I was amused this morning as I read that Time Magazine has named the “The Protester” as its 2011 Person of The Year.
Amused, but not amazed.
To be fair conservatives in the United States have a jaded view of our own protestors. While it could be argued that those protesting in the Mid-East did so because of legitimate grievances with their governments, many of those making spectacles of themselves in the streets here are doing so out of a sense of entitlement.
In Utah this week, a group of occupiers blocked access to two box stores, and access to one of the store’s distribution centers. The irony here is that the box stores want your money…and so do the Occupiers.
The difference being the box stores will trade you something for your money. The Occupiers will trade you…I dunno. A warm feeling knowing that you helped chastise the One Percenter? Hash brownies, maybe?
In contrast, one of the box stores notes that you can get “more Christmas for your money” by shopping there. That’s fine: cash is tight all the way around.
But as Victor Davis Hanson has aptly noted on many occasions; we in the west, whether we are occupying Wall Street, a port, a park, a cubicle, office, or workshop are light years away from true poverty and desperation.
We may have more people on unemployment, food stamps and public aid than in years past, but we are still far from the soul-crushing, life destroying destitution that marks many lives in other parts of the world.
Take Cambodia, for instance. Impoverished families there oft-times will allow pimps from the city to come and take their daughters away, with promises that the girls will get good paying jobs and thus be able to support their families.
The truth is these girls are then forced into the sex trade or slave labor. If they survive they may never see their families again. If they survive they may sink into the shackles of drug addiction that accompanies so miserable a life. And their survival will be one of utter slavery to a pimp. It will be an existence utterly devoid of life, of light and hope.
Enter Rapha House.
Under the motto Love, Rescue, Heal; and located in various places in Cambodia, Rapha House is a Christian organization that rescues these girls and gives them counseling, healthcare, an education and job training. Rapha House restores humanity, in the face of horrible inhumanity.
Rapha House gives new life. In a season in which we mark the time that God so loved us so much that He became one of us to free us from bondage, perhaps we should look beyond the coverage of the Occupy Whatever Crowd, and even look beyond our own concerns that there will be enough under the tree this year.
To mark the arrival of the King of Kings who came to rescue us, perhaps we should forego that Ipad, Wii, Nook, Kindle or some other trinket that will be out of vogue and out of date a month from now, and bestow the gift of life on someone else.
Rapha House gratefully accepts donations in its fight to salvage human beings from the jaws of the Enemy. In addition to money, the organization needs things like clothing, school supplies, toiletries and medication. Left, right, red, blue, it really doesn’t matter, you can help.
Visit Rapha House’s website today at raphahouse.org
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