Catching Up

I haven’t posted much lately, in fact it’s been about a month and a half since I’ve posted on Kaleidoscope; it isn’t that I haven’t been pondering and thinking, it’s more of an issue of what exactly do I want to write about and is what I want to write about something that I should write about. How’s that for confusing?

I’ve been trying to write about leadership on my apartment industry blog; that has been difficult. How do you write about leadership in a society in which virtually anything and everything goes? From the top of society to the bottom everyone has an excuse or a rationalization for things that are wrong – wrong in the sight of God and things that used to be wrong in the sight of man – even the people who used to do wrong things generally knew they were doing wrong, not so anymore. Now it’s just a question of what we can get away with.

Vickie and I occasionally watch a television show called Mystery Diners. Restaurant owners with problems call in a company that places cameras throughout the business, they also send in mystery shoppers and mystery employees; almost without exception when people are caught stealing and lying and treating others unethically they not only have excuses, they blame the owners for their behavior. Rarely does anyone say, “I was wrong. I am sorry. Please forgive me.” This is a picture of the way we live, it is not the exception but rather the rule. We live in a world of spin and excuse and amorality – we are no longer immoral, we are just plain amoral.

A few weeks ago I read that Congress had agreed to cut the Food Stamp Program. I think everyone who voted to cut food stamps should be made to go hungry for a month and to watch people he or she loves go hungry. Why is it that only people at the lower rung of the economic ladder get accused of abusing the system? It’s because they don’t vote and don’t have economic power. We don’t hear consistent complaints about businesses abusing the system, about the wealthy abusing the system, about what’s left of the middle class abusing the system – it’s the folks at the lower end of society who are accused of abusing the system – well they are hardly the ones that we all bailed out a few years ago, they are hardly the ones who didn’t have to pay for their robber-baron actions, they are not the ones who got a “Get out of Jail free” card.

I see those on the lower end of life every week in the housing industry and most of them are hard-working people trying to do the best they can, I don’t see BMWs or Lexuses or Cadillacs in the parking lots, in fact lots of the residents take the bus to work.

And then someone got the bright idea to suggest that everyone on welfare (whatever that is) ought to be made to take a drug test. Duh. Well then let’s all take drug tests. Since everyone in this country receives some type of government service or benefit let’s not be partial in our approach to worthiness. Why is it that the defenseless are the ones generally picked on? Is it because we think we can do so with impunity? I don’t get it when professing Christians kick those who are down – it’s as if they’ve never read what the Bible teaches about how we are to treat the poor and needy and widow and orphan (and there are many functional orphans in America), nor what the Bible teaches about treating all with equity and without partiality.

I’ll tell you this, when we stand before Christ to be judged for our words and deeds it isn’t likely He’ll ask, “Why didn’t you spend more on space exploration, or on corporate bailouts, or on another missile?”; but it just could be that He’ll ask, “Why didn’t you feed the poor and shelter the homeless?”

How can professing Christians not think that the sanctity of life extends to hunger and shelter and health care? When we worship the dollar we make excuses for everything, when life is reduced to economic terms we sell our birthright as Christians.

Well, I see that this post is getting lengthy and I should bring it to a close – I guess I’m making up for a few weeks of silence.