The Poor Are Always with You

Abstract

When our Scriptural Reasoning subgroup first met, we thought our task would be the easiest. We had agreed to explore the question of poverty and justice from the heart of our three religious traditions, and this seemed to us rather straightforward. Our three traditions are well known for their “ethical monotheism,” and so it seemed that our only task was to coordinate a scripturally informed response. But as we began to delve into our study, the task quickly became more complicated. First, the scriptural study disciplined us-none of our scriptural traditions seemed to say exactly what we wanted them to say, and studying them together meant that we were held accountable in certain powerful ways to the “otherness” of our own scriptures. That is, we held each other accountable to the “plain sense,” as near as we could discern it, of both scripture and historical commentary, opening up ambiguities and nuances that the “insiders” of each tradition were tempted to sweep past.