genuineoriginal's SPOTD - chatmaggot

genuineoriginal

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Now imagine you never got to go to college, and instead you have a family. And you're still trying to live on that $15 a week for groceries.

I guess since that didn't happen to you, then you can ignore all those people it does happen to, right? And anyway, since you had to suffer a little, then everyone else should have to suffer, too, right?

I had a friend growing up who's father used to beat he and his sister and his mother. And he used to tell me that when he grew up and had kids, he was going to beat them the same way. I pointed out to him that this was crazy, because he hated being beaten, and he knew it was wrong. But nothing I said mattered to him. He still said he was going to beat his own kids, anyway. And when he grew up, he became the same stone-faced jerk that his old man was, and I'm sure he beat his wife and kids just like his old man did.

All these stories about how hard it was for "me" back when "I was poor" being used to justify allowing life to be so hard for others, sounds just like my friend "John" talking about how he couldn't wait to grow up and have kids of his own so he could beat them like his father beat him.
Maybe the better thing for you to do would be to stop judging others, and looking for excuses to justify their suffering, and instead ask yourself why you think their suffering is OK.

That's all wonderful, and yet wouldn't it be so much more wonderful if we as a society would just eliminate poverty all together? Yet whenever someone dares mention any attempt at doing this, many of those same kind-hearted Christians suddenly become very contemptible of the poor, and begin spewing all kinds of excuses and justifications for why the poor don't deserve to be helped.

Where is all that contempt coming from, do you think?
Here is a quick resume:

When I was in grade school I was on the free/reduced lunch program because my dad didn't make much money. My mom stood in line for government cheese at times.

After I graduated college I joined the Peace Corps and lived in a thatched hut in the jungles of Papua New Guinea in the shadow of Mt. Gahavisuka in a village with people that American standards would be considered "poor". No running water, electricity, I pooped in a hole in the ground, I bathed in the nearby creek, and I had to work in the fields to help get food for the day. No one complained in the village. This is similar to what Phil said in the GQ interview if you read it. I had many conversations with PNG Nationals about the "good life" of living in America. They didn't complain about what they had, they just knew we had it "better". I tried to tell them they actually had it better in some ways.

After I left the Peace Corps I got my first teaching job but I was already bitten by the travel bug. I already enjoyed working with organisations that helped people due to service trips with my church growing up and working with Habitat for Humanity on occasion while in college. My first teaching job was like those you see in the movies. Rough school, I got all the bad kids, and I was just trying to make sure they graduated and didn't kill each other. Literally. It was discovered that I was on a "hit list" of people that a student kept in their locker that they wanted to kill. That student was removed from school. After four years I had to leave or I would have been cut due to budget issues.

I still teach and am still trying to impact the lives of our youth. It doesn't look good. Each generation is literally worse than the one before. However, I still travel and serve. I have been to Nepal with an organisation called ServLife working with people who take in orphans/abandoned kids. I have traveled to Cambodia and worked with an organisation called The Center for Global Impact who work trying to rescue girls from human trafficking and give them skills and teach them the gospel. I met and talked to kids that were purposefully handicapped (just like in Slum Dog Millionaire) so as to make them better beggars. I have traveled to Nicaragua and worked with an organisation called Vision Nicaragua that helped families whose fathers had dies from working in the sugar cane fields. The works are forced to use a chemical that protects the crops but causes a fatal liver disease. The sugar cane plantation owners have friends in high places and the government doesn't recognize the fact that the chemical is the cause of the liver disease. Here at home I have and still have work with numerous organisations in my hometown to help "the least of these". Local shelters, nursing homes, Children's homes, etc. However, I also understand than it's not just the least of the populations that are in need of help. The rich and the middle class have the same problem as the poor. And that problem is a sin problem. The poorest person who is in a relationship with Jesus is better off than the richest person who has turned their back on Him.

I know that some people are arm-chair Christians and talk about how people need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and just get a job. But some people don't even have straps to pull up or are just so weary of pulling that they need help. But again, this applies to the poor person who has no food as it does the rich person who has too much.

Handing out a morsel of food is good, but if it doesn't come wrapped in the gospel of Jesus, then it is useless.

Read the interview by Phil Robertson, you will see that he feels the same way. Watch the interview he did with the 700 club...you will see he is not afraid of homosexuals and helps his community in more ways than I ever could help mine. However, because he believes the Bible, he is ridiculed by the world (which isn't a surprise) but also other Christians for being "judgmental" and "hateful" and a "bigot". Sometimes I feel like I am a missionary in my own church because I know some people in my church probably think that about Phil.

Way to go, chatmaggot.
 
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