Help the Poor: A Black and White Issue

I have been waiting for a couple months to get this series of posts going. I have been desperately looking for the time to deal with this issue properly. Over the past few months I have dialogued with two Christians who have politically left leanings. Both are mature Christians who serve the Lord and have engaged with me in a gracious manner. There have been a few issues that we have dialogued about, but the main issue has been the need to help the poor in our society. This is the one thing that I really love about Democrats, a genuine heart-felt desire to aid those in need. I do however think their efforts are misguided.

I want to take a look at the issue of Christianity and its relationship to the poor over the next few posts. I want to start with the statement that Christians are commanded by God to help the poor. Christians are not to question whether or not they should help the poor. Helping those in need is a black and white issue.

In Acts 6, the early church shows that they were committed to aiding the needy. The first deacons were appointed for the specific purpose of helping the poor widows within the church. Even today deacons, more than anything, should be leading out is service especially to the poor. We are building into the structure of Grace Community Church the purpose of Service. We are to love our neighbors as ourselves. We are working towards eventually having a deacon being directly over our service projects which will be specifically to the poor and needy.

During Paul’s missionary journeys, part of what he was doing was raising funds for the poor within the church at Jerusalem. Even poor parts of the world gave generously to this cause of aiding the poor.

In Galatians 2:10, Paul records about one of his meetings with the leaders of the church in Jerusalem. They were debating the theological issues surrounding the conversion of Gentiles into the church. The Jerusalem church ended up agreeing with Paul’s arguments, blessed his efforts, and as Paul concluded this account he records that “All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along.”

James records at the conclusion of some statements about genuine authentic faith that “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world” (James 1:27).

Aiding those in need is a black and white issue. The church is to lead the way in helping the poor. God gives us the command to help the poor and the early church generously gave to those in need. James connects our spirituality to whether or not we help the poor.

All of this leads to the conclusion that if you are not aiding those in need in our society then you are not a spiritual person. You have some issues with your walk with the Lord if you are not generous with those in need.

The Christian church, more than any other organization or institution, has a great history of aiding the poor. I pray that this never ceases to be, because helping the poor is one of the purposes of the church. It is not a question of whether Christians should help the poor; it is a black and white issue.

Help the Poor: Introduction

I have been doing a lot of thinking over the past few years about Christians' relationship to the poor in our society. This is an enormous issue and I have tried to look at it from many different angles. I have been challenged by some good friends on this issue including my co-pastor with GCC (Ross Appleton), the husband of one of my wife’s college roommates (Ken McKeever), and the constant debate over this issue in the news. I am indebted to all of these insights. I am also grateful for the work that the McKeever’s do with the poor in our society and am thankful that the Lord has given them this special calling.

I am excited to get into this discussion and pray there is much dialogue on my blog about the issue. I have to admit that I feel like a novice in many ways with this issue, but also have confidence in the Scriptures and confidence in my personal experiences in dealing with the poor in our society. This leads me to the conclusion that my views and experiences are like everyone else’s in that they are limited. This causes me to be humble with this issue. This also leads me to the conclusion that my views and experiences and observations are valid and I should not buy into the lie that simply because I am a white middle-class male I should not have a voice regarding poverty in America. Nor should I discount the experiences that God has brought me through. This gives me confidence in dealing with this issue.

I want of state from the outset that I believe there is not one simple answer to this problem. It is not as simple as “They just need to get a job” or “They just need to stay in school”. It is also not as simple as “We just need to give less money to the war in Iraq and more to the poor” (“For war billions more, but not more for the poor”) (By the way this statement is factually not true and irresponsible for a minister to say it at a funeral). It is also not simply a problem of bad school teachers, schools, or parents. The problem of the poor is not simply a problem of the establishment holding people down. It is not simply a problem of corrupt governments nor is it simply a problem of racism. It is also not simply a problem of people having a “poor me” victim mentality. All of these are major parts of the problem to varying degrees. I am interested in discussing the degree to which each of these issues are really part of the problem.

In many ways I am beginning my journey with this issue. My stances might change over time; they also might become firmer than they are today. My hope is that you will engage with me concerning the relationship that Christianity and the Church should have with the poor in our society.

Please keep your comments gracious and towards solutions not simply talking point jabs. I am really interested in dealing with issue not simply trying to give credibility to someone’s already formed principles.

