What about the children?

So, this is going to be one of my little rants.  I’m unsure if you saw the entire events that transpired with the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society & it’s recent engagement with the controversial whaling practices / research of Japan.  I’m not going to focus on whether Japan is within their rights regarding whaling or not, I’m not educated enough on the topic to argue appropriately.  If you know me at all, you’ll know I’m all for conserving our planet, and treating our planet as kindly as we can, within reason.  My issue is when people push beyond what I think of as reasonable, and why the whales require so much more attention and effort and energy than children starving in our own cities.

Below is a video that outlines what took place this past week.  Watch and enjoy the measures these folks are going through to save the whales.

I get it, the whales are import, they were here before us, they are a part of the food chain and should be protected, and I agree, action within reason.  However, you do so much damage to your cause by going to the extremes.  I’m so put off by the techniques I watch “activists” engaging in.  I promise you, extreme actions only cause one to be seen in a negative life.  We’re so sensitive to even the words we use when we engage others, but that sensitivity doesn’t reach all of the points in our life.

A few months back, I was driving through Baltimore on my way to Charm City Church and their Metro Kidz ministries.  Now understand, from my house, I go through some of the worst of the worst in the city of Baltimore.  While on my drive, I passed a KFC and was fortunate enough to get stopped at the red light directly across from the restaurant.  Right here, in the midst of terrible poverty was a small group of PETA folks.  Why were they protesting here in the heart of a brutally poor neighborhood in Baltimore?  They were there to save the chickens!  That’s right, save the chickens from the horrible treatment of the folks at KFC.  Again, I’m not familiar with the practices at KFC, but I’m pretty sure that no one out protesting that night thought about the possibility of someone being offended by them trying to save the chickens.

Now, why was I bothered you ask?  I was bothered because of the techniques used by each of these groups, and I’m truly bothered how there are people who can care so much about the whales or the chickens or any other animal but can walk by starving humans on their way to protect the animal they’ve chosen to protect.  There are kids starving across this country, nearly 30 million people in America are considered food poor.  Which means 30 million Americans go hungry each and every day, and so many more across our world.  And this doesn’t even begin to dig into the illnesses people suffer, and the poverty people live in, or the injustices people suffer.  Yet, these groups are worried about the chickens, and the whales and put millions of dollars into defending these poor poor defenseless animals.

These types of experiences are why I’ll never support these groups.  I’ll never stand up next to PETA and say, great job!  I’ll never send my money to Sea Shepherd Conservation Society or any other group that engages others in these types of ways.  If we could group all of these activist groups together, and took half of the passion they give to their causes and redirected it towards hunger, we’d change millions of lives overnight!

If you want credibility for your cause, then step into the light, and act in a way that is truly productive.  Impress me by creating solid educational resources for people interested in learning about your cause.  Work through legal channels to protect those that you’re interested in protecting.  More importantly, understand where the whales and the chickens fall in the circle of life.  Think about the approximately 40,000 hungry people in Baltimore city tonight.  Think about looking each one of them in the face and saying, the chicken is more important than you, I’m sorry.  We needed to spend $4,500,000.00 on a really fast boat to protect the whales.  It’s sad, and I wish more people would stop and think about what they can do at home, in their town, to make others feel loved and cared for.  Basic needs of humanity should come before the needs of whales or chickens or worms or any other animal we’re trying to protect.

Finally, I know I’m nowhere near perfect in this arena.  I could absolutely do more to help the people in the city of Baltimore, and these incidents have only encouraged me to reach beyond where I am now and try to do more for those in my neighborhood, in my city.  Hopefully I can help change my city for the better, and show the love of Christ through my actions, and not my words.