Doug Zeigler explores the very different messages of Pope Francis and New York City Mayor Bloomberg about the poor.
I woke up this morning and read two different articles, each relating to the poor. The first one referred to Pope Francis and his Christmas message: “Place Ourselves at the Service of the Poor.” He urged people to “not to place ourselves above others, but rather lower ourselves, place ourselves at the service of the poor, make ourselves small and poor with them.” He cited scripture to cement his request to the faithful. Matthew 25: 35-46 says: “Whoever has nourished, welcomed, visited, loved one of the least and poorest of men, will have done this to the Son of God. On the contrary, whoever has rejected, forgotten, or ignored one of the least and poorest of men will have done this to God himself.” Sounds like a great message, doesn’t it? I’ve always been told that Christmas is about giving. Who better to give to than those less fortunate?
The second one I read had a decidedly different message: apathy for the poor. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg was speaking about the recent New York Time’s series about Dasani, a homeless girl and her life in homeless shelters throughout the city. The article paints a rather grim view of the conditions the shelters she’s lived in. Places where “where mold creeps up walls and roaches swarm, where feces and vomit plug communal toilets, where sexual predators have roamed.” Hardly seems like a place for a kid to grow up. Bloomberg’s response was remarkably unsympathetic: “This kid was dealt a bad hand. I don’t know quite why. That’s just the way God works. Sometimes some of us are lucky and some of us are not,” he told Politicker, calling her plight “a sad situation.”
One man – a champion for the poor – uses God as a reason to help.
The other – wealthy beyond measure – lays the blame at God’s feet.
Even more disheartening was Mayor Bloomberg’s assertion that “if you are poor and homeless you’d be better off in New York City than anyplace else…I think one of the problems is a lot of journalists have never looked around the world – your smirk shows you haven’t been outside the country and don’t know what poverty means elsewheres.”
In a way, Mr. Bloomberg is right. New York is one of the wealthiest cities in the world, so it would stand to reason that it would also have the best help and care for the poor and homeless. However, the comparison is absurd. To compare New York City’s homeless situation to Bangladesh’s, for example, just isn’t a fair or apt one. Bangladesh is one of the poorest cities in the world and couldn’t possibly have as many resources to help their destitute citizens. That is where Mr. Bloomberg’s comparison just doesn’t jive. It portrays him shaking his mighty finger at those in extreme poverty, admonishing: “You better be thankful that you’re living in a moldy, cockroach infested shelter; you could be in some other poorer country where you wouldn’t even have a shelter!” Poor is poor, no matter where you live. For someone who mentions God in his response, he certainly doesn’t exude love one is supposed to receive from that God.
Even if we suspend the religious connotation for these two men for a moment, helping the less fortunate is a HUMAN obligation. Love and compassion are universal. If I see someone in need, my initial response is to want to help that person. It’s an innate response in most of humanity. Sometimes it can be very challenging, especially if that person in need smells bad or isn’t grateful. Perhaps they are in need of not just food, but also psychiatric help. However, there is always that twinkle in our hearts, this flickering flame in each of us, which makes us want to believe that humanity will carry on and flourish.
Another part of our culture makes me wonder if that flame is threatened to die out.
There is a rising current in some conservative circles to attribute being poor to lack of work ethic, as if the only thing holding them back is the gumption to buckle down for all to be well. However, that is the great fallacy of the American dream – hard work and effort very rarely results in prosperity on those to facets alone. There are so many other factors that can potentially outweigh them in our society: social casting, legal troubles, luck, demographic, location, gender, education, and mental wellness to name a few. Any one of these could derail your trip to the American ideal of success, plummeting you into poverty. If not for help from family, there have been a couple very difficult times my own family could have fallen and not overcome.
Since our society as a whole values money over doing good, it isn’t any wonder that services and care for the poor is so broken down. There’s no money to be made helping people with no money to begin with, so many draw the conclusion: “why bother?” Businesses are created and maintained by building profit margins, not by how many people it raises from financial despair. Many have adopted the credo: Let someone else care for those less fortunate; we’re too busy trying to raise our stock price.
I want to help people who are worse off than I am. Despite the challenge it can be, I feel far better giving someone in need some clothes, food, and time. Foremost, I want to give them hope knowing that they have value as a person and hope that they can break out of this cycle of poverty.
Thanks, Pope Francis, for reminding us what it means to spread goodwill.
And thank you, Mayor Bloomberg, for reminding us of that as well, just in a different way.
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Photo: Flickr/naushadzaman
Anuroopa, My apologies on the characterization of Bangladesh as a city. It was a very silly mistake. I meant no offense.
Dale, Thanks for the kudos. I found it interesting how the two men handled the same issue. 🙂
To Tom, CW, Wes, elissa, Kim, Mud: Great views from each of you! I’m enjoying the banter. What to do for the poor is a daunting issue, and I’m glad we’re all discussing it.
Excellent contrast piece Doug.
Note: Bangladesh is a country, not a city.
While I applaud the Pope’s message, it would mean more if he wasn’t living in luxury in the
Vatican. Jesus didn’t need a home so large or ornate. Why not turn it into a shelter?
