Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Around Town / Phillips The Salvation Army Should Be Ashamed of Itself
Posted by Betsy Phillips on Tue, Dec 15, 2009 at 9:50 AM
Hey, Salvation Army, remember Jesus? The kid who was born in a barn and then sneaked into
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Egypt with his parents in order to hide him from the shitty political situation in his own country? Jesus, the kid with the shady immigration history whose birthday it is we celebrate next week? The guy who said it would be better to throw yourself into the ocean than to cause a child to lose faith?
You remember what he said in Matthew 25:25-40?
"'For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.' "Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?' "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'"Because I think you may need a little refresher course. Jesus pretty clearly doesn't like it when you dick over kids. When you dick over kids, it's the same as dicking over Jesus. Not my standard, that's His. And yet, I see in The Tennessean a huge story about how kids of people who can't prove their immigration status are turned away by your organization and can't get presents. Oh, I know. Rules are rules. Surely, Jesus would understand that it's better that some kids get no toys than it is for a few kids to get too many. I'm sure that's what happened during the miracle of the loaves and fishes--the disciples just didn't give food to the most vulnerable, desperate kids, in order to ensure that the kids of con artists wouldn't get too much. Oh, wait, that's not what happened at all. They had five loaves and two fish and yet somehow that was enough to feed the multitude. Even the jackasses, and you know every crowd has them. My dad talks about this miracle sometimes. We disagree about it. I like to think that it's a supernatural story, like the basket containing the loaves and fishes just magically never emptied. My dad claims that that's no miracle at all--to have the Son of God just keep the basket full; a mere parlor trick for a deity. His contention is that what really happened is that, in spite of human nature, in spite of our wanting to draw arbitrary distinctions between us, in spite of some people taking more than they need, in spite of some people not being able to open themselves up to goodness, people shared what they had and everybody ate. I used to think that this wasn't much of a miracle. But then I see ostensibly Christian organizations like you holding out on little kids who have no other hope for presents at Christmas and I think my dad is right. It does take an act of God to get people to act decently toward each other. And that's a miracle that's not going to come in time for the kids you're dicking over because you have rules. Disgusting. Do the people who put money in your pots know that it's going towards ruining Christmas for some kids in our community?
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