Compassion's Money

What if the U.S. chose to spend the money we spend at war to rebuild war torn nations? What if we risked our own national security in order to actually serve the needs of the desperately poor around the world? Imagine using that money and our highly educated human resources to improve the lives of people suffering from AIDS in Africa or suffering from genocide and oppression in Israel/Palestine. President Bush had an opportunity five years ago to stand as a world leader who understood empathy and compassion, rather than retaliation and destruction. He could have called 9/11 a global tragedy, carried out by a few Saudi terrorists fueled by a radical interpretation of Islam and by the injustice perpetrated by American imperial dominance of the global financial market. American consumerism, entitlement, and faithlessness to the God of the Bible ignites that religious fuel. The God of the bible is clearly a God who defends the poor, the widow, the orphan, the foreigner, the refugee, the woman, the child, the castoffs, the cutoffs, the left outs, the persecuted and oppressed. God is a God of justice which is guidedn by compassion.

And yet, we cause daily, hourly, weekly, annual struggle. And we are numb to it. We are isolated from it. But look at your clothing. Where was it made? Who made it? How much were they paid to make your clothes? How much did you pay for them? Who benefited the most from the money yuo spent on your clothes? Was it the Chinese woman who stitched your shirt together or the businessman who sold them to JC Penneys? You thoughtless generation. No wonder we are at war and you are not changing your habits. In ten years, you will have spent a lot of money paying for a war effort you did not necessarily believe in. But since you are satisfied with your place in the global food chain, you don't see a reason to change. You don't know how to change it. What of the American Spirit that dsought independence from tyranny, not for freedom's sake alone, but in order to make a more just society where more people had opportunity to live good lives. Where is our boldness? Compassion is a bold political move because compassion requirs that you are not nub to the pain of others. It requirs that you embrace the pain of the other in an effort to accompany them, console them, offer them a communnity of hope. And our neighbors are dying from hunger. Nobody should live on less than $2.00 a day.
What are you going to do about it today?