A Protest for June

I listen to Public Radio more than I should.  Today reporter Mary Louise Kelly, interviewed the founder and a department leader of a company working to help migrant young people who have been stopped at our southern border.  This for-profit company gives shelter and temporary care to several thousand children and young people.

Our facility is in Brownsville, Texas.  The interviewer's voice purported to be dispassionate and objective.  But the questions became more and more obviously obtrusive.  Accusatory.  About the money our government was paying them to do this work.  About reports of various possible abuses of the children.  She hinted at company rules that children were not to be touched or comforted.  Unfounded rumor.  The opposite spirit prevailed.

One probe after another was tried, unsuccessfully.  It was a fishing expedition.  Looking for ways to blame, to discredit what this company was doing to try to make a very difficult human problem bearable.

Finally, the self-righteous questioner had to back off and end the interview.  She had not succeeded in digging up dirt.

I find myself more and more grateful for people in our society who are trying to help other people.  For those who are offering compassion, understanding, and comfort.  For those doing a difficult job with young, hurting, baffled people in need.

There are many around us who are trying to do good and make things better in the lives of others.  Is that not our work as Jesus-followers in this confused time in our nation's life?

We do have something to say.  We do have help to offer.  We do have answers to give.  They come from Jesus, who was ever surprising in His simple, direct, loving, and forgiving answers to complex human problems.