Poverty Parable

(From Divided by Faith by Michael O. Emerson)
   "Both Maridel and Parker were overweight, to the point of being unhealthy.  They decided it was the time to do something drastic.  Responding to an ad for a Fat-Away program, they drove to a rural area in their state, where they were taken to separate areas of the woods.  For six weeks, they would be locked into these 'compounds,' as they were called.  In each compound, according to the ad, were the perfect ingredients needed to lose weight.  Their goal was to each lose forty pounds.  What they did not know is that the less-than-ethical Fat-Away organization was really a research laboratory studying the effects of various diets, exercise programs, and weight-loss expectations on people's weight change.  Without a word to Maridel and Parker, they placed Maridel in a compound designed to help her lose weight, but they placed Parker in a compound designed for Parker to gain weight.
   In Maridel's compound were running trails, a swimming pool, state-of-the-art exercise equipment, a basketball court, and a sauna.  In her cabin were magazines on proper nutrition, instructional videos on how to lose weight, an abundance of natural, healthy, low-fat, low-calorie foods, and no sweets.  Each day she was greeted early by fit and trim people who asked Maridel to go on a run with them, talked about how much they loved being thin, and encouraged her that she too can be thin--wonderful conditions for losing weight.
   In Parker's compound was only a tiny cabin.  No exercise equipment was available whatsoever, but there were plenty of videos and movies that showed high-calorie foods looking sumptuous, more high-calorie goodies than even a sumo wrestler could desire, and just a few fruits and vegetables.  The only other people Parker saw were also obese, and though they talked about losing weight, they seemed not to really care about their weight--not good conditions for losing weight.
   The program called for each participant to weigh in at the start, and then every two weeks thereafter.  At the end of two weeks, with neither aware of what was inside the other's compound, Maridel and Parker were taken to the weighing room.  They each took their turn on the scale.  Maridel stepped on the scale first.  She had lost nineteen pounds!  Parker's turn produced far less excitement.  He actually gained two pounds.
   Maridel, who assumed that both she and Parker had the same type of compound, was irritated with Parker.  'We paid good money to be here, Parker.  How can you waste it?  You have to exercise, you have to eat right!'  Parker tried to make his case, but it only made Maridel more irritated.  Maridel told Parker he needed to try harder.  Parker, though he was depressed about his weight gain and the difficulty in exercising adequately and eating right, resolved to do so.
   But try as he may, Parker kept eating too many bad foods.  And he exercised very little.  He became despressed, and his depression only made him eat more and exercise less.  After another two weeks, back he and Maridel went to the scales.  Maridel, with wonderful weight-loss opportunities, and taking full advantage of them, lost another fifteen pounds.  Parker, however, actually gained more weight then he had the first two weeks.  Maridel could not believe what Parker was doing to himself.  'Don't you know why we are here?  Parker, this place is designed for us to lose weight.  If you can't do it her, where can you?'
   'I don't think this is all that great a place to lose weight,' Parker sniped.  'The food here is fatty, and exercising is next to impossible.'  Maridel was taken aback.  Finally she replied, 'It wouldn't matter if that were true, Parker.  When we get home, the food can be fatty and exercise difficult, but you must learn to eat and exercise right, regardless.'  Parker, increasingly frustrated by Maridel's comments, retorted, 'No way is it as easy as you're making it seem.  I think that Fat-Away is treating me unfairly.  I'm not even sure I want to lose weight.'
   With that Maridel was dumbfounded.  If Parker was not even going to try, if he was going to blame others, perhaps he deserved to be obese.  But she also thought that if only Parker could have a vision of what he could lok like, he would take advantage of Fat-Away and lose weight.  She encouraged Parker to imagine being thin, toned, and healthy.  'Wouldn't it be wonderful, Parker?  If only you would try.'
   Back they went for another two weeks.  At the final weigh-in, with the predictable result of Parker not having lost weight, Maridel simply resigned herself to the idea that Parker wanted to be overweight.  Why Parker would want this, she was not sure, but of one thing she was sure--until Parker decided he wanted to lose weight, he would not."

I wish I could spend a lot of time individually with you just pouring into you what I'm learning about poverty and how we got these poor pockets of society in this country.  I wish I had the kind of faith that believes that God can take these long blogs, everything I pour out, and then change your perspective, maybe even how or where you live for the sake of reconciling black and white, rich and poor.

In the story above, we see two people of equal girthability, separated into what they believe to be equal opportunities of success.  Consider this like the racial isolation that a large majority of people choose residentially.  When I would see a bum on State Street in Madison, or even hear about homelessness, in my mind, they just needed to motivate themselves and get a job.  Perhaps if they knew Jesus, this would automatically course-correct their circumstances.  I didn't realize that all these "Parkers" that I've met feel that an unfair hand has been delt to them.  Divided by Faith might be the best book I've read about describing race relations, more specifically how it looks in the churches.  I think I like the book so much because they authors have done the exhausting work of interviewing, surveying, and conversationalizing with so many people over the years.  Their results are stunning.  This book makes the case that religion, from a white evangelical standpoint, does more to perpetuate racialization than to diffuse it.  As more and more white evangelical isolate themselves from cross-racial relationships and networks, the greater the divide will be between them and the farther away from reconciling we will be, as those values of comfort and ample opportunity will be "born-again" in the future generations.

One result to a survey in the book was that white-evangelicals almost always choose individualistic ways to mend racial relations (i.e. show unconditional love if you see a black man, reach the person and if enough people do this, change will happen).  On the other end of the spectrum, almost all black-evangelical chose structural and systemic ways to mend racial relations.  This gets difficult to explain but it is more about feeling unfairly treated, discriminated against.  They're not more stupider (haha, one of my favorite sayings), they just don't have equal opportunity with quality schools.  They're not lazy, there are so many more factors that as middle to upper-class whites, we take for granted that they have to deal with.  Lack of transportation, not having proper paperwork available, way less resources of materials and even people to lean on, no examples set of how to succeed (if there are any success stories of rags to riches, ghetto to high-society, these people rarely stay in the community).  These are only a few.  Just in living here for these past six months, my view of race relations has changed.  These people are not any less Christian for being less clean, not having as much.


I've seen, just in our after-school program, the ability that these young poverty people have to learn and grow and desire and succeed just like any middle-class white kid, perhaps more.  We had our second field trip yesterday.  The two:fiftytwo after-school program went to MOSH (Museum of Science and History) and they loved it.  The thing I think I loved the most about it, however, was not that they were excited to learn, it was at the end of the trip where they all, like a family, were running around playing with each other by a huge fountain.  It was a beautiful picture of joy and almost like a culmination of all the love that God graced us to show the kids this whole year.  It will be very difficult for me to leave them in June.  Let's not think about that quite yet, there's still work to be done, a God to be obedient to, friends to encourage, and connections to be made.  If you made it all the way down here, you deserve a prize I think.  You should email/text/comment a smiley face and maybe I will try to think of something fun to give you.  Take care y'all! (translation for northerners: Have a good one!)

(Top) Mr. Marc, Davon, Challah, me   (Middle) Rayshantia, Chassidy, Dauna   (Bottom) Emery, Charity, Diallo, Dreshaun  (They wish you all peace, not sure what Charity is wishing you all)