What happens when a spiritual mandate slams head on with a cultural or political ideology?
I think some people of faith are at an impasse. In America, faith-based voters have typically aligned with political conservatism. Political conservatism has, among its many values, an opposition to what some call the "entitlement" state. This is a group of perceived leeches who suck the resources from those that "have" and "do" from those that "have not" and "won't do." While there is much debate on this issue and conflicting perspectives on who makes up those camps, there is undoubtably a poor segment of our culture that, without help, will not eat.
People who align with conservative ideology have a visceral reaction to the idea of someone who is otherwise able-bodied sponging off those who are both willing and able. I don't want to make assumptions about what anyone thinks but I can tell you that I used to think that the vast majority of people who received entitlements fell into the "lazy and unwilling" category. (Here is good article on the topic: http://www.alternet.org/economy/5-ways-most-americans-are-blind-how-their-country-stacked-wealthy) This mindset started changing for me around 1998 (those of you who know me know why).
It was around 1998 that I began to get involved with poor people domestically and internationally. Lines that were thick black and white lines started to turn shades of grey. I met many poor people for the first time in my life. I began interacting with people about whom I had made many assumptions and it started to reshape my world view - but that is another blog.
For those of you who embrace a Judeo-Christian ethos, I would propose that we have identified truth in the wrong metanarrative. While I understand the feeling of "injustice" that seems to rise up in those of us who are shaped by a conservative world view, I would suggest that people like Jesus, Mother Theresa, Oskar Schindler, and countless other unnamed people of faith truly understood the concept of living, even sacrificially, for those who are less fortunate.
I recently read the Old Testament of the Bible. Throughout much of the Old Testament, the concepts of caring for the poor and justice are major themes - much more major than some of the hot buttom social issues that people of faith seem to fixate on today.
So, where does that leave us?
I believe that it leaves people of faith with a clear mandate. Our responsibility to those who are poor and marginalized is to be their hope, their source, their protection, and their voice. Whether it is a poor african american mom in the inner city of the U.S. who is trapped in a welfare system that makes dependence easier than independence, whether it is a young girl forced into sexual slavery in southeast Asia, whether it is a migrant worker who came to America in the hope of providing for their family and is being forced to live in squaller and work for next to nothing, we are their hope. We are their advocates.
There is a concept in the Old Testament - it is the concept of Jubilee. In this concept, if anyone fell on hard times and they were forced to become enslaved, at the 7th year they were free with ALL debt forgiven and their property and possessions were restored. Additionally, God set up a way for those who were poor to have food and other resources at their disposal.
No doubt we have come a long way from the way that the hebrew culture lived but the idea of how we care for the poor and those subject to injustice is a major theme for the families of Judeo-Christian faith. The problem is that it is now an affront to our political/cultural ideal of me, mine, individualism, personal space, personal property, my rights, my dream, etc.
I have said before that I believe the true measure of the character of a nation is seen in how it treats the most vulnerable in its midst. We are a country that is slowy losing it's soul as we reach for the brass ring. I hope we will consider the good fortune of our circumstances and take seriously the mandate that "he who give to the poor lends to the Lord."
Happy Thanksgiving
