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Loving the Poor without Hating the Wealthy
Author: Gregg Okesson
Date: 27.08.2010
Category: Poverty & Wealth
Translations
The title to this blog purposes to grab one’s attention. However, it will likely have another effect, that of subtly communicating something that I don’t want to intimate. Perhaps some might read this and think, “Oh, this guy just wants to have his cake and eat it too”. Or more directly, “How nice of you to defend the cause of the unjust, but you can’t accomplish it without going directly to the source of the problem: the wealthy, privileged, and the powerful.”
Yes, I admit the inherent tension connected to the title, and perhaps that strengthens my reason for using it. Some of the other bloggers in this “Poverty and Wealth” section have done well to highlight the importance of the relationship between the two. In other words, you can’t talk about the plight of the poor without addressing the inequity of the rich … or something like that. I want to build upon a similar foundation but take it in a different direction.
Firstly, all of our campaigns against poverty posit a certain amount of power. When we raise our voices, compose songs, submit political legislation, write blogs, and sometimes shake our fists in the air for the purposes of “eradicating poverty” or fighting against global injustices, we are drawing upon (and exercising) certain degrees of power. My problem, however, is not with using power (a topic desperately in need of redemption from the villainous ways it is thought about and used) but that these measures tend to gravitate toward a singular type of power (i.e. coercive) and have the tendency of perpetuating conflict between the rich and the poor.
This kind of clash of powers tends to “tear down rather than build up” (here I am reversing the Apostle Paul’s words describing the kind of authority given to him by God; c.f. 2 Cor 10:8; 13:10). Bitterness mounts. Guilt becomes a weapon of mass destruction. Self-righteousness yields its ugly face. Hatred spills over against the wealthy.
Let me describe what I mean by way of a literary example. In Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, the featured character, Anna, finds herself inwardly struggling with a philanthropic lady of high society who spends her days fighting against various public problems. Anna considers this lady and ponders these thoughts: “The whole thing is really absurd: her whole life is devoted to charitable affairs, she is a Christian, and yet she is always angry and she always has enemies, and all enemies in the name of Christianity and charity.”
I hope you see my point. The wrongful use of power, even in the name of Christian virtue, tends to wreak damage: whether outwardly through direct confrontation, name calling, and other means of opposition which damage the interconnectedness of the image of God in humanity; or inwardly, by means of hateful thoughts, self-righteousness, or slander: thus, injuring the self.
I fear that some of our anti-poverty efforts, though well-intentioned, has the counter-effect of creating a highly polemical conflict with the wealthy. This does more than breed antagonism, but it also works deeper into the identity of Christian activists: affecting selfhood. Let me quote from one of my favorite authors:
“When identity is forged primarily through the negative process of the rejection of the beliefs and practices of others, violence seems unavoidable, especially in situations of conflict. We have to push others away from ourselves and keep them at a distance, and we have to close ourselves off from others to keep ourselves pure of their taint. The violence of pushing and keeping away can express itself in subdued resentment, or it can break out in aggressive and destructive behavior.” (Miroslav Volf, “Soft Difference: Theological Reflection on the Relations between Church and Culture in 1 Peter”, Ex Auditu, 10 (1994), p. 12)
We need to love the poor by loving the rich. Perhaps this sounds sanctimonious, or overly simplistic. I do not want to suggest that this kind of love assumes a weak posture, as if accepting everything that happens in our world without opposing anything. Love does not mean the absence of conflict; or the closing of our eyes/mind to sin, injustice, and mistreatment. Jesus cautioned against the “yeast of the Pharisees” and actively confronted socio-political forms of sin that manifested within first-century Palestine. Yet He also “loved” the rich young ruler, ate with tax collectors and other “sinners,” and praised the faith of a centurion.
Rather than shunning power, we need to nurture it … and especially the kind of love manifested in the Incarnation.
