America's generosity is one of this country's many calling cards. We've seen it time and again after a major catastrophe in our own country or somewhere else around the globe. Appeals for money go out and the cash begins pouring in. It happened with the Indian Ocean tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, and most recently with the disastrous earthquake in Haiti. Americans have donated hundreds of millions of dollars to help the poorest country in the Western hemisphere rebuild from the rubble.

But is our generosity hampering us from addressing the root causes of why Haiti was so affected and so unprepared for the 7.0 earthquake that likely killed more than 230,000 people and left another 1 million homeless? Now that the intense focus on the island nation is starting to fade, The Rev. Dr. James A. Forbes Jr. thinks the answer is yes.

The first African American pastor to lead the historic Riverside Church in New York City and the founder and president of the Healing of the Nations Foundation, Forbes, in his new book Whose Gospel?: A Concise Guide to Progressive Protestantism, makes the argument that the world should be focused on ending the economic disparities that allow a country like Haiti to reach such high levels of poverty and disarray. It is easy for us to give money in times of crisis while continuing to allow larger suffering because this country has become mired in individualism, secularism, and the race for wealth at seemingly all costs.

Forbes sat down with Aol Black Voices' Jeff Mays to discuss America's moral obligations to Haiti and other poor nations, how the Gospel is often manipulated to benefit those in power, how we can began to free ourselves from the prison of greed and selfishness and why people are the real assets of this world, not wealth.

BV: I read that Americans may have donated more than $900 million to Haiti after the earthquake. Can America's generosity sometimes be a bad thing?

Dr. Forbes: My thinking is in the normal understanding people view charity as a primary resource. It's a supplemental resource. We get riled up after tsunami or earthquake, but when that is over we go back to our normal pattern of looking out for ourselves. There are times when we all need a helping hand but charity given in midst of crisis is never a substitute for systems of care. We can pass the hat and put in a nickel or dime but for most people, the infrastructure of their society is their greatest benefactor.



BV: Why are countries unwilling to address the historical wrongs that have leaded to the awful situation in places such as Haiti.

Dr. Forbes: There has been an evolution into radical individualism. You should graduate from response to care for the community, and you can't care for yourself alone. There is a very powerful saying from Ghana which says: 'I am because we are.' In Ghana, it is considered necessary to be your brothers and sisters keeper. In a consumerist society ruled by the idea of rugged individualism and materialistic grasping, we find it allows human instinct to ease to the point where it's not seen as inhumane not to respond.

BV: If so many Americans count themselves as Christians, why is there such opposition to things such as health care reform or helping people in foreclosure that seem based on Christian tenets?

Dr. Forbes: When people use religious sentiment to violate their own interests there's something abusive and evil about that use of religion. My book Whose Gospel? is designed to help people think through issues that have to do with these so called wedge issues: sex, gender, race, war, economic justice and the environment. There's great controversy in religious circles about these issues. If I share with people why I believe what I believe it may help them identify why they believe what they believe. If that happens we are making progress because people who understand their fundamental values are not as easily manipulated by the interests and propaganda of other people.

BV: What role do the media play in these attitudes?

Dr. Forbes: The modern culture, with the proliferation of electronic games and gadgets and people spending countless hours looking at television, has reduced dialogue and thoughtfulness. Even going to church or Sunday school where people talked about issues from the Biblical perspectives represented in their churches has decreased dramatically. We are in the advanced stages of secularization and that means God as a liberator and God as a comforter of the poor has been pushed to the corners of our consciousness and the all-mighty dollar reigns supreme. It has not always been that way.

People have always had to decide between their temporal necessities and spiritual values, but clearly we are out of balance. We are in a materialistic world where people think the dollar has more to do with their well-being than their relationship to God who calls us to care for each other in community and who calls for us to practice the golden rules of loving ourselves, loving our neighbors and loving our gods. Those values have been eclipsed by prevailing anxiety about money and material things. We need the temporal necessities, if we are without them we are out of balance, But even if you are a billionaire and you have no sense of your own purpose and meaning beyond your billions and no sense of commitment to the community and the common good, no sense of hope in this life and beyond, in some sense you are spiritual pauper.

Too much money messes you up and gets you out of balance. Too little money messes you up and gets you out of balance. What we need to do is to come to a better balance; reduce the large gap between the haves and have not's; reduce the privileges that come with racial identification; the contempt we have of people of different races and religions. We've got to come into balance. My book Whose Gospel? is trying to help people think, pray and work them way toward a better balance. Even though we are one of the richest nations on earth our healthcare system is not the best.Our infant mortality rate is higher than many countries. We are taking more pills and we have more violence more rape and more incarceration than other countries. How in the world, if we are the greatest nation on earth, do we have the greatest instance of social dysfunctionality?BV: What does the election of Barack Obama say about these issues you are talking about? Some think his election makes us post-racial, but he has been attacked for trying to reform the health care system and impose modest reforms on financial institutions. According to Republicans he's trying to turn us into a socialist nation and liberals think he's a sell out.

