The Error of Right-Wing Christianity on the Issue of Poverty

"The poor shall always be among us," Jesus famously said. But his observation was not to excuse the society that generated poverty, or to accept it without seeking to right the social injustices that cause poverty. Jesus realized that we live in a world that will always have forces of greed that cause problems of need in other portions of the population. The Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew and the Sermon on the Plain in the Gospel of Luke clearly spell out that Jesus did not condemn the poor for being poor, but put their suffering among God's foremost concerns. The two primary theologians of predestination, Augustine and Calvin, were both quite wrong in their lines of logic. Using Augustine, Medieval Catholicism practically institutionalized poverty as divinely ordained. Taking their cue from Calvin, Protestantism determined that the poor were poor because of their sins. Nowhere does Jesus say anything remotely like this. Moreover, if we look at the holy scripture that Jesus himself studied, the Hebrew Testament, we find the tradition of compassion for the poor goes way back. Among the Bible's books of the prophets, like that of Amos, and in its books of moral law, like that of Deuteronomy, we encounter unreserved expressions of a sense of duty to the poor, and that such an attitude was considered Divinely enjoined upon the people and whatever form of governance they might create for themselves. Jewish prophets and Hebrew priestly writers demanded that laypeople take responsibility for the issue of poverty, to care for the poor, to correct the imbalances that create poverty, and to reflect upon the sins of greed and narrow-minded self-interest that exacerbate poverty. So poverty is a central issue of the Judaeo-Christian tradition. It is solemn responsibility among the Mosaic lawgivers, and a burning moral concern in the ethical injunctions uttered by the prophets. Therefore, a natural form of orthodoxy in the expression of Christian faith would be to support governments, economies, policies, laws, bills and political leaders that correct imbalances between those who are flourishing and those who know only (or mostly) want. Charitable work is critical, but it does not solve the problem. People must be given the means to escape poverty. Instead, Christian fundamentalists have been supporting political agendas that are entrapping more and more people in a state of poverty. Yes, the poor will always be among us, for any variety of reasons, including mental illness and self-destructive psychologies, but most people can be saved from poverty, because most people have a will to flourish. But people cannot flourish if there is no real substantial capital available for them to work for or work with. Where have all the factories gone? They have been moved to where people are made to work like slaves. This is not a Christian policy. It is a violation of both the Hebrew and Christian Testaments.