I had the honor of speaking this morning at Campbell University’s chapel service to kick off Poverty Awareness week. Below is the text of my talk. As always, I write what I intend to say, but sometimes go of the map when actually up there. So, it is about 95% accurate as to what I really said.
Also, when I write my talks, I try to write them conversationally, so often they are much looser than my writing for publication. Please forgive any typos or run on sentences, etc. That is just how my people talk.
Why are These People Poor?
There are people who work in inner-city ministries that teach job skills. Or have after-school programs or keep kids off drugs.
That is not my story.
I run an organization in Raleigh called Love Wins Ministries, where we pastor and work with chronically homeless people. These are not the people in line at the soup kitchen or in the shelters. These are the poorest of the poor – folks who live under bridges and sleep in dumpsters. People who smell of urine and mumble to themselves as they walk down the streets. A lot of times, these people do not get better.
I don’t get a lot of success stories. But I do know an awful lot about hardcore urban poverty.
As a result of my work, I speak to a lot of groups like this about our work, and one question always comes up in the Q and A afterward. So today, I am just going to focus on that question: Why are these people poor?
I will answer that question in a minute, but first, I want to talk about Jesus.
Incidentally, if you ever want to get the guy in the seat next to you on the airplane to shut up, answer any of his questions with exactly that sentence:
I will answer that question in a minute, but first, I want to talk about Jesus.
In the 10th chapter of Luke is the story we call the Good Samaritan.
We all know this story. It is a Sunday School, Vacation Bible School story. When I was a kid, we did it on flannel graph (I am showing my age there… you probably saw it on Veggie Tales). There, up on the orange flannel background, was the victim, lying by the side of the road. The scripture tells us he was “set upon by thieves”. In the neighborhoods I spend time in, we would say he got jumped.
On our flannel graph, to the far left of the man we see the priest, very elaborately dressed, looking very pious (he is doing God’s work, you know…), on his way to the temple, having passed by the man. Behind him we see the Levite, a pious layman, also on his way to the temple… he is in a hurry too. It might be his turn to be a greeter that day, or maybe it’s his turn to read the scripture during worship. And there, kneeling by the cutout of the victim, we see the Samaritan, cradling the victim in his arms.
Then the Sunday school teacher would say “Which person should we be?” and we would all scream “The Samaritan” and the teacher would say “good job” and give us a sucker and we went home. And that is about as far as we ever go with this story, even if we have reached an age where we no longer get a sucker after being taught about the Bible.
But for a minute, let’s not pretend we are the Samaritan. Let’s pretend we are the one who got jumped. We are laying there in the ditch, oozing blood.
Today, we are the victim.
I know if I am the victim, I only have one question: Why me?
We know virtually nothing about the victim. Jesus gives us nothing here. We do not know if he was a good man or a bad man. We do not know if he was pious or apostate, rich or poor, stingy or generous.
Why me?
We don’t know.
We don’t know, and we don’t like that. We people of faith do not like to admit when we do not know. We don’t like that at all.
About a year ago, Tanya was walking back to the rooming house after having a fight with her boyfriend. It was late at night, and to get there, she had to cross Martin Luther King Blvd, which has five lanes.
Like I said, it was late at night, and on that section of MLK, the street light was burned out. And Tanya was wearing dark clothes.
The drunk driver never saw her. He hit her dead on, ran over her and drug her now dead body about 300 yards. He said later he thought he had hit a dog.
I preached her funeral, and I said the sort of things one says at a funeral, but inside I was screaming -
Why God? Why Tanya?
The church did not have any really good answers in that moment.
The reporter on the TV said Tanya was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Personally, I think that reporter was, in that moment, quite Jesus-like in her theology.
We like to see our prosperity, our good family, our happy lives, our full stomachs as signs of God’s favor, as evidence of our doing “the right things”.
But if that is the case, then I have a few questions:
Why did I grow up in a house with parents who loved me, who passed on a work ethic and taught me how to dream, how to set goals, how to love? I had nothing to do with it – it just happened. I was in the right place at the right time.
Why did my friend Danny grow up in a house where his mamma’s boyfriend beat him with a fan belt, where his mom had to sell her body to survive after Daddy went to jail and where the only male role model in his life was the local pimp? He didn’t pick that life. He was in the wrong place, at the wrong time.
When it comes to the economically poor, you need to realize you are not better than these people – you are not smarter, you are not more in God’s favor, you are not more virtuous. You aren’t better, you are just better off.
