Above: Children watch American missionaries drill a well in Salines Mayette, Haiti. Andy Olsen / NWHCM staff
Sometimes, an age-old concept gets a new name, and people start talking about it as if someone had just invented water.
In recent years, "poorism" – traveling cross-culturally to see abject poverty in person – has been the subject of much debate in some circles. Though it's a stretch to say poorism is booming, and hardly anyone is making much money at it, the idea has sparked a fledgling industry.
According to an excellent
Smithsonian article, organizations are putting together tours in places like Mumbai and Rio de Janiero to open the eyes of people who, apparently, want to have their eyes opened. And I would add that missions and development organizations have been doing this for decades, though with overt not-for-profit aims.
Poorism's critics say that it dehumanizes the poor, exploits them for a profit, and is outright voyeuristic. They're right, really - at least if the whole exercise does not rise above mere sightseeing.
There is nothing new about wealthy folk wanting to step outside their socioeconomic comfort zones. Compassion International's Meredith Dunn muses in an
insightful blog entry that while Christ's disciples, many of whom were well-off men with established positions in their communities, certainly followed Christ because of who He was, they might also have been intrigued by a man who was taking them to see huddled masses of Judea's poorest and most destitute.
Indeed, there seems to be a God-created appetite for adventure that is always calling us to hard places where people or things challenge our own status quo. There is something spiritual about it, something enlightening, something eternal. It is the best explanation I can think of for the success of National Geographic, the Olympics and, dare I say it, missions trips.
I have to believe it is a good desire. And I also have to believe that in modern times, it is a healthy one. If the trend of poorism is an early indication that the world's wealthy minority are awakening to the fate of the poor majority, and in fact are growing uncomfortable enough with income disparity that they want to see it for themselves, then surely we must say that demand for poorism is a positive thing.
But like any God-given desire, we have to temper it with love, mercy, intellect and self-control. If not, poorism becomes nothing more than a safari where animals are replaced by humans.
Perhaps at least one key to tempering that desire is relationship. As an organization that brings hundreds of "tourists" to Haiti every year, my employer strives to turn poorism experiences into transformational relationships between people, churches and communities. We want Americans to see Haiti for what it is and to be shocked by it, but we never want to leave their experiences at that. We want visitors to act, and we want to see the people and communities we serve free from whatever holds them down.
Without relationship, I don't know how that can happen. Even if admission is charged and tour fees are collected and 100 percent of profits are donated to the poor, the entire exchange seems to boil down to little more than a zoo agreement: You pay us to see them, and we'll make sure they are fed. The problem with a zoo is that the animals still live in cages, just really nice ones. No one gains freedom in a zoo.
To be sure, missions all over the world struggle to facilitate relationships perfectly. I've painfully observed plenty of travelers taking photos when it was not appropriate or humanizing to do so - and I confess I have been guilty of it myself on a few occasions. I've seen some who were clearly not interested in relationships, just an entertaining bus ride.
And I've observed that in Haiti, nationals are most reluctant to be photographed in cities that have had the most contact with foreigners. Perhaps that is because Haitians sense the risks of poorism, too - they know that a shutterbug is taking something from them with no intention of giving anything in return.
If there is anything to learn as we watch the growth in poorism in coming years, it's that curiosity and conviction alone are not enough to change the world. There must be something deeper - much deeper - accompanying it. That something will probably involve a lot of hard work, thought, and intentional interaction.
Isn't that what Christ was trying to teach His disciples as they shuffled along dusty streets themselves, engaging in a little poorism of their own?
