores and job training. Our benevolence dollars could develop mini-economies within the economy — daycare, janitorial, fix-the-widow’s-roof services that would employ the jobless in esteem-building work. “Your work is your calling” declared the reformer Luther. Does not the role of the church in our day include the enabling of the poor to find their calling?
Related posts:
In Matthew 19:21, didn’t Jesus tell the young rich man to sell his possession and give to the poor? Jesus didn’t tell the young rich man to go and create jobs for the poor. Or am I taking this passage out of context?
What do you think about supporting organizations like World Vision?
What is your take in supporting missionaries?
Hey Shelley,
You’re right – in Matthew 19, Jesus didn’t tell the guy to make jobs for the poor… He told him to JOIN the poor by selling all his possessions and giving it all away. Because in the Jesus’ economy, the poor are blessed, and the rich are “poor”… So I think what that means is that the poor have an understanding and perspective that we middle class folks will totally miss unless we join them and learn from them…
I think the Disaster relief stuff that organizations like World Vision do is great… When someone swims to shore after a tsunami, it’s okay to give them food and blankets. But giving food and blankets to people who should be able to help themselves is not second-best, it’s 3rd or 4th best…
I think all missionaries “mean well”… but I’ve said publicly that I think many in history have not “done-well.” I don’t mean that I think missionaries should quit their jobs, but to reconsider what they’re doing… Good motives don’t ensure godly outcomes…but I have trouble convincing Christian brothers and sisters in leadership of that… It’s almost worse when believers do harmful things with good intentions – because it’s very difficult to correct/contradict/question them.
So I think we ought to be thoughtful about the organizations we partner with – to support the ones that really do good, and treat people the way we would want to be treated.