By Linda Seger 

Can We Agree on Helping the Poor?

When setting out to write this book, I had presumed that this was one issue where we could find agreement among Christians. I was wrong. Although there are more than 2,000 verses in the Bible about the need for individuals and nations to help the poor and the oppressed, there is a powerful group of conservative Republican Christians that does not believe the Bible on this issue. They believe individuals and churches are asked to help the poor, if they so desire, but not nations. They believe charitable giving should only come from those who wish to give.

I must admit I was shocked to learn this. After all, this idea is coming from conservatives and fundamentalists who say they Jesus Rode a Donkey take the Bible literally. I started to question several of my colleagues who were conservative Republican Christians about this issue in order to understand it more clearly. I promised not to use their names in this book if they would clarify this issue for me.

I was told, by one conservative Christian, “We are called to help, not to force others to help or to use our mob power to steal from those who do not want to help.” Another Republican Christian said liberals believe in helping the poor in various social programs. He saw the liberal Democrats as giving far too many handouts, and the government shouldn’t be in that business. In his view, conservatives believe that “the church, not the government, should be involved with helping and caring for the poor.”

I e-mailed him back, asking who the church is most apt to help. Certainly they are most apt to help fellow Christians. Where does that leave the immigrant who has just received citizenship but has few resources? Or the Muslim, who lives in a poor community? What about the workers who have been hurt by the Enron or WorldCom or Adelphia scandals, left out in the cold while the CEOs have made millions of dollars? What about the drastic needs that come from communities hit by a hurricane and left with billions of dollars in damage? Or from the tsunami that has washed away hundreds of thousands of people and hundreds of communities, leaving needs far beyond what one church, or two or three, or even one denomination, can handle?

One of the Christians said we should not be forced to give money to causes that we don’t believe in. He is also a pacifist, so he said he didn’t want to fund the war. I agree. I don’t either. If George W. Bush had listened to us, and millions of other people who didn’t want this war, we wouldn’t have to. But if we take that reasoning to its logical conclusion, it seems the government would abandon any compassionate policies. People who adhere to this reasoning might think, I shouldn’t have my tax dollars go to funding education, because I don’t have any children and I’m finished with my own schooling. I shouldn’t have to fund Medicare at this point in my life, because I won’t have to worry about my retirement for a few more years and Mom and Dad are dead. I shouldn’t have to fund the roads in Iowa, because I haven’t driven on them for many years. When did we become so selfish we forgot about the common good? If we followed this policy, it would divide the nation into prideful interest groups with only their own selfish desires at heart.

Many Evangelicals do not see the necessity of helping the poor because they believe that they must focus on their individual relationship with Christ. After hearing this idea a number of times, I asked one of my Republican Christian friends, who is a Baptist, if she agreed with this. She said she did not. She answered, “There are plenty of lost, lonely, and deserted people within our borders to keep both church and state busy, so I fear that the statement that churches should fix the problem is a veiled form of greed. I don’t see that the churches are responding, and therefore our disenfranchised people will be out in the cold, literally. Which is truly heartless.”

She continued, “Of course, churches should be stepping up and out for our own faith, but that does not mean we should eliminate government assistance. I don’t see how anyone in their right mind can think that churches can replace Medicaid, or take care of all our health needs, or education and job improvement programs. There is a huge difference between soup kitchens and shelters and the long-term needs of people with mental and physical disabilities.”

After hearing from the many Republicans who do not agree with my friend, I wondered if I had misread my Bible. Perhaps I was wrong. Perhaps the Bible was only talking to individuals. I soon found more than 500 passages addressing nations. I reread the book of Jeremiah, the prophet appointed by God to talk to the nations. God said, “I brought you to a country of plenty to enjoy its produce and good things; but when you entered you defiled my country and made my heritage loathsome.”11 There are many loathsome acts that the nation did: “The very skirts of your robe are stained with the blood of the poor.”12 “There are wicked men among my people . . . they set traps and they catch human beings. Like a cage full of birds so are their houses full of loot; they have grown rich and powerful because of it, they are fat, they are sleek . . . they have no respect for rights, for orphans’ rights, and yet they succeeded! They have not upheld the cause of the needy. Shall I fail to punish this, Yahweh demands, or on such a nation to exact vengeance.”13 God tells the nation they must “treat one another fairly . . . not exploit the stranger, the orphan and the widow . . . not shed innocent blood.”14 He scolds the nation and its leaders for having “eyes and heart for nothing but your own interests, for shedding innocent blood and perpetrating violence and oppression.”

If we are commanded to help the oppressed, we need to know who the oppressed are and why they’re oppressed. Is it their own doing, or part of the wages of sin, or does oppression come from the rich and the powerful and the social structures that support the privileged?

From Jesue Rode a Donkey, Copyright (c) 2006, Linda Seger.