Conservative propaganda, which is inextricably tied to Christianity in the U.S., tells us that poor people have failed on a personal level. To be poor is to have failed to have made the best of the opportunities provided by God in this great land and that failing is nothing short of immoral. In this view, the world is a dangerous place filled with evil temptations. Salvation is a narrow path that the poor have failed to follow. Poor people are immoral in the eyes of conservatives and thus, they are undeserving of our compassion. Consider the Walmart employees who must work three part-time jobs to survive. Conservative Christian ideology suggests to us that these are lost people who didn’t follow God’s path and therefore they deserve their
…show more content…
It wasn’t their luck, the circumstances of their birth, or their talent for deception that made them rich. It was their good choices. Perhaps their souls are made of solid gold. I remember once listening to an episode of the “700 Club,” hosted by Pat Robertson, in which he refused to excuse a poor elderly couple in their eighties from sending him their tithe money so they could pay their medical bills instead. Robertson suggested that they find work and explained that sending 10% of their earnings would ensure them the blessings they needed for their continued life and good fortune. Robertson encouraged them to make the godly choice as that would solve all their problems in the end. According to the conservative view, Pat Robertson must know something about proper choices and he must surely be blessed by God since he enjoys a net worth of 200 million dollars. Christian Conservatives tie “goodness” to godliness and financial wealth to godly choices. Ultimately, they believe that poor people are moral failures because scam artists such as Pat Robertson control the narrative of conservative ideology in the …show more content…
And at night, when she is shivering beneath the single dirty blanket she owns and her body is wracked with pains from ailments she can’t afford to treat, we are seeing her soul. But the truth is that for some people, poverty is inescapable. Maybe, after being born into poverty and spending your whole life poor, you come to believe that “poor” is your identity – it’s who you were meant to be. You become accustomed to just surviving and you don’t have the energy to think of achieving anything more. When nobody seems to care, you begin to believe that you don’t matter. Maybe you don’t have an education, you lack the important “problem solving” or “critical thinking” skills because you’re too busy working menial labor jobs just to keep a roof over your head. Poverty is not the result of choices. Poverty is a tool and a weapon of systematic oppression wielded by those who have an interest in keeping the poor,
It wasn’t their luck, the circumstances of their birth, or their talent for deception that made them rich. It was their good choices. Perhaps their souls are made of solid gold. I remember once listening to an episode of the “700 Club,” hosted by Pat Robertson, in which he refused to excuse a poor elderly couple in their eighties from sending him their tithe money so they could pay their medical bills instead. Robertson suggested that they find work and explained that sending 10% of their earnings would ensure them the blessings they needed for their continued life and good fortune. Robertson encouraged them to make the godly choice as that would solve all their problems in the end. According to the conservative view, Pat Robertson must know something about proper choices and he must surely be blessed by God since he enjoys a net worth of 200 million dollars. Christian Conservatives tie “goodness” to godliness and financial wealth to godly choices. Ultimately, they believe that poor people are moral failures because scam artists such as Pat Robertson control the narrative of conservative ideology in the …show more content…
And at night, when she is shivering beneath the single dirty blanket she owns and her body is wracked with pains from ailments she can’t afford to treat, we are seeing her soul. But the truth is that for some people, poverty is inescapable. Maybe, after being born into poverty and spending your whole life poor, you come to believe that “poor” is your identity – it’s who you were meant to be. You become accustomed to just surviving and you don’t have the energy to think of achieving anything more. When nobody seems to care, you begin to believe that you don’t matter. Maybe you don’t have an education, you lack the important “problem solving” or “critical thinking” skills because you’re too busy working menial labor jobs just to keep a roof over your head. Poverty is not the result of choices. Poverty is a tool and a weapon of systematic oppression wielded by those who have an interest in keeping the poor,