My son used to feel that way...until he tried to support himself (and only himself) on a minimum wage job. It was all he could get, and he actually made a little over minimum wage. He worked as a dishwasher/delivery guy/cook/and do whatever needs to be done at a little restaurant in downtown High Point. Six months into working harder than he had ever imagined, he gave it up and moved back home. There was no way to make it all work. A roof over his head and a little food, gas money, and that was about it. No insurance. No savings. No security. He met a bunch of people much like himself. Hard-working, long hours, do it every day...
My son was lucky enough to have a scholarship to college and the ability to use that education to hopefully, some day, get a job that provided stability and security. But his parents were lucky enough to have an education and a job that provided security and stability
. We spent a lot of time with him and his siblings, reading and coaching and teaching. Partly, we were able to do that because Carl's one job paid enough for me to stay home. We lived on a very tight budget in those early years, but it was a living wage and provided health insurance and retirement benefits. After my son's excursion into the world of minimum wage work, he-who-espoused-the-poor-are-moochers-sentiment decided he had been wrong. The assumption that poor equals lazy is not accurate. Rich people are hard working and productive. Poor people are hard working and productive. Rich people can be lazy and worthless. So can poor. Money is not the determining factor...neither is assistance--government or otherwise.
. We spent a lot of time with him and his siblings, reading and coaching and teaching. Partly, we were able to do that because Carl's one job paid enough for me to stay home. We lived on a very tight budget in those early years, but it was a living wage and provided health insurance and retirement benefits. After my son's excursion into the world of minimum wage work, he-who-espoused-the-poor-are-moochers-sentiment decided he had been wrong. The assumption that poor equals lazy is not accurate. Rich people are hard working and productive. Poor people are hard working and productive. Rich people can be lazy and worthless. So can poor. Money is not the determining factor...neither is assistance--government or otherwise.
I read plenty of biblical passages commanding us to care for the poor...challenging us to serve them, provide for them, insure justice for them (and justice means the ability to provide a secure life for themselves and their families.) Nowhere do I read a "criteria" for which poor we are supposed to serve. Jesus didn't determine a set of criteria for those "worthy" of God's grace. He served all; he didn't even require them to change before he helped them. Change, if suggested or challenged, came after the grace.
Watch this Stewart episode. Why is it outrageous that "poor" people have refrigerators, microwaves, air conditioning? Why would we expect that they wouldn't have a phone? Some have cable...but we don't know who or how...and again, if they can pay for cable for some relaxation and enjoyment (cause I bet they don't spend much time going out to eat or to movies) why is that bad? (And it's not like stopping a $60 cable bill will enable them to buy insurance for their family...) Laura Ingram calls people on welfare "animals." I'm not sure that super-rich who argue they can't raise salaries because their companies "can't afford it" while they live on as much as 1 billion dollars a year salary are not the animals. After listening to these privileged folks rant, we looked at a NYT article on families that spend $30-200,000 on playhouses for their children. Guess what...the little girl's playhouse had running water and...a refrigerator. (Explain that one to Haitians living under plastic in this hurricane season...or the family in Mississippi that still doesn't have running water.)
OK...I've probably offended everyone now. But is this the society we are called to embrace? A society that assume rich means good and poor means bad? A society that gives every break to those who already have every break--and removes all help from those who struggle to get a break, assigning them fault for being born into disadvantaged circumstances. Have we forgotten that God came as the poorest of the poor? being born into the most insignificant and powerless position possible?
Sunday, we stuffed backpacks for school children who cannot afford school supplies. But we won't have done the job we are called to do until we live in a society that doesn't have school children who can't afford supplies. When everyone has a job that pays enough to support a family, meeting basic needs and providing enough to have some savings, retirement, and insurance...then we might live in the kingdom of God...
We will always give a hand to someone who doesn't appreciate it, who doesn't take advantage of it, who, perhaps, doesn't deserve it. But isn't that the very definition of self-sacrifice? And if serving a few undeserving means we live in a world where all have the opportunity to be secure, line them up at the pie shop and give them pie. Our job is to answer God's call to care for the poor, the alien, the widow and the orphan...all those who cannot care for themselves. And, when we respond to that call...God changes the world.
We will always give a hand to someone who doesn't appreciate it, who doesn't take advantage of it, who, perhaps, doesn't deserve it. But isn't that the very definition of self-sacrifice? And if serving a few undeserving means we live in a world where all have the opportunity to be secure, line them up at the pie shop and give them pie. Our job is to answer God's call to care for the poor, the alien, the widow and the orphan...all those who cannot care for themselves. And, when we respond to that call...God changes the world.
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