September 16, 2012
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What’s the problem? Day 4
It is Sunday. Nice to have a day off of work to work on forgetting that I am only eating rice and beans. What’s the problem? Why are people going hungry? Can’t they just all eat rice and beans? Apparently not. And I am guessing anyone who says that has never TRIED it.
Official reports (http://www.worldhunger.org/articles/Learn/world%20hunger%20facts%202002.htm ) state that hunger is caused by poverty (unequal income distribution, lack of resources, and conflict), which is caused by harmful economic systems (a minority who live high while others barely survive) conflict (natural disasters, but mostly man-made violence), and hunger, which itself is a deadly cycle of causing poverty and even more hunger.
Here is a secular look at rice and beans, their nutrition, Sean Hannity, and the worry about upping the amount of rice and lowering the amount of beans: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/05/03/151932410/man-cannot-live-on-rice-and-beans-alone-but-many-do .
I really liked this biblical stance on poverty at http://www.relevantmagazine.com/current/op-ed/incomplete-politics-poverty , and the implications on our upcoming voting:
“Why was there a bail out of Wall Street when so many other people are suffering? Why is the income gap growing? Why is the poverty rate around 15%? That’s more than 45 million people. And the most important question, at least for the candidates: who’s to blame? A partial understanding of a cause will lead, at best, to a partial solution.
Scripture is very clear about how we should treat the poor and the consequences if we don’t. Not many people argue that we should be seeking solutions for poverty What we don’t hear as much about causes of poverty. The Bible groups poverty’s causes into three general categories: calamity (drought, disaster, disease, death—Lam 4.9.), oppression (rich ruling poor, wicked dominating helpless-Prov. 13:23), and personal responsibility (personal foolishness, laziness, selfishness: lack of character—Prov.10:4).
President Obama generally subscribes to the oppressive cause for poverty and suggests creating better systems and increasing funding. Romney, on the other side, focuses on personal moral failure. The answer isn’t a one step process that fits in a five second sound bite, slogan, or political zinger. They’re both right. They’re both incomplete. We can’t just throw money at a problem and make it go away. Good systems are full of corrupt people and corrupt systems have good people. Neither can we just dismiss the poor by saying they brought it upon themselves and refuse to offer help or increase spending on the right programs. The problem of poverty is multi-faceted. Our response to it must be equally so.”
