Our Better Selves

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

The December NBC/Wall Street Journal Poll released this week contained a very interesting question that had an even more interesting result. The survey asked respondents if they would be willing to give up five percent of their pay in order to keep co-workers from being laid off. Surprisingly (at least to me), sixty-four percent of the survey participants said that they would. Twenty-seven percent were grinches and said that they would not accept a five percent reduction in pay to save someone else's job.

Those results extrapolated across the nation indicate that nearly two out of three Americans would accept a pay cut if it meant that someone else could keep their job. That result is something to be celebrated! Just when it looks as though we are destined to be the constant victims of greed and fear, along comes this result as a reminder that we are basically a good and decent species.

Being a good Christian isn't about belonging to a congregation and tithing each week. It is more food pantry than cathedral, more soup kitchen than banquet hall, more rough and dirty hands than ones that are manicured, and more promise of love than fear of hellfire. Being a good Christian is about following the teachings of Christ and looking out after one another. Sixty-four percent of us are good people, whether we claim the Christian label or not. And in this day and age, sixty-four percent ain't too shabby!