In the area where I live, homeless encampments are popping up more and more. Some are right off the road, others tucked deep in wooded lots where you only spot them if you’re looking. Either way, the signs of growing poverty are everywhere: vagrants at intersections, people appearing out of nowhere at your car in parking lots and gas stations. It wasn’t like this when I was a kid. With all the wealth in the West, you would think we could wipe out poverty but it feels like the opposite is happening.
The Great Society
In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson declared a war on poverty. His goal: eliminate, cure, and prevent it in America. The “Great Society” agenda brought programs like Head Start, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamp expansions, housing subsidies, and boosted Social Security benefits.
That was over 60 years ago. Those programs have expanded and been refined ever since. Back in 1965, about 20% of the federal budget went to social services. Today it’s closer to 60% when you count major entitlements like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and income security programs. So has Johnson’s war succeeded? In 1965, around 17% of Americans were in poverty. The rate now hovers around 13%. Some progress but nowhere near eliminating, curing, or preventing poverty.
“If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, 8 but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be … 10 You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. 11 For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’ Deuteronomy 15:7-11 ESV
Be Generous
When God gave rules to the Hebrews, He told them to open their hand and lend to the brother in need. God also told them that there would never cease to be poor in the land. That truth holds today. Even if we spent 100% of the federal budget on social programs, poverty would persist. The overall poverty rate has stayed roughly flat since the 1970s despite massive increases in spending. That’s 50+ years of little net progress.
What’s the problem? Why do we still have poor, and why can we not remove it? Maybe universal basic income (UBI) would fix the problem. Some tech leaders push that hard. Just give everyone a basic income to live on. Problem solved!
For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me. John 12:8 ESV
Government Failure
Jesus reiterates a hard truth about human nature: it is not possible to eliminate all poverty. Why? Because poverty stems from sin and rebellion against God at a societal level. (Before anyone jumps to conclusions: individual poverty or wealth doesn’t measure personal sin. A poor person can be the most God-honoring soul alive; the richest can be among the greatest sinners.) At a society level, those with power sin against those without it, creating poverty. At the individual level, sin like gambling, alcohol, and other vices fuels generational dysfunction and hardship. Often the wealthy push these vices because they’re profitable.
President Johnson and the Great Society got three big things wrong that the gospel actually fixes. Government social services can’t cure or prevent poverty because government can’t grasp human nature the way Christ does.
Be Generous to Your Brother
Government programs often remove accountability. The metric becomes “we gave out X meals” or “signed up Y families for benefits” and the goal is always to scale up. Never would anyone claim to shut down a program because it was successful. But you can’t eliminate poverty by just giving money; it creates dependency.
Providing everything someone needs is not always a help. It removes initiative to get busy. Short-term aid can benefit people in crisis, but much of America’s social support has become generational.
For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. 11 For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies. 12 Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living. 2 Thessalonians 3:10-12 ESV
Poverty and Vice Go Hand in Hand
You can’t eliminate poverty without aggressively addressing and policing vice. Vice is found in immoral behaviors like gambling, drugs, sex trafficking, get-rich-quick schemes. These trap people, hurt families and communities. The rise in homeless encampments isn’t mostly “down on their luck” folks needing temporary help. Many stem from mental illness or addictions, enabled by toxic empathy of those running social services.
Real cure and prevention requires a hard line on vice: hold users and dealers accountable, treat where possible, and apply justice firmly where needed.
Whoever walks in integrity will be delivered, but he who is crooked in his ways will suddenly fall. Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits will have plenty of poverty. Proverbs 28:18-19 ESV
Understand the Role of Church and Government
You can’t eliminate poverty by having government do the church’s job. We know the dangers when church runs government but what happens when government runs the church?
Jesus never looked to Rome to fix the poor. He could have demanded it, but He didn’t. In every interaction, He put responsibility on the individual to care for their neighbor.
Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 22 When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. Matthew 19:21-22 ESV
Transform Hearts
If society keeps looking to government to fix poverty, we miss the greatest solution: the gospel of Jesus transforming hearts. This leads to the wealthy being generous, and of the poor to break free from vice. If the wealthy won’t lend generously because they don’t know Christ, we’ll always have poor. If those in poverty stay trapped in vice because the wealthy profit from it, the cycle continues.
Only the Church, through the repentance and new life Christ offers, can save both great and small. The true Great Society is found in Jesus.
What do you think—government’s role vs. the gospel’s power in fighting poverty? Drop your thoughts below.
