An interesting Class discussion, pt. 4

Final part. Just random addendum that I've thought about over the past week.

We spent some time talking about language registers at the conference. The typical vocabulary for middle class is called formal, while the vocabulary for generational poverty is called casual.

How middle class of us, then, to create defining terms? We keep up with the formal language (which has several hundred if not at least a thousand more words than casual) by creating terms that we can understand better.

We versus them, it felt like. When I talked with the students last Tuesday I tried to be sure to point out--one group is not better than the other. Good AND bad come from both groups. The reason for separation in the first place is because of how broken we are. What then is the goal of our working together?

Because Christ gave us the ministry of reconciliation. This is not just between us and God, but between me and you, and between us and His creation (a whole 'nother story, but read Serve God, Save the Planet). Period.

In what other ways did we in this seminar revert solely to middle class thinking? I had asked the group around me, part of a social service group that helps students perform well in school, whether anyone on staff was from a Generational Poverty background. They took a second, and proudly came up with one or two. Then I asked them if any of those persons were involved with the major decision making in the organization. They responded no, and then changed the subject to the score of a baseball game.

I read all of John Steinbeck's The Pearl yesterday. It's only a 94 page novella, so don't think I'm anything special. What I'm trying to get at goes back to the brokenness. The protagonist Kino has the opportunity to break out of poverty because he has found a pearl of great price. The climb out of poverty takes more than that we realize, just like we've learned that we can't just throw money at people to help them go get better.. cough.. Haiti.. cough.

"But the other ways are hard!" we whine.

"Oh yeah? So can you imagine what it was like to turn your back on your own Son's most excruciating death? A death you could have stopped?"

We love because He first loved us. The things we do are a metaphor for what He's already done for us.