When I was in elementary school, we had three reading groups. Group one used a yellow book; section two a red book. The third section the less advanced readers) read out of the green book. In second grade, where there once had been a third section, there now were the Blue Jays. I am not sure if it felt easier to go up when the Blue Jays were called. The class still knew they were the lowest section by seeing who was in the section and by hearing them read out loud. They could not read any better, but they were not in the third section. They were now Blue Jays.
Then janitors became custodians, and custodians gave way to sanitation engineers. I think they are back to custodians. Teachers aids became teachers assistance and secretaries lost their jobs to become administrative assistances. We decided that the title Miss might seem belitting because it told the world that she was not married, while Mr. gave no such information about a man. So we substituted Ms. for all women, but it somehow did not catch on for married woman. So Miss is currently in some circles Ms. It appears to me that all we lost were two letters (is) and the decision of whether this is important depends on what your definition of is - is.
We as a society determined that it is not proper to keep people in mental institutions. So we closed the institutions and we now refer to many of these same people as homeless.
The Lord makes His desire very distinct when it is regarding His command concerning the widows and orphans. But we do not have an orphan problem. We negotiated the orphan problem. Somebody perceived all the orphans and called them foster care kids. If there were orphans it would be the churches responsibility out of necessary obedience, to care for them. But what orphans? When was the last time you saw an orphanage?
The list of ways that we conquer (conceal the ills of communities with language repeats itself. I am sure you have thought of a few as you read. But my perspective is solely this. God charged the orphan to His Church, to love and care for. Changing the name does not alter the command, and; while we can mislead ourselves and each other, we cannot, and are not, misleading God. God knows that what is – is – no matter what we call it.
Learn how you can support our important Christian Youth Mentoring program for at risk children at http://ChristianMentor.com.
John Cragg is the director of Long Island Youth mentoring. You can learn more about this important Christian youth mentoring program for at risk kids at http://ChristianMentor.com.
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