Bible

Is the Church Responsible for the World’s Poor?

I serve with a Christian international organization that seeks to minister holistically among very need people in 11 countries around the world. While we are not dependent on government funds provided through agencies like USAID, our friends, partner organizations, and many of those suffering from poverty have benefitted from their support. Sadly, with the shuttering of USAID, the infrastructure of support has largely collapsed, leaving needy people even more vulnerable. I also volunteer with a U.S. organization that provides food and material support to elderly, disabled, and other disadvantaged folk in the town we currently live in. Because of government cutbacks in 2025, those we serve are already feeling the pinch. When SNAP (food stamps) is frozen in November, people we know will go hungry.

Those, often with Libertarian leanings, who advocate for “small” government and/or for decreasing progressive income taxes claim that “it has always been the responsibility of individual Christians or the church and not the government to take care of the poor.” While there is some truth in this claim, in what follows, I want to briefly refute it.

Let me begin by noting some examples from the Old Testament that call for the leadership of a nation to care for the poor. We begin with Israel. God calls the leaders of Israel to “seek justice, defend the oppressed, take up the cause of the fatherless, and plead the case of the widow” (Is. 1:17). God judges the leaders for exploiting the poor (Is. 3:13-15; 10:1-4; Mic: 3:1-4; Jer 23:1-2). While different from a modern democratic context, these texts explicitly call for political leadership to protect the poor.

And this mandate is not only for the leaders of Israel. We can glance at a few examples in the Old Testament where the leaders of other nations are called to care for the poor. Egypt serves as a paradigm. Pharoah has exploited the people – particularly the Israelites. God sees their affliction and hears their cries (Ex. 3:7). God comes to deliver the people and judge Pharoah for failing to care. But it is not only the cries of the poor Israelites that God hears. The language is similar in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. God hears the great outcry from Sodom and Gomorrah and judges the cities (Gen 18:20). With harsh words, Ezekiel compare Sodom to Israel, saying that her sin was pride, gluttony, prosperous ease, and not aiding the poor and needy (Ek. 16:49). We see it again in Jonah where God threatens judgment on Ninevah. Just as in Sodom and in Egypt, the wickedness (i.e. oppression of the poor) of Ninevah comes before God. These are just three incidences in the Old Testament where God judges nations (not only the people of God) for their governments’ lack of care for the poor. What is the implication for us today? Biblical revelation asserts that God calls not only leaders of God’s people to care for the poor, but also leaders of all nations to protect the poor.

Now, let us note the truth in the claim: we do affirm that the Church should care for the poor. Jesus comes to “preach good news to the poor” (Lk 4:14-22). Jesus identifies with the poor and says that we will be judged by how we treat the poor (Mt. 25:31-46). Paul says that the sign of Christian mission is concern for the poor (Gal. 2:10). James says that faith is demonstrated by care for the poor (2:5). I could go on and on. Followers of Jesus should care for the poor.

If this is true, then, was it the job of the Church to care for the world’s poor in the first few centuries? Yes and no. The early church was growing but still small. It could not care for all of society’s poor or do so in societies where there was no church. The early church understood that the tithe (which had been given to the Levites) was to be given to the poor (See Ray Mayhew’s Embezzlement: The Corporate Sin of Contemporary Christianity? and Justo L. González Faith and Wealth). This meant that every Christian (and not only the very rich) could imitate God in generosity toward the needy and encounter God in meeting the needs of the “least of these.” The philanthropic activity of the early church was attested to by their enemies. For example, the emperor Julian the Apostate (331-363 AD) wanted to re-paganize the Roman Empire. Trying to motivate his fellow pagan devotees to care for the poor, he said that the Galileans (aka Christians) “support not only their own poor but ours as well.” If we are to extrapolate to our contemporary context, we can say that Christians are called to care for the poor and that this is what early Christians were known for. The generosity of the early Christians was evangelistic, drawing many to the church (see Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity.) That said, the church did not have the capacity, due to numbers and government opposition, to care for all of the poor in their own society, let alone in the world.

What about the Church’s role in caring for the poor after Constantine? In the Greco-Roman context of the early Church, it was the civic duty of the wealthy to “do good,” which meant caring for the well-being of society, which included the poor – though they were seen as having little or no value on the scale of human beings. According to the historian Peter Brown, as Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, the Bishops (among whom St. Basil is preeminent) were invested with the social significance and resources from the state to care for the poor. Because of the new  and immense value that the poor held for the salvation of those who aided them, Brown says that the Bishops “invented the poor” (See Peter Brown Poverty and Leadership in the Later Roman Empire). Looking at the early history of the Church, we can see that they understood their mandate for philanthropy to those in need, created institutional support for the poor, and advocated for government funds to care for the poor through the Church.

With the fall of Christendom, the Church has continued to advocate for government programs that care for the poor. It was Christians that led abolitionist movements (though admittedly in the face of Christian opposition as well), established hospitals, and created shelters and food programs (for example, the Clapham Sect, the Methodists, the Salvation Army, etc.) Christians were also at the forefront of movements for women’s rights, civil rights for marginalized races and ethnicities, hospitality for immigrants, and combating social problems caused by industrialization. Catholic Social Teaching and the “Social Gospel Movement” articulated theologies for governmental responsibility for its society’s most vulnerable members. It was through a Christian framework that universal declarations on human rights were articulated and ratified. Thankfully, we have ample examples of faithful Christian involvement in moving their governments to secure care for the poor.

