The View from Down in Poordom: Reflections on Scriptures Addressing Poverty

By Paul McKay and Keith L. Head

In The View From Down in Poordom, Paul McKay challenges the notion that through hard work and effort, anyone can overcome the modern-day challenges of poverty, a view that leads to stereotyping and scapegoating the poor. In sharing poignant stories about poor people hes known in the U.S. and third-world Belize, and by sharing his passionate opinions in an even-handed, non-threatening way, he offers a scripture-based vision of how we can know God by knowing the poor.

Susanne Johnson, Ph.D. Perkins School of Theology

Paul McKay reminds us that, if we pay attention to life down in Poordom, we will discover responsibilities we too often evade and truths about the layered experience of poverty that we often studiously ignore. But we will also discover unexpected treasures: the gift of friendship, wisdom that cannot be purchased, and the face of God.

Frederick W. Schmidt, Rueben P. Job Chair in Spiritual Formation, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary and author of The Dave Test: A Raw Look at Real Faith in Hard Times

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Feb 17, 2017
• ISBN: 9781512776058

Paul McKay

The Rev. Paul McKay is an ordained United Methodist Church deacon who served as a second-career hospital and hospice chaplain in North Texas. In a journalism career spanning 32 years, Rev. McKay was an award-winning, general-assignments reporter for newspapers including The Houston Chronicle. He was also an associate editor of the now-defunct The United Methodist Reporter. Currently living in Belize, he blogs at www.jitterbuggingforjesus.com

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Copyright © 2017 Paul McKay.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

WestBow Press

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-5127-7604-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-7606-5 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-7605-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017902395

WestBow Press rev. date: 2/17/2017

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

SECTION I: MATERIAL POVERTY

1 Poverty: A Synonym for Suffering

2 To Know God, Know the Poor (A Beggar’s Story)

3 Associate With the Lowly? Seriously, Paul?

4 Of Slackers, Thieves, and Honest Work

5 But Do All the Poor Deserve Our Help?

6 But Paul Said, No Work, No Meal Ticket!

7 But What About Personal Responsibility?

8 The Other Side of Happiness in The Jewel

9 A Long Night in an Airless Shoebox

10 If I Were a Rich Man …

11 Taking Care of America’s Needy

SECTION II: THE RICHES OF SPIRITUAL POVERTY

12 To Be Poor in Spirit

13 Bending But Not Breaking in Faith

14 Concerning The Worm of Wealth

15 Aiming to Be More Poor

16 Regarding Joy and Happiness in Poverty

In Conclusion: So What?

In loving

memory of my parents

Goldie and Deanie McKay

and the aunts and uncles

Rainie and Ruff, Newell and Ledell

Out among the stars…

Acknowledgments

The author wishes to thank his many wonderful friends and loved ones who contributed in some way to the writing of this book.

The Rev. Dr. Christy Thomas, the Rev. Julie Hay Halstead, Bill Fentum, the Rev. Dr. Susanne Johnson, the Rev. Dr. Frederick Schmidt, and the Rev. Keith L. Head.

Also, Dr. Kathy Cooper, Linda Kovack Campbell, Carolyn Rodowskas, Kathleen Terrell, James (Jimmy) Bond, Linda Magill, Tricia Loe, Shirley Miller, Diane Flannery, Debbie Chapman, Emily Gibson, Marty Jones, Mickey McGinty, Kevin Dietrich, Joel Beard, Lillian (Terry) McElroy, Kay Anderson, Cathy Gordon, and my firstborn daughter Amy Rodriguez.

Introduction

And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’

— Matthew 25:40 (NRSV)

I ’ve never been poor, hungry, or adrift in a sense of hopelessness in my much-blessed life. Yet poverty has always felt personal to me.

My mother, born a mere fourteen years into the twentieth century, was abandoned as a child—along with her sister, brother, and mother—by her father. This traumatic event occurred in a dusty, rough-and-tumble Texas town, when times were hard and life was especially punishing for a barely educated single mother like my grandmother. To escape the hardship of life on her father’s farm, she got married and had a baby when she was sixteen years old. As was common at that time, her father wanted as many children as he could get for farm labor.

My mother knew firsthand what it was like to be sleep-deprived and exhausted from hunger and malnutrition. She always said that just as bad as the constant hunger and weariness was the indignity of begging for leftovers at back doors of townspeople at mealtimes. After all, other kids from her school were at those dinner tables, and kids can be hard on each other. The town’s well-to-do kids, at least in her experience growing up, were especially hard on the poor kids who had ragged clothes and pinching-tight shoes with holes in the soles. My mother once told me:

"I would go to school some days and feel like putting a bag on my head. It’s true that so many people were poor that a lot of them didn’t feel poor. It’s the old thing of ‘everybody else was poor, so we didn’t know we were.’ I hear people say that a lot, and I understand it.

But we were pretty far down in ‘Poordom’ for a while. I won’t ever forget how shameful it felt. Nobody who survived it would ever want to go back to all that struggling. I think a lot of people who come out of it do well in life and forget how hard it was. I know that time heals all wounds, but we still have the scars.

To add to the despair of my mother’s family, their church was quite fundamentalist—all about the fire and brimstone and not so much about God’s grace or comforting the needy. That church, as my mother always pointed out with no small amount of lifelong bitterness, gave us fire and brimstone. She became a lifelong Methodist Christian later in life because the Methodists gave us something to eat. The Methodists also gave her mother a sewing machine and, over time, enough work as a seamstress for her and her brood to survive. As my mother explained it,

"They gave us handouts, but they also gave us a hand up, and that gave us hope all those cold nights when we were hungry and all huddled together under blankets for body heat. God saved us, thank God. But it was the Methodists who put food in our bellies and clothes on our backs, enough for us to have some hope.

There’s nothing in the world worse than the feeling no hope.

* * *

So while I’ve never been in critical need of essentials like food, clothing, or shelter, even when I’ve struggled mightily at times in my life to make ends meet, my mother sensitized me to all the traps and cycles that ensnare people down in Poordom. Her influence awakened me to the ways that poverty can grind a person’s physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health down to despair.

It was another family member, my beloved Aunt Newell Chasteen, who showed me