5 Sept 2014-
I haven’t done it and I don’t know if I will. Dumping ice water over your head and posting the video on social media. Don’t get me wrong, I certainly believe in the cause, and even more important, in the man behind it. I am a proud alumnus of Boston College, and since former BC ball player Pete Frates started this whole movement, I couldn’t be more supportive. Promoting awareness and more importantly raising funds for ALS is a worthy cause.
ALS, more commonly referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that attacks nerve cells and pathways in the brain and spinal cord. When the cells die so do voluntary muscle movement and control. In the later stages of the disease a person is totally paralyzed even though their minds remain alert.
Pete Frates is only 26 years old, but despite being confined to a wheelchair and on a respirator and feeding tube, he is leading the Ice Bucket Challenge. Pete’s initiative has already raised more than $53 million for ALS research. It is a great idea especially the part about challenging three friends to do it as well. Of course the best part is raising money to find a cure for ALS. It has been 75 years since Gehrig gave his famous “luckiest man on the face of the earth” speech and there still is not a cure or even an effective treatment for ALS.
But I do have my concerns or at least reservations about the whole charity selfie phenomenon. I was recently reading about the history of Hawaii. The stories of the sacrifices Christian missionaries made to serve the people of Hawaii were incredible. Just to get to Hawaii required a six-month sea journey around Cape Horn navigating through some of the most treacherous waters in the world. The hardships these people went through just to get to Hawaii included seasickness, starvation and even death. They graduated from places like Yale and Princeton and gave up everything to serve in a foreign land. They received no salary, left behind all their family and had to start ministries from scratch. Once they got there they had to learn a new language and a whole new culture. Their wives died delivering children because there were no doctors. These missionaries were attacked and their churches burned because whalers and other sailors did not like the Christian teaching that young women should not be sexually abused.
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