Self-fulfilling poverty and the abuse of images

The scene is common enough, at least in the United States, at least out West. Driving home from church services, I passed not once, but twice, “poor people” sitting or standing at a highway off-ramp or at a traffic-lighted major intersection, holding up a brown cardboard sign, asking for money.
I was surprised that I only encountered two. On a typical day of running errands or even going to and coming home from work, I will encounter at least a half-dozen and up to eight or ten.

These people range a broad spectrum of human types: men and women, young, middle aged and old, black and white (although where I live, Oregon, almost exclusively white), poorly dressed to stylish and well-dressed, dirty to clean and well-groomed in appearance.

The signs advertise a wide range of pleas: “Homeless, will work for food” is the most pathetic, if true. “Disabled veteran, anything will help. God bless” is another one that almost elicits a response, and sometimes does. I used to pass by, looking the other way, but now, I generally pay more than average attention to each beggar, especially when I can stop close. I look them over, then look at them in the face to see if they will look back—some do, most don’t, or only quickly, and when they see the intensity of my gaze, look away. If I have enough time, I try to read every word on their signs.

There have been one or two in the past three months I would’ve helped, but it was at the wrong time. For me, help is not a handout, but going back and talking to them man to man, and find out what it is they need, and if I could, I would help them. But I only help real people, not mere images. Once or twice, after getting done with my errand, I actually drove back to where I saw them to do exactly that, but both times they were already gone. It made me think, “Was even that one only a mirage of need?” but that doesn’t stop me from keeping a lookout.

“The poor you will have with you always, but you will not always have Me,” says the Lord. I ask Him like a Pharisee, “But who is the poor?” and His answer is still the same, even though my question is slightly different, “A man was once on his way down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of brigands…” This is why I don’t want to just pass by, throw a dollar bill into a man’s hat, accept his “God bless you!” and move on. My conscience is not for sale, and even a beggar hasn’t poverty enough to buy it, if it was.

They work on guilt. Living in self-fulfilling poverty, they want to have things on their terms, they want to be supported in their lifestyle, without following the rules that civil society has made to help them stand on their own two feet. Painting themselves into a corner, they have made a habit of blaming everyone but themselves for their “poverty,” while still coveting the prosperity they imagine others have and are cheating them of. They know the bible enough to know that God demands compassion from us for those in need. They take that image and run with it, but as blackmailers.

A poor man is a man who wants to work but is unable to for a real reason, just as a cripple is a man who wants to stand on his own feet and walk but cannot because of a real handicap. Compassion and help to either are the catalysts to their recovery, unless their condition is caused by an uncooperative spirit. Though Judæo-Christian ethics have been officially abandoned after tutoring a civilization to ethical maturity, even what is left after faith and obedience are removed is still enough to help those who wish to be helped, at all costs to themselves, rather than on their own terms.

We speak of self-fulfilling prophecy when describing people who set themselves up to fail. For the topic under discussion, I've changed the wording to self-fulfilling poverty. That’s the kind of poverty that is so proud of itself, that it would rather humiliate the beggar himself and shame the people being begged, than submit to reason, get real help, and be done with.

As for images, we live in an age when every image and name has been bent, profaned, and abused beyond all limit and sense of decency. Images that were meant to invoke compassion are now used to extort it.

Yes, Lord, You are right when You say, “The poor you will have with you always, but you will not always have Me.” Show us Yourself in the real poor, and save us from the deadness of heart that would walk away from their need. As for these others, Lord, Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.