Understanding Poverty BIBLICALLY

To understand poverty BIBLICALLY, to minister in poor communities effectively, a ministry should first understand riches BIBLICALLY, and understand oppression BIBLICALLY. But most Christian ministries go directly to the poor and skip the extensive biblical teaching on the rich (wealth, possessions, money), oppression and justice. WRONG APPROACH! Who says so? Jesus said so. Jesus tied the poor and oppression TOGETHER; poverty takes place in a socioeconomic context; poverty is not an isolated phenenomenon (Luke 4:18).

Jesus tied the rich and poor TOGETHER (Luke 6:20 & 24). Jesus identified the rich as the number one social problem, not the poor (see the gospel of Luke). The poor have many problems, but they are not THE problem. There is no white evangelical theological literature on oppression even though there are 555 references to oppression and its synonyms in the OT (see Thomas Hanks). Why have white evangelicals skipped the extensive biblical teaching on oppression? Why does the third edition of the IVP bible dictionary have no entry on oppression? Why do the Christian books on poverty fail to include a chapter on oppression? And what if the rich American oppressors are also ethnocentric against poor black males? Double trouble! American Christians wishing to minister among the poor should first identify who the oppressors are, and who the ethnocentric are; they might live close to home. Why? Not only to identify the real problem---ethnocentrism (Luke 4:25-30) and oppression (Luke 4:18)---but equally important so that the ministry won't make the fatal mistake of looking for the causes of poverty among the flaws of the poor.

The poor have many problems and need help in many ways; one way to help is to stop oppression---"to release the oppressed."

Modern white American evangelical Christians are not the only ones confused about the rich and poor. In the May 15, 2013 issue of the Christian Century, the esteemed OT scholar, Walter Brueggemann, reviews the book Through the Eye of a Needle: Wealth, the Fall of Rome, and the Making of Christianity in the West, 350-550 AD by Peter Brown. According to church historian Brown, it was the wealthy entering the church in large numbers that led to the Constantinianism of the church, not the period of Constantine, with the great theologian Augustine leading and rationalizing the necessary theological accomodations to make the wealthy feel comfortable in the church. Apparently Augustine never read the second chapter of the book of James.

Before Augustine, church fathers Ambrose and Jerome condemned wealth and were lovers of the poor. Ever since Augustine, the Western church, Protestant and Catholic, has watered down the Scriptural teaching on the rich and poor, on oppression, with a few exceptions such as Francis of Assissi and Pope Francis. Augustine tended to see wealth as occasionally problematic, but potentially good; he avoided the fundamental oppression/justice issue. Brueggemann states: "The fourth century was a time of great dispute about money in the church. . . . it was the Age of Gold when extraordinary affluence emerged."

Generosity toward the poor is good, a part of the answer, but it is not the full answer to oppression. Jubilee justice is the required full answer to poverty and oppression. It is more complete than love, compassion and generosity. Generosity alone is dangerous, misleading, making a Christian think that she has done enough, therefore preventing the doing of more radical justice. Ambrose and Jerome stayed closer to the NT message on rich and poor; Augustine focused more on pride than oppression.

While the secular economist Paul Krugman does not write as a biblically informed Christian, I think his ideology is reasonably close to a biblical perspective; his New York Times editorials help me think through current issues. I recommend the following two recent articles: "The Hammock Fallacy,", March 6, 2013 http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/07/opinion/krugman/-the-hammack-fallacy.html?hp&rref=opinion&_r=0 "Liberty, Equality, Efficiency," March 9, 2013 http://nytimes.com/2014/03/09/opinion/krugman-liberty-equality-efficiency.html?emc=eta1&_r=0