Social Justice Policy

Read: Monsma: Chapters 8

8: Poverty

“Be Open-Handed toward the Poor and Needy”

(Deuteronomy 15 : 11)

PATTI IS A FRIEND OF MINE who dropped out of college to marry the man she loved. They soon had two little boys. She was a full-time mom, while her husband worked as a teacher. Theirs was an all-American, even idyllic, family. Or so it seemed. Then suddenly Patti’s husband left, moved to another state, and sued for divorce. Patti soon discovered that her husband had left her with back rent owed on their house, as well as other unpaid bills. She had never held a full-time job and, having left college early, had few marketable skills. Her husband made only sporadic child-support payments; because he had moved to a different state, a cumbersome, inefficient child-support system was unable to collect the financial support that was due her and her two little boys.

Patti was at the end of her rope. She struggled to feed her children and faced the very real prospect of being homeless. Not knowing where else to turn, she obtained welfare through the Aid to Families of Dependent Children (now called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families [TANF]). With the help of her caseworker who was willing to bend a few rules, she returned to college, completed her degree, obtained full-time employment, and was able to leave the welfare rolls.

There is much we can learn from Patti’s story. Poverty can strike suddenly and through no fault of one’s own. Government-sponsored welfare programs can work as intended, providing desperately needed temporary help while someone obtains skills needed to obtain a job and become a self-supporting, contributing member of society.

But not all stories are like Patti’s. Some people are poor because they made wrong, sinful choices and are unwilling or unable to work hard to obtain the training that will lead to employment. Still others are poor due to ill health or deeply embedded psychological problems. Their family backgrounds may never have taught them the attitudes and values needed to compete successfully in the world of work.

The Bible repeatedly calls us to be concerned and to offer help to the poor. That much is clear. Exactly how to translate our concern and offers of help into concrete, practical acts is less clear. And when it comes to the public policies of government, what ought they to do and not do? How ought we as Christian citizens apply the biblical principles discussed earlier in this book to the problem of poverty?These are the questions this chapter explores.

Poverty Today

The poor are still very much with us. The United States Census Bureau has judged that a family of three with an annual income of less than about $15,000 is living in poverty. Based on this standard, it estimates that as of 2005 there were 37 million people, or 13 percent of the American population, living in poverty. Of these 37 million people, 13 million were children under eighteen years of age. Poverty varies by racial and ethnic groups. It was almost three times higher among African Americans (25 percent) than among non-Hispanic white Americans (8 percent). Among Hispanic Americans the poverty rate was 22 percent.1

To understand poverty and its negative effects, two additional perspectives need to be understood. First, in the United States poverty exists among unparalleled affluence. While 37 million people live in poverty, 20 million households have incomes of over $100,000 a year. The average annual family income in the United States is $63,000. We are an enormously wealthy country, and most of us are blessed with material goods that others cannot even imagine. The combination of great wealth and poverty existing side-by-side in the same country and even in the same communities raises crucial and challenging questions—even while it does not suggest quick, simple answers for the thoughtful Christian seeking God’s will.

A second key perspective is that poverty is more than a simple lack of money to buy the necessities of life. It is that. But it is more. A job that pays decent wages not only pays the rent, puts bread on the table, and keeps the lights on, but it also tells people and their families that they are doing useful, worthwhile work that society values. It daily affirms that they are useful individuals who contribute to society and support those who depend on them. In contrast, the unemployed or sporadically employed, along with those employed at such low wages that they cannot support their dependents, receive the daily message—even if falsely—that they are failures. The implication is that they have nothing of real value to contribute to society, and that those who are depending on them are looking to them in vain. How does one go home and tell one’s children that there will not be enough food for them that evening?Or as winter approaches, that there will be no warm jackets or Christmas gifts this year?

“We live in a country rich beyond measure, yet one with unconscionable ghettoes. We live in a country where anyone can make it; yet generation after generation, some families don’t.”2

—JASON DEPARLE,

SENIOR WRITER, NEW YORK TIMES

Poverty, with its attending physical and psychological consequences, severely limits people in their ability to live the creative, productive lives God intends for all human beings. God intends that all of us—in joy and thankfulness—be able to develop the abilities he has given us, support and care for our families, and contribute to the broader society. All these are aspects of being God’s image bearers. They may not be impossible for the poor to accomplish, but they are certainly made difficult.

