A Virtual Sunday School Lesson On Inequality

The populations of the US and Canada (on the left side of map), and Japan (on the far right), with one chess piece each to show relative numbers of people, control a vastly disproportionate amount of the world's wealth, as represented by the pennies on the map.

In the absence of having regular Sunday School at their church during the pandemic, I've enjoyed having a monthly video class with two of our grandsons.

Today's lesson was based on Genesis 1: 26-31 and Matthew 14:13-21 in their Message version of the Bible. In the first passage God mandates us humans, described as "godlike" and "reflecting God's nature," as being responsible for the care of all creation, including the abundant variety of food sources on the planet. In the second, Jesus has his disciples share their loaves and fishes with a large crowd of hungry people, blessing their gift by multiplying it so everyone had enough, and with 12 baskets full of food left over.

Based on information I found online I had them first place a total of 30 chess pieces on the earth's continents to represent the approximate distribution of the world's people, as follows:

US and Canada: A King (1)

Europe: A Queen, Bishop, Knight and Castle (4)

Asia (not including Japan): A Knight, Castle, three Bishops and twelve Pawns (17)

Japan: A King (1)

Central and South America: A Queen, Knight and Pawn (3)

Africa: A Castle and three Pawns (4)

I then had them take 60 pennies, representing the world's wealth, and imagine how they would see God wanting these distributed by those made in the Creator's "image and likeness." They agreed, of course, that everyone should share equally, but I then had them place the pennies on the map according to the information in the simulation game I found online, as follows:

US and Canada: 19 pennies

Europe: 19 pennies

Asia (not including Japan): 8 pennies

Japan: 8 pennies

Central and South America: 4 pennies

Africa: 2 pennies

I needed to point out, of course, that these are very approximate comparisons, and that there are vast inequities within each continent or part of the world. My aim was simply to show that an earth created with more than enough resources for everyone nevertheless has ever more millions on the verge of starvation--while many of the rest of us enjoy far more than our share.

We closed with these wise words from the the Proverbs (Message translation), a book of instructions for young people on how to become good, God-fearing adults:

Mercy to the needy is a loan to God,

    and God pays back those loans in full.

Proverbs 19:17

Generous hands are blessed hands

    because they give bread to the poor.

Proverbs 22:9