David R. Currie
A Rancher's Rumblings
May 21, 2009

CARING FOR THE POOR AS JESUS DID

At all of the TBC-BGCT Hope for the Future meetings, we are hearing an update on TexasHope 2010. It is a well-conceived emphasis begun by Randel Everett, BGCT executive director.

TexasHope 2010 calls us to prayer, care, and share. We are challenged to pray at noon, each day, for those in Texas who are hungry and those who do not know Christ. The BGCT has prepared materials for use in sharing the Gospel with every person in Texas by Resurrection Sunday, 2010. To find out more, go to the TexasHope 2010 Web site (www.texashope2010.com).

In a conversation earlier this week, I mentioned how much I despise getting politically-oriented emails of any sort – regardless of the political party or perspective behind them – and, especially, from friends who automatically assume that I agree with them on political issues. I delete them immediately, once I realize what I’m reading. We do not all think alike – which, to be frank, is healthy for America, as well as for Baptists.

One issue on which we can disagree is how to help the poor. Some believe strongly in government help for the poor, while others believe that churches and charities can do the job and should do the job of helping the poor without government help. I fall into the category of believing that we need both government programs and private help. But that is just my opinion, and I respect your opinion if you disagree with me.

During the conversation to which I referred, I mentioned the incredible book, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, by James Agee. I think it is one of the greatest books ever written (strengthened by the stark photographs taken by Walker Evans), and it has only grown in its appreciation since its publication in 1941.

In 1936, Agee and Evans lived, for a while, with three migrant sharecropper families in rural Alabama. In the book, Agee attempted to “directly appeal for the reader to see the humanity and grandeur of these horrible lives.” And friends, they did live horrible lives while being hard-working people – hard-working Americans just trying to survive.

Evans has photographs of women who – in their 30’s – look like they are in their 60’s. The photographs take your breath away, and Agee’s prose is evidence of the talent that would later win him a Pulitzer Prize before alcoholism killed him at only 45 years of age. For you who love old movies, you need to know that Agee also wrote the screenplay for the Humphrey Bogart-Katharine Hepburn movie, The African Queen.

In 1989, a follow-up book – titled And Their Children After Them – was published that examined the descendants of the three families 50 years later. Sadly, most were still living in poverty, following the same pattern of marrying young, having children young, and failing to complete their education. Some had managed to buy trailer houses or live in apartments, but few owned a home.

So what is my point? We are called to care. The four Gospels speak to our attitudes toward poverty, the use of money, and the danger of wealth more than any other subject – reflecting the importance that Jesus placed on these attitudes.

Yet the poorest part of America is the Bible Belt, that region that runs throughout the South, in which Baptists are the largest denomination.

I sometimes wonder whether we Baptists actually read the Bible or just like to argue about it. For the most part, we ignore what it says about the poor. Instead, we love to blame poverty on laziness – this seems to excuse us to walk away from it with a clear conscience and no sense of responsibility for it.

Jim Denison, speaking at the Currie-Strickland Distinguished Lectures in Christian Ethics a few weeks ago, told us that we had to first feed the hungry to earn the right to share the Gospel with our culture. He said that Jesus always met people’s physical needs first and only then did He begin to deal with their spiritual needs.

I agree with Jim. I worked in state government for over 4 years in the 1980s. I’ve been involved in various business endeavors for the past 15 years. I find it consistently true that persons who have a secular worldview are more compassionate and caring for the poor than most Christians I know. They are also more forgiving and accepting of people in general, and understanding and accepting of people’s struggle and failure in particular.

TexasHope 2010 challenges us to pray for those in need. But that prayer should include praying that God will move us personally to care for them and to share with them – share our time and share what we have; then we can share Christ with them, for they will have already seen Jesus in our love for them.

A good place to start is the Texas Baptist Offering for World Hunger. To find out how to give to this offering – which challenges us this year to give one meal once a month – go to the Offering’s Web site (www.bgct.org/worldhunger).

If we do not Care, we have no credibility to Share. Think about it. Pray about it.