The Bible Speaks

I have been told that in the Bible there are more than two thousand references to the poor. I have never tried to count them, but both the Old and New Testaments time and time again insist that as believers we must be concerned for the poor. It is a requirement. “There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be open-handed toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land” (Deut.15:11). “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and fault-less is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world” (James 1:27).I could fill the rest of this chapter, in fact the rest of this book, with biblical commands to care for the poor and needy. Of all people, we evangelicals—who take the Word of God authoritatively and seek to pattern our lives after it—should take these repeated commands seriously. If we ignore them, we deny the authority of Scripture. There is no way to escape this conclusion.

Here the Christian principle of solidarity, discussed earlier, and the many biblical supports for it come front and center. The poor are not somehow “others,”separate from us and with no ties of mutual responsibility. They are our brothers and sisters; we are to see Christ in them.

“Our band of eager young first-year seminary students did a thorough study to find every verse in the Bible that dealt with the poor. . . . We found several thousand verses in the Bible on the poor and God’s response to injustice. . . . [Then] one member of our group took an old Bible and a new pair of scissors and began the long process of cutting out every single biblical text about the poor. . . .

When the zealous seminarian was done with all his editorial cuts, that old Bible would hardly hold together, it was so sliced up. It was literally falling apart in our hands.”3

—JIM WALLIS,

PASTOR AND POLITICAL ACTIVIST

While studying welfare-to-work programs in Dallas, I once interviewed the assistant director of a deeply Christian program that was working with the homeless. She described the philosophy of her agency in these words: “We are faith- based—we strive to be the hands of Christ for the homeless. Our desire is to touch them as if they are Christ himself.” Her agency had not only read but was living out Matthew 25:40: “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me”(TNIV). This is solidarity with the poor. Our Lord demands nothing less from us.

Clearly we should live in solidarity with the poor; our attitude must be one of concern, not indifference. But this is the beginning of our consideration of the Christian’s duty toward the poor, not the end. How are we to live out this concern in the twenty-first century, in a modern, urbanized society such as ours? And what roles ought individual Christians, nonprofit agencies, and the public policies of government play? The rest of the chapter seeks to give some guidance in answering these questions. Careful thinking and important distinctions are needed.

The Causes of Poverty

I vividly recall one day back when I was active in Michigan politics and attended a picnic put on by the United Auto Workers for its members. I met a man who had worked for an auto supply firm that specialized in making chrome-plated bumpers for large Lincoln Continentals. His layoff was due to a dwindling demand for these bumpers. He looked thoroughly depressed and plaintively asked me when I thought the economy would pick up, so he would be called back to work. I mumbled something about not knowing but certainly hoping it would be soon. What I could not bring myself to tell him was that deep in my heart I suspected he would never be called back. He was caught in two trends: a movement to obtain cheaper car parts from overseas and a style change away from chrome-plated bumpers.

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: . . . ?

Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide

the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe him,

and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?”

—ISAIAH, OLD TESTAMENT PROPHET

(ISA. 58: 6–7)

“Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”

—JAMES, APOSTLE AND BROTHER

OF JESUS (JAMES 2: 15–17 TNIV)

We need to recognize that many are poor or threatened with poverty because of forces they cannot control. The man I met at the United Auto Workers picnic was affected by forces that were not of his making. As in the case of my friend Patti, noted earlier in this chapter, women may find themselves with young children and no husband or father in the house due to unfaithful, irresponsible husbands. Or incapacitating illnesses or accidents can strike a family, leaving it with huge debts and no one able to work.

