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A thumbnail outline of the history of poverty
Jesus is reported in John 12:8 to have said that we would have the poor with us always. This passage attributes to Jesus the common wisdom about the persistence of poverty. That is, it would be normal for a large part of the population to be poor.
The bible
expresses at least four attitudes toward poverty.
-One is
the acceptance that some are rich and others are poor. Jesus tells
parables which assume this (Mt. 19:23f; Lk. 12:41f.; 1Tim. 6:1-2)
-Another
view is that not to be poor is a sign of God's favour to the
righteous(Ps. 1).
-On the
other hand, some psalmists are perplexed by the success and
prosperity of the wicked (Ps.37, 49,73; Job 21).
-Amos
sees poverty, not as normal but the result of dis- honesty and abuse
of the neighbour by the powerful (ch 6).
-Finally,
the bible holds there to be those we may call the holy poor. They
were those who did not lust after riches but lived simply, trusting
in God. Alan Richardson sees Jesus as the ideal biblical poor person1
(see Luke 6:20-49; 2 Cor. 8:8f.; 1Tim. 6:3-10)
The view attributed to Jesus in John 12:8 has a long history. Since the Agricultural revolution of ancient Mesopotamia it has been commonly accepted as normal for every society to be made up of the poorand two other classes, the ruling wealthy and the middle managers and skilled servants. these two used the poor as low income, menial workers, soldiers, slaves. At the very bottom of the social ladder were the beggars. None of these had an effective voice in society.
This continued with the Industrial Revolution. Even in today's electronic information revolution it is generally accepted as normal that society has these three classes. Specifically, it is normal always to have poverty. The poor will always be with us.
So. for many centuries poverty was seen as normal. From ancient classical civilizations through the agricultural and industrial revolutions it was thought to be normal that many many families would exist in poverty. It can be said that this view is still prevalent. For instance, The mainstream of Canadians do not seem to be troubled by the persistence of many poor families in Canada, while the wealthy and powerful increase.
Doubtless there also has always been those who, like Amos, argued that poverty was not normal. In this day and age we are coming to a time when many social groups and religious bodies are joining their efforts to bring that "always" to an end.
Poverty is not exactly the same in all countries, or for all who are poor. In Canada for instance, the official poor are those who must spend a large percent more than the average family to buy the bare essentials of shelter, food and clothing. Many of them qualify to receive social assistance. Others of these poor have jobs that pay very little. They are the people who supplement their grocery budget with free food at food banks, and buy clothes at used clothing stores. A high number of children grow up in these families with little hope.
In many other places places in the world, there are families and individuals who are even more poor than these. They are the ones who are destitute and are reduced to begging or doing the most menial of jobs and may eat less than one meal a day, dress in rags and sleep in hovekls or in the streets. Children in these families often scavenge for food, work almost as slaves in sweat shops, or as prosti-tution.
Some observers and economists see these as the real poor. The Canadian Fraser Institute identifies as poor those whose total income cannot buy even the most basic food, housing and clothing.
Sachs, who has written a book, The End of Poverty, says that the true poorly poor are those whose desperate reach cannot grasp even the lowest rung of the income ladder.
For centuries we have considered that the existence all these catagories of poor perfectly normal. This may be because those who are not poor benefit from the labour of the working poor.
But now, a new idea is capturing the imagination of a growing number of hopeful people. That idea is: let's make poverty history; poverty is not normal. Rather, it is an offence to human dignity and to the will of a loving creator God.
This movement began with the emergence of labour unions, socialism, and the Social Gospel. They asserted that all workers have a right to a share of the community wealth such that they have housing, food, and clothing at a level above minimum standards and have access to health care that meets their needs and education to the level they can attain.
So, today, there is a growing commitment to treating poverty like a great disease in the body politic, a disease which can be treated and finally eliminated.
Each of us and all of us (individuals, corporations, and governments) are being challenged to commit ourselves to this goal.
