Self-Organizing Man

I also thank Jay for the opportunity to help with his blog while he is serving the survivors of Katrina.

In 1928, the Mississippi River flooded.  It started up north and came down the river.  When it became obvious that New Orleans would not be spared, the powers that be broke the levee.  They broke it in such a way that the poor neighborhoods were flooded, but the French Quarter was spared.  In one period account, people gathered on the levee’s waiting for rescue.  And the rescue boats came.  First, they took the white women and  children.  Then, they returned for the white men.  Then, they never came back.

In many ways, we have never come back for many people.  In the richest country of the world, an alarming percent live in poverty.  In the city of New Orleans, the percentage of citizens living below the poverty level was 28%.

The Bible mentions poverty over THREE THOUSAND TIMES.  How can Americans read the Bible with a pair of scissors, simply cutting out the parts that are inconvenient:  such as the parts about providing for the poor?  Instead, we provide tax cuts for the rich and cuts in services for the "least of these."

I’ve never been outside the US, so I will speak for us.  Many times in our country, poverty is distributed along racial lines.  We can’t continue to ignore that.  We can’t continue to ignore poverty in any of it’s manifestations.  Perhaps it is the spiritual poverty of this theocracy that enables the poverty of it’s people.

But the radical, inclusive Kindom of God (which as you know is what Jay has asked me to post about) doesn’t allow for poverty or obscene levels of personal wealth.  It ensures the needs of each person and the flourishing of the community.  And yes, it was no typo when i said the Kindom of God.  Isn’t that what it is all about?  Kin, in the broadest sense of the word, is the basis for our community.

Let’s see how our country, government and citizen, continues to respond to Hurricane Katrina.  That will be our measure for one generation.  Will we love?  Will we love for a moment?  Will we put a band-aid on the problem, or will we look at poverty on a systemic level?  Will we examine the intersection of poverty and racism?  Or will we just pass by on the other side of the road as quickly as possible.  Let’s not only hope, but demand that we don’t.

Ona