The first of what will be many reviews of Pomo Timmy is in!  This one is by Anthony Horvath, an author who operates a Christian Apologetics website.  Check it out at SntJohnny.com!

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Wake up youth workers! We are in a global food crisis, and we who work with youth have a voice to do something about it. But, are we?

 The Rethinking Youth Ministry Blog has a great post with questions about how to address issues of global poverty beyond an annual 30 hour Famine. Somehow we need to find a way to enable youth to deeply connect with issues central to the Kingdom of God in ways that are effective.

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Last year when I worked at World Vision Appalachia our executive director, Ruston Seaman, interpreted poverty experts Jayakumar Christian and Bryant Myers by summarizing the circumstance of the poor into two general concepts: the poor have a marred identity and the poor lack purpose.  At the time I felt Ruston's interpretation bordered on culture of poverty theory, which is to say that the entire circumstance of the poor is a fundamental issue of their specific culture, belief and behaviors and not an outcome of a broader system of exploitation and manipulation.  I now see how the two go hand in hand.

Jayakumar Christian believes that the identity of the poor has been marred in three specific ways.  1) It is marred by flawed social norms and worldviews.  Here in Appalachia I've seen this in what I described a few days ago as the Appalachia stereotype.  Many of poor in Appalachia have difficulty breaking out of the roles they are asked to play in local culture. 2) It is marred through years of marginalization.  Here in Appalachia it would go beyond years to generations.  According to Christian, "years of exploitation have reduced the marginalized to dull, submissive living objects."  Hence, 3) It is marred as the poor are reduced to mere objects.  The poor become less than human, which opens the door to further exploitation.

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For many years I had a somewhat unilateral, materialist understanding of poverty.  I saw poverty only in the dimension of the financial and neglected to recognize the structural, spiritual, relational, emotional and even intellectual dimensions.  I once felt that if those of us with means in the world threw enough money at those without, then poverty could be alleviated.  I no longer see poverty in such a simplistic manner.

Jayakumar Christian is an author who has spent his life trying to alleviate poverty with World Vision in India.   He describes an alternative reading of poverty.  In Working with the Poor on page 3 he states, "Poverty continues to defy simplistic descriptions, definitions and easy solutions.  It continues to raise very uncomfortable questions for our continued reflection and response.  Essentially, poverty is about relationships... with these relationships the poor experience deprivation, powerlessness, physical isolation, economic poverty and all other characteristics of poverty."

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The Confessing Tiger shares about Fuller Seminary’s Curriculum on poverty developed for World Vision’s 30 Hour Famine

Chris comments on some reflections on youth ministry and poverty from Tony Campolo

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