Don't Save Us

The latest issue of Trinity News from Trinity Episcopal Church, Wall Street in New York quotes Sarah Eagle Heart who is The Episcopal Church's program officer for Native American/Indigenous Ministries who was writing about poverty and faith in rural South Dakota:

On Facebook today somebody was trying to send out shipments of clothing to the reservations.

I responded, "You know, thank you, but that's not going to help. Our people need education. We need tools to help ourselves. We don't want to be saved."

We want to be a part of the solution. We will never be able to come out of poverty if somebody thinks that they can save us.

How can we assist with the harder work of providing support needed for someone to raise his or herself up from poverty without being the savior? Eagle Heart is enrolled as a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, and was raised on the reservation. She writes out of the experience of growing up in what vies to be the poorest part of our nation.

I both understand and agree with Sarah Eagle Heart's point and I wonder aloud how best we can live into the ideal she suggests.

peace,
Frank+
The Rev. Frank Logue, Pastor