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Editorial: Like many I was appalled at the state of the aboriginal community living in the chicken coop huts outside of Darwin. At the same time on T V Peter Costello, Federal Treasurer , announces a huge budget surplus, Middle Australia, the affluent middleclass feed on his announcements that tax cuts are in the offeriring as long as you earn $50,000! The battler trying to survive on $20,000, the pensioner, the working poor , the mentally ill, the unemployed and the homeless are forgotten once again. Somewhere over the years of the Howard government we have embraced the idea that these people in someway are responsible for their plight and not deserving of help. There are no votes in helping the poor. Pander to the wealthy, the multinationals and play the terrorist card and you've a good chance of being re-elected. The tragedy is that the majority think of the gratification of their own needs, desires and ambitions disregarding the needs of the less fortunate in our society. We tut tut! about poverty in our great country and yet do little to alleviate the causes that create poverty . We create poverty ghettos in our major cities and wonder why there is violence and unrest. We really don't care unless unrest, crime or racial tensions explode in our area. Our apathy feed the flames of discontent and fan the hidden embers of racism as we seek someone to blame. The church today, in most cases, has lost its contact with the poor and disadvantaged in our society ministering in the main to the middle class. This poses the question who today will minister to the poor, In the book of James 15 -17 it says and is brilliantly expressed in "The Message" 15 For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved 16 and say, "Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!" and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup - where does that get you? 17 Isn't it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense? So often we talk the talk but fail to walk the walk! Our resourses financial and human so often in the church are used to develop our own programs, to educate our people , and to keep up with latest trend in music. We have little left over for the poor and disadvantaged. While thousands are homeless we demonstrate the action demonstrated in the Epistle of James and again the church is warned of looking inwards. To look at the reality of our chaotic world and to be Jesus to a hurting community means being out there giving the coat, the glass of water and demonstrating loving one's neighbour no matter what they smell like, how they live, what their ethnic background is, the colour of their skin or where they live. We can stay where we are and vegetate, ignoring the world, being a large frog in a small puddle or we can start seeking ways of ministering to the needs of the community in which we live. If you do what you can do, God will do, through you, what you thought you couldn't do. Pastor Max Walker.CEO
For further details check out the website or contact us as indicated below. * All correspondence to CEO c/o PO Box 358 Dandenong. 3175.
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