Customer Reviews

Seeing Children Seeing God: A Practical Theology of Children and Poverty

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Couture has written a respectable theology of children and poverty. She affirms: "Poverty is a social, economic, and political problem of enormous proportions and complexity, and children are its most vulnerable victims" (2000:11). In Seeing Children, Seeing God Couture develops four important themes. First, "Children's poverty is conditioned by two overlapping categories of poverty- material poverty and the poverty of tenuous connections" (2000:14). This section is well developed and documented. Second, "Children's poverty must be overcome by building relationships with vulnerable children. This work of care is a means of finding God" (2000:14). This sacramental view of ministry is insightful and helpful. Third, "The work of care through the right relationship between mercy and piety is biblically grounded" (2000:15). Couture makes and outstanding case here. Finally, "Through this work of care- by practicing the means of grace and the work of mercy and piety- the church can genuinely transform itself and influence society and culture" (2000:15). Couture develops each of these themes clearly and convincingly. This theology considers material, relational, biblical and even ecological issues but fails to adequately address the issue of the evangelization of children. True poverty is spiritual poverty. There is no greater destitution than living separated from the saving grace of Jesus Christ. This emphasis is sorely missing.

Church leaders have often referred to children as "the church of tomorrow." Yet, as Pamela Couture so vividly reminds us, children are the church of the present. Moreover, children have not been given the care and attention they rightly deserve. Couple this observation with an additional element of poverty, and the end result is an all but forgotten stratum of society.
Children in general, and specifically children residing in poverty, represent largely neglected target audiences for the average contemporary church. This is an unfortunate oversight, as children are so often a window to the very heart of God. Churches may support local, national, and/or international children's interests financially, and even have a token internal structure for programming, but rarely is there meaningful one-on-one mentoring, community care, and ongoing outreach. Couture is one voice calling the church to acts of mercy for those who are most vulnerable in our several cultures.
Toward this end, relationships are the primary bridge-builders of community care. The author is careful to remind her readers, who perhaps may be guilt-stricken as a result of her stark commentary, "Do not rush to save the world" (61). It is better to offer quality care to even one, than window-dressing to hundreds. The church can help, but it is time to start!
Pastors and church leaders will appreciate Couture's juxtaposition of mercy and piety, and the biblical bases for each. For pastoral care to be practical, though, it must have a means of tangible expression. The author clearly brings this point to bear in several frames of thought. The church's relevancy is not to be found in ideological ivory towers, but in streets and lanes where "the least of these" reside.

Pamela Couture's work was a huge disappointment. The title and subtitle hinted at a worthy topic--"a practical theology of children and poverty." However, the book failed to adequately convey what it promised.

In the first section Couture attemted to place into narrative what would have been better served through charts and graphs. The statistics supporting the supposition of child poverty are alarming, yet, to convey them in laborious prose was conter productive. Further, almost anyone paying attention to life already know that our children suffer great material poverty and "tenuous connections." In my opinion, many wasted pages were committed to portraying something that would already be understood by the reader.

As I moved into her later sections regarding a "practical theology" I was greatly disappointed. I sensed I was being exposed to a theology of poverty, then expected to make the not-so-logical leap that this theology automatically applied to children. Further, her theological argument was weak and not well-informed. And, as to being "practical," I saw little praxis in her development of her theology of children.

While I would not call Couture's work a failure, I would suggest that it was merely an elementary attempt at dealing with the poverty of children. In other words, it read to me like the first of many need revisions that may have resulted in a work worthy of applause.

Seeing Children, Seeing God is a powerful challenge for the people of God to live a life of mercy. The author maintains that works of mercy are absolutely critical in following God and doing His will. Couture demonstrates a thorough biblical rational for providing care for orphans, the destitute, and the widows.
Couture builds an inclusive framework of support for children that includes the individual, our families, our churches, our economic systems, our global and regional cultures, our governments, and our local communities. The call from this book is to get involved on some level of action for children. In the midst of an overwhelming challenge to help provide care, the author suggests we all begin by doing small regular works on behalf of innocent victims.
This is a passionate work that has helped me remember those who are often overlooked on the margins of lives-our children.