One of the ways we in the church can participate in this great venture is to consider living a life of holy poverty; a life in which we humbly consume only our fair share of the world's resources, and work for a just and equitable society
1. Alan Richardson ed., Theological Word Book of the Bible, "Poor, Rich, Possessions, wealth," SCM.
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Seeing the Humanity in Young Offenders.
by Colin Peterson
an address to Winnipeg Presbytery, the United Church of Canada - Jan.16th, 07
Thanks to Winnipeg Presbytery for providing me with an opportunity to share some thoughts about the issue of public safety in the city of Winnipeg. It has been over five years since I began my work as Chaplain of the Manitoba Youth Centre and I need to tell you, before I say anything else, that I love the kids I work with and I have considerable difficulty with the way they are portrayed by the media these days. Like you, I hate some of the things they do and, like you, I want to find ways of making our community safer, but we will surely fail in that task if we are unable to see the humanity of these young people and the legacy of victimization which has contributed to their behaviour.
Let me say more about this victimization. When I began my work as chaplain at the Manitoba Youth Centre I was exposed to evil in a most profound and disturbing way. And I'm not talking so much about the evil (if you can call it that) of 13 year-old children stealing cars or reckless, angry acts committed by drunken teenagers. I'm talking about the evil of poverty that destroys human dignity and forces people into dehumanizing roles of dependency. I'm talking about the evil of sexual and physical abuse and the damage done to the human spirit when a twelve year-old girl is pinned down by her mother so that her abusive step father can rape her. I'm talking about the sexual exploitation of crack-addicted teenagers by men of wealth and privilege and power. I'll never forget watching as a man in an expensive SUV (complete with infant car seats in the back) picked up a 16 year-old girl with whom I had worked. It infuriated me to think that at the end of the night he would return to the safety and comfort of his suburban home and the companionship of his wife and children, while that poor, addicted, homeless girl would find herself frightened and alone in some dirty crack house until the police once again dragged her into custody. And so, I'm talking about the evil of a justice system that is clearly biased in favour of the privileged and the powerful. I'm talking about the evil of powerful drug dealers enlisting the services of poor kids on the streets of Winnipeg to form gangs and sell crack and put their own young women out on the street in the sex trade and kill each other in drug-related gang wars. I'm talking about evil, an evil that sickens the heart, when you learn that 98% of the young women in the youth centre, whose arms are scarred with self-inflicted slash wounds, have been sexually abused and that almost all of the gang-involved young men in the youth centre joined a gang, not because they wanted to do crime, not because they're bad little punks, but because they wanted to belong to some kind of family, they wanted to feel safe as they walked the streets of violent neighbourhoods, and they wanted money so that they too could participate in the materialism that dominates our society.
Let me introduce you to a few of the kids I work with. I'm not going to use real names here and I'll change a few of the details in order to protect the anonymity of these young offenders but the stories are profoundly real and, God knows, they are stories that need to be told.
First of all meet, Leslie. Leslie was an excellent student who was a member of the girl's provincial soccer team. Her parents got a divorce and for Leslie that divorce was a tragic turning point in her life leading to an association with a negative peer group and initially one or two relatively minor convictions as a 13 year old. One day she tried smoking crack. By the time I began working with her as a 16 year old in the Manitoba Youth Centre she was severely addicted and a regular victim of sexual exploitation. She's the one who was picked up by the guy in the SUV. Her only charges, besides soliciting, have been breaches of previous probation orders, many of which "set kids up" with unrealistic curfews and other conditions. Almost all of the kids in the Youth Centre are remands, many of whom have no charges other than a failure to comply with these probation orders. Leslie is 20 years old now. She is emaciated and sickly, she doesn't eat, her mind is deteriorating and she is often delusional and paranoid. She is frequently raped and beaten by pimps and drug dealers and johns. Her future is bleak, to say the least. She is probably dying. And so I need to ask you, will Lesley be helped or healed by yet another term in prison?