Lessons from the King funeral

Yesterday I tuned in with eager expectation for the Coretta Scott King funeral. We all consider the Martin Luther King, Jr. family American heroes. As a speech communication major in college I grew to love Dr. King for his amazing oratory abilities. When I committed my life to ministry I grew to love Dr. King for his sermons. As a seminary student I have grown to love Dr. King as a theologian. Dr. King used the Biblical idea of the Kingdom of God as a theological basis for the Civil Rights Movement. Dr. King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” is one of the most powerful things I have ever read. That letter has been life changing for me.

I have grown to love that letter because it shows King’s view of the Kingdom of God and how it affected his work in the Civil Right’s movement. The idea of the Kingdom of God has always been a difficult one for Christianity. Saint Augustine’s view was used to establish the European Christendom of the Middle Ages and regrettably spurred on the Crusades. Even today we are only scratching the surface and seeing only the side that we want to see with this Biblical issue.

Most in the Evangelical community do not even attempt to have an understanding of this issue. Most theologians and some pastors understand the issue, but the debate is bogged down in the Covenant versus Dispensational debate. However, great strides have been made by Dr. Russell Moore in his "The Kingdom of Christ", and by Dr. Blaising and Dr. Bock in their writings on Progressive Dispensationalism.

Sadly the Christian left waves this banner but does it very irresponsibly and without the boundaries of sound Biblical theology. This was no more evident than the scene of Senator Kennedy speaking in a Christian pulpit and quoting the Sermon on the Mount at Mrs. King’s funeral. As Kennedy got behind the pulpit (where men of God are to expound the Word of God) I was shocked. When Kennedy (an opponent of Christianity, an unapologetic drunk, a slanderer of many good men and women who seek to serve on our Federal Courts including Bork, Thomas, Roberts, and Scalia, and a man who killed a women in a drunk driving accident and used all his power and money to get out of it) starting quoting from the Bible my shock turned to anger. When the predominately African-American crowd stood and roared in approval of his speech my anger turned to sadness.

The Christian and political left only embraces parts of the idea of the Kingdom of God that they want and thus they have a very harmful view of reality and truth.

We are in a sense in the Kingdom of God and in a sense the Kingdom has not yet arrived. The Kingdom of God exists in a messy “already/not yet” reality. Christ sits upon the throne and desires for us to enact laws that reflect justice and mercy in our societies. If there is a law that robs the rights of anyone then it is unjust and should be combated.

King rightfully used the idea as a theological basis against the Jim Crow laws of the South. The Jim Crow laws of the South were those types of unjust laws.

There is also a “not yet” aspect where we need to understand that heaven on earth will not happen until Christ returns. We should not stop the fight but also not expect for humanity to not have a sin nature either.

King rightly used the Kingdom of God, but he was described as less a follower of Christ and more a follower of the non-violence philosophies of Ghandi yesterday. Everyone will admit that by human standards, Ghandi was an amazing human. There were some great lessons to be learned from Ghandi. The problem with completely embracing Ghandi was that he was not a Christian but a Hindu thus reality was eschewed at his core philosophies.

Where am I going with all of this? The Kingdom of God does not mean “Peace at all Costs”. Those political advocates who disgraced Mrs. King by turning her funeral into a political rally have a view of “Peace at all Costs”. This is not what the Kingdom of God is about. In fact before the Kingdom of God will be enacted a period of horrible war between Jesus and his followers against the satanic forces will erupt and descriptions of it are shocking and amazing.

People like President Carter (embarrassingly a Baptist) attack the Iraq war with a “Peace at all Costs” philosophy. This is part of what made him a terrible president. The Kingdom of God has not been fully realized, therefore sin and evil and the flesh are very real and scary realities. There is a place in our current age for the sword. “Peace at all Costs” is a scary and irresponsible idea that cannot be supported by the Biblical idea of the Kingdom of God.
What are we to learn from Mrs. King’s funeral? First, embrace the full Kingdom of God theme in the Bible. Don’t just embrace the parts that fit your little agenda. I am largely speaking to a “Peace at all Costs” political and theological left, but also to conservative Biblical Christians who don’t even really understand this issue. Second, “Peace at all Costs” is not what the Kingdom of God is about. We are to reject this irresponsible view. Third, the Christian left and the African-American church is shamefully accepting a character like Senator Ted Kennedy and they must clean up their act. Hold your leaders to accountability like the right did with President Bush over the Harriett Meier’s nomination. Fourth, the legacy of the Kings’ should not be a “Peace at all Costs” ideology, but a fight for justice using the Kingdom of God as a theological basis.