I love when my sermons are not the end word, but a beginning. After my last sermon several people made comments on things I had not thought of or had not said. For instance, that it is good to distinguish between being poor and being impoverished. As the ancient writer of the Jewish book of Deuteronomy said, "There will always be poor people in the land" because "having little" is a matter of degree. The trees are poor. They have nothing but their bodies. But they are not impoverished, unless the soil is depleted, water dries up, and the air fouled. They have the opportunities and resources they need to live as they desire: to soak up sun, to wick up water, to grow and produce. The pecan trees in front of my parking space and over the front walk have been dropping sweet nuts in abundance for weeks and they have fed generations of squirrels.

However, extreme poverty is deep lack of the basic resources for living and a violation of human dignity. The United Nations (in 1998 as part of the Millennium Goals), defined extreme poverty as the near total absence of opportunity, of any sort, accompanied by undernourishment, hunger, no clean water, illiteracy, lack of education, and physical and mental ailments without treatment. "It means not having enough to feed and clothe one’s self or family, and not having a school or clinic to go to." Extreme poverty leads to "emotional and social instability, unhappiness, and hopelessness for the future, or instability and violence. Above all extreme poverty creates "a chronic shortage of economic, social and political participation, relegating individuals to exclusion as social beings, preventing access to the benefits of economic and social development and thereby limiting their cultural development." This is what we can and should eliminate in America and in the world.

In my sermon I quoted from two books. One was Until It's Gone: Ending Poverty in Our Nation, in Our Lifetime, by Scott C. Miller; the other was Bridges Out of Poverty: Strategies for Professionals and Communities, by Ruby K. Payne, Philip E. DeVol, and Terie Dreussi Smith. To get involved in the local anti-poverty Circles of Support program, contact the Eliminating Poverty Impact Coalition, Teamwork for Quality Living at: P.O. Box 468, Muncie, IN 47308; Phone: 765-747-7158; Fax: 765-747-3573; E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .