Where are the "Poor" People?

In a Baptist Press News article, a theologian says that Bush's presidency fairs well on Biblical grounds.

Grudem weighed the Bush presidency on 10 major issues that included protection of life, marriage/family and the courts, human dignity, the political process, the environment, economics, the war on terror, communication skills and personal character and faith....

...Bush has consistently given the nation a stalwart example of kindness and moral leadership consistent with an evangelical Christian worldview, Grudem said....

“I am so very thankful for an outstanding, I think excellent president,” Grudem said. “What more could we ask from a president, the man who has the most difficult job in the whole world? I think [he] has continually exhibited personal conduct that is above reproach, giving moral leadership to the nation by example of life and by kindness that amazes me toward those in politics and in the press who continue relentlessly to attack him.

What exactly has Bush done to gain all this praise? According to Gruden, Bush has spread religious and political freedom around the world, he has preserved the lives of unborn children by signing into law the partial birth abortion ban, he has appointed federal judges that are strict constructionists, he has upheld the Biblical understanding of marriage, defended the nation against terrorism, called evil evil, and made allies with Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Lebanon.

The aim of this post is not to empirically challenge these claims, even though their accuracy is certainly up for questioning.

My real concern is with Gruden's claim that Bush is an example of a good Christian. If Bush is an example of a good Christian, then I believe that that doesn't bode well for Christians more generally. Gruden's claim ignores the large number of people that self-identify as Christians that dislike Bush and think his policies are morally, biblically and legally questionable. To take one example, Jim Wallis has called President Bush's troop "surge" a "criminal" act. Those are words clearly not of praise and admiration.

Bush is not a good example of Christians writ large. On the contrary, Bush is a good example of one loud, politically charged, Christian sect's vision of Christianity. Gruden reflects and reproduces this sect and the policy issues they push forward--largely, the issues are bound up with purity and pollution. Take the issue of marriage as an example. Gruden says:

The president has also upheld the traditional biblical view of marriage and has opposed “same-sex marriage” by supporting a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman. Grudem said it is properly within the government’s domain as defined in Romans 13:1-7 to encourage traditional marriage, because when it does so, the ruling authority is exercising its God-ordained role of restraining evil and rewarding good.

By pollution and purity, I mean that Gruden and Bush come together around the notion of marriage as consisting of one man and one women, each with their proper roles and divisions of labor naturally attached. Purity is achieved through the gestures of separation that attempt to fix this interpretation, this particular meaning, as a Devin formula that is outside of human argument and disputation. Anything different than one man and one women, this single formulation of marriage, allows dangerous mixtures that threaten (as Gruben sees it) to destroy the "lives of our children and grandchildren and...our freedom to preach from the Bible.”

The one question that I want to ask is this: where are the poor people? Gruden doesn't actually mention the plight of the materially "poor" in his talk, and Bush did very little in concrete terms for the "poor." But throughout the Old and New Testaments, the concerns of the "poor" are addressed on numerous occasions. Take one instance, Jesus said: "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me" (Matthew 19:21). The lack of concern for the "poor" in relation to the concern for "marriage," can be seen as issue of purity too. During the life and time of Jesus, the socially marginalized (poor, women, lepers, tax collectors) were brought into the circle of people following Jesus. This symbolically challenged dominant ideals of purity structuring Jewish practice. Today, the poor continue to be marginalized by some religious and political elite (e.g. Gruden and Bush) and I believe that it continues to be tied up in issues of purity and pollution, and biblical interpretations that emphasize spiritual well being over material well being.