Ok sorry folks but I am venturing into the world of politics here, this is the week when the scandal of MP’s expenses has been revealed and what a sorry state of affairs it is too. I don’t know what has saddened me most, the initial greed shown by our elected leaders or the way they have tried to justify there actions. We have seen a vulgar parade of MP’s with an whole list of excuses, that they made mistakes, that they acted within the system and it is the system that is wrong but not one has admitted they were greedy, they were on the make.
I can’t help thinking in another century the Army would be storming Parliament right now, make no bones about it we have been let down spectacularly by our parliamentarians and hiding behind the system will not excuse this sort of behaviour.
But beyond the indignation lies something that each of us needs to face, contrast this, in the same week an MP claims expenses to have his moat cleaned 26,500 children will die of preventable causes related to their poverty each day. 26500 today and guess what? It will happen again tomorrow… and the next day… and the next. In fact around 10 million children will be dead in the course of a year.
This is not poverty caused by natural scarcity but by a set of priorities imposed upon the world by the rich & powerful , we in the west squander food resources as we turn a blind eye to the untold horror of poverty, maybe this and not global warming is the true inconvenient truth. Consequently, the modern poor are not pitied…but written off as trash. A disposable by-product of a consumer economy that has produced the first culture in which a beggar is considered nothing. If fact in some countries the poor are exterminated by hit squads to protect the tourist industry, after all no one wants to be reminded of a inconvenient truth while on vacation.
Jesus urged us to look after the most vulnerable of our society, he modeled compassion for the poor and the underprivileged, he championed them while instructing us to have a social responsibility mindset.
And here we despite our global worldview, oblivious to the basic needs of fellow man while enjoying and abusing the trappings of great wealth. While our leaders endulge in liberties with the public purse the church remains mute, perhaps it is time to stand, to be heard, to fight for what is right.
In Mark 4:11 Jesus was filled with compassion but it did not stop there, he reached out, he touched and he spoke life.
I’d like to ask God why He allows poverty, suffering, and injustices when He could stop it. I don’t because I’m afraid He would ask me the same.
