But I will agree that simply changing the system isn’t going to make a dent in the problem unless and until there is a similar change in people’s hearts. I would even go one step further: the latter change renders the former inconsequential, for where everyone truly loves his or her neighbor as one’s self, it wouldn’t matter whether the system is capitalist, communist, or otherwise.

@

Susan (“Also, as an aside, I keep hearing how there’s hunger in this country, yet we’re all obese and at risk for heart disease, etc. Story one says kids are hungry; story 2 says they are fat!! What does it mean?!?”)

It means that some kids are overweight and others go hungry. The two are not mutually exclusive.

Speaking of world hunger, have you ever heard of Norman Borlaug? I regret to say I never had until a few years ago. He was raised on a farm in Iowa. He probably was responsible for saving over 1 billion lives when he developed high yield and disease resistant grains. By 1963, Mexico’s wheat harvest was six times larger than in 1944. His new varieties were exported to India and Pakistan and India was self-sufficient in all grains by the 1970s I think. This is something that others said would never happen. Also, his “Green Revolution” as it’s called, helped to prevent deforestation by increasing yields so people didn’t have to clear so much land for crops. He also had no patience with people who complained that third world countries shouldn’t have access to modern farming techniques and instead get by on subsidence farming. He explained that most of us here have never experienced real hunger and would be outraged if we were and someone was trying to deny us the tools we needed to grow more food.

This is just one example of a person who used the gifts God gave to better their world. People are still doing things like this. My friend’s daughter just graduated with a Masters in something and is going overseas to help develop water supplies for a third-world nation. She has always been interested in that.

When there’s a natural disaster somewhere, people from here rush in to help. Where I live here in Virginia, our rescue teams traveled to Haiti to help look for victims. Someone from my church was a member of the team.

Also, as an aside, I keep hearing how there’s hunger in this country, yet we’re all obese and at risk for heart disease, etc. Story one says kids are hungry; story 2 says they are fat!! What does it mean?!?