Jesus Christ walks into the world wielding a different kind of power: one that is creational, life-giving, unifying, and like the Apostle Paul’s injunction: “for building you up, not tearing you down.” Yes, one cannot look at the plight of the poor without considering how the wealthy relate to the possible causes, and solutions. But I also hope we can mount our campaigns with the ethics of Jesus’ power. The wealthy need Gospel love as much as the poor … and both need each other.
Keywords: Poverty, wealth, power, Jesus Christ
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United States
We have created too many division. Rich or poor. Presbyterian or Methodist. Conservative or Liberal. Right or Right? God has created us all different and you’re right, we spend too much time creating and fostering the divisions, instead of celebrating together the God that created us differently and blessed us differently.
21.04.2011
United States
@ friar58:
I agree with you totally. That is why we cannot get different races into the same church because we do not know how to accept others who are different from us.
15.06.2011
United States
The bible says that the poor will always be with us (matthew 26). The identification of the rich and the poor is not anything that we can avoid. But I do believe that the attitude of the rich toward the poor is somthing that needs to examined. The challenges that I have experienced is getting the rich to understand that if it was not for the grace of God that could have been them. To me the attitude of the rich toward the poor is what causes the tension.
15.06.2011
United States
I want to have enough resources so that I don’t beg, and not too much that I forget where all my help comes from. I am a giver and I have faith in God so that makes me rich; so poverty has no place in my life.
22.04.2011
United States
I want to have enough resources so that I don’t beg, and not too much that I forget where all my help comes from. I am a giver and I have faith in God so that makes me rich; so poverty has no place in my life.
22.04.2011
United States
Gregg, You are so right when you say Jesus loves the rich as well as the poor. Thank you for the reminder. Jesus did reach out to everyone, including the rich. Nicodemus brought myrrh and aloes, weighing about a hundred pounds to wrap the body of Jesus. He became a believer because Jesus was willing to talk with him and love him. You have convicted me through this article. I needed the reminder that it is never good to judge others. Instead I am to be generous with what God has given me.
03.04.2011
South Africa
Community farms: (Kibbutz)
4 land & wealth redistribution, to evangelise the community: To train, educate, work, live and have a base from where to launch missionaries into the community. A community farm is where the Christians in the community corporately owns the property. Our corporate finances provide 4 cost of the farm, infrastructure & accommodation for those working on farms while they are discipled. Investors, invest directly in the crops to secure food and jobs for the people. Thousands of jobs will be created where people could be evangelise, reconciled, unity restored and worldviews changed to a Biblical one. Farms will act as a place of employment, a basic income, a missionary training School, an orphanage and launching pad to send trained missionaries. Here Christ Jesus will be a way of living where the community will see what we preach!
Three legs: (Operating separately)
1. Accommodation and employers Lodges/Hostels on farms with infrastructure:
2. Education, “Skills” development, Discipleship training & orphanages.
3. Agricultural projects – investment arm. (Project financing). Outside investors.
Full scale business to create a holistic cosmos to the missionary to have the infrastructure needed to live and operate in without lack or limitations.
Shammah Foundation: Marius Brand: Cell 082 9210 275, e-mail - mariba@zsd.co.za. www.koevoet4christ.co.za
18.10.2010
United States
I am Sam Bandela. For one reason or the other my name is not coming on the screen. In my personal opinion, "Wealthy People" play a bigger role in reaching the "Poor." It takes efforts and education to wealthy as well as the poor in getting done the work. They look totally two opposites but in stead they should walk side by side and this is where you and I come in as Bridge Builders or Establsihing Relationships between the both: Rich and Poor.
09.09.2010
Kenya
@ samuelbandela: Thanks everyone for your comments. Yes, Sam, rather than driving a wedge between the rich and poor we need to bring the two together, not just in physical proximity. We are all in Christ, which means something remarkable, with socio-economic implications (among others). Thanks for being a part of that process.
09.09.2010
Egypt
Thanks for the creativity of your pen in such an interesting subject
09.09.2010
United States
Hey Greg,
It is refreshing to read your creativity in presenting the polar extremities of the rich/poor spectrum and, simultaneously, bring everything to Jesus Christ, the example and focus for all aspects of life and relationships.
28.08.2010
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