Phone Calls From Jesus

Conclusion - killing poverty dead

To wrap things up, poverty should be of paramount importance to us because it is of paramount importance to God. There are literally hundreds of solutions to fight poverty on a local, regional, national and international level. In order to get the ball rolling, we first have to realize our responsibility to those less fortunate than ourselves, and reject our Western culture’s ignorance of its current state of affairs.

We also need to make the fight against poverty the chief domestic battle in the American mindset. While drug abuse, teenage pregnancy, dead-beat dads, abortion, racism and the failure of our public schools are all important problems, I truly believe that they could all be alleviated in a concentrated effort to eliminate or reduce poverty in America. The best way to do that is to encourage as much as possible new and creative ways to fight poverty in our local communities.

It should also be noted that poverty in the States is nothing like poverty in the international community. War torn areas in Bosnia, Afghanistan and Palestine struggle in ways that we here in America can only begin to comprehend. Even whole continents, such as Africa and South America, still struggling to make a peaceful transition from colonialism to democracy, have huge numbers of people living in the worst of conditions. In the process, revolution and civil war have decimated their economies in what can only be likened to a decades long Great Depression of their very own. There are no easy answers; there is only action.

Maybe we can’t win the war against poverty. But we can win battles in a global fight to make sure real people have the basics needed for survival, and maybe even personal fulfillment. In doing so, the Church can once again prove that individuals have incredible worth – even if it’s just one local church a time, impacting one individual at a time.

This is our calling. Damned lies and statistics need to be discarded, and replaced by real people, loving others, as Christ loved the Church.