• Home
  • Get Some Answers
    • Holy Week Answers
  • Get to Know Us
    • Derek >
      • Poetry
    • Catalina
    • Elin, Atticus, & Denton
    • Transilvania Center for Leadership and Development
    • Mission to the World
  • Get Involved
    • Pray
    • Creative Contributions
    • Give
    • Visit
    • Financial Q&A
  • Get In Touch
    • Newsletters
  • Blog: Ministry in Romania
  • Videos
  • Catechism
  • Home
  • Get Some Answers
    • Holy Week Answers
  • Get to Know Us
    • Derek >
      • Poetry
    • Catalina
    • Elin, Atticus, & Denton
    • Transilvania Center for Leadership and Development
    • Mission to the World
  • Get Involved
    • Pray
    • Creative Contributions
    • Give
    • Visit
    • Financial Q&A
  • Get In Touch
    • Newsletters
  • Blog: Ministry in Romania
  • Videos
  • Catechism
   

When Helping hurts: Poverty of being

12/22/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
The first chapter of "When Helping Hurts" left us with the conclusion that as Christians, we are to seek the restoration of the world. The culmination of all history is leading to that event. While we as humans do not bring about such redemption on our own, and while we will never fully see such redemption until God brings all things to their fullness, we are to pursue restoration of the world, and push back against the evil that currently pervades it. The second and third chapters of the book begin to paint a picture of what this brokenness and restoration look like. 


The authors identify the brokenness of the world as falling under four relational headings: God, self, others, and nature. A deficiency in any of these relationships can lead to problems, material poverty being one of those possibilities. The authors recount a story of the World Bank's success in restoring post-WWII Europe back to fruitfulness by pumping in material resources to great effect. But when attempting the same approach with the rest of the impoverished world, it was an utter failure. Why would material assistance help one impoverished group, but not another? The authors conclude that material poverty can stem from any of the broken relationships, and symptoms are often treated over root causes based upon our worldview and assumptions. In the case of post-WWII Europe, the broken relationship was largely with nature. Resources and relationships with other countries had been destroyed, so the solution was to restore resources and mend relationships with treaties - both of which occurred. However, throughout much of the world, poverty is an entrenched problem that has rooted itself into the personal psyche, and while it may manifest itself in a lack of material resources, that lacking is really just a symptom of a deeper cause.

The authors point to a study the World Bank conducted after their utter failure in obliterating poverty throughout the world. Interestingly, the survey of impoverished people indicated that the materially poor rarely focused on their lack of resources. Rather, they constantly talked in terms of "shame, inferiority, powerlessness, humiliation, fear, hopelessness, depression, social isolation, and voicelessness." So while many are attempting to alleviate poverty throughout the world by educating the poor (assuming lack of knowledge and a relationship with nature is the issue), handing out material resources (assuming stuff and a relationship with nature is the issue), or correcting deviant behaviors (assuming personal sins are the issue), the deeper issue is truly grounded in a broken relationship with self and others - both problems that require much more involvement and/or introspection when attempting to fix.

Unfortunately, the West's materialistic tendencies cause us to misdiagnose poverty as largely being a result of lacking material resources. So to fix poverty, we just throw resources at individuals. When those individuals don't change their lifestyle, we then judge them and shake our heads. That self-righteousness not only shames the poor into having an even worse self-image (their main problem to begin with), but it also further ruins the middle class and wealthy problem of having a god-complex - which mars their relationship with self. That lowering of the poor and elevating of the wealthy increases the gap between the two groups, exacerbating the other root problem behind endemic poverty, which is broken societal relationships and a feeling of powerlessness within a society. And while the workaholic wealthy struggle from high rates of marital issues, suicides, and drug abuse - their god-complexes become entrenched in their "assistance" of the poor, blinding them to their need for restoration as well. In a materialistic society, people are blind to problems that aren't displayed through the absence of material goods. So while the wealthy look down on the impoverished poor, they are blind to their own impoverishment that they worsen through their "help." 

In the end, there are three main points the authors make throughout chapters three and four. 
1)  Material poverty is not always rooted in a lack of material things. Some/often times material poverty is a symptom of a much deeper relational issue with God, self, others, and/or nature. 
2) Our worldview and assumptions play a large role in our tendency towards particular areas of brokenness, as well as our diagnoses of others. For the wealthy in the West, the tendency is towards materialism (self/God-Nature), judgmentalism (self/others) and god-complexes (self/self. With the poor, it is often played out in feelings of worthlessness (self/self) and oppression (self/others).
3) In our materialistic culture, those with sufficient material possessions fail to see their own brokenness and need for restoration. At the same time, the emphasis on materialism prevents the wealthy from showing true love and grace to those who lack material goods, and prevents them from appreciating the many beautiful contributions and personalities of the poor. 

So in the end, we need to recognize that we are all broken, we are all positive contributors, and we need to understand our worldviews, assumptions, and potential pitfalls in our relationships. 



0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    *The views and ideas on this site are in no way affiliated with any organization, business, or individuals we are a part of or work with. They're also not theological certainties. They're simply thinking out loud, on issues and difficulties as I process things.

    Categories

    All
    Abortion
    Abortion Counterrebuttals
    Afterlife
    Apologetics
    Atheism
    Baptism
    Christian Life
    Church
    Cosmology
    COVID 19
    COVID-19
    Death
    Free Will
    Generosity And Wealth
    G.K. Chesterton
    Government
    Grace And Mercy
    Incarnation
    Inerrancy
    Joy
    Love
    Materialism
    Meaningpurpose
    Media
    Ministry-and-outreach
    Morality
    On-guard
    Pacifism
    Pacifism-counterrebuttals
    Podcast
    Poetry
    Politics
    Politics-of-jesus
    Pragmatism And Consequentialism
    Prayer
    Problem-of-evil
    Race-and-unity
    Rapid Fire
    Rebellion
    Reformed
    Relationships
    Salvation
    Social-issues
    Social-justice
    Sovereignty-of-god
    Spirit
    Spiritual-warfare
    Spontaneous-expansion-of-the-church
    Suffering
    Tradition
    Trinity
    When-helping-hurts


    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    November 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    March 2015
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2013
    March 2009
    July 2007
    June 2007
    May 2007
    April 2007
    March 2007
    February 2007
    January 2007

    RESOURCES

    Check out some of our favorite online resources for theology and apologetics by clicking on the images below. 

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly