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Chapter Two

The Poor, the Needy, Widows, and Orphans

“The spirit of the Lord is on me, for he has anointed me to bring the good news to the afflicted. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives, sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim a year of favour from the Lord.”

Luke 4:18–19

This was Jesus’ first mission statement. It is often called the Social Gospel, because it proclaims His intent to move people from captivity, oppression, and afflictions to freedom. This is not only spiritual freedom, but actualizing the Kingdom of God among us, within the society.

Many believe we create a Christian nation because most of the citizens are Christians, go to church, and believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God. But the Bible does not limit religion to belief systems but calls on us to help liberate others from the burdens and trials that we and others endure. It asks us to consider the “least of these” and to make public policy with those who live on the margins of society always in mind. This has tended to be Democratic Party policy, and almost every Democratic candidate and every Democratic Party Platform pays attention to the needs of the poor, oppressed, and the disenfranchised.

The Republican candidates and platforms, fairly consistently, favor the wealthy and say little about the poor.

Many of us in America do not know people who are poor or destitute. If we do, we might believe their problems are of their own making and God really does help those who help themselves. Many Americans have lived in such privilege that we turn our eyes away from the homeless, blame the ill for their disease, try to justify why some live in poverty, and claim God’s blessing to explain why we’re so comfortable.

Our country is powerful and rich. We easily envy power and wealth, and try to get it for ourselves, forgetting that Jesus and the prophets ask us to change our perspective, and to take the side of the poor—to care about those without means, those who need healing.

The Command for Compassion

There is much disagreement about exactly what we, as Christians, should be changing in our nation. The Bible tells us nothing about many of the issues that confront us in contemporary society—whether we should talk to or negotiate with terrorists, what our energy policies should be, what kind of health care or educational system we should have. But there is one area in which the entire Bible is absolutely clear—we are to help the poor, the needy, the broken-hearted, the oppressed. It is the greatest litmus test we can apply to any governmental policies. If we had to choose only one issue that addresses the place where Christian values and political policy clearly come together, it wouldn’t be abortion, homosexuality, education, ecology, or employment, it would be where we stand in helping the poor and oppressed. We as Christians are called upon to allow the Light of Christ to shine on the brokenness that is at the core of the human condition, individually and socially, and to be part of God’s redemptive work on earth. This is not just an individual command, but a command to nations.

In Isaiah, God scolds the leaders of nations, “Shame on you … you who make unjust laws and publish burdensome decrees, depriving the poor of justice, robbing the weakest of my people of their rights, despoiling the widow and plundering the orphan.”1 God promised that he would bring justice to them and that He would crush their oppressors.2

In the Psalms, we are warned not to lose our good sense in prosperity, and are warned of the danger of becoming over-awed with the rich and those who live in great splendor.3 When over-awed, we give preferential treatment to the wealthy. It is possible that the great support for Donald Trump comes because many are agog at his wealth. They wish they, too, had billions to spend on houses and casinos, and to self-fund whatever it was they wished to do.

In Amos, God condemns the rich: “for crime after crime of Israel, I will grant them no reprieve because they sell the innocent for silver and the destitute for a pair of shoes. They grind the heads of the poor into the earth and thrust the humble out of their way.”4

The Bible tells us God is a stronghold for the oppressed, and He will not desert them. He listens to the laments of the brokenhearted. He fills the starving, and rescues those in chains and misery from hard labor. He gives the hungry a home and blesses them with a bountiful harvest. God provides a refuge for the weak and seeks justice for the poor.5

The Kings and Judges of the Hebrew Scriptures were commanded to find ways to equalize that which was unequal. They had authority over the nation, and woe to them if they only honored the rich! The poor were given the right to glean the edges of the fields for food, so they would not starve in a land of plenty. A tithe was to be collected every third year for them. The rich were not to make a profit from the poor, nor cheat them of interest on a loan, nor treat them as slaves. There were special compensations for the poor so they would not appear before God empty-handed. In the year of Jubilee, the poor could return and claim their ancestral lands; the injustices of the past would be ended and they could start anew.6

Protestant theologian Karl Barth, in his Church Dogmatics, says the Christian community “explicitly accepts solidarity with the least of little ones … with those who are in obscurity and are not seen, with those who are pushed to the margin and perhaps the very outer margin of the life of human society, with fellow-creatures who temporarily at least, and perhaps permanently, are useless and insignificant and perhaps even burdensome and destructive … these men are recognized to be brothers of Jesus Christ … and therefore the community confesses Jesus Christ Himself as finally the hungry, thirsty, naked, homeless, sick, imprisoned man.…”7 As we do unto the least of these, we also do unto Christ.

