PRISM Vol. 20, No. 5 Fall 2013
Editor Creative Director Copy Editor Deputy Director Publisher Operations Manager
Kristyn Komarnicki Rhian Tomassetti Leslie Hammond Sarah Withrow King Al Tizon & Paul Alexander Josh Cradic
Contributing Editors Christine Aroney-Sine Myron Augsburger
Clive Calver Rudy Carrasco Andy Crouch Gloria Gaither David P. Gushee Jan Johnson Craig S. Keener Peter Larson Richard Mouw Philip Olson Jenell Williams Paris Christine Pohl James Skillen James Edwards Jim Wallis
Issac Canales M. Daniel Carroll R. J. James DeConto Perry Glanzer Ben Hartley Stanley Hauerwas Jo Kadlecek Marcie Macolino Mary Naber Earl Palmer Derek Perkins Elizabeth D. Rios Lisa Thompson Heidi Rolland Unruh Bruce Wydick
Subscription Information Renewing your subscription? Visit EvangelicalsforSocialAction.org/PRISMRenew Regular PRISM Subscription Only $24 a year. Type: US/Canada via air mail Good Stewards Subscription (PDF) Receive the same PRISM as everyone else but in your email box. Now free! International Subscription Receive PRISM via PDF only. Now free! Library Subscription Order PRISM for your library! Only $45 a year. PRISMmagazine.org P.O. Box 367 Wayne, PA 19087 484-384-2990/PRISM@eastern.edu Note: Standard A mail is not forwarded; please contact us if your address changes.
A Publication of Evangelicals for Social Action The Sider Center on Ministry and Public Policy EvangelicalsforSocialAction.org Palmer Theological Seminary of Eastern University
All contents © 2013 ESA/PRISM magazine.
“…whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God.” 1 Corinthians 10:31
CONTENTS 2 REFLECTIONS Faith at Work
3 TALK BACK
Letters to the Editor
FALL 2013
8 THE PRIESTHOOD OF ALL BELIEVERS
The Center for Faith & Work helps New York City Christians integrate their faith and their professions in order to bring justice and shalom to the world around them.
12 THE ETERNAL VALUE OF “WHATEVER YOU DO”
4 MUSIC NOTES
Is This Here What Jesus Would Do?
Businessman Hugh Whelchel’s outlook on his profession changed radically when he discovered that God calls us to exercise the presence and lordship of Christ over every part of our work.
5 ART & SOUL
16 GENERATION E
Beyond the Fig Leaf
6 MAY I HAVE A WORD?
Resisting Drone Warfare
Meet three young entrepreneurs whose faith motivates them to create, take risks, and do great things for God. Also: Entrepreneurs for Social Action!
7 GLOBAL POSITIONS
22 THE SHOE ON THE OTHER FOOT
45 WASHINGTON WATCH
24 LEANING INTO JESUS
Bono on Capitalism with a Conscience Evangelicals and the Death Penalty
46 A DIFFERENT SHADE OF GREEN Breaking the Resource Curse
47 EDU-CARE
Racial Diversity in Higher Education
A look at the pitfall of one-for-one giving versus the power of indigenous enterprise. When we give in response to the gospel, we see our worry transform into worship, our craving into contentment, and our pride into humility.
28 CONFESSIONS OF A SUNDAY SCHOOL SUPERSTAR
A mea culpa about the temptation to embrace religiosity over revelation.
34 FINDING HOPE ONE CHILD AT A TIME
48 OFF THE SHELF Book reviews
The street children of Kampala are terrorized by callous citizens, a brutal police force, and witch doctors in search of human flesh. Meet the courageous people who struggle to save them and restore their human dignity.
51 LEADING LADIES
38 THE DANGERS OF VOLUNTOURISM
Who Leads the Leading Ladies?
