Human dignity is a God-given privilege of man. He is made in the very image of God; has the honor of being called a friend of God! When that image and friendship was marred, Jesus abandoned everything pertaining to his glory and came down to earth to rescue this man who had lost that privilege and honor to the schemes of the Devil. What a price Jesus paid to deliver his friend! What a wondrous work he accomplished to bring back that image in man; restore that friendship and fellowship with this fallen creature who does not know how low he had gone! The story of the prodigal son captures the indignity and shame of this man; yet he refuses to recognize his condition unless the God above, in his divine grace and mercy, would send his Holy Spirit to open the eyes of this blind man to see his indignity and shame, wooing him to come back into that glories companionship. When the eyes of this blind man are opened by grace, he sees the filth he was living in, he realizes how rebellious he had become, and how he had adorned the mask of pride to hide his multitudes of sins. Inside, he was rotten and stinking, but outside, there was an apparent calmness and how he longed that this outward calmness would be real and true even in the inside. How he longed that his soul would find rest from the constant hankerings of sinful passions. But one day he saw Jesus extending his arms of love and heard him say “come to me all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest”; eyes opened by God’s grace, the man plunges into that divine embrace, still stinking though. The loving eyes of Jesus look into the misty eyes of this sinner as he wipes out the tears of remorse and sorrow; the love of God is poured into this broken heart by the Holy Spirit because without the Spirit pouring God’s love into this parched soul, he cannot accept the fact that Jesus accepts him in spite of his stinking past. Finally, with his past behind him and eternity ahead, the image of God begins to appear and the dignity restored and fellowship with God re-established; man is once again a dignified jewel among all of God’s creation.
But not yet! As the whole creation awaits for the final redemption, man has a long way home. It’s just the beginning of that glorious restoration! We live in a world where not every human being has come to his or her senses. Even those whom Jesus has embraced, the residue of the old perspective continues to linger beneath the new perspective. The full impact of the glorious change taking place in our lives is yet to be fully realized. When time shall come, we will enjoy that blessed walk in the cool of the garden with the master himself and all shall be well once again! But not yet.
One of the many evidences that indicate that we are still a long way home is the stigma of being citizens of any of the poorest nations of the world. The discrimination and mistreatment one gets for being a citizen of a poor nation manifests in many different forms; sometimes the discrimination and mistreatment is self-inflicted or invited by the citizens of such nations by their actions, attitudes and appearances, but other times, it is deliberately inflicted upon them by the superior race or nation. Poverty is such a powerful task master that completely takes away the dignity of a human being, not only in the eyes of the other, but in his or her own eyes. Man begins to rationalize his lower and inferior status, and seeing no way out of it, he or she accepts the lot and begins to act and behave in certain ways in order to survive. For example, the legal or illegal immigrants in rich nations who do not wish to return to their native homelands have in most cases lost self-worth and patriotism because they know the power of poverty. Against their conscience and natural tendencies, they try to imitate the life of their adopted nation. The first generation usually goes through a constant period of longing to be back home and at the same time tempted to stay in a foreign land for the hope of achieving material success. Against the ravaging poverty in their homelands, they are rather willing to live with humiliation of another kind than going back to the grinding yoke of poverty. They are willing to set aside their individual human dignity and be treated or mistreated by the natives of the land of their sojourn at their mercy. They are willing to forget their language, culture and even willing to break all ties with their homelands if they can have a chance of gaining the citizenship of their land of dream. Initially such immigrants entered their dreamland as students, professionals, and tourists. Some of them even had contracts to return back to their homelands, but the temptations of materialism overcome the faithfulness and patriotism. But of course, there are those few remnants that after completing their legal stay for either a job or education return back to their countries with respect and dignity intact.
But not yet! As the whole creation awaits for the final redemption, man has a long way home. It’s just the beginning of that glorious restoration! We live in a world where not every human being has come to his or her senses. Even those whom Jesus has embraced, the residue of the old perspective continues to linger beneath the new perspective. The full impact of the glorious change taking place in our lives is yet to be fully realized. When time shall come, we will enjoy that blessed walk in the cool of the garden with the master himself and all shall be well once again! But not yet.
