Closing the gap

Christian Century, August 9, 2003 by Richard R. Heuser

MARCIA Z. NELSON and Harlan Beckley know their subject (see "Insufficient funds" and "Mind the gap," June 114). But they do not take us beyond an ineffective mix of programs that represent five decades of inadequate policymaking on poverty in Washington. The poverty legislation of the '60s and '70s was only a beginning. More creative programs and greater spending should have followed. Today, liberals and moderates put their energy into saving poorly functioning poverty programs while conservatives do their best to curtail even those meager efforts to assist poor people with their very difficult lives.

Much more can be done to challenge the belief that poor people cause their own misfortune, and to counter the extreme individualism preached in evangelical and conservative churches. We need innovative reform politics that mix a true understanding of Christian hospitality toward the poor with bold and inspired programs that go beyond anything imagined in the legislative halls of our elected leaders. With a spiritually activated politics, the liberal and mainstream churches can, I believe, meet this challenge.

Richard R. Heuser

Essex, Mass.