Pope Francis refused the Papal Apartment choosing instead to live in a small suite of rooms in a Vatican guesthouse. He takes his meals in the common dining room with other Vatican employees.
Again CW, what we are seeing are people who know not what they’re talking about. Thanks for stepping in and clearing things up. I would like to add something too.
When he was archbishop, Bergoglio had the option to live in a palace but chose a simple apartment, according to the National Catholic Reporter. He gave up a limousine for the bus, and cooks his own meals.
In the first act of his papacy, he chose the name Francis, becoming the namesake of St. Francis of Assisi, who gave up his riches and chose a life of poverty and prayer.
“Whoever has nourished, welcomed, visited, loved one of the least and poorest of men, will have done this to the Son of God. On the contrary, whoever has rejected, forgotten, or ignored one of the least and poorest of men will have done this to God himself.” I don’t like this form of moral indulgence. The Son of God is not a symbolic stand-in for the empty stomach of a person in front of you. There is no greater goodness in imagining you are feeding the Son of God rather than the one beside you – I don’t like the… Read more »
Soooooo…. you’re criticizing the motivation to give or help those who need it? Have we truly reached the point where we have the incredible luxury of stating “don’t help anyone unless I approve of your motivation to do so?”
Yes, that is exactly what I am doing. In a world fraught with delusions, motivation matters for getting things done properly and with clarity of mind. Other mental tricks used to motivate behavior are prone to whims and stupidities.
If a God wants a human sacrifice, they best show up in person and explain themselves with full PowerPoint deck. I sure as he’ll am not going to listen to some delusional messenger who downloaded a deck for the web.
CW, it’s pretty scary, isn’t it?
The new version of internet athiest is just a bag of fun . I tell ya. Mix some misguided youthful enthusiasm, a little snark, a smattering of revisionist history, and a bunch of condecension with some thought policing and there ya go!
What’s fun is when they sit there and tell ya how ignorant and stupid religious people are without realizing they’re talking to a religious person.
I guess I would ask, CW, why you feel being a non-believer is “misguided?” it may not be what you believe, but there folks of all stripes who subscribe to their own method of belief or non-theism.
As far as condescension goes, I think that both sides are able to claim that particular caveat.
I believe that the view of a nonbeliever being misguided as that they lack empathy or understanding of the believer. They simply pass off the believer as being delusional and wacked out for believing. Misguided being that their attitude is motivated by their, in some cases, overwhelming distain for the believer. I’ve never push my beliefs on others. That’s not to say that I ignore situations where I’m challenged regarding my faith and beliefs. But I don’t walk around with a bible in my hand (though I always have a Rosary in my pocket) and tout scripture. But what some… Read more »
That should have read disdain …. sorry about that.
I wasn’t referring to belief vs. non belief as misguided. I was referring to the position that only giving done with the “proper” motivation is to be accepted. If you don’t see that as misguided I don’t know what to think!
At least some are ready and willing to judge billions of people’s motivations for em. We better shut down that $4B in charity provided by Catholic Charities USA because their motivation needs to be examined far more closely. They are doing more harm than good! 😉
I completely agree that we need to do something about poverty which ultimately means better paying jobs for many. But in the meantime, a lot of people need help. But I’m a little confused about your dad. Was he placed in a nursing home?
Well, hot damn, Tom, congratulations. With those two $500 gifts, you’ve solved poverty in America. I gotta tell ya, though, that the people at the bottom don’t want your charity. My father was placed in a home. Shortly after, we were unable to help with food for him because of financial constraints. I suggested meals on wheels and a few other ways of making ends meet and he said, and I quote, “I would rather starve.” We poor, tired, huddled masses don’t want your donations. We want the ways and the means to pay our own way. …so maybe some… Read more »
Mud
“”””””We poor, tired, huddled masses don’t want your donations. We want the ways and the means to
pay our own way”””””
Yes, you are right .
Tom,
Now THAT is a wonderful story! Your charitable spirit is what this season should be about. Helping those less fortunate should be the focus, not the obsession with the commercialism that permeates the holidays. Kudos for keeping the poor at the forefront instead of hidden in the back. 🙂
~Doug
Hello Doug. I just wonder why it was important to throw in that “conservative” zing? You spoke very eloquently about the Pope and the teachings and then turned around zinged conservatives who are the majority of those who follow the teachings. As a Catholic, we have what’s called The Corporal Works of Mercy and they are: • Feed the hungry • Give drink to the thirsty • Clothe the naked • Shelter the homeless • Visit the sick • Visit the imprisoned • Bury the dead That being said, I’d like to share something I encountered just yesterday. The parent… Read more »
I must add one additional prayer, a very important prayer. It was a prayer for God to help me get over the my anger toward these employees. And I can say without hesitation, He took care of that end of it. When I walked out of church,I was walking with God by my side …. and it was good.
great to read your reply Tom, and good on you for the generosity of your heart towards the poor in your community. I wish I had the same strength in performing acts of goodwill as you are demonstrating through your employer and church. However optimistic we may be about the desire to ‘do good’ amongst Humanity the selfish trait and the ‘ego’ driven part of us is slow to die, and I have trouble believing Doug’s assertion that love and compassion are an innate part of Humanity; I’m not so optimistic. How many of us take time out of our… Read more »