On the poor and the sick

Thursday, the 18th-I am still sick from my trip up to SF and also depressed, but not because I am poor, which is the obvious reason. I was poor a week ago, but not depressed. And frankly, not much has changed, except that my mother called. I don't mean to say that my mother makes me depressed, but I think most people would agree with me that when you encounter a lot of bad luck in your life, you don't really like it when your parents tell you it's your fault or that you must not be obeying God. I don't know about you, but that doesn't make my day. Just saying. Of course, I think both my mother and father would agree that we make our own luck, or really that whatever consequences you are experiences must be the result of some past foolishness. I don't quite agree and it's not just because I'm the one who's experiencing the bad luck here. (Although there are some obvious consequences from foolish actions, I'm really talking more about circumstances that really are out of your control, like illness.) I am largely poor because of being chronically ill with celiac disease, ulcerative colitis, and psoriasis. And this has been going on for about 4 years now. These are not life-threatening illnesses, just really, really inconvenient and when the symptoms get bad, as often happens with chronic illnesses, I usually need to get treatment. Unfortunately, in America, treatment is very expensive, even if you do have insurance like I do. Hence, the poor problem. What I find disturbing, and this is just a few people that I've met who have this view, is the view that illnesses are the manifestations of the consequences of sins. I mean, there is a group of people who feel that AIDS is the proper and just consequence of disobedience to God. This is what I'm talking about, except that for this small group of people, all illnesses fit underneath this category. I think this is a horrible way to see the world. Largely, because it seems to me illogical. For instance, there are many children suffering from a variety of serious illnesses that there is no way for them to have sinned to create such a punishment. Also, I do find it hard to stomach that all people who are sick are somehow "deserving" of it. Does it then make them less "deserving" of our sympathy, our goodwill, our compassion? It's a slippery slope here people. I feel like being sick made me think more about God. I felt that I must have done something wrong to have warranted being, not only sick, but poor as a result of being sick. I started to investigate my past, to see where I went wrong. You can see how this train of thought would end up in despair. I could think of millions of reasons why I deserved being sick. But ultimately, the main thing I found about being sick is that I reallly did pray to God more and I did think about Him more and started to think of Him as more of a Help rather than the Guy Who Let Me Be Sick. People who are never sick will never realize how good it feels to get better from an illness. People who are never sick will never understand the pain that someone who is sick is going through. People who are never sick will never know that their real friends will be the ones to show compassion for their pain rather than blaming them for it. And then I have to say a few things about being poor. For all of those people who have never been poor, thank God while you can. For the religious right who want to cut welfare, social security, and don't want to raise the minimum wage, I'd like to point out that in the Bible, Jesus said that it was going to be harder for a rich man to get into heaven than a poor man. Jesus never said, "Blessed are the rich for they shall always have tax breaks." Jesus blessed the POOR and never mentioned the rich in the sermon on the mount. In point of fact, it is our responsibility as Christians to help the poor. This is demonstrated time after time in the Bible, and you know if something is repeated more than three times it's really important to God. And God never mentioned tax breaks. Being poor is not a result of some moral defect. So for all of the people who are so concerned about "morality," I'd like to ask them what they think God considers more moral, having compassion for your fellow man and helping him, or making him work two jobs just to make ends meet because you cut their benefits. Honestly, I find the religious right's complete lack of compassion for the poor reprehensible. And for those of you who know me, I consider myself a Christian. Imagine how embarrassed I am to be seen with them.