Dr. Forbes: The image that comes to mind is when people have an operation for cancer and they remove a tumor. The big question people ask is did they get it all? In regards to racism, the mere election of an African American as the head of this nation is an operation on some of the cancer of racism. But I suspect that the things we are observing these days, not that he is criticized, but the tone and the intensity and the surprising sources from where the assault is coming, makes me think the racism has spread to the lymph nodes and although the tumor was removed, the carcinogenic source is alive and well in crevices and corners of the consciousness of our people.

When Barack Obama said it is important for those who have health care to consider spreading some of our resources around so that others may share as well, that was his Achilles heel. When he starts talking about a more equitable distribution of resources, some view that as an assault against their free enterprise system and their guarantee of sustained wealth for themselves. Obama's economic vision as well as his race may have occasioned the intensity of negative response we are observing.

There are also aspects of imperfection in every president so I would not say it is all because of race and economic disparity. Maybe his team has not approached everything appropriately, maybe it's because he is talking about change but some of the cabinet members are a reflection of what has been. On balance, when the cancer of racism is about, the cancer of greed is operating. That's why we are seeing strange things even from liberals. Look at Massachusetts. I wonder if there is such a thing as 'liberal light.' That is the ideology and rhetoric of liberalism but your heart is still tethered to selfish pride, greed, race and other prerogatives.

People need to understand that you can say to a person: 'Lift yourself up.' You can say to an addict: 'Stop sniffing that stuff.' But he is addicted to that situation and without help beyond himself he may not be able to extradite himself. People are told to lift themselves by their bootstraps but as Dr. King said, they don't have boots. The credit rating of someone who can't pay their bills is so low that when they reach out to get a loan its at triple the interest. Someone incarcerated because they were stealing to feed their kids, they pay their time and can't neither get a job nor vote when they come out. Jesus went around helping the poor because he said they that are whole have no need of a physician. He meant the people who think they are alright let them go but everybody knows at the heart of religion is to care for the widows and the orphans. Remember to read Matthew 25. It says: "When you did it to the least of these you did it also unto Me." People must understand their attitude towards the poor and their insensitivity is an affront to God. God so identifies with the poor that your place in heaven will be based on how you treated the least of these.

BV: How can we begin to correct the individualism and greed that has affected our country?

Dr. Forbes: The religious community has the burden to remind the culture of the necessity to be together in support of one another. People should be able to pay tithes and offerings with the mission that the outlay of cash to needy situations will be enriched. That's inside the church. Outside the church, we need to look at fair tax reform. The tax system is currently organized primarily around the interests of the powerful and the rich. This is why it's a problem when presidents give tax breaks to the rich and leave social programs underfunded.

Until this nation reviews the fundamentals of our tax policy and there is a balance in the way we tax and distribute resources, there will be a real problem. Corporations now are transnational. There was a time when they felt corporate social responsibility. Now, communities are no longer identified with one group of people. We have to introduce, in an age of globalization, where multinational companies also contribute to the well being and development of their nation and nations of developing world. Beyond that, people need to stop quarantining themselves behind their gates so they don't know other people. Education ought to include diversity in the classroom. Students should engage people of different social classes so that they will not lose the sense that we are all human beings in this together and that on a sustained basis we can be helpful to one another in situations where we are in need.

BV: If you were tasked with leading a group to help Haiti not only recover from this tragedy but develop a sustainable and functioning society, what steps would you take?

Dr. Forbes: Whenever I'm trying to look at curing a situation I have to look at the cause. Nations in the Western hemisphere, the European Union, International Monetary Fund and the World Health Organization must engage in an open and candid conversation about what accounts for the continued impoverishment of Haiti since 1804. What policies, geographic factors, policy interventions and criminalities, inside and outside the country are at fault. If I have a runny nose, what caused it? If it was caused by a diphtheria that's one thing. If it was a bad cold, that's another. What has been the history of our oppression?

Archbishop Romero never called people poor; he said: "Those who were made poor." Who participated in the radical denuding of the forest and undermining of the infrastructure? I know Baby Doc and Papa Doc but who else participated? We need to decide what the contemporary humanitarian vision for Haiti is. How can we envision a strong Haiti?

It seems to me that decisions were made in high places that we will not allow Haiti to be strong. It's no accident and not just earthquakes and hurricanes. Someone decided that a strong Haiti is a threat to the well being of the neighbors in the hemisphere. We want an international team to be responsible for looking at the rehabilitation and restoration of this society. We need to look at their infrastructure because the absence of infrastructure has made it difficult for those who wanted to offer help. We need a multinational team to envision how the showcase of contemporary humanitarianism can be manifested in the rebuilding of Haiti. We need to show that the rest of us are civilized.

At the same time, after the glitter is gone and the helping groups have returned home, we need a sustained Marshall plan for Haiti's for survival while we do the study of architectural design, demographics, agronomy and explore what the resources are. We have got to keep the people alive. Some have to be kept alive in Haiti but some must receive the hospitality of other countries. It is a hospitality that says if a disaster would happen to us we would expect our neighbors to function in the manner we are functioning with respect to Haiti