An excerpt from an online news story…

U.S. “outraged” by Myanmar’s response to cyclone

In Myanmar, desperate survivors cried out for aid nearly a week after 100,000 people were feared killed by Cyclone Nargis.

Reminds me of another country’s slow response…

Whatever you say about Barack Obama’s politics, you have to give him credit for being an incredibly thoughtful person in terms of faith. This is one of the main reasons I am attracted to him. Unlike many politicians I’ve heard speak on this issue, who I often wonder aren’t just pandering to those on the far right, Obama’s belief seems to be genuine. The fact that he can speak to a mixed crowd and affirm his Christian faith, and still walk away with their respect and support is quite an achievement. I certainly hope that those who identify themselves as Christians will at least be fair enough to acknowledge this point.

In a June 2007 speech in Connecticut, Obama describes his religious conversion.

So one Sunday, I put on one of the few clean jackets I had, and went over to Trinity United Church of Christ on 95th Street on the South Side of Chicago. And I heard Reverend Jeremiah A. Wright deliver a sermon called The Audacity of Hope. And during the course of that sermon, he introduced me to someone named Jesus Christ. I learned that my sins could be redeemed. I learned that those things I was too weak to accomplish myself, He would accomplish with me if I placed my trust in Him. And in time, I came to see faith as more than just a comfort to the weary or a hedge against death, but rather as an active, palpable agent in the world and in my own life.

It was because of these newfound understandings that I was finally able to walk down the aisle of Trinity one day and affirm my Christian faith. It came about as a choice, and not an epiphany. I didn’t fall out in church, as folks sometimes do. The questions I had didn’t magically disappear. The skeptical bent of my mind didn’t suddenly vanish. But kneeling beneath that cross on the South Side, I felt I heard God’s spirit beckoning me. I submitted myself to His will, and dedicated myself to discovering His truth and carrying out His works.

Beatrice was 7-years-old when her 15-year-old sister went into labor. She had been living with her for a couple of years, ever since their mother had died, and was looking forward to becoming an aunt. Birth is supposed to be a joyous occasion, but in many developing countries it is often bittersweet. Beatrice’s sister died in childbirth, leaving her newborn daughter and young sister at the mercy of the remaining family. No one wanted the burden, they could not afford another mouth to feed, so Beatrice stepped forward and said “I will take her.”

My church is hosting the World Vision AIDS Tent Exhibit this week and since I’ll be volunteering at some of the shifts I walked through the exhibit today in preparation.

Beatrice is one of three real children’s identities you can assume in the experience. Each child lives in Africa and is affected by poverty, war, rape, and HIV/AIDS. It is a powerful experience to be transported to another life audibly and visually and to try to grasp that the story you are in is real. Part of the experience is going to a clinic to be tested for HIV. It is difficult to explain how it feels sitting there waiting to hear the outcome. Am I, this child, infected? If so, I know that I will become an outcast in my community, that I will be ignored and shunned, and that I will probably die alone. I pray that my child does not have the virus.

Currently, 2.5 million children have HIV/AIDS and some 15 million have lost one or both parents to the pandemic, with the number increasing daily by 6000. With the staggering number of orphans, mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa, the number of child-headed households has increased, of which Beatrice is part of. Unfortunately, many of these young children trade sex for food or are raped, resulting in the contraction of HIV. And so the terrible cycle continues.

For two years Beatrice cared for her niece Miriam, begging for food, and living in her sister’s small hut. With no help from the community, orphans are considered a burden and are left to themselves, Beatrice prayed regularly that God would save them. Her niece had barely grown in that time and couldn’t even sit up by herself. They were regularly cold and malnourished. Their situation was desperate when God heard her prayer and sent a caregiver to help them.

The woman, named Happiness, was a Zambian working with World Vision. She provided food, clothes, and blankets for the children and regularly connected with them. Through her help, Beatrice and Miriam are doing better, though Beatrice remains the primary caregiver of her niece. Fortunately, Beatrice has not contracted HIV though it is likely that her niece has it since her sister was HIV positive.

