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Christians twice as likely to blame a person's poverty on lack of effort, poll finds
"Because the Bible told me so..."
A familiar refrain. This also correlates with the predominant Republican outlook on poverty.
Now, it would make for good debate whether Christians are more likely than atheists/agnostics to actually assist the poor, through charity and volunteering, despite the Christian propensity to assign blame. I dunno...
Which is generally more often to blame if a person is poor: lack of effort on their own part, or difficult circumstances beyond their control?
The Washington Post and the Kaiser Family Foundation asked 1,686 American adults to answer that question - and found that religion is a significant predictor of how Americans perceive poverty.
Christians are much more likely than non-Christians to view poverty as the result of individual failings, especially white evangelical Christians.
"There's a strong Christian impulse to understand poverty as deeply rooted in morality - often, as the Bible makes clear, in unwillingness to work, in bad financial decisions or in broken family structures," said Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. "The Christian world view is saying that all poverty is due to sin, though that doesn't necessarily mean the sin of the person in poverty. In the Garden of Eden, there would have been no poverty. In a fallen world, there is poverty."
The Washington Post and the Kaiser Family Foundation asked 1,686 American adults to answer that question - and found that religion is a significant predictor of how Americans perceive poverty.
Christians are much more likely than non-Christians to view poverty as the result of individual failings, especially white evangelical Christians.
"There's a strong Christian impulse to understand poverty as deeply rooted in morality - often, as the Bible makes clear, in unwillingness to work, in bad financial decisions or in broken family structures," said Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. "The Christian world view is saying that all poverty is due to sin, though that doesn't necessarily mean the sin of the person in poverty. In the Garden of Eden, there would have been no poverty. In a fallen world, there is poverty."
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/christians-poverty-blame-lack-effort-twice-likely-us-white-evangelicals-faith-relgion-a7875541.html
10 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
I can't take credit for this excellent sarcastic headline that led me to the article in the OP, but I want to share it:
Christians are nearly twice as likely to think people are poor because they don't work hard enough. You don't think Jesus just had heaven and earth handed to him by his dad, do you?
