Amy and ‘Is Poverty a Choice?’

Is Poverty a Choice?

It seems to have been for Francis.

Francis, and Clare, both from wealthy families, high social standing, deep connections and familial and societal networks, chose a life of poverty.

They chose a life of poverty.

Scripture tells us that Jesus himself chooses poverty and homelessness. You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, Paul writes in his second letter to the church in Corinth, although he was rich, he became poor for your sakes, so that you could become rich through his poverty. (2 Cor: 8:9 CEB)

What about the rest of us who don't choose a life of poverty?

What about those of us like the eight families Matthew Desmond follows in Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City who don't have many (if any) choices they are free to make?

It seems to me that not only have these eight families not chosen poverty, they have instead been forced into poverty by complex social and personal forces without their consent.

Forced into poverty by policies designed to benefit a few instead of the common good.

Forced into poverty by underground economies that depend on the eviction cycle to pay their own employees to keep them out of poverty.

Forced into poverty by economic forces beyond their control.

And now, for families like them, forced into poverty by COVID-19 and its aftermath which we are all impacted by one way or another.

It seems to me that no matter how hard any one individual in Desmond's book chooses to improve their lot in life or that of their kids by going back to school, getting clean, finding a safer neighborhood or safer apartment, it doesn’t take much to pull them back down into poverty and homelessness -not the kind of poverty that some of us can perhaps idealize or romanticize in saints of the Church, but the grinding, abusive, violent poverty that hastens death.

According to Desmond, eviction is not just a temporary condition, but an increasingly permanent station in the people's lives. Eviction is a fundamental cause of poverty itself. (pp 298-299)

What do you make of this? Does this influence how you see the voluntary poverty that many in the institutional church lift up and celebrate? Does this influence how you see the poverty of Jesus and his disciples as they move from town to town, preaching good news, healing the sick, and depending on the hospitality of others for food and shelter (Lk 9:3)?

Does this influence how you think about the mission of St. Francis Episcopal Parish and Community Center?