Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
---Hebrews 11:1
There are times in everyone's lives where the world and everything in it seems to be spiraling out of control. There are also times where the spiral appears to be endless, growing darker and darker the longer one falls. Individuals and families in severe states of poverty experience this falling sensation on a daily basis, especially when the government is doing little to eradicate the problem in a timely fashion. Based on past observations, I find myself frequently coming to the conclusion that people in poverty cope with their suffering in two major ways. Some feel as though they have no choice but to simply wait around for government policy makers to make their move and improve the lives of millions via new job opportunities, health care, child care, and so on. Others, on the other hand, make the effort to rid themselves of the many fears and anxieties associated with poverty by replacing all of their trust in man with a spiritual belief system. As featured in the photo above, when all hope is lost and when one is at their lowest point in life, he/she will often look desperately for other ways to achieve a peaceful and healthy state of mind. According to a national poll conducted by CNS News in 2013 that featured 2,250 American participants, 74% of respondents stated that they did, in fact, believe that there is a God. While the sample size of the study is somewhat small, the poll still manages to give the impression that beliefs in a higher power remain strong in some form. The problem, however, is that such an impression is often muddled and hazy in both mainstream media and everyday society. One reason for this involves the media's tendency to only report religion centric stories if they involve some type of negative, "extremist" behavior. Reports of people finding the face of Jesus on a piece of buttered toast, protests at veteran funerals by the cultish Westboro Baptist Church, and the inability of various religious scholars to predict the day of "Christ's Second Coming," are all stories that depict both Christianity and spirituality in a negative light. We also seem to be living in an era where the news media is clearly drenched in a thick coating of political correctness, a concept that strives to eliminate the topic of God and religion from any and all circles of public conversation. The point of the matter is that while we are still a nation under God, we do a fairly poor job of showing it.
So what does this do to the mindset of those in poverty? In essence, it prevents them from achieving a sense of spiritual strength that they desperately need in order to uplift their spirits in times when the government is at a clear standstill. It also keeps those in poverty, who have yet to experience what spirituality has to offer, from turning to a faith-based medium. Instead, they are forced to rely on the willpower of the U.S. government, a system that provides physical representations of relief, which, in turn, only seem to provide instant gratification. Many people (my family included) often state that having a faith-based belief system firmly in place helps to generate long-term relief to real-world issues that currently lack real-world solutions. As one may have already guessed, such long-term relief is neither a public policy, nor is it a statewide law. Rather, the relief takes the form of old-fashion, yet all-important human qualities of self-confidence, determination, courage, steadfastness, compassion for others, patience, temperance, sensitivity to others' needs, and most importantly, the ability to persevere through trying times. Furthermore, faith and spirituality serve to remind us that we, as human beings, have both the ability and tenacity to overcome the most difficult of circumstances if we simply embrace our inner strengths. In truth, the more the media moves towards an anti-spiritual stance (the opposite stance of which this country was partially founded upon, by the way), the less likely people will be made aware of what spirituality can actually do for someone in need. Granted, being poor and having these aforementioned qualities is not enough to immediately lift someone out of poverty, but simply knowing that one has the power within themselves to fight the good fight and make a name for themselves at some point in the near future is what truly matters in the end.
In conclusion, even though the subjects of spirituality, faith, and religion are topics of great controversy in this day and age, this should not keep mainstream society from at least acknowledging some of their ideas. Rather than making the effort to exclude these concepts from the public eye, the process of pairing them with the likes of government and political action is the first step towards bringing a sufficient level of empowerment to those who are down-on-their-luck. In short, we simply need to start having a little more faith...in faith.
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/susan-jones/poll-americans-belief-god-strong-declining
A CNS News article that manages to show the current decline of America's belief in God via an assortment of poll results from 2013.
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