Housing disparity

Published on February 1, 2007
by Jimmy Shaw

Presidential candidate John Edwards — he of the Two Americas rhetoric, who wears on his rolled-up sleeves an ostensible commitment to the plight of the poor, who launched his latest campaign for president in New Orleans in order to show his solidarity with the impoverished and disadvantaged victims of Hurricane Katrina — edwardshouse (small).JPGapparently makes his home in a nice little 28,000 square-foot cottage nestled peacefully on an isolated 102-acre estate west of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, secluded in safety far from the urban chaos and challenges faced by most of America’s disadvantaged citizens.

Of course, this is low-hanging fruit for the likes of Fox News and National Review who use it as an opportunity to score political points about the hypocrisy of ‘the left’ in America. They’ll be harping on this for weeks and remind every one about it each time Edwards stands up to describe the disparities in American life.

I don’t really care about John Edwards or what kind of house he lives in. Is it unseemly for him to live in such comfort while preaching to us all about our collective responsibility to heal the inequalities in our society? Of course it is! But rich politicians posing as populists is nothing new. Neither is it creative for their opposition to point out the hypocrisy. Again, I don’t care. (Well, I care, sort of, but it’s not really the point I care to make.)

I’m much more interested in the ways that all of us participate in a kind of housing disparity. If it is unseemly for Edwards to pontificate from a 28,000 sqft pulpit, what does that imply for the American church? Isn’t it also terribly unseemly for the American churches to continue in their advancement and accumulation — buying up large acreages, building bigger facilities, spending more money on ourselves — while the needs of the world’s poorest go unmet? Churches continue to abandon the city centers of America for the relative safety and cheap land of the suburbs, while the residents of urban communities like Memphis and Houston and Newark live and die conveniently outside the view of most church members.

It reminds me of a story:

There was a rich [nation of Christians] who dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At their gate was laid [a billion] beggars named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich [church’s] table. Even the dogs came and licked their sores.

The time came when the beggars all died and the angels carried them to Abraham’s side. The rich [church] also died and was buried. In hell, where they were in torment, [The Rich Church] looked up and saw Abraham far away with [The Billion] by his side. So they called to him, “Father Abraham, have pity on us and send them to dip a finger in water and cool our tongues, because we are in agony in this fire.”

But Abraham replied, “My children, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while [these people] received bad things, but now they are comforted here and you are in agony.”

Then they answered, “We beg you, send [these poor people] to our relatives, for we have many brothers and sisters. Let [the poor of the world] warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.”

And Abraham replied, “They have Moses and the Prophets, including the words of Jesus; let them listen to them.”

But The Rich said, “No. But if [a billion poor people] come back from the dead, they will repent.”

Abraham said to them, “If they do not listen to Moses or the Prophets or even to Jesus, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.”

Moses has spoken. The Prophets have spoken. Jesus, too, has told us. (Honestly, I think that even if they had not, we’d still be without excuse.) But if we remain unconvinced, unmoved, and indifferent, Resurrection itself won’t make a difference!

We just go merrily on with “the Lord’s work” — celebrating our praise, collecting our tithe, acquiring our lands, building bigger barns — while a billion and more go without the most basic of human needs.

Every day they are laid at the gate of our world. And they wait silently.

They crowd the entrances to our high-tech Worship Centers. Their sick children line the vast parking lots of our suburban megachurches. They altogether stand along the sidelines of our gymnasiums and watch our teens play basketball.

But they never get in the way. Their invisible-yet-obvious presence never blocks the doorway to our sanctuary, or obstructs our view of the stage, or keeps us from hearing the praise team or sermon. They will never do anything that might keep us from accomplishing all we plan to do.

The nature of marginalization is that they can be ignored.
The proof of it is that they are.

I have to wonder what Father Abraham might likely say to us in ‘the next life’ when we beg him for even more comfort.

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