Maybe It's Time to Listen

For a while now we've been hearing reports about how the quality of education has dropped in the United States compared to the rest of the world. I heard someone claim the other day that we are the richest third world country. Then this morning I came across this clip...



It seems our life expectancy in this country is dropping. It cuts across all socio-economic lines. Yes the drop appears to be steeper with the poor, but it effects us all. The same, I would venture to guess, is true with the drop in education. Where else is this happening?

I don't share this to suggest that it's time to panic, rather to suggest that maybe it's time to listen. It's time to listen and recognize the poor around us. How long have we, as a nation, focused the rich and the wealthy? How long have we heard reports of a shrinking middle class and a growing disparity between the rich and the poor? We have, more often than not, held this up as perhaps a good thing. Then we allow the rich to run the country, both through laws of market and through politics (how many billions of dollars have already been spent on the upcoming presidential election?). We have assumed for some time now that it is good to let the rich rule because the reason they have become rich is because of their intelligence and talents, or they've acquired them because they have the means.

Now, it seems we are beginning to pay the price for ignoring the poor. Funny, how ignoring a problem doesn't just make it go away. It's about time we begin investing in the poor. We need to work on better educating ALL students. We need to work on providing affordable health care for ALL people.... Doesn't this sound like something Jesus once asked us to do?

Also, completely unrelated, check this post out from a partner in ministry. It includes a clip related to the emergent church, but there things that sounded awful Lutheran to me. I heard a claim to the priesthood of all believers. What do you hear?