Who's Responsibility Is It To Help The Poor? (Part II)

Garrett Hardin, though knowledgeable and learned, does not speak from the same worldview as us Christians. His pragmatic worldview and alarmist methods runs wild without the bridling of the gospel. There certainly are only limited resources on this planet, a statement that we can accept. However, there are times when we are instructed to “trust in the Lord” and “lean not unto [our] own understanding” (Proverbs 3.5). In a case, like this, where scientific data and our Christian principle to trust God may not corroborate completely, we do not haphazardly toss our foundations out the window. We live by faith. That means we trust that God is in control, will provide, and we show that we believe this by continuing to live out our lives gospel-centered & Christ-pleasing. This includes, but is not limited to giving to those in need, helping the widow and the orphans (James 1.27), and loving our neighbors as ourselves (Luke 10.27).

On the other side of the “solution spectrum” there is Peter Singer. His ideological solution to world poverty is very commendable, especially since he is not a Christian. You see, the gospel agrees with Singer’s overarching worldview that: a) there are bad things happening, and b) we can do something to prevent some of these bad things from happening. Singer’s solution, in the New York Times, goes on to imply that humanity is morally obligated to donate to charities and that we are essentially killing people if we do not give most of our money away. I would argue that humanity, without the gospel, has an incomplete moral compass and is unable to uniformly know what is right to do. The gospel acts as a beacon of light that directs Christians amongst dissonant storms of opinions, logic and emotion. Living out a gospel-centered life is more about our self-denial than our self-preservation, because the bible is clear we are to “seek first the kingdom of God”(Matthew 6.33). Though, contrary to Singer’s assertion, how much we give is not truly the issue. The Reverend Andrew Murray summarized it best when he said, “How different our standard is from Christ’s. We ask how much a man gives. He asks how much a man keeps.”(Stearns 210). We also are told in the Old Testament that through us, “all the nations of the earth will be blessed” (Gen 22.18). This sobering responsibility is, again, reminded us in the New Testament when we are told that “to [who] much is given, much is also required” (Luke 12.48). Singer, without the gospel, has a tough task in urging Americans (or any affluent population) to buy into a never ending giving campaign to helping people who will continue to be needy. Singer’s solution is laced with attempts to point to a higher, more divine order of humanity- morality. Unfortunately, morality has become so relativistic and easily dismissed in secular society that his argument only falls on apathetic ears and unwilling bystanders. While Peter Singer also insists that we must give out of moral obligation, I propose that we, instead, give out of our love for God. Richard Stearns, CEO of WorldVision and author of The Hole In Our Gospel wrote in his book, “If we truly love God, we will express it by loving our neighbors, and when we truly love our neighbors, it expressed our love for God”. I’m insisting that this is our mandate- to “love the Lord [our] God” and “love [our] neighbor as ourselves]”(Luke 10.27).

“Christianity is ranked as the largest religion in the world today with approximately 2 billion adherents”. There are almost believed to be nearly 200 million just in the United States. Can you imagine if each and every Christian gave every month, every year, every decade, and so on? In itself, that would meet the needs of many impoverished in our world. Some estimates say that “an investment of $30 billion per year in agriculture of developing countries [will] double food production by 2050 and ensure the basic right to food for all people”. We need to be concerned about pleasing God until our hearts are compelled to do something, even if it be counter-cultural, to change the fates of those in need.

World poverty seems so far away from some of us. And because it is so, it is easy to be Christian enough to be concerned but not Christian enough to be moved. We are told that “faith without works is dead” (James 2.20). It was Martin Luther King Jr. writing from the Birmingham Jail in 1963 who penned the words, “If today’s church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning…”. Logical arguments and reason, at times, are enmity to our spiritual directives. Similarly, we cannot trust our hearts at times because they are “deceitful above all things and desperately wicked…” (Jeremiah 17.9). Regardless the perceived efficacy of our giving, we are mandated to give, and love. We are to give freely because He gives freely and love without restraint because that is how Christ loves us. Christians are not to be principally governed by secular arguments or the inward appeals of our fickle emotions. Instead, we are to “put on Christ” (Galatians 3.27) and allow Him to be the transcendent force that governs our lives and decisions.

*Note- this was an essay written with a prompt to contrast the idealogical solutions to world poverty presented by Hardin and Singer.