Suburbia vs. Social Justice
Oct. 25 2006
This post is from guest blogger, Doug Hayes. Doug leads Covenant Mercies a “non-profit organization established for the purpose of serving the poor, the orphan, the widow, and others facing severe adversity.”
When it comes to compassion for the poor, most of us sincerely care--it’s just that we often act like six month-olds. Before you write that off as a gratuitous insult, humor me by trying a little experiment. Next time you have opportunity to spend time with an infant, hold a brightly colored toy in front of the baby’s face until it grabs his attention then move it quickly behind your back. At 6 months of age, the infant will simply move on to something else as if the object no longer exists. At 9 months to a year, the child will look for the toy and possibly even crawl around behind your back to find it. That’s because at that age, he has acquired what child development experts call object permanence: the knowledge that an object continues to exist even when it is out of sight. Prior to the development of object permanence, it is truly “out of sight, out of mind.”
Living in suburbia can lead to an “out of sight, out of mind” mentality toward the poor. We’re pretty comfortable and typically pretty busy, so it’s easy to forget that our experience is not shared by many--even most--people in the world. We need to develop what Gary Haugen calls compassion permanence: the capacity to remember the needs of those who are suffering due to injustice, multi-generational poverty, disease, calamity, etc., even when they are out of our immediate sight.
Those of us who live in suburbia can sometimes feel a pang of guilt for the comfortable lives we lead in comparison to the world’s poor. While I wouldn’t want to douse any legitimate conviction of the Holy Spirit, I don’t believe the Lord wants us be motivated by guilt. Could God be calling some of us to forsake the suburban lifestyle and “incarnate” with the poor, taking up residence with those who are marginalized in our world? Absolutely. Is he calling all of us to do that? Probably not. The great majority of believers who live in suburbia are called to remain right where they are, but to develop a compassion permanence that leads us to remember the poor even though they are not immediately before our eyes day after day.
How can we cultivate compassion permanence?
1. Develop a sensitivity to the many biblical references to the poor, the orphan, the widow, and the disposition of God toward them. When you read these verses, don’t think, “That’s the way it was in biblical times. That’s not the world I live in.” That is the world you live in. As a suburban American your daily experience rarely (if ever) puts extreme poverty before your eyes, but the poor are there nonetheless. And God’s Word is full of reminders calling us back to remembering them.
It’s not a sin to live in a place where prosperity is the rule and exposure to the poor is limited, but we must remember that our suburban experience is not typical. As disciples of Christ we must constantly cast off the idea that our life experience is the norm for everyone else. If we are other-centered, we will remember that most of the world doesn’t enjoy the relative health, comfort, and safety we enjoy in suburbia. If we are Christ-centered, we will ask “Where are the naked, that we might clothe them? Where are the hungry, that we might feed them? Where are the sick, that we might visit them?” Our prosperity can lead us to forget that such people exist, but God’s Word regularly reminds us that they do exist, and that our disposition toward them is a defining mark of who we are as disciples of Christ (Matt. 25:31-46).
2. In addition to remembering the poor, we are called to take action on their behalf. Jesus said, “I was hungry and you gave me food; I was sick and you visited me.” Those are action words! Biblical compassion doesn’t simply empathize with the poor, it takes action to alleviate their suffering.
As I write this, I’m about to leave for Uganda with a team of medical professionals who will serve the needs of a rural community in partnership with an indigenous church we work with there. I so respect these highly skilled professionals who see their training and expertise not simply as means to provide a safe, comfortable life for themselves. Rather, they see their skills as a unique gift they can give to some of the most marginalized people in the world. I so respect them for recognizing that following Jesus requires them to take action on behalf of those who are suffering.
Perhaps you’re not a doctor or a nurse, and you don’t believe you have much to offer. Let me encourage you to go and spend time with the poor. Is there a ministry team you can commit yourself to, perhaps tutoring and mentoring disadvantaged kids in a poor school district or serving meals to the homeless? Seek out opportunities to become acquainted with people who might be considered the “outcasts” of our society; the welfare-dependent poor, the prison inmate, the child trying to obtain an education from the worst school district in your region. I think you’ll find that you have much more to offer than you previously imagined.
3. Another means of serving the poor (and taking action on their behalf) is financial giving. This may seem like a self-serving statement when you consider the source. True, I run a non-profit organization that depends on charitable giving to fulfill its mission. But let’s be honest--God has given most of us resources far in abundance of our needs. Meanwhile, others in our world are suffering and dying for the lack of a few dollars. I believe God has provided us with this wealth so that we can sow it out generously in Jesus’ name, to care for those who are suffering. Certainly he wouldn’t give us such excess to tempt us toward worldliness and materialism. I can only believe he intends for us to emulate the example of our selfless Savior, emptying ourselves of material riches so that others might know the riches of his mercy and grace.
I never tire of telling the story of little Roselyn, who was five years old when we first encountered her in Uganda. News of our Orphan Sponsorship Program had reached her village, prompting her to come with her teenage aunt and wait all morning to see us. Roselyn’s mother, we learned, had died of AIDS just two weeks earlier. Her father subsequently refused to take her in, leaving this little one to be cared for by her elderly grandparents. On top of that, Roselyn was suffering from some rather advanced symptoms of syphilis, a disease she most likely inherited through childbirth. The hair on her scalp had mostly departed, making way for sores that appeared almost as one large scab. This scabbing, combined with the strong odor rising from her sores, had prevented Roselyn from attending school because the other children would not tolerate being around her. She had been examined by a doctor at some point, but due to lack of money for treatment her condition had grown progressively worse.
We walked down the street with Roselyn to the local medical clinic, prepared to purchase any medication necessary to bring her relief. The resident nurse prescribed a treatment program of 7 injections over 21 days, plus an oral medication, plus a topical cream to be applied to her scalp. I could no longer contain my tears when I was informed that the total bill for this series of treatments came to 8,600 Ugandan shillings--the equivalent of $4.37. I honestly couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Doctors tell me that this medical intervention was very likely the difference between life and death for Roselyn. All for $4.37.
I’m not trying to make you feel guilty the next time you walk into Starbucks, but I do want to rattle your cage a bit if you’ve allowed the love of Starbucks and Xboxes and iPods to lull you to sleep. The wealth God has given us--if sown out generously and with discernment toward the poor--can magnify his mercy in some very profound ways, even if our excess only amounts to $4.37.
Living in suburbia is not a sin, but it sure can be a temptation. As we all work to develop compassion permanence for the world’s poor, taking action on their behalf and giving generously for their benefit, we will fulfill a vital aspect of our calling as Christians. If we do this, I believe we will hear “well done” from the Lord when he evaluates what we did with the abundant riches he gave us to steward in this life.