But honesty also forces me to acknowledge that poverty is often due to certain self-defeating actions and decisions. Numbers tell a powerful story. Of all American families headed by a married couple, only 5 percent live below the poverty line. Of those headed by a man without a wife, 13 percent live below the poverty line; of those headed by a woman without a husband, the number jumps to 29 percent. Of those who have not completed high school, 24 percent live in poverty, while of those who have completed high school, even without any college, the number drops to 11 percent. These numbers demonstrate that certain patterns of behavior often lie at the root of poverty.4 In the United States today, one who completes high school, does not have a child out of wedlock, marries, and remains married is very unlikely to be poor.

I hesitated to write the previous sentence because there is a danger I will be misunderstood. But honesty compelled me to write it. The fact is that many who are poor in the United States today are poor because of their own self-defeating, sometimes sinful choices.

Many people—including many evangelicals—use this basic fact to conclude that the poor suffer poverty due to their own short-comings. Thus they have no responsibility to help them. The old slogan, “I fight poverty, I work,” sums up this attitude. It implies that if only the poor would exercise some gumption and get out and work, they would no longer be poor. Surely the Bible doesn’t demand that we be concerned for those who are poor due to their dropping out of high school, having children out of wedlock, using drugs, lacking ambition, or engaging in other forms of irresponsible, sinful behavior, does it? They are only reaping what they have sown.

Admittedly, many are poor because of sinful or ill advised choices they have made. They may have been sexually promiscuous. They may have dabbled with illicit drugs or shoplifted and have a criminal record. Or they may have given up and left high school when things became difficult.

“There but for the grace of God, go I,” however is the appropriate response. Who of us is to say that, given different circumstances, a different family situation, a different neighborhood, or a different set of friends, we might not have made the same choices? Our God is a forgiving God, whose grace can cover the worst sins. People who have acknowledged they did wrong, are now trying to make up for past mistakes, and are seeking to do what is right deserve our support and help. Even people who out of discouragement left high school or who out of anger and frustration have given up on trying to find a job and to move ahead are still image bearers of almighty God. If we—perhaps through a tough, demanding love—can encourage and challenge them to become the productive people God desires of all his image bearers, we are indeed doing God’s work. We are truly modeling our Savior who has done as much for all of us.

It is also important to recall that in today’s world any woman who bears a child outside of marriage had another decision she could have made: She could have aborted that child. Every unmarried mother—even though she made a wrong choice about sex outside of marriage—made the right choice in choosing life over abortion. Surely—as I wrote in the previous chapter—we who as Christians oppose abortion ought to be standing first in line to offer help to those girls and women who chose life; we ought to support public policies that will offer them help.

In the face of poverty, what response does the Bible demand of us? Concern and proffered help. But this does not yet tell us how we are to respond. This is what I consider in the next two sections. First, we will look at some basic insights that can guide us as we seek to live out a truly biblical concern for the poor and needy among us. Then we will consider some more concrete applications of those principles.

The Bible, Poverty, and Public Policy: Insights

In the 1960s President Lyndon B. Johnson declared a War on Poverty and, as some commentators put it at the time, “Poverty won.” They had a point. Poverty rates barely budged. Discouragement quickly set in.

How ought we as Christians to react? Does our faith speak to what public policies our government should pursue in relation to the 37 million of our fellow Americans living in poverty today?What guidance can the Bible give us as we seek to work against the destructive forces of poverty? There are no simple answers to these questions. The Old Testament Israelites were given many detailed instructions concerning the poor. But theirs was a rural, tribal society, and we live in a largely urban, industrial society that is shifting into a knowledge-based society. We cannot in wooden fashion apply the specific instructions given by God to the Israelites to our society today. But from the principles we considered in earlier chapters, we can uncover some basic insights to apply in our efforts to respond to the needs of the poor among us.

Government Is a Partial, but Not a Complete Answer

Some people think government is the complete answer to the problem of poverty; others think government is never the answer. Both are wrong . . . and both are right. This is a case where a response rooted in Scripture leads us to a both-and, not an either-or, response. While the political right has not looked to government for help quickly enough, the political left has too quickly looked to government for help. It is wrong for Christians who seek to respond to the Bible’s call to care for the poor to shove off all responsibility onto government—or to ignore government as a God-instituted means to obtain greater justice for the poor.