52 MINISTRY MATTERS
Healer & Truth-Teller: Becca Stevens
54 HANDS & FEET Loving Locally
55 ESXATON
On Earth as It Is in Heaven
56 THE LAST WORD
The Western church supports thousands of orphanages in developing countries, but it seems we’re doing more harm than good.
42 ECCLESIA BEHIND THE RAZOR WIRE
Christ’s body is alive and well in America’s prisons, and it is prisoners themselves who are shepherding the flock.
Reflections from the Editor
lifts our work far above the usual implications of paper-pushing, ditch-digging, meal-serving, and thing-making. Whatever our work involves, it is sacred work, and more than that, it is a partnership with God and all God’s people in the shared work of building God’s kingdom. But bringing theology to bear on the workplace is not a superficial application of godliness onto our activity of employment. It is an inside-out process of letting Christ transform our hearts and minds, a transformation that will in turn manifest itself in the excellence of our work, the quality of our relationships with hances are good that work occupies a macoworkers, and the integrity of our decisions. jor part of your life. Most of us work more When we sow peace on the job, refuse to use hours than we sleep and certainly more others for our own gain, speak truth to power, hours than we play—or pray. Even if we’re unand advocate for those with less influence, we employed, the search for work and the anxiety will—whether in a janitor’s uniform or a threethat comes from its absence can easily preocpiece suit—glorify God and cultivate the comcupy our waking hours. mon good. But how we view our work can make the Some people I know are down on their difference between duty and delight, between work. They think that while John and Jane have tolerable necessity and purposeful passion. “real” jobs—because John’s salary is high or How do you view work? As Adam’s curse, Jane does the “Lord’s work” as a pastor—their the need to extract a living through painful toil own job is less significant or valuable in God’s and by the sweat of your brow? Or as an opporeyes. They avoid mentioning their work at a partunity to partner with God to help nurture the ty; they endure the tasks of their work instead common good (and grow your own heart while of seeing the intrinsic value in what they do and you’re at it)? how they can do it with excellence, “in the name A holistic faith doesn’t leave Jesus behind of the Lord” (Col. 3:17) and “for the glory of in the morning, sealed up in our Bible like a God” (1 Cor. 10:31). bookmark after devotions. A holistic faith takes That makes me sad. I’m confident that, in the years before A holistic faith doesn’t leave Jesus behind in the Jesus started his morning, sealed up in our Bible like a bookmark after devotions. A holistic faith takes Jesus right along with public ministry, back when he was us—to the office, classroom, lab, factory, workshop, “just” a carpenter, field, or wherever our occupation leads us. he was every bit Jesus right along with us—to the office, classas much God’s man as when he was teaching, room, lab, factory, workshop, field, or wherever preaching, and healing. When he quoted a job, our occupation leads us. Whether domestic or measured a cut, or sanded an edge, he was docommercial, manual or intellectual, our work ing it “as to the Lord, and not to men” (Eph. has theological implications as we move in the 6:7). world. Are Christians equipped for ministry in We can, too, whether we’re serving coffee the workplace as well as in the home, church, or signing contracts, wiping children’s noses or and neighborhood? If not, why not? How can writing patients’ prescriptions, selling newspapersonal faith and the public workplace intersect in a meaningful way? These are the kinds of questions we Kristyn Komarnicki’s work wrestle with in this issue of PRISM. Imagine if life has included cleaning every Christian came to understand his/her toilets, teaching English, work as “a sacred stewardship,” as Carl F. H. waiting tables, writing copy, Henry described it. Henry believed that in fulfillpeeling potatoes, styling ing our job every believer “will either accredit photos, washing dishes, and or violate the Christian witness.” That certainly editing PRISM.
C
2
per subscriptions or running a nonprofit. Hey, think of all the long hours, unruly staff, disgruntled customers, and unannounced religious inspections that Jesus had to put up with, in spite of being the most hailed rabbi in the world. He did it all with grace, truth, and beauty. And he calls us—and equips us—to do the same.
This issue’s contributors include:
Janell Anema
Christopher Hutton
Harold Dean Trulear
Shane Enete
Shannon Sutherland Smith
Katherine Knarr
Tania DoCarmo
Landon Eckhardt
Marg Herder’s review of Does Jesus Really Love Me? in the Summer issue states that the author, Jeff Chu, is “unwilling to remain celibate, believing there must be another path to reconciliation.” Near the end of her review, Herder says that Chu “has come to understand his homosexuality as something fundamental and innate, but has not yet been able to sufficiently distance himself from the view that an angry God sits in judgment of him because of it.” By refusing to remain celibate, Chu is in fact defiantly rebelling against God. Apart from repentance, such willful disobedience will surely result in divine judgment, as Scripture unambiguously teaches. We do no favors to practicing homosexuals if we pretend otherwise. Mike Nacrelli Portland, Ore.
step by giving me opportunities to share the gospel with nonbelievers who ask me why I choose to eat what I eat. I have the perfect window to explain to them the God over all creation (Psalm 24:1), the maker of heaven and earth (Genesis 1), and his great care and compassion for his creatures (Psalm 145:9), so great that he gave his only Son to die as a ransom for our sins and to reconcile the whole world to himself, making peace by the blood of the cross (Colossians 1:15-20). Keep up the fight!
Sarah Withrow King’s “Step Over a Homeless Man to Feed His Dog—and Other Things I’ve Never Had to Do as an Animal Advocate” in the Summer issue is an eloquent, succinct, well-researched, and spiritual essay conveying a call to return to true spirituality and the intention of Christ’s teachings. It comes at a time when I, and others I’ve met, feel alienated from structured religion and dismayed by the age-old and continued hijacking of God’s Word by people looking to advance their personal power and fortunes. Thanks, too, for referencing wise thinkers such as Andrew Linzey as well as industry and government studies that add insight to this well-rounded examination. By the way, I have discovered two traits shared by the people who ask why I don’t advocate as frequently for starving children and other humancentric causes as I do for abused and neglected animals who are suffering. They do not acknowledge their own disproportionate use of food, water, and other resources (far more than mine) that are needed by disadvantaged human beings as much as by God’s animals. And they themselves give little or no time and money to human-centric causes. Many, when asked, cannot even name a specific charity; they might say, “Well, cancer charities.” To which I say, “Most cancers and other deadly diseases can be prevented and even sometimes reversed by eating a more compassionate diet free of the meat of animals (including birds and fish) and animal-derived products.”
Paul Alexander’s “Raced as White” in the Summer issue is a ridiculous claptrap homogenization of newspeak, trying to guilt whites into feeling bad about simply having less pigment in their skin than others. In the history of the world, people have enslaved other races, other ethnic groups, other tribes, other countries, since human history started. Yes, some whites are still racist, as are many blacks, Native Americans, Asians, etc. But as a person of “less color,” I will not own the racism of Lincoln or anyone else. I had nothing to do with their ethics and can only be responsible for my own. It is not a sin to be white any more than to be Asian, black, Native American, Latino, or anything else. Using “race cards” at all is illegitimate, whether by black or white, Native or Asian, or any other grouping you’d care to name. I am Native American through my father, Irish through my mother. Both my ancestral groups suffered terribly from racism and ethnocentrism in the past century, yet Irish is considered white. Irish were considered of less value than blacks in the construction of the railroads out west. They were the victims of other whites in the cities back east, leading to the protective formation of the Tammany Halls and unions. Jews are considered whites—have they anything to confess? You paint with far too broad a brush, and its bristles drip with self-loathing and guilt. I will not accept your victimization of my color, as you advised Ham and Canaan to do.
Robin Tierney Washington, DC I have been asked over and over why I care about animal welfare and food ethics. Sarah Withrow King is dead-on when she says that compassion for animals is not in any way contradictory to or in competition with any other issue of Christian concern! While most people in their daily lives may never have direct opportunities to rescue a child in the sex trade or smuggle a Bible into a closed country, every single Christian chooses what to eat three or four times a day. Without adding a single extra burden to your life, you can choose to act compassionately and exercise godly dominion by not buying factoryfarmed meat. I’ve been on that path for five years, and God has blessed that
Lauren Merritt (GodOverAllCreation.wordpress.com) Louisville, Ky.
