CIM Social Justice Blog
Wed Oct 10, 2007
Oxygen Starved
In a recent interview responding to the possibility of Giuliani taking the GOP nomination in 2008, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission made a statement that I found interesting:
"Most evangelicals have been voting Republican because they were given a bright-line choice between a pro-life candidate and a pro-choice candidate. If that issue were taken off the table, then other issues get oxygen, issues where evangelicals are not nearly as certain that Republicans offer the best answer. Issues like economic justice, racial reconciliation, the environment."
I know that abortion has been made into one of the two primary polarizing issues in American politics. But as one of those odd fish who don't view it as a bright line issue, I wonder how accurate that prediction is. If you are pro-life but otherwise progressively inclined, would you vote for a pro-life candidate whose policies would exacerbate global poverty, who uses racial issues as a wedge, and who puts corporate profit above our collective stewardship over creation? Perhaps you already have...
From a Scriptural perspective, this makes little sense to me. The Bible talks a tremendous amount about our responsibility towards the poor and disenfranchised. The Gospel message is one in which the dividing lines of race and culture are set aside. According to the Yahwist story of creation, our first and foremost task is to tend and care for creation. Why should these central aspects of an authentically Biblical faith be starved of oxygen, lying clammy and unresponsive like a sleep-numbed arm across the face of sleeping American evangelicalism?
That thing's going to tingle like heck when it wakes up.
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Fri Sep 14, 2007
A Crowd of Strangers
I spend too much time shuttling from one place to another under internal combustion propulsion, so earlier this week (on my pastor's Monday off) I took the opportunity to walk my errands. First to the kid's school, where money needed to be put into lunch accounts. Then to Home Depot for a couple of locksets for the new energy efficient doors we're installing. It'll be nice not to feel great waves of cold air coming into the house in winter. From there, on to GameCrazy to pick up Metroid Prime for the Wii. There was...um...a little less point to that errand...but it was right next to Home Depot, so I figured, why not?
Total elapsed distance, on foot, about 3.5 miles. What makes it worth it is that the most direct route to Home Depot...on foot, mind you, not ensconced in a hermetically sealed personal transport pod...involves hiking through a 175 acre patch of parkland. When you're deep along a forested path, it's easy to imagine oneself back a century or more, doing the Laura Ingalls Wilder thing and walking the path to the general store in town. Though I don't think Laura was quite as fond of first person shooters as I am.
Of course, those folk also weren't strangers in the woods the way that I am. Human beings used to have a clue about the world around them, about the names of the trees and the uses of the plants, about the cries of the birds and their meanings. But when I walk through this little patch of Virginia forest, I'm walking through a crowd of strangers. Unlike Adam in that sacred story, I don't know..for sure..the names of a single one of the trees, even though I've seen them a hundred times. It's like encountering someone you've talked with at church repeatedly, but whose name eludes you. It's almost gotten too embarrassing to ask...."Um...what was your name again?"
I think that deep functional ignorance that we have of the trees and the plants and the birds hurts our ability to serve as stewards over creation. Though it shouldn't be the case, there is a truth about human beings: we care most deeply about the people we know by name. When woodlands are just a nameless mass of green, it makes it harder to care.
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Mon Sep 03, 2007
Paying for Health Care
In America, the debate over health care is a complex one. People discuss whether privately or publicly funded systems would be in our best interest; what is causing the inflated prices of health care; why we are so unhealthy; why so many people are un- or under-insured, and what, if anything, we should do about it; and a myriad of other issues. But when all else is stripped away, people are really getting polarized about one issue: whether society should collectively pay for the mistakes—or the misfortunes—of individuals, or whether each individual should take care of him- or herself.
This, however, is a grave mistake, because it misses a certain glaring reality: we do pay for other people’s problems in some way or another, regardless of whether or not we should have to!
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Opposition to Evil
On a friend’s blog, this question has come up: Why are liberals so opposed to fighting evil? More specifically, why to liberals seem so willing to defend Islamist radicals who are far more conservative than the Religious Right—while simultaneously criticizing the Religious Right for being “barbaric”?
Well, first of all I must say that I cannot speak for those who unduly condone Islamist practices while condemning American conservatives. But I can say some words on behalf of progressive Christians who oppose this war.
In a word, we are absolutely committed to opposing evil in all its forms. But we do have some conditions on how this should be done.
