This entry is going to be very random
I just read a note somebody wrote on facebook that said something along the lines of he doesn't believe in a minimum wage and he thinks the gov't should shut off the utilites of poor people in the middle of the winter if they can't pay. He then proceeded to introduce his own version of a "modest proposal" by suggesting we start eating poor people
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This thought process really tails back into what we were discussing yesterday: the ability, or in most cases, the inability, to pull oneself out of terrible circumstances. You're right, in many neighborhoods there is not any real support system in place for children to pull themselves out. There is not someone there to tell you how to properly reach your dreams, even if you don't have any. So many children in Cincy, Baltimore, etc., aren't even presented with an opportunity to get out. It goes beyond just the "system" as well: it starts in the homes of the people we have failed. If your parents do drugs, your friends sell drugs, and your school doesn't really prepare you for much, what else are you going to do? This is why inner-city youths join gangs: the support system in place has failed them, so they have to start their own. They start their own society where they can, in fact, be successful. This is why I didn't particularly care for Slumdog: it gives the false impression that somehow we, the richest country in the world, can turn a blind eye and it will all turn out alright if you have enough determination. This idea is ludicrous. Determination and heart might help you, but we as the human race have to stop failing our neighbors and do something about it.
Things aren't the way they used to be. When someone says "oh, my grandfather didn't have a nickel to his name when he came here, and look what he did," it drives me nuts. He came here with the idea that he _could_ make something of himself, and that's an essential part of it. Media, society, parents, etc. tell kids that they are stuck where they are, and they sure can't do anything to get past it. Our society it too large, and too many people are swept under the rug because of it.
Success and failure are on two sides of a tightrope most people in our society walk every day. It's our job to help people fall on the right side.
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I hope you never find yourself in a situation where you need help from an agency or the government. But the issues that get people to that place aren't always as black and white as you seem to think they are. A majority of the people that go to food banks and soup kitchens and the like actually employed. They just can't make ends meet.
Look up the Hunger Study done by the Association of Second Harvest Food Banks online. I think the results will change your perceptions of the poor people you are currently looking down on.
Also, how is somebody beating me going to help them feed their families? I have never even heard of that happening, and I challenge you to find an instance when somebody robbed and beat somebody up for grocery money.
It is ideas such as yours that have sunk this country in the toilet. Such disdain for your neighbor and an inability to see people that aren't in your "class" as human and worthwhile.
It's sad. And I feel sorry for you.
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http://www.ohio.com/news/break_news/18934659.html
http://myhighplains.com/content/fulltext/?cid=40841
http://www.todaystmj4.com/news/local/27472589.html
...and this is just putting the words "beaten and robbed" in yahoo. You will notice that in all of these cases, no credit cards were stolen, no cars. Just money. And besides drugs, why else would a person with no job need money. Granted, not all of that money is spent on food, but I will bet you that alot of it is.
And please, don't misunderstand me. I don't look down on these people. Many of my family members and friends have had to at one time or another turn to the government for assistance. I think that YOU are the one who is looking down on them and you use this "Wanting to help" thing as a front. They didn't ask for your help in most cases. That is the point. It is condescending and I'll bet you if you ask someone at a soup kitchen they will agree. But they will still take the bread and food that you give them because they are hungry.
The problem is, it is too easy for someone in this country to give up and let the government step in and pay for the kids they keep popping out. And I am sure that the majority of the people who frequent food banks are actually homeless and I am not saying that these establishments should not be in place. But there are too many people who abuse the system and that makes it flawed.
You and people like you are taking away a persons natural instinct and drive to provide for themseleves and their families. I am sure that human beings as a race would not have survived if they woke up everyday saying "well it's cold out and their probably won't be anything out there for me to catch anyway so I am not going to hunt today." And then being told "It's ok, I understand. You are a product of your environment. Totally not your fault."
I am not saying that there should be no help for respectable people who have jobs and just can't make it. The problem is that society has looped everyone into one big group. And if you are put in that group, it is too easy for you to stay there and then justify it becuase "you don't know any better."
