Can churches end poverty?

Maybe--if they toughen their message on chastity and marriage instead of having conferences and meetings about it. In 1970, 71% of all U.S. households were 2 parent families compared to 51% in 2007. Larry Elder says the 38 most important words about poverty are: “Finish high school, marry before having a child, and produce the child after the age of twenty." Only 8 percent of families who do this are poor; 79 percent of those who fail to do this are poor.

If liberal pastors in Columbus would gang up and make as much noise about chastity and fathers not being responsible for their children as they did about Rod Parsley's church, we might see some long term improvement! Parsley preaches that message; the liberal preachers don't.

The editorial last week in our SNP Upper Arlington News by Lyndsey Teter was titled "Can Columbus churches unite to end poverty?" Churches might make a dent in poverty if they would stop focusing on the gap. The Clintons have earned $109 million since leaving the White House and my husband and I have been living on Social Security and STRS pension since they left the White House. We give almost double in percentage of income that the Clintons do, and vastly more than the Obamas, and Al and Tipper Gore's contributions were just a joke (something like $400 a year when he was VP). What portion of Bill and Hillary's wealth would Ms. Teeter suggest we take to even things up a bit? Isn't that what liberals usually suggest? Taking from the wealthy will not solve the hard core problems of poverty. Nor will aborting babies of poor women, or taking canvas bags to the supermarket, or protecting the air in Berkeley with hybrid cars burning Midwestern corn, just to name a few programs that are favorites for assuaging guilt for rich, liberal Christians. The government programs, particularly those funded through the USDA for getting rid of food surpluses by giving them to low income families, have outstripped the churches ability to even make a difference. And they've compromised their message. Millions of federal, state and local workers are dependent on grant money "to end poverty,"--housing, jobs, food, retraining, internships, social workers, researchers, legislative staffers, counselors--to the point that if poverty were to miraculously end next week, we'd put government employees out of work at such a rate that we'd have to start all over! Evidence from the Great Awakenings that took place in this country about two hundred years ago shows it takes a spiritual renewal in the listener which then moves to the community. But if the preachers are silent about the Good News, where do the people have to go except to the government?