More questions:
How would your life have turned out if you had to steal food in order for your little sister to eat? If you had to go to school three days in a row in the same clothes? If you had to sit on the porch in the cold while your momma is ‘entertaining’ men for money so you can eat tonight? How would that have shaped your views on sex and intimacy?
There are all kind of reasons that people are economically poor, and it seldom has anything to do with their salvation, or their walk with God, or their destination after their death or whether they said some prayer.
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Last spring, I was invited to a small group meeting a local college ministry puts on in order to talk about Love Wins, to see if any of them wanted to volunteer. I thought I was the main event, but they told me they had to do the Bible Study first.
The passage was the story of the rich young ruler, who comes to Jesus for advice, and then Jesus tells him to sell everything he has and to give it to the poor. The people in the small group were having a tough time with this.
After hearing that story read, a young guy in the room – richer than 80% of the planet, born the predominant race and the most privileged gender in the wealthiest country in the world – the very epitome of a rich young ruler to the majority of our planet – it was then that this kid said,”I think the important thing to keep in mind is to have a balanced view. After all, God gives us our possessions for a reason, and—”
It was then that I lost it.
“Hold on”, I said. “God didn’t give you your possessions. You have those things because you paid money for them. You had money to spend because you are employed. You are employed because you are well educated and look trustworthy to employers, both benefits of growing up white and male and inheriting a culture built on stolen land with the labor of enslaved people.”
You would have thought I drop kicked a kitten across the room.
Look – I have a congregant who lives in a car. And at night, when its 25 degrees and she is shivering and shaking and wanting to turn the car on for heat but knowing she does not have the money for gas – all the while crying out to God and praying for warmth… but no warmth comes.
So if you tell me that God has given this rich young ruler in that overheated living room his possessions while leaving my friend in the car to shiver, I call shenanigans. Because if that is true, then you are saying that God loves this kid more than he does my friend in her car. Or more than he does the 80% of the planet that lives on less than $10 a day.
You are not better than they are. You are just better off.
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Hear what I am not saying. I am not saying poverty is not caused by sin – I think it is. But I know a guy who used to work for a textile plant where they made t-shirts. We demanded cheap shirts, so they closed his plant. I won’t ask for a show of hands today asking who is wearing a shirt made overseas – I know I am. But if you are, you and I are complicit in this man’s misfortune.
Yes, poverty is a result of sin – but it is the sin of the deacon in your church who works at the bank and that approved those mortgages he knew were sketchy. It is the sin of ignoring our fellow man while we obsess over American Idol. It is our sin that allows us to grow obese while 17 million children go hungry here in the US.
It is our sin, not theirs.
Once after I spoke somewhere, I had a pastor come up to me and “If poverty is not caused by the person’s sin, then what do we as people of faith have to say to it?”
In the 9th chapter of John, Jesus heals a blind man. Maybe you know the story?
As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.”
The disciples are a lot like us. They want to know why this problem exists. They want to get down to the root cause. And, being religious people, they think the root cause has got to be this man’s sin.
Jesus does not seem to get too caught up into root causes. Jesus knows that the blind man was just born in the wrong place at the wrong time. But, he says, that God’s work can be revealed in this man, as a result of this man’s condition.
Maybe that is the answer for us, as people of faith. Not – How did this happen? But – As a result of this, how can God’s work be revealed?
How can God be glorified in this moment?
The apostle Paul tells us that we are the body of Christ. The work the resurrected Jesus does in this world happens through our hands.
When Jesus walked the earth, he did not hunt for root causes – instead he touched the sick, fed the hungry and brought good news for the poor.
As the physical embodiment of the resurrected Jesus, we should do no less.
If you would like to find out about having Hugh speak to your organization, click here to get that conversation started.
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If you liked this post, you might enjoy my newsletter Confessions of a Street Minister.
This is great, thanks for sharing.
I’m not a biblical scholar, but I heard Greg Boyd discuss John 9 once. He said that the part where Jesus says “he was born blind so that” is actually not in the greek, it is included in the translation because translators assumed Jesus was answering the disciples question directly. Instead it should read “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but let the work of God be revealed in him” It removes any semblance of causation from Jesus’ answer.
Thought you might find that interesting.
I’m not Christian, or even religious, but you constantly blow my mind with the idea of how great our world could be if people simply acted on the positive ideologies and beliefs which they claim to hold.
Seriously inspiring.
@Glenwood – Thank you so much for that.
