There was a time when I worked with the very poor. Those were the most poignant, most difficult, and most satisfying times of my life thus far, and when something like the earthquake in Haiti happens, it makes me wish I weren't sitting in my living room feeling helpless. Or worse, feeling disconnected from a tragedy that is so far away it doesn't seem real.
Just as an aside, last night I heard what Pat Robertson said about the tragedy in Haiti. Attitudes like this are what created the very first fissures in my Christian faith. There is a certain kind of Christian, the kind I worked with in the third world, the kind who was probably the first to arrive in Haiti to help, that represents the best of humanity to me. It's too bad that what "Christian" means to most of the world is represented by people like Pat Robertson. I hated being identified with that.
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I'm just now catching up with the news on Haiti. I must have been sleepwalking or something, because I missed it when the story broke. I can't believe Pat Robertson said that. The word "Christian" ought to be synonymous with living out the values of Jesus, such as compassion, not with outlandish accusations. It's sad (and I imagine very embarrassing to the people who call themselves Christian) that someone like that calls himself the voice of the Christian faith.
My heart goes out to all the people of Haiti. No one deserves a tragedy like that.
I'm not a Christian but I am glad that so many Christians are speaking up and showing their disapproval of Pat Robertson's message.
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