Monday, April 27, 2009

The Joker, Resignations, World Hunger, and September 11th

The Joker: "Nobody panics when the expected people get killed. Nobody panics when things go according to plan, even if the plans are horrifying. If I tell the press that tomorrow a gangbanger will get shot, or a truckload of soldiers will get blown up, nobody panics. But when I say one little old mayor will die, everyone loses their minds!"


A few months ago, a friend of mine resigned from his post as youth pastor, the reasons made sense. I find it odd that me and most everyone I know who has found out flipped when they first heard it. It didn't fit with the plan, the unconscious plan we all had, that this wouldn't be the case. We don't like it when things don't follow the plan. And everyone knows the plan, the way things should be and ought to be. These people die, these people don't. Every day, almost 16,000 children die from hunger-related causes--one child every five seconds. A fact easily found, did any of you even flinch as you read that? No, not at all. Because it's part of the plan. On Sept. 11th 2,974 died, and the nation was thrown into disarray. More than 5 times that number (2,974) die every day, EVERY DAY. But no one flinches because that fits into the plan. I think People need to care about this. Someone estimated that, to provide the entire world clean water and food,to solve this crisis, it would cost roughly 20 Billion dollars. America, spends that much on Ice cream, in a year. Where are our priorities?

I did not mean to trivialize the tragedy that was Sept. 11th, 2001. That day was burned into my mind forever, and I have no connections to it. I cannot fathom what it must be like for those that do. I simply used the statistics to point out a flaw in our mindset. America is not the world, we are a small part of a global community, but we don't act like it.

1 comment:

Jonathan said...

Your wise Chuck. But what do we do about it? It's not a rethorical question. I don't believe change will come from above, at least not from the powers of this world.

But i do believe God does not want this madness to go on, and i do believe God does want us to try to do something about it.

Resignation means absense of hope, but why shouldn't we be hopeful, i do believe that someone who has the power to defeat death itself also has the power to change our wicked ways.