Ummm I’m with Glennwood. Except for the not being religious part because I like to think that every once in a while, in spite of MY efforts, I ooze some Jesus. When I was in high school I was at the studio of a well know photographer in our area having my portrait taken and trying to get him to think I was smart I expressed that I also loved photography but I just never have time for it. He was quick with his response. “We have time for the things we love, if you are really into it you will always have time for it.” Ouch. Annnd dead on. So when we say we are seeking the heart of God are we really? Are we seeking with the kind of heart that is open to what we might find at the other end. I am glad to have found you and this talk as well, because I often feel overwhelmed and afraid that we are living in a quadriplegic church. Nice to see some toes wiggling. It’s a good sign.
“Yes, poverty is a result of sin – but it is the sin of the deacon in your church who works at the bank and that approved those mortgages he knew were sketchy. It is the sin of ignoring our fellow man while we obsess over American Idol. It is our sin that allows us to grow obese while 17 million children go hungry here in the US.”
You say that poverty is a result of sin. I definitely agree with that. However, I don’t think that you can blame poverty on those who are not impoverished, not entirely at least. How about the homeless person who chose to get involved with drugs or gambling, thus spending his life savings on his addictions and could no longer afford to pay for his home, or pay for his children to have clothes and food? If MY sin causes me to grow obese, then HIS sin causes him to become homeless. Right? I am in no way saying that we should not reach out to those people, but you can’t say that it is up to everyone else to make sure that those homeless people get out of poverty. God does call us to reach out and help others, but I don’t think that the blame for their poverty can be placed entirely on us. Everyone makes decisions that can be good or bad for them, not just the “wealthy” folk.
Also, when you came to speak at Campbell, you mentioned that you knew a man (not sure if he was homeless or not) who owned a car but would drive it to the place where he begged for money. You also mentioned that he had applied for a job, but TEN years previously he had been arrested for an ounce (I think) of marijuana and this prevented him from getting a job. You also said, “what else would you expect him to do?” other than beg for money. My question is, has he attempted to find a job more than one time? Has he visited Human Services to find a job? Has he done every single possible thing to find a job? I think that any job is better than no job. If he has the money to keep up with a car, I feel like he has some sort of money flow. Which probably comes from begging for money, which you might have mentioned brings in a LOT of money each week for these people. Is the reason he doesn’t have a job because he cannot find one, or is it because he is comfortable with just begging for money because he is making a fine living off of that?
Anonymous, people make these kinds of claims all the time. You got a statistic to back up your sentence that panhandlers make a lot of money? If they make so much, why don’t you do it?
Look, you can come up with hypothetical things that a person COULD or SHOULD have done to get a job, or reasons why someone is to blame for their own poverty all day. But, unless you do what Hugh does, it’s all speculation. I suggest you spend some time listening to people on the street. Don’t say anything, just hear their stories. You might find out that you’re not entirely wrong in some cases. But you’ll also see a lot of other instances where your hypothetical case for what a person SHOULD do just doesn’t pan out. Until then, maybe you should take Hugh’s word for it, since he actually knows people.
What if we stopped blaming entirely? Don’t blame yourself, but don’t blame the poor either. Instead, think in terms of responsibility. If you’re a christian, you are responsible for your neighbor’s well-being. There’s plenty for all of us to do.
“A police survey says panhandlers outside Wal-Mart in Coos Bay can make $300 a day. Inside, it takes a clerk a week to make that much.”
There’s one statistic for ya, I’m sure if you google some more they will show up. Where are the statistics saying they don’t? That argument goes both ways. I’m not saying every single homeless person in the entire world makes a ton of money, but you can’t sit there and say they don’t.
Another thing. I am not speaking in general here, I am not attacking homeless people or anything like that. I am simply speaking according to what Hugh spoke about when he came to my university. And what he wrote on his page, about how poverty is our fault (that is the blame I speak of, I didn’t make that quote up). I have definitely spent time with the homeless. Streets of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Brooklyn, NYC, Tampa, and even the streets of Kolkatta and New Delhi in India. Don’t make assumptions too quickly about what other people have done. I don’t know if you personally have been around homeless people or not, and I know I have not been around homeless people as much as Hugh, but I do know for a fact, from conversations with multiple homeless people, that they are much more comfortable living on the streets than they are in a home. I have witnessed homeless people refusing a job because they make enough money panhandling to survive. I have offered to direct these people to a homeless shelter where they can receive help and education and job resources, but was only turned down and asked for another sandwich. I have spent time with these people just like Hugh.
