some thoughts on poverty and diversity....

Like I said earlier, the class I'm taking this quarter is called "Globalization, the Poor, and Christian Mission." I was reading today and came across some thought-provoking passages about the prevalence of poverty in the world, about diversity and the importance of recognizing that everyone is made in God's image, even when our human nature makes it hard for us to see that because of racial, religious, or cultural differences.

Daniel Groody, from his book Globalization, Spirituality, and Justice (keep in mind these are facts from 2006):


"If the world as we know it today was proportionally reduced to a village of 100 people, 51 would be male, 49 would be female, 60 would be Asian, 14 African, 11 European, 14 American (North, South, Central, and Caribbean), and 1 Australian or New Zealander. Drawing people together from many different cultures, languages, and religions, 14 in this village would speak, as their first language, Mandarin, 5 English, 5 Spanish, 3 Hindi, 3 Portugese, 3 Bengali, 2 Russian, 2 Japanese, 1 Arabic, and 1 German. The other 61 would speak Indonesian, French, Italian, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, and many other languages. From a faith perspective, 33 would be
Christan, 20 Muslim, 14 atheist, agnostic, or nonreligious, 13 Hindu, 13 from other religions, 6 Buddhist, and 1 Jewish."

He continues, "In our global village of 100 people, the resources are unevenly distributed. The richest person in the village has as much as the poorest 57 taken together. Fifty do not have a reliable source of food and are hungry some or all of the time, and 30 suffer malnutrition. Forty do not have access to adequate sanitation; 31 people live in substandard housing; 31 do not have electricity; 18 are unable to read; 15 do not have access to safe drinking water. Only 16 people have access to the Internet. Only 12 own an automobile. Three are migrating. And only 2 have a
college education. Overall, 19 struggle to survive on one dollar per day or less; 48 struggle to live on 2 dollars a day or less. In brief, as the World Bank describes it, 2/3 of the planet lives in poverty."

And the thing is that we're not just talking about people on the other side of the world that we will never actually meet, although they are definitely included in this. "One out of every eight Americans live in poverty and one out of every three Americans live in poverty at least two months out of the year. Overall, in the richest country in the world, more than 37 million people live in poverty, which is more than the entire population of Canada."


What are we, as individuals and as the Church, doing to reach out to the 2/3 of the world that is living in poverty?

I also was really challenged by this quote from Jonathan Sacks in his article "The Dignity of Differency: Avoiding the clash of civilizations":


"The religious challenge is to find God's image in someone who is not in our image, in someone whose color is different, whose culture is different, who speaks a different language, tells a
different story, and worships God in a different way."


He also says, "Those who are confident in their faith are not threatened but enlarged by the faiths of others."

Let's be on the lookout for God's image in a person you might not readily expect to find it. Let me know what you see!



.....p.s. elvis is back! Suzy and I are in Myrtle Beach with him right now. So excited! And, he shaved his Mr. T beard =)