Boy's Town & He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother

I remember our family receiving mail from Boy's Town. Does anyone else remember those mail outs? I always worried about those boys.

It lead to some good discussion, lessons and learning.

"Are we our brother's keeper?"

My Mom posed this question to me when I was quite young.

Mom grew up in the countryside of Kentucky. Hobos were a common visitor to their door. Mamaw, Papaw and the 5 children would always share their meal. Mom said she remembered the men who walked the rail lines, hopped the trains and tried to find work along the way, as polite but obviously hungry. They NEVER left the family's front door without a home cooked meal, use of the outhouse and kind words. Mamaw would make a plate with food and freshly pumped water and set a table for any passersby on their front porch.
One thing I remember Mom telling me -- talk about actions speaking louder than words . . . .

Papaw would make sure his family had butter for their bread (that they had, of course, churned themselves) and the hobos had butter on their bread while he would wordlessly spread lard on his bread. He NEVER mentioned it. He just did it. Mom told me that she wasn't even sure her siblings noticed.

Of course, she also recounted the story of the Good Samaritan. . . . and one of the greatest commandments: Love your neighbor as you love yourself. (Matthew 22:34-40)
My Mom was raised Protestant and she lived her faith. I think it helped to make her a great Catholic in later life.

*Antony Ashley Cooper, later Lord Shaftesbury is credited with the following quotes:

• By everything true, everything holy, you are your brother's keeper.
• Creed and color, latitude and longitude, make no difference in the essential nature of man.

*Antony Ashley Cooper, later Lord Shaftesbury believed that the teachings of Jesus had implications for enslaved Africans and children toiling in mills. Shaftesbury, a lifelong Tory, focused in Parliament on the plight of the mentally ill, on young chimney sweeps who often died of testicular cancer, on the 30,000 homeless children of Dickensian London. The driving force of all this social activity was his faith. Another quote of his that I like is:

• What is morally right can never be politically wrong, and what is morally wrong can never be politically right.

Boys Town

Founded by Father Edward Joseph Flanagan (1886-1948), an Irish-born Catholic Priest in 1917, Boys Town has a long history of offering help, hope and healing to abused, abandoned, neglected, handicapped or otherwise troubled children.

It moved to larger quarters west of Omaha in 1918, and in 1922 the farm became the incorporated village of Boys Town, Nebraska. In 1977, the first girls moved into Boys Town. On August 25, 2000, the village's residents voted to change their town's name to Girls and Boys Town, Nebraska.

Boys Town was made famous by the movie staring Spencer Tracy who played Father Flanagan.

sources:
Michael Gerson in a review of The Libertarian Jesus.
Christianity Today.com
http://www.boystown.org/home.asp