objectifying the poor
Words from Steve Corbett in When Helping Hurts:
I once heard the expression "prostituting the poor." This process- which Western thought and action is prone to do- involves using the materially poor as a tool to draw attention. We present the poor through pictures and videos and our own statements in whatever way we please. We tell their stories to ensure an emotional reaction is fostered amongst financial donors, social media followers and loved ones.
We think we care. But, ultimately we aren't helping. We're stripping away dignity. We're hurting.
I wish organizations would stop with the advertisements complemented by melancholic music and detailed stories about a widow's inability to provide for her children. I wish volunteers in the developing world would stop posting pictures of themselves with orphans. I wish we'd stop making statements like, "Seeing that homeless man made me realize I have so much, I am so lucky."
I wish we could see all human beings as image bearers of the living God.
Why do we have a tendency to think of poverty as a simply material and financial thing?
I'm not in denial. I recognize material privilege. I realize the Global North is a place of abundant riches. It would be outrageous to deny it.
However, I lament the fact that we reduce people to physical beings. By doing so, we naturally focus on material wealth or poverty. We forget that human beings are social, emotional, psychological and spiritual. If we remember this, our definition of poverty broadens.
Before thinking about serving "those poor people", how about we start confronting our own poverty? How about we come face to face with the deep relational, spiritual and emotional brokenness we have?
Won't this circumvent the objectification of marginalized people? Won't this allow us to journey with others with more mutuality and less of a Saviour complex? Won't this fulfill Jesus' mandate of loving your neighbour as yourself, and to lay down one's life for one's friends?
I believe so.
“Until we embrace our mutual brokenness, our work with low-income people
is likely to do more harm than good. I sometimes unintentionally reduce poor
people to objects that I use to fulfill my own need to accomplish something. I am not okay, and you are not okay. But Jesus can fix us both.”
I once heard the expression "prostituting the poor." This process- which Western thought and action is prone to do- involves using the materially poor as a tool to draw attention. We present the poor through pictures and videos and our own statements in whatever way we please. We tell their stories to ensure an emotional reaction is fostered amongst financial donors, social media followers and loved ones.
Do not exploit the poor because they are poor [...] (Proverbs 22:22)
We think we care. But, ultimately we aren't helping. We're stripping away dignity. We're hurting.
I wish organizations would stop with the advertisements complemented by melancholic music and detailed stories about a widow's inability to provide for her children. I wish volunteers in the developing world would stop posting pictures of themselves with orphans. I wish we'd stop making statements like, "Seeing that homeless man made me realize I have so much, I am so lucky."
I wish we could see all human beings as image bearers of the living God.
Why do we have a tendency to think of poverty as a simply material and financial thing?
I'm not in denial. I recognize material privilege. I realize the Global North is a place of abundant riches. It would be outrageous to deny it.
However, I lament the fact that we reduce people to physical beings. By doing so, we naturally focus on material wealth or poverty. We forget that human beings are social, emotional, psychological and spiritual. If we remember this, our definition of poverty broadens.
Before thinking about serving "those poor people", how about we start confronting our own poverty? How about we come face to face with the deep relational, spiritual and emotional brokenness we have?
Won't this circumvent the objectification of marginalized people? Won't this allow us to journey with others with more mutuality and less of a Saviour complex? Won't this fulfill Jesus' mandate of loving your neighbour as yourself, and to lay down one's life for one's friends?
I believe so.
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