Widows: They Haven't Gone Away

For Christians living in the economically developed world, the Biblical emphasis on caring for "widows" is one that we tend to rapidly contextualise away from its traditional and literal meaning.

Our line of reasoning goes something like this:

1. there aren't that many widows around today and those that exist tend to be elderly
2. the state (shaped in part, we claim, by centuries of Christian influence in the west) is now the main provider of care to widows
3. the equivalent person in our culture to the widow of biblical times is a) the single mother or b) the victim of sex trafficking.

No doubt such contextualisation has its place, but recent research reveals that, internationally, the plight of widows remains significant.

The Loomba Foundation, of which Cherie Blair is a patron, has this week launched a new report showing that 115 million widows around the world live in extreme poverty. Prejudice, mistreatment and exploitation are common among this section of the global population.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the countries with the largest number of widows broadly reflect those with large general populations - China (43 million widows), India (42 million) and the United States (13 million). Indonesia, Russia and Japan have a total of 24 million between them and there are around 245 million widows worldwide.

Widows in Afghanistan (2 million) and Iraq (3/4 of a million) are, according to the report, among those in the most difficult circumstances. The irony of this fact cannot be missed, both countries having been invaded by the orders of the British government while Mrs Blair's husband was prime minister.

The report also highlights the suffering of over 500 million dependent and adult children of widows, many of whom are severely affected by homelessness, poor health, economic and sexual exploitation and violence.

It is notable that both the old and new testaments place the care of widows at the heart of the responsibility of God's people. The church in Jerusalem, the first church to come into existence, ran a daily food distribution service to widows within its community, supported by the generous giving of its members. Deuteronomy 10 is typical of this Biblical emphasis:

For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing.

Whereas many Christians in the west will continue to try and apply the Biblical commands to their specific cultural circumstances, it is worth remembering that "real" widows remain a significant part of the global population and, as in Biblical times, are at the sharp end of economic need.

Why Good News to the Poor is Not Enough

Many churches and Christian organisations have, over recent years, rediscovered their God-given mandate to serve and bring good news to the economically disadvantaged, both in their locality and further field.

Thankfully, the idea that such acts are a distraction from the gospel is now rarely heard in Christian circles, as local churches support night shelters, drug rehabilitation projects, food programmes, education support and a myriad of other good works which seek to demonstrate the presence of the Kingdom of God through words and actions.

Welcome though these developments are, they are insufficient to either address the needs of those who are disadvantaged or to fully express the nature of the rule of God in the earth.

The same Lord who was anointed with the Spirit to "preach good news to the poor" was also mandated to bring a rather different message to the rich.

The materially wealthy, according to the gospel accounts, will find it "hard" to enter the kingdom of God, are sent away empty by God, and are to be overlooked by Jesus' disciples when they organise social events.

If that were not bad enough, the Son of God explicitly pronounces judgment upon the wealthy: not only does he pronounce the poor as "blessed", but, in Luke's account of the Sermon on the Mount, he proclaims "woe" to the rich - this term being drawn directly from the writings of the Prophets when they announced God's judgment on individuals, groups or nations.

A church pastor recently shared his concern in discovering that two adjacent neighbourhoods in his city, both of which contain church members, had significantly differing rates of average life expectancy. Those living in the poorer area were likely to die nine years earlier than those in the wealthy neighbourhood next door.

It is questionable how far this gap can be addressed by only meeting the needs and empowering those at the bottom of the economic scale, without also addressing the income and consumption levels of those at the top.

The gospel, it seems to me, calls us to focus on both.

On the Westminster Declaration

The Westminster Declaration has generated some discussion among Christians engaged with the political process in the run up to the General Election, drawing both praise and criticism from both inside and outside the Christian community

The Evangelical Alliance in Wales, meanwhile, has released its own set of priorities for voters to consider in the coming election.

"Firstly that the new government will ensure that the UK's poorest people will not lose out as it seeks to resolve the nation's colossal debt.

Secondly that the new government will commit itself to social justice. Wealth creation and entrepreneurship is to be encouraged so that the whole of society may benefit and not a privileged few.

Thirdly that the new government will ensure that Christians and other people of faith are allowed to express their views and organise themselves without the intrusive intervention of the state."

The difference of emphasis in the two statements says something about where different Christians assume the emphasis should be placed when seeking to apply their faith to their voting choices.

Catholic Wisdom

Don't worry, I'm not about to set up a shrine to Our Lady of North Bristol.

It's just that from time to time I find the odd snippet from the Catholic wing that strikes a chord and which I think is worth repeating.

Third stream Christian groups - which I have written about elsewhere - have historically been happy to learn from the best of the Catholic mystic tradition while retaining a solid adherence to the authority of Scripture and an evangelical understanding of salvation/justification.

It is in that spirit that I offer the following quote from Scott Schaeffer-Duffy who with his wife Claire started the St. Francis and Theresa Worker House in 1986 (inspired by the example of Catholic civil rights activist Dorothy Day) in Worcester, Massachusetts:

"We confess to being fools and wish that we were more so.... We seek an irrational and personalist way of doing things that trusts in the miraculous power of God.... Without government aid, salaries, grants or institutional help from the Church, and often without many volunteers, we feed and house people, deliver aid in war zones, confront local and national injustices, and still manage to have happy personal and family lives. That's pretty miraculous to me."

Although I may not choose to use the word "irrational" and although I would see "help from the church" as a good thing, nonetheless, I share with the writer the desire for a church that is weak, as far as human might is concerned. Such a church consciously rejects the mechanisms of power and influence that govern much human activity in the political, economic and military spheres. This same church is powerful in its adherence to the gospel, its seeking of another Kingdom, its commitment to prayer and its experience and expectation of God's active and supernatural involvement.

I think Paul had something similar in mind when he said: when I am weak,then I am strong.