There is much that we as individuals and as members of our churches and of a variety of nongovernmental agencies can—and should—do to help the poor. As I will explain shortly, I have stood in awe of dedicated Christian saints who minister to the homeless, the drug-dependent, the poor, the incarcerated, and others of the least of these who live in great need. In doing so, they are ministering to Jesus Christ himself.

However, government and its public policies also have a role to play in alleviating poverty. Often individual and other private efforts to help the poor, as important as they are, can have only a limited impact on poverty. We live in an urbanized, industrialized society—which also means we live in an interdependent society. Indeed, with globalization we live in an interdependent world. People lose their jobs when a manufacturer moves its factory overseas to take advantage of cheaper labor costs. Interest rates go up, and suddenly what had been a struggle to make house payments or keep up with credit-card debt becomes a seemingly impossible task. Or individuals suddenly learn the pensions for which they had worked for more than thirty years are no longer available due to the bankruptcy of their company. We no longer live on largely self-sufficient farms where we could grow most of our own food and spin and sew most of our own clothes. We live in an interdependent world. This means we are vulnerable. We all need government to protect us from economic adversities that can come with interdependence.

“Lord, we know that you’ll be comin’ through this line today.

So help us to treat you well.”5

—PRAYER OF A FOOD-LINE VOLUNTEER

In addition, with its taxing powers, government has money available that dwarfs that of individuals and all but a few nongovernmental agencies. When seeking to help 37 million people living in poverty and millions more living on the edge of poverty, government often is the only institution with the financial resources to make a difference in millions of lives.

Also, sometimes public policies themselves have added to the problem of poverty. Policies may encourage out-of-wedlock births, fail effectively to enforce fathers’ support payments for their children, or encourage easy divorce. When public policies are a part of the problem, changing those policies must be a part of the solution.

Antipoverty Programs as Justice

The consistent call of the Bible is that the poor be treated with justice—not that money simply be taken from those with more and given to those with less. As seen in chapter 3, justice can best be defined in terms of giving all people their due. the poor are not treated justly, government is not fulfilling its God-given task. All people deserve an opportunity through work to provide for themselves and their families, to honor their Creator, and to develop and use their gifts and abilities. This is their due. When people wish to contribute to society and support themselves and their families by working but no work is available, or when even full-time wages are so low that they cannot be self-supporting, then justice is not being done.

In a just society, public policies ought to protect the poor from those who would prey upon them and take advantage of them. One thinks of unscrupulous landlords who charge exorbitant rents for dilapidated housing that is as unsafe as it is depressing—simply because the poor have no other choice or have little bargaining power.

But justice also requires that public policies designed to help the poor ought not to degenerate into paternalism, where one person is made so dependent on another that he or she is no longer the willing, contributing, creative person God intends all of his image bearers to be. To give help to the poor without any expectation that they live up to their responsibilities is not the biblical way. It is not just.

In Leviticus 19: 9–10 and 23:22, God commanded the Israelites not to harvest their fields to the very edge or to go through their vineyards a second time to pick all the grapes. Instead, they were to leave for the poor the grain on the edges of their fields and any grapes remaining after their first harvest. There are two principles we can gain from this. First, we must, in solidarity with the poor, make provision for them, so that they too can live. Second, the poor have a responsibility to help themselves. The command was not to give a portion of one’s harvest to the poor. No, the poor needed to go out in the fields and work hard to glean that which had been left for them.

Similarly both our private actions and public policies should aim to help the poor, but those efforts should normally aim to enable the poor to provide for themselves, not to give handouts with no corresponding responsibilities. Justice speaks the language of opportunities and empowerment. It knows little of handouts with no corresponding responsibilities.

Using Civil Society’s Organizations

Several years ago I conducted a thorough study of welfare-to-work programs in four large cities. What started out as an academic research project ended up touching me deeply. I met many dedicated Christians who had given up more promising careers to offer help to the most needy: the homeless, the school dropouts, the unmarried mothers, the drug abusers, and those simply caught up in the confusing competition for gainful employment. I interviewed a young man who had left seminary to work among homeless men in Chicago, for an evangelical agency. I asked him what motivated him to do this work. He responded simply, “God has called me to do this work; this is what I’m supposed to be doing.” Then he added that his work also gave him joy: “But there are also challenging aspects of the job I enjoy. These are good folks;they will be good employees. I enjoy working with them.”

