A little less and a little more all at the same time...

Remember my inner conflict? Well, in some ways it's dwindled and in some ways it's become stronger. I am relatively unsurprised that many of Oprah's critics have begun to talk. Most have gone with the 'why didn't she do this in US?' Honestly, I can't blame her for going overseas with this whole idea. For two reasons:

1. Less red tape after the school is open. My hunch is that the South African government would be more hands-off than any type of governing body in the States would be. I'm not saying that's a good thing (or a bad thing), it's just likely the case.

2. Frankly, why should we should we in the US have to rely on people like Oprah's benevolence. It speaks to a fundamental issue, at least it does for me. That is, how did the most wealthy and resourced nation in the history of the world become so crummy at taking care of its own? Any educator can tell you (in great detail I might add) the many holes we have in the ways we fund our schools. In fact, the Ohio supreme court has declared our system unconstitutional and our best solution in recent years has been legalized gambling and the lottery. Great...

So, needless to say for any number of reasons, our government needs some help on this one.

My question, is there any reason that our churches haven't stepped up in overseas efforts to educate people. It seems that we 'educate' people about Jesus (and rightly so) but our efforts in helping people become citizens of the world are falling short. It seems that efforts to educate people about the needs of the 'least of these' worldwide should be higher up on the list than it is.

Don't we have some sort of calling to do something preventative? Isn't that what the teachings of the Bible are? Aren't they on some level efforts to prevent us from going down paths that aren't God-glorifying or efforts to keep us safe in one way or another? Couldn't we look at funding things like abstinence education in Africa, OR putting our massive amount of dollars together to do what Oprah did with no other agenda other than to make people better citizens of the world and to understand how to be someone's NEIGHBOR?

I have an idea why...because we can't agree on how we tell people about Jesus when they get to where they're listening. Some folks think you do it one way or maybe with a tract or even with a megaphone. I happen to remember that there were times when Jesus did things for people and didn't want them to tell who had done it. Education, in this sense, doesn't need a big 'Jesus' sticker plastered on it. People just need educated about some very important things.

Our ability to be unified (or lack of unity) is the single biggest challenge facing the church. We focus more on being right than being Jesus...and being Jesus is inherently right...