Jonathots Daily Blog
(2382)
Poverty is bad.
This is an assertion which is popular.
Therefore, poor people are bad.
This has become the populie.
Even though we would insist that we don’t tie the quality of life and character to the amount of money in a bank account, we definitely attribute more value to those who are in the black as opposed to those who live in the red.
To further reinforce this, we look at people wallowing in squalor around the world and shake our heads, wondering how they got that way.
Politics loves this because it gives us the chance to prove that America is exceptional and the rest of the planet is being punished for not being like us.
Religion is overjoyed at the prospect of third world countries because it give us a hovering horde that we can evangelize with the gospel, while feeling self-righteous.
Entertainment leaps with joy because it can tell stories of depravity which some soul emerges from, to overcome his or her circumstances and win the day, perhaps ending up on Wall Street.
This is probably one of the more egregious sins of the American culture, causing us to believe that we do not need to deal with our own iniquities because at least we’re not as miserable as those poor souls in the third world countries.
Let me give you a list:
- Access to clean water.
- Adequate shelter
- Nourishing food
- Supportive friends
These are what I call the four blessings. If you have these opportunities you will find yourself benefited and granted the human dignity to proceed with a burst of confidence.
Remove these from your life and you are left wallowing in self-pity.
Case in point: New Orleans and the Eastern seaboard quickly became third world countries when they were struck by hurricanes, and the people wandered the streets aimlessly, as if they were refugees.
For you see, it isn’t so much that some people are born better than others, but rather, that some people have water, shelter, food and friends.
Just think what would happen in Chicago today if clean water were suddenly removed from the populace.
What if these same Chicago folks found out that all the food had been stolen, or was tainted?
What if their homes suddenly became uninhabitable?
In less than forty-eight hours, Chicago would look like a bomb site if these necessities were removed.
Yet we continue to look at other nations which do not have these four blessings and shake our heads in disbelief that they live in such pitiful conditions or that they’re raging in war.
We have plenty of advice. We have plenty of weapons to sell to them. We will gladly ship them Bibles. But the four things they require–access to water, adequate shelter, nourishing food and supportive friends–we withhold and only offer to those of our own kind.
There is no such thing as a third-world country. There are human beings who are just like us who are forced to live … in aggravation.
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