I also interviewed several people to whom the Christian agencies had offered help. They often recognized the Christian motivations of the staff and volunteers. One said, “It was a Christian program; it was encouraging. It helped get me back on my feet and on the right track. It helped turn me into the mature woman that I am now. They helped a lot.” Another testified: “They behaved like Christ. They were gentle, kind, giving, did not discriminate. They gave me a mentor;they taught me spiritually.” I repeatedly found myself standing in awe of present-day saints who were doing God’s work among the poor and dispossessed of our society.

This brings us straight back to civil society and the principle of subsidiarity first discussed in chapter 5. Public policies ought never to undercut or displace the work being done by civil-society organizations:community-based, nonprofit, and faith-based programs working to help the poor. Public policies should recognize and build upon the work they are already doing. Often the most effective approach for government to take is to work in partnership with local agencies that make up civil society, offering them referrals, financial help, and other supports.

The Bible, Poverty, and Public Policy: Applications

At many points in this book I have stressed that applying even clear biblical principles to concrete situations is a challenge. This is also the case in combating poverty. Even so, in this section I consider two concrete areas as examples of how we can think through specific poverty-related issues in light of biblical principles.

Working for a Stable, Jobs-Producing Economy

The most effective antipoverty public policies may very well be those aimed at creating a healthy, jobs-producing economy. Often people do not see such policies as being “antipoverty” at all. It is true that such policies—when effective—provide economic opportunities and even wealth for the middle class and the affluent. But they also lift many households out of poverty and prevent many people on the economic fringes from sinking into poverty. During the 1990s, generally marked by high employment and low inflation, many people were able to move out of poverty. From 1994 to 2000 the percent-age of households under the poverty line dropped from 15 percent to 11 percent. This means there were 7 million fewer people living in poverty in 2000 than in 1993.6

But what public policies lead to economic prosperity? Here one quickly gets into very technical, complex issues of taxes, spending, and interest rates that only a bureaucrat at the Federal Reserve Board can love! This is not the place to delve into them. Most of us will always have a difficult time fully understanding them and applying our Christian principles to them.

But one thing is clear: These technical, esoteric issues and the economic results that flow from them are vitally important to the opportunities and challenges the poor face. When we as Christian citizens evaluate the president, Congress, and other national leaders and when we decide how to cast our votes, we ought to ask ourselves how well our leaders are handling the national economy. And we should not first of all ask how well we personally are doing economically. Rather, we should ask how well the economy is doing in offering greater economic opportunities to those near the bottom of the ladder.

Welfare

When it comes to antipoverty public policies, the most frequently debated topic is cash welfare payments to the poor. Many, including many evangelicals, have harshly criticized them. Here again we need to do some clear thinking.

The major program in this category today is Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), enacted by the federal government. TANF seeks to provide cash assistance to families (usually, but not always, mothers with children) that are economically destitute. Most of the money comes from the federal government, which the states supplement with their own funds. State governments administer the program and set its standards and practices. Thus they vary from one state to another. The TANF program also has certain work and training requirements designed to move those receiving its benefits to full-time employment. In this effort the program provides some supportive help, such as provisions for transportation to jobs and child care. There is a lifetime five-year (or less in some states) limit on being able to receive TANF benefits.

This program continues to be controversial. Some are convinced that the cash payments are too low to maintain families with even minimal necessities, that the five-year time limit is arbitrary and harsh for those who simply cannot find employment, that supportive child care and transportation services are inadequate, and that the training programs are often poorly run and do not lead to jobs. These advocates want higher payments and more work-training programs with generous child-care and transportation provisions. Others, however, are convinced that the program wastes money on people who manipulate the system to avoid work and encourages out-of-wedlock births. They work to cut the levels of cash payments, impose stricter qualifications for help, and compel all recipients to take part in work and training programs. They think a five-year limit on help is too long, encouraging an unhealthy dependency.

