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Poverty in the US--4

Poverty in the US--3

Poverty in the US--2

Poverty in the USA

[For the next several posts, I'll be sharing summary information provided by our friends and partners at Purpose Built Communities in Atlanta, Georgia.  Several of us traveled there recently to observe the amazing things they have accomplished in the East Lake community. lj] 

Beyond Charity

Last Sunday, I really enjoyed my time speaking in three morning services at Highland Park United Methodist Church.

 What I posted below is the Cornerstone service at 11:00 a.m.


Beyond 100: Beyond Charity (Cornerstone) from HPUMC on Vimeo.

Priorities and substance

Concern for the Poor

To speak of a ‘preferential option for the poor’ is not to speak of an ‘exclusive’ option for the poor, as though God loved only the poor and did not love anybody else, especially the rich…. In responding to the concern that God has for all people, we start toward the fulfillment of that long-range concern by an immediate and initial concern for the poor, working with them and for them. To the degree that the cries of the poor are given priority over the complaints of the rich, there can be movement toward a society that is more, rather than less, just.

Robert McAfee Brown
Source: Saying Yes and Saying No

Legacy of courage, champion of justice

Killer Mike

Frank statement of the pervasive, persistent, systemic injustice at work in our nation.

Is there not a place for these kinds of discussions to take place in communities of faith and social opinion formation?

  

1 in 7 continue to limp along

[Improved economy doesn't lift low-income Americans.  Harsh fact:  This economy doesn't' work the same for everyone.  We don't need more charity.  We need structural changes that reform systems.]

4 Metros Show Lower Poverty Rates, Higher Incomes

By Malcolm Burnley | September 17, 2015

 

Houston is one of four big metros where there was a notable drop in the poverty rate in 2014. (Photo by Eflon)

The national poverty rate and median income level both went unchanged in 2014, despite the economy posting better job growth than any year since Y2K. That’s one of the ominous takeaways from new figures released yesterday by the U.S. Census Bureau in its Current Population Survey (CPS). Those worrisome signs were then redoubled with the Bureau’s annual American Community Survey (ACS) numbers, released this morning. Essentially, the duo of data dumps portrays an economy recovering strongly from the Great Recession and yet leaving lower-income people behind.

Read entire report here.

A note on life from the brother of Jesus (Part 3)

As noted recently, from time to time over the next several weeks on this site I intend to "dig into" the letter that James, the brother of Jesus, wrote to first century Christians. 

Thought to be among the earliest, extant Christian writings, the brief letter addresses the challenges facing Jewish believers located primarily in the area around Jerusalem.  Clearly, these early devotees of Jesus experienced suffering, systemic economic oppression and some forms of persecution--possibly because of their opinions about the identity of Jesus and certainly due to the social and status implications of those strongly held opinions and life perspectives.

 

_________________________________________

 

James 1:9-11  (NRSV)

Poverty and Riches

⁹ Let the believer who is lowly boast in being raised up, ¹⁰ and the rich in being brought low, because the rich will disappear like a flower in the field. ¹¹ For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the field; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. It is the same way with the rich; in the midst of a busy life, they will wither away.

The social and economic place and condition of the early Christian community to whom James writes was less than ideal to day the least.  Let me recommend that you read through James' entire correspondence at one sitting.  The context clearly indicates that most of those James addresses knew poverty and economic fragility first hand.  And those caught in the machinations of economic injustice did what poor people always seem to do:  they honored the rich, their oppressors and in doing so they forfeited an accurate and appropriate sense of their own ultimate worthiness. 

James counsels a completely different take on the self-understanding of the "poor."  James indicates that the person of faith who is of "lowly" financial means and status should boast in anticipation of being lifted up from poverty.  God works for the poor and oppressed, that's the implication here.  Against all counter claims and appearances, God stands on the side of the impoverished and battles  to see folk rise up from the social trash heap created and informed by the bias, false status and pride of a wealthy, powerful oppressive class. 

The rich, the oppressors who control most of the benefit of the economy of the day should boast in anticipation of being "brought low."  Here the implication is clear:  the fate of the wealthy depends upon their facing the fact that the wealth they control is fleeting.  A person's wealth cannot save her from the fate of all humankind! Like a wilting flower in the middle of a sunbaked field, those who "control" large amounts of wealth should learn that in the end they control nothing.  The rich will see life end, just as will "the poor."

In the end however, the way to life will be discovered in honest humility, not in overreaching opulence that builds wealth by extracting life from those at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder.  Life will not be found in any enterprise that imposes a cruel fate on the oppressed poor of the land. 

James sounds a lot like his brother, Jesus. 

