Describing poverty is nowhere near the same thing as understanding. Omegaman you demonstrate an issue that you just don't understand. It really should not be a surprise in the slightest that some have reacted the way they have. It is easy to see that plenty of people are condeming poor people. Especially within the church. So if you didn't realise people would assume your motives are what we see all the time then there is a disconnect somewhere. Your comment that the money is "stolen" from people demonstrates greed if one is honest. It shows resentment. On the whole a lack of compassion.
Being critical of people for owning a colour TV shows a disconnect from reality. They are not expensive. As a one of purchase over time it can provide a cheap source of entertainment. Perhaps things are different in the US but here it is basically impossible to buy a black & white. They are not that expensive.
A car well i know without a car I would not have gotten the job I did and without that job I would not have got the wonderful job I have now. Same with mobile phones. You simply must have a mobile phone when it comes to job hunting these days. In this age where people expect instant responses if you do not answer that call then often they will just call the next person on the list because for any job there are several people suitable.
Also just because things have fallen in place for others don't assume it works that way for everyone. I worked in a place where using a performance based pay review system I got the highest pay rise of anyone in the four departments my manager was responsible for three years in a row. That was around 30 people. Yet i could not get a promotion because apparently I could not apply myself. I made sacrifices by being the one to stay back when something came up and someone had to stay back. How did they decide I could not apply myself? I didn't have a uni degree. You could have had a arts degree in ancient history and that would have been good enough for this financial company. In other words the degree did not need to be related to the work.
Likewise I find the get a education comment interesting. My mum never did well in studies. Some of her siblings did very well. Yet not one single one of them can defeat her in a debate with logic.
People also look at information without realising the whole picture. People are fond of quoting how many times peoples payments were cut off in one year. What they don't realise is why payments can be cut off. One person was cut off because she supposedly did not turn up to job hunting. Never mind that we all saw her there. Never mind that she had signed in. Never mind that she had used her unique log in code on the computers. The employment consultant who sat at the opposite end of the office and never came near the room. The employment consultant said "Well I didn't see you". The payments were started again but what it did mean is that because she lost the payments for a few days even though not justified she was unable to access money on financial hardship grounds from her own savings. I had my payment cut because while on the way to job hunting I got a phone call asking me to attend a job interview that day. So I went home to get changed into my job interview clothes. I called the employment agency to let them know. They reported that I failed to attend an appointment because I did not email them. Well I didn't have internet access at home so couldn't plus I had to rush to get to the train if I was going to make the job interview. So while people are quoting figures that are correct they do not tell the whole story.
Brings me to another point about one of your responses saying nobody disputed the truth. Well lets look at what Jesus did in a situation. The woman caught in adultery. Jesus was told the law said she should be stoned to death. That was 100% correct so did Jesus say Yep go ahead and stone her? No he didn't despite that being correct. Instead he demonstrated compassion and then told the woman after others had left to go and sin no more. Just because you have something right does not mean it is the right thing to do. Be a Mary instead of a Martha and choose what is better.
It is also interesting that you say not mentioning compassion means nothing because words are cheap yet you have taken the time to write all this. Surely you could have put a couple of lines in there. I
Are you a poor American?
in Omegaman's Thought and Rants
A blog by Omegaman 3.0 in Christian Blogs
Posted
Describing poverty is nowhere near the same thing as understanding. Omegaman you demonstrate an issue that you just don't understand. It really should not be a surprise in the slightest that some have reacted the way they have. It is easy to see that plenty of people are condeming poor people. Especially within the church. So if you didn't realise people would assume your motives are what we see all the time then there is a disconnect somewhere. Your comment that the money is "stolen" from people demonstrates greed if one is honest. It shows resentment. On the whole a lack of compassion.
Being critical of people for owning a colour TV shows a disconnect from reality. They are not expensive. As a one of purchase over time it can provide a cheap source of entertainment. Perhaps things are different in the US but here it is basically impossible to buy a black & white. They are not that expensive.
A car well i know without a car I would not have gotten the job I did and without that job I would not have got the wonderful job I have now. Same with mobile phones. You simply must have a mobile phone when it comes to job hunting these days. In this age where people expect instant responses if you do not answer that call then often they will just call the next person on the list because for any job there are several people suitable.
Also just because things have fallen in place for others don't assume it works that way for everyone. I worked in a place where using a performance based pay review system I got the highest pay rise of anyone in the four departments my manager was responsible for three years in a row. That was around 30 people. Yet i could not get a promotion because apparently I could not apply myself. I made sacrifices by being the one to stay back when something came up and someone had to stay back. How did they decide I could not apply myself? I didn't have a uni degree. You could have had a arts degree in ancient history and that would have been good enough for this financial company. In other words the degree did not need to be related to the work.
Likewise I find the get a education comment interesting. My mum never did well in studies. Some of her siblings did very well. Yet not one single one of them can defeat her in a debate with logic.
People also look at information without realising the whole picture. People are fond of quoting how many times peoples payments were cut off in one year. What they don't realise is why payments can be cut off. One person was cut off because she supposedly did not turn up to job hunting. Never mind that we all saw her there. Never mind that she had signed in. Never mind that she had used her unique log in code on the computers. The employment consultant who sat at the opposite end of the office and never came near the room. The employment consultant said "Well I didn't see you". The payments were started again but what it did mean is that because she lost the payments for a few days even though not justified she was unable to access money on financial hardship grounds from her own savings. I had my payment cut because while on the way to job hunting I got a phone call asking me to attend a job interview that day. So I went home to get changed into my job interview clothes. I called the employment agency to let them know. They reported that I failed to attend an appointment because I did not email them. Well I didn't have internet access at home so couldn't plus I had to rush to get to the train if I was going to make the job interview. So while people are quoting figures that are correct they do not tell the whole story.
Brings me to another point about one of your responses saying nobody disputed the truth. Well lets look at what Jesus did in a situation. The woman caught in adultery. Jesus was told the law said she should be stoned to death. That was 100% correct so did Jesus say Yep go ahead and stone her? No he didn't despite that being correct. Instead he demonstrated compassion and then told the woman after others had left to go and sin no more. Just because you have something right does not mean it is the right thing to do. Be a Mary instead of a Martha and choose what is better.
It is also interesting that you say not mentioning compassion means nothing because words are cheap yet you have taken the time to write all this. Surely you could have put a couple of lines in there. I