Do you know how hard it is for poor people to escape poverty? Learn why.

May 17, 2013

The cost of being poor
Writing for Red Letter Christians, Katelin Hansen says that most of us wouldn’t be able to afford being poor. To prove her argument,  she has provided an insightful article filled with embedded links to back up each point. She writes: “One can work full time and still not earn an income that is above the poverty line. Families are forced to make tough choices to stay afloat, living paycheck to paycheck with no opportunity to save. All this in a world where everything is more expensive when you’re poor.” She shows how people who are poor face higher costs in both time and money. And she includes a link to an interactive video game in which you can try your hand at escaping poverty while running into one roadblock after another. Yet, many people still think poor people have only themselves to blame for their situation and that digging out is easy if they have the will. The Bible has a lot to say about our responsibility toward persons who are poor. Hansen’s article reminds us of that fact and should move us, as Christians and as feminists, toward both compassion and action.

Letha Dawson Scanzoni is an independent scholar, writer, and editor, and is the author or coauthor of nine books. In 1978, she and Virginia Ramey Mollenkott wrote Is the Homosexual My Neighbor?, one of the earliest books urging evangelical Christians to rethink their views on homosexuality (updated edition, 1994, HarperOne). More recently, Letha coauthored (with social psychologist David G. Myers) What God Has Joined Together: The Christian Case for Gay Marriage (HarperOne, 2005 and 2006). Another of Letha’s most well-known books is All We’re Meant to Be: Biblical Feminism for Today, coauthored with Nancy A. Hardesty (Word Books, 1974; revised edition, Abingdon, 1986; updated and expanded edition, Eerdmans, 1992). Letha served as editor of Christian Feminism Today in both its former print edition (EEWC Update) and its website for 19 years until her retirement in December 2013.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.