ugly ugly ugly

Just returned from church from the course on an introduction to pastoral ministry. One of the points was that the pastor must take off his own mask and also reach behind his fellow sheep's mask so that true fellowship may take place. We learnt about the marks of a manipulator, effects of manipulation and the vital role which genuineness in Christ plays in ministry. (ok this is just a brief summary of the lessons tonight but is not what I hope to bring out in this post.)

I was pretty upset after watching part of qian xian zui zong (frontline news) which started reporting at 10pm. It was broadcasting ugliness that is raw and in the face. The frontline team actually filmed overnight at one of the collection stands for the salvation army. Throughout the night, 5-6 waves of theft occurred and one of which is organised crime (a white truck came by, the ppl sifted through the donations, placed the 'harvestable' items by the side of the road, the truck moved to park beside the goods, they loaded it on and moved on.) They looted ~100kg of goods in one go. There was a thai dude who got confronted by the reporter, he could converse in english but used the excuse of him not being able to understand the sign which explains that stealing of the goods was punishable by law. I highly doubt that since he was able to converse in clear english, the question then is, did he understand common sense and his own conscience? The cameras rolled on throughout all the thefts.

When interviewed, the rep from the salvation army response to the spate of thefts was, "We are the salvation army, not the police force." Then he went on to spell out the measures to take to tackle this problem. Then frontline began to analyse that approx $20k was lost due to the spate of recent thefts (I won't spell out the calcs here). I was just taken aback by the rep's nonchalence..

3 evils:

1) Wickedness - The cheek of people to steal goods meant to be sent to help those in need.

2) Greed - Despicable frontline team who filmed the whole process but did not alert the police or stop the thefts?

3) Total absence of apathy and sense of responsibility - To think that others put their trust in your organisation as a middleman or agent by which those in need may be helped...and that you guys don't give a hoot and simply don't put your heart into handling resources from the public, that disgusts me.

Reminder to self though, I also learnt tonight that I should look at sinners with compassion and not hate.

Sinners saved by grace also sin, on a different level, often less detectable, more socially tolerable and as a result is possibly a more potent evil should the christian's heart become hardened and numb to sin.