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Why Defending the Poor Isn’t Class Warfare

Why Defending the Poor Isn’t Class Warfare

Last updated on: April 14, 2026 at 5:23 pm by Henry Karlson

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Why Defending the Poor Isn’t Class Warfare 2026-04-14T17:23:50-05:00 Henry Karlson

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Di (they-them): Dorothy Day, Worker of Social Justice / Wikimedia Commons

Class Warfare And Social Justice

It seems that every time that the rich are confronted for the way they treat the poor, such as the way they take from the poor what the poor needs to survive, or the way they use their wealth to help further their acquisition of the means of production, keeping it away from the poor, the response often given by their defenders is that we should not be engaging class warfare. Their defenders claim if and when we confront the rich for their exploitation of the poor, we are pitting the rich against the poor. This is merely a deflection. In reality, the rich are already engaging in class warfare when they are exploiting the poor, or when they say the poor can be sacrificed for their acquisition of excessive wealth. That is, the same people who tell us not to engage in class warfare are defending the ones who are engaging it, and what they do not want is to have people to defend those who grievously suffer as a result of that war.

Christians should know better. Jesus presented to them a moral position which has been called the preferential option for the poor. Instead of looking after and taking care of the poor, too many Christians have been convinced to give a preferential option to those who are rich, undermining what Christ taught. When the rich are criticized, their Christian defenders say it is because of envy, and envy is a sin; however, it is not envy, but a desire for justice, a desire for the poor to be treated justly and have living wages, proper health care and safe places to live, which lead people to criticize the systemic structures of sin which favor the rich. The poor have been unjustly abused, their plight ignored or rejected; Christians who promote the rich and ignore the poor show that they have not paid attention to Christ, for, if they did, they would have seen he constantly promoted the poor while decrying the exploitation of the poor by the rich and powerful. Was Christ envious? Was he promoting class warfare?

The preferential option for the poor and vulnerable is a major teaching in Scripture; it is found in both the Tanakh and in the New Testament. Those who follow Scripture, those who take it seriously, those who follow Christ and his ways, will follow him by lifting up the poor and criticizing the rich who exploit or dehumanize the poor. Doing this is not about the promotion of class warfare; it is about trying to bring it to an end. This does not mean the poor are perfect, that they are sinless, but the way the rich and the poor are to be criticized should reflect their status, as Pope St. Gregory the Great knew:

Differently to be admonished are the poor and the rich: for to the former we ought to offer the solace of comfort against tribulation, but in the latter to induce fear as against elation. For to the poor one it is said by the Lord through the prophet, Fear not, for you shall not be confounded. And not long after, soothing her, He says, O you poor little one, tossed with tempest. And again He comforts her, saying, I have chosen you in the furnace of poverty. But, on the other hand, Paul says to his disciple concerning the rich, Charge the rich of this world, that they be not high-minded nor trust in the uncertainty of their riches; where it is to be particularly noted that the teacher of humility in making mention of the rich, says not Entreat, but Charge; because, though pity is to be bestowed on infirmity, yet to elation no honour is due. To such, therefore, the right thing that is said is the more rightly commanded, according as they are puffed up with loftiness of thought in transitory things. [1]

The proclamation of social justice is important. We cannot ignore it. Those who have gotten rich on, and fed off of, the poor, will have to face the consequences of their exploitation. It would be better if they did so voluntarily, and they did so now instead of facing them at the eschatological judgment, when Christ will tell them what they did to the poor and needy, they did to him. The poor, of course, are not perfect, and their sins will have to be dealt with accordingly, and when they promote injustices in response to the injustices they have experienced, they will have to be confronted and reminded that the ends do not justify the means. Dorothy Day, therefore, wrote:

I will agree with you that the poor man is also greedy. I believe I pointed out that greed in the editorial column last month. I do not think, whoever, that we are guilty of envy or begrudging a rich man his wealth if we point out the abuses of the capitalist system which allows one man to accumulate the most of the world’s goods while other families suffer year after year, the aching pinch of poverty if not of actual destitution. St. Jerome and many many Fathers of the Church, and our Leader Himself condemned the rich and no one would dare breathe the word of envy in connection with them. [2]

It is just to tell those who have done wrong, those who have hurt and wounded the poor, to pay back what they have unjustly taken from those in need. Reparations are always a part justice, which is why those convicted of theft are expected to give or pay back what they stole. But, as always, the more one has, and the more one uses what one has to harm those who do not have anything, the more responsible they will be for what they do. That is, those who have more, be it wealth or power, have a greater responsibility to use what they have for the good of all, and will face graver consequences when they do the opposite. This is why, while it is important to promote justice, telling the poor they must embrace its dictates just as much as the rich, we must keep in mind how much responsibility or culpability someone has for the situation they are in. Those who are poor, those who are barely surviving, those who find the rich treating them as subhumans with little or no dignity, have far less culpability for their actions than the rich who could help them and do not, which is why it was always recognized that the oppressors face greater punishment, that is, greater consequences for their actions, than those who react in excess to that oppression:

The oppressors of the poor should know that they are deserving of a more serious sentence when they have prevailed over those whom they desired to injure. For they are to be condemned to a more atrocious future punishment to the extent that they have behaved more forcefully in this world against the life of the wretched ones.[3]

Those who are rich and use their wealth, not just for their own private good, but for the common good, promoting justice and helping humanity the best they can, are not to be seen as the same as those who use their wealth for their own selfish ambitions. It is possible for someone to be rich and to use their riches in an exemplary way. If someone is rich, and wants to be seen as a benefactor of humanity, they must make sure the way they obtain or maintain their wealth does not come from exploiting the poor. And, moreover, they will have to prove their character in times of trial, as St. Cyprian explained to those in his time having to deal with plagues and pestilence ravaging their land:

What a significance, beloved brethren, all this has! How suitable, how necessary it is that this plague and pestilence, which seems horrible and deadly, searches out the justice of each and every one and examines the minds of the human race; whether the well care for the sick, whether relatives dutifully love their kinsmen as they should, whether masters show compassion to their ailing slaves, whether physicians do not desert the afflicted begging their help, whether the violent repress their violence, whether the greedy, even through the fear of death, quench the ever insatiable fire of their raging avarice, whether the proud bend their necks, whether the shameless soften their affrontry, whether the rich, even when their dear ones are perishing and they are about to die without heirs, bestow and give something! [4]

Let us, therefore, do what we can to promote and live out the preferential option for the poor the best we can. Let us try to transform society by making it a better place for all, promoting the common good. We must affirm the dignity of the poor, defend them and their needs, and encourage the rich who have the means to help them to do so. We must also denounce the rich when they exploit the poor, pointing out that their actions are acts of class warfare, and that society must deal with that war, defending the poor and vulnerable, as long as the rich continues to wage it. We must, likewise, point out the consequences of such exploitation, warning, that if those who do it do not face it in their temporal existence, they will at their eschatological judgment, and the consequences will be that much worse for them.

[1] St. Gregory the Great, Pastoral Rule. Trans. James Barmby, DD in NPNF2(12): 25.

[2] Dorothy Day, “Letter To Fr. Anthony Wolf. November 13, 1934” in All The Way To Heaven: The Selected Letters of Dorothy Day. Ed. Robert Ellsberg (New York: Image Books, 2010), 86.

[3] St. Isidore of Seville, Sententiae. Trans. Thomas L. Knoebel (New York: Newman Press, 2018),208.

[4] St. Cyprian of Carthage, “Mortality” in St. Cyprian: Treatises. Trans. Roy J. Deferrari (New York: Fathers of the Church, Inc., 1958), 212.

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