I like to write about positive topics, to build us up in difficult times and talk about the hope from the Gospel. I am a firm believer that we can overcome many ills with faith, hope and love if we make up our mind and look for solutions rather than become part of the problem.

However, there are some problems that need to be talked about and we might have to take off the rose-coloured Pollyanna glasses (this week was World Vision Day) off to do that.

I recall a successful business woman saying one day: “If you cannot make it in Bermuda, the Land of Milk and Honey, where can you?” I really liked that image. It is a Biblical image. Our God called the Promised Land the Land of Milk and Honey (Exodus 3:8; Numbers 14:8; Deuteronomy 31:20; Ezekiel 20:15). And truly, many have had big success in Bermuda, built for themselves and their families a safe and secure home and financial stability. Praise the Lord!

I am convinced we could actually have a “Land of Milk and Honey” for all who live here like the Promised Land was. Bermuda is small enough and blessed enough to take care of the needs of its people.

We are blessed by the Lord God. For many, Bermuda offered great opportunities and success, often in conjunction with hard work and taking risks, in some cases having the right parents or having the luck of being at the right time at the right place. Let’s be thankful for that.

At the same time we can observe that more and more people cannot keep up with the economic developments. One consequence is that more Bermudians are leaving the island.

We have to realise that we do have problems we did not have on this scale before and it has to be talked about. Just as I write this, the Vatican published the first official teaching document of the new Pope Leo XIV. It talks about social justice. Leo writes: “We need to be increasingly committed to resolving the structural causes of poverty … Unjust structures need to be recognised and eradicated by the force of good, by changing mindsets … ”

Some of our social ills are inherited from former generations hundreds of years ago. It is no longer a question of who is guilty. They are all gone. The question is are we able to reinstall social justice today?

There has been and still is a huge equity gap, and in part it has to do with race. Not only were people snatched from their own places against their will, they were made slaves without rights, often did not get any education, no property and could not build up any wealth like their neighbours, who profited from the system.

Abolition brought official freedom but did not end social and economic injustice, and until 60 years ago people in Bermuda were still segregated according to the tone of the skin. I wonder increasingly whether the word “race” is adequate, as the true race in my opinion is Homo sapiens. Most of us, thank God, have overcome this narrow-minded thinking. The Apostle Paul wrote 2,000 years ago in Galatians 3:28 (NLT): “There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

Of course, some who benefited from unjust structures in the past have built up equity and wealth which later was passed on in the family to the present time. That is not the fault of those living today.

The fact of the matter is that some have been given much. Again, that is not the problem. We cannot reverse the past. However, Luke 12:38b says: “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.”

What does that mean for our society? Some may say this verse is about giving to charity. However, I don’t think charity is the answer if we want to create a healthy and sound society. Don’t get me wrong, we need charity. But many people don’t want handouts, they just want to be treated fairly. They want to get a chance to make a living by honest work, pay honest rents and honest prices.

It’s about the win-win attitude, a principle that especially for Christians had a great meaning, in contrast to a newly reintroduced cut-throat attitude of taking as much as you can just because you got dealt the better deck of cards.

To me a great deal is when both sides benefit, not just the bully. There used to be a good balance. People had jobs that earned them what they needed. Some earned more than others, some invested in their education, some learnt a trade, some dared to step out in faith and start a business. It worked.

Somehow most people were able to afford a living that way. How did your parents approach everyday living? Sure, for some it was harder than for others, some had more mouths to feed than others, some earned more money and could thus afford some extras.

What we observe today though is different. Somehow the cost of living seems to gallop away. Even for skilled and trained people, it gets harder to keep up. Incomes don’t keep up with expenses.

Just lately this has become very obvious in the rental market. Something got out of balance. Sure, there is a need for apartments. Everybody sees that. Some apartments disappeared from the market because they were converted into short-term rentals. Some were heavily upgraded to meet executive demand. There is a shortage of places for regular people. Is it right to let the “market dictate the prices”when it comes to the basic need of shelter?

Some may not have any scruples. Just because others take advantage of the situation does not mean that all should. When the prophet Isaiah was charged to prophesy against the original “Land of Milk and Honey,” he said in Isaiah 5:8 (NIV): “Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field till no space is left and you live alone in the land.”

We don’t have to go down that road. There are still decent Bermudian families, who may have acquired houses, land and properties over generations, all paid for and creating a decent and steady income. Is that not enough?

Sure, the lure is there to take advantage of the market. However, do they really need more? Can they no longer afford living unless they increase the rents? Why become part of the problem when you could be part of the solution? Maybe we need to regain our social conscience.

Our politicians and other leaders could be in the first row to tackle the problem. Some of them are landlords themselves. They were elected to help and support the people. We still have rent control for lower-valued properties with some protection for the tenants. Do we really want to take that protection away? The proposed Landlord and Tenant Act 2025 would overhaul the law. All politicians should take a new look at that proposed law. Who will it serve but the landlords?

At the same time we have more families under so much financial pressure that it affects our children. How can they learn in school when the family cannot afford a nutritious breakfast, or when they have no dinner? How can they learn when they sleep on the back seat of a car, or on the floor in a relative’s place? How can they develop healthily when their parents have to work two jobs each to make ends meet?

I’m deeply impressed by people like Sheelagh Cooper who worked all her live to better the situation of our children. But how can those children see a future for themselves in this country with honest work, when all they see is poverty at home while others live in unprecedented luxury?

The “unjust structures” Pope Leo talks about have to do with all of that, with wages that are too low, prices and rents too high. And we see inadequate education, a lack of adequate health insurance, and cuts to youth programmes. With a mindset of those who actually have all their needs met, Pope Leo says they are called to be part of the solution, to become part of the “force of good”. What an opportunity! It has to do with an attitude of gratitude that can define what actually is enough, and how the rest can be invested rather in people, rather than more shares.

I guess we need to come to understand that no one is an island. We live in a society, and the wellbeing of the society, which means all its members, will ultimately define quality of life for the people, not individual wealth.

The prophets of the Bible repeatedly told the people that God is not interested in their sacrifices, but in justice: how do you treat the widows, the orphans, the foreigners, or the less fortunate among you?

In the New Testament, we read in Colossians 3:12 (NIV): “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” And in Galatians 6:10 (NIV): “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”

May God continue to bless you, Bermuda.

• Karsten Decker is the temporary pulpit supply at Centenary United Methodist Church in Smith’s