it's not about Dave Ramsey

CNN Belief Blog just posted what I consider a thoughtful piece called What Dave Ramsey Gets Wrong About Poverty.  It's starting to make the rounds on Facebook where the discussion is more about Dave than the larger issues the article addresses. So I want to bring those out myself. 

It's not about Dave.  It's about the church.

But let me start with Dave since he's the connecting point.  I didn't hear him defend himself on this particular article (I hear he devoted a show to it) but I've listened to his broadcast over the years and saw him in person at Catalyst, a conference for ministry leaders.  I'll let you decide on his show, but at the conference, his talk that day was on troublesome people on your team. His solution (in general) was to get rid of them.  Not because they're lazy or unqualified, but because they detract from your team dynamic. 

Now I like Dave as a person, but I watched as ministry leaders around me scratched their heads at the concept of getting rid of the very people ministry is aimed at, the outcasts.  The troublesome.  The ones who are often some of the hardest working members of your volunteer labor force.

For me, that talk was a symptom of our (often Christian) disease, an unwillingness to allow people to be human.  The poor are treated as "the poor."  People who disagree with me must be one of those "liberals" or those "conservatives."  We file people away by their problems, or the ones we think they cause, and we stay away, as if differences are contagious.  If I befriend a poor person, I might become one.  If I listen to another's viewpoint, I'm giving power to the other side.  I can't let you be you because you might drag me down and I need to win.

Since so many Christians have a tendency toward this belief individually, it's affecting our churches corporately.  I've met more than my share of women who feel forced to live with a guy or go stay in a homeless shelter (often dangerous places) because they've been told by the church, "You got yourself into this mess, you can get yourself out."  Even when that's true, when the person is suffering because of their own choices, they often cannot choose their way back out of trouble.  It takes a loving, long-term, grace-committed group of people around them to get one person out of poverty.

Usually, and I mean most of the time, the problem is systemic. These are the larger issues the CNN piece brings out, but because they're also political hot buttons, we can't have an honest conversation about them in the church. If I mention giving people dignity through a livable wage, I'm met with arguments for or against raising the minimum hourly rate. If I want to discuss the shortfalls of public assistance, I get buzzwords like big government and welfare and personal responsibility.

What we get wrong about poverty is we treat it as an issue. Jesus saw it as people. He sat down to dinner with those affected by it, and spoke directly to the individuals causing it. He was never harsh with those caught in poverty. He was livid with those who brought it. And this is throughout Scripture.

I have a challenge for you. For the next two weeks, read Isaiah 58 as if it is the only part of the Bible you know. As if you are in a country where owning a full Bible can get you arrested, and you live on one ripped page of verses at a time. Imagine all you know of God is what you can learn from this one chapter. Sink into it.  Then come back to this post on Christmas week, anytime after the 21st, and share what you've learned in the comments below. Thanks.