“Didn’t Jesus say “the poor will always be with you?” Many of the people who whip out this verse have grown quite insulated and distant from the poor and feel defensive. I usually gently ask “Where are the poor? Are the poor among us?”…Jesus says this in the home of a leper and after a poor marginalized woman anoints his feet with perfume. The poor were all around him…Jesus is pointing the Church to her true identity—she is to live close to those who suffer.”

— Shane Claiborne, The Irresistible Revolution (via mrcrowder)