I think Abby is conservative Catholic, but this is a very common evangelical retort to the suggestion that Christians aren’t doing enough to eradicate poverty.

Reading her tweet as charitably as possible, I am going to say she is objecting to the Pope's use of the EndPoverty hashtag. How can you end poverty, she asks, when Jesus said that the poor will always be with you?

This statement is found in several places in the gospels, when Jesus is anointed at Bethany. Mattwew 26:11 reads "The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me." And similar in the other gospels.

Many conservative Christians take this to mean that we should do nothing to help the poor because it will be a losing proposition. Jesus said there would always be the poor, so what's a well-off Christian like me supposed to do about it?

At best, their interpretation points to doing more to help the church than helping the poor directly. We'll need to put the verse into context.

Jesus was staying at a leper's house when a woman anointed him with a perfume. John 12 suggests Judas then asked why she would waste such a fine perfume on Jesus when she could sell it and give to the poor. Keep in mind the day before Jesus' arrest, Judas was in "gotcha" mode.

Jesus replies with the aforementioned statement. It's important to note that he was quoting/paraphrasing the OT (Deut. 15:11), something he did a lot and that his listeners would've noticed and understood as fulfillment of scripture.

That verse reads: "There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land.”

Quite the opposite of a shrug-the-shoulders approach to poverty. When Jesus says they will not always have him, it's because he knew his arrest and crucifixion was imminent.

Taking these two verses together, we can then see what Jesus was trying to say. There's no doubt that Jesus saw helping the poor as a resume-builder for getting into heaven. "As you have done to the least of these, you have done unto me" etc.

The woman with the perfume gave to Jesus, but Jesus notes that once he is gone, the poor remain and need to be cared for. I think that's probably a non-controversial interpretation of that text. It does NOT mean helping the poor is a futile exercise.

Economic theory wasn't really an advanced thing in his day, but he had enough insight to know that systems of oppression and exploitation would outlast him and countless generations, therefore a seemingly impossible "end" to poverty.

So the argument then is, since there's always going to be poor around, you will have plenty of opportunity to build that resume.

Evangelicals like to reject this interpretation because they are terrified of verses like "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven." Matt 19:21 They are worried he was being literal, and he was!

However, post-crucifixion, we see the apostles taking these statements quite literally, and setting up early socialist societies where possessions were "put at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need." Acts 4: 32-35

Another concept that conservative Christians are afraid of. Seems like commuhnism sayin we gotta do this and do that!

So getting back to the "always have the poor": Yes, they knew even back then that society is built in such a way that oppression and exploitation will lead to poverty. However, to not try to end it for that reason, in whatever way is possible for you, goes against Jesus' teaching

You can contribute personally (which conservative Christians like to do by tithing), but just as important, in my view, is to look for systemic causes and attempt to root them out. There are many tools in the toolbox, let's use them all in order to hashtagEndPoverty

This has been Bible Chat with tai_nugget.