Can We Agree on Helping the Poor?

When setting out to write this book, I had presumed that this was one issue where we could find agreement among Christians. I was wrong. Although there are more than 2,000 verses in the Bible about the need for individuals and nations to help the poor and the oppressed, there is a powerful group of conservative Republican Christians that does not believe the Bible on this issue. They believe individuals and churches are asked to help the poor, if they so desire, but not nations. They believe charitable giving should only come from those who wish to give.

I must admit I was shocked to learn this. After all, this idea is coming from conservatives and fundamentalists who say they take the Bible literally. I started to question several of my colleagues who were conservative Republican Christians about this issue in order to understand it more clearly. I promised not to use their names in this book if they would clarify this issue for me.

I was told, by one conservative Christian, “We are called to help, not to force others to help or to use our mob power to steal from those who do not want to help.” As a result of this theology, government programs are cut by Republicans whenever possible. Health care for the poor is de-funded. Getting an education or getting medicine or being able to buy or rent a house becomes costlier because the government won’t help. Another Republican Christian saw the liberal Democrats as giving far too many handouts, and said the government shouldn’t be in that business, even though the Bible tells us that leaders and rulers and nations have an obligation to give justice and to remove oppressive burdens. In his view, conservatives believe that “the church, not the government, should be involved with helping and caring for the poor.”

I e-mailed him back, asking who the church is most apt to help. Certainly they are most apt to help fellow Christians. Where does that leave the immigrant who has just received citizenship but has few resources? Or the Muslim, who lives in a poor community? What about the workers who have been hurt by financial scandals when the CEOs made millions of dollars? What about the drastic needs that come from communities hit by a hurricane and left with billions of dollars in damage? Or from the tsunami that has washed away hundreds of thousands of people and hundreds of communities, leaving needs far beyond what one church, or two or three, or even one denomination, can handle?

I asked, “How much money do most churches have? Do they have enough to rebuild homes, pay for job training, provide food and medicine and doctor appointments for the family in need? Is there any church, even the most wealthy, that can afford what is needed as a result of a catastrophe or difficult, unbearable situations?”

One of the Christians said we should not be forced to give money to causes that we don’t believe in. He is also a pacifist, so he said he didn’t want to fund war. I agree. I don’t either. But people who adhere to this reasoning might think, “I shouldn’t have my tax dollars go to funding education, because I don’t have any children and I’m finished with my own schooling.” Others might think, “I shouldn’t have to fund Medicare because I won’t have to worry about my retirement for a few more years, and Mom and Dad are dead.” Perhaps they believe, “I shouldn’t have to fund the roads in Iowa, because I haven’t driven on them for many years.” When did we become so selfish we forgot about the common good? If we followed this policy, it would divide the nation into prideful interest groups with only their own selfish desires at heart.

Some Christians don’t see the necessity of helping the poor because they believe that they must focus on their individual relationship with Christ. After hearing this idea a number of times, I asked one of my Republican Christian friends, who is a Baptist, if she agreed with this. She said she did not. She answered, “There are plenty of lost, lonely, and deserted people within our borders to keep both church and state busy, so I fear that the statement that churches should fix the problem is a veiled form of greed. I don’t see that the churches are responding, and therefore our disenfranchised people will be out in the cold, literally, which is truly heartless.”

She continued, “Of course, churches should be stepping up and out for our own faith, but that does not mean we should eliminate government assistance. I don’t see how anyone in their right mind can think that churches can replace Medicaid, or take care of all our health needs, or education and job improvement programs. There is a huge difference between soup kitchens and shelters and the long-term needs of people with mental and physical disabilities.” This friend had been a Republican. She changed her to the Democratic Party in 2008 partly because of the Republican stance on these issues (and partly because of the first edition of this book).

Another friend reflected, “I don’t see any Republican governors refusing assistance when their state is in trouble.” New Orleans and New Jersey received millions in assistance after hurricanes. California received help after their forest fires. Ebola and Zika outbreaks were handled quickly with government assistance to alert the public and to contain the diseases. An exception to this occurred when the governor of Michigan refused to ask for government assistance for the health hazards caused by poisonous water in Flint, Michigan. The US government had to suggest and even beg to come in and assist the residents of Flint, many of whom were black and poor, and all of whom were victims of Governor Rick Snyder’s merciless policies. “Nor are there any Republican members of Congress who have turned down their Social Security or refused their excellent health insurance. What they do for themselves they should consider doing for others.”

