Rep. Celeste Hurst stopped by the Empower Podcast this week to talk about something politicians generally aren't very good at admitting: sometimes helping people actually makes things worse.
Hurst has spent years doing ministry in South Jackson, opening her home to children and families in crisis, and learning firsthand that writing a check is a whole lot easier than actually helping someone change his/her life.
She and Grant talk poverty, dependency, dignity, foster care, the church, government programs, and why compassion without accountability can do more harm than good.
They also discuss how those experiences followed Hurst to the Mississippi Legislature, where she now gets to participate in government's favorite pastime: trying to fix problems government helped create.
And yes, her husband Mike comes up. Apparently one Hurst on the podcast wasn't enough.
7 comments:
Glad to see someone trying to make a difference. I never understood why some churches will go to a third world country and help the poor but won’t lend to hand to people in need right in their own backyard! Well, I know why.
"some churches will go to a third world country and help the poor" Yes, a church I was attending had a youth group go to another country to 'church build', but most of the first hand accounts were going to the mall etc. Very little about actually helping the locals or following up to make sure what you did to help actually helped or that long term church building actually turned into a church for the community and not a barn.
Damn, girl.
I picked up on this quote as a college freshman, multiple decades ago. It's really not that deep, but is revealing:
"If you cannot understand why someone did something, look at the consequences—and infer the motivation."
Another version is: If you want to know why somebody does something, look at what follows. Or...Look at what they do next.
Their motivation could be a multitude of things not by what they do but what they don’t do!
Hats off to her! I quit charitable giving a long time ago since the money failed to reach who needed it. I do the same thing. Help one person at a time. And help those that genuinely want to improve. The problem I run into is this: it wears me out because I don’t see a way out for these guys. Fighting discrimination, poverty and corruption is a losing battle. There are other southern states where race is not a central theme. They have moved on and are better at tackling the real issues. Their white men are not as bigoted and are more productive.
I never understood the need to go to undeveloped countries when our own state is similar to those countries. Why we don’t help our own I will never understand. Having the poor right under their feet gives them power to continue to exploit them yet they go on mission trips. Kinda hypocritical.
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