Sunday, after church, our group went to New Orleans for the afternoon. One thing that really struck me there was the extent of the poverty there, and the accepted, almost institutional nature of it. When we got off the highway to go to the French Quarter, there was literally a village of tents underneath the freeway. Among the pillars supporting the eight lanes of highway were an overwhelming number of tents crammed together. It was such a strange picture of the prosperity that New Orleans experiences (you don't have eight lanes of highway for nothing) blended with the abject poverty that is simultaneously ignored and accepted. As we drove toward the French Quarter, we saw some of the nicest hotels and malls that I have ever seen, and it killed me that people live and 'thrive' in that environment without even glancing at the homelessness and hunger that surrounds them. It reminds me of the sign that we keep in our house, in a strange way.
We have this road sign that we encourage visitors to The Estate to sign. At first, I was proud of the sign, and as I came out of my room I would look at it, inspect the names, and when new guests came, encourage them to sign immediately. But, as the semester went on and new faces were less frequent, the sign just blended into the house. It's definitely a part of the house, and when people come over for the first time they invariably ask about it, but it's not something that I, as a resident, notice anymore. My guess is that the same thing happened in New Orleans. I heard a little kid (maybe with a family of other tourists, but also maybe one who lives there) ask his parents why a man was sleeping on the sidewalk, and the mother hurried him along. You can see signs of poverty and need everywhere. But. It's almost like that poverty has become part of the city that is no longer noticed by those who live there. Newcomers notice it, but don't have the permanence or means to do anything about it. It is a terrible, ignored, and accepted reality.
Contrasting this, I saw the nicest church I've ever seen (and got to go in). It is the Catholic church that is in the French Quarter, standing at the far end of a park, facing the water. It truly is a beautiful building. I went inside, took some pictures, asked about its history from one of the many tour guides there, and admired its stain glass windows and ceiling murals. But what I couldn't understand was why I neither heard nor saw any evidence of that church's work at restoration. I saw nothing about involvement in the community, efforts toward rebuilding after Katrina, or even an alms box for the poor. Now, it may be that I missed those things, but it seems to me that it a trend of the church in America to avoid its call to participate in bringing people back to God. In serving and loving. In redemption. We experience such wealth, such prosperity. And yet,
we are so attached to what we have deemed 'security' (our bank account and possessions), so lacking in trust that God will provide, and so concerned with other's view of us that we kill ourselves working at jobs that we hate so that we can buy things that no one needs (an enormous house, mountains of clothes, wide-screen plasma televisions, $75,000 cars) for our enjoyment and self-glorification. Why do we ignore the greatest commandments of Christ: love the Lord your God with all you heart, and love your neighbor as yourself? How is love manifested in 'keeping up with the Joneses'? How is our pursuit of our own comfort, our own advancement in social status, loving the Lord?I'm not advocating that we don't at all enjoy the blessings that Christ gives us. There is a very real sense in which love toward others can mean simply opening your home to others and allowing them to share in the blessings that you are given. But I think that Christians, individually, and the church, as a whole, need to take a long, serious look at how and to what extent others are loved (they'll know we are Christians by our love), blessed (in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed), and ultimately brought closer to Christ to participate in the glorification of God (What is the chief end of man?) because of their existence. What other purpose does the church exist for?
Obviously this has not touched at all on Mississippi. Maybe I'll get around to it next time.
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