Poor & marginalized

The fruits of charity schools, hospitals and other missions are not to be discounted. Myself a produce eternally grateful. I shudder, however, at over-used references to the poor and marginalized, as the poor and marginalized become popular targets, drawn like magnets to well-meaning folks looking to boost their philanthropic or ministerial profile.

Do some of us not customarily borrow the poor and marginalized to muster a sense of gratitude? “God is good. Thank God. (I’m not like them.)” Do some of us not borrow the poor and marginalized as an adjective to praise how good someone is? Apparently some memorials and eulogies can’t go without mentioning how kindly the person cared for the poor and marginalized.

Yet when it comes to the poor and marginalized folks don’t identify, “I’m not Lazarus!” And then when it comes to taxing the rich the same folks claim to be poor. So do good people by default identify as neither the (inferior) poor nor the (filthy) rich? When asked who am I would, “I’m neither Joe nor Lucy,” work as an acceptable answer?

Without that Lazarus character under the table will folks lose their identity, and become nobody? If the poor and marginalized becomes an entity we serve but can’t identify with, do we not start wondering? There are some serious disconnects here. We base our existence on differentiation and contrast.