Congregation Shema Yisrael

The answer might surprise you. Some of you reading this question might immediately think the county must contain depressed urban ghettos, while others may envision impoverished rural areas. Both are wrong answers, at least in part. Actually, the poorest county in America, both according to the 1980 U.S. Census and as of right now, is the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, home to the Oglala Lakota Sioux, and the largest and most impoverished reservation in the United States. How can this be when all you can hear on the news these days, is how rich Native Americans are getting by putting Gambling Casinos on the reservations?

Before I answer that question, I want to answer another one. Why am I writing this article on a blog dedicated to the witness of the Gift of God’s Torah and the salvation of Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus the Christ) to all humanity? Also, why am I writing this, not only during the Festival of Shavuot but because of the Festival of Shavuot? What could all these things have in common? Actually, quite a lot.

The Word of God says a great deal about the Will of God towards the impoverished and the duty of God’s people to the hungry and the needy. The Master said these words to us that point straight to the heart:

Then the King will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me”. Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you”? The King will reply, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me”. -Matthew 25:34-40 (NIV)

Tim Giago, in his 2007 blog article The “Poorest County in America” gives a good description of those reservations that prosper due to the presence of Casinos vs. those who either choose not to use Casinos as an income source, or who would see no advantage in building them. While Giago cites data from the 1980 U.S. census, he states that 27 years later, when writing his article, “the Pine Ridge Reservation is still among the top ten poorest counties in America, and why three of the top ten poorest counties are located in South Dakota…What does that say about our elected Congressional delegation”? With that last question hanging in the air, I found myself wondering how much (if any) of President Obama’s much touted “stimulus package” was targeted to the Oglala Lakota Sioux and to impoverished Native American people?

A quick Google search found the March 13, 2009 USA Today article, Tribes look to $3B share of stimulus funds. Keep in mind, that as of a little over two months ago when the news story was published, the Pine Ridge Reservation wasn’t “rolling in dough” because of stimulus money. There is still a severe housing and job shortage among Native Americans on reservations in general, with an estimated 200,000 new homes needed. On Pine Ridge, 2 out of 3, or 63% of the population is unemployed. Compare that to the April 2009 national unemployment rate of 8.9%. Also nationally, unemployment among Native Americans is at a staggering 85%. I mentioned a housing shortage, but according to the Indian Housing Authority, one-third of the existing residences “are severely substandard, without water, electricity, adequate insulation, and sewage systems”.

You may be saying to yourselves, that all the tribes need to do is wait for the stimulus money to kick in, and they’ll be fine. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. Jacqueline Johnson Pata of the National Congress of American Indians, says that even the seemingly huge amount of funds dedicated to the tribes will barely scratch the surface of the enormous needs they face. 3 Billion dollars is a great deal of money, but it is to be shared by all of the nation’s 562 federally recognized tribes. The congressional Joint Committee on Taxation reported in July of 2008 that “Indians are worse off economically than any other minority. In 2007, American Indians’ median household income – the middle figure, with half the amounts above and half below – was $35,000, 31% less than the $50,700 median for all Americans, according to the Census Bureau. One in four Indians, 25%, live below the poverty line, compared with 13% of all Americans”.

“Indians are worse off economically than any other minority” in the United States. We hear a great deal in the news about how difficult it is for people in these economic times. Certainly many of you reading this article have suffered because of the economy. It is regularly reported how various minority groups in the U.S. have a much harder time surviving and acquiring basic services than the average (non-minority) American. As a Messianic believer who has a focus on the Land of Israel, I also read many reports of how the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank are suffering terrifically because of the “oppression” of the Jewish “occupiers”.

All that considered, we Americans have an “invisible” population of poor living within our very borders that we fail to acknowledge or even consider. When was the last time you read a news story or saw a T.V. report about the poorest people in the United States (besides those that I’ve drawn to your attention in this blog)?

The God of the Universe has never been unmindful of the poor and suffering, and they do not pass out of His view for even a moment:

Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. -Matthew 10:28-31 (NIV)

I know that the LORD will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and justice for the poor. -Psalm 140:12

If there is a poor man among you, one of your brothers, in any of the towns of the land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart, nor close your hand to your poor brother; but you shall freely open your hand to him, and generously lend him sufficient for his need in whatever he lacks. -Deuteronomy 15:7

While you might say to yourself that these passages seem to focus on how the Children of Israel are not to ignore the poor among them, or how Christians are to take care of the poor in their own community, can you say that God, the Father of all, only cares about the poor among just these groups? James, the brother of the Master, even wrote about the consequences to those who possess material blessings and do not help the poor:

Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered innocent men, who were not opposing you. -James 5:1-6

Reading these words, how can any believer still choose to ignore the poorest among us in our nation? We are considered to be the mightiest and wealthiest country on the face of the Earth today. If we suffer as a nation, could it be, at least in part, because we have ignored God’s commands along with ignoring the poor, the homeless, and the starving in our borders?

One of the traditions of Shavuot is that it’s a mitzvah (an act of righteousness) to invite the poor to your Shavuot celebration. Shavuot commemorates the giving of the Torah at Sinai and, for those of us who are Messianic, also celebrates the giving of the Spirit of God, as recorded in Acts 2:1-4. While we can’t fully obey the commandment to celebrate Shavuot, the commandment still provides an important directive:

Count off seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain. Then celebrate the Feast of Weeks to the LORD your God by giving a freewill offering in proportion to the blessings the LORD your God has given you. And rejoice before the LORD your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name; you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, the Levites in your towns, and the aliens, the fatherless and the widows living among you. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and follow carefully these decrees. -Deuteronomy 16:9-12

In the days of the Temple, if a Jew lived too far from Jerusalem to bring his offering in the form of his harvest, he was to sell his goods and bring the money with him. When he arrived in Jerusalem, he was to buy whatever he wished; good food, wine, intoxicating spirits, and rejoice in the presence of his God. We’ve seen in the passage from Deuteronomy 16 that everyone in the midst of the redeemed community was to celebrate, from the most exalted noble, to the common laborer in the fields, to those who had nothing at all. No one was to be left out. This is the reason that many Synagogues at this time of year will invite the dispossessed and the unwanted to share food, drink, and the blessings of God.

Every Thanksgiving and Christmas season, I see ads in my local community asking for donations to the homeless shelters and food banks, but I get hungry for breakfast every morning. Don’t the poor also hunger every day?

I’m sorry to say that I wouldn’t have written this article, at least exactly as it is, without an inspiration. I became acquainted with a man named Sid Armstrong on twitter. Sid is a Native American artist, who expresses his heart in his paintings. His heart, and that of his wife, is for the poor and disadvantaged among the native people of this country. He’s complemented my writing and asked me if I would be willing to open my heart and my talents. This article is my response to his request and my response to God’s call.

Whatever God puts in your heart, follow it. Listen to His voice and do not ignore the cry of the needy. We are blessed when we bless those in need. However great or humble your resources, proportionate to what you have, share with those who have so much less; the poorest people in the nation of the rich.

If anything I’ve written has called to you, then take a look at the following information, which I used as the basis for my blog.

Sources

• City Data Forum: Is This True Pine Ridge Indian Reservation Is The Poorest Place In America?
• Conscious Alliance: Art that Feeds
• The Huffington Post: The Poorest County in America
• USA Today: Tribes look to $3B share of stimulus funds