Relations Between People

When we examine our society, which is generally called capitalist (because of its methods of producing and controling wealth) and is bourgeois (because of prevailing concern for acquisition and material interests, and its emphasis on respectability and mediocrity), we find it far from God's justice:

in Morals, relations between people are corrupted by distorted images of the human person. Class, race, and sex often determine personal worth and position within society, leading to structures that foster oppression. Capitalism further divides society by pitting owners against workers in perpetural conflict over wealth and its control. Those who do not "produce" are abandoned, and left, at best, to be "processed" through institutions. Spiritual destitution is rampant, manifest in isolation, madness, promiscuity, and violence.

Recently, McLean's Magazine put the cause directly on the shoulders of parents: "Why Do We Raise Our Daughters to be Skanks." The early, over-sexualization of our children has lead to violence and murder. Jean Boniot is a prime example. Raised to look like a adult model, this child was exposed to a preditor who took her life, and more recently the case of Maddie McCann, a four year old child abuducted in Portugal, whose kidnapping points to the prediophile network in Europe. The shame of sexualization of children lies directly at the feet of the church, you and I.

The sex trade is not the fault of women and children, but of the "Johns" who procure their sevices for their own perverse pleasures. Refugees, legal and illegal, struggle against addictions and starvation, finding the safe injection site the only place of safety. Having worked as a Reconnect Worker on Granville Street in the late 80's, I was brought face to face with a young woman whose story still breaks my heart. Working the sex trade at age 13, J. was selling what her father and his brother, upstanding members of their church, had been stealing from her since the age of 11. J. said to me one day, "Better to sell it to az stranger, than to have it taken away by those you trust." The shame, the shame; I watched long lines of Cadillacs crusing Homer Street where the little boys gathered to sell their bodies to eagar preditors. "How long, O God, will you let this go one?" When will we rise up to protect, the refugees, the orphans, the fatherless, and the widows of our society. The Prophet is clear, speaking of the Lord's people, he writes: "Anyone is cursed who is unfair to foreigners, orphans , and widows" (Deut. 27:19). Throughout the Book of Deuteronomy the welfare of the refuge, the fatherless, orphans , and widows falls in the lap of God's people. "How long, O God, before your people listen and obey?"