“For I was hungry and ye fed me not.” – MLK
Watching the results of the hurricane that hit the city of Houston made me realize something. All these people who are saying keep the city in your prayers; I wonder how many of them are giving aid. And it does not necessarily have to be in the form of money. I wonder how many of those people are actively engaging in trying to make the situation better. Are they going house to house making sure people are fine? Are they reaching out to see if they could perform some civic duty to make the lives of people in Houston better? Are they putting together some type of initiative to aid in the safety of people in need? Whatever it is they should be doing should be exemplified, yet it’s not as much as it should be.
There was recent backlash at the famous pastor Joel Olsteen who runs a mega church where 16,000 people come on Sundays to hear him speak. He has a church that could hold masses, which could serve as a place of refuge. But he instead stated that he would help if there were more people who couldn’t get the help because helped had reached its capacity at its current levels. People felt that a man of his stature should disregard the aid people were receiving and still open up his doors. Since the backlash, he has made a turn around, yet people still think that he should have done this initially. Why did it take backlash toward a man who is suppose to be a man of God to answer? Let’s say no one made a statement, would he have acted or just left everything alone.
In moments like this, you really find out what the human species is all about. People themselves have been helping each other, yet the ones of the religious faith who are respected the most have been praying. If religion is real and the faith is real, there should an out pour of assistance of church leaders nationwide. And I think that as time continues to trek along, you are going to start to see a decline in religion. Because people are having this feeling that we have to help each other. So religion begins to take a back seat with so many people helping one another. It’s just sad that people don’t aid each other on daily basis. But as for the church, time passes and with that time comes a disinterest in the belief as a whole. Because when stakes are high and chips are down, these religious figures run away the fastest.
In the end, I don’t know what the real answer should be. But you see the real nature of man the moment disasters happen. This is actually the upside to us as people. No matter the ethnic background, our human existence becomes paramount when trying to survive. And that will always be the status quo, yet I do believe the religious figures are becoming less and less important.
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Great read! I do think that many people pray, or say they will pray, for lack of any other way to contribute. They may not have the means to assist others – the money to donate, a means of transportation to go help, the knowledge base to put together some type of initiative or may not even be aware of what civic duties they could do to help. They may feel that the only thing they CAN do is pray. They may also be going through turmoil in their own lives that they are barely making it through, which could in return make it seemingly impossible to assist.
Now for Joel Olsteen and others who make tons of money and have the means to help, of course, that’s a different story. We are not in their shoes nor do most of us have his resources, so we will never truly know their reasoning or motive behind their choices. BUT, I don’t think we should rule out religious figures as less important for these types of events. I’m positive there are other religious figures, who may not be as popular as Joel Olsteen but still running megachurches or smaller churches, who have contributed and/or offered services during this and other times of need. At the end of the day, it really comes down to what someone values more. One could value disaster and humanitarian relief the most while the other could value Health and education for their people the most. Whatever they value more is where they would invest more time, energy and resources. We can’t fault someone for not doing what WE want them to do with THEIR money.
Great read! Loving reading your posts!
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Thanks for the feedback. I was also talking too about the human nature aspects of us as people. How self-preservation does tend to kick in and you see who is really about what they say they’re about. Like with the protesters, there are a lot of preachers fighting back against the Nationalists. They are willing to put themselves in the line fire for their beliefs. So yes I agree we have many, but the fact that we don’t have all says a lot. By definition all should, but human nature overrides so much, and dictates so much of how we respond to events.
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