Antinomies I Poverty

Debates on poverty, between conservatives who believe that the poor should help themselves, and liberals who believe that the state should help the poor, are flawed from the start. Because both positions are predicated on not believing in God's abundance.

Though liberals orient primarily toward the poor, and conservatives orient primarily toward themselves, neither is morally right. We have to look at what fears are behind both their positions. Liberals are saying, if the government does not give, the poor will not have enough. Conservatives are saying, if the government does give, I will not have enough. Both believe that there is only so much to go around. This reveals that neither side believes that God is infinitely abundant. Because of this common limit to their faith in God, neither position can claim moral superiority.

If they believe in God's promise to provide, there would be no reason to be afraid. We can accept that conservatives will orient primarily to themselves and liberals will always consider others. This is balance, and this is as it should be. However, if both positions did believe in God's infinite prosperity, then their reactions to the poor would look very different. Conservatives would say, you may take my resources to give to the poor, because I know God provides for me and I will in no way be less well off by sharing my wealth with others. Liberals would say, I have more than enough energy and resources in my life to follow my heart and assist the poor. I do not need to hope the government or anyone else will take care of them for me. God has revealed their burden to my heart, therefore I am part of God's provision for them. I can give of myself because I know God will take care of what I need for myself in the course of opening myself to be an instrument of God's grace.

See, both liberals and conservatives reveal by their political orientations a common underlying belief - that God is not providing for them. To believe that God is watching over and providing for you opens up a third way, Jesus' way. This is neither liberal nor conservative. Whether your heart is given the gift of going out and personally helping others in need, or the gift of focusing and channeling prosperity, your attitude and reactions will look much different if you have faith enough to follow the third way.

This reveals one last important shared point - that neither side of the debate should concern themselves with the poor as a starting point. If liberals and conservatives have an incomplete faith in God, which does not allow them to see all the ways that God has, is and will continue to provide for them, then their first priority should be healing their own situation, to come into full awareness of grace. Jesus did not start by tending to the poor. Jesus started by realizing he was the son of God.

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(* Antinomies are categories of mutual exclusivity, two positions that cannot be reconciled. Kant believed that the human mind was created in a way that causes us to see all things in terms of binary oppositions. Taoists believe that when two things seem irreconcilable, we must rise above and see the situation with a new mind, often which realizes the harmony and balance in the overall situation, as symbolized by the yin-yang symbol. This piece is part of a series that will explore underlying assumptions behind traditionally entrenched debates, toward seeing how ideological divisions can be dissolved toward mutual harmony and understanding.)

A prayer for three friends.

the three I hold
have fears from old
and you, O lord,
forgive them.

We hope so fast
that in our grasp
the future'd pass
as given.

A trembling heart,
When pierced by doubt
May bleed a pool
to drown in.

We, floating on
that surface pond
at last know Your
dominion.

Our Father be,
three come with me.
Our rain becomes
a shelter

Absent Love,
We fall to dust
and lay before
our Maker.

Grains of sand
pass through our hands
as we pass through
your healing.

Hope and help,
when done ourselves,
betray our lack
of feeling.

For Yours alone
can bring us home
and fan the tears
once fallen.

b like the squirrel

aright

so now im thinkin bout nothing doing.

when you got things to do but doing nothing bout it.

thinkin first it was a philosophy but then realisin now this PSA is made possible by impossibility: couldn't do it if i wanted. the body, tormented by havoc wreaked from stress is having none of it. instead of work toward deadlines its killians red, a smoke, and rocknroll.

so wats this tell us.

when it was a philosophy i spouk it (spoke/spout) to a girl obviously too dominated by the deadline. usually people don't listen. ; thinks I: they can't

suddenly a new semester and she's eschewing responsibility with the best of them. and thinks i: was it something i said?

sits I back with beers and riffs pounding and almost make an excuse: well _I_ have a disease. I have an excuse for resisting powerfully the demands of outside. feels like, there is a natural 'NO' built in to the logic. having seized the reigns, the body imposes its tyrannical vegetation. when it permits work, only on condition that no stress accompanies this "pro duc tivity." I can get things done so long as the mind gels in coolness.

but another? she? what do we call it when a person has no disease? laziness, hmph. right. we call it laziness. pro crass ination.

but nature takes over. has power. vegetation that takes over takes root- grows up in vines, encircles our legs, impedes steps. it is no progress. time for a dive rather than drive. dive into ourselves. explode this world from inside out. a big mid finger to the BUA business as usual.

Nature takes over. "for janet, help came from her faith, but it also came from a squirrel." if that squirrel can take care of himself with a harsh winter coming on, so can I.

starts in the us whose livelihood gets seized by paralysis induced from the death wish against whom we play chicken.

but it spreads.

not all have to face death.

maybe you hear it from someone who has, and just it spreads in you. like that vine, like that virus.

suddenly, you are nature's child again.

and nobody, not those who haven't got it, not frickin Harvard, no one can defeat the power of the earth.

global cooling: a phenom of arrest within. life stops that which led us into the fire.

b like the squirrel.

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