One of the many evidences that indicate that we are still a long way home is the stigma of being citizens of any of the poorest nations of the world. The discrimination and mistreatment one gets for being a citizen of a poor nation manifests in many different forms; sometimes the discrimination and mistreatment is self-inflicted or invited by the citizens of such nations by their actions, attitudes and appearances, but other times, it is deliberately inflicted upon them by the superior race or nation. Poverty is such a powerful task master that completely takes away the dignity of a human being, not only in the eyes of the other, but in his or her own eyes. Man begins to rationalize his lower and inferior status, and seeing no way out of it, he or she accepts the lot and begins to act and behave in certain ways in order to survive. For example, the legal or illegal immigrants in rich nations who do not wish to return to their native homelands have in most cases lost self-worth and patriotism because they know the power of poverty. Against their conscience and natural tendencies, they try to imitate the life of their adopted nation. The first generation usually goes through a constant period of longing to be back home and at the same time tempted to stay in a foreign land for the hope of achieving material success. Against the ravaging poverty in their homelands, they are rather willing to live with humiliation of another kind than going back to the grinding yoke of poverty. They are willing to set aside their individual human dignity and be treated or mistreated by the natives of the land of their sojourn at their mercy. They are willing to forget their language, culture and even willing to break all ties with their homelands if they can have a chance of gaining the citizenship of their land of dream. Initially such immigrants entered their dreamland as students, professionals, and tourists. Some of them even had contracts to return back to their homelands, but the temptations of materialism overcome the faithfulness and patriotism. But of course, there are those few remnants that after completing their legal stay for either a job or education return back to their countries with respect and dignity intact.
This stigma of being a citizen of a poor nation is nowhere more apparent than in the airports and immigration check points of the wealthy nations. Long before the threat of terrorism and the 9/11, the practice of harassing the passport holder of a poor nation at the airports and immigration check points was prevalent, and more so now due to the fear and in the name of terrorism. That is why the ultimate aspiration of such immigrants is to gain a citizenship in the land of their sojourn so that they no longer would have to be humiliated when they travel to other destinations. Same person holding a passport of a wealthier nation makes a world of difference at the check points, opens doors which otherwise would be impossible and provides a better respect and reception even in a hostile situation. Because of this human need to be recognized and respected, for the people in the poorer nations, immigration to the wealthy nations appears to be the shortcut in finding the fulfillment of that need. But the road to the actual summit of that attainment is not as simple as it seems; few lucky make it to the top but the most are left panting at the foot of that insurmountable mountain. Back in their homelands, many of them might have had a decent job, good family, and an honorable image in the upper end of their society, but the dream of achieving more at times becomes costlier than expected and finally they end up being in the lowest end of their newfound social settings. Back in their homelands, they might have had house maids to work for them in their homes and fields, but because of their dream of achieving more, they themselves end up being the house maids for others in their new and wealthier nation. This desire to look for a greener pasture comes at a price, not only for them individually, but also for their homelands. Instead of developing a healthy patriotism for the well being of their nations, they develop and communicate a defeatist mentality to the rest of their fellow countrymen and soon everyone looks for ways to get out of the forsaken land perpetuating the poverty and regress. This mind set of looking for a greener pasture and abandoning one’s homeland has more ethical implications than it appears. From a biblical perspective, it is a violation of God’s divine order in which every nation’s boundary is set by God and one is placed there for the purpose of glorifying God and bringing his kingdom there by his or her doing and being. Citizens of any nation are to love their lands, defend it, work for its progress and uphold their political leaders so long as they do not contradict the superior laws of God. The citizens who are infected with this desire to immigrate to a better nation need to realize that they are driven by their selfish ambitions at the cost of their native lands, and need to overcome the selfish ambition of personal gain and look beyond the temporary satisfaction for the betterment of their nation and their people. Selfishness is the root evil of many other evils, and the desire to abandon one’s nation for personal gain cannot be taken lightly. But true respect and dignity is only achieved when one’s nation achieves success, but a shortcut to that through immigration is a mirage, so illusive and when it comes, it is too late to enjoy. Whenever a poor nation achieves developmental success and prosperity in a short period of time, those who left the land when it was poor begin to return back to their homeland, and this indicates that true respect, dignity, and satisfaction is illusive in a foreign land; unless the whole land is comprised of immigrants who have equal share in forging their new identity.
