Summary Of The Four Stages Of Spiritual Growth In Helping The Poor By Albert Nolan

There are four stages mentioned in the article “Four Stages of Spiritual Growth in Helping the Poor” by Albert Nolan. The first stage is characterized by compassion; having concern for the less fortunate is the first step in helping the poor. Exposure and the willingness to let things happen are factors necessary to develop our compassion. Exposure is a way of obtaining information on a cause and with more exposure, it leads our compassion to become deeper and more lasting. Excuses like “It’s not my business” dulls our natural compassion. When someone develops compassion, it leads them to take an action, typically relief work. Discovering that poverty is a structural problem is the second stage. Oppression, political systems, and injustice

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) works to expose the issues they face on a day-to-day basis. They try to share information so that people can realize the injustice they go through. This leads to people developing compassion and may cause people to do some relief work like giving money so the farmworkers can pay for their high rent bills. This is represented by the first stage. The CIW also has a motto of “Justice not Charity.” The quote leads people to realize that there is a structural problem and that charity alone, will not solve their problems. The root causes must be dealt with so that they can earn their rightful justice. People even do marches and write to managers in supermarkets as to attack the root causes. This is represented by the second stage. While knowing that supermarkets and food chains are the root causes of the injustice, we can only feel anger towards them because we want the farmworkers to have justice. I was so angry at the franchises that I stopped taking my business there. With time, I concentrated my anger so that it was not with specific people, but with the root cause. The third stage deals with realizing that only the poor can help themselves and that we cannot help them. This can be shown by the CIW; the CIW has helped expose their cause by protests, presentations, and even producing a movie on Netflix. They are the people directly being oppressed and they help us understand their problems. Their insight helps us live in solidarity with them. The fourth stage ties in with this idea. The CIW is full of human beings such as ourselves; we understand that they make mistakes just like we do. Due to this, we can come to an understanding that we all need to be treated equally and with dignity. Solidarity is possible because we acknowledge our own and their backgrounds and the role we play in the