I was at the Grand Opening of the grocery store Trader Joes this morning. Initially, I was skeptical as we waited for the doors to open. I saw all these people so excited, whoopin' and hollerin', and I thought "ok, you people are stereotypical, shallow, consumers. This is just another grocery store". Well, these people had experienced Trader Joe's in California, Arizona, and all over, and they knew what I didn't. I needed only 5 minutes to see how wrong I was. This store was made for people like us who are transitioning to a more whole-food based, organic diet, and the prices are about 30% less than what we normally pay for similar items. This, of course, will not only have a positive ripple effect to our health, but our ability to use our money for other priorities. Economically, it will empower us and give us more choices.
As I shopped for ingredients for my famous fajitas, that I'll be making tonight for some friends, I began thinking about the Garden of Eden. God filled it with abundance, variety, pleasure, comfort, and most importantly..........choices. Almost everything in it was good, but there was one choice that God prohibited. Anytime you have liberty there will be abundance, blessings and choices. Some will lead to life, and others will lead to death. When God restores the world it will become more and more like the original Garden of Eden.
Now, I don't believe America is the Garden of Eden. But our government system values many things that God values. America has chosen freedom, and liberty, and to secure the blessings of liberty we've instituted a free-market, capitalistic economic system. The result is that Americans have more choice and opportunity than anywhere else in the world. Yes, there are dangers to choice. Just like the two trees in the garden, life and death are before us all the time. Do I use my money to buy food for my family, or waste it on lottery tickets? Do I give to charity or use it for mindless entertainment. Many times you can do both, and that's ok. But when you must choose, what do you choose?
The nature of poverty is lack, rationing, and very few choices, all of which are difficult. Do I choose food or medicine; electricity or paying the water bill? It's not good at all. In communist countries there isn't abundance in any form, except misery. People wait on line for hours for one kind of bread, and are rationed how much they can buy. This is not defeated by more rationing. I hear many people that want to fight poverty with poverty. They want to coercively take away resources through taxes, and redistribute it. Poverty is defeated by more freedom, empowerment, choices and opportunities. The greatest liberator for those stuck in poverty is education. The average person with a college education will make over a milliion dollars more, over their lifetime, than a high school graduate. Education empowers, and creates opportunities. It's the parable of the talents. It allows a person to use the giftings God gave them. Education invests in people. The return on investment is a society full of people empowered to create their own destinies. These are the blessings of liberty.
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2 comments:
Hey Paul, it seems as though you make massive leaps in saying, "Yes, I think Trader Joe's has good prices, to talking about the Garden of Eden?"
So, here is a question, "What do we do to facilitate opportunities for people who live in poverty to go to college?
(No government programs please)
Also, if you ever want to read other blogs with different perspectives, (if of course you don't already), go to my blog at:
paulepace.blogspot.com
Two of my links are guys that live in Raleigh, NC (Corey Paxton and Bernie Newton) They go to a church called Visio Dei in Raliegh. It is an intentional community of about 150 people within the city of Raleigh. Corey and the pastor Jason Gore just got back from an orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya.
Anyways, tell Jay I said, "Wassssuuuupppppp!!"
I don't think I made any massive leaps. Reread it. I think the parallel that I'm making, and the sense in which I mean it, is very clear.
It's hard to address education sans the gov't, since most of it is already done through public education. Here is probably the most important reform I think should happen to public education.
The first problem is that the gov't has set up a monopoly kind of situation. Only those with financial means can go to the better public schools (by living in a more affluent area) or even consider the private schools. This system automatically shuts out the poor and middle class. If the system was reformed to allow the money allotted for a child's education to follow that child to any school within a 10 mile radius or so, that would essentially open the market up and release the strangle hold of the gov't monopoly. When underperforming schools are punished by low enrollment, based on a parent's choice, it immediately sets the stage for change in that school, and rewards the well performing school the parent chooses.
This one reform would completely change the posture of teachers, and administrators who underperform. It lets the free market discipline poorly run schools and empowers parents to send their kids to good schools.
I believe the church has a huge role in this. The church should be a place that supports the education of it's young members. I'd love to see wealthy suburban churches start scholarships to sponsor the education of poor kids from other churches. The idea of education for all, not just the nobility was started by Jon Amos Comenius. He was a Moravian pastor and teacher in the 1600's, and saw education as the birthright of every person. He saw the goal of education as to reveal Christ in all things, since true science, art, history, and literature all point to Him. It's a shame that the church has lost it's sense of responsibility over education, and as with many other things, given it over to the gov't. The church must recapture this to help the world and become who we are supposed to be.
-Paul
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