Recently I had the pleasure of listening to a missionary to foreign country share his stories of grace and mercy in this far off land.  He recounted how the people he worked with did and often encounter persecution and oppression, where the Bible is illegal.  The stories were passionate and inspiring, evidenced by the applause and awes that followed each story.  But then he end by saying he lives here in the US, and that he doesn't live in persecution and oppression. He lives in a local community by my home that is actually thriving.

And my first thought was that I know that community.  It's fairly diverse in culture and race and is thriving, as he said.  But my second thought was that there is a different kind of oppression within this community, one that is extremely easy to miss. In fact, the American dream is built on this kind of oppression.  It's the kind that allows us not to care.  These are homes that cost no less than 700k and include some of the better (but not the best) schools in the area.  (For that you need to begin at 1 million.) But this community is filled with people who have climbed the ladder and achieved the American dream.  They work in the technology companies that fill Silicon Valley.  And the primary advantage of that dream is to pull up to your home at the end of the day, hide away, and not care.

Don't get me wrong.  Some do care.  Some use their wealth and luxury for good in the same