Ye Have Despised the Poor

James asked this thought provoking question that is just as relevant to us today as it was 2000 years ago: “For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment; And ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool: Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts? Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him? But ye have despised the poor” (James 2:2-6).  It is very easy to judge others based on their means and to fall into the thinking, subconscious or not, that the poor—especially the homeless in “vile raiment”—are not worth the same respect as those who have money to meet their own needs.  If there is one thing that the Lord condemns in the scriptures it is certainly the mistreatment (or no treatment) of the poor.  How easy it is to forget that the mortal Jesus did not spend his time in the halls of the rich but among the poor and the outcasts of the people.  

This has been on my mind because of the recent news in Utah about the proposed sites for new homeless shelters which are desperately needed because of the large homeless population downtown.  The outrage of citizens who are protesting the sites has been shocking.  Meetings have apparently been filled with angry people disgusted at the thought of the homeless being brought into their communities.  This week one homeless man was literally booed off stage when he tried to support the idea in Draper.  Really?  I can understand legitimate concerns about safety, and surely finding the right spot is a difficult task.  But the screaming and yelling and protesting at these meetings which are meant to thoughtfully discuss the issues showed a kind of extreme selfishness that should embarrass all of us.  The stinging rebuke of Isaiah comes to mind: “What mean ye? Ye beat my people to pieces, and grind the faces of the poor, saith the Lord God of Hosts” (2 Nephi 13:15).  In Amos’s day the people in the northern kingdom had a problem in how they treated their poor, and he described them this way: “[They] stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall….  but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph” (Amos 6:4-6).  This begs the question for us—are we grieved for the afflictions of others, or do we worry only about our own couches and lambs and possessions?  Nephi seemed to appropriately describe some of our day when he wrote, “They rob the poor because of their fine sanctuaries; they rob the poor because of their fine clothing; and they persecute the meek and the poor in heart, because in their pride they are puffed up” (2 Nephi 28:13).  Note that the “robbing” described here seems to be not actually stealing from the poor but rather that we don’t give what we could easily share—in the Lord’s mind that is just as bad as stealing.  We may be tempted to say of the homeless that they have “brought upon [themselves their] misery; therefore I will stay my hand,” but such an attitude, according to King Benjamin, means that we have “no interest in the kingdom of God” (Mosiah 4:17).  This is no endorsement handing out cash to everyone that asks you in the street, but as Elder Holland suggested, we are to “do what we can” with the Lord’s guidance to help the poor.  As Latter-day Saints we believe that God wants us to become a Zion people, and the best description we have of such a group is this: “And the Lord called his people Zion, because they were of bone heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them” (Moses 7:18).  I think we have a long way to go here in Utah.