How To End Poverty

 

I.
Yesterday was Blog Action day and so many of us were all writing about poverty, in the hopes that it might be ended. I think this is a wonderful idea and I really support it.

However, I must say, that yesterday morning I was feeling particularly cynical and upset. So in approaching the idea of how to end poverty, these are the ideas I came up with first:

1. Every politician, judge, lawyer, clergy, CEO, bank manager and doctor, before taking on their profession, must live with the destitute poor—the homeless, a hospital for the mentally ill, a village in Africa, Darfur, etc— for a month before taking office.

2. Create a drug that increases the effect of mirror-neurons, thus causing a super-empathetic reaction, and then put it in the drinking water.

3. Force the top two percent of wealthy people in the world to live among colonies of the sickest in the world—colonies of lepers, of AIDS sufferers, of malaria patients.

4. As a result of any lawmaker who writes or supports a law which harms the poor—for every act of war, for every unfair tariff, for every legislation aimed against the homeless—they are instantly killed by God or by an assassin’s bullet, without trial, without recourse.

II.
I suppose I could have come up with ideas that would be a little less cruel to those in power, but I am tired of the rich elite ruling the world without any idea of what it means to be poor, or what their laws imply to those who have no resources. I am tired of this world where those in North America are so far removed from the poor that they dehumanize their own poor and distantly allow the poor of the world be killed, enslaved, have what little they have taken from them, all for the sake of that distant elite. I am sick of politicians rallying behind finance corporations to save the jobs of financiers, while allowing the needy be starved out due to forced debt and petty charges targeted against them.

I know God is angry at this too. He is saying now to the politicians and bankers and the wealthy elite of the world:
"How long will you judge unjustly
And show favor to the wicked?
Vindicate the needy and fatherless;
Give justice to the lowly and poor.
Rescue the weak and needy
Deliver them from the hand of the wicked.
They do not know nor do they understand;
They walk about in darkness.
All the foundations of the earth are shaken.”

Then He turns to them, in their smugness, and screams in their face:
“You had thought yourselves to be gods
And all of you to be sons of the Most High
But you will all die like mortals
And fall like any prince."

If we are honest about the world and the calamities that fall upon the poor and destitute, then we can but answer,
Arise, O God, bring justice to the earth!
Bring justice to the homeless who have been kicked out of their camps.
Bring justice to the AIDS sufferers who have been degraded by their own people
Bring justice to war victims, whose lives have been destroyed because of ideologies of distant rulers
Bring justice to the mentally ill, who are imprisoned in hospitals because they do not act “normal”
Bring justice to the elderly, who are commanded by their children to do that which they do not want to do
Bring justice to the falsely accused, who languish apart from their family and friends.
Bring justice to those beaten and lit on fire, just because they are too helpless to fight back.
Bring justice to the poor of the nations in such debt because of the greed of their politicians.

Yet, O God, have mercy on us who have failed the poor. Fill us with the compassion we lack.

III.
Okay, let’s get serious about this. How DO we deal with poverty?

First of all, we need to understand what poverty is. There are two main categories of poverty, which greatly overlap. There is the poverty that is being physically destitute. This is the common kind of poverty we think of: people who are hungry, who have no where to live, who have no warmth, who have no safe drinking water, who are wracked by disease. Those who are destroyed because of their lack of physical needs.

The second is like the first: social poverty. This is a state of separation, of rejection, of outcastness. These are the poor who the mainstream culture of one’s society rejects, for one reason or another. Usually, however, they are rejected because they do not accept some major, unwritten law of the mainstream culture. They are too loud or too quiet. They don’t participate fully in the mainstream’s economic system. They don’t look like or dress like the mainstream. They have different cultural presuppositions.

This second class of the poor soon become the first class. They become destitute due to their social standing. And the mainstream feels good about these poor because, “They deserved it. If only they would…” (fill in cultural prejudice here) “… then they could live better.” So the mainstream convinces themselves that the poor are worthy to be poor and they deserve their benefits and judgments.

Another result of this cycle is fear. When one culture separates from another, then they tend to fear each other. The mainstream begins to see the outcast as the root of many of the evils of their society and the outcast sees in the face of every mainstream person the last mainstream person who abused them. This fear becomes prejudice and that prejudice becomes a cycle of mutual destruction.

