P
Portrait
Guest
Dearly beloved friends,
Cordial greetings and a very good day.
As we approach Lent I would like us to focus our thoughts upon the poor in our midst and ask if we really care enough and take seriously our moral obligation to help them. When I speak of the poor I do not exclusively refer to those who are in receipt of state welfare relief, but also those multitudes of ‘working poor’, who also cannot often afford to meet essential bills and who frequently have to choose between eating and heating during the cold winter season.
The poor generally, dear friends, have suffered tremendously from the financial disasters of recent times and, sadly, next to nothing has been done by the very rich to help them in their misery and distress. Indeed, last year here in the UK, Cardinal Keith O’ Brien, quite rightly accused the British Prime Minister, Mr. Cameron, of acting immorally by favouring the affluent ahead of ordinary citizens affected by the recession. Unfortunately, Mr. Cameron and the Coalition Government have woefully and inexcusabably failed to connect with either the workless or working poor of the UK, who now feel more marginalised than ever since he came into office. As a matter of fact, the UK’s unemployed and chronically sick have been continually harrassed and subjected to the most inhumane and harsh treatment dished out by any so called progressive country. They term it a ‘tough love’ approach and try to convince us all that they are grappling with ‘welfare dependency’ and a ‘sick note culture’ that has spiralled out of control. Undoubtedly, there will always be some work-shy people who do not want a job and who prefer to sponge off the community but they constitute a jolly small minority, contrary to the barrage of propaganda constantly put out by the ultra right-wing media. The great majority of the jobless dearly want to work and be self-reliant and thus they are deserving of our sympathy and support. Moreover, they should, it almost goes without saying, be the recipients of the pastoral care and relief of their local church where they are enduring severe hardship.
The climate today, dear friends, is such that any talk of sympathy and compassion for the poor and needy is met with a frosty response and if you champion the cause of the poor and denounce the savage cuts to their welfare entitlements, then you will be branded a Socialist or a bleeding heart liberal. This is, alas, indicative of the hardening of attitudes towards the poor and needy in our midst and, personally speaking, I am so appauled by the want of fellow-feeling and indifference that prevails nowadays. The way that some men talk, you could be pardoned for imagining that the words ‘workless’ and ‘worthless’ might be synonyms. Moreover, there is a jolly huge difference between voluntary and involuntary unemployment, especially owing to chronic mental or physical ill-health. In any event, many men urgently need to change their callous attitudes towards the unemployed and the sick in their midst, and persuade the public to do the same. Unfortunately, those who have been schooled in the values of the so-called ‘Protestant Work Ethic’ (industry, honesty, resourcefulness, thrift, etc.) have a tendency to despise those those poor souls who are losers in the struggle to survive, as if it were always their fault. If we profess the holy religion of Christ and entertain such un-Christian attitudes, then we need to repent of them and have a change of heart forthwith.
We must remember, dear friends, that those in desperate need and who lack the personal resources to help themselves, have a special place in the heart of Christ. The noted Latin American theologian, Gustavo Gutierrez, explains it thus: "God has a preferential love for the poor not because they are necessarily better than others, morally or religiously, but simply because they are poor and living in an inhuman situation…the ultimate basis for the privileged position of the poor is not the poor themselves but in God, in the gratuitousness and universality of God’s love. Now this does not mean that holiness and intimacy with God are impossible for the wealthy, it is merely that they present a greater and more urgent challenge. The sad fact is that many today, in their affluence and comfort, have closed their hearts agaisnt God’s poor (cf. I John 3: 17) and look for all manner of excuses as to why they should not give our of their abundance. Some will even stoop to the level of pleading poverty themselves! What they call ‘poverty’ and what those of very slender means call poverty obviously do not equate. It is really nothing more than the rich looking for any excuse not part with their money and distribute to the needs of the poor - it is actually, a shameful denial, that they are their ‘brothers keeper’.
It is, dear friends, not possible for affluent Christians to ‘stay rich’, in the sense of accepting no modification of economic lifestyle. One cannot maintain a ‘good life’ (of extravagance) and ‘a good conscience’ simultaneously. One or the other has to be sacrificed. Either we keep our conscience or reduce or affluence, or we keep our affluence and smother our conscience. Essentially we are called to choose between God and mammon.
God bless and thankyou for taking the time to read this.
