One thing that motivated me to write this article is some of the poor I’ve known and some I’ve read about. In today’s society there is often an attack on the poor. I tend lean towards so called conservative views when it comes to politics. In the last Presidential election I voted for Mike Huckabee in the primaries. And the white guy in the general election. However, when it come to issues of compassion the Republican party often has it wrong.
Rush Limbaugh and others seem to me to say that the government shouldn’t help people who are poor, that is what the church is for. That’s a half-truth. The problem is that some churches can’t and others won’t. I’m blessed to go to a church that has a compassionate pastor and compassionate deacons but some still lean conservative. Their main focus is Jesus and scripture, but they care about real people and that is extremely rare today.
I remember when I was looking for my brother there were people who helped, one newspaper reporter helped and another newspaper publisher in the town where I was looking for him at really didn’t. But two people in the same church had opposite reactions to my search for my missing brother. One attempted to help, but was misinformed by his friends in the local police department. His own preacher refused to recognize the urgency of the search via email and in spite of written letters sent by snail mail refused to believe me, contact me or even ask me questions about it.
When I went to his town, I asked about several people about shelters and some tried to help, but this preacher refused to even try and he was a preacher in a branch of the denomination I grew up him. It’s also a works oriented denomination even to the point of teaching salvation by baptism. Later, due to the article of one small town newspaper reporter someone contacted me and helped my brother and I to remake contact.
Some people are attacked simply because they are poor. It’s something that I think was predicted in scripture.The attitude that much of Society has towards the poor today comes from the Republican agenda at the expense of the written Word of God.
God’s written Word says “But whosoever hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in Him?” 1st John 3:17. The clear answer to question asked in this verse is that he doesn’t have God’s love in him.. Now I agree that the government should not force people to give through taxes, but if you’re unwilling to volunteer to give to someone you know (or even don’t know if they have the need) God tells you to love them and if you have the ability to give to them in some way then do so. I’ve known poor people who give to people more than those who can give more.
Our Society likes t ostracize the poor and blame the poor for the situation they are in or worse pretend they are not really poor and just pretending when we really do not know. We excuse and justify ourselves when we won’t give to someone in need. Sometimes people don’t know about the shelters that are available to help them. We can help by letting them know, helping them with paperwork or whatever. We don’t know how long a person has been homeless and on the streets, the truth is there is limited funding and limited availability of space. Even shelters that don’t have limitations on the amount of time someone may stay still has the space and funding limitations. Even if it is their own fault we need to stop condemning the poor and making laws against being poor.
“Whoso mocketh the poor reproacheth his Maker: and he that is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished” Prov. 17:5