JOHN WESLEY'S MANIFESTO - WHAT DOES FISHING HAVE TO DO WITH IT?
This is the second blog based on “John Wesley’s
Manifesto”. I spent time previously talking about reducing the gap between the
right and the poor. Today, let’s talk about three other parts:
· * Help
everyone to have a job
· * Help
the poorest, including introducing a living wage
· * Offer
the best possible education
I know it seems like a lot for one blog, but
all three strongly relate to each other. Often when we talk about “helping”
others, it becomes a money thing. “How much do you need? I’ll write a check.” “Let
me put some money in that homeless person’s hand.” “I’ll pick up an extra
sandwich at the fast food restaurant and give it to the man standing on the
corner.” “They have suffered so much because of the flood, let me send some items
to help out.” Now, there is nothing wrong with ANY of these answers. I believe
these answers all reflect a giving and generous heart, and providing for an
immediate need is vital, A giving and generous heart is the basis to all good
works.
However, these three issues from John Wesley go
beyond how we often look at helping. There’s a saying that “if you give a
man a fish, you feed him for a day; if you teach a man to fish, you feed him
for a lifetime.”
In doing some very simple googling of that saying, a website titled “quoteinvestigator” popped up that says that “the
general principle of alleviating poverty by facilitating self-sufficiency has a
long history. The 12th-century philosopher Maimonides wrote about eight degrees
in the duty of charity. In 1826 an explication of the eighth degree was
published in a journal called “The Religious Intelligencer”. Lastly, the eighth
and the most meritorious of all, is to anticipate charity by preventing
poverty, namely, to assist the reduced brother, either by a considerable
gift or loan of money, or by teaching him a trade, or by putting him in
the way of business, so that he may earn an honest livelihood and not be
forced to the dreadful alternative of holding up his hand for charity. . .[1] (bold added)
Is
this what John Wesley was talking about when he said to help the poorest? Charity
isn’t necessary if a person is helped to become all he or she can be. And a low
paying or “under the table” job isn’t what true helping involves.
· A
living wage is vital.
· How can we, as Christians, sit by while families who have two parents,
both working full-time jobs, still having to rely on food stamps, or food
banks, or charity, in order to feed, clothe and provide medication for their
family?
Often, the inability to provide a “living wage”
can be the result of a lifetime of systemic problems, which can include, but certainly
not be limited to: offering the best education to everyone. I have to say,
while I can say I grew up in a rural area, I still grew up in a primarily white
rural area. My parents stressed the importance of school, and twelve years of
school in that little village provided an excellent basis for future learning,
which I was able to carry with me when I left to go to business school, and
then on to university for my bachelors and ultimately to seminary for my
theological education. (Obviously, I like learning!).
Not everyone is as fortunate as I was, or as
many of the readers of this blog were. I am aware of a couple of people in my
own “circle” that need help filling out a simply job application, because learning
and reading wasn’t deemed important enough in their lives.
How can we sit back and let children, and adults, “grow up”
not learning, and not enjoying learning, not being able to read and write
sufficiently well enough that they can aspire to a living wage or a “good job”?
How
can we sit by and let the color of skin, or the economic “reality” of a family
or a geographic area, define how much someone is “allowed” to learn and earn?
(To add a bit of Broadway trivia, I believe
there’s a quote from the Big Fish musical that says the same thing, but
adds a line: “you teach a man the Alabama stomp, you feed his soul!”) I
always enjoy listening to Broadway tunes on my XM radio in my car, and I love
this song (take the time to Google and listen to it!). But the more I thought
about this line, the more I believe it has something to say to my thoughts that
I’ve tried to express here. Sure, we can satisfy someone’s need in the short
term by giving that person “something”. I want to make sure to stress that
sometimes this is exactly what’s needed.
If
someone is hungry today, feed them!
But, in the long term, we can help prevent that
hunger by giving everyone the ability and the opportunity to provide for
themselves.
If
someone is hungry for knowledge, teach them!
But, in the ultimate sense, we can feed a person’s
soul by providing the knowledge and experience, and love and grace and
kindness.
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