The other side of the turkey

A turkey given to a poor person or family at Thanksgiving or Christmas is the great symbol of American generosity. The gift of the turkey and other gifts, especially for children, are given great publicity. Newspapers are full of pictures of smiling children and grateful women who have fallen on hard times. They have received their turkey and other miscellaneous gifts. Editors are quick to write glowing editorials about American generosity. Those who are well-to-do are the recipients of praise like at no other time of the year. Add a bell ringer with a single church’s offering plate at the door of every grocery store and the feel good season for the “haves” is complete.

The “haves” are in complete control of the programs. They are in charge of when and where the turkey can be received. Sometimes the “givers” are really generous and cook the turkey for those who are poor. They add dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy. They proudly announce where the free meal can be received and eaten.

One of the complaints against poor people is that some are not grateful and even abuse the great turkey give-away. Someone is always ready to tell a story of someone who took two or three turkeys by going to more than one distribution point.

Over the years of pastoring churches, I have made it a point to associate with the poor.

The turkey and toys programs are an embarrassment to the poor, and poor kids grow up in shame for their poverty. The turkeys and toys systems do not build self-esteem for people who are poor.

Jesus had no shortage of people who complained about his life style. One of the complaints was that he hung out too much with poor people and with those deemed dirty and unclean. We try to make Jesus out to be middle-classed and image him as a skilled, respected tradesman. The truth is that he was not. The people with whom he hung out were almost all peasants and expendables. His status as some sort of handyman put him between peasantry and being an expendable. He did not just hang out with the poor, he was one of them.

Jesus was a dangerous man because he had figured out how peasants got that way. Many of the stories that he told were told to start discussions about what rich people were doing to them. One such story is recorded in Matthew Chapter 20. It is about the relationship between a rich landowner and day laborers. The traditional interpretation of the parable is that the owner is a God figure and casts the laborers as ungrateful, grumbling sinners. This is a theological interpretation that is now questioned by a growing number of scholars.

The key to understanding the parable is to ask what the peasant audience of Jesus heard. If read as social commentary, the rich owner is an unscrupulous man who acquired the land by dishonesty, manipulation and greed-driven desire. With the ears of the peasants and the disposables, Jesus’ audience recognized the hated owner who manipulated their lives and left them in unbearable poverty. They were hearing the story of their own lives. When the laborers of the story began grumbling among themselves and about the business practices of the rich owner, the owner took charge of the conversation and lectures the laborers. “Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?”

The response of the rich owner in the story takes away the possibility of making him a loving God figure. He is plainly an arrogant rich man who believed his ownership gave him the right to set the rules of the relationship of owners and laborers.

Our American economy parallels the economy of Jesus day. The gap between rich and poor is unthinkably wide. Our nation has an arrogant rich who lives apart from the poor. They have gained enormous wealth through manipulation and the misuse of laborers. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. The poor beg for a livable wage, a decent house to live in, good education and basic health care. The rich pit the poor against one another and continue to pay poverty wages. Rich people and those who have more than enough need to look good, so they proclaim “let’s give them turkeys.”

The message of this column will not be popular. I can hear the plea of the “givers.” “Are you criticizing our generosity?” My response is “No, I am suggesting there is a better way.”

When the minimum wage is a living wage, when we have excellent education for all, when every American is decently housed, and when every American has access to good health care, the turkey approach will disappear, and self-esteem will soar.

The Rev. Howard Bess is a retired American Baptist minister, who lives in Palmer. His email address is hdbss@mtaonline.net.

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