peterkim blog

I’m increasingly disturbed by the increasing number of pastors who believe they feel like they need to add their voice to the political conversations of the day. Why? Because pastors are trained to be teachers and ministers of the Gospel, not to be public policy experts. Yes, the Bible has a lot to say about the issues of the day but clergy don’t know enough political theory, economics, sociology, etc. to understand how to apply the Biblical teaching in modern context. Fortunately, the Bible calls all Christians to be ministers of the Gospel; all of us should do so in our particular realms of expertise instead of having pastors stick their noses in areas they have absolutely no expertise. The role of the clergy is to empower lay people to be ministers of the Gospel in their realms of expertise instead of taking upon it themselves. Yes, there have been examples of clergy making a major impact on society, but I think that should be the exception rather than the rule.

In particular, one issue I believe pastors have started to go beyond their realm of understanding is with regards to poverty. I think it’s great when pastors encourage their congregations to be more compassionate towards their neighbors who are in material and physical need. However, pastors clearly leave their comfort zone when they think they know how to apply Biblical teaching to complex macro-level socioeconomic issues.

I don’t want to be too critical of pastors who are speaking more about poverty lately because I admire their earnestness and sincerity. However, I think society is better served by the local church focusing on more immediate, local issues. That’s when the church can personally minister to people’s material and spiritual needs.

I believe the “problem” of poverty has been somewhat overblown by some of these pastors. Not that there aren’t any people who need a concerted effort by those who are more well off to be empowered to be greater contributors to society. The indisputable truth is that economic liberalization and democratization have resulted in the rich becoming richer, but also the middle class becoming richer and the poor becoming richer. The poor have greater opportunities to move up the social class hierarchy than ever before. The quality of life of the bottom segment of the world’s population in terms of economic distribution has improved considerably.

What should be the faithful response of Christians to the issue of poverty? Honestly, most of us don’t have power and resources to make an impact on the macro-level. The best thing we can do is to work hard with integrity—a growing, vibrant economy is the best way to bring the poor out of poverty. In addition, we can clearly help those of us in our immediate communities by donating food and money to those less fortunate than us. With those who do have the power and resource to make an impact on the macro-level, I think the same applies—working diligently and with integrity goes a long way. In addition, having a willingness to take risks in making investments to empower those who are under-served can certainly be an effective, faithful act (e.g. developing partnerships, building factories, opening offices in areas that could use injection of capital).

I know that doesn’t sound satisfying to a lot of us. We’d rather believe that we can do something that will change the world. But honestly, is that more a result of you wanting to feel good about yourself or because you actually care about the world? I think I might barf the next time I hear a pastor preach from the pulpit (or their blog) that we need to embrace large-scale economic re-distribution in order to faithfully serve the poor. Actually, instead of barfing, maybe I’ll buy them a copy of Economics for Dummies instead.