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Monday, December 08, 2008

The rich get rich and the poor get poorer ...

.... unless we do something about it.

I saw a news story today that said that the brains of poor children are so different from those of rich children, it's on a par with them having suffered a stroke - Brain tests show child wealth gap

I think about poverty a lot, or I should say I worry about becoming poor a lot, yet though I exist at about the poverty line (In the US the poverty threshold for a single person under 65 was $10,787), I know I'm ignorant of the brutal realities of true poverty. I saw a post at the Episcopal Cafe about world poverty and what we can do about it .....

The ONE Campaign, which is focused on combating global poverty, is organizing ONE Sabbath, which, together with "companion programs ONE Seva and ONE Sadaqa will rally believers of all faiths, Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus and others, to learn and take action on behalf of people living in extreme poverty and dying from preventable diseases." More information can be found here.

There's a video that goes with the post which has comments from a number of different people (of different faiths) about poverty and religion. It's worth a watch, but I should warn you, it begins with comments by Rick Warren, who I dissed just a few posts ago (ok, I may have somewhat misjudged him :) Don't let that deter you from watching, as there are also comments from people as diverse as Tony Campolo and a rep for Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good.

The video seems to focus on poverty in Africa, but of course there are poor people in almost every society. I don't know if the ONE campaign is the best way to involve people in working against poverty, but at least it raises the subject. If poverty can actually change the structure of a person's brain, our attitude of people needing to pull themselves up with their own bootstraps is not only uncompassionate, it's unfair. The poor will always be among us, will just get poorer, unless we do something about it. And I need to heed that exhortation as much or more than anyone else.




2 Comments:

Blogger victor said...

So what do you say Lord Jesus?

Can you send us ONE SPIRITUAL ANGEL who can supervise an index project which will eventually make every ONE equal as far as wage salary is concerned which would help correct many of our problems, well at least as far as finantial equality is concerned, until YOU do come in Glory and really take over.

Heavenly Father please don't wait until The Judgement Day before YOU send YOUR ANGELS cause it would then be too late for many of our human body cells. All we need now is only ONE of YOUR ANGEL who could teach us our true potential when it comes to sharing. Without YOUR Help ABBA we're doomed before we even get started.

We ask this in The Name of Your Only Begotten Son, Our Lord and Savior Jesus The Christ who lives with YOU and The Holy Spirit, One God Forever and ever, Amen.

Crystal, Don’t you agree with me that nothing ventured, nothing gained!

God Bless,

Peace.

4:55 PM  
Blogger crystal said...

I like your prayer, Victor :)

6:08 PM  

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