{"id":9639,"date":"2012-01-25T08:08:38","date_gmt":"2012-01-25T13:08:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/?p=9639"},"modified":"2012-01-25T08:08:38","modified_gmt":"2012-01-25T13:08:38","slug":"frank-viola-interviews-nt-wright","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/frank-viola-interviews-nt-wright\/","title":{"rendered":"Frank Viola Interviews NT Wright"},"content":{"rendered":"
It doesn’t happen often, but sometimes universes collide.<\/p>\n
That’s what happened recently when two of my favorite authors got together for an interview: Frank Viola interviewed NT Wright.<\/p>\n
Here is an excerpt from that interview, which touched on a topic that has been on my mind a lot recently, especially with my blog series on tithing<\/a>.<\/p>\n What do you say to this debate? And how do you think Christians should square Paul\u2019s words in 2 Thessalonians 3:6-15 that if a person \u201cdoesn\u2019t work, neither should he eat\u201d with the injunctions in Scripture exhorting God\u2019s people to help the poor?<\/p>\n There is a real danger that in a go-getting country like the USA those who have initiative, energy, advantages of birth and education, can easily look down on those who have none of those things. It simply isn\u2019t the case that every human starts at the same level point so that the rich are those who\u2019ve worked for it and the poor are those who couldn\u2019t be bothered. Throughout the Bible God seems to take special note of those trapped in poverty, and we should do the same.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Go to Frank Viola’s blog to the rest of the interview between Frank Viola and NT Wright<\/a>.<\/p>\n If you want to read more by these two authors and thinkers, I recommend getting started with Frank Viola’s Pagan Christianity<\/em><\/a> It doesn’t happen often, but sometimes universes collide. That’s what happened recently when two of my favorite authors got together for an interview: Frank Viola interviewed NT Wright. In this excerpt from their interview, they discuss the role of the church in helping the poor. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9646,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[6,13],"class_list":{"0":"post-9639","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"tag-blogging","8":"tag-books-im-reading","9":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\nFrank:\u00a0<\/strong>In the book, you make several key statements about God\u2019s passion to help the poor. You also make a few statements about how the \u201cpowers that be\u201d often neglect the poor. In my country right now (USA) there is a huge debate over this issue among Christians. One aspect of the debate revolves around the question,\u201cWho are the poor exactly?\u201d\u00a0Some Christians argue that there is a distinction between the poor who are trying to find work and\/or who are working (but cannot make ends meet) versus the indigent who refuse to work and expect others to support them.<\/p>\n
N.T. Wright:<\/strong> Of course, whenever people discover that other folk are going out of their way to give handouts, some will get lazy and simply try to trade off this goodwill. It\u2019s a telling point, actually, that this was already a danger in the very early church \u2013 because you only get that problem arising if the church is being generous. The line between \u2018deserving poor\u2019 and \u2018undeserving poor\u2019 is very, very hard to draw, and one of the things about poverty, whether one has work or not (some jobs pay so little that the people who do them are still well within the poverty trap), is that it is\u00a0depressing<\/em>, and actually saps the energy and nerve and vitality in ways that people like me, who have never been out of work and never been truly poor, can only appreciate by being with and ministering to people who are genuinely and chronically poor.<\/p>\n
and NT Wright’s Simply Jesus<\/em><\/a>
.<\/p>\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"