After hearing from the many Republicans who do not agree with my friend, I wondered if I had misread my Bible. Perhaps I was wrong. Perhaps the Bible was only talking to individuals. I soon found more than 500 passages addressing nations. I reread the book of Jeremiah, the prophet appointed by God to talk to the nations. God said, “I brought you to a country of plenty to enjoy its produce and good things; but when you entered you defiled my country and made my heritage loathsome.”8 There are many loathsome acts which the nation did: “The very skirts of your robe are stained with the blood of the poor.”9 “There are wicked men among my people … they set traps and they catch human beings. Like a cage full of birds so are their houses full of loot; they have grown rich and powerful because of it, they are fat, they are sleek, … they have no respect for rights, for orphans’ rights, and yet they succeeded! They have not upheld the cause of the needy. Shall I fail to punish this, Yahweh demands, or on such a nation to exact vengeance.”10 God tells the nation they must “treat one another fairly … not exploit the stranger, the orphan and the widow … not shed innocent blood.”11 He scolds the nation and its leaders for having “eyes and heart for nothing but your own interests, for shedding innocent blood and perpetrating violence and oppression.”12 The Democrats have a far better record at addressing these commands.

And What About the Stranger?

One of the most challenging issues confronting our country revolves around immigration. There are about 11–12 million undocumented workers in our country. About 50% of these come from Mexico. There are also hundreds of thousands of foreign travelers, sojourners, students from other countries, and refugees who come to our country for short or long periods of time, who are not “like us” but who have different skin color, cultures, dress, languages, and ways of approaching their daily lives. In theological language, these people are sometimes called “The Other” and are objectified, dismissed, rejected, and told to go back to their own country and their own people.

With regard to the stranger, some people act on the principle “Nothing human is foreign to me,” while others seem to be saying, “Nothing foreign is human to me.”

The Bible recognizes the difficulties immigrants confront and asks us to respond with compassion. There are more than one hundred verses in the Bible about how we need to treat the stranger. The Bible put the needs of the stranger along with the needs of the orphans and widows, and told the Israelites that special care needed to be given. They were told, “You must not oppress foreigners,”13 you must “Love the stranger as yourself,” and you must not “deny justice to the foreigner.”14

Why are we asked to be so kind to strangers when they seem on the surface to be a threat to the prevailing culture? Historically, immigrants to any country were often brought in to fill the need for cheap labor and to take the difficult jobs that other people didn’t want. They often came to escape economic hardships in their own country or to escape war, famine, drug violence, threats, danger, or religious persecution. Our Statue of Liberty asks us to take in “your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”15 The immigrants were often rejected, abused, and forced to live in unsafe conditions, and had little legal recourse.

The word Hebrew means “to cross over” or, said another way, “to be a border crosser.” Hebrews were almost always strangers in a strange land. Sometimes the prevailing culture welcomed them, and sometimes it oppressed them.

Jesus was a sojourner, a stranger in a strange land, who was accepted by some but rejected and killed by others.

We are told to care for the “least of these,” which means we are asked to feed and clothe and care for the stranger in the same way we would do for our family or our friends. The individuals and nations that don’t do this are cursed. “Cursed is the one who perverts the justice to the stranger, the fatherless, and widowed.”16

What policies and actions might result from our understanding and care for the immigrant? The Democratic and Republican stances on this issue show a clear division about how to treat the immigrant. All the Republican candidates, in one way or another, want to get rid of some, if not most, of these people.

Donald Trump’s position is the most extreme. He would deport 11 to 12 million undocumented immigrants, which would be expensive and impractical. Trump would build a wall between Mexico and the U.S. (to block the arriving Mexicans, who make up only about 50% of illegal immigrants) even though the cost of the wall would be prohibitive. Trump would ban all Muslims from entering the United States and favor Christian immigrants to come into this country—although it seems that this would not apply to Mexicans, many of whom are Christians. He would not allow any Syrian or Middle Eastern refugees into the U.S. and would send the millions of Syrian refugees who have escaped from their violent country back to face further violence and perhaps to face starvation or death.

This negative attitude toward immigrants is a somewhat odd stance for a person who has married two immigrant women who were not born in the United States, who are not “culturally” American, and who did not become citizens until some years after the marriages. Trump has also employed hundreds of illegal immigrants at low wages, some working seven days a week. Obviously, he found them useful for himself.

The policies of Ted Cruz are similar to Trump’s, and Marco Rubio’s are only slightly more moderate—which again is unusual since both Cruz and Rubio are the children of immigrants. It just keeps getting, as Alice in Wonderland would say, “curiouser and curiouser.”

John Kasich, who seems to me to be the most reasonable of the Republican candidates, says, “The symbol of the United States should not be barbed wire but the Statue of Liberty.” Jeb Bush seems to recognize that many Mexican immigrants come to the United States with good intentions, which he sometimes calls “an act of love.” This attitude has been criticized and ridiculed by Donald Trump.

