Religion
Related: About this forumChristians twice as likely to blame a person's poverty on lack of effort, poll finds
"Because the Bible told me so..."
A familiar refrain. This also correlates with the predominant Republican outlook on poverty.
Now, it would make for good debate whether Christians are more likely than atheists/agnostics to actually assist the poor, through charity and volunteering, despite the Christian propensity to assign blame. I dunno...
The Washington Post and the Kaiser Family Foundation asked 1,686 American adults to answer that question - and found that religion is a significant predictor of how Americans perceive poverty.
Christians are much more likely than non-Christians to view poverty as the result of individual failings, especially white evangelical Christians.
"There's a strong Christian impulse to understand poverty as deeply rooted in morality - often, as the Bible makes clear, in unwillingness to work, in bad financial decisions or in broken family structures," said Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. "The Christian world view is saying that all poverty is due to sin, though that doesn't necessarily mean the sin of the person in poverty. In the Garden of Eden, there would have been no poverty. In a fallen world, there is poverty."
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/christians-poverty-blame-lack-effort-twice-likely-us-white-evangelicals-faith-relgion-a7875541.html
True Dough
(17,359 posts)I can't take credit for this excellent sarcastic headline that led me to the article in the OP, but I want to share it:
Christians are nearly twice as likely to think people are poor because they don't work hard enough. You don't think Jesus just had heaven and earth handed to him by his dad, do you?
Brainstormy
(2,381 posts)I'll share that with my secular FB group!
rurallib
(62,477 posts)no_hypocrisy
(46,267 posts)Remember Marvin Olasky when Shrub was running the first time? His premise was that Government shouldn't be helping those whom God shuns. And the reason God shuns the Poor is because they're poor because of moral failings such as devotion to God, laziness, unwillingness to work hard and expecting to live off the labor of others, etc.
Calvinism focuses on predestination and "total depravity". These doctrines hold that a certain demographic will be born eternal "sinners" and that God will punish them by denying them wealth.
Marvin Olasky
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Olasky
Calvinsim
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvinism#Sin
Va Lefty
(6,252 posts)Who would Jesus blame?
LakeArenal
(28,863 posts)HopeAgain
(4,407 posts)That is not what Jesus taught. Maybe most Christians aren't Christians anymore...
tanyev
(42,661 posts)Then it's somebody else's fault.
guillaumeb
(42,641 posts)Given that, are Trump's 6 bankruptcies a sign that Jesus does not favor him?
AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)groups might be different than 'failure'.