Poverty as Immoral

As we move into Thanksgiving and toward the Christmas season, I find that some reflection on how we deal with concepts of generosity is helpful. How we think about the poor and needy around us is important, as it directs not only what we give, but how we go about it.

Our society has come a long way from the era of the Great Depression. We have made many advancements in science, medicine, education, transportation, communications, and economics. We became the world’s superpower and hold a level of influence on the world stage that is unprecedented in human history. We have also shifted toward considering poverty as antithetical to being American. Indeed, we have begun to respond to poverty as more than a lack of access to resources. We have begun treating poverty as a moral failure. As a result, we blame the poor for their poverty and treat them with disdain because they dare not be rich.

We don’t speak of it in quite those words, but that is the force of so many of our attitudes, words, policies, and actions. I’m not certain that we began to think this way only after the end of the Great Depression, but it would seem this thought pattern is at least a shift from our political and social discourse in former decades. Indeed, these attitudes are often at conflict with other values we hold dear.

It is near and dear to our hearts to feed the hungry. It is near and dear to us to provide school children with supplies necessary for their education. We are quick to offer clothing to those who are cold, to encourage those who struggle, and assist people in finding employment. All the while, however, we grapple with themes from our larger social discourse that call into question the overall worth of those who are struggling financially.

We want to have recipients of our social safety net tested for drugs. We want to place restrictions on who can receive assistance by some means of testing. We want to know that those we are helping are industrious, working, contributing members of society, without the cloud of a criminal record or any sense that there may be anything morally objectionable with them.

The Bible knows nothing of this concept of “the deserving poor.” Jesus did not deal in such a category. Jesus dealt instead with those in need. When he fed the 5,000, there was no question of why they had not prepared food to take with them before following him into the countryside. When Jesus healed the sick, he dispensed with questions regarding their sin by declaring forgiveness. When Jesus told us to care for the needy in our midst, he offered no qualifications or rationale for determining who was worthy of assistance. Instead, he told us to love all persons as being worthy on the basis of God’s love for all.

God’s rain falls upon the just and unjust alike, with no distinction. As we open our hearts to share God’s blessings placed under our charge, it is this same manner with which we are called to offer care, love, hospitality, and God’s grace. Poverty, after all, is not a sign of the immorality of the poor. If anything, it is a sign of a society lacking the moral conscience to treat all persons with the same measure of dignity, worth, and respect as we encounter in Jesus. As Paul reminds us, “It is more blessed to give than to receive,” for it is in our generous giving that God’s grace pours through our lives, enriching us in the process.

— ©Copyright 2019, Christopher B. Harbin

http://www.sermonsearch.com/contributors/104427/

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