Today, Wednesday, is Blog Action Day 2008; as of the time of my writing this, close to 10,000 12,000 bloggers around the world are uniting to open a dialogue about global, regional, and local poverty, to reach our audiences — estimates are 10 million 12 million people will read our collective blog posts today via RSS and internet surfing — so that some actual good can be done about poverty. I predict some 20,000 bloggers will participate before day's end.
Many thousands of blogposts today will be dealing with poverty in the abstract. Today I wanted to blog specifically about my friends at the Relational Tithe (RT) and what communities (local and virtual) have to say about taking care of their (our) own.
"In our world of strangers, estranged from their own past, culture and country, from their neighbors, friends and family, from their deepest self and their God, we witness a painful search for a hospitable place where life can be lived without fear and where community can be found." - Henri Nouwen
Nouwen's fragmented, modern, western world has remained inhospitable to the poorest among us, for the most part. However, I wanted to paint a quick picture of the folks at the Relational Tithe who are conspiring toward a great reversal — poverty and need being countered by deep hospitality. The RT is a loose association of friends in different towns; some know each other from ministry circles, others because they went to the same college or seminary; still others who were once neighbors but now live elsewhere.
They believe that we live not in an economy of scarcity, but rather in an economy of abundance — a concept difficult to grasp, perhaps, in these troubled times — money only seems scarce because it is being hoarded by the few. The theological response to hoarding is willful redistribution (biblical "Jubilee"). Because some half-attentive reader is going to accuse me of marxism if I don't repeat myself, I said willful redistribution, one that presupposes a mindset change on the part of said hoarder. i digress.
"… there are enough resources to meet the needs of every person, [and] the needs of each person are the responsibility of all people. The beginning of Relational Tithe can be boiled down to a question: “What would happen if we all set aside a tenth of our incomes to meet the needs of people we know?”
A handful of friends from across the United States joined in asking that question and committed to six months of ‘relational tithing’ to answer it... " (RT website)
What followed was aptly named relational tithing, because it involves hearing the stories of specific individuals (typically only one degree of separation away from an RT member) and then agreeing as a group to meet that need: John's neighbor Susan had her lawnmower stolen; John, part of the RT, went to the group and shared the need; part of the group's tithe went towards anonymously buying Susan a new mower. Kari's mom has had to quit her job because of cancer; Kari takes her mom's story to the RT and her cancer treatment is offset.
This doesn't take away from the need to give globally as well; but it seems to be a strong antidote for our tendency to abdicate with our checkbooks. So get out there and do something in your own local context today.
serve san antonio from richard hamilton on Vimeo.
RT is a new concept to me, but I immediately connected with it when I read your post. Off now to research it further. Would like to have a blueprint for establishing something like that in my community.
Recently, my husband and myself decided to pay for a second share in a CSA (Community Sponsored Agriculture) that we belong to, so that another family could benefit from having a share of locally grown vegetables during next year's growing season. Well. It has become quite complicated, in terms of the growers trying to work with us to select a family to be the beneficiary. What seemed like a simple task has become a boondoggle.
I like the simplicity of the RT concept and wonder if that approach would have alleviated our struggle with making a fair selection of our recipient?
Posted by: Katie | Wednesday, October 15, 2008 at 12:02 PM
I am glad to see how people are chipping in to provide for people's needs. Just recently my small little fellowship decided to make a commitment to pay for 12 homes this year to be built for poor people in Guatamala. I do not believe in the tithing mandate, but i hope and pray that everyone ernestly continues to give sacrificially.
-jared b.
Posted by: steward | Thursday, October 16, 2008 at 11:42 AM
marxist! ;-) ooops, i mean, totally de acuerdo with the whole abundance/scarcity juxtaposition. the Kingdom requires us to have a completely new view of resources. we serve an infinite God and thus we must recognize that the universe is an open system and we as those created in the image and likeness of the Lord have the capacity to create new resources...but in the meantime, i think biblical economics (radically represented in acts 2 also) calls us to shared sacrifice, that none might go hungry. such a long way to go for that one...
Posted by: pamelita | Thursday, October 16, 2008 at 04:35 PM