Wayne Minyard
Join the Conversation @ Email the editor @ KKomarni@Eastern.edu
f Like us on facebook@
Facebook.com/evansocaction t Follow us on Twitter @
twitter.com/PRISMMagazine1 e Sign up for ePistle, the free weekly e-news
also published by ESA, @ EvangelicalsforSocialAction.org/ePistle
3
Talk Back
@
“A
nytime you see an old, country, African American, part-white, part-Tuscaroran preacher from the South come to King’s club at 10:30 at night, you better know there’s a movement going on, there’s a movement going on, there’s a movement going on!” That was the Rev. Dr. William Barber speaking to a mostly white crowd at King’s Barcade in Raleigh, N.C., as the NC Music Love Army protested the end of a legislative session in July that had seen the state’s General Assembly clamp down on voting opportunities, unemployment benefits, Medicaid spending, and teacher salaries. As president of the NAACP chapter in North Carolina, Barber has become a national figure for his political activism, leading four months of weekly rallies outside the legislative building. Over the course of a dozenplus protests, known as “Moral Mondays,” more than 900 people were arrested for occupying the building. Thousands more held signs, shouted slogans, and heard speeches lamenting the actions of the state’s first Republican supermajority since the Reconstruction era. Legislators enacted a flat tax structure so that millionaires pay the same income tax rate as $40,000-a-year earners. They resumed executions after a six-year moratorium. They legalized concealed handguns in bars and restaurants and moved money for public schools into a privateschool voucher program. North Carolina’s musician community joined the Moral Monday movement, founding the Love Army as a clearinghouse for new protest songs. It started with veteran Durham songwriter Django Haskins of pop-noir band The Old Ceremony, a band name with Jewish roots based on Leonard Cohen’s lyric about circumcision. Like the Love Army writers that would follow him, Haskins drew on biblical language in his song “We Are Not For Sale”: You can buy yourself an office in the capitol / Enjoy it while you can / ’Cause faith and love and charity are much more powerful / than greed or spite, my friend. Love Army cofounder Jon Lindsay of Charlotte followed up with a couple of new songs, including “Is This Here What Jesus Would Do?,” which takes aim
4
Music Notes
at the tax and Medicaid cuts, fracking permits, and new election laws that restrict early voting, eliminate Sunday voting, and require voters to have IDs. Critics say all these election changes will have the effect of keeping the poor, minorities, and students from the polls. Lindsay wrote: Would Jesus wanna make it / harder for his people / to cast a vote than to buy a gun? / I think he’d be over / in that Raleigh jailhouse / with the other righteous ones. / Does Jesus wanna dump oil / all up in his ocean / off the Carolina coast? / Oh, rolling regulations / back on the emissions, / think it’s safe to say he don’t. “He was with the sick ones, you would shy away from,” Lindsay goes on. “He was with the poor folk, you think they’re a bad joke. … In the church on Sunday listening to the collar, you would have us think you care, but in Raleigh on Monday you have only dollars, recklessness and greed, I swear.” Lindsay’s collaborator, Love Army cofounder Caitlin Cary, who used to play with Ryan Adams in Whiskeytown, said most of the Love Army’s songwriters are not religious people, but they’re responding to legislators’ claims to the moral high ground. At one point, Republican legislators proposed a bill that would allow the state to declare Christianity as North Carolina’s official religion. “Mostly [the songwriters Jon Lindsay are] using this language because that’s what’s been coopted,” Cary says. “Don’t go throwing the Bible at us, because what you’re doing is immoral as hell.” Lynn Blakey, another stalwart N.C. musician who plays with Cary in Tres Chicas, wrote a