Vol. 5 Iss. 2: Will the Real Amoses Stand Up?!

   By Willie Baptist

   I have been asked to sum up my experiences this semester with the Poverty Initiative at Union Theological Seminary – and we have accomplished much, from the Screen on the Green, to day-long seminars, to participation in classes, to a well-attended workshop at the “New Testament and Roman Empire” conference. We sponsored an exhibit of art works by formerly homeless organizer Ron Casanova, held a Poverty Initiative chapel service, and influenced sermons, prayers, and projects throughout the semester.

   One of the most moving things for me was the sermon given by second-year MDiv student Antone Melton-Meaux. To me, it captured the spirit of our new Poverty Initiative exactly. He spoke about a period in Israel, similar to today, when society was polarized into extreme poverty in the midst of extreme wealth. The prophet Amos spoke out against this immorality and injustice with the battle cry, “But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” Antone’s sermon ended with the call for today’s Amoses to stand up and speak out against the inhumane inequality in the US.

   The Economic Policy Institute conducted a study recently about living above the poverty line. That study pointed out the income people needed in order to meet all their basic necessities. For example, a family with one adult and two children needs $14 an hour, which comes to about $30,000 a year to get by. Yet the study also concluded that over 60% of the country’s labor force makes less than that a year, in the world’s richest country. This is more starkly illustrated by five of the top ten richest people in the country (who happen to be five Waltons, holding the controlling interests of the world conglomerate Wal-Mart): their combined worth is over $100 billion, while five Wal-Mart workers’ combined wages are less than $100,000 a year. It would take the five Wal-Mart workers literally a million years to equal the combined wealth of this country’s five richest people. This is not only ridiculous, it is immoral and raises serious religious concerns.

   Today this economic inequality, given the tremendous technological developments of the past century, is not about scarcity or robbing Peter to pay Paul. It is about the outright abandonment of human life in the face of unprecedented abundance. The consequences are deadly, when you can have two parents with their children in the dead of winter living in their home with no heat, who get up everyday 6 am, go to work, and at the end of every pay day must still decide, “What can we pay for – rent, utilities, or food?

   This Thanksgiving the Kensington Welfare Rights Union, an organization of poor and homeless families, erected a tent city to bring attention to the consequences of indifference. As a member of this organization, I spent time talking to the homeless families of tent city. Although I am thankful for things like the Poverty Initiative, the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign, and the Kensington Welfare Rights Union for their efforts, for me ’tis not the season to be jolly. ’Tis the season to answer the call of Antone and Amos to break our silence and complacency.

   We must model ourselves after the outspoken leader and teacher the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who bravely and brilliantly embraced the call of Amos: “The dispossessed of this nation – the poor, both white and Negro – live in a cruelly unjust society. They must organize ... against injustice ... against the structures through which the society is refusing to take means ... which are at hand, to lift the load of poverty. ... There are millions of poor people in this country who have very little, or even nothing, to lose. If they can be helped to take actions together, they will do so with a freedom and a power that will be a new and unsettling force in our complacent national life.”

   In the next phase of the Poverty Initiative we must continue to identify and inspire the newly emerging Amoses from both the growing ranks of the poor and the religious community. We must continue to answer this call to end poverty and injustice through curriculum development, sermons, ministry, prayers, and song. It is an honor to be at Union with you in order to do this as we build a massive social movement, led by the poor, to end poverty.