Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. It calls forth the essential spiritual value of gratitude. I have precious memories of feasts shared with family and with good friends at congregational dinners. I eagerly anticipate this year's gathering.
Imagine inviting family and friends over for Thanksgiving dinner and feeding some of them a lavish feast and some of them scraps and leftovers. While some are served an overabundance of delicious food, others receive tiny portions of unappetizing leavings. Horrible thought!
Two apparently unrelated headlines caught my eye a few weeks ago as I surfed my usual news sites. I can't get them out of my mind. The first is a truly major development: The percentage of people living in poverty in the United States is the highest in half a century. One out of seven Americans lives in poverty.
The second headline was a mere tidbit in the business news. It said something to the effect that companies that make things no one really needs have done very well in this recession. Though apparently unrelated, the two items are, of course, intimately connected. The poor are getting poorer and their numbers are increasing while the rich are doing very well. They continue to buy high tech gadgets and luxury items.
These news items should have been a major religious story. At one level, the growing gap between rich and poor is an economic and political issue. But it is also a moral and, ultimately, a religious issue. There is a temptation to see economic relationships as the result of uncontrollable forces. As a matter of fact, allowing this widening gap between rich and poor is a choice -- a moral choice. And it is a moral choice with enormous spiritual consequences.
All of the great religious traditions teach us that we are connected to one another. Every human being is my brother or sister. Every faith teaches compassion, that those who love God express that by loving others. Every faith also teaches us that we become fully human in community.
Economic inequality pollutes human relationships the way smog pollutes our lungs. Just look at life where the gaps between rich and poor are greatest -- Latin America and Africa. And look back to when the gap was greatest in American history. These were times of slavery and robber barons.
I know from my years in parish ministry the financial strains that beset families. I have seen a member lose her home because of predatory lending practices and witnessed the devastation of a sudden illness. The Centers for Disease Control reports that in 2009 59.1 million Americans had no health insurance, and we know that catastrophic health expenses can plunge families into poverty. Why is it that the United States is the only country in the developed world without universal health insurance for its citizens? And why here, in the richest country in the world, did more than 1 million children go hungry in 2008, according to the Dept. of Agriculture? These are more than political issues; these are spiritual issues as well.
Inequality breeds fear, bitterness, suspicion, crime and violence. It eats away at the dignity and self esteem of the poor while it hardens the hearts of the rich. Inequality numbs our spirits. Ultimately it dehumanizes us. Ironically, social psychology shows us that our grandmothers were right: The rich are not happier.
The answer is not some romantic neo-Marxist notion of a perfect equality. But neither is it the uncontrolled and rapacious avarice that sacrifices people to profit margins and outrageous consumption.
The growing gap between rich and poor harms us all. We can choose a better way. Let us share the bounty of the earth. There is enough for everyone at the Thanksgiving table.
Poverty in America | Change.org
15 Shocking Facts About Poverty In America
Understanding Poverty in America | The Heritage Foundation
Fighting Poverty in America : NPR
Marian Wright Edelman: A Thanksgiving Prayer to End Poverty in Our ...
Luxuries go beyond just goods. People spend excess capital in various ways that is completely unnecessary. This includes everything from playing a flash version of Frogger to writing posts about how society is failing everyone through people wasting their capital on things someone deems "unnecessary."
Like it or not, we judge each other, consciously or otherwise. And, when enough people 'judge down' on you, based on your income level, or your appearance, redemption's going to be a long time coming. Humans are social creatures, and we have our loners, our outcasts, our undesirables.
Moral of the story? Baby, it's cold outside. Get a shower, a haircut, and a clue. Sober up, and try and find some help. And, on the other side, recognize when people are genuinely making an effort, and DO help.
But, hand UP, not handOUT. Some people learn to exploit public services, and will lie their butts off to keep getting a free ride.
People complain about poverty and homelessness and various other social ills but what steps are they taking to solve them? Instead they are relying on blanket generalizations about these various "groups" of people and pointing fingers at who is at fault.
Partly out of selfish motivation and a desire to help her I signed her up for literacy classes . SHe never showed up.As a single mother with two kids she was poor.One summer I tried to find a job for her daughter who wanted to save for college.I actually got a lead and an application for her and brought them to the mother to give the girl; she never filled it out or showed up for an interview. Then I discovered the woman had been stealing and I let her go.
