Blog Action Day (a little belated)

If you are not a blogger, you might have known that Wednesday was “Blog Action Day (Against Poverty)”. Some great posts out there; I encourage you to check them out.

I’ve been thinking about how we (and not) fight poverty as suburban evangelical believers. Aside from those that commute from the burbs using public transportation, most of us do not see obvious poverty on an everyday level living in the suburbs. Thus, poverty is not a demanding issue for us.

Each day, we may see different kinds of poverty. Being a pastor, I would predictably bring up spiritual poverty. I would say things like, “I see the suburbs littered by people who have no hope and no faith in Jesus Christ …” True and I agree.

There is a different type of poverty that I want to highlight – the poverty of community. I am forming conclusions that many of us well-intentioned suburbanites are poor at exhibiting compassion to social issues like poverty because we are not healthy in being in community.

The more I am concerned with community, the more I am concerned about the hungry, the homeless, the uninsured, the HIV patient, the neglected elderly, juvenile, and countless others. Not only that, but the more I’m in community, the more informed of the needs It has slowly shaped my life and ministry. Slowly.

I am not sure we can eradicate any type of poverty. It’s an interesting discussion that you can probably find some place. My feeling is that you cannot eliminate poverty because evil exists and this is a result of the Fall. This however does not mean that we should not do our best to confront the problem. To my fellow evangelical brother/sister who may not understand what I am trying to say. It’s like saying we cannot eradicate disbelief in Christ as well but we still “evangelize” and share our faith in words … and sometimes actions.