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Mon Jul 16, 2007
Faith and Hope
The other day I watched a video about single mothers struggling in America over the last few years that was extremely powerful. It showed a mother of three children whose husband left her. In order to provide for her family she needed to work three jobs and juggle trying to be there for her kids. One of her kids was having behavioral problems at school and the teacher began getting frustrated with the mother’s inaction. When the camera switches back to the mother, she looks extremely tired, but she explains that she loves her children. She says that she has punished him, provided extra school materials, tried to reward him in different ways, and even worked more to pay for a tutor.
It was obvious, the only thing that this mother could do for her child would be to spend more time with him. Unfortunately, if she wanted to put food on their table, this was not an option.
Often on this blog and in person, I tell these stories repeatedly. I talk about single mothers, poverty in the world, injustices, war, racism, prejudice against gay people, etc. Every now and then someone will ask me how I do not get depressed talking about these topics all the time. There is only one answer to this – Hope.
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Sat Jun 23, 2007
Poverty as a Reflection of Salvation
The topic of poverty has continued to be on my mind as of late. God has really blessed me in that my heart and mind generally have a concern for poverty in America and around the world, but it has been increasing as of late as Jess and I search out ways to serve or ways to promote change in this area. I believe that the Lord really put into my heart and pointed me to scripture in the last few days that illustrate that our concern for the poor reflects our salvation and the way that we view God. I have realized that the scriptures that I have been meditating on are some of the strongest statements in the Bible. The scripture tells us that the way that we help the poor directly represents the way we view God and in fact our relationship with God. Our interaction with poverty is one of the only things directly compared to Christ:
Matthew 25:45 "He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.' 46 "Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."
Proverbs 14:31 He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.
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Thu Jun 14, 2007
Does the University Help Cultivate Christian Faith?
Interestingly, a large, new study suggests that attending and completion of college leads to less of a decrease in faith. If this survey proves trustworthy, it would seem that all of the talk about the effects of liberal secularism in the University have been grossly overstated. Of course, there have been studies showing that Professors are more secular or non-Christian than the rest of society in general (although I would argue that these results are manipulated, as they should be compared with others in their economic bracket - as people in the lowest income brackets generally have the largest numbers of people that claim faith), but this study suggests that the University does not steer students away from faith. Matter of fact, I would argue that the critical thinking skills that Professors cultivate in students actually encourages a stronger, more intricate faith. And these statistics reinforce my beliefs. I know that for myself, questioning of my faith, and analyzing why I believe what I believe has been one of the biggest positive influences on my growth as a Christian.
The specifics of the study show that while young adults tend to steer away from the faith of their youth in general, the more higher education that they receive, the more likely they are to either maintain their faith or return to it. Here are the exact stats:
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Fri Jun 08, 2007
Personal Salvation, Business, and Consumerism
I have been thinking a lot this morning about the following questions:
Can Christians reconcile a strong difference between their personal morality and their business transactions? In other words, can we as Christians, be consistently unfair in our business dealings, yet moral in our personal life? I think most would argue that the answer is no. If we are consistantly lacking morality in our business dealings, then most likely it represents some problems in our personal relationship with God.
Then, let us take it to the next step. Can we be irresponsible and harmful in our practices as a consumer, and yet strong in our personal morality? Can we shop, consume, and waste in a way that shows lack of care, love, stewardship, and justice, yet be strong in our personal walk with God?
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Wed Jun 06, 2007
Commuting for Christ?
One of the things I find myself struggling about in my pastoral role is the...oh...how to put this...raging lack of carbon neutrality that goes hand-in-hand with pastoral expectations in a suburban society.
On a good day, I'm about a 25 minute drive from my church, and my congregants are scattered over a pretty substantial metropolitan area. This evening, for example, I'm going to be leading a Bible study that takes me around 45 miles from my home. That pales in comparison to some of the commutes that I hear of among my other colleagues in ministry. There are folks who travel for hours daily, both to and from their congregations but also to and from meetings. The expectation for pastors is that you're nearly always on the go somewhere, racking up the miles for Jesus.
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Sun Jun 03, 2007
Being Christ Wherever We Are
Recently, David wrote a post entitled Articulating Justice, to which an anonymous commenter responded by asking whether the best way to bring justice in this world is to bring people to Christ, so that they no longer will experience the injustice of not knowing Him.
I thought about this, and have not known exactly how to respond-- until today, when my church brought a guest speaker from our denomination's mission network. He spoke about a recent trip he took to Afghanistan, during which time he spent much time with mission workers from both multiple faith backgrounds. He described their work as multi-faceted: one woman teaches kindergarten and works at building relationships with local women; several men work to bring sustainable electricity sources to towns and villages in their region; and so on.
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