the quarter problem: white privilege and the search for missio dei

I learned about the quarter problem today while at work. It’s a problem that plagues many of in the United States. In fact I find myself having the problem as well, and I bet you do too.

I’ve done one international mission trip in my life. I don’t intend to do another. The mission trip was great, don’t get me wrong. The trip was to one of the most beautiful best-kept secrets in Europe – Prague. I remember raising money to go on the two week expedition. Our church was going to help at a family and women’s shelter in Prague. We stayed onsite and during the two weeks there completed numerous projects. Many of the projects involved painting, construction, and renovation. We also did a couple of programs for the families that stayed at the shelter. The second part of the trip involved much sightseeing in Prague and visiting a castle forty-five minutes away. In the end I felt that the mission trip was more of a trip than a mission anything. After the two weeks we left Prague and went back to our normal lives.

Back to the quarter problem. The problem was described like this: My co-worker (let’s call him John) had a friend (let’s call him Jerry) while in seminary. Jerry described that he didn’t know what it felt like to be poor or homeless. So, he decided to leave his cushy apartment with all it’s things and heat, take a train downtown and live on the street for a couple of months. After a couple months on the street Jerry was talking with John and was describing the quarter problem to John. Jerry kept bringing up that he had this quarter problem.

John finally asked Jerry about the quarter problem. Jerry told John that although he was living on the street, at any moment he could pick up a quarter and go back to the life that he had before. He could go back to his warm apartment with its amenities. He could put on a suit, with his educational background, support system, and most importantly, his network and go back to his job. Jerry, although he was living on the street for two months, was not living on the street. He, unlike others, could pick up a quarter and go back to the life he had. He truly did not know what it was like to be homeless living on the streets, to be without an apartment, without support, without a network. Jerry’s invisible knapsack would always be full. And the people that he tried to know about on the street would always have an empty knapsack.

In the same way I learned in short-term missions that I have the quarter problem. After two weeks I can walk away. It’s an amazing idea to go to other countries and help the helpless. But like many of the depleted inner-cities of the Unites States it isn’t about problems, but about the assets in that community. That is why in most situations outside consultants that come into poor communities fail. And also why local asset based community development flourishes in poor communities.

In much of the same way we are saying, “Oh, those poor fill-in-the-blank! They need my help.” In a world where Malaria is easily treatable in Africa, where AIDS rips through the old and young alike, and poverty is poverty, people do need help. However, when I think about going over for a week to help out my fellow brothers and sisters, I have to ask: are they capable of doing the same job that I would go over for? Can they not build the same building? Can they not dig the same well for water? Could my money, my wealth, be put to better use? Are we forgetting about their assets? Is this real community when hierarchy is created between two different people? Is this really community when a power is asserted upon another? In the end there is a quarter problem. In the end I can choose to do or not do, I can choose to listen or not listen, I can choose to be in community or to not be.