There is another side of poverty and patriotism in these times of economic imperialism and colonization and that is the export of human labor. The number one export item of many of the poorer nations is human labor; a new form of slavery of modern time. As far as it is possible, nobody in the wealthy nations likes to work in the so called 3D jobs; the dirty, the difficult, and the dangerous. So, they import laborers from any poor nation that is willing to export their brightest and the best for such tasks as those 3Ds. Life in the poorer nation is difficult, but the television and the modern communication have made the world a village and the general public in these genetically leveled as third world nations are bombarded with all the glittering of the first world . The illusory images created by the world of media could hardly match the reality in the ground, but the young and brightest of these nations flock into the labor market with the ideal image of a wealthy nation presented to them through movies, media, and television. They leave their homeland in the prime of life with the hope of making good money with relative easy, because for them, the image of working in a developed nation was formed from movies and television. The scenes at transit airports like Bangkok and Dubai cannot be described in less than slavery terms. Hoards of these migrant workers are given the same uniform (same color of caps or jackets), with their work document folder in their hands, they are huddled together from one place to another with security guards in front and behind them, transporting them like as if they were a dangerous herd of cows. Some of these workers come from so remote part of their homelands and had never entered an airplane prior to this new experience. Most of them coming from rural upbringing, become confounded with the view of the new world, willingly bear the shame and inhuman treatment at the hands of their masters. When they finally get to their working destinations, very soon, they realize that all that glitters is not gold, all the images of that nation that they had seen from movies and TV was not real, and the promise of easy money was a myth they refused to believe when it was first told them while they were making the decision to leave their countries. Working conditions and the treatment at the hands of their masters breaks their spirit, but having no choice, they endure the hardship with the hope of returning soon. As they pick up the local language, their pain multiplies as how they are despised as the 3D workers and they find out that if the same job is done by the native of that land, the company would have to pay three to five times more than what it pays to these migrant workers; the value of a migrant worker becomes five times less than a native. But the power of poverty is such that it makes humans lose all hopes and dreams; after they overcome the initial shock, slowly they get used to the mistreatment and lack of respect. They develop this inferior image of themselves and when they finally come back to their homelands, the inferiority takes different forms. Some exhibit pride, others violence and some turn out to be sensible human beings and make use of their bitter experience to achieve something good for themselves and others around them in their homeland. The sensible ones become the inspiration and warning for the new generation to work hard in their own homelands than selling themselves as slaves to foreign nations.
Bible does speak a lot about poverty, and no where it says that it is God’s will for man to live in poverty. The Roman Catholic vows practiced by Benedictine and Franciscans; of chastity, poverty and obedience is accepted by the protestant church without qualification. Especially the poverty is seen as a sign of piety, but Bible nowhere confirms such assumption. Rather, there are plenty of texts that promise material blessings to the faithful and the righteous, and the way God brings a person out of poverty is when a believer finds his or her dignity in God and believes that his or her life is in the plan of God and therefore, his or her citizenship in that particular nation is God ordained. Once this issue of citizenship is settled with confidence; the person begins to work not for food, but for God. A farmer begins to glorify God when he works, a clerk believes that it is God who sent him or her to work there and serve God in his or her working environment, a teacher aims to please God in his teaching, a politician aims to bring God’s kingdom in his sphere of rule and soon these individuals begin to experience divine breakthroughs and amazing results in their work places. Because they no longer work for stomach, the power of poverty is broken in their minds and they are liberated from greed to generosity, from selfishness to service. When a person has achieved a sense of generosity and an attitude of service, the divine doors of God’s favor begin to open up and soon, God’s blessings not only satisfy his or her needs, but the needs of others around.
