About a dozen of my friends around the country have posted the following as their status today:
"Shame on you America: the only country where we have homeless without shelter, children going to bed without eating, elderly going without needed meds, and mentally ill without treatment - yet we have a benefit for the people of Haiti on 12 TV stations. 99% of people won't have the guts to copy and repost this."
I can't believe so many people that I am fond of could actually complain about efforts to raise money for the victims of the earthquake in Haiti- one of the worst earthquakes in memory, that leveled a city and killed untold thousands, in our own back yard. And they frame this complaint around the fact that there are needy people in America -yet when we try to take care of THEM ultra-conservatives accuse us of being socialist, and the poor and hungry as lazy, so that argument is a cop-out. Why does it bother you to see people trying to help earthquake victims? I don't remember Jesus being so particular about who was "worthy" of help. Anyone who spreads stuff like this and then call themselves Christian should take out lightning insurance, I wouldn't want to stand too close to 'em. "99% of people won't have the guts to copy and repost this"??? 99% of people would have too much human kindness, or at least too much shame, to repost such crap. And before you follow your natural instinct to lash out at me for calling you out, stop and think about what you are saying, and ask yourself if you would have the nerve to say it if you knew God were sitting right next to you. "Whoever has done this to the least of these my children has done it to me."
Shame on YOU.
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Welcome to the Blog my friend.
ReplyDeleteIt astounds me that well meaning Christian people post stuff like this status without fully thinking through the implications of what they are saying. It basically says "We've got our own problems, Screw Haiti!"
The thing is, while I don't deny that those problems do exist in this country, the poorest of our poor are wealthy in comparison to the majority of the citizens of Haiti and that is before this disaster struck. It is not an either or situation. Yes, we need to do more and better to take care of the "least of these" in our own country but when devastation on the order of what is happening in Haiti occurs we rightfully need to pause in that and deal with the more immediate situation.