As Christians, we not only need to articulate the biblical, theological, and historical rationale for calling our governments to care for the poor; we also need to unmask Libertarianism for the idol that it is. Libertarians believe that markets are “natural, spontaneous, self-regulating, efficient, and neutral mechanisms that best enable freedom of choice and the equal distribution of resources” (Bretherton, Christ and the Common Life). By simply looking at the vast disparity of wealth that our society enables, we see that Libertarian beliefs are not true. Furthermore, while resisting the state’s involvement in social justice and welfare provision for all citizens, Libertarians need the state to guarantee property rights. Here is a contradiction of convenience. Those with property seek government involvement to protect their interests but denounce government programs that stand to primarily benefit others.

While Libertarians and those like them believe that it is not the responsibility of governments to care for the poor, followers of Jesus should see it differently. The Bible is rich with stories of God calling to account leaders of nations for their treatment of the poor. Likewise, the history of the Church provides models for the church to direct governments to care for the poor. May our Story and our History inspire us in our care for those suffering in poverty and move us to lobby our government leaders to provide systems of protection for our society’s most vulnerable. We hold to the promise that when we do it to the most needy, we do it to Jesus.

The Ethic of Inefficiency

In 2003, I wrote the reflection below on inefficiency. It seems all the more relevant today as our elected leaders inaugurate a department for efficiency, which is applied subjectively, justifies any cut to programs and staff, and increases power in the hands of a few. This is the article:

“You have the watch, but we have the time.” – an Indian philosopher to a westerner

A few weeks ago I met with a Romanian pastor who had spent a year studying in the United States. He couldn’t believe how efficient Americans are, even down to calculating the time of arrival over long distances. His impression was only positive, commenting on how much more we can get done in a shorter amount of time. The more we discussed it, the more I realized how great a value we place on efficiency.

Efficiency is being economical in the use of resources like goods, money and time. For example, consider how we apply our business lingo to “time”, which we save, spend, manage and invest.

But to be efficient is costly. It means we invest in an infrastructure to serve efficiency, which demands maintenance. The most efficient economies consume the most resources. That is why many of us spend much of our lives working to be efficient to accomplish more with less but actually have less and less time for people. In a very real way, friendships, marriages and families are being sacrificed at the altar of efficiency.

Unfortunately, efficiency has been baptized by the church; and what is sanctified is easily justified. A potent illustration is the Christian’s library which includes booklets on the habits of efficient people right alongside other discipleship material, or other literature informed more by the modern business culture than by biblical exegesis.

Naturally, our ministries also reflect efficiency as well-oiled programs that accomplish their goals. But where are the people? Are they well-managed problems? Are they resources to be saved, spent or invested? Or are they persons – each a mystery that demands individual time, care and attention?

I am not saying that efficiency is of no value; I am simply saying that we need to prioritize our values. In his Confessions, St. Augustine said:

“You listen to the groans of the prisoners and free us from the chains which we have forged for ourselves. This You do for us unless we toss our heads against you in the illusion of liberty and in our greed for gain, at the risk of losing all, love our own good better than You Yourself, who are the common good of all.”

Under the illusion of liberty and in greed for more, we lose God. We do not pray because it is not efficient. We do not contemplate; we do not walk; we do not sit and talk. I am afraid that we have overvalued efficiency so that we, like the priest and the Levite, do not have the time to see the poor in the gutter, who is begging us to be a neighbor.

I think a vital problem is that hiding behind our efforts for efficiency lays our desire to dominate. A Romanian priest and theologian, Dumitru Staniloae, poignantly said:

“We can never secure our own freedom by dominating…Wanting to be lord over himself, man then finds that he is subject to himself; similarly, in his relationship with nature, wanting to lord it over the natural world he becomes its slave. Certainly man must be over nature, but that is a very different thing from the passionate desire to dominate it; man is lord of nature indeed only when he is free in relation to it.”

In order for efficiency to retain its value, we must be freed from our passions to dominate. This is something I personally wrestle with. As our ministry has grown, I have been increasingly loaded down with administrative jobs. In order to be efficient, I try to manage my time better so that I have time to accomplish my responsibilities. But I also see in myself the desire to control so that I can accomplish my will and my plans. This is domination in the name of efficiency.

This is vivid in the story of the sinful woman who washes Jesus’ feet with expensive perfume. The wise managers of money thought, “What a waste. Do you know how much we could do if we managed that perfume?” Hidden behind their thoughts of “efficiency” was their will to dominate. But Jesus validated her “waste” as being effective ministry to Him.

What we do is often wasted because we don’t waste it at the feet of Jesus. How often do we disobey in the name of good stewardship? Where are we being positively inefficient? What are we wasting at the feet of Jesus? A good way to verify our motivations for efficiency is to ask, how much time did I spend with people this week? How much time did I spend among the poor? What is the quality of my friendships with the poor? This is a gift offered by the poor: The dominated can reveal and check our tendency to dominate.