Does poverty make people steal?
Dear friends,
That is one of the questions being debated in the wake of the recent riots sweeping Britain. On the one hand, being poor in itself does not guarantee that you will be a thief. Nor does being rich guarantee that you will not steal from others. There are just too many examples of honest poor people and dishonest rich people.
However, there is an underlying assumption that we do wrong things because of our environment or circumstances. If only we get our circumstances ‘right’ (whether that’s our education, health, wealth, relationships or whatever), then everything else will be ‘right’, including our behaviour. It assumes that people are basically good in themselves, and so any wrong behaviour can only come from other influences on us.
The Bible takes a different view. It doesn’t deny the influence that our environment and circumstances have, but it assumes that we have a built-in tendency to do what is wrong. For example, Proverbs 30:8 has this fascinating prayer: “Give me neither poverty nor riches … Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you … Or I may become poor and steal.” In other words, the way in which I do wrong will alter with my circumstances, but the fact that I do wrong comes from somewhere else. The problem is ‘the enemy within’. Until we face up to that problem, there is little hope for our society, or even for ourselves.
Chris Hobbs,
Vicar.