Book Review
And You Call Yourself a Christian: Toward Responsible Charity by Dr. Robert Lupton
(written by Beau Brown)
Bob Lupton has been one of the most enlightening authors I have read on the subject of poverty and the church’s response to people experiencing poverty. When I read his book And you call yourself a Christian: Toward Responsible Charity, my thinking was drastically changed regarding how Christians may responsibly engage this difficult issue. The power of Lupton’s writing is in the stories he tells of his own missteps and successes in urban ministry. In this review, I would like to highlight one of these stories and how it has challenged many of my own preconceived notions of “helping the poor.”
Since I write from a particular viewpoint (white, middle-class, male), a note on my personal progression in thinking may be in order. I have gone through several stages in my attempts to make sense out of the complicated issue of poverty. In high school and early college, my attitude was that people should “pull themselves up by their bootstraps.” This allowed me to wash my hands of the issue and allow people to make their own decisions. After all, I thought, this is the USA! Still, Christians are supposed to help people, and I thought I could do a pretty good job. After weighing my options and seeking a sense of calling, I became involved in urban youth ministry (in schools and in church). In short, what I saw broke my heart. I witnessed dilapidated housing, hungry children, severely broken families, and much more. Cognitive dissonance ran its course, and my thinking shifted at this point. “How can we expect people to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps when they are trapped in vicious cycles and have no bootstraps? And another thing….where was God in all this?”
College courses such as sociology, psychology, and multicultural studies brought a few perceived answers. I became fully convinced during my studies that social conditions (violence, lack of leadership, poor housing) are completely to blame for poverty. I developed a personal vendetta against those comfortable middle and upper class Christians who didn’t seem to care for those wasting away in destitute poverty. My thought process was: “The Bible talks about our responsibility toward the poor much more than many of the other issues that distract us in church. Therefore, these people who call themselves Christians must be fooling themselves.” Unfortunately, this was a very judgmental stage in my life, which I regret deeply. I was part of the 1% of the world who gets to spend 4 years studying with few other responsibilities, but I didn’t see the inherent privilege in my position. The “brick wall” of setting out on my own to find employment and help support my wife came abruptly. I saw that the typical adult has very little time to sit around and contemplate how to help the poor. Many are too busy trying to keep from becoming poor!
I hope this sheds light on the angle from which I will be approaching Dr. Lupton’s material. I found this book so meaningful because Lupton has actually tested his theories and is apparently not afraid to fail. Fortunately, we can learn from the mistakes others have made, which obviously doesn’t preclude making our own. In Lupton’s opinion, one of the primary mistakes urban ministries have made is focusing chiefly on “betterment” programs. Betterment programs include things like soup kitchens, clothes closets, and after-school programs that do not include families. While Lupton would never say these are “bad” things, they have the distinct possibility of fostering dependency on the part of those on the receiving end, and savior mentalities in those giving. For an adult, dependency strips away dignity and inhibits transformation on both sides. Instead, Lupton emphasizes the need for development, with a strong focus on building functioning, healthy communities.
A story that illustrates this “betterment-to-development” process well is found about halfway through the book. FCS Ministries, which Dr. Lupton heads, decided to start a clothes closet to help fill a need in their surrounding community. The clothes closet opened with very little structure (free clothes, no limits on items), and the spirit of charity which was the impetus for the clothing closet quickly faded. Lupton says, “A hoarding instinct (the same kind of I-gotta-get-mine impulse that seizes looting crowds) took over our customers as they grabbed and growled and stuffed as many clothes into as many trash bags as they could carry. It was pure bedlam.” (p. 36) The first time I read this book, this passage gave me pause. How could Lupton describe these people as if he were describing wild animals? This seemed ignorant at best. However, as I thought about the human condition, I believe every person has the potential to hoard, given the circumstances. FCS, unfortunately, had created these circumstances. This precipitated a series of rules meant to prevent this hoarding instinct from being displayed. “Three garments per visit. One visit per week. This provided a modicum of order.” (p. 37) Still, there had developed an adversarial relationship between those serving and those being served. This is not development, and Lupton and his group knew it.
Frustrated and ready to close up shop, Lupton mentioned the situation to a businessmen’s group that was helping support FCS’s mission. After hearing about the situation, one of the men said there was a very simple solution: the market. “Sell the clothes. Don’t give them away. People will buy only what they can afford. And if they have no money, they can work in the store and earn what they need.” (p. 37) Eureka! The market, while not a total solution, would provide the circumstances (or bootstraps) people needed. Of course, this requires expertise that many folks in impoverished neighborhoods do not have. In order to run a successful retail establishment, there must be a business plan, policy manuals, real estate research, etc. Lupton says these are the types of things business-types can do in their sleep. These businessmen could provide and teach these necessities, operating on the assumption that a person would much rather engage in legitimate exchange than be the object of pity. Pity erodes dignity, and dignity is one the basic human needs. Amazingly, this idea worked, and customers began to feel “valued rather than guarded against.” (p. 38) This is a testament to the power of legitimate exchange.
Dr. Lupton pulls out a very crucial teaching from this story. He says, “it falls to those of us who would be service providers—whether mercy ministry church volunteers, social service agency practitioners, or mission project participants—to do our compassionate work in ways that insure (yes, require) reciprocity, where authentic value for value can be exchanged.” (p. 41) We walk a thin line, which requires us to constantly re-evaluate our ministry practices. Are we genuinely helping people to do for themselves? Are we helping integrate people into a wider community? This story and the others detailed in the book help us think about the way we approach ministry to the poor. Perhaps the most practically helpful part of this book is the list of ten evaluation questions on page 90. These questions point toward the marks of healthy community development, which are essential to urban ministry. (I’ve re-printed the questions at the end of this article.)
In my youthful zeal, I would have never imagined “helping the poor” must be done so carefully. Many times, I have struggled and prayed against my own perceived need for heroic status. I have realized that I must work with God toward the restoration of all creation. A major part of this restoration will be the establishment of true community between social classes, which is certainly not easy (or instantly satisfying) work. I heartily recommend Bob Lupton’s short book as a step in the right direction.
Purchase this book and other FCS Publications at http://www.fcsministries.org/publications.htm
List of 10 Evaluation Questions for Development Plans
- Is capable, indigenous (or indigenizing) visionary leadership behind the effort?
- Is the plan neighborhood-specific? Does it focus on one and only one target community?
- Is the effort comprehensive? Do the programmatic pieces all have as a primary objective the ultimate self-sufficiency of the neighborhood?
- Does the plan emanate from local churches and/or people of faith? People of faith are the greatest resource of hope and vision within any community.
- Does the plan protect against displacement or re-concentration of lower-income residents?
- Does the plan promote inter-dependency rather than continued dependency?
- Doe the plan attract, retain, and/or develop indigenous leadership in the community?
- Does the plan attract new achieving neighbors into the community?
- Does the plan utilize grants and non-profits as catalysts for development that can eventually reduce the need for external subsidies?
- Does the plan lead to economic neighborhood viability, as measured by its ability to attract and harness market forces?
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