What Matters?
The talk around the office lately has been about the incredible amount of people who we will be serving this Christmas. In fact, tomorrow I will be helping with the distribution of toys, food and clothing to a few thousand people here in Cleveland. We have also been talking lately much about the whole Britney Spears incident and the photos associated with it. "How disgusting." has been the most common editorial comment.
Serving and working against the disgusting events caused by sin, those seem to be the evangelical mindset these days. It is a good thing to take on the issues of poverty caused by sin. But I wonder how much we should worry about the ex- Mrs. K-Fed. Really, how important is she? In fact, how important is that the Boston Red Sox have paid millions of dollars to get the rights to negotiate with a pitcher from Japan and then have him ask for a 100 million to pitch for them? People have been devoting all kinds of talk about these issues.
Yet, I have heard precious little from my friends about the atrocities in Darfur. I do believe we need a distraction on occasion from the pain of the realities of life. Darfur, however, is being ignored. Already the genocide there is the worst since Rwanda. While our government and the church talk often about the outrage Brit, Nicole and Paris (the anti-trinity) we hear very little about the pain and suffering of a whole generation of people who are being systematically exterminated by their government.
What really matters? Does Britney really matter? Does our obsession (I'm in on this with OSU football) with sports figures really matter? The church rails against these matters. We say little and do little about Darfur, the civil war in Iraq and our failed policy, and poverty in our own country.
What matters? What are the issues you think the church should address? There are more than Darfur. What do you think?
Serving and working against the disgusting events caused by sin, those seem to be the evangelical mindset these days. It is a good thing to take on the issues of poverty caused by sin. But I wonder how much we should worry about the ex- Mrs. K-Fed. Really, how important is she? In fact, how important is that the Boston Red Sox have paid millions of dollars to get the rights to negotiate with a pitcher from Japan and then have him ask for a 100 million to pitch for them? People have been devoting all kinds of talk about these issues.
Yet, I have heard precious little from my friends about the atrocities in Darfur. I do believe we need a distraction on occasion from the pain of the realities of life. Darfur, however, is being ignored. Already the genocide there is the worst since Rwanda. While our government and the church talk often about the outrage Brit, Nicole and Paris (the anti-trinity) we hear very little about the pain and suffering of a whole generation of people who are being systematically exterminated by their government.
What really matters? Does Britney really matter? Does our obsession (I'm in on this with OSU football) with sports figures really matter? The church rails against these matters. We say little and do little about Darfur, the civil war in Iraq and our failed policy, and poverty in our own country.
What matters? What are the issues you think the church should address? There are more than Darfur. What do you think?
posted by Larry at 9:45 PM
2 Comments:
What matters? As I see it...that The Church/TSA should continue to make the salvation of people's lives the first purpose of their/our lives.
He said that one day He would judge the world, and that what would matter "most" then would be how we had responded to Him in this life.
Toy distribution...what an opprotunity to witness!
I think it’s natural for people to consider the world that’s immediately around them. For you there, in Ohio, that’s things like ball players and crazy celebrity sightings. I also think that Americans’ lack of input, when it comes to things like Darfur, often comes down to ignorance. And do you understand the effort it takes to educate American Christians and spur them into action? In the 70’s and 80’s, it meant a whole crop of films surrounding the issue of abortion. Twenty or thirty years later and we now have churches staffed by pastors who grew up watching those films. What would it take to spur Christians into action on things like aids, poverty, Dept in so-called “third world” countries, genocide in Africa, etc.? Well, for one thing, our pastors would have to be educated/passionate about it themselves. That would certainly be a start.
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