So, the only solution to a dignified humanity in one’s own homeland is to know the God of the Bible and believe his word and decide to work for him to create a better country and fulfill the patriotic duties of a good citizen. There is no other way out of poverty, not even immigration to a wealthy nation.
There is another side of poverty and patriotism in these times of economic imperialism and colonization and that is the export of human labor. The number one export item of many of the poorer nations is human labor; a new form of slavery of modern time. As far as it is possible, nobody in the wealthy nations likes to work in the so called 3D jobs; the dirty, the difficult, and the dangerous. So, they import laborers from any poor nation that is willing to export their brightest and the best for such tasks as those 3Ds. Life in the poorer nation is difficult, but the television and the modern communication have made the world a village and the general public in these genetically leveled as third world nations are bombarded with all the glittering of the first world . The illusory images created by the world of media could hardly match the reality in the ground, but the young and brightest of these nations flock into the labor market with the ideal image of a wealthy nation presented to them through movies, media, and television. They leave their homeland in the prime of life with the hope of making good money with relative easy, because for them, the image of working in a developed nation was formed from movies and television. The scenes at transit airports like Bangkok and Dubai cannot be described in less than slavery terms. Hoards of these migrant workers are given the same uniform (same color of caps or jackets), with their work document folder in their hands, they are huddled together from one place to another with security guards in front and behind them, transporting them like as if they were a dangerous herd of cows. Some of these workers come from so remote part of their homelands and had never entered an airplane prior to this new experience. Most of them coming from rural upbringing, become confounded with the view of the new world, willingly bear the shame and inhuman treatment at the hands of their masters. When they finally get to their working destinations, very soon, they realize that all that glitters is not gold, all the images of that nation that they had seen from movies and TV was not real, and the promise of easy money was a myth they refused to believe when it was first told them while they were making the decision to leave their countries. Working conditions and the treatment at the hands of their masters breaks their spirit, but having no choice, they endure the hardship with the hope of returning soon. As they pick up the local language, their pain multiplies as how they are despised as the 3D workers and they find out that if the same job is done by the native of that land, the company would have to pay three to five times more than what it pays to these migrant workers; the value of a migrant worker becomes five times less than a native. But the power of poverty is such that it makes humans lose all hopes and dreams; after they overcome the initial shock, slowly they get used to the mistreatment and lack of respect. They develop this inferior image of themselves and when they finally come back to their homelands, the inferiority takes different forms. Some exhibit pride, others violence and some turn out to be sensible human beings and make use of their bitter experience to achieve something good for themselves and others around them in their homeland. The sensible ones become the inspiration and warning for the new generation to work hard in their own homelands than selling themselves as slaves to foreign nations.
Bible does speak a lot about poverty, and no where it says that it is God’s will for man to live in poverty. The Roman Catholic vows practiced by Benedictine and Franciscans; of chastity, poverty and obedience is accepted by the protestant church without qualification. Especially the poverty is seen as a sign of piety, but Bible nowhere confirms such assumption. Rather, there are plenty of texts that promise material blessings to the faithful and the righteous, and the way God brings a person out of poverty is when a believer finds his or her dignity in God and believes that his or her life is in the plan of God and therefore, his or her citizenship in that particular nation is God ordained. Once this issue of citizenship is settled with confidence; the person begins to work not for food, but for God. A farmer begins to glorify God when he works, a clerk believes that it is God who sent him or her to work there and serve God in his or her working environment, a teacher aims to please God in his teaching, a politician aims to bring God’s kingdom in his sphere of rule and soon these individuals begin to experience divine breakthroughs and amazing results in their work places. Because they no longer work for stomach, the power of poverty is broken in their minds and they are liberated from greed to generosity, from selfishness to service. When a person has achieved a sense of generosity and an attitude of service, the divine doors of God’s favor begin to open up and soon, God’s blessings not only satisfy his or her needs, but the needs of others around.
So, the only solution to a dignified humanity in one’s own homeland is to know the God of the Bible and believe his word and decide to work for him to create a better country and fulfill the patriotic duties of a good citizen. There is no other way out of poverty, not even immigration to a wealthy nation.
