Can Stories Harden Our Hearts?
A Review of
American Christians and Poverty Myths: Beyond the Veil of Meritocracy
Mark T. Mulder
Paperback: Fortress Press, 2026
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Reviewed by Justin Lonas
One summer almost 20 years ago, I helped a college friend move into an apartment after renting a room from another friend’s parents. As we were packing his things, our friend’s mom fixed us a sandwich for the road and in conversation mentioned she was on her way out as well—for a court appearance for her youngest son, who was facing a drug charge.
We expressed condolences and offered prayers, but she said something that’s stuck with me ever since as a sound practical theology of parenting. “I know that in order not to blame myself for the bad choices some of my kids make, I can’t take credit for good choices the other ones make.”
When it comes to how many American Christians approach poverty, however, Mark T. Mulder argues that we tell that story exactly backward. Shaped by the pervasive cultural narrative of the American dream, we tend to blame others for their misfortune precisely so that we can take credit for our prosperity without acknowledging the people or circumstances that boosted us along the way. As a result, we tend to locate our successes in our own grit or skill or wisdom rather than any social or economic advantages we might have inherited. And we look for causes of poverty solely within personal “pathologies” of people experiencing poverty without curiosity about any social, legal, and cultural headwinds they might face. If I “made it” without help, your failure to make it must be your fault, therefore I don’t owe you a thing (106).
But this story of poverty and wealth makes it too easy for us to turn our backs on the story God tells us.
Scripture insists the fatherless, the widow, the sojourner, and the poor are special categories of God’s concern (summarized in Zech. 7:10) and God’s people were specially called to care for them—notably in Lev. 19 and Deut. 24, but throughout the Old Testament. The plight of the vulnerable is the concern of the entire community. In contrast, Mulder argues, in American meritocracy, the plight of the vulnerable becomes their own problem, not a communal responsibility. To the extent that American Christians do think of our brothers and sisters on the margins as part of our community life, the focus is often on the discomfort their situation brings up in us, so our “solutions” for their situation become primarily about how we can avoid being taken advantage of and protecting our position, power, and money.
Mulder isn’t necessarily saying that we do this intentionally, rather that we have been discipled into a story that pushes against God’s story, giving us neural pathways and habits that make it easy to avoid some obvious implications of Scripture. He suggests that we’ve been so effectively catechized by materialism, consumerism, comfort, and upward mobility that what the Bible teaches about the soul-corrupting power of greed and callousness toward those in poverty feels less like a core tenet of our professed faith, and more like a political position that we can argue against (xiii).
There are significant consequences of this “reverse discipleship” for American society. When we fixate on the failures of individuals as the sole explainer of poverty, we stop asking questions about the way our social, political, and economic systems operate. We can come to accept a more or less steady-state lack of full living-wage employment in our country as a given. The “culture of poverty” thesis (that the financial, moral, and work habits of people in poverty adequately explain their situation) serves to determine for us who gets to get out of that un- and under-employment hole vs. who has to stay in it. This keeps most of us from acknowledging the hole in the first place or from trying to fix it.
This is to say nothing of the implications of these views in a globalized world where our low-priced consumer goods are purchased at the cost of exploited laborers in other countries and a worldwide military presence to secure our trade.
Further, Mulder shows how this narrative around poverty allows those at the bottom of our economic ladder to function as an out-group—a warning example to reinforce the virtues of hard work and dangers of slothfulness (72)—in ways that do not reflect their actual habits and morals or discount the ways that poverty itself contributes to unhealthy habits. In fact, he argues, many in the middle and upper classes also engage in detrimental behaviors but have “airbags” that prevent them from experiencing more severe consequences (financial reserves to recover from bad decisions, houses to store hoarded goods out of sight, access to legal help to minimize punishments for lawbreaking, etc.). And he reminds us that the disparity in access to these cushions of wealth is increasing alongside the cost of housing, healthcare, and other necessities, such that the true poverty rate and the possibility of a given American becoming poor are both much higher than we might want to admit (11-13).
For the book, Mulder conducted in-depth interviews with over 90 Americans across racial groups and income levels who identified as Christians as well as examining data from larger scale social surveys; he found Christians (particularly evangelical Christians) to be significantly more likely than other Americans to have an individualistic view of poverty and lay responsibility for it on the poor themselves (8).
He traces these findings across several facets of poverty—how the federal poverty line was set and described (chapter 1); how the idea of “deserving” vs. “undeserving” poor came to be (chapter 2); misconceptions about the true costs and causes of poverty (chapter 3); the origins of the American dream ideal and the story of meritocracy (chapter 4); the pervasiveness of poverty across both rural and urban settings (chapter 5); misconceptions about the perceived lack of “family values” in communities of poverty (chapter 6); the role of government programs in addressing or perpetuating poverty (chapter 7); and the ways generational wealth warps our perception of the difficulty of escaping poverty (chapter 8). In each case, Mulder brings data to bear that shows a much more complex and troubling picture of poverty in the United States and demonstrates how the prevailing views of poverty among American Christians keep us from joining the shared project to correct underlying social problems, which would improve economic prospects for everyone.
What Mulder is primarily describing in his book is a failure of imagination. He invites readers to confront the origins of our views on poverty and draws us back to the truths of Scripture as a corrective. A Gospel of grace, he suggests, demands seeing those in poverty as fellow image-bearers, a more circumspect assessment on what those of us not experiencing poverty have “earned” rather than “received,” and what all of us “deserve” from each other. In short, he asks us to see our brothers and sisters in poverty as human, and to let that be the starting point for a more just and expansive vision of our shared economic life. As Peter Maurin, co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement with Dorothy Day, said, “Let us create a society in which it is easier for people to be good.”
While the book, as a work of sociology, is heavy on data and serves more to expose problems than to propose solutions, knowing what story we are living in is a key step forward. Readers should find it fruitful for discussion, and the church has a wealth of resources (including many from my employer, The Chalmers Center) on which to draw if we want to take up the work of working holistically to address poverty and its effects. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
Justin Lonas
Justin Lonas is a poet, writer, cook, hiker, and amateur theologian. He holds an M.Div. from Reformed Theological Seminary. He and his wife Rachel live in Chattanooga, Tennessee with their four daughters. By day, he serves churches and ministry organizations around the world through the Chalmers Center at Covenant College. His writing often explores nature, literature, and the church's ongoing struggle to live out the way of Jesus. Justin's website is jryanlonas.com.
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