One of the polluted branches

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world"

James 1

Do we believe it?

If this is true, then why do we tend to associate orphans and widows as people who are polluted and end up treating them as pollution ourselves? Orphans aren't just cute little babies wrapped in sackcloth who can't tend to their own needs.

Orphans can be full grown people who have had a fatherless or motherless life and as a result have made bad choices or have lacked guidance. At least in my opinion. Widows in their distress can be men or women who have experienced such loss that they don't know how to deal with their loss and resort to means that we may not agree with. At least in my opinion.

The World in scripture covers a wide variety of things. In our culture, I think it tends to be things like greed, pride, and selfishness along with many other possibilities. Yet, our idea of the pollution of the world tends to be strictly alcohol, drugs, smoking, uncleanliness, and four letter words (#@$%). We want to be religious, so we run from these "pollutants".

What do you think constitutes pollutions that we need to keep ourselves from? And is it the pollutants or those who may be polluted that we avoid?

As a result of this, we are not pure, but tainted. We are not faultless, but at fault. We neglect the orphans and the widows unless of course it means giving money to some poor little aids orphan in Africa. Don't get me wrong, these are good causes too, but in our failed attempts, we create a terrible religion that screams of injustice and pain for orphans and widows.

Lets open our eyes to an old kind of religion that God sees as pure and faultless.

Lets open our eyes to who God views as the orphan and the widow.

Lets show compassion and justice to those who we think least deserve it.