Christians and the Poor

"I asked participants who claimed to be ‘strong followers of Jesus’ whether Jesus spent time with the poor. Nearly 80 percent said yes. Later in the survey, I sneaked in another question, I asked this same group of strong followers whether they spent time with the poor, and less than 2 percent said they did. I learned a powerful lesson: We can admire and worship Jesus without doing what he did. We can applaud what he preached and stood for without caring about the same things. We can adore his cross without taking up ours. I had come to see that the great tragedy of the church is not that rich Christians do not care about the poor but that rich Christians do not know the poor." – Shane Claiborne

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2 thoughts on “Christians and the Poor

  1. I’d venture to say that too many Christians are not only this way with the poor, but with “sinners” (in general, but primarily those with outwardly identifiable struggles). It’s too easy to condemn, for whatever reason, rather than get to know someone and their problems, and it’s too easy to hide out in one’s Christian circle of friends.

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