Theologian Daniel Groody writes that “God’s concern for the poor and oppressed is one of the most central themes of the Bible. In the New Testament one out of every sixteen verses is about the poor. In the Gospels, the number is one out of every ten; in Luke’s Gospel it is one out of every seven, and in James, one out of every five.” He concludes, “From a Christian perspective, whenever a community ceases to care for the most vulnerable members of society, its spiritual integrity falls apart.”17