How do we end this cycle?

First of all, the mainstream culture needs to associate with the outcast culture. If this happens, then the mainstream culture will realize, over time, that the outcast culture aren’t so bad after all. Perhaps they act differently, and hold some different opinions, but that doesn’t make them bad people. That even if they may not be as “good” as those of their own culture, then at least they shouldn’t be feared. Once we get past the fear, then we can perhaps get to the point where representatives of the two cultures could actually assist each other and support each other.

The difficulty is, how to get the two sides to overcome their fear? They need two things: 1. A neutral ground where they both feel safe to meet. And 2. A mediator that understands the cultural presuppositions of both sides and is willing to teach both sides about the social needs of the other without putting down either side.

If we end cultural superiority, then we will end most poverty. If the mainstream and the ruling elite understand the life and worldview of the poor outcast, then we are ready to welcome each person as they are.

IV.
This ideal of mine will never happen. Now my cynicism comes out fully. Yes, I think I see how poverty can be ended and I have a plan to do that—heck, I spend many of my waking hours doing just that! But, in my heart of hearts, I don’t think it will work.

The rich elite will still rule, and they don’t give a crap about the poor—at least not as much as their banker friends—and they never will.

The mainstream (read: middle class) will still act according to their own blind prejudices and will still deride and reject anyone who doesn’t live up to their standards.

The poor are so fearful of what little livelihood they have, they will not want to endanger it all by trying to communicate their point of view to the mainstream.

Oh, sure, some will do this. Some will try to change. Some will try to understand the other. But all of history speaks against it happening on a large scale. Even if the outcast DO get a voice and they get heard, they just become the new mainstream, ready to create the new outcast.

So what needs to happen? Honestly, and I say this without any closed-mindedness or humor: We need Jesus.

Jesus isn’t who we think of. We might see Jesus as representing the Christianity that has ruled the West for 1500 years, but he’s not. We might see Jesus as some ancient prophet who said some radical things and then died, but he’s more than that. We might see Jesus as a teacher who healed people and spoke a wonderful message of sappy love. But that’s not him, either.

Jesus is a hard boiled advocate for the outcast. And He’s aiming to be ruler of the world.

He said, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the coming nation of God. But woe to you who are rich, because you will get nothing when it comes.”

Jesus looks to create a new utopia, supported by the power of God to assist the outcast who are merciful, and destroying the system of elitism that exists currently.

Jesus is a revolutionary that will destroy all the current governments, corporations, financial institutions and legal systems. Then he will establish a government in which the cream of the crop of the oppressed and outcast will be put in charge of the world, with himself at the head. This new government will not just represent a single form of the outcast, creating a new elite. Rather, it will represent ALL the poor, and the poor of the world will finally get justice.

This is the ideal that Isaiah spoke of, 2800 years ago:
Then a descendent of David will appear and God's Spirit of power will be on him: a spirit of wisdom and understanding, a spirit of counsel and power a spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord. He will not judge by appearance, or determine laws by rumor. But he will be just to the poor and will be fair to the oppressed. And the oppressors will be destroyed by his authority.

Perhaps this approach to ending poverty seems extreme. It certainly is. It means no more second chances for the rulers. No more opportunities to make right. No more mercy for the elite that have been destroying the poor from the beginning of the world. They will all die.

But for the poor, it is the day that they have been waiting for. It is the day when they finally get their say. When they can finally get their due. It is a day when the elite can be told exactly how they have created the poor through their laws, policies and prejudices. It is a day when the poor can live their life in the way it was meant to be lived: at peace, without fear, without rejection.

This is my real hope. I work for the poor in this age. But I really expect nothing to change until Jesus returns.

This is why I pray, along with almost all the church “Thy kingdom come”. I pray this many times a day, as do so many millions of other Christians.

But I know what most of them don’t. That “thy kingdom come” means the destruction of the institutions they depend on. It means the economy failing. It means the governments collapsing. It means all of our sins against those weaker than us being exposed. And I long for that day. As much as it hurts me, I pray for it with all my heart.