In my last essay, I explained what I mean by the word “justice.” I wrote that essay partly to keep myself from jumping on social justice bandwagons without evaluating an issue before supporting it. My intention now is to explore one issue of social justice in detail: addressing the needs of the working poor. I have witnessed the strain that can be on members of this group and I hope that the church and wider society will begin to address and rectify the causes of this strain. Over the next several weeks, I want to explore this issue. Specifically, I will explain why I see the needs of the working poor to be an important social justice issue for the church to address.
I lived in Saint John, NB until I was about 25 and then moved away. Like many other people in this city, my resume includes a call-centre. This call-centre experience is why I care about the working poor and am certain that the church has a responsibility to this group. I was atypical at the centre. Despite being in my mid-twenties, I lived in my parents’ basement and often ate their food. I had a degree and a degree meant promotions, seemingly at will. I had a job that I did not like, but expenses were low – meaning the pay was decent – and I was relatively sure that I would find a “real-job” eventually.
Many of my co-workers are better exemplifiers of what it was like to work at the call-centre. One guy I knew was a father who worked full-time for less that $10 an hour and his wife did the same. A few seats down sat a woman who worked full-time at the centre and then worked retail several evenings a week. She was a single mom. A man in one of the classes I trained asked for permission to wear sneakers until his first paycheque came. He then would be able to afford shoes, which were required by the dress code (despite our customers, who called the call-centre, not being able to see us).
These are the people who lost their jobs when the call-centre lost its contract and closed. I sat surrounded by people who cried, swore, or got eerily quiet as the announcement was made. I found a kindred spirit in the seat next to me. We were both about to start new jobs and quit anyway, so we just sat there while an “employment counsellor” spewed clichés.
Over the next several weeks, I hope to demonstrate that this type of situation is bad. I hope that sentence will look like a truism, but we don’t seem to move beyond saying “That’s a real shame,” into actually addressing the issue. I will provide some evidence and explanations of why what should be obvious is problematic. Next week I want to explore the biblical ideal of work. It is important to understand what the biblical ideal is so we can recognize when it is not happening. In two weeks, I will explore the church’s responsibility to this group. This will note a paradox. The church includes people who are working poor but it also includes people with the financial and political power needed to address the need. Despite this paradox, I hope to demonstrate evidence that will clearly show that the church has a responsibility here. The last essay will make suggestions about how the church can stand with the working poor. This will include using its influence, evaluating its relationship with money and whether this relationship contributes to the problem, and meeting any immediate needs that come up for individuals in this group.
David Shipler wrote a book called The Working Poor: Invisible in America. He raises an interesting challenge that exists when the church – or anyone else, as his intended audience is not specific to any particular belief system – attempts to help people in this group. He writes, “Each person’s life is a mixed product of bad choices and bad fortune, of roads not taken and roads cut off by the accident of birth or circumstance.”
This quote highlights the complexity of ministry for the people who can be called working poor. The responsibility is shared and may be due to either sins or honest mistakes, but external forces like a bad family experience, prejudice, bad schooling, or a difficult neighbourhood must be seen as holding some of the blame as well. This mixed blame should not scare the church away, however. The church acknowledges the reality of sin. Even if this group were entirely responsible for their situation – and I fundamentally believe and will strongly argue that they are not – the church is a forgiven people and must therefore be a forgiving people. Jesus provides us with the highest standard. We help people in spite of and because of their sin while protecting them from the sins of others. Over the next few weeks, I will propose some ways of addressing the situation.
In my essay a few weeks ago, I claimed that “justice” has four characteristics – right use of power, Christ-rootedness, external focus, removal of injustice – I hope that over the next few essays you will see why I believe issues surround the working poor are social justice issues that the church must address. The church still holds social power in Canada – even if that power is entirely limited to having money to spend – and I believe that this is a good thing, assuming that the church uses this power well. I expect that we can and hope that we will.
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