If you were curious what white nationalism cloaked in Christianity looks like, I recently received a letter informing me of the root causes of hunger and poverty in our nation. The letter stated causes such as, "genetic racial inferiority, entitlement mentality, undisciplined spending, laziness and government subsidized medicine for illegitimate children," all while citing numerous Scripture verses culminating in Jesus words, "The poor will always be with you."

Unfortunately, too many of our views about the causes of hunger in our nation are made up of one anecdotal experience, Facebook posts, or our favorite news source. Rarely are our opinions informed by actual research, a comprehensive biblical view, or proximity to the problem.

If we ever hope to solve our nation's hunger and poverty crisis, we must know the truth about it. What are its causes? Why are people poor and hungry? Are we collectively responsible for the health and well-being of our impoverished brothers and sisters?

In a little more than two decades of living and working with impoverished communities as well as working with researchers on this issue, here is what I have learned. First, the primary reason for hunger and poverty in our nation is underemployment. That simply means people are working but not making enough money to cover all their living expenses. In Texas, the minimum wage is still $7.25 an hour. If you were able to put together full-time hours at that wage, you'd bring home a little over $13,000 a year, barely enough for rent in most communities.

Another reason is educational attainment. In our 21st century reality, you must graduate from high school and get an additional degree, whether it is a technical degree, two-year degree, or college degree, to give yourself the greatest chance of not living in poverty. However, if you are living with hunger and poverty you are much less likely to graduate. This perpetuates a generational cycle.

The author of the letter was right, race also plays a factor in hunger but for very different reasons than he espoused. Too often the deck is stacked against people of color. Whether we want to admit it, we have not healed our wounds of racism. We have had our moments of triage -- the abolition of slavery and the civil rights movement -- which were critical steps to stop the hemorrhaging caused by the racist hatred, bigotry and indifference that were pervasive in our history. But we have not taken steps to heal on a national level. We have not integrated our neighborhoods, churches and social groups. The result is people of color are twice as likely to experience hunger as white households.

These are not all the causes of hunger, but they are some of the most prevalent. Regardless of cause, what remains the same for families is they are forced to decide what they are going to pay for each month. Are they going to pay for food, medicine, rent, their car or child care? They can't afford them all.

In Matthew 25, Jesus lays out our responsibility: "For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me."

Here, what matters is whether a person has acted with love and cared for the needy. These acts are not just "extra credit," but constitute the decisive criterion for judgment.

The calling of the faithful is clear: Feed the hungry and you will live.

Unfortunately, we have scapegoated the poor to justify not living up to our calling. To scapegoat and push the poor out of our minds, we've had to dehumanize them. We have worked hard to classify the poor as lazy, to divide them as deserving and undeserving. We have developed theologies of prosperity to lift those who are rich in order to demonize those who are poor.

Thus, we've decided that it is morally defensible for some children to have an abundance of food while others have nothing in the fridge. We can just blame the parent for being lazy or entitled.

This is antithetical to the Scripture we read in Matthew. After all, the accused in Matthew are the ones that did not see the hungry and give them food. The ones that did not provide shelter for the stranger.

Instead, Matthew calls us to not only see the hungry as humans, but to see the hungry as Jesus.

Jeremy K. Everett is the executive director of the Texas Hunger Initiative at Baylor University and a senior fellow with World Hunger Relief Inc. His book "I Was Hungry" was published in August. He wrote this column for The Dallas Morning News.

Got an opinion about this issue? Send a letter to the editor, and you just might get published.

Read the original here:

Stop using the Bible to justify poverty and hunger - The Dallas Morning News