I remember feeling disappointed but not in a personal way; I just understood that not everyone will do more than they need to to get ahead and water does rise to its own level.
But too many people have convinced themselves that that's an evil that must be avoided at all costs. Ayn Rand -- patron saint of the Republican Party.
Search on the UUA website to find a congregation near you, or check out the Church of the Larger Fellowship. I did the CLF for awhile.
Is it possible that the prosperity of the modern world is, in reality, a giant 'bubble'? Like the dot.com bubble and the housing bubble only on a more extensive scale.
The 'middle class' is founded on producing more and more 'goods' that we then turn around and condemn as 'commercialism'. Yet the producing of these 'goods' yields both 'stuff' for all of us, rich and otherwise, and countless good-paying paper-shuffling jobs in New York and Washington.
We condemn the 'rich' for buying 'stuff', yet without a market for 'stuff', there are no jobs.
If we take our focus away from 'stuff', where would the jobs go?
There would be no papers to shuffle.
Most of history shows the majority of people barely 'getting by' and a few, usually through little or no effort of their own, in a position of wealth. Is this the actual reality of the world?
I have no earthly solution.
Just wondering about the true 'reality' of it all.
But I am reminded of some of the things that the Bible has to say about it all:
James 4:14
Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
John 18:36a
Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world.
So that's the trend. Big deal. Trends are constantly changing.
Closing the "gap" by making the "rich" less rich will make everyone feel good and that, therefore, solves the problem?
"They (the "rich") continue to buy high tech gadgets and luxury items."
And these items were produced by .....????
"The answer is not some romantic neo-Marxist notion of a perfect equality."
Yet that is what this article advocates.
"our grandmothers were right: The rich are not happier."
Poor people are not happier either.
Should we take away from some to make them "happier"?
I do this work as an active (Life) member of a Unitarian Universalist Congregation.
I come from a Baptist congregation in Canada of about 70 people who run a food bank, prepare weekly meals for the whole community -- as lavishly as possible -- and plant a garden to provide fresh produce for food bank clients. We intentionally invite people of other faiths and life philosophies to work alongside us to help keep dignity alive for our neighbours who are hungry. We partner with agencies, food collection services and local farmer's market vendors to ensure a generous supply of healthy food. We only have one very gentle ask that volunteers and clients work together for change to broken social assistance programs. We champion some sort of minimum income guarantee for all which would do away with the need for most social assistance programs. We do all this on an annual budget of $130K and still manage to pay the pastor, three other part time staff and the building upkeep.
We are making a difference, too and are grateful to hear the stories of others in this struggle.
God is distribution, not retribution, which means punishment. Christ did not come to punish, but came non violent, Crucified Christ was proof that God is not punishment , but Love, Truth, Mercy, Compassion, righteous-equality rights for all, offered to all, and all that God created, was to be distributed equally for all. God shares all, that is His, with all his creation. God FREELY provides for ALL.
God said. Do I not send rain upon the good and evil?
Does the sun not shine upon the good and evil?
Does good and evil not breath the same air?
Christ tells all, Satan is the god of this world, Satan will deceive all men and All Nations on earth.
Crucified Christ started God's Government, Church, God World on earth. Calling all to participate in building God's world of righteousness equality rights for all, to be shared in.
Satan world is greed, uses violence, threats, fear mongering, falsely accuses others, to maintain power control, all wealth, ill gotten gains. Satan uses money to deceive and tempt man. To destroy their souls, to get them to worship wealth as their god. Remember Satan, tried to deceive Christ himself, Satan offered Christ what? All Kingdoms on earth, all riches, all power, all materialism, all control, would be honored by men. Christ knew Satan and was no beautiful angel of God, nor doing God's work, Remeber Satan is out to destroy the Kingdom of God. Satan cannot create nothing, for Satan was created himself by God, once know as Lucifer-good angel, tell Satan was jealous, greedy
Satan also used Holy Scripture religion to twist and spin the meaning of the word against the author himself, Christ. Satan also as his false christian church, sadly sadly, many children of God, really do not know they to have been deceived> They really do not know that.
Pray for all for all are dearly loved. God proved that through the cross-Crucified Christ-the cross is foolish to those who call themselves wise, but to many it is their eternal salvation, spiritual understanding, Grace- wisdom.