An economy of enough?

"When you think, 'How do I love my neighbor as myself?' it becomes just impossible to do that within the worldview of the American dream. But I think what's exciting is that Jesus has another dream, and Jesus is offering us [that] dream. Where it's not even just this ascetic simplicity--give up everything and be poor--but it's this idea that God created an economy of enough. God didn't create a world of scarcity. But we've created poverty and need by not living out this command to love our neighbors as ourselves." Shane Claiborne, in "Laying it Down: Learning to live with less in a culture of excess," in Relevant Magazine, May/June 07 issue.

I think sometimes in conversations about simplicity, at least early on in the learning process, which is where I'm at, poverty can become this exalted thing while wealth is condemned. So I want to clarify that I'm not trying to say that. From the tiny bit I know about poverty, it's not a wonderful and exciting state; it's marked by various issues such as hunger and food insecurity, job insecurity or unemployment, disease and lack of health insurance, lack of opportunity, etc. All of which is further complicated by abuse and oppression based on racism, sexism, and homophobia. No one should have to live in that kind of situation.

All too often, however, wealthy people (and Westerners often do this to people not from Europe or America) don't see beyond the physical needs to some of the other characteristics that can mark poverty-stricken communities. Poor followers of Jesus in other countries have immense things to teach the wealthy American church about what it means to follow God and actually trust Jesus with your life. The most generous people I have ever met, outside of family members, have largely been those with little economic wealth, but with large reservoirs of hospitality and generosity. We've got to work against our arrogance by putting ourselves into relationships with people in different economic situations and being willing to learn from them. I need help with my own arrogance and assumptions.

Moreover, if this world really was created with an economy of enough, than the fact that I have way more than I need to be provided for and even comfortable is in direct relation to the fact that fellow members of the human family do not. And that makes wealth very morally problematic to me. I must say I think the "trickle down" theory of wealth is enormously ineffective and brutal economically and morally as a solution. I'll be the first to admit I don't have the answers to exactly how to love my neighbor as myself or what to do with my wealth and education and opportunities. But I am compelled to keep asking the questions and muddling forward in a community of fellow muddlers after a different way of living.