I do agree that there should be no blame. So that is why I directed that question to HUGH as to why he was putting the blame on people that are not in poverty. I wanted to know why he felt that way. Does he personally feel like it is his fault that those homeless people are homeless? I know that there are many different situations in which people become homeless, and addictions are not the only reason, and all homeless people do need help. But Hugh needs to realize that it is not the sin of the people who are “better off,” it is the sin of EVERYONE. As a Christian, it is my responsibility to share God’s love through service, yes. I do that, do you? I serve my community and I serve everywhere that I can. I’m not saying that I am perfect and that I do way more than you. However, we can provide needs for these people all day long and provide help for them all day long, but it is up to the homeless person to take that initiative and use our help to better their lives. I can’t do that for them.
Dear Anonymous,
1. Watch your tone. You are free to disagree here, but you must be nice about it. If you don’t watch your tone, I will ban your ass.
2. I can point you to any number of bankers who are frauds and cheats. By your logic, all bankers must be frauds and cheats.
3. When I say it is our sin that makes people poor, I mean our collective sin. It is more the fault of racism and educational discrepancies that the urban core is in decay than it is that Joey is addicted to crack. I submit if you were in his position, born into a life with no hope, you would seek escape as well.
4. I am more than willing to discus this with you in person any time you want, over a cup of coffee or over lunch in the soup kitchen in Downtown Raleigh. But I speak from my experiences, and that is what Campbell paid me for. I have allowed your last rant on my blog – get your own blog and rant away. Or get Campbell to hire you to speak at CUW, and then set me straight.
“If you don’t watch your tone, I’ll ban your ass.” Awesome! I haven’t laughed that much all day.
Seems like anonymous missed your point entirely. But your point is one that is hard for many people to see. If I succeed it’s because I work hard. If I fail it’s not my fault. If you succeed, you’re lucky. If you fail it’s your fault. We tend to see ourselves in the best possible light and others in the worst. This keeps us blind to many of the systemic issues you are speaking to. It also keeps us blind to sins of collusion that we participate in. Issues of race and class are at the center of all of this. The legacy of slavery and Jim Crow is still working overtime. The only way to conclude otherwise is to ignore reality.
Glad I stumbled upon your writing. Great stuff. Keep it up.
what about helping different people find work that they can do instead of waiting till we find the “boss” for them how bout directing us to the BOSS of heaven and with our mammon friend show others how to make friends with mammon too so that the world can begin to see the Holy Spirit through people s lives.. i wouldnt want another sandwich if i knew what to do and im not looking to serve man as the goal of my life.. heres the thing we serve man when we are first serving God you have to let man worship God with his volition.. then he can dealwith man.. its funny how God less this christian country is and we expect answers form these people.. Where are real leaders of faith and not show .. maybe here..thanks
I don’t appreciate the “ass” comment…I don’t think that was very necessary.
Thanks for replying though. I still don’t fully agree with your view on the whole “our sin and poverty” deal but that’s okay, I just wanted to better understand your point of view on that whole situation. After hearing you speak in CUW I was very unclear of how you felt about it, which may have been a misunderstanding, or we may just disagree entirely. But hey, no two people are going to have the same view entirely, right?
I do praise you for what you’re doing, it does take a lot to work with the homeless each day, I know. I don’t want you to think that I’m assuming your ministry is a joke by any means..I’m not. Obviously it isn’t an easy job to do. You’re furthering God’s kingdom, and I hope that your work and ministry continues to grow in a way that is pleasing to God.
Jesus warns us not to automatically blame an individual for his situation, but it’s alright to automatically blame the community as a whole? That doesn’t seem consistent.
Even if it were true, the worst thing you can tell a person is that their situation is everyone else’s fault. That’s inviting defeat before you even begin.
Great post, Hugh!
Almost reminded me of my faith. Thanks for that.
Hugh, its sad that Campbell (my alma mater) would hire you to speak at CUW. You may be very knowledgable about poverty and homelessness but you seem unwilling to hear someone disagree with you. Your response to anonymous Was harsh. He wasn’t arguing or ranting or attacking you. He was questioning and voicing an opinion that is different than yours and for that you threatened to ban him and told him to go away. Christians who are unwilling to entertain opinions that are different than their own make us all look like narrow minded fools.
Great!
Shame on you, Hugh.
Shame on you for condemning people because they are white. Shame on you for condemning people because they are male. Shame on you for condemning people for trying to make a living.
You are committing the same sin for which you are condemning others.
You are sanctimonious in your compassion for the poor. But judgmental in your relationship with the affluent. If it wasn’t for the affluence of the Good Samaritan, there would have been no one to care for the man in the ditch.
You are compassionate for the man who lost his job. But have no compassion for the poor person who now has a job making T-shirts.
You may have thought you made a point with this blog, but it is shallow and judgmental.
You have demonstrated all that is heretical in the social justice movement.