"The poor you will always have with you" - at least that's one of our many excuses...

I happened across this great article written after the devastation that took place this month in New Orleans. I'm not going to say much about what took place, better writers than me have done a great job analyzing both the tragedy, and the poor response by our government to give aid.

As I was looking online at some of these discussions, as well as horrific pictures in Time Magazine about the aftermath of the hurricane, I was also reminded about a book I just recently finished, called "The Last Word and The Word After That" by Brian McLaren. It's the conclusion to his wonderful "A New Kind Of Christian" trilogy. I think that people have been so focused on the fact that McLaren doesn't really come right out and explain really what his view on hell is - is he a universalist, does he not believe in a literal hell, etc. The great thing for us about focusing on that part of this book is that it continues to keep us away from the real questions we should be asking ourselves after reading this book: Do I really believe that eternal life begins now and not only in the future (after all, eternal life is knowing Jesus and the one who sent Him), and if I believe it, why am I not concerned about the same things Jesus was concerned about while he was here on earth? Namely, the poor, the downtrodden, those who are sick and need healing. Christian "leaders" (I use that term loosely) have already come out and blamed the hurricane on the Mardi Gras celebrations that take place in New Orleans every year - again, another great distraction (one that isn't true, by the way) that will take our mind off of what we should be doing - helping the poor.

I was talking with my eighty-two-year-old grandmother today (she came into town unexpectedly, but it was nice to see her again), and she brought up the fact that the middle class was created in the 20th century so that the poor wouldn't focus on the rich, and the rich didn't have to worry about the poor. I don't know if I agree with her assertion, but it does make me think about it. The poor could aspire to become middle class, and the rich didn't have to take care of the poor or worry about them, because there was always the chance that the poor could move up to the middle of the economic ladder. The problem is that those who belong to the middle class are always looking up - how to get rich, how to keep up with those who are reaching that rich rung of the ladder quicker than ourselves - and we certainly don't want to think about those below us, those poorer than ourselves. Again, another way to distance ourselves away from people with real needs.