This author is an impassioned advocate for children. Her passion is for all children but especially for the oppressed, impoverished children of the world. Couture repeatedly refers to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. It would be beneficial to read this document before reading the book in that one would gain a more comprehensive understanding of the underpinnings of her writing. That document may be found at http://diarrhoea.org/facts/convention_full.htm

Couture deals with two types of poverty, material poverty and the poverty of tenuous connections. Her concept of tenuous connections has to do with the way in which children are attached to their primary caretakers (the family) and community resources such as schools, hospitals, churches, etc. Caring may involve not only articulating the needs of the child, but helping them to connect with the resources to fulfill those needs. Attachments to family are often interrupted by homelessness, foster care, entry into the state social service system, and kinship care (residing with relatives). These children may or may not live in economically poor households, but almost all experience the poverty of tenuous connections - the fragility or absence of parental support (33).

An Associate Professor of Pastoral Theology, Couture is concerned that persons who practice pastoral care take on their share of responsibility for the future of children and youth. She addresses the church's care and the theology that undergirds it, as it is taught in seminary and practiced in the church (20). She advocates for continuing education and advanced programming in pastoral care to prepare ministers to comfortably deal with extreme difficulties of a child's life, such as loss and abandonment; physical, sexual, and psychological abuse; drugs and alcohol; exposure to and perpetration of violence; and post-traumatic stress (96). Certainly ministers need to be informed in these areas, however, in-depth involvement may require education in the field of mental health and/or social services.

It has been noted by previous reviewers that Couture has little, if any, emphasis on evangelism. Her focus seems to be on providing a structured, connected, undergirded support system for children in order for physiological needs (basic needs) to be met so that spiritual development (higher level needs) can become operative in the course of individual development. Lower level needs must be cared for in infants and children before higher level needs become operative. For instance, if you present the gospel to a starving child, chances are they will only be thinking about where their next meal is coming from. She does say that although providing children with material and human resources is essential, the most fundamental reconnection both for them and for us is with God (50). She just does not develop this theme.

...Caring with vulnerable children is a means of grace, a vehicle through which God makes God's self known to us and to them. In their care we experience grace, the movement of God in our lives that allows us to give and to receive from others. We commit ourselves to love despite fact that no one in the world considers us or them obliged to love one another. " (2000, p.13) Understanding this responsibility, the author explains the importance of caring for those who have been pushed aside by life. She describes what is available for the disenfranchised child. Raising the Biblical admonition from both the Old and New Testament, the impetus is given for why the church in general and the practice of pastoral care in particular is called to give special attention to these young ones of our society.

Among the reason for emphasizing this particular ministry are two overlapping concerns, which the author says are the result of economics and tenuous connection. Whether the child is in a home with both parents, one parent, a caregiver or is on the streets alone, this speaks of the change and uncertainty that comes to the connection they have in life. The Biblical directive for this approach to ministry is many sided; there is the recognition of the image of God, in which they were created. Conture admits that it was in and through her Godchildren that she saw God mirrored. It is as we minister the grace of God to these little ones, we are able to see the face of God. The Biblical admonition to care for the widowed orphan and the needy, there is the need to manifest the nature of God in his love mercy and grace. Ministry to the vulnerable in life recognizes both the piety and the mercy in faith. "Our work of mercy deepens our work of piety. (2000, p.58) The point at which these aspects of faith meet is the point of God's grace. Ministry to the vulnerable calls for God's grace.

"Godchildren sometimes suffer, often intensely, and behavioral problems result from this suffering. The traditional language of sin, evil and depravity does not allow us adequately to articulate the problem. The concept of "han" from Korean minjung theology offers helpful distinctions that augment our traditional language. Han refers to the suffering that is accumulated in the victims of sin, burdening them with agony." (2000, p.62)

Helping these who are the vulnerable find the resources they need is a real part of pastoral Care. Recognizing the systems, which surround them as well as the interests that engulf them, will help the church meet these at their point of need. Compassion at this level does not happen simply because a need has been observed and defined. Showing genuine interest in and for the who are the vulnerable, makes known the mercy of God.

The author, Couture makes an excellent point. Beginning with describing the agency responses to the need of the young and the vulnerable, she challenges the church to also respond to those who are in need. It is in recognizing this responsibility and the willingness to see children, will we see God.

