Rich and Poor in America, Part 4

Is it possible, then, that when U.S. companies send jobs overseas that we should rejoice? Though it obviously causes hardships here, shouldn’t we rejoice with some of the world’s neediest who now can earn a living wage?

At times, though, it feels like we are throwing our own kids out on the street so that orphans can have a home. But isn’t there an element of trust we must consider? Isn’t God still committed to meeting the needs of his children? Though the company you work for has not pledged to feed and clothe you for life -- God has! “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feed them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” (Mt.6:25,26)

I recently talked with a man who lost his job and lost a benefit which would have provided his daughter with a nearly free college education. He was obviously disheartened, believing that his daughter would now have to attend a cheaper, secular school rather than the Christian university she planned to attend. But where is the father’s trust? Is our God really so small that he had to throw his hands up in the air and say: “Shucks! Now she’ll have to attend a school which isn’t my first choice for her.” Too many of us ground our hope and our security in our jobs or our IRA’s or in our government. Shame on us.

Rich and Poor In America, Part 3

Who has helped the poor more -- Mother Teresa or Bill Gates? Though it sounds almost blasphemous to say it, if we are measuring in terms of helping people move out of poverty, the answer is overwhelmingly Gates.

It is popular among some Christians to denigrate entrepreneurs. Strangely we think it is more spiritual to serve at a soup kitchen than to begin a business which will employ the poor. One CEO in Silicon Valley grew impatient with such talk: “I keep hearing feed the poor, clothe the hungry, give shelter to those who don’t have it. The [people] that say this don’t recognize that capitalism and technology have done more to feed and clothe and shelter and heal people than all the charity and church programs in history. So they preach about it, and we are the ones doing it.”

David Livingstone, the great Scottish missionary who helped open Africa to missions, believed that God is concerned about the whole man: “I have labored in bricks and mortar, ... as well as in preaching and medical practice. I am serving Christ when shooting a buffalo for my men, or taking an astronomical observation.” Caring for the physical needs of the poor may be most effectively done by the spiritual work of starting businesses. The poor need to work. Adam and Eve were given the task of caring for the garden even before they sinned -- sin only increased the difficulty of their task. Mission organizations and relief agencies should be partnering with businesses to help create good jobs where poverty reigns.

Rich and Poor in America, Part 2

One would-be immigrant wanted to come to America because it is a country where “even poor people are fat!” But many of the poor in our culture don’t feel particularly “fat”. Wendy lives in a trailer home with her parents. Dinesh D’Souza explains that she “has never known grinding poverty. Her father earns $9 an hour as a welder; her mother works part-time as a cook. Her problem is that her public school is largely made up of the sons and daughters of doctors, lawyers, and business executives.” What she suffers from “is not the physical hardship of going hungry but the psychological suffering of everyday humiliation. Some of the children call her `trailer girl.’” Others call her “Rabbit” because of her protruding front teeth -- which Wendy has pleaded with her parents to have straightened.

So how do we help Wendy? Should our government tax the wealthy and give money to the poor so they can purchase designer clothing and braces for their kids? Is this what Jefferson envisioned when he wrote that “all men are created equal”? D’Souza believes that Jefferson’s view is that private concern for an individual does not “translate into a public responsibility involving the federal government.” Jefferson believed that the government’s role was not to undo all wrongs, but to give equal rights. He believed in the equality of rights, not the equality of outcomes.

The church, though, should be at the forefront of bringing the rich and the poor together. We do this by:

• shouting that life is found through an intimate relationship with the Living God, not through large stock portfolios or four-car garages.
• warning the poor not to envy. This is one of the Ten Big Ones: “You shall not covet ... anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
• reminding the rich that their abundance was given by God “to supply for [the poor’s] need.” (II Cor. 8:14) A rich person might help pay an orthodontist’s bill. Or he might be sure to pay his employees a living wage -- not simply what the market bears.
• teaching that our identity is based on being a gifted part of Christ’s body. The poor man makes up for the rich man’s deficits (and vice versa). They complete and need each other.

Rich and Poor in America, Part 1

Out of the sixty students in my grade at Garfield Elementary school, I was one of two students who enjoyed annual winter vacations. As a result, I was frequently teased about being a “rich kid.” Though I didn’t think of my family as being rich, according to the economic standards of the 1950’s & 1960’s, we probably were.

But today is a different world. When I travel south for a winter vacation -- it is almost one of life’s necessities this near the Canadian border! -- I meet many different classes of people as I stroll the beach. And whereas people formerly traveled by car or public transportation, now “air travel has become the Amtrak of the skies, just as cruise ships are becoming the Greyhound of the seas.” The proliferation of wealth in our generation is truly phenomenal. In spite of great differences between the rich and poor, the statistics show that most Americans today are much wealthier than earlier generations. The old cliché that “The rich get richer and the poor get poorer” is simply not true.

Weren’t we wise to have chosen to be born at this time, in this nation? Obviously none of us controls that choice -- life here is simply a gift from our Creator who determined “the times set for [us] and the exact place where [we] should live.” (Acts 17) Israel received similar blessings when God threw out the wicked Canaanites and gave his people a fabulous land with flourishing cities, furnished homes, functioning wells, and fruitful orchards. But he warned them: “when you eat and are satisfied, be careful that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.” (Deut.6) This is one of our challenges: to not forget who made it possible for us to enjoy such abundance. Have you been on a vacation recently? Have you enjoyed trips to Disney World or Mexico or Hawaii? Take a few seconds to bow in thanks to God for this undeserved abundance.