You shall freely open your hand to your sister
I should really not be reading newspapers. Or at least I should not be reading the comments to the articles online.
The first encounter was after a very good article on a man who had gotten help with his abusive behaviour: he has learned not to hit his partner. He says he needs to take care that it doesn't happen again, but that he now has an understanding of the mechanism that helps him prevent it. This, in general, would appear to be progress: he used to hit his partners, he now doesn't. Then I turn to the comments, and find, predictably, the standard comment on men being abused by their partners (female) too. That is mostly boring, but then the writer goes on to say that either women will have to live on the same terms as men, which clearly in his opinion includes getting beaten up regularly, or we will have to accept lower salaries and less influence, because we're not as good as men.
I didn't even have my own standard reaction of 'want to find out in a fight which one of us should have higher salary, boyo?' - I was too disgusted. People who envy others are very unnerving to me, and this guy clearly resents any inroads on what he perceives as his natural privilege. Any power not his is unfairly distributed and should be given back to him.
Then came the article on evicting homeless people, in caravans, from where they've been camping. As you may have noted, if you're European, we had a snowstorm yesterday: that was what they were evicted into. They will have to take their caravans and try to find a place where they can stay with them at least over this current cold spell - we're not, and I say that from having travelled 500 kilometers yesterday, having the weather or the roads for driving a caravan around right now.
The politicians say that this was the date set and they were warned in advance, and one of the commenters says that one shouldn't pity them, they have chosen themselves to be where they are. Obviously nobody's ever in that situation except through making the wrong choices, and everyone who makes the wrong choice ends up there. Life is entirely fair and in your personal control at all times. What planets do such people come from?
The lack of love I see around me appals me - not to mention the lack of shame over the lack of love. What kind of person are you if you cannot feel, in your heart, that everyone is entitled to a life with basic needs met and freedom from violence, a life where we all count equally?
Deut. 15:7-8, 10- 11
7. If there is a poor man with you, one of your brothers, in any of your towns in your land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart, nor close your hand from your poor brother; 8. but you shall freely open your hand to him, and shall generously lend him sufficient for his need in whatever he lacks. 10. You shall generously give to him, and your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him, because for this thing the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in all your undertakings. 11. For the poor will never cease to be in the land; therefore I command you, saying, ‘You shall freely open your hand to your brother, to your needy and poor in your land.’