I guess I am still reeling this morning. Sunday (yesterday) was an interesting day for me.
My thoughts remain somewhat disconnected, but at bottom everything comes together under a heading something like "protecting the interests of poor folks in the city."
I suppose I should apologize in advance, since I know that my ramblings will not be received so well by many readers.
Yet, I can only come out of my "daily space" and what I experience there.
I won't apologize now that I've warned everyone! I'll just ask for indulgence to get my thoughts out where I can continue to work them through.
Yesterday began for me in one of the largest, most affluent and "successful" congregations in our city. I'm not kidding when I tell you that there was a long line to get into the sanctuary for the second service of three for the morning.
My assignment was to speak to one Sunday School class.
People were everywhere.
The several parking lots were filled with exceptionally "nice" cars--read luxury here. Folks were dressed to the nines. Police were everywhere directing traffic through the amazing jam of cars that is a weekly reality for this church.
Wealth virtually oozed out of the pores of the place.
It strikes me that this one church could play a huge role in changing the face of Dallas for generations. . .if the focus could change from church to community, from charity to systemic reform, from meaningful reflection to bold and unrelenting action.
Sorry, but I can't help but wonder how adopting such an expectation for the group might affect the lines waiting to get in or the overcrowded parking lots. (Remember now, I warned you that you would need to be forgiving of me today!)
I enjoyed my time in the class and I shared my observations.
Upon arriving home, I learn that funding for the New Orleans and Gulf Coast rebuilding effort will most likely come from cuts to Medicare, health and human services and education. It occurs to me that other programs, already cut to the bare bones, will not escape Katrina's post-landfall knife. The poor in cities all across the nation will be called on to sacrifice for the poor in the Crescent City.
Nothing new here. We have seen it happening here in Dallas over the past three weeks. Our low-income citizens have been frozen out of a number of opportunities as Katrina evacuees have gone to the front of several lines.
Still, in the aftermath of this terrible storm, I find this bewildering.
I also recognize that nothing is settled, But could this disaster be used by ideological "reformers" to further choke our collective response to poverty as a nation? I have seen enough to believe that it is very, very possible. . . no, likely.
The escalating cost of war. The escalating cost of a natural disaster. The amazing growth of the urban poor across the nation in every city. Mounting federal debt. No tax increases. Does this really add up?
I wonder if we really recognize where the several loci of sacrifice reside in this equation.
My son-in-law observed, during a brief visit yesterday, that the next Supreme Court nominee will likely be a person of the extreme right. The resulting hullabaloo will divert our attention from the plight of the poor in our cities. Momentum will be lost and the poor will continue to suffer.
I pray that he is wrong about the diversion. I pray that people of faith will keep the spotlight trained on the poor and determine to be deflected by nothing.
My eyes filled with tears several times yesterday.
Today will be no different, I know.
Owldog, the reports were all over the network news yesterday. The question is how to pay for the $60+ billion that is being re-directed to the Gulf Coast. There are only two ways to pay for new efforts like this. Either cut existing programs or raise revenue--i.e. taxes. There are no other choices.
ReplyDeleteI too share that same dream of having wealthy churches open up their hearts and bank accounts to help the oppressed. After all, that was what Jesus was all about. I can't help but imagine Christ rebuking rich Christians, just as he did the rich young ruler. Somehow we have put our trust in the "security" of money and not the security of God. If we are supposed to emulate Jesus, than alot of us need to begin rethinking what we really need. A used car gets you from point a to point b just as well as a Lexus. The only difference is that you might impress some humans along the way in the Lexus. So you impress people instead of lifting up the poor out of the vicious cycle of life that they are trapped in. Notice that I did not call the poor people. That was intentional. Too often we forget that they are real prople and not just a statistic or urban myth.
ReplyDeleteThe really sad part of the entire mess is that the valuable programs are under the Katrina knife but the pork is left intact. I would be willing to bet good money that the entire cost of the rebuilding could be paid from the pork in our national budget.
ReplyDeleteThe sad reality is that the current administration's top priority is decreasing taxes. "Starve the beast," as it were.
ReplyDeleteAs if we could possibly get by in 2005 with the size of government we had in 1905.
When you decrease revenue, you necessarily HAVE to decrease expenses. It's a simple equation, one that we all have to follow in our personal lives.
And yet what does our President do? He increases expenses. DRAMATICALLY. He launches a war.
And never once considers asking us to step up to the plate and pay for it.
This is not an argument against the war. It's an argument against the manner in which we launched the war: funded on the backs of the yet-to-be-born.
This complete lack of concern for the financial future of our country reveals the hypocrisy behind his stance against abortion. If he truly values the life of the unborn, he would not burden them with our debts and make it harder for their families to support their life.
Instead, we now have the highest debt in out nation's history. In other words, we have forced our children to pay for our greed. This is not only a bad financial practice, it is a bad moral practice.
We all agree that systemic terrorism requires government intervention. We must realize that systemic poverty requires the same. Churches and NPOs simply cannot muster the necessary support or resources to combat this epidemic.
Churches and NPOs are good at running after-school programs and organizing planting projects. They are not equipped to remove the core drivers behind poverty.
We need visionary leaders who will challenge us to make this a better world for everyone.
In hundreds of communities everyday, people are creating a new future with new relationships that will bring justice for the poor and marginilized.That is what I reflect on when the scale of greed and evil (wealth among deprivation)that I see becomes sublime.
ReplyDeleteMartin Luther King Jr. was right when he said "The arc of (God's) history may be long but it bends toward justice.
ACU students received an e-mail from President Royce Money saying that congress is considering cutting college student loans by as much as 40% per student.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your post today, Larry. They didn't like what Amos had to say either.
Jeremy Gregg,
ReplyDeleteI hear what you are saying but I also cant help but think about the fact that we are NEVER more than one generation away from losing the freedom we have to live the way we do in this country (whatever you may think of it, it is very unique and I try not to take it for granted). We went to war and the cost of it is high...some people, like you, think we cant afford it on many levels. But, I dont see how people can really think that we could have NOT gone to war. Maybe Bush IS thinking about the unborn...he wants there to be a free country for them to live in.
I think that many high-up people are greedy, but I also think that there are many who, including our president, are not. If you can be so sure that Bush took us to war for greed, then I can be so sure that he didnt. I have been reading Larry's blog for a little while and it doesnt seem to me like the poor will be taken care of by the government ever...and politics isnt where we fight this battle anyway. The problem is with each one of us on an individual level first. Maybe Larry would agree?
Kristin
Kristin, thanks for posting! Actually, I think it will take every sector pulling together. Contraray to current popular opinion, government is not bad. Something about "we the people" comes to mind just here. Government must be involved. For a bit fuller discussion on the collaboration I think we need, see my entry on Saturday, September 17, 2005.
ReplyDeleteKristin, let's assume that you are right and that the war was a just and necessary thing. It's hard to imagine Christ agreeing, but let's assume he would.
ReplyDeleteEven if that were the case, the war was still handled poorly. My contention is that Mr. Bush launched the war while retaining his ridiculous stance against taxes. It is that combination where the trouble lies: he has created enormous debts that must be paid off by our children. This debt threatens to destroy the future of our economy, which will have a much more drastic effect than another terrorist attack. Look at the lives crushed, the opportunities squandered, the potential wasted in such an environment.
Beyond that, he has used the war to further his second agenda:to decrease government programs in support of the poor. It is very obvious that he is not going to ask Americans to accept more taxes to pay for Katrina. He is going to cut other critical programs that can prevent future Katrinas from pavaging our people the way this storm did.