Life in Context
Apr 1st, 2011 by Kimberly
Years ago, when I was in college, my roommate Alexandra and I were discussing I Corinthians 14:34 – “Let the women keep silent in the church.” Knowing her to be a fairly conservative person, I was surprised when she got upset and said “People always misinterpret that verse. They take it out of context.” She explained that at the time, since co-ed services were a novelty, women and men sat in different sections. The women in question, not having been allowed to attend the service before, were shouting questions about what was going on to their husbands on the other side of the room. Paul was telling them to save their questions till they got home. Nothing prevented them from taking an active part in the worship once they understood the proceedings.
That conversation was twenty years ago, but the point is still relevant: context matters.
Listening to the current political debate makes me think this phrase should be posted on billboards across the country. A lot has been said lately about the “entitlement mentality” of those people on welfare. I have to wonder, has anyone actually taken the time to research the context of the issue?
While walking to and from work these past two weeks, I’ve been listening to books by Malcolm Gladwell. (Okay, to be perfectly honest I was driving most of last week, because it was raining, but I was still listening in the car.) First, I read Outliers: The Story of Success, which explained why certain incredibly accomplished people are the way they are. Blown away by his insights, I moved on to The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. Both books make a good case that context matters more than we ever thought possible.
If you haven’t read Mr. Gladwell’s books, I suggest you pick one up immediately. (Okay, finish my blog post first, then read it.) The man is brilliant. If I were President Obama, I’d be consulting him about whether or not to invade Libya long before I talked to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. (I’m guessing he’d say no, but you can check out his website here and decide for yourself.) Heck, I’d check with him about what breakfast cereal to eat, because the chances are Mr. Gladwell has looked at data on the subject and can tell you long range ramifications that you never suspected a box of Cheerios could have.
In The Tipping Point, he talks about something called the Broken Windows Theory. If a house has a cracked window pane, and over the course of a few days it doesn’t get fixed, people figure no one cares about the house. A messy yard, a baseball through another window, and before long it becomes the neighborhood crack den. It doesn’t take much, Mr. Gladwell says. Just enough to tip the balance from respected to questionable, and all of sudden that poor house has a whole new world of decrepit possibilities.
Many in Washington would use this analogy to explain why, as soon as we offer money to those in need, they will take advantage of it. But in my personal context, I see it differently. I grew up in a nice middle class neighborhood. When my dad had to retire with severe back problems, we went through a big money crunch. My dad did receive disability and we were grateful for it, but my parents did everything they could to avoid being eligible for welfare. How far away were we? I don’t know. My parents tried hard to make sure that we kids didn’t see too many changes in our lives. But one thing I’m sure of, they didn’t do anything to bring us closer to it. Mostly, I like to think, because my parents are hardworking people, but there was the additional incentive that we lived in a neighborhood where receiving welfare was not a good thing. It didn’t matter that it might have been easy to do, that it might have been free money, it wasn’t attractive. I was only twelve, and even I didn’t want my friends thinking I was eligible for free lunch. (Which at one point, I’m pretty sure I was.) My best friend went through a similar circumstance, being raised by a single mom. Her mother did everything in her power to maintain a nice, steady job and not have to receive assistance.
I believe my parents and my friend’s mom are good, honorable people, but they aren’t superhuman. Yet, with “free money” right out close by, they all tried their very best NOT to be eligible for it. These people worked in different professions and had different political affiliations. But they hadn’t reached the tipping point yet. They still had pride.
What happens when you get to the point where pride has to be sacrificed? It opens up new possibilities. The instinct to take care of your family runs pretty deep in most of us. (I sacrifice pride for Zoe fairly regularly, and she’s a cat.) If you can’t make enough to take care of them through normal means, you begin looking at abnormal means. Context is crucial here. Most of us won’t steal from the grocery store, it’s just not how we see the world working. But with a sick toddler in the house, and no money for medicine? Smuggling some Tylenol out in your purse is going to seem like a pretty small thing. Get to the point where there’s no money for food, and there is no moral debate. The only argument about theft is how and when.
What if, instead of luring someone to get something for nothing, welfare actually gives people an alternative to stealing? It may mean sacrificing your pride, but at least you can still set your children a good example. I don’t know about you, but I would pay good money not to have see the inside of the DMV. You’d have to be giving away bars of gold – notice I said bars, plural – before I’d willingly enter the County Department of Social Services and start filling out paperwork. I have to think that if people are ready to navigate government programs for the relatively small sums given out by welfare, they must have something important at stake.
I’m sure there are people out there who suffer from Entitlement Syndrome. I think most of them are CEOs on Wall Street and members of Congress, but I’m sure there are a few regular folks, living large on the County’s dime. Again, though, consider the context. If they really think they deserve something for free, and there is no welfare, do you honestly believe they’re going to say, “Oh, well, guess I’ll have to get a job”? No, they will start planning how to steal your car. If you don’t want to put money in social services, be sure you throw a few extra dollars into the Police Department’s budget. They’ll need it.
The biggest mistake we make in trying to figure out how to deal with those people on welfare is in considering them “those people.” In this world, there are no “those people.” There is only us, trying to live our lives the best way we can, and our decisions, like Paul’s message to the women in the early church, only make sense in context.
Kimberly was not suitably grateful as a child for all her parents’ sacrifices. That is why God gave her a cat, to teach her humility.
