Musings of An Eclectic Cowboy
June 8, 2008
Rubber Necking
Did you see the news piece on the hit and run in Hartford, Connecticut? They had a surveillance camera that took video of the whole thing. It showed a man being clipped by one car and then being hit by another. And then for a good minute nobody came up to the body to check him out. Just looking at the video there was a perceived lack of concern. But on the other hand the police where there in 1:09 minutes because of 4 phone calls to 911. I also thought that it was interesting to hear the analysis on the Today Show. The claim is that it is the lack of community that caused the lack of compassion seen on the video. That because of that lack of community that there was nothing to be gained by helping that person and then when this expert was asked about the faith communities and their role in this the expert just ignored the question.
Now I think that you can analyze this and get several different outcomes. The take that I have is a mixture of hope and despair. In my opinion I see hope because 4 people cared enough to call 911 and get emergency personnel there quickly. Despair because that was all they were willing to do about it. We can rationalize this by blaming the news media. First there is enough violence on the news to callous the tenderest of hearts. Plus with the reports of Aids and other diseases people are told not to touch any kind of bodily fluid without gloves. They are also afraid of doing the wrong thing and getting sued for their efforts.
I agree with the expert that it is the lack of community but I say that it is the lack of Christian Community and not a worldly community. In the early church the believers shared everything (Acts 4:32-35), they helped each other in their hour of need and everyone was taken care of. Today we help others out but only if we can get something out of it for ourselves, i.e. notoriety or a tax write off. As a whole society does not have that same sense of charity that it had back with the first church.
But there is still hope out there. Just like the 4 calls to 911 there are people out there that want to help. There are people out there that want to share Christ with the World. Christian Community can come to the rescue of the world but it has to start with me and with you. Hope can be brought back to the world if we will follow 5 simple tasks. First a daily prayer life, second daily reading of the Bible, third weekly worship of our crucified savior, fourth getting together on a regular basis with Christian friends and fifth serving Christ and the world in the name of Christ. If each of us will do these simple things then revival will spread through your family, your community, your area, your nation and the world.
Think about it are you going to sit back and rubberneck watching as the world goes to pot or are you going to do everything in your power to change it. It is your choice.
Here is the video from The Today Show
Vaya Con Dios
The Eclectic Cowboy
Winfield Davenport