Infograph - American (non)Religious

​Not sure if you all have seen this little infograph, but I love GOOD and you might too. 

Re-post: "What If the Kids Don't Want Our Church?"

Derek Penwell wrote a fine piece for the Huffington Post which I encourage you to take a moment to read.*

​If you are not interested in reading the whole thing: Here is an abridged version of quotes:

During this moment of reflection, my friend had an epiphany: What if his kids don't want all the stuff he's worked so hard to acquire?​

But what happens when a generation comes along that doesn't care about the game you've spent so much time buying equipment for, has little invested in the durable nature of the stuff you value? What happens when your kids say, "Don't give me all that stuff. I'll just have a yard sale, and call Goodwill to haul away what's left over"?​​

In fact, in many ways, these generations increasingly think the church has been running toward the wrong finish line for years --concerned as it seems to have been not with figuring out how more faithfully to live like the Jesus of the Gospels, but in acquiring bigger and better stuff to hand down to a generation that doesn't particularly want to inherit it.

I love the church but I agree. I am leaning toward the day when we can have a garage sale. But that day is a bit down the road. 

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*Thank you to Rev. Ramon Smith who shared this article with me. ​

"The poor will always be with you?" Is Jesus a hypocrite?

There is a story in the gospel of John in which Jesus tells the disciples that they will always have the poor but they will not have Jesus for much longer. 

Is Jesus saying that no matter what we do, there will always be poverty? All our efforts to eradicate poverty and bring about the Kingdom of God, all our efforts to create a living wage, all our efforts to create stability in the world are just in vain? Is it true that we will always have the poor? If so, then why try to eradicate it at all?​

I would like to suggest that always having the poor is not a problem but a symptom to a greater problem. All our efforts to treat the symptom of poverty will be in vain if we are not willing or able to address the sickness of our need to scapegoat people.

When culture is looking for someone to blame for the problems in the world, it is generally the people on the margins who become our social scapegoats. For instance, when the banking crisis came, there was a lot of clamoring for the "stupid decisions" of people who "bought more house than they could afford." Never mind the bank that approved the load, no, it is the fool who ​bought the house. So while millions of people's homes are foreclosed on, not one banker is in jail. 

When we have problems (tension) we need a scapegoat and who better to blame and scapegoat than the poor? ​

We will always have the poor with us as long as we need scapegoats. ​

We break the addiction we have to blaming others; treat our need to have people who are "disposable"; address our human bent toward keeping systems that ensure we will have a pool of ready-made scapegoats. We address the real problem and the poor will no longer be among us.