Pentecostal Discussions

Why has the church ignored the poor?

by Shane Clifton

We need to answer the question about how to help the poor – but before we do, we need to determine whether ministry to the poor is part of the church’s mission.  At first glance, it might seem to be self-evident that the church has a responsibility to the poor.  It is somewhat disheartening, however, to discover that religion, in general, and Christianity in particular, has been described as part of the problem; as something that needs to be put aside if the challenge of poverty is to be finally addressed.  As Karl Marx famously argued:

The social principles of Christianity justified the slavery of Antiquity, glorified the serfdom of the Middle Ages and equally know, when necessary, how to defend the oppression of the proletariat, although they make a pitiful face over it. The social principles of Christianity preach the necessity of a ruling and an oppressed class, and all they have for the latter is the pious wish the former will be charitable. The social principles of Christianity transfer the consistorial councillor’s adjustment of all infamies to heaven and thus justify the further existence of those infamies on earth. The social principles of Christianity declare all vile acts of the oppressors against the oppressed to be either the just punishment of original sin and other sins or trials that the Lord in his infinite wisdom imposes on those redeemed (1).

Extreme Poverty

by Shane Clifton

In the previous post i commented on the global poverty in terms of income.  The issue is that low incomes translates itself into untold sufffering of various dimensions. Here are some more terrible statistics from the HDR.

More than 10 million children die each year before the age of five, and more than 98% of these live in poor countries.  As the report notes, “they die because of where they are born,” a matter that is especially disturbing given that almost all “of these deaths could be prevented by simple, low-cost interventions.”[1]  In some countries more than 50% of children are considered to be underweight for their age, with more than 850 million people worldwide suffering the deleterious effects of malnutrition, which in turn makes them vulnerable to ill health and disease.  HIV/AIDS has had a particularly brutal impact on some countries, with infection rates in certain African nations exceeding 15% of the population.[2]  The effects of malnutrition and disease are exacerbated by the fact that “more than 1 billion people lack access to safe water and 2.6 billion lack access to improved sanitation.”[3]  Taken altogether, these interrelated dimensions of poverty pursue people throughout their lives, so that citizens of the worlds poorest 32 countries can expect to live an average of less than 46 years.  In Sub-Saharan Africa, people born in nations such as Zambia have a life expectancy of as little as 37 years,[4] a figure that is less than half of the average 80 year lifespan of citizens living in the world’s wealthiest nations.