I hope that for your sake and your happiness, you grow up and take off those glasses that paint the world the way you want it to be painted. And by reading some of your other posts, I think it might be time that you stop whining and relying on God to fix your problems. God helps those who help themselves. You need to be on a path that takes you where you want to go instead of waiting for some miracle vision to show you your destiny. Then and only then can He be in your life for the right reasons. Not to be looked upon to give you absolution everytime you feel lost. Everyone at one time feels lost. But that is life. Life is not some trendy novel or the misgivings of a book cluber who escapes reality anytime they get the chance. Life is not a coffee house where you can sit for eternity discussing your interpretation of it. It needs to be lived.
And I don't know you from the next person (you matched some of the interests that I did), I just get irritated at hypocrites who say they don't judge and want to help when there is no such thing as not judging. If you don't believe me, consider this. Go downtown, invite a homeless person (not a drug addicted one) into your home. And try to go ONE WEEK without critisizing something they do or don't do, or say or think. And if you say you want to help, consider THIS. Everytime you get paid, take your paycheck, pay your bills, leave enough for food and gas and then donate the rest of it to a homeless person. You are young, you live for free. You don't need that extra money as bad as they do right? That would be helping. Obviously what we as a society are failing these people and it is getting worse so what you are trying to do isn't working. How about starting a program to MAKE people on welfare get jobs no matter what they are. That would be progress.
Anyway, that is all I had to say. I know that none of this will register with you because it is easier for you to hate me for telling the truth than it is for you to accept it and admitt you have been living in a way that does not serve you or Him.
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You're completely misunderstanding what she's saying.
You know what would be progress? Having a little understanding.
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"I hope that for your sake and your happiness, you grow up... etc."
First of all, I happen to know and be a friend of the person whom you attacked with, in the words of the Lord in the book of Job "words without wisdom."
Second of all, I am studying to be a priest, and I find what you said in this paragraph riddled with notions which are unbiblical and indeed heavily influenced by ancient heresies- primarily Pelagianism, which is the "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" theology, denying that we in fact need a Savior.
Hence, I will be critiquing some of your statements in this paragraph theologically:
" I think it might be time that you stop whining and relying on God to fix your problems." Ummm.... Have you read the many exhortations in Scripture to abide in the Lord, and not seek out our own understanding, or the fact that we are so deeply twisted by sin that we constantly need the Lord's guidance and correction. It is not a mark of childishness to rely on God to give direction for one's life and seek his help with problems and sins. Rather it is a mark of maturity. And I can say, knowing the person whom you have attacked in this post, that I have witnessed her grow tremendously over the years I have known here into a serious and thoughtful Christian. YOU are wrong, and severely lacking in Christian charity.
"God helps those who help themselves." NO! EMPHATICALLY NO! ANATHEMA! HERESY! Scripture does not say this anywhere- this is a common cliche derived from folk wisdom rather than the Scriptures. Not that we are to sit back and be passive, but you talk as if we are somehow able to do things completely right and do it all on our own if we just pull up our bootstraps, and that our neighbor should do likewise, and if they are struggling that is just the fact that they are not "helping themselves." This is not Christianity. The Gospel is not "God helps those who help themselves" but rather "Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at Hand." Blessed are the poor. Do you not know this? Do you not know that Jesus says that what we have done unto the least we have done unto Him? Have you not read the Scriptures, where God shows his indignation through the prophets at those in power who have perverted justice and oppress the poor, the widow and the orphan? Do you not know the stinging critiques which Jesus did in fact level at those who enslave their brothers through the practice of usury? Do you not know that it is written that there are powers and principalities of evil that are at work in the world? That we face more than just flesh and blood, but that Satan in all his pomp is alive and well at work in the world to destroy human beings created in God's image and likeness, and that any human system can be used by them for this purpose?
And what is this talk of "Then and only then can He be in your life for the right reasons."? What exactly are the right reasons? We can only come to Him if we have established what the right reasons are and have thus approached Him? Is it not written "For all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God?" And yet God works with sinful humans, calling them to repentance and new life by dying with Chirst in His death to sin once for all and waiting in joyful hope for our salvation through the power of His mighty and glorious Resurrection from the dead. Jesus did not wait for us to have the right reasons to approach Him. Rather, Christ our God condescended to come among us while we were yet sinners and die for us. And He taught, as have the holy Apostles, the venerable Fathers and all the Saints throughout the ages, that then we are called to love and care for our neighbors. To, out of love, call them to new life in Christ, provide for the material and spiritual needs of those who have less and when necessary to rebuke. Are you then to decide the right reasons? Can you really say what they are, let alone judge who operates with the right reasons, you who, like the rest of us, are so deeply and profoundly tainted by sin?
