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.
12 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.
Interesting, but naive comments. Some people go on mission trips to see the world & goof off, but people do mission work in other countries because those poor people don't have the upward mobility that everyone has here in America. A water well in their village gives them all fresh water that doesn't make them sick, saves a lot of time and effort, and gives them time to go to school. A school building gives them a place to go to gather to learn. Those make big differences for not much cost. Spending the same time and money here wouldn't scratch the surface and wouldn't change the trajectory of one person. The millions spent here are mostly just wasted because children are stuck with deadbeat parents & adults are choosing the life they have.
A youth pastor once told me that his toughest job was to explain to his youth that a cruise was not a mission trip!
"Government is not the solution; they are the problem." (Ronald Reagan)
I'll go on this mission trip but only if there is free wifi.
Voluntourism is a harder sell when the destination is Cooper Road and not Costa Rica.
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