Essay Jun 27

Matthew Chapman’s observation, “On winter nights in New York, I pass by the churches along Park Avenue and Fifth and marvel at the sight of homeless people freezing to death on the steps. The doors of these, the richest churches in America, are locked. The heat is on the inside, so in the morning wives of investment bankers and stockbrokers can come and pray in comfort without the stench of poverty reaching their depilated nostrils. God is dead and it’s the church who killed him,” seems to reveal the disconnect between followers of Christ and those who call themselves “Christians,” but don’t practice his teachings.

Christ’s message seemed to be simple, love thy neighbor as thyself, feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, cloth the naked, visit the sick, and those in prison. In other words, be kind to all in need. I remember leaving Nashville years ago in the bitter winter and walked by a man curled up in a sleeping bag on one of the grates with steam coming out. I stopped and handed him a twenty for which he was very grateful. I often wonder how many of these individuals would be welcomed in any of our churches of any religion.

Homeless people probably wouldn’t be familiar with the Sunday rituals, their clothes and their smell would be offensive to regular attendees. Except for Sunday, the rest of the time the building would be closed or secure against having someone enter. They might have day school and justify the denial of access by arguing about potential threat to the children. This heartens back to the 1860s when thousands of immigrants came to American and lived in slums in New York. Areas infested with lice, fleas, and rats. Shanties without heat and food and no health care. Those people have long ago died and who cared then or now. For some Darwin’s natural selection offered an explanation to what happens when the population exceeds the available resources. What happens in the animal kingdom also happens in the human family. While it happens in some parts of the United States, in general, we live a very sheltered existence when compared to some parts of the world where survival is a daily event for millions of people.

It is interesting to read how the Origin was viewed differently by those who read it, not unlike the Bible. Some interpreted the Origin as a confirmation of Darwin’s thoughts on natural selection applied to human beings and on his suggestion that all humans came from one prototype which would mean that we were all related and therefore that slavery was wrong. Others reading the same book would look at slavery as justification for survival of the fittest. Have we progressed that much today with our current attitudes?