Reverse Course

My thoughts on BBC Radio Wales this morning went something like this:

Good morning: I was about eleven when a group of us spent a day learning to canoe. By the evening we were sure that we had mastered it and we were bold enough to think we’d not get caught, if later on, we sneaked down to the lake and had another go. Well we made it to the jetty undetected and I was daft enough to climb in first. I’d only got one foot in the boat when my comrades had the bright idea of pushing it into the lake.

The problem was my other foot still planted on the shore. As my right leg travelled onto deeper water and my left leg tried to remain just where it was, the distance uncomfortably increased. Decisive action was needed. I lunged toward the shore and caught hold of the jetty. But to my horror the canoe maintained its course. I ended up horizontal to the water, stretched out like the Severn Bridge, but with no such means of support. An inevitable disaster ensued.

I thought of that this week when I heard how the gap between the richest and poorest people in Britain has increased again. This has been going on for forty years and so I wondered just how long can those with plenty, distance themselves from those in need. How long before society is simply stretched too far?

The government’s definition of impoverishment is a relative one: where we draw the poverty-line is dependant on the average income of our nation. As that changes so does our understanding of who is poor. So, poverty in Britain looks different to somewhere else like Haiti, even before the earthquake. But how we care for those with little, wherever they may be, ultimately defines who we are. And nothing is more suggestive of a dangerous malaise than the simple truth that the rich are continuing to get disproportionately wealthier.

The bible recognises that taking care of the least of us is not just a matter of political expediency. It’s not even about economic justice, important as that is. Closing the gap between the haves and have-nots is about our spirituality. Because it is not money, but the love of it that can corrupt our living, whether we are rich or poor. It’s the misplaced adoration of pounds and pence that can make us indifferent to the plight of others, trapping our Spirit within a poverty of heart that becomes the root of all our problems.

Something must change:

not just in government or banking

but in us and what we value

if we’re ever to close the gap and change the course of what we have become