Warmest good wishes,
Portrait
Pax:tiphat:
Cordial greetings and a very good day.
As we approach Lent I would like us to focus our thoughts upon the poor in our midst and ask if we really care enough and take seriously our moral obligation to help them. When I speak of the poor I do not exclusively refer to those who are in receipt of state welfare relief, but also those multitudes of ‘working poor’, who also cannot often afford to meet essential bills and who frequently have to choose between eating and heating during the cold winter season.
The poor generally, dear friends, have suffered tremendously from the financial disasters of recent times and, sadly, next to nothing has been done by the very rich to help them in their misery and distress. Indeed, last year here in the UK, Cardinal Keith O’ Brien, quite rightly accused the British Prime Minister, Mr. Cameron, of acting immorally by favouring the affluent ahead of ordinary citizens affected by the recession. Unfortunately, Mr. Cameron and the Coalition Government have woefully and inexcusabably failed to connect with either the workless or working poor of the UK, who now feel more marginalised than ever since he came into office. As a matter of fact, the UK’s unemployed and chronically sick have been continually harrassed and subjected to the most inhumane and harsh treatment dished out by any so called progressive country. They term it a ‘tough love’ approach and try to convince us all that they are grappling with ‘welfare dependency’ and a ‘sick note culture’ that has spiralled out of control. Undoubtedly, there will always be some work-shy people who do not want a job and who prefer to sponge off the community but they constitute a jolly small minority, contrary to the barrage of propaganda constantly put out by the ultra right-wing media. The great majority of the jobless dearly want to work and be self-reliant and thus they are deserving of our sympathy and support. Moreover, they should, it almost goes without saying, be the recipients of the pastoral care and relief of their local church where they are enduring severe hardship.
The climate today, dear friends, is such that any talk of sympathy and compassion for the poor and needy is met with a frosty response and if you champion the cause of the poor and denounce the savage cuts to their welfare entitlements, then you will be branded a Socialist or a bleeding heart liberal. This is, alas, indicative of the hardening of attitudes towards the poor and needy in our midst and, personally speaking, I am so appauled by the want of fellow-feeling and indifference that prevails nowadays. The way that some men talk, you could be pardoned for imagining that the words ‘workless’ and ‘worthless’ might be synonyms. Moreover, there is a jolly huge difference between voluntary and involuntary unemployment, especially owing to chronic mental or physical ill-health. In any event, many men urgently need to change their callous attitudes towards the unemployed and the sick in their midst, and persuade the public to do the same. Unfortunately, those who have been schooled in the values of the so-called ‘Protestant Work Ethic’ (industry, honesty, resourcefulness, thrift, etc.) have a tendency to despise those those poor souls who are losers in the struggle to survive, as if it were always their fault. If we profess the holy religion of Christ and entertain such un-Christian attitudes, then we need to repent of them and have a change of heart forthwith.
We must remember, dear friends, that those in desperate need and who lack the personal resources to help themselves, have a special place in the heart of Christ. The noted Latin American theologian, Gustavo Gutierrez, explains it thus: "God has a preferential love for the poor not because they are necessarily better than others, morally or religiously, but simply because they are poor and living in an inhuman situation…the ultimate basis for the privileged position of the poor is not the poor themselves but in God, in the gratuitousness and universality of God’s love. Now this does not mean that holiness and intimacy with God are impossible for the wealthy, it is merely that they present a greater and more urgent challenge. The sad fact is that many today, in their affluence and comfort, have closed their hearts agaisnt God’s poor (cf. I John 3: 17) and look for all manner of excuses as to why they should not give our of their abundance. Some will even stoop to the level of pleading poverty themselves! What they call ‘poverty’ and what those of very slender means call poverty obviously do not equate. It is really nothing more than the rich looking for any excuse not part with their money and distribute to the needs of the poor - it is actually, a shameful denial, that they are their ‘brothers keeper’.
It is, dear friends, not possible for affluent Christians to ‘stay rich’, in the sense of accepting no modification of economic lifestyle. One cannot maintain a ‘good life’ (of extravagance) and ‘a good conscience’ simultaneously. One or the other has to be sacrificed. Either we keep our conscience or reduce or affluence, or we keep our affluence and smother our conscience. Essentially we are called to choose between God and mammon.
God bless and thankyou for taking the time to read this.
Warmest good wishes,
Portrait
Pax:tiphat:
