Walking and Chewing Gum at the Same Time

There is no disagreement among Christians concerning the biblical mandate to care for the poor. From the laws of Moses to the words of Jesus, the commandments to care for the poor are unmistakably clear. Those who follow the God of the Bible are to help the poor.

Yet a recently completed study by researcher George Barna concluded, “The religious faith of adults appears to have a limited influence on how people perceive and respond to poverty.” What an indictment of evangelical Christians.

As a whole, Americans are concerned about the poor, Barna found. Seventy-two percent of adults said poverty was one of the most serious social problems facing the United States today. Twenty-one percent called it the most serious social problem. But evangelical Christians were only half as likely as the rest of the adult population to deem poverty the most serious social problem (11 percent).

While two-thirds of Americans supported government programs to help the poor, support among evangelicals fell to 55 percent. While this is still a majority, Barna said it was among the lowest percentages of support among any group identified.

One might expect that born-again Christians would identify poverty as an issue churches should address but they did not. Only 14 percent of evangelicals said churches should be addressing the issue. Of the population as a whole, only 4 percent said churches should address poverty.