A review of Pamela D. Couture book,
Seeing Children, Seeing God: A practical theology of children and poverty.

Couture has written a respectably good book about why the church should care for poor children, as she questions what the theological traditions have contributed children's resilience and how a theology of care can help build such ministries. Concerning the complexity of poverty, Couture declares, "Poverty is a social, economic, and political problem of enormous proportions and complexity, and children are its most vulnerable victims" (11).
Yet Couture stated that what is so tragic about poverty is that it is preventable. She continues by identifying four themes:
1) "Children's poverty is conditioned by two overlapping categories of poverty-material poverty and the poverty of tenuous connections" (14). Interestingly, although most parents in the United States experience a natural biological resilience that causes them to fight for their own children generally adults in the United States seem to resist sharing responsibility for one another's children.
2) Only by building relationship with vulnerable children can children's poverty be overcome. "This work of care is a means of finding God" (14). Works of mercy and works of piety, often called means of grace, connected rightly, "give deeper meaning to love thy neighbor and to love God"(15).
3) This work of care is biblically grounded. In the Old Testament caring for the orphan, widow and resident alien, was the most ethical center of mercy and piety, or care and worship. Jesus is our example of how the right relation of mercy and piety is the center of faith.
4) "Through this work of care. . . the church can genuinely transform itself and influence society and culture"(15).
Although Couture has done a thorough and convincing job of developing her themes (theories) she misses the heart of the great commission-evangelizing. She addresses every issue but the heart of God. We can provide food, clothing, and social needs and miss what true poverty really is-spiritual poverty. Spiritual poverty is separation from God, as Jesus said, "What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Mark 8:36-37, NIV)

Pamela D. Couture examines economic poverty and the poverty of tenuous connections in her engaging, yet troubling book, Seeing God, Seeing Children: A Practical Theology of Children and Poverty. From the opening sentence in the "Foreword" to the final "Conclusion," Couture identified and discussed children as the most vulnerable victims of America's social, economic, and political systems (11). She does not reveal any new secrets about the causes and effects of children at risk. Rather, Couture's goal was to present a compelling case for pastors to be part of the solution of helping children move into situations of basic economic stability and of strong reliable human relationships.
In remembering the Great Depression (1929-1939), some people have commented nostalgically: "We were so happy we did not know we were poor." Those children, who are now eighty years old and older, lived without electricity, running water, or modern conveniences. Certainly, they were materially poor. However, they grew up with strong reliable family, school, and church connections and relationships. Many left the farm and became materially well off. Some continued to build upon their earlier relationships and maintained secure and familiar patterns to their lives. Others migrated great distances in search of the American Dream and severed connections and relationships.
World War II demanded labor. Rising material expectations coupled with the sacrifices required by war and the industrial demand for labor, resulted in societal dislocation. Whereas, farm folk continued to know each other, the dark joke of apartment dwellers was that people did not even bother to learn the names of their neighbors! The desire to escape material poverty was at the expense of reliable relationships.
Children, as well as adults, need a minimum standard of economic well-being. Children need reliable relationships. As Couture wrote: "A basic concept in pastoral care suggests that one cares better for an individual when one also cares for others in the individual's environment, including family and institutional staff" (49). Children learn from what they are taught, good and bad. Pastoral theology assumes the presence of God. Children need unconditional love: "an irrational commitment to the well-being of the child" (51). Adults are the teachers and the care providers. Couture implied that adults through their example of demonstrating "the deep mutuality of mercy" (68) convey the power of loving relationships. "The first step in the pastoral care of children is to think about broadening our own practice of the means of grace in our lives, beginning with `works of mercy,'" wrote Couture (96). Children in seeing and participating in `acts of mercy' are more likely to develop both empathetic attitudes and engage in loving relationships.
The children's poem, "If a child," concludes with the verse: "If a child lives with both acceptance and friendship, He learns to find love in the world," states Couture's case succinctly. Couture noted: "The founders of pastoral care went into communities, the hospitals, and other institutions, where they had neither acceptance nor a place at the table, learned by experience what they needed to know, and brought their unique perspectives into the fluidity of the situation. Are we not called to do the same?" (125). It is Couture's hope that pastors today will become part of the solution to the poverty of children's poverty and tenuous relations.