Both Sanders and Clinton see immigration as a matter of compassion and security, and believe that when immigrants are properly vetted, there should be a path into the United States. That could be through green cards, through naturalization, and through citizenship.

Democrats would pass the “The Dream Act.” The Dream Act says that children under 16 who were born in the United States, or who came to the United States with their illegal immigrant parents, should not be taken away from their parents or deported, but should be allowed to pursue a path to citizenship and to join the military, go to college, and become responsible citizens. Under current law the children can stay in the United States, but often the illegal immigrant parents must leave, abandoning their children. The Democrats do not consider this to be an example of family values.

There is a Celtic rune that expresses a Christian attitude toward “The Other”:

I saw a stranger yestreen,

I put food in the eating place

drink in the drinking place

music in the listening place,

and in the sacred name of the Triune

he blessed myself and my house

my cattle and my dear ones,

and the lark said in her song:

often, often, often

goes the Christ in the stranger’s guise.17

What Is the Human Condition?

If we are commanded to help the oppressed, we need to know who the oppressed are and why they’re oppressed. Is it their own doing, or part of the wages of sin, or does oppression come from the rich and the powerful and the social structures that support the privileged?

To understand oppression, a number of theologians begin by looking at the human condition and by looking at the wages of sin. What is wrong with us? Why is there inequality and oppression? Why did Jesus come to save us? What, and how much, needs saving? Does our Fallen Nature, which is explained by the story of Adam and Eve, express why life has to be this difficult? What can be done to bring us back to the blessings of the Kingdom?

There are many interpretations of the Fall of Adam and Eve and what that Fall means for us. Some say it’s a story about the fall from obedience to disobedience, from innocence to corruption, from unity to separation. An interpretation that is particularly meaningful to me comes from Protestant theologian Paul Tillich. He points out when Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden, everything was in harmony and in unity. They were in harmony with each other, in harmony with the Garden, in harmony with the animals, and in harmony with God. They walked in the cool of the evening with God. Obedience was not a problem. They had what they needed. It was, truly, Paradise.

The Fall, then, was the fall into disharmony, or what Tillich calls alienation or estrangement from God. The curse Adam and Eve received, and therefore we all receive, was alienation on every level. No longer would the plants easily grow when Adam tilled the soil. After the Fall, he worked by the sweat of his brow. No longer were Adam and Eve in harmony with each other. He dominated her, and yet she couldn’t escape her desire for him. No longer were they in harmony with God. They were exiled from the Garden, where they had once walked so easily and closely with God. Immediately after the Fall came the violence of brother against brother, when Cain killed Abel. Then came disharmony in families, disharmony as societies began to form. There was violence over territory, violence over imposing one law over another, disobedience both relationally and socially. On every level, we were no longer free, complete, fulfilled, and joyful.

With the coming of Christ, we are given the opportunity to move back into harmony with God. Our alienation and separation are overcome. The atonement brings us back into at-one-ment with God, through Christ. We are moved to express our regained freedom and joy by allowing Christ to work in our lives and by responding to others, as he responded to all of us.

Every part of our lives, and therefore every part of our society, can be touched by Christ—if we work toward allowing it to be. In fact, many Christians would say when the Holy Spirit works in our lives, we are continually and naturally moved into compassionate action with everyone around us—in our relationships with others, in our relationships with our neighborhoods, our cities, our states, our country, as well as globally. Christ is not limited. In an ever-expanding circle of life, we are called into the national and international arena, to express our faith in our world, to create justice, and to bring mercy.

Fighting Oppression Within and Without

Oppression happens individually, relationally, socially, and politically. Individually, we are in bondage. We are burdened and weighed down. This can be expressed in many ways. We might feel restless, as if we can find no peace within ourselves. Everything irritates us. We are impatient; we are afraid. We feel hopeless, unloved, uncared for. We are in a state of separation. We feel abandoned and cannot get connected. We are having trouble finding our way.

Salvation begins on the individual level. In my own experience, I began to find peace through daily reading of the Bible and other spiritual works. I began to feel connected to something bigger than myself and felt a Presence that could guide me and comfort me. I found a particularly helpful Bible verse to be: “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and all these things will be yours as well.”18 I began to feel, unless I found inner freedom and peace, I would continue to have trouble relating to the world and contributing to the world.

As I moved my faith into relationship, I struggled with pride and envy. I competed with others. I was jealous of everyone who had more than I did, or who seemed to have an easier life. After some years, I was able (with God’s help) to see competitors as colleagues and begin relating easily to them. I began to find freedom as I entered more actively into a religious community. As a student at Colorado College, I began to attend Bible studies with the Navigators, a conservative Christian group.

