Bias to the poor? Christian attitudes to poverty in this country (2012)

One of the challenges of tackling poverty in England is to raise awareness of its existence and increase understanding of what it means to be poor in an economically developed country like ours.

Christian theology provides a distinctive perspective on poverty, including an in-built ‘bias to the poor’ and a strong emphasis on a personal and collective responsibility to help those in poverty as an expression of God’s love for, and identification with, the ‘least of these’. This research looks at how this theology is reflected in the attitudes of clergy and churchgoers and, in particular, whether they think differently to the rest of the population about issues of poverty and inequality.

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Our new Lent poverty course is designed to get churches, youth groups and small groups thinking and talking about issues related to poverty, particularly the perception of what 'poverty' means. The course is free to download, and includes real-life stories, prayers, discussion topics and reflections for each week of Lent.

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