Outreach for the Holidays: By James Kim

People forget why they do things. We get angry for something our parents said to us, but the next day we can't even remember what they exactly said - we're just angry. Some girl starts her freshman year at Queens College, and after a few years she can't quite remember why she picked the major she's in. So she decides to switch majors while adding on a couple extra semesters. When we can't remember why, we can't necessarily go on doing what we were doing. A change of course immediately follows a change of motive.

I think this rule applies to the positive parts of our lives, especially because I'm sure a thief doesn't ever need to be reminded of the reason for his passion - stealing. He just steals because he thinks it's great to have free things. Think, however, about why a scientist becomes a scientist. Casting all smaller reasons aside, a scientist becomes what he or she is because they love the work and they are making significant, tangible changes in the physical world. They, for the most part, want to serve humanity. This goes for most doctors, nurses, ministers and social workers. The nobler a person's work is, the more that person needs to be reminded why they do what they do. This is because it is too easy to forget and lose focus of what drove them there in the first place.

Singly, this is the problem that clings to many religious people worldwide. They simply don't know or can't remember why they do what they do. Religion is dangerously close to losing a key fundamental in the turbidity of war, work and play - the passion for community outreach.

The problem of losing the zeal for justice by community outreach is that once we go from being a warm, fervently dynamic organism to becoming a mere social institution that people gravitate to in order to hook up with people of the opposite sex, eat donuts and drink lattes, we lose everything. Justice for the poor and the forgotten in society is the fulfillment of the highest universal laws - love and community.
Take, for instance, the war on terrorism and the dissensions between Christians, Muslims and Jews. We are all quibbling about who did what to whom and when - there's no end to the argumentative strife. But with the sort of tension that's being erected around religion, it is difficult to forget the why, since new reasons for killing are conflagrating every hour. With every bigoted policy and every rocket that rips through a person's home, we each give each other more reason to keep killing. Morbidly, we haven't forgotten the why for the fighting, but we did forget the why for what every developed religion stands for - love.

I'm a Christian, and therefore, I can only speak from a Christian perspective. That standpoint is to love the Holy Trinity of God with all you are and to love each other without contracts or conditions. Those two focuses of love are correlated - if I love my neighbor, it shows that I love God. If I love God, I will love my neighbor, even if he attempts to take my life. Without these tenets (generally speaking), religion, in the words of Martin Luther King Jr., becomes "moribund."

Justice for the poor, sick, orphaned and elderly during this holiday season is not a call just for those who profess faith in God, but a call for anyone who professes faith, period - and that's everyone. This holiday season, let's get back to basics and get out there! Link up with your local church, synagogue, mosque, temple, organization and practice justice, generosity and outreach.

People should not be defined by their profession or job. Isn't it best to say that we are defined by who we are? Well, who you are is shown in what you do. You may plan on becoming a doctor, nurse, writer, teacher or scientist. But what kind of doctor, nurse, writer, teacher or scientist do you plan on becoming? The late Mother Theresa of Calcutta, India, once said, "We can do no great things, only small things with great love. It is not how much you do but how much love you put into doing it."