My faith tells me that God loves all equally and cares for all without regard to material or societal worth. He cared for those who were shunned for their past mistakes and restored their futures. He loves the poor and broken hearted and reminded us to not show favoritism to the ric. Yet we as a people continue to contextualize these ideas and dumb them down for our own humanly purposes.
For example, professional fundraising techniques will tell you to focus exclusively on those who have capacity to give, to focus on the rich, and slather them with attention. Yet God has told us directly in scripture not to treat the rich with special favor.
The answer is LOVE! Love all as Christ loved and challenge the established principles of fundraising by setting one dominate value: To share your love and enthusiasm with ALL those who have expressed an interest and demonstrated a capacity to love and care for the poor – not just those who are rich. Many with resources do love the poor and have demonstrated a concern for others. In the same way, many who don’t have much will also show a concern for others who have even less than they do. Is one better than another because they have greater capacity? Certainly not!
I will NOT show favoritism to any man because of his wealth, neither will I look poorly on someone because of their current lack of financial resources. I will trust that if I act in obedience, God will provide.
But the needy will not always be forgotten, nor the hope of the afflicted every perish. Psalm 9:18
Certainly some leaders must disagree with me, let me know what you think.
David Curry
