BUILD - Part Two

Okay, so it's been a minute since the first part of this blog, but things have been kinda busy (starting a new high school, from scratch, is no joke!). Anyway, here's an update on the rest of last week's BUILD conversation that had me a bit jazzed...

Our group's conversation about community, and about whether or not you can be effective in urban ministry without relocating to the community, somehow got onto the subject of home ownership. I think one guy noted how young singles with no families sometimes buy expensive condos in one community, flip them, and then do the same thing in another community, without any consideration for how they've helped destabilize those neighborhoods (i.e., effects of gentrification). As a group we really struggled with how you improve conditions in a community without displacing folks (I think Mary Nelson talked about development without displacement the way Lupton speaks of gentrification with justice). Personally, this is an area I think all of us would like more time devoted to. Anyway, one group member (young well meaning white man) tried to make the point that home ownership is greatly overrated, and it's actually a good idea to encourage families in the 'hood to rent rather than own a home.

Well, I was really jazzed because we all know that owning property is one of the best ways to stabilize a family and a community (I'm not talking about a poor family owning a home when they aren't ready; nor am I talking about buying more home than you can afford.) I find it irresponsible to encourage working class poor to pay month after month of high rent on someone else's property, rather than pay that same money on something they will eventually own, not to mention something they can rent partially (to help pay the mortgage and/or to go towards rainy day and college and retirement savings, and to get a tax refund for annually in the meantime). The young man's point about upkeep of a home being a cost some folks don't consider before buying was well taken, but it assumed I am for going out and telling every poor person on the West side to buy a home, indiscriminately. I am in favor of working class families getting themselves in financial order and working towards that goal sooner rather than later (or not at all, which is most often the case).

Okay, another Black woman added that families who own homes in the neighborhood have a greater investment there, which this white young man refuted and couldn't understand. I pointed out how owning a home in a community does make you more concerned about litter, trash, garbage pick-up, crime, even the schools, because all of that affects not just your property value, but your quality of life. (Kind of like the point this same person made earlier about how living in the community you serve gives you a greater sense of urgency about it than living in another area of the same city!) When you are renting and bouncing from place to place, you are still concerned, but not to the same degree. Why? Because you are not invested to the same degree. Also, I noted that home ownership decreases students' mobility rate, a real problem for teachers. I know principals who bemoan the fact that their schools have mobility rates as high as 60 or 70%. Every study shows constant mobility does nothing but disrupt a child's education, social support structures, etc., undermining the learning and socialization process.

Another white gentleman responded that Jesus was homeless, and that we should go back to Acts 2. That struck me as being funny. Jesus was not rich, that much I do know, contrary to TV evangelists (His parents offered a dove and pigeon when He was born, rather than the lamb or cattle of non-poor families). But, many of Jesus' women followers had money, so much so that they supported Him from their substance. Not only that, but there were rich disciples (Joseph of Arimathea, as one of the fellas pointed out). And the Gospel hit Ceasar's household as well as his servants -- it converted Onesimus the runaway slave as well as Philemon his master.

Another response was how Jesus said don't store up treasures on earth. Okay, so was He talking about not having money, or money not having you? The latter. The Book of Proverbs speaks of a wise man leaving an inheritance for his children's children. And Jesus had a problem with the rich man because 1) he ignored Lazarus, the poor man; and 2) he left God out of his existence, living a self-led life marked by "I"s and evidenced by tons of preparation for his earthly life but no preparation for his spiritual life or for his after-life. Lastly, the NT addresses poor Christians and rich Christians (those who are rich in this world), telling the latter not to put their trust in uncertain riches and to remember the poor. Those passages tell me there will be rich and poor Christians -- everybody won't be on the same level.

The Book of Acts was history -- not a prescription. It gives us principles to live by -- not a blueprint (otherwise, we'd all be speaking in tongues like at Pentecost). Plus, the Acts 2 believers lived communally because when they became followers of Christ, many of them were persecuted (lost property, which included their homes -- check out the Book of Hebrews). So, the early church responded to an immediate need for large numbers of converted folks to have a place to live (i.e., the folks who were at Pentecost were in Jerusalem for this feast, and when they were converted, they were far away from home; later, the persecution kicked in). When you look at the church not too later, you realize folks had homes (people were praying in Peter's mother in law's home, I believe, when Peter was in prison; the apostle John warns Christians not to receive traveling false teachers into their homes; and there were even house churches -- all of which tell you folks had personal property; communal living was not long term).

I certainly agree with the fellas desire to purge American Christianity of our materialism and individualism and our tendency to, as one young white brother said, find our identity in our homes. I feel too much of today's Christianity is really white American, Western Christianity and modern philosophy in disguise (which is how you can have a prosperity gospel and how you can have politics that assume America's right since we are a 'Christian nation' -- also funny to me). However, I don't think the solution is some romantic fantasy of communal living. I think you'll find just as much sin on the commune as you will outside of it (ask Ananias and Sapphira). I think the solution lies in a return to Scripture's counsel (let's re-examine God's Word to hear His concern for the poor and His admonitions to the wealthy, and then let's live those out, and we'll be straight). People unwisely find their identities in all kinds of things -- their jobs, their loved ones, even their ministries -- but we don't advocate the elimination of those things. Instead, we support putting them in proper perspective.

Lastly, I think this situation is a prime example of the divide between white and Black Christians. Just as it was incomprehensible to me to suggest to working class poor Black folks not to pursue home ownership, my perspective was equally unfathomable to my white brothers. I think personal experience, based on race and class (as well as personal beliefs or theology) created the gap in understanding. As I stated, I know what it's like to have a mother who's almost 60, who has worked at the same job for 32 years, yet who does not have a home and does not have any retirement savings at all, and for whom retirement is nowhere in sight. Once my mother gets too old or too sick to work (which we thought was a couple of years ago with hip surgery), she will not be able to live off Social Security. By God's grace, what will keep her from being a Breakthrough client is the fact that she has adult children who can and will take her in and care for her and support her. Many people don't have that. And, as a single mother with a multiply-handicapped child whom I will care for for the rest of her life, I cannot afford to be as unwise as my hard-working mother. I must have a home and retirement savings because I have no daughter to care for me in my old age.