Are Christians Doing Enough to Help the Poor?

Billy Hallowell's op-ed post contains a mini-poll:

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/are-christians-doing-enough-to-help-the-poor/

I voted "No." I have worked with church-sponsored programs that made a regular effort to move poor people off welfare or other tax-funded "entitlements." This is what right-wing Christians claim to think the church should be doing. Well, which church do they have in mind? Only a few of the large, highly organized churches are even trying.

I'm not saying this to disparage the various Catholic, Methodist, Salvationist, and Seventh-Day Adventist charities with which I've worked. Within the limited scope of what they're able to try to accomplish, they do quite a lot of good...but relative to the number of welfare beneficiaries (and able-bodied welfare cheats) in this country, what they're doing is pathetic. Most church fundraising goes to maintain church buildings, pay ministers, support mostly overseas mission projects, and/or (at best) maintain a tiny emergency fund that helps churchgoers make one rent or utility payment per year. Few churches sponsor urban missions, and those that do seldom offer more than food and shelter--no effort to help needy people get back into the socioeconomic game.

I think the state of what American Christians are doing to help our officially recognized "poor" class is woeful indeed...and what I can see firsthand as a member of the unrecognized poor-in-America, the people who are generally managing to feed themselves and doing some good for others by their work, is even more woeful. Christians are currently in the middle of an annual spending spree, but they're not spending mindfully. How many Christians are choosing to buy their presents from a neighbor or fellow believer who depends on his or her work to pay his or her bills, rather than from some multinational corporation?

The season of partying (and stocking community food banks, hint, hint) is here...and how many Christians' holiday parties will feature locally produced food treats, rather than the kind people buy at Wal-Mart? How many Christians remember that, although employees of big corporations make it painfully obvious that they don't care whether you buy what they sell or not, self-employed people and small family business owners do care, because how much you buy determines things like how warm they can keep even one room, whether they can drive to church, and what they can eat?

I just finished posting photos of a batch of handmade needlecraft items. Fair disclosure: the crocheter known to cyberspace as MK left a lot of lovely crocheted pieces in my booth when she died, age 87. The knitter known as Gena Greene (a.k.a. Green Gena and Lady Greensleeves), however, is alive and well, and will be using the price of one of those lovely, expensive sweaters, when you buy it, to pay her heating bill this winter...the way I use sponsored articles, advertorials, and the profits on Books You Can Buy From Me to pay my grocery bill.

The creative cook known as Grandma Bonnie Peters plans to spend this winter with a relative, far away from the house that has a Tennessee-certified kitchen, but when local people pay her for a batch of Veggie Burgers, Rice Biscuit Bread, Taco Soup, Vegan Split Pea Soup, Gluten-Free Dairy-Free Lasagna, or similar goodies, they're helping a seventy-year-old Christian meet her share of the cost of treatment for a broken wrist.

Filling out the list of contributors here...Saloli the Message Squirrel does not depend on your shopping decisions to meet her needs, because she lives in an oak tree. Other people whose writing regularly appears here have private incomes and request donations only for their political work, which some readers may want to support. However, this site exists to market other products designed and made by people who need the money they earn from their creative work.

Yesterday this web site also featured a link to a story about an unemployed trucker who's marketing really cool-looking toys via Bed Bath & Beyond. Recently we also featured a link to a story about the Belly Rest pillow for pregnant women, and the terrific tote bags, for everybody, that commemorate "mom-trepreneur" Kerri Smith's battle for the right to market these pillows. We enjoy marketing things that are handmade in the U.S.A. because that's a very important way we, as Christians, practice social justice toward those members of the middle class who most try, and most deserve, not to become really poor (as in homeless or hungry).

As the shopping season begins, may I remind everyone to shop mindfully. People who make things by hand in the U.S.A. aren't asking for handouts, but buying things they make, rather than imported products sold by huge corporations, is a way to help their whole communities.

Many readers want lower taxes and smaller government. Here is your opportunity to do something about it. Take the burden off Uncle Sam. Take personal responsibility for keeping someone who's not a corporate employee from going on welfare, or, if you want a real challenge, for getting a welfare beneficiary off welfare. Either way, you're doing something good for the community and the country. So, this Christmas, put your money where your mouth is.

(Now the system's asking me to label this article. Which of our favorite labels are not applicable? When you buy locally made gifts, you may also be supporting the people we discuss under "women's history," "wheelchair access," "thank a veteran," etc. etc. etc....and add any other disadvantaged group of your choice.)