I sent him an important link from yesterday:
His reply:
Rev Chris:
So many of us
justify our amazingly blessed lives while doing nothing for those who
suffer, don't we? This is something I speak to my kids often about.
Seems like no matter how much I talk, it just doesn't compute since they
have no concept. I'm not sure I had any concept until I sent a week in
Haiti. I came home, stood in my yard and wept openly on several
occasions since the shed where I store my lawn mower is a nicer
structure than the houses we were there to build. I mean, just think of
that. The place where I store my rake, shovel and various power tools is
nicer, bigger and better built than the homes that we were building for
people to live and raise their children in. That's hard to accept.
None
of us here likes to think about what our money could really do around
the world. We justify by saying things like "I've earned it" or "I can't
help what's going on there anyway". But I tell you, I have come to
believe that we are so richly blessed not just for our own sake but for
the sake of others. I believe we have been entrusted with multitudes of
blessings so that we can re-administer those blessings to others. It's
the least we can do for the least of these.
Keep being a voice in the wilderness. We all need it.
Loving:
Chris, you must know I'm going to say this. These
blessings? Chris, we, we are the rich that are not making it thru the
eye of the needle. We, we, we... with our tool sheds, we are sitting in
HELL, and even Abraham can't send someone to put a drop of water on our
tongues. We are damned by our hoarding, DAMNED AS THE WORST VIOLATORS
IN THE BIBLE. Don't you see that? We, YOU, are the rich young man. Who
do you think Jesus was talking about? How is that not you???? No, I
am NOT asking you to answer me - that's personal to you. This is 100%
clear to me. 100%. None of the excess, which is 98% of what YOU
possess, and 99.9999% of what I possessed most of my decades, IS YOURS,
WAS MINE. IT WAS GIVEN TO US TO PASS ON, IMMEDIATELY, COMPLETELY. And
by not doing so I DAMNED my 2 biological offspring to the same Hell. As
you train up the child they shall grow.
You may know, there are 7-8
billion of us on earth. And, that is beyond Earth's carrying capacity.
Right? This past week is when, this year, was the day in 2013 when
this year we had taken more resources than Earth will produce this year.
Get it? They restart the clock, and the calculations, next Jan 1....
So, we need to decrease the population, right? In Africa! In India...!
Wrong. We need to decrease the population in America. Huh? Earth can
sustain 10 BILLION PEOPLE living at the level of people in Africa,
India.... Know how many American style consumers it can sustain? 2 billion.
The Indians, Africans, South Americans, Haitians... are Lazarus. We
Americans? We build storage sheds 'for our surplus grain.' And Lazarus can't cross the chasm to put a drop of water on our parched tongues.
The "amazingly blessed lives" you
speak of, are the EXACT MEASURES OF OUR DAMNATION, AND THE DAMNATION WE
ARE VISITING ON OUR OFFSPRING. EXACT MEASURE. EXACT. THEY ARE THE EXACT
MEASURE HOW MUCH WE'VE STOLEN, AND STEAL, EVERY DAY, FROM OUR NEEDIEST
SISTERS AND BROTHERS, AND NOW, FROM THE NEXT 200 BILLION CHILDREN, THE
NEXT 1000 GENERATIONS.
IT ISN'T OURS. IT IS THEIRS. WE ARE THIEVES, RAPISTS, PLUNDERERS. FOR REAL.
Rev Chris:
I couldn't agree more. WELL said.
Loving:
(heart)
It makes me cry. It makes me weep.
