Does anybody REALLY know what day it is?...

As of 10 AM CT today, the Chicago Sun-Times e-version was trumpeting news about a potential rock concert at Wrigley, and a reduction in murders (always good news in Chicago). The Chicago Tribune reported how choked-up Mayor Daley is that his son Patrick is enlisting in the military, and more good news about "the concert" (with performer(s) to be named later). The New York Times told of the departure of "Homeland Security" chief Tom Ridge, and more details behind the Hmong hunter shootings. Christianity Today had a big splash review of "Myths America Lives By," and a big promo for the Faith & Money Channel. The home page of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA)- my own denomination - featured an article about women in the early church, and ecumenicism.

It's World AIDS Day - and the world seems largely silent - most of all, seemingly, in the Christian community. The One who came to topple the powerful and to serve and heal and save the powerless might be astonished at the silence (much less the condemnation) in our ranks. The average life-span in Africa has dropped below 40 years - and yet we don't talk about that; we talk about how we need to reach the world for Jesus.

It's true; we do - I don't argue with that. But while Jesus spent a lot of time teaching, he spent an even larger amount of time meeting the needs of those around him - feeding four or five thousand at a time, healing the impossibly-sick, transforming lives. Given the catastrophic losses of life, in this case I'd sure like to be teaching less, and doing more. How high must the butcher's bill go, before we decide this stuff is important?

And why, pray tell, do so many Christians find it worthwhile to give money to prevent diabetes, a slow-moving, largely preventable disease - while so often ignoring the black plague right under our noses, because of a perception that somehow homosexuality is a greater sin (more deserving of a death sentence, anyway) than gluttony? (And, lest anyone think I'm picking on one group at the expense of another... as a diabetic myself, I truly can ask that question...)

"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?' "He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.' " (Matthew 25:44-45, NIV)