CROP Hunger Walk

Column: Help the hungry with community

FAITH MATTERS
NATHAN DAY WILSON

Let me tell you a story about a man. I’ll call him Thomas, only since that is his name.

Thomas was a child of the Great Depression. He recalls what his father did after the Depression to help keep his family nourished, including spending many long hours in lines for construction jobs and planting a garden with tomatoes, corn and potatoes.

Thomas graduated from high school and received a scholarship to an Indiana college. He earned a degree in marketing. Only a few years into his first job, his father unexpectedly died and his mother grew ill. Thomas returned home to help care for her.

With no marketing jobs available, Thomas began working in construction. It was difficult to balance construction with caring for his mother, so Thomas sought a different job. He worked for a company cleaning offices and homes.

Even after many years of in this line of work, it was necessary for Thomas to utilize our area food pantries, including the Matthew 25:35 Community Food Pantry and The Salvation Army. Thomas depends on our food pantries and other support to have enough food to survive.

Unfortunately, his story is not rare; some 2.7 million seniors in the United States depend on food panties for food security.At the other end of the age spectrum are the 13 million children under the age of 18, 3 million of them young children, who depend on food pantries to survive.

For that reason, dozens of Shelby County residents will lace up shoes and slip on sweatshirts this Sunday to participate in the Shelby County CROP (“Communities Responding to Overcome Poverty”) Hunger Walk. Registration for the walk begins at 1:30 p.m. at Intelliplex Park.

Those participating will join approximately 2 million people will take part in a CROP Hunger Walk this fall. Collectively the efforts are expected to raise an estimated $16 million to end hunger and poverty.

A colleague who ministers in Michigan has been involved in CROP Hunger Walks for years. In an e-mail, she wrote, “I love our CROP Walk. It brings people together. It gives us a way to meet practical needs. It helps us focus on our community.”

“Sometimes I pray for our community silently while I’m walking,” she wrote. “I pray for the day when we won’t need the CROP Walk anymore because everyone will have enough to eat.”

That’s part of my prayer, too: A day when everyone will have enough to eat. Until then, participating in things such as CROP Hunger Walks is worthwhile.

Wilson pastors First Christian Church, 118 W. Washington St., Shelbyville, blogs at www.nathandaywilson.blogspot.com, and reads e-mail sent to revnathan@fccshelby.org.

Light of truth in healthcare

The Shelbyville News

Light of truth in healthcare
By Nathan Day Wilson

First of all, thank you for the many emailed, telephoned and in person compliments on last week’s column. And, thank you for the complaint: a good reminder of the difficulty of writing hyperbole. I appreciate them all.

It was a fun column to write.

This week’s column, I’m afraid, is every bit as important but not as much fun. In fact, this week I write with a sad and heavy heart.

Here’s why: The past couple weeks have been very difficult for the soul of all Americans. In the midst of discussing important healthcare issues that will affect your family and mine for generations, too many of our fellow citizens have decided to resort to lies and uncivil behavior.

Whether they support reform or the status quo, their misinformation and divisive tactics sadden me, embarrass me and concern me for the well-being of our country.

You may have received some of their emails. Usually without the names of authors or supporting citations, the emails claim such ludicrous lies as healthcare reform would force families to receive care ordered by a government panel instead of qualified, trained doctors and their staff.

Another popular email claims that elderly would be left to die if healthcare reform passed. This is also untrue, and sickening that anyone would even write such a lie.

Why are some people doing this? I’m not sure, and I pray they stop. My guess is they benefit from the system as it is – a system that delivers the best health care to the wealthiest and leaves 46 million fellow Americans with no health insurance at all.

My guess for why people circulate intentionally untrue emails and act in violent ways is that they want us to be afraid. I never appreciated bullies, and I still don’t.

I think it should stop. For those of us who are Christians or belong to other faith groups, it should stop. For all of us who embrace the Golden Rule, it should stop. For us who seek justice and fairness, it should stop. If for no other reason than just our common identity as Americans, it should stop!

Let’s ask for, even demand, a healthcare discussion that is factual. Let’s demand one worthy of your family and my family; a discussion that brings our communities together instead of fragmenting us further.

Proverbs 12 says that “Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue lasts only a moment.” Well, special interests, your moment is up. Now we want real healthcare discussion, not misinformation. We want the light of truth, not the heat of your fear-mongering.

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Wilson is senior pastor of First Christian on West Washington St, which this week will celebrate all students, teachers, administration, staff and school board members at the 10:00 worship.

Congo conflict minerals

The Democratic Republic of the Congo, scene of the deadliest conflict since World War II, remains one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a woman or girl. In part, this danger comes from the demand created by you and me for electronic products that requires minerals found in the eastern Congo. While Congo is a complex crisis, including tensions over land, rights, identity, regional power struggles and the fundamental weaknesses of Congo as a state, the trade in conflict minerals is a key driver of the conflict.

To find out more, go here

To do something, go here