Doing Justice in the Face of Poverty and Hunger

First Quarter 2000

Three new books show Christians at work in the struggle to understand and respond to poverty and hunger. The ground they cover is vast—touching the responsibilities of individuals, families, schools, social service organizations, churches, businesses, labor, and governments. Christen Yates reviews two of the volumes. Excerpts from the third—Toward a Just and Caring Society—follow. The latter is edited by David P. Gushee (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1999, pp. 574). Among its authors are Stephen V. Monsma, Pepperdine University; James Halteman and Ashley Woodiwiss, Wheaton College; Kurt Schaefer and George Monsma, Calvin College; Clarke Cochran, Texas Tech University; Charles Glenn, Boston University; John Mason, Gordon College; David Gushee, Union University; and those whose chapters have been excerpted below.—Ed.

Grace-Inspired Generosity

by Christen Borgman Yates

In a western culture swollen with agricultural surpluses and generous incomes, can Christians still be inspired by Isaiah's words: "If you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday" (58:10)?

Two new books by well-known authors give a resounding, Yes. Ronald J. Sider's Just Generosity: A New Vision for Overcoming Poverty in America (Baker Books, 1999) offers a holistic approach to dealing with the persistent poverty that our abundance has not overcome and may even be aggravating. Similarly, David Beckmann and Arthur Simon's Grace at the Table: Ending Hunger in God's World (Paulist Press, 1999) urges Christians to heed the call not only to "offer your food to the hungry," but also to "loose the bonds of injustice" (Isaiah 58:6) through advocating changes in American public policy.

In his best-selling book, Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger (1977, 1997), Sider, President of Evangelicals for Social Action, examined the causes and demographics of global poverty and suggested practical responses. Just Generosity focuses on poverty in the U.S., while highlighting the strategic need for collaboration between faith-based groups and businesses, media, and government.

Sider builds his argument on a strong biblical foundation and draws out twelve principles for a just society. Among them is the collaborative notion that, "Because the trinitarian God created persons for mutual interdependence in community, society must be organized in ways that nurture the common good. Since persons reach their potential only in a multi-layered community of diverse institutions (family, church, school, media, business, government), society must promote policies (consistent with religious freedom for all) that strengthen all institutions to play their full proper role" (94).

Beckmann, now president of Bread for the World, and Simon, its founder, have joined forces in Grace at the Table to offer a new mission-text for BFW's educational and lobbying efforts. While the work does not delve deeply into philosophical and theological foundations of Christian social action, it does present a clear explanation of both the causes of hunger and how to fight it. Government, the authors agree, must play its part by ensuring public justice, and they rightly point out that "revitalizing government depends on a revitalized citizenry" (161).

"The word idiot is instructive," explain Beckmann and Simon. "It comes from the Greek idiotes, which in ancient Greece referred to an ignorant person who did not participate in civic affairs. Maybe they were on to something. Maybe it is idiotic for citizens of the greatest democracy in the world to ignore public policy. If that is the secular judgment, the moral judgment may be that it is scandalous, surrendering as it does an opportunity to weigh in for people who struggle against the odds for enough food. And the religious judgment may be that it violates the grace of God, who welcomes all to the table" (p. 161).

Taken together, these books offer important insights and recommendations, urging Christian citizens to be active participants in shaping comprehensive policies for the "needs of the afflicted" both in America and worldwide.

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Toward a Just and Caring Society (Excerpts)

Redefining Progress by Timothy Slaper

The Israelite method of income assurance was to provide each family a means to produce and provide for themselves. The land, the means by which one could provide for oneself, was considered God's. God had resolved that the land—the primary productive asset—would be redistributed regularly so that all families had an equal opportunity to participate in the economic life of the community, and so that economic power would not be concentrated in the hands of any particular group for an extended period of time.

Is there an equivalent set of concepts for today's world? Economics and the other social sciences will be helpful in this search. Education, for example, may be the most important means of production today. Education certainly pays handsomely in the workplace; when researchers link the level of income with education, they find that education explains a great degree of income inequality.

Organizing the Poor by Helene Slessarev, Wheaton College

Given the high value placed upon adherence to biblical truths by evangelical Christians, it is rather remarkable that the Bible's many references to the sin of oppression against the poor and weak are so frequently overlooked. For the most part, middle-class evangelicals view poverty as the result of some moral failing rather than due to the sins of the larger economic or social system. Having soundly criticized the social gospel movement of the early twentieth century for its emphasis on the attainment of the Kingdom of God on earth and its inattention to evangelism, evangelicals have failed to construct their own theoretical explanations of the causes of poverty. Instead, they fit poverty into their understanding of personal sin, viewing it primarily as the result of individual immorality. This has made it easy to embrace the various "blame the victim" theories generated by neo-conservative social theorists and politicians who have stigmatized poor people by arguing that they somehow have a "a hidden investment in victimization and poverty." While correctly identifying common attitudes among the poor, this approach never connects deviant social behavior to the alienation of the poor from the broader society. Thus, most middle-class evangelicals fail to comprehend the link between poverty and powerlessness that leaves poor people constantly in a reactive mode, having to respond to the actions of others.

Transforming American Welfare by Stanley W. Carlson-Thies, Center for Public Justice

However well the various states are doing in slimming their welfare rolls and assisting families to move into employment, almost all of them are finding the least success in their large urban areas. . .

Our big cities are home to concentrations of the most needy and dependent families. Their public schools typically do a poor job preparing students for life. Jobs have been moving elsewhere, and public transportation systems are usually not well designed to move inner-city residents out to the places of greatest job growth. Crime and taxes are high, and city services, including welfare bureaucracies, are often dysfunctional. Residents who succeed move out, leaving behind those most in need of the departing role models. Civil society is often minimal; most neighborhoods host more liquor dealers and social-service institutions than citizen associations, thriving churches, libraries, or sports clubs. Disproportionately of minority race or ethnicity, residents looking for work may face discrimination on the basis of both race and zip code.

Business and Empowerment by Joseph A. Maciariello, Claremont Graduate University

Profit is essential for economic exchange and investment. Without profit, investment will not take place. Without increased investment, productivity will be adversely affected. The result will be a decline in the standard of living, thus working to the detriment of the welfare of workers. . . .

By developing and encouraging worker participation in employee stock-option programs and other company incentive plans, and by encouraging participation in the equity investments of pension funds operated on behalf of employees, executives may encourage significant employee involvement in ownership of their own company. Thus, there need not be a conflict between the needs of the employee and the needs of stockholders.

Yet in the relationship between labor and capital, biblical teaching advises us to give priority to the needs of labor. The right to ownership and management of private property and to profit is strongly affirmed in the biblical tradition, but the use of private property is to be governed by the social good. Human beings are created in the image of God; capital is an aggregation of material objects, produced as a result of combining natural resources and labor. As a result, it is not proper or moral to consider labor as merely an economic resource to be used by executives to generate profits.