All Forms of Human Poverty

Often, when we hear the word ‘poverty,’ familiar pictures come to mind. Perhaps we see the starving children in war-torn Sudan or an HIV/AIDS orphan in South Africa. Maybe we see the homeless in New York City or immigrants from Cuba or Mexico.

I’ve noticed that it can be difficult to think holistically, but it’s worthwhile to think about poverty in more than simply physical terms. And once we try thinking this way, we can be compelled to eradicate all kinds of poverty, not just that which is physical.

For example, how do we eliminate the poverty within the soul of the white suburban girl, who is on antidepressants, recovering from an eating disorder, and struggling with absent parents? She will probably get in to college, will probably never struggle with clothing or shelter, but she is a shell of a human being. She is, no question, quite poor.

Or how about the gay man who was raised in the church, wants to worship God, but feels unwelcome by people who sing of grace and hear preaching on forgiveness? This man came out because he loves another man and wants to spend his life with him - and they both want to know Jesus. Yet, the followers of Jesus deny him the fellowship of a community of believers that they cherish so dearly for themselves. And so the rejection and loneliness of the people of God leaves some seekers rather poor.

Or there is the all-too-familiar story of a young girl who has no status in her society and no chance of receiving a formal education. While she has dreams and aspirations, she has no hope. She is a woman who possesses a wealth of potential, but lives in utter poverty of spirit.

When we think of poverty, we must think of more than food, shelter, and clothing. There are girls sold into prostitution whose enslavement in some small way mirrors the suicidal Ivy League co-eds who hate the way their bodies look. We find poverty when we look at children of divorce sitting next to children who grew up without fathers. Equally, men who are addicted to porn are trapped in a poverty of spirit that demands intervention.

The truth is disturbing, familiar, haunting, and normal all at once. Issues abound on the streets of our cities for all to see and point their finger at, while similar issues wreak havoc in the suburbs, behind gated communities and closed doors where no one will notice. More and more, these images describe a group of people known as the church. And this fact is both invigorating and instructive when we recognize that the ones commissioned to reach out to the poor are also quite poor.

If we are to take seriously the call to reach the poor, we must feed the hungry, bandage the wounded, visit the imprisoned, loose the chains of oppression, and rescue the enslaved. We should mobilize and reach all forms of human poverty because the poor are not simply those whose body shows the mark of depravation, but their spirit, too.