The "turning of the tables," for the sake of the triumph of the justice shaping God's heart, is an important theme in the story of the life of Jesus, especially as told by Luke (see Luke 1:46-55; 4:16-21; 6:20-26; 16:1-31; et. al.).  The further we read in James, the more parallels we'll discover to the thinking and teaching of his famous brother. 

So, right off the bat, James establishes that God comes down on the side of and in the meagre camp of the so-called "poor."  For in God's economy those who appear down and out soon will be up and coming, while the unrepentant rich cruise ahead without thought of the fall or "equity adjustment" on its way. 

James:  a radical word, but an important and timely word for today.  

Love defined by action

Truly Growing

If we truly are growing in love with our neighbors who are suffering at the hands of unjust systems—if that love is deep enough and authentic enough—then finding ourselves opposing those unjust systems will follow as naturally as the morning follows the night…. I don’t think we go out looking for oppressive systems to confront, like Don Quixote went out looking for windmills to attack. Our doing must flow naturally out of our being. Our doing for justice must flow naturally out of our being in love with those for whom there is no justice.

K. Killian Noe
Source: Finding Our Way Home

Add your thoughts at inward/outward

Crisis of hope

"The real crisis isn’t one night of young men in the street rioting. It’s something perhaps even more inexcusable — our own complacency at the systematic long-term denial of equal opportunity to people based on their skin color and ZIP code."

 

Nicholas Kristof, "When Baltimore Burned,"

The New York Times, April 29, 2015

Texas should expand Medicaid

Texas political leaders prove themselves irresponsible for not expanding Medicaid. 

Take a look right here at the gains made by other states that decided to expand the health benefit to poorer folks. 

Why do voters tolerate shortsighted public policy against their own self-interest?

The startling wealth gap in America

Thomas Piketty's new book, Capital in the Twenty First Century, will blow your mind. 

Income inequality may be the biggest domestic threat to the future of our nation and its democratic culture.

For a preview click here. 

Decision

Saving and Losing Our Lives

Those who, in the biblical phrase, would save their lives—that is, those who want to get along, who don’t want commitments, who don’t want to get into problems, who want to stay outside of a situation that demands the involvement of all of us—they will lose their lives. What a terrible thing to have lived quite comfortably, with no suffering, not getting involved in problems, quite tranquil, quite settled, with good connections politically, economically, socially—lacking nothing, having everything. To what good? They will lose their lives.

Oscar Romero

from Inward/Outward

The false promise of neutrality

If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. 

-- Desmond Tutu

50 Million of us are poor by definition!

The number of Americans living in poverty has spiked to levels not seen since the mid-1960s, classing 20 per cent of the country’s children as poor.

It comes at a time when government spending cuts of $85 billion have kicked in after feuding Democrats and Republicans failed to agree on a better plan for addressing the national deficit.

The cuts will directly affect 50 million Americans living below the poverty income line and reduce their chances of finding work and a better life.

To read the entire report click here.

Listening for the "P" word tonight

Print

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A word about poverty in State of the Union

By Jonathan Capehart , Updated: February 11, 2013

Everyone who is anyone with a pet cause or project has been angling for weeks to get a word, a phrase or even a full paragraph or two from President Obama in tomorrow night’s State of the Union address. If the reports hold up, he’ll focus on jobs and the economy. After more than four years of financial hardship, Obama can’t talk about this often enough.

Specifically, I’m looking for the president to use the word “poverty” or “poor.” Because of the relentless focus on the middle class — those in it and those who aspire to join the club — poverty and the poor often go ignored or unremarked. That’s not to say that those issues are not important to Obama. Quite the contrary, as any honest assessment of his record that goes deeper than the headline-grabbing actions would show. Still, use of the words “poverty” and “poor,” especially its impact on children and in this particular address, would be the thunderclap of attention needed to kick start a renewed effort to do something about it.

Last week, I told you about a coalition of 16 advocacy groups calling on Congress to establish a new National Commission on Children. Save the Children has amassed almost 100,000 signatures inan online petition calling for one. Folks call for the creation of commissions all the time. Then they wait for the nod. And if the nod comes, they convene experts, write a report and hope that one of their recommendations leaps from obscurity to become enacted policy. But this time might be different.

For starters, these folks have cash to finance the endeavor. The Center for the Next Generation alone has raised more than $1 million for a proposed national commission on children. Also, these groups envision a new model for the commission: one that has the three P’s as its focus: public engagement, private-sector involvement and personal responsibility; and one that calls on all stakeholders to be a part of the solution, rather than wait for one prescribed by Washington.

The idea holds great promise. All that’s needed is for Obama to say the word and to go as boldly as the advocates want.

Follow Jonathan Capehart on Twitter.

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