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- Cure for the Common Life: Living in Your Sweet Spot by Max Lucado.
I don't think I need to add anything to this accept to explain my comment "Then and only then can He be in your life for the right reasons." You can seek Him out and want His guidence and lean on Him but if you do not match this with changes within yourself, then you are not doing yourself or Him any justice. As said above, if you ask for His help and then just rely on Him to make your life better, then you are not asking for help. You are asking Him to live your life for you. Be accountable. By the way, no one is saying that I am the perfect Christian and live my life in a way that best serves Our Lord. But I do know that I hold myself responsible whenever I am in a slump and am doing nothing about it to change. He can only guide me and lead me so far. The immediate and most reliable way to start change is by CHANGING, not sitting around doing nothing. Then I can look to Him for my spiritual well being and follow where He leads me and wants me to be. But I and everyone else have to be responsible for their own choices. And if you don't agree, ask yourself the age old question "Why would God let their be homeless people and children starving and suffering?" God doesn't work like that for them and they are certainly more in need of help like that than you are. Why should He take over your life and give you things when you are unwilling to go out and get them. And that was the essence of the post. It wasn't about looking to Him and relying on Him for spiritual guidence. It was about working for the things you have and not relying on someone else (be it God or the government).
And if you want to pick apart my arguement, how about addressing the entire thing. Not just three parts that were the most vague and can be open to every type of interpretation under the sun. Attack the facts. And you attack me so readily without even knowing me or the nature of my being. Going off of my opinion on one issue. I am not sure that is something they teach Priests in seminary. I have not said anywhere that I thought that anyone was "Lacking in Christian charity" or incinuating that someone was a heritic. I guess that whole "understanding and virtue" lesson was not taught during your stay. How hypocritical of you to judge me and attack me for the way in which I state my opinion whenever you have essentially attacked me in the very same way and did it by hiding behind scripture! WOW! Please let me know in the future what flock you will be attending to so I can keep that in mind!!
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And I think I addressed everything you had to say pretty well. What I will not do is go back and forth quoting scripture with you because that would take up way too much time. You are the one who (in both of your "rebukes") has not addressed a stitch of the facts of my argument. But that is ok, like I said earlier, it is easier for you to attack the bits that are open to interpretation rather than attacking the facts.
And I don't think that a priests job is to "correct" someone on livejournal. First and formost I thought the duty of a priest was to minister religion. Where in the bible or in the Catholic Encyclopedia does it mention this "correction?" Especially since you are not my priest, I am not Catholic, and I did not come to you asking for my sins to be forgiven.
"According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, there are two sides to the priesthood: offering the sacrifice of the Mass and forgiving sins.[13]
Among the duties of a Catholic priest is the celebration of the Eucharist as a presider in persona Christi or as a concelebrant if required. The daily recitation of the principle and minor offices of the Liturgy of the Hours.[14] Catholic priests are the only ministers of the Sacrament of Penance and Anointing of the Sick. They are the only ones who can celebrate the Eucharist in the Catholic Church (not to be confused with distribution by deacons or by extraordinary ministers). They and deacons are ordinary ministers of Baptism and witnesses to marriage."
~Wikipedia
And I think that the biggest picture of all is being missed in this whole thing (with you anyway). Just because this poster is a "good person" (which could be, and probably is true but I don't know that) that doesn't mean my argument is invalid. And you should really stop using that as a means of countering it. It makes you sound ridiculous and desperate for another counter point. I at no point called this person a "bad person" so by you using that as a basis for your counters, you sound ridiculous. To be frank, you sound like you could use a bit of growing up yourself, especially if you are going to be a priest. And especially since you can obviously fall into and argument on the internet so easily. I thought that Ministers of religion were supposed to be above things like that. I don't see myself having the same conversation with Father Mark down at St. Johns.
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I hope for your sake you wake up, pick up your Bible and do some serious reflection guided by the Holy Spirit and listening in reverent obedience to the voice of the venerable and saintly Fathers, Martyrs and the Saints down through the ages, who have much more to teach us than we do them. For pity's sake, I plead you stop "darkening the Lord's counsel with words without wisdom" in the form of popular cliches and American socio-economic ideals that have nothing to do with the Gospel, but would sooner have their provenience from a fortune cookie.
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-BZ
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