"Not My Fault" and Hope

We were less than ten minutes into day one of our new year at the elementary program and our intern Marcus was introducing what we would be doing each week. By way of conversation, when he came to Bible Time, he asked the kids, "How many of you have a Bible at home?"

One of our new students raised his hand and said, "I don't. My dad can't afford one." A few kids laughed and he quickly and blankly replied, "What? It's not my fault."

And you know what? He was right. It's not.

Immediately this brought to mind, a line from a Tim Keller sermon. To paraphrase he says, "In our society, there are different explanations for intractable problems like poverty that can be found in schools across our city. Some people say, it's all about systems and structures that funnel people into negative outcomes. Others say it's about personal responsibility and choices that lead to a downward spiral. But what nobody says is that it's the kids' fault."

You certainly have an opinion about what causes and reinforces poverty, I know I do, but I think we do well when we frame our attitude and response in line with this anecdote. Someone can address root causes and solutions from a variety of perspectives, but if that approach starts from a point of view that fails to see the person truly stuck in the midst, it won't go far. And worse yet, it may dehumanize the person on the other side of that "good work".

We live in a world full of aphorisms that oversimplify a the complexity of poverty. But, in the hopes of expanding and enhancing our mindset, allow me to briefly respond back to some of these:

"You got to pull yourself up by your bootstraps."  

            "What if you don't have boots?"

"Let's focus on the deserving poor."  

            "Aren't you glad Jesus didn't choose to only come for the deserving sinners?"

"The problem is laziness." 

            "Let's trade eyes sometime and I'll show you the single moms I know who catch three buses to two jobs each day."

"Don't let the government support you." 

            "Do you know how big the gap was between what the State of Wisconsin paid vs my tuition in college? Me and anyone else at a state school were easily receiving more welfare than folks on food stamps."

Sometimes, I think back on interactions I had in my first few years here and shudder at my ignorance. The combination of being 23 and thinking I had all the solutions and having lived in a very different world created some major gaps. I saw situations and missed the nuance. I offered solutions that were no solution at all. But, most concerning, in doing so I created an unhealthy, unbalanced, unfruitful dynamic.

For example, let's just take one family as an example. At this time the middle son was spending most of his time at the library to use the internet for video games even though he was of "working age". In my mind, I felt like there was a laziness that I needed to fix, but I was missing context.

This young man had an older brother who was a manager at a fast food restaurant. He saw a commercial for a college at the mall. He talked to them about their Criminal Justice program with the goal of becoming a police officer and was upfront that he had an old, non-violent felony conviction. They assured him he could still reach that dream, that they had contacts, that they would get his record expunged, and signed him up and gladly took all his Pell Grant money. He got a bachelor's degree. He went to apply to be a cop . . . and got laughed out of the building. They said, "Not only would we never hire you, no one will even let you be a security guard with a record." So, he went back to fast food.

This young man had a mom who had talked about taking night classes so she could advance at her job. She talked about it a lot. She made a plan. But then, a family crisis hit and instead of school, she needed to pick up more shifts in the evenings.

This young man had a sister who had dropped out of high school. A recruiter from another one of these colleges at the mall told her she could sign up for college classes and get her diploma at the same time. All she needed to do was sign some paperwork to agree to send some money their way. She started school, but she couldn't keep up and she dropped out of that program only a few weeks later. In the years to come, a Senate investigation would show these "colleges" intentionally over-enrolled their classes using formulas to 1) target the poor, 2) access their scholarships, and 3) intended for high drop-out rates so they could hire a limited staff, but still collect the full tuition. They had PowerPoint presentations, scripts, recruiter training videos, and everything the prove that their active business plan was "mistreat and swindle the poor".

So, now, look back at this young man sitting at the library. If this is your family history, video games sounds a lot more appealing right? Everyone you know that tried to "better themselves" ended up worse off than where they started. In a certain angle, he was acting rationally.

And this isn't just anecdotal, the well-known sociologist William Julius Wilson described this phenomena by calling it "ghetto nihilism". When faced with (near) impossible odds, some individuals in neglected communities will do the math and decide its hopeless and therefore choose to not even try.

This isn't a good approach. It's not a righteous approach. But I can understand it. It's pragmatic.

But, there's good news here. First, against all odds that young man is doing well now. But second, there is a way forward. I have had to learn to hold these two things in tension: the challenges and the hard steps necessary to overcome them. In empathy, we are called to say, "This is so hard and I am with you in this." Having someone in our corner really can make all of the difference and that's why relational neighboring is at the center of all we do here.

But, we don't just stop at faithful presence, we also must say, "What's the next step you can take?" and keep moving their (and our) progress forward. This is highly relational. It is long-term. It will take many people pushing together in the same direction. It doesn't happen overnight, but there is hope.

And hope is powerful. Hope is a gospel message. 

In hope, Jesus healed, taught, and lived amongst his people.

In hope, Jesus loved those who were actively against him.

In hope, Jesus defeated death and rose back to life (what could be more hopeful in dire times than that!)

In a world where people are faced with hopeless situations, Jesus steps in--literally becomes flesh in our terrestrial realm--and says, "I'm with you to the very end of the age."

For me and for you and for Brentwood, we all need the reminder that He's here and with us in the midst and for the journey forward.