Sunday, April 6, 2008

Sunday Offering #54: Hard Choices

If you haven't read any of my "Sunday Offerings" before, you might think this is a rather strange post. Bear with me here..................

Yesterday I came upon the video below and it struck me as very profound. Like most things I read or hear of, I tend to investigate a little more rather than taking it as it is presented. One thing I found most interesting about this video is stated below...........so begin by watching this:





What I found when researching a little further on Kevin Carter is a statement written by a fellow photographer that was there that same day this Pulitzer winning photograph was taken.

This other photo journalist states that Kevin got out of the plane and had to very carefully approach to get the picture of the child with the vulture behind and that the bird then quickly flew off. That is quite different than the story that Kevin himself gave of the incident, that he chased the bird off himself after twenty minutes.

The two accounts are definitely at odds with each other and one must ask, if the other photo-journalist's account is true then why would Kevin have lied about it? Could it have been to interject some notion of morality on his own behalf when confronted by the outcry that he did nothing to actually help the child?

What I am trying to say here is that things are not always as they seem. We don't know what happened to the child in the photograph, but we know what happened to Kevin.

No man is perfect, NONE. Read about Kevin HERE

One fact remains in both accounts, Kevin was supposedly told as a journalist not to touch famine victims for fear of disease. This to me is a metaphor for all such incidents. We are always told there is something wrong with the victim, keep your distance lest you be infected. Is this what Jesus taught?

No it is not.

Every faith there is has a version of the Golden Rule as seen in this prior post.

This post today is directed primarily at Christians who have gone astray from Jesus's message itself, ""A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." (NIV, John 13:34-35)

"There but for the grace of God go I" John Bradford

Lyrics to the song in the video, " Jesus Christ" by Brand New
"Jesus Christ"

Jesus Christ, that's a pretty face
The kind you'd find on someone I could save
If they don't put me away
Well, it'll be a miracle

Do you believe you're missing out
That everything good is happening somewhere else?
But with nobody in your bed
The night's hard to get through

And I will die all alone
And when I arrive I won't know anyone

Well Jesus Christ, I'm alone again
So what did you do those three days you were dead?
Cause this problem's gonna last more than the weekend.

Well Jesus Christ, I'm not scared to die,
I'm a little bit scared of what comes after
Do I get the gold chariot?
Do I float through the ceiling?

Do I divide and fall apart?
Cause my pride is too sly to hold back all my dark
And the ship went down in sight of land
And at the gates does Thomas ask to see my hands

I know you'll come in the night like a thief
But I've had some time alone to hold my lies inside me
I know you think that I'm someone you can trust
But I'm scared I'll get scared and I swear I'll try to nail you back up

So do you think that we could work out a sign
So I'll know it's you and that it's over so I won't even try

I know you'll come for the people like me
But we all got wood and nails
Tongue tied to a hating factory

But we all got wood and nails
Your tortured (and hanging) factory
Yeah, we all got wood and nails
Your tortured (and hanging) factory
Yeah, we all got wood and nails
And we sleep inside of this machine

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