Poverty's Big Lie

Poverty's Big Lie
By:  Scott Todd

Extreme poverty is when you’re sitting in a slum, jobless, staring at rusty bottle caps in the dirt. You
wonder if you could make something out of them that other people might buy. Even for a few shillings. Then you could fill your daughter’s empty stomach with some beans, and maybe have enough for yourself too. But you’re so hungry now. And who would buy some rusty bottle caps, anyway? What’s the point? It isn’t going to get any better.

Hopelessness is the deepest trench of poverty.

It cuts through the heart and mind and is very difficult to climb out of.

Imagine coming home from a fruitless search for work, hungry and fatigued, to a one-room shack with a dirt floor and a curtain for a door. Sleeping on a moldy mat that you share with your 12-year-old daughter. Remembering the man you loved and aching over his infidelity for the thousandth time. How you and your daughter cared for him through his agonizing, HIV-induced death. You’re not
angry at the prostitute. You’re not even angry at him. You just want him back.

After his death you couldn’t afford the rent in the better part of town where you had a solid door and a concrete floor. And now you’re in this hellhole. Without dinner there’s nothing to do but blow out the candle, try to get comfortable on your mat, and swat the mosquitos that might kill you. You’re too tired to be afraid of them – there are things you fear more.

You fear the gangs almost as much as the police. You fear for your daughter every time she pushes through that curtain door into the violent world beyond. You wish you could find a job so you could stop borrowing rent money from your sister.

It all whispers, “It won’t get any better. Just give up.”

This is the disempowered state – a fatalistic outlook and condition Bryant Myers, author of “Walking With the Poor,” calls the “marred identity of the poor.” When you are disempowered, you shrug in defeat. You don’t soldier on. You sit down and wait for a rescue that you don’t expect to come. It’s a condition in which you no longer hope for a better future, and you don’t see yourself capable of making positive changes. Instead, you see yourself as a victim of unchangeable circumstances.

The corrupt and predatory feed on you – exploiting you with coercive power. Demanding more from you at work under threat of getting fired. Increasing your rent to include protection money for the gangs that your landlord’s brother is leading. And the voices of fatalism burrow deeper into your mind:

“You can’t. You’re worthless.”

It’s difficult to rescue people from this state by giving them what they need. In fact, you might reinforce the “you can’t” message. The handout can increase their sense of failure, making them more dependent on others. Therefore great wisdom is required in the work of transformational development to break the disempowered state and enable such people to regain optimism, initiative, achievement and dignity.

The rescue strategy requires truth to combat the lie. Poverty whispers, “You can’t.” But God responds with encouragement such as, “With me, you can. You matter. You’re loved. You’re made in My image. I hear you and will walk with you on the difficult road. I have a plan, so don’t give up – it can get better.” The good news, the Gospel, of Jesus Christ is a matchless, unrivaled rescue strategy in multiple dimensions.

If there is anything that exposes the lies of poverty, it is the Gospel.

But the proclaimed Gospel is not enough. Disenfranchised people need the whole Gospel – in action as well as words. They need Jesus’ spoken truth, and they need His disciples to live it. They need to see the muscles of the Gospel flex, expressing love in gritty, persevering, intelligent, effective action.

The good news of Jesus Christ, proclaimed and demonstrated, is the most powerful anti-poverty strategy.  Jesus offers the restoration of hope, a new supportive and caring community in the church, and a strong foundation from which to try, to risk and to succeed or fail, knowing that you’ll be loved either way. The Gospel leads us to love others, to forgive, to see the image of God in our enemies as in ourselves, and to discover a genuine basis for dignity and integrity. The Gospel can raise a generation of men and women of integrity – servant leaders – to displace corruption and restore social trust upon which a nation can rise. The Gospel creates people who work for the Lord in the humble service of causes much bigger than themselves.

Think this is fluffy, idealistic rhetoric? It’s not. I’ve seen it. Not just once or twice. There is an advancing wave of real people doing exactly these things.

We don’t do anti-poverty work and share the Gospel. Sharing the Gospel is anti-poverty work. Furthermore, it is more profound than any other effort because it penetrates layers of the human condition that cannot be reached with a vaccinating needle. The Gospel brings healing and hope. It ignites new initiatives by bringing hurting people from all economic levels into relationship with God. His Holy Spirit fills us with vision, and we can see that with God anything, absolutely anything, is possible. Even the end of extreme poverty.


Excerpted from “Hope Rising” by Scott Todd. Published by Nelson Books, an imprint of Thomas Nelson. Nashville, Tennessee, Copyright 2014 by Compassion International, Inc.