God Doesn’t Like Poor People

God doesn’t like poor people.

Do we have your attention? Good. No, I am not channeling Sean Hannity. However, his statements mirror what some in this country believe. It started off as wealthy Americans feeling like "we deserved only the best. It is our God given right". And has now filtered down into every neighborhood in our country.

In times of trouble, financial, marital or medical turmoil, we reach out to others via our digital social
networks for advice, encouragement, or just solace and understanding. And then…you see it, “I am so blessed to have a husband who makes enough money for me to have a good life, stay home with my kids and have a beautiful house. I couldn’t be any happier! I thank God for everything we have"! Yes, this is the same person who writes how blessed they are, to have their house end up being the only one standing on their block, after a natural disaster. As if God, somehow chose them, out of thousands of others to keep their lives and livelihood. After all, God doesn't have anything else to do.  It seems to infect everyone’s home page at one point or another. It is like a virus, we just can’t get rid of.

You know what I am talking about. The posts that make you cringe. The status updates, that make you want to delete these people from your friends list. If only life could be that easy. Just press “de-friend” and they are gone.

The problem with this statement isn’t that the person who posted their gratitude isn’t worthy of the good things in life. It’s that it implies the rest of us aren’t blessed, worthy or maybe not praying, to the right God or higher being to have or deserve the same good things in life. We are told, “just be thankful for what you have!”. I should be thankful for being allowed to breathe and work 3 jobs to make my ends meet? Don’t get me wrong, in comparison to the majority of the world, we are better off.

A friend of mine is living in India. He is helping people in the slums get healthcare, education and just basic necessities in life. The level of poverty he sees is not something we can even begin to comprehend in this country. He just wrote how a wealthy Indian girl said to him “I know God is good, because MY life is Blessed!”. He asked her to use that line on any of the women who can’t feed their kids in the slums or get medical care for their dying. Is God good to them? Don’t they deserve more than what has been given in their lives? Of course, she refused to speak to these people. When things are going great, we thank God, when it isn’t we chalk it up to life and we turn our backs on people. Human nature can be a beautiful thing and an evil thing, all at once.

Something seems wrong here, very wrong.

As times have gotten harder in this country. As the economic divide has gotten greater. I find we fall into two groups of people.

1. The people who stay or become even more faithful through the bad times. These are the people who even when they lose their jobs, homes, savings, etc. will say, they are somehow blessed it isn’t worse. These are the people that will continue to pray and have “faith” and then when something finally turns around for them, they will thank God. These are the people who will say all those years of praying for something, even if it took a lifetime of praying, has finally paid off when they get their wish. God has listened. This same group of people will thank God for the great things in life: a trip to Italy, a six figure income, etc. As if God has nothing else to do except give these people useless toys, trips and money. These are the people that will then look at neighbor and say “what were you thinking taking that camping trip in June? No wonder you lost your house! You shouldn’t spend money, you don’t really have!”…as if poor people don’t deserve some relief from some of the unfortunate circumstances in life. Apparently if you are poor, you don’t deserve anything and just need to keep working and stop being so human. Basically, just shut up.

2. The second group of people, aka “the of rest of us”, have grown more cynical and started to lose faith, with every pay cut, lost job and or turn of bad luck. We are seen as the angry liberals. Sure, we had a moment in 2008, when we thought, this is IT! Our big moment, the moment a revolution is happening. We had hope, we had strength and we had a president who could help us do it all. Well, I have news for you people, it’s over. That ship has sailed and we were left standing at the docks. We are the group who wonder, why me? Why us? Why now? What did I do? What did I not do? How could I have prevented the worst economic disaster to hit us, since the Great Depression? Should I listen to that anchor (and I use the term loosely) that I saw on Fox News who said, it is my fault, I blew it, own up to it, you don’t get a free ride? You get my point. We are feeling screwed. The American dream is not real, not for us.

This has led to the great divide. The divide between the “real Americans” and the rest of us. It started with the lies that we have been fed since birth. If we just pray enough, follow all the rules and be good; we can succeed, we will succeed! The lie that if we just get any job and work hard, we can make all of our dreams come true.

A recent poll asked Americans, if they thought they could be rich in the near future or anytime soon. 54% of young people polled said yes. A majority overestimated their income status when asked where they ranked on an income scale. What is wrong with this picture? It shows, that we continue to believe the lies and to tell them to ourselves and others. The divide between the rich and the poor is getting wider, each day. The middle class is disappearing and somehow most people are o.k. with it. They think somehow, with enough faith and hard work, it will all be o.k.

Most of us followed the rules laid down before us. We went to school, found a nice corporate job, bought homes and made babies. It all seemed so easy in college. Our lives lay ahead of us, glistening with hope and promise. What happened? Keep reading our blog and you will see what happened and what is happening to people just like you. God doesn’t like poor people. Maybe that's why Lloyd Blankfein CEO of Goldman Sachs said he "was doing God's work". We think not.


A.M
LGMC