POVERTY & POWERLESSNESS

I can remember a number of people who grew up during the Depression who characterized their experiences by saying something like “We didn't have much, but we didn’t even realize that we were poor.”

This observation goes along with what I’ve been reading in a book about poverty. The book is God of the Empty-Handed, & it is written by an Asian Indian from an Evangelical Christian perspective. He sees poverty not so much as a lack of things, but as a condition of powerlessness. 

Unfortunately, almost all secular programs & many Christian ones that address poverty seem to be limited to this view.

Poverty results in part because political, economic, & legal power are concentrated in a small group of people, the elites. They see themselves as smarter, abler, better educated, etc. than the general population, the masses. The masses are inept & unable to direct their own lives; they need the elitist class to do that for them. Legislation, the judicial system, & even religious beliefs & cultural mores enforce this view of the 2 separate classes. The ultimate result of this complex of factors perpetuates poverty & guarantees permanent dependence of the masses on the goodwill of the elites.

This condition is not what the Founders of the United States envisioned. It is actually what they strove to avoid. They desired to insure that political, economic, & legal power are distributed as broadly among as many people as possible.

In this coming year, may many people be newly empowered by a renewing of our beloved nation. May that empowering not be limited to their political, economic, & legal condition. May it especially be true of their spiritual life as they come to know Christ & grow in their relationship with Him.