Then there's Tyler. Tyler came from a northern community. He was an excellent hockey player who enjoyed hunting and fishing with his grandpa. Before moving to Winnipeg, to live with his aunt and pursue the promise of a better education, he had no criminal convictions of any kind. One day he had bike stolen by gang members. He was approached the next day by members of a rival gang who invited him to join them for protection. He had to steal a car as his initiation. The police who picked him up beat him very badly. When LERA investigated his complaint the arresting officers said that Tyler had fallen down stairs at the Public Safety Building. The price of getting out of the gang will be a beating or possibly death. And so I wonder, will locking Tyler up with other gang members for extended periods of time do anything to help him move out of that life?
Then there's Nicole. Nicole was raped by her step-father at 12 years
of age. She's the one whose mother pinned her down because she
wouldn't cooperate. This abuse continued throughout teen years along
with neglect, physical abuse and daily substance abuse by both
parents. Nicole learned quickly and by age 12 started drinking and
using drugs. By the time she was 14 she was pregnant. She decided to
keep the baby but history has a nasty habit of repeating itself and
before long Nicole struggled with the demands of motherhood and the
baby was taken away by CFS. Lonely, angry, hopeless, Nicole attempted
suicide on three occasions. Here's a poem she wrote and gave to me
when she was a resident of MYC.
Why does everything have to be this way?
Why can't I just die, disappear and go away.
Things going on this way, no place I wanna stay.
When I die I'll be buried underground.
I won't give a shit that I'm no longer around.
My body hanging is what they will find.
Krazy. Must be f__ked in the mind.
Can you hear my screams as I'm going through pain.
Don't laugh this ain't no joke, no game.
Can you see my face as I'm turning blue.
Last thing I say is f__k you.
Things have been going wrong from the start.
I don't give a f__k, hurry and stab me in the heart.
At least I won't have to hurt no more.
Look after my daughter, the one I truly adore.
Tell her Mommy had to go away. This is a place I feel
I can no longer stay.
I'm glad to tell you that Nicole is still alive today but, sad to say, one night in a drunken rage, Nicole stabbed and killed her abusive step-father. Nicole's story is a classic example of victimization that, untreated, leads to criminality. Is anyone really convinced that "imposing meaningful consequences" is the most appropriate way to help this young woman?
Well, the stories could continue all evening and I would still fall short of adequately describing the heart-breaking evil that I encounter in my work every day. There are so many tragic stories and perhaps at some other time and in some other setting I could tell you more.
You won't be surprised to hear me say that almost all the remedies prescribed by politicians, the media and the public in general, will do little to make our communities safer. Stiffer penalties, boot camps, longer sentences will only make matters worse. Stony Mountain Penitentiary, where the longest and most severe sentences are served, has a 70% recidivism rate. In other words, 70% of the inmates who "do time" at Stony Mountain will continue to be criminally involved. Even more disturbing is the fact that, statistically, the longer someone is locked up the more likely they are to re-offend. To put it bluntly, longer sentences could actually may our communities more dangerous. In many respects, incarceration is simply a continuation of the disenfranchising, marginalizing and alienation that produces anti-social behaviour in the first place. Most criminal behaviour in young offenders is a response to their own victimization. About a year ago, when an eleven year old girl from the north end was found hanging from a tree there was a good deal of sympathy in our community. One newspaper columnist wrote a couple of very tender, compassionate articles about the tragedy of this little girl's death. In between those two wonderfully compassionate articles she wrote an angry article demanding stiffer penalties for young offenders. Like so many in our society who want to get tough on crime, this journalist just didn't seem to understand that the social and domestic realities that produced that suicide are precisely the same social and domestic realities that produce gang activity and car thefts and violent crimes.
So, what's the answer? I'm persuaded that if there's any hope of significant and long-term change it will come in the following ways:
1)We need to address the causes of the behaviour. We need to treat the disease not the symptoms. We need to do something about poverty, homelessness, cycles of substance abuse, domestic instability and violence. We need to continue to find ways of bringing healing of our relationship with First Nations people and address the history of colonization and assimilation that has produced an almost genocidal loss of identity.
2)We need to implement the restorative justice model as an alternative to the traditional system, knowing that in every jurisdiction where restorative justice has been implemented recidivism rates have plummeted. There will be resistance from those who have a stake in preserving the existing system with its backlog of cases, backroom deals, and jail sentences that do nothing to help people heal and change. I'm persuaded that much of the resistance to any significant change to the existing system is perpetuated by those who depend on that system financially, including the government. The fact remains that the jurisdictions that have responded in the way that our community leaders want to respond, by imposing stiffer sentences and tougher penalties, are the most violent and victimized jurisdictions in the world.
3)We need to get the attention of the media. There are so many people who work in community ministries in the inner city and the north end who are never consulted about these things. For some reason most of the media in Winnipeg continue to turn to the same few people for comments about poverty and inner city crime, in the end, getting a very narrow and inaccurate impression of what the problems are and where the solutions can be found.
4)We need, in every possible way, to bear witness to the humanity of young offenders and to make the community aware of the many ways in which they have been victimized. The next time you hear someone grumbling about the system being soft on young offenders share the kind of stories I've shared with you tonight, share your own stories, but let those people know that young offenders are human beings who need love, acceptance and healing not scumbags who need more pain and abuse.
If you want to get tough on crime then it's true that the existing system could certainly be made much tougher. But as the late William Sloane Coffin an American theologian and social activist points out, "We say we're tough on crime; we're only tough on criminals. Were we tough on crime we'd put the money up front, in prevention, in building communities, not more prisons. We forget that crime is a moral as well as a legal problem. Some of us are guilty but all of us are responsible. We stress the guilty to exonerate the others also responsible for a soaring crime rate." In another article Coffin says, "Law is not as interested as our concepts of law pretend; law serves power; law in large measure is a recapitulation of the status quo; it confirms a rigid order designed to insulate the beneficiaries of the status quo from the disturbances of change. The painful truth - one with a long history - is that police are around in large part to guarantee a peaceful digestion for the rich." So, if we really want a safer world, if we really want these people to change, then we need solutions that are a lot more creative, compassionate and courageous than just locking people up.
One image that gives shape and meaning to my role as chaplain is the image Christ gives us in Matthew 25:36 when he declares, "I was in prison and you visited me." As chaplain I'm engaged in the business of bearing witness to the "Christ" that I find in the "least of these' and the "little ones" who are in prison. It may well be that the Christ I find there is the mocked and beaten Christ, victimized by the authorities and destined for some kind of crucifixion. Even so, it requires, on my part, a celebration of that which is holy in them. It requires an affirmation of their humanity, their creativity, their sense of humour, their broken hearts, their dreams both shattered and intact, their hunger and capacity for love and, of course, their resilient and persistent hope.
Friends, like it or not, these are God's little ones. If we're going to get tough on crime let's get tough on the crime of how our society is treating these children. As Jesus reminds us, "It would be better for you if a millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea than for you to cause one of these little ones to stumble."
Thanks for inviting me.
John 2:1-11 As a guest at a wedding in Cana, Jesus shares water as a blessing and sign of God's grace.
This is one of the notable water stories in the Bible*. When the wedding host runs out of wine, Jesus orders six stone water jars to be filled with water and then asks that a goblet of this water be served to the chief steward of the feast. The steward is astounded at the flavour of this drink and prounces it the best wine they have had all evening.
The gospel of John declares that this is the first sign of Jesus ministry - the first sign that Jesus was the Messiah, bringer of God's grace.
Down the ages ever since this account was first told, preachers have waxed eloquent about this water becoming the finest wine. Up to this time, they say, humankind has had to do with mediocre wine of rules -based religion, but now we have the excellent wine of the Gospel; now we have the fine wine of God's grace (see John 1:17).
This is quite wonderful. We are all invited to drink of this wine of grace every time we take communion.
However, I would like now to conceive of this event at the wedding in an entirely different way. What if Jesus did not turn water into wine. What if Jesus knowingly served clear refreshing water - water that refreshes our body - clear, cool, water without which we cannot live - what if Jeus gave this water as a sign of the refreshment God's holy Spirit would bring to the soul of all who partook of it?.
The gospel doesn't say he made wine! The gospel simply tells us that Jeus ordered six huge stone cysterns to be filled with fresh water drawn form the well, and then had a cup of it served to the master of ceremonies.
It is this presider of the feast, not Jeus, who declares it to be wine. I want to imagine that the steward of the feast was so refreshed by a draught of this water that he declared it to be "wine."
I am not saying thing out any distaste of wine. I am not a tea toteller. I am not wanting to argue with those who see this drink as the best wine. What I am doing is gving this story an interepretation that we can use in our own times - I am seeking to understand this story from the point of view of a person living in a time when clear cool water is far more precious than any wine, and in a time when clear unpolluted water is no longer being taken for granted, but is now seen as one of God's most precious gifts which we must protect. So, could Jesus have done anything more meaningful as a sign of grace, than serve the wedding guests at Cana with pure clear water?
Valuing clear water is not by any means a new thing to anyone living, as I do, on the great central plains of North America. I have two personal experiences that illustrate this. When I first came to the Canadian province of Manitoba (which by the way is based on the local aboriginal world for the Creator), I was surprised to see that many prairie towns advertising that they had water. I rememeber in particular one sign that read: "Minnedosa, a Town with Water."
Then, when I visted farm families I was surprised to learn that most of them did not have fresh water available. They had to go to town and bring it home by the barrel. They collected in "dug outs" water for their animals from melted snow and run off from rains, but for precious clean drinking water they travelled many miles to find a well. These people would appreciate a tall cool refreshing drink of fresh tastey water. They would understand this "wine" as a sign of god's grace.
More recently, I visited with my daughter Karen who lives on an acerage in Texas much further south on these same plains. They too have no easy access to fresh water. She, and all her neighbours in the country and in cities get their water by pumping it from from a deep underground lake or aquafer many hundreds of feet below the surface. The last time I visted her she told me that they had to have an even deeper well drilled because the first aquafer has been pumped dry. She had to pay for a new well drilled down to a new aquafer a thousand feet deep.
Some see this as a sign that we are depleting our suppy of water. I can imagine Jesus being at my granddaughter's wedding in Texas offering a precious tall cool glass of water as a both sign of God's goodness in creation and grace in the Spirit.
Such a glass of water would be even more precious in other parts of the world. In many poor rural African villages women have a choce of either offering her family unclean water taken from ditches or of walking several kilometers to the nearest well to bring home a couple of litres of water in a jug. If you were offered a drink from such a jar it would be precious "wine" indeed.
At present in most parts of the world's water is still considered to be "a common." That is, water belongs to the community. We have to pump it or pipe it in to our communities, but it is ours.
But that may not last. Governments are coming under pressure to make water a commodity like oil and coal, controlled by companies who would have a licence to draw water and sell it. This has happened, to my surprise, in South Africa. Private companies have been given control of water so that families in the townships must pay for water. Rather than the municipality pumping the water to the people, each home must buy their water a few litres at a time from a private company like a gas station. Only these companies have a license to handle water.
If this were to happen in North America, my daughter would not be able to pump water for herself. Rather, she would have to buy it from a company which has a licence to sell water. If it happens where I live, we would lose our municiple water system and water might be the monopoly of a private company as it heating fuel.
Where this has happened, those who cannot pay must take their water from dirty pools of rainwater. This may happen if we continue to waste our water.
Meanwhile, our governments are giving certain corporations a license to pollute water in their manufacturing processes. In the Tar Sands of Edmonton Alberta, for instance, oil companies are allowed to permenantly pollute 3 barrels of water for every barrel of oil they produce.
As this is going on, climate change is beginning to reduce the worlds suppy of fresh water because the winter snow will soon no longer form on mountain tops as resovoirs that melt to fill our rivers in the summer.
So, there is a growing public concern. People are beginning to form groups to protect our water. In 207 a world confernce on water was held in Banff Alberta. Robert Kennedy Jr. is one of the prominent members of this movement.
So, let us return to Jesus and the wedding at Cana. The water jugs he asked ot be filled can be symbolic both of water as our common good gift from God, and of the refreshment of the Spirit which is ours also through the grace of God.
May we continue to know both these blessings.
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.. to be continued