FAITH MATTERS: Elitism Rears Head

Ioverhead some people talking at a local coff ee shop Thursday about Halloween and the best costumes they saw. I took that as an opportunity to chime in about the magnifi cent, museumworthy cardboard costumes I made for my children.

Very quickly, however, they grew tired of my detailed and unsolicited descriptions of the Headless Horseman, Alien Knight and giant slice of pepperoni pizza. Go fi gure.

Then the conversation changed. They began to talk about all the children “from other neighborhoods” who came to their door. Trickor-treaters who piled out of vans and didn’t even wear costumes. Some didn’t even say ‘thank you’! I expressed some confusion, explaining that we got exactly zero trick-or-treaters at my home. “Hispanic kids” was the reply. “Why can’t they trick-or-treat in their own neighborhoods?”

I was surprised by this because I know exactly why those kids came to a diff erent neighborhood: more candy. That’s the point of Halloween, isn’t it? Some neighborhoods are great places for trick-or-treating.

Better sidewalks, level streets, more participation and more candy. My kids went to a neighborhood across the highway that had haunted houses and bouncy castles. Our own neighborhood was a ghost town (pardon the pun).

Most troubling about this was the exclusive, if not racist, tone of the conversation. None of these people appeared to be putting themselves at financial risk by giving away an extra bag or two of Kit Kat bars. Yet resentment was expressed about giving candy to kids from another part of town.

Each year Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families publishes its Arkansas Child Poverty Update. Two things caught my eye from the 2012 edition. First, while the U.S.

average for child poverty is 20.1 percent, 26.8 percent of Arkansas children younger than age 18 live in poverty (23.5 percent in Washington County). Second, Latino and African-American children are twice as likely to live in poverty in Arkansas than white children.

A group at my church is watching a video series each week called “Saving Jesus.” The latest session discussed the way Christ focused his attention on the most vulnerable and those in the greatest need. Author Brian McLaren emphasized this approach by saying “this isn’t a ‘trickle down’ redemption.”

You and I will be heading to the voting booth very soon. And when I vote, I think about all those kids who, by no fault of their own, live in a place where poverty is all-too-real. The fi gures 26.8 percent, 39 percent and 46.4 percent are intolerable to me and I look for candidates who feel the same way. Surely there’s enough for everyone - even the kids from another part of town.

THE REV. STEVE SHEELY IS PASTOR OF ROLLING HILLS BAPTIST CHURCH IN FAYETTEVILLE.