It is hard for me to grasp that a 7-year-old would willingly take on the burden to care for a newborn and that she would do it alone. It is hard for me to know where God is in all of this. But thankfully, there are people and organizations that He is working through to bring about awareness and change. I pray that the tent exhibit would do that in our community this week.

2008 is going to be an exciting year for me. I’ve begun training for the San Francisco AIDS Marathon August 3rd. That’s right, 26.2 miles. I can already hear the crowds cheering.

I’ve long wanted to run a marathon but I decided on this year for a couple of reasons. First, I’m turning 30, and since I wanted to run one before entering the next decade of my life, I am left with no other time but the present.

But more importantly, I am running the marathon because of the cause. Last fall our church hosted a conference titled HIV and the Heart of God. We heard from speakers from the majority world, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, about the ever-growing AIDS/HIV pandemic; how millions are stricken with the disease and millions more are widowed and orphaned. Needless to say it was a lot to take in, and very easy to feel overwhelmed. So, when I heard about the AIDS Marathon I realized that it was a perfect fit: run a marathon before I turn 30 and tangibly participate in the fight against AIDS.

I’ll be training with the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, the leading provider of AIDS services in the Bay Area. Of the millions of people living with the disease, more than one million are Americans. In particular, the Bay Area has one of the highest rates of AIDS in the nation – one in fifty people here are living with HIV.

The money my teammates and I raise will enable the San Francisco AIDS Foundation to continue to provide important AIDS services in the Bay Area as well as support a new initiative, the Pangaea Fund, that supports treatment in the developing word, both of which are desperately needed.

To sponsor me visit my AIDS Marathon website at www.aidsmarathon.com to make a donation on my behalf.

I have a lot of miles ahead of me (by race day I will have logged almost 500) but I am looking forward to accomplishing one of my lifetime goals and tangibly supporting this great cause.

Did you know that three of the largest candy and chocolate companies in the country, Nestle, Hershey’s and Mars/MMs are associated with child labor and unfair wages? That’s right, each time you buy and eat MMs, Snickers, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups or whichever of those chocolate treats gets your mouth watering, you are contributing to a growing problem along Africa’s Ivory Coast, the largest producer and exporter of cocoa beans.

Much like sex trafficking among young girls, traffickers target impoverished young boys aged 12 to 16 years, promising them work, housing, and education; and those who aren’t tricked into slavery are kidnapped and sold into it.

Once enslaved, the boys live in inhumane conditions: they are often malnourished, beaten, forced to work more than 12 hours per day without breaks, and kept in crowded living quarters under lock and key.

All three companies are aware of the dark underbelly of cocoa production, and none of them have taken firm measures to disengage themselves from the problem.

In a world where human rights violations is the status quo, it is easy to become overwhelmed and apathetic; the issue becomes too great for us to handle and so we do nothing out of paralysis.

Thankfully, in this area, we can stand against child slave labor by boycotting these companies and committing to buy fair trade chocolate. According to Wikipedia, Fair trade is an organized social movement and market-based model of international trade which promotes the payment of a fair price as well as social and environmental standards in areas related to the production of a wide variety of goods. Chocolate is one of these goods.

Though it will require sacrifice, all of my favorite candy bars are produced by one of those three, I am thankful that there is a way to stand in solidarity with these children and say that what is happening to them is not okay. Besides, there are plenty of stores that sell Fair Trade chocolate, Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods among them.

Some resources about the issue and to help you find Fair Trade chocolate.
Economics of Cocoa
Fair Trade Chocolate
Co-op America
Stop Chocolate Slavery

I just finished reading Philip Pullman’s trilogy, His Dark Materials (The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass) and have mixed feelings about it. First, I have to give Pullman credit for his ability to spin a good yarn. Though I found myself struggling at times with his treatment of “the Church”, I did care enough about Will and Lyra to want to follow them through to the end of their journey. His alternate worlds were interesting enough, especially his creation of daemons, a manifestation of the soul as an animal. And the woman you love to hate, Mrs. Coulter, was an especially good villian, though I did find myself liking her by the end.