Later, my Quaker community, both locally and internationally, nurtured me into moving my faith into the world. Quakers believe when we pray, meditate, and wait and listen to the Holy Spirit, we will naturally be moved into social action.

For each of us, that social action will take different forms—whether to visit the prisons, to feed the homeless, to help educate others, to help the jobless learn skills and find jobs, to build homes for others, to start recycling centers, to plant trees, to care for animals, to work for equality, to change the laws of our land to better help others—the list is, of course, endless.

For many of us, there is a point in our spiritual journey when we realize we need to make changes in our larger social world in order to help the oppressed. Oppression can come from oppressive organizations, laws, social structures, financial institutions, or governments. We might find we can’t help the outcasts and those left behind because an oppressive government has declared our interference illegal. We can’t help the prisoners who are tortured or executed, because we’ll be imprisoned ourselves. We watch the innocent victims of oppressive governments and of war, and realize we can no longer work individually, but need to do something to address the root of the problem at the political level.

Working for God’s Kingdom

A number of Christian denominations interpret the work of Jesus as being political and social work, not just work for the individual soul. This is true among the mainline and more liberal Christian churches, which have tended to be more attentive to the poor and needy. Increasingly, this has been a concern of the more conservative churches as well. In 2005, the National Evangelical Conference called for “greater Christian involvement in society including: poverty, human rights and justice.” In a paper titled “For the Health of the Nation: An Evangelical Call to Civic Responsibility,” which is the paper put out by the National Association of Evangelicals, there is a list of a number of specific issues Evangelicals are called to address: “disaster relief, refugee resettlement, and the fights against AIDS/HIV, human rights abuses, slavery, sexual trafficking, and prison rape.” It goes on to list the “protection and well-being of families and children, of the poor, the sick, the disabled, and the unborn, for the persecuted and oppressed, and of the rest of the created order.”

The paper recognized we are called to work for God’s kingdom,19 which would be a kingdom marked by “justice, peace, forgiveness, restoration and healing for all.” We are to “demonstrate God’s love for all, by crossing racial, ethnic, economic, and national boundaries.”

Liberal denominations probably would add to this list, by clarifying that we are to work for gender equality and to show God’s love for homosexuals as well. Who is to address these problems? Democrats would say individuals, churches, and the nations. In the Democratic Platform for 2008 and 2012, the Platform contains around fifteen pages about the need for the government to also address the poor and the needy. Who are these people? According to the Democrats, they are workers including women who have trouble supporting their families because they do not receive equal pay for equal work. They are veterans who return from war, physically and mentally wounded, who need health care and other forms of therapy. They are victims of disasters; some of these disasters come as a result of pollutants and climate change. They are Native Americans, Blacks, Hispanics, immigrants, widows, the aged, battered women and children, LGBT youth and adults. They include victims of hate crimes, the unemployed who are trying to keep their homes and their families together, and many who battle with health issues. The oppressed include those who are discriminated against because of race, creed, religion, age, class, gender, and sexual orientation.

Many families are oppressed because they have children they can’t care for but have no access to contraception. The oppressed are victims of human trafficking, as well as those who are denied the right to vote and those whose unions are being dismantled so they no longer have a voice.

The Democrats have a long record of caring about the middle class and the 15% of our country who live in poverty. However, there is virtually nothing about discrimination and the poor in the Republican Platforms in 2008 or 2012. The Republican concern is for the wealthier among us. They want to make sure that everyone is enabled to “have a chance to own, invest, build, and prosper.”20 Rick Santorum, former senator and presidential candidate, was asked if the Republican Party cares about the poor. He responded, “I’m not sure we do.”21 Many Republican actions confirm this—blocking a bill to raise the minimum wage, cutting food stamps, voting “no” to the Fair Pay Act, denying low income and poor women access to basic health care; the list goes on and on.

Liberation Theology: Transforming the World

We take the Gospel into society and ask, “What can the Gospel tell us about the best choices to make when we’re creating laws and public policy? What does it mean to be a Christian in society? How do we best express our Christian values and our faith in public?”

In 1968, a number of Catholic priests, bishops, and laypeople met at Medellín, northwest of Bogotá, Colombia, and began questioning how to be more effective in their work with the poor in Latin America and South America. They recognized that the poor are often kept in poverty by social, religious, and political structures. They looked at ways the government, the Church, and the wealthy colluded to make the rich richer, and the poor poorer. The participants wanted to understand how they could be effective in changing social conditions that would also change the abject poverty and misery of millions of lives.