Where ought we as Christians to come down in this debate? As I’ve said, our Lord requires us to show mercy and offer help to those in need. This would lead us to offer more generous help to those in need. But our faith also speaks to a sense of responsibility and of there being consequences for the moral choices we make. Thus some Christians fear that more financial assistance with fewer time limits or work requirements may reward and encourage irresponsible behavior—and, in comparison, penalize those who come from equally trying circumstances but stayed in school, avoided premarital sex, and other ways acted responsibly.

As with many specific, concrete public-policy issues, there is no one obviously Christian answer. Almost all rightly agree that government sometimes needs to provide financial assistance to the poor. When it does so, there are, from a Christian perspective, two important considerations. As we saw earlier, justice should be at the heart of government’s efforts to help the poor. This means it should do all it can to avoid creating an unhealthy dependence and rewarding ongoing self-defeating behavior. Instead, it should aim to enable the poor to support themselves through gainful employment.

Thus the welfare system—when it is working within the bounds set by Christian principles—is a two-way street of fulfilled obligations. Society has an obligation to help and support those who are in desperate need. Justice and solidarity demand this. The help given, however, should not consist simply of financial handouts; this creates a dependency and encourages a passivity that undercuts what God has created us to be. The help should enable the poor to overcome the challenges they face, obtain the training and employment they need, and avoid self-defeating attitudes and behavior. But the street runs both ways. The poor who receive help also have obligations. They have an obligation to take advantage of the offered training. They need to work to change the patterns of behavior and the attitudes that are holding them back. They need to accept employment that is offered, even when it is far from an ideal job.

Public policy should insist on this sort of mutual, complementary obligation. To offer help to the poor without expecting anything from them in return is wrong. But it is equally wrong to expect the poor to strengthen their behaviors, attitudes, and work skills without offering them desperately needed assistance.

Does this mean that public policy should offer the poor a year of work-skills training or limit such training to only six weeks? Should the poor be limited to five years of assistance or should it be only three years—or should it be for unlimited years as long as there are needs? When considering such questions, equally sincere Christians searching the Bible and their God-directed consciences with equal fervor may draw somewhat different conclusions. The important thing is that all Christians act out of a genuine, heartfelt solidarity with the poor, seeking their good as God’s image bearers with something to contribute to society. We ought not simply look for a way to save on taxes or to feel superior because we are not like “one of them.”

A second important consideration for Christian citizens to keep in mind as they seek conscientiously to influence welfare policies is to work with and build upon civil-society institutions. Government policies ought not to undercut or take over for entities that are already working to help the poor. Instead, government ought to affirm, help, and strengthen them in their efforts. This means, first of all, that welfare policies should do all they can to encourage and strengthen stable, two-parent families. Stable, faithful marriages are one of the best antipoverty devices available, as demonstrated by the numbers I cited earlier in this chapter. Public policies that appropriately encourage such marriages and discourage divorce and out-of-wedlock births are effective weapons in efforts to overcome poverty.

One also needs to appreciate the value of non financial assistance—working toward changed attitudes and patterns of behavior, working out difficult child-care or transportation problems, or convincing people that they are individuals of value and with something important to offer to their children and to society. Government agencies are not very good at offering this sort of assistance, while Christian agencies are.

The importance of civil society and the principle of subsidiarity suggest that government ought to turn to Christian and other faith-based and nonprofit agencies to provide much of the actual, hands-on service to the poor. Many are already doing a fine job. The greatest need often is to support and strengthen them in their efforts—and surely not to try to take over for them.

Conclusion

“Be open-handed toward the poor and needy.” I chose this phrase from Deuteronomy 15:11 as the subtitle of this chapter. I have not tried to present neat, simple answers that define exactly what this command means for us today. But Scripture and the principles it teaches—when combined with what we know about poverty in the United States today—set down guideposts that point to answers. Through careful thinking, discussion with fellow believers, and much prayer we can find answers that will honor this charge our Lord has given us.