Despite these things, however, I found his potrayal of the Church unjust. For those who haven’t read the books, “the Church” is responsible for horrible crimes against children and humanity in general. It’s sole purpose to create conformity and something close to unconsciousness in order to eradicate sin.

Though I won’t argue that some of the Church has been this cruel in the past, and will likely continue to be in the future, I do heartily disagree with the conclusions he draws about the Church as a whole and furthermore, the people who comprise it. Pullman demonizes anyone associated with the church, using statements like “all churches everywhere,” and “these people are fanatics.” It saddens me to think that he has either never met someone who self-identifies as a Christian that he can respect or that he has already passed judgment on them because they believe differently.

Pullman is a self-proclaimed atheist and his books clearly depict his worldview, that God doesn’t exist and has been created as a means of control. I don’t really mind this. God has always been dead to some, has always been a human creation. His idea is nothing new and he is, of course, entitled to it. What I want is a fair depiction of those who believe that God is real, characters that aren’t flat, characters that are more human than automaton.

The interesting thing about Pullman’s worldview is that I find his explanation of the ways things are unsatisfying. His very scientific explanation for existence leaves me unconvinced that his two main characters should love so fiercely and sacrifice so freely, as they do at the end. Love can’t be entirely explained in scientific terms, there is some element of mystery, some deep longing that goes beyond wanting to ensure our genes are passed on to the next generation. This is certainly true for his Will and Lyra.

So would I recommend the series? Maybe. It depends on the person. In general, I think Pullman’s worldview is common among many people and reading the books would be a good way to think critically about that as well as to be honest with ourselves about the Church’s abuse of power. The books can also lead to some interesting conversations and hopefully enlightenment about what the Bible really teaches (see the end of the first book for Pullman’s revised version of Genesis 3). That being said, I certainly wouldn’t recommend it for young children, unless their parents had read it first and were willing to discuss it with them.

I didn’t realize that today was World Communion Sunday until I got to church and looked at our bulletin. It was full of tributes to different cultures, from the African choral of which Joe participated, to the visiting Ugandan student pastor, Gabriel Iguma, to the time of communion where 17 different languages were spoken. This was my favorite part of the service. I love learning, hearing, and speaking different languages so you can imagine my excitement at hearing the scriptures read in Arabic, Cantonese, French, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Luganda, Mandarin, Portuguese, Romanian, American Sign Language, Spanish, Swiss German, Swedish, Kinyarwanda, and Runyankole. God’s love for every tribe, tongue, and nation was so palpable at that moment that it brought tears to my eyes. And what’s more, all of those people, with the exception of the visiting Ugandan minister, are part of our church. I love it.

Our chuch ended their week-long Vacation Bible School program with the kids singing their theme song, “If We Had a Hammer,” at our morning service. The week’s theme, Habitat for Humanity: Kids Under Construction, focused on how the kids could serve both their local and global communities and how taking part in justice is an act of worship to God. During the week they did a number of projects that could be given away to needy families and had a school supply drive for kids in Njera, Uganda.

It was cool being at work and hearing people talk about this church in Berkeley that was focusing on Habitat for Humanity as their vacation school theme, and even cooler that I could say “Yeah I know that church. That’s my church.”

But I was even more excited in service today when I saw all of the kids who had just learned about people outside of themselves, and who were singing about bringing justice to the world, because someday we might have kids of our own up there, and I can think of no better message to teach them.

We are so lucky to be part of a church that teaches its youngest members about one of the most talked about issues in the Bible: caring for the poor and bringing justice to the oppressed. What an amazing way to show their neighbors that following Jesus is about more than singing happy songs and feeling good about themselves.

In one of my earlier posts I mentioned a book I recently finished on the global slave trade: Not for Sale, by David Batstone. Given that this is one of the biggest moral issues of our time it is well worth reading.
You might also find this recent discussion of his book with Authors@Google interesting.

Authors@Google

Joe and I are taking a class at our church this summer titled: Human Dignity and the Strange World of Biblical Economics, taught by an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at a nearby Seminary. It looks like it will be a perfect complement to the book I just finished reading by our pastor, The Dangerous Act of Worship: Living God’s Call to Justice, and a perfect precursor to my new reading endeavor, Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger by Ronald Sider.

