I often decide what to write about based on my own thoughts, feelings, and reflections. This week I have decided to write about a trend I have been observing of late. A friend of mine just last week stepped right into this debate on Facebook with a family member. The subject at hand is "Who Deserves Our Help?"
Here is what I have noticed. As things have tanked right here in this country there is increasing rhetoric to stop assisting other countries and keep the money at home to benefit people in this country. To be sure our economy is in a bit of a mess and has been for awhile now. Unemployment is still high. Gas prices are skyrocketing. Inflation is rising. Wages are not increasing to compensate for all of the above. The cost of health care? I won't even go there. In short- many people in the US are having a tough time right now. I get that. Really I do. But I take exception to the notion that we should take care of our own "suffering" people at home first. Allow me to point out a few facts that help put all of this into perspective....
If you live in this country you are already wealthier than 95% of the world. Over half of the world's population lives on less than a dollar a day! The average wage in Uganda is about 70 cents a day. And guess how much they pay for gas? The equivalent of $10 a gallon! Can you
imagine what would happen here if we suddenly had to pay $10 for a gallon of gas!? There would be riots in the streets! People would be bombing gas stations or BP's headquarters! Now imagine you made only 70 cents a day and had to pay this for gas. Guess who drives? Almost no one! There is no "safety net" in the Third World. There is no "welfare". There is no Medicaid. In this country if you are poor and sick you can qualify for Medicaid and you will receive medical assistance. Real world example: if you are poor in this country and your baby is born with a cleft lip or palate you will be assigned a social worker who will help you get qualified for Medicaid. Your baby will get the life saving surgery he or she needs. Same child born in India to poor parents grows up disfigured well into their teens possibly until a group like Operation Smile comes and provides the surgery free of charge. And at that you may have to walk for 3 days or up to a week to get to the clinic where they are providing the surgery.
This is my 9th mission trip coming up. I have been 3 times international and 5 times right here at home helping the poor. And as far as the US goes, there isn't poverty anywhere that can begin to compare with Appalachia. Appalachia is what I like to refer to as the Third World right here in our own back yard. And guess what? I have never been to a home even in the worst place in Appalachia that didn't have clean water. Never. They might not have plumbing or a roof that was water tight, but they at least had a well! This is just not true at all for most of the third world. Millions of babies die every year from diarrhea caused by lack of clean water. Water in most villages must be hauled from great distances. It is a job for the children. How can they be expected to go to school if it takes a half day to haul water from the river for drinking and bathing and cooking? My point is this: when I hear about how we have "our own people suffering right here that we should be taking care of" I think to myself "define suffering!"
Back to my original idea for the subject of this post: My friend and her Facebook debate. Her family member had posted that she had written her senator telling him that our tax dollars should help people at home and let other countries take care of themselves. "It's the Christian thing to do". Uh...no actually. It's not! I have no objection to people wanting their tax dollars to be spent here. I don't agree with cutting off funding to poor nations, but that's me and I realize that others are free to disagree. What I object to is the idea that this is somehow "Christian". Jesus does not recognize man made boundaries and divisions of nations. He does not recognize the people of this nation as being any more deserving of assistance, food, water, shelter, medical care than any of His other children in far off lands. He consistently healed and ministered to both Jews and Gentiles. He praised Samaritans and healed the servant of a Roman soldier. In short- he did not discriminate based on race, nationality, creed, or religious background. I suspect that as such, He would now disapprove of us doing the same.
I realize that this idea is not popular with many. Increasingly this country grows more nationalistic and ethnocentric. I suppose that is only to be expected because we are experiencing such difficult times. But I would challenge people to think before they start waving the flag around and shouting about God and country and taking care of our own first. The "suffering" taking place here is not of the same magnitude experienced every day in places like Darfur, Bangladesh, Haiti, Guatemala. Ultimately, who the richest nation on the earth gives financial aid to should be a "both, and" not an "either, or" proposition in my opinion. That's the fun thing about writing a blog. It's all my opinion! Don't like it? Start your own! Shalom!
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