Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Which Children?

There's a big billboard on the freeway that I drive by every day for a local mega-church: it has 5 smiling white children on it and it says "[Megachurch] loves kids". Every time I drive by it I get a little pissed off.

In fact, it makes me want to scream: what kind of children do you love, really? Do you only love the scrubbed up, white kind of kids? Is this what you want to tell the world about Christians? Do all Christians only love these kind of kids?

Obviously, all of that is not (entirely) true about this church. I'm sure they support missions, and send lots money for others to love on the non-scrubbed, non-white children of this world. But what bothers me about it boils down to this:

They've been given a voice in the community. They have money, they have power - they can buy these incredibly expensive billboards up and advertise on them. If you are a Christian and you've been given those gifts, should you use them to advertise your white, well-scrubbed self, or should you use them for something greater? Why not use them to raise awareness about all the children in this world that God loves and that we love to ignore. Children like this:

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