I’m really excited to participate in this class given my passion for social justice and poverty issues and I’m even more excited that it will be taught through a biblical lens, specifically the Old Testament since that was the text that Jesus used to call His followers to live counter-culturally.

It has been discussions like this and others that have kept me anchored in a turbulent sea of doubt and confusion about my Christian faith. A little less than two years ago I was ready to walk away from God completely, regardless if the essentials were true. I had grown tired of the ‘me-focused’ message I was surrounded by: my spiritual growth, my experience of worship, my daily disciplines, my whatever. And if it wasn’t about me, then it was about helping others to understand these same ‘me’ things. Christianity felt irrelevant, like some club with a series of secret handshakes that if done correctly won you an eternal membership.

It all seemed so ridiculous when I considered the fact that the majority of people in the world, about 3 billion, live on less than $2 per day and roughly 34,000 children die daily from starvation and preventable diseases. How could my Christian experience offer any hope to these people? How could it even be relevant? I decided if this was what following Christ was really about then God was cruel and I wanted nothing to do with Him.

Thankfully I have come to see that God does care for the poor, the oppressed, and the downtrodden. He grieves at the loss of each one made in His image. He cares about their whole person, not just their spiritual dimension, as if we can separate people into such defined categories.

He cares about the almost 400,000 Sudanese who have been killed in the Darfurian genocide, and the more than 2 million who have been displaced from their homes and live in refuge camps. He cares about the 50,000 children who are abducted each year in Northern Uganda and who are forced to become child soldiers and for the thousands of ‘night commuters’ who travel daily to the city to sleep in hopes of being spared their friends’ fate. He cares about the millions who go to bed hungry and who can’t afford the education to break the viscious cycle. He isn’t impressed by our American ‘pull yourself up by your boot-strap’ philosophy that spills over into the way we view those less fortunate than ourselves.

He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the LORD require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,[a]
and to walk humbly with your God?
-Micah 5:8

God actually has some stern and sobering things to say to His people who overlook His commands. Jesus, in one of his stories, paints a picture for us about the importance of caring for the tangible needs of the world.

1 “But when the Son of Man[a] comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit upon his glorious throne. 32 All the nations[b] will be gathered in his presence, and he will separate the people as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will place the sheep at his right hand and the goats at his left.

34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. 36 I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’

37 “Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? 39 When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’

40 “And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters,[c] you were doing it to me!’

41 “Then the King will turn to those on the left and say, ‘Away with you, you cursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his demons.[d] 42 For I was hungry, and you didn’t feed me. I was thirsty, and you didn’t give me a drink. 43 I was a stranger, and you didn’t invite me into your home. I was naked, and you didn’t give me clothing. I was sick and in prison, and you didn’t visit me.’

44 “Then they will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and not help you?’

45 “And he will answer, ‘I tell you the truth, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.’

46 “And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous will go into eternal life.”
-Matthew 25:31-46

Though I am overwhelmed by the level of need in our world, I take comfort that God is ultimately responsible to bring about change and healing. And I marvel at our participation in the process. As I learn more about myself and how God has uniquely created me, I am confident that He has called me to be a spokesperson in some way for those who are oppressed or poor. As I continue to learn what it means to be a disciple of Jesus I hope to gain clarity about how I can use my gifts and abilities to ‘do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with my God’ for my life’s work.

I am thankful for my pastor, the L’Abri workers, and my husband and friends who, over the past year-and-a-half, have shown me that following Jesus is relevant to all people and spheres of life and who have affirmed my strengths and passions. I am thankful that God allowed me to know poverty, hunger, and injustice so I can always identify with those I seek to serve, and I am thankful for the things that He spared me from. I am thankful that He brought us to the Bay Area and for the diversity of people, both in ethnicity and worldview, who we have met here. I am thankful that when I was ready to walk away, God met me in that place and didn’t chastise me, but welcomed the hard questions, and still welcomes them.