Column by Josh Butler We are quick to serve ourselves and slow to serve our neighbor.

Back to Table of Contents | Back to Main Index Previous Columns | Send mail to The Voice Don't fall prey to the sins of Sodom A friend of mine, Marshall, teaches junior high in one of the poorest areas of the country. In the South Bronx, infant mortality can surpass that found in many Third World areas, drug addiction is high and AIDS is rampant. Unemployment hovers at 45 percent and in some areas reaches as high as 75 percent. The wait in a local emergency room can be as long as three days. What is it like for children to grow up in such an environment? A decade ago, a medical waste incinerator was built in the community to burn New York's body parts, hypodermic needles and other waste. As a result, asthma and other respiratory problems plague the community's children. Beyond the obvious health risks, author Jonathan Kozol discusses the aesthetic messages sent to children. The South Bronx is next door to some of the oldest money in the Western world. The messages are not hard to discern between the glamorous skyscrapers of Fifth Avenue, where a bra may sell for $1,000, and the industrial stacks of the slums where neighbors are struggling for food. Yet what amazes me about Marshall's story in not that he comes from a well-to-do background and education yet teaches in one of the poorest areas of the country. What amazes me is the vibrant life he discovers in unexpected places, like a light that cracks from behind the stereotypes and statistics. His stories reflect the vibrancy he encounters in children during a game of hoops, in the classroom, on a trip to the ice rink, during a home visit to a family, over lunch or in daily conversations. Children such as Anthony who said, "No violence will there be in heaven, no guns or drugs or IRS.... No one will look at you from the outside, people will see you from the inside... God will be there. He'll be happy that we've arrived." Reading Marshall's journals lately has led me to reflect on a passage from Ezekiel. "Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy" (Ezek. 16:49). Arrogant, overfed and unconcerned. An apt description of our society. We are quick to serve ourselves and slow to serve our neighbor. But when we settle for apathy and self-absorption, we miss the life behind the statistics, life like that which Marshall is privileged to share. We can't fix all the problems, and I don't think we're expected to. But we can stop seeking to rise above our society's problems and instead enter its pain. Perhaps in doing so we will find a deeper joy unsurpassed and a world dying to be discovered. Back to Table of Contents | Back to Main Index Previous Columns | Top Of Page Send mail to The Voice| Journalism department website © 2002 The Voice. No part of this publication may be reproduced in written or electronic form without prior written consent from the journalism adviser of Multnomah Bible College. All rights reserved.