Christians and Poverty

The challenge is this: what do we as christians do about poverty?

What is poverty? How do we define it? There are definitions citing one dollar a day as an income target or two dollars a day. This is helpful, but the definition of Prof Hennie Lötter in his book: When I needed a neighbour were you there ?, is relevant to answer this question. Poverty is probably the level agreed by a group of society that is the minimum that you can live with/on in a certain area. To quote Lötter, "To describe someone as 'poor' thus indicates that a person has fallen below the standard of life thought appropriate for a human being in a specific society.", p. 19. (more information on author: http://www.uj.ac.za/philosophy/Home/AboutUs/Staff/HennieL%C3%B6tter/tabid/5196/Default.aspx )

Taking this as a guideline, I could say that R30 a day or R900 per month might be a minimum in Khayelitsha, Cape Town if you have to pay R5 per day for transport, R5 for airtime, R10 for food, R1 for clothing, R3 per day for electricity, R3 for sundries and R3 for tithing. It does not leave much for saving as such. If you have to pay for accomodation then your need will be R300 to R600 per month more.

So how do we break the cycle of poverty and how can we as christians tackle it?

Lötter ends his book on this note: "Jesus Christ, our Saviour and role model served human beings by living in this world and dying a sacrificial death for all people. Does this not mean that every christian should care deeply about the suffering and misery of the poor - and do somethng about it? (page 225).

Christians may be involved in emergency poverty relief (food, clothes or shelter to poor people - obvious examples). Helping the poor to help themselves through skills training is another possibility. Generously donating money or time (or both) to aid organizations will assist.

As christians we may take a stand to eradicate poverty. Once we have taken the stand we should then ask - what can we do now and what can we start now to ensure that this happens?

But, even if you do not want to take a stand to eradicate poverty, you may still assist to reduce the hardships of poverty. Pure poverty relief (like food) is one aspect to do, but in the long run wealth education is the better solution.

So if I can teach one person how to buy three houses at R50 000 each and sell two of those in seven years time for R130 000 each, he may have his own house debt free and R110 000 as an investment. This investment could generate R600 or more per month as a passive income - not much, but much more than no passive income. I may well break the cycle of poverty for this individual in his lifetime.

So, who is with me? Who wants to help with practical wealth education?

The ISBN numbers for Prof Lötter's book - 10:0 7963 0692 3 and 13:978 07963 0692 0.
Published by Lux Verbi