2008-08-25

My Brother's Keeper?

Obama has been spending plenty of time finger-pointing and telling Americans that we're not living up to the Bible's social ethic - that we just pull it out when it's convenient, then tuck it away. His stab at Saddleback Church showed how out-of-touch he is with most people whose behavior reflects a high degree of Christian devotion.

But little shows his own grasp of the faith "with its boots on" than his rhetoric being held up to his own action. For instance, he chides America for its wealth, though he is raking in MILLIONS each year in book sales. I don't begrudge him his cash, but I'd appreciate if he would practice giving away more than 1% of it before he asks me to give him another 10-15% of my income.

Secondly, if you want to talk about personal ethics, just consider the case of George Obama. What... haven't heard of him yet? Just hearing more and more about McCain having seven or eight houses (even though several of them are investment properties owned / managed by his wife's estate)?

George is Obama's little brother. He lives on $1 / mo, eking out an existence in a violent urban ghetto outside of Nairobi, Kenya. Now when I was a little kid, we sent $18/mo to a child in Haiti and $22 /mo to a child in Niger. That money came from the meager support my father paid...but we felt we had plenty compared to the rest of the world. It provided food, clothing, medicine, and education so that the children could pull themselves (and hopefully their family) out of crushing poverty. I don't know what happened to them because we lost touch after middle school. But I do know that for a while, our meager American funds were able to make them rich.

Nairobi is one of the least expensive cities on earth. It would cost very little for Obama to send cash to his half brother - who has ambitions of higher education - and it would dramatically improve George's life. So why aren't we hearing about this as an example of Christian virtue?

1 Timothy 5:8 might have something to do with that.

Before Obama opens his mouth again about McCain's money (which is mostly his heiress wife's) or American avariciousness, he needs to look to another one of those conveniently ignored passages from the Sermon on the Mount.

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