I, and most likely you, am very thankful that I was born in America. I am fortunate to have been raised in a healthy family, in a nice neighborhood, with working parents that loved me, that I attended great schools, that college was an option, that I have employment, that my vote counts for something, and so on. I was born into a country that makes up 4.5% of the earth's population and makes about $105 a day.
I had no choice in the matter. You could call it providence, you could call it luck. But regardless of what side of the theological line you fall on, I had no say in the surroundings into which I was born.
And the same goes for every other person on this earth.
But where you and I were born into great opportunity, many were born into broken and sinful systems, dysfunctional families, drug-infused neighborhoods, racism and classism, families suffering from AIDS or water-borne illnesses, famine, and the list goes on. They were born into countries that make up 55% of the earth's population and make less than $3 a day.
And while I'm using numbers for the sake of the dramatic, the underlying theme is what I want to drive home. Many people suffering from poverty in the world are suffering from systemic issues beyond their control, not laziness. They were simply born into a bad situation and no matter how hard they work, the cards are stacked against them. If they're born-again Christians it does not change where they were born physically. They have hope for eternity, but no hope of changing their surroundings now. That is the definition of poverty.
But you and I can change that. We can believe in their strengths. We can fight the systemic evils. We can use our strength of governement and wallet to reshape the "majority" world, which hopefully you noticed is not our whopping 4.5%.
As Christians we have an obligation to rise up and give our votes, our voices, our prayers, our hearts, and our wealth to the goals of justice and mercy. And it's not because the GAP told you to, or the ONE campaign, or Bono, but because the Lord preached it and lived it.
"He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
'The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has annointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.'
Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened to him, and he began by saying to them, 'Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.'" (Luke 4:16-21...my italics added)
Like the last post these thoughts are a combining of my readings of Citizenship Papers by Wendell Berry, The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns, and When Helping Hurts by Fikkert and Corbett. Check them out for much more educated ramblings than I have to offer.
