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I’ve been reading the book “Evicted” by Matthew Desmond. You know, some light holiday reading 🙄. The dissonance between my life of relative comfort and ease and the inhuman treatment of the city’s poor strains my credulity in the justice of God. Mostly I feel shame to be treated well without reason when my brothers and sisters are abused without reason.

In my more balanced frames of mind I recognize that, despite the dramatic differences in circumstance, neither the poor nor the rich are liberated. Desmond’s evicted subjects are tempted to flee from the pain of their environment, the guilt of their decisions, and the shame of events over which they had no control. On the other hand, the landlords who enrich themselves from poverty are equally tempted to drown their guilt in platitudes and their shame in diversions. Both are imprisoned, though the blunt chains of the impoverished are more evident than the interior chains of the wealthy.

By this I do not mean either to diminish the culpability of the wealthy for their injustice towards their poor brothers and sisters, nor to valorize the suffering of the poor. This subject is so weighty that it seems impossible to succeed in truth-telling, which is why Desmond’s narrative approach is such an effective medium.