I'm currently reading Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality by Donald Miller and I'm really enjoying it. Not because I agree with everything he says, but because of his willingness to be honest about himself. Here's the conclusion he came to about himself after thinking about a protest he attended to voice his concern about a couple of President Bush's policies:"I think every conscious person, every person who is awake to the functioning principles within his reality, has a moment where he stops blaming the problems in the world on group think, on humanity and authority, and starts to face himself. I hate this more than anything. This is the hardest principle within Christian spirituality for me to deal with. The problem is not out there; the problem is the needy beast of a thing that lives in my chest.
"The thing I realized on the day we protested, on the day I had beers with Tony, was that it did me no good to protest America's responsibility in global poverty when I wasn't even giving money to my church, which has a terrific homeless ministry."
I disagree with Miller on a couple of points within this short blurb. I don't think every conscious person reaches a point where he stops blaming the problems in the world on group think or humanity or authority and faces himself. My experience tells me that this is not true. But perhaps his "every person who is awake to the functioning principles" clause is a qualifier, and if so, I accept it as such.
But I certainly disagree with Miller regarding his apparent belief that America's government has a responsibility to help solve global poverty. Government's role in solving poverty regarding it's own people ought to be quite limited and it ought to be close to nonexistent regarding people of other nations, but all of us as individuals have a responsibility to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, and to give drink to the thirsty. It's not up to the government. It's up to me and it's up to you. And that's where I agree with Miller.
Saying we want to end poverty (which I don't even think is possible) is too easy when we expect the government to do it. Reaching into our own pockets and taking time out of our own schedules to do something about poverty is much more difficult. But to be honest, I don't really care if people like Miller hold opposing views about the responsibility of government regarding this, or any other issue, if people on all sides of such important debates will indeed stop to examine "the needy beast of a thing" that lives in all of our chests because when we see our self-absorption for what it truly is, it's hard not to get involved.
