Friday, April 3, 2009

Loving thy neighbor vs. selfish greed

Want to share this morning something that shows how God can work to get a worthwhile message out to the world. In this case, individuals who might not otherwise come into contact with Jesus' call for loving others. Yesterday I read the columnists in The New York Times (yes I a Republican do this). Find these thinkers quite stimulating and not to be missed. Nicholas Kristof had a piece I felt led to comment on, "At Stake are More than Banks" about the G20 conference being held in London. Well, would you believe out of the many comments people around the world made, the Editors of the Times chose 8 and mine was among them! I print it below, FYI for my readers.

Dear Nicholas:
I feel you're almost a friend since I have commented on your excellent columns several times. The Times has the most wonderful writers, and I put you at the head of my must-reads. About your latest: I realize not all your readers are Christian, much less religiously inclined, but what I want to say in response to your compassionate concern for humanity's suffering is this: we who reverence the Name, who are trying to follow what Jesus says to do, can't allow the shame of feeling indifferent to our fellowman. You are helping mightily to correct this situation, and I thank you. I don't know if your readers recall a wonderful film with Jimmy Stewart, "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" but it has a lot to say to me about these times. After being on his feet for countless hours trying to defeat an inhuman bill, Stewart turns to Claude Raines, a greedy, crooked politician and says, in effect, "Whatever happened to Love thy neighbor?" and collapses. A stricken look passes over Raines' face and he goes out and shoots himself. But the key point to me is we have got to put caring for others before selfish greed.

Sharon Slaton Howell
Farragut, TN


(Note to my readers: no comment expected on this, merely FYI.)