Reciprocal and Sustainable Community
Ann and Derran Reese:
However, I am becoming a bigger believer in the idea that the most significant cause for poverty is out (or at least my) unwillingness to live in reciprocal, self-sacrificing community with the "other". I create poverty when I grasp on tightly to what is mine. I create it by holding onto the differences between "us" and "them." I create the poor because I do not see them as my brother or sister. What the world needs is a people who hold onto things loosely in order to live in reciprocal and sustainable community.
The Apostle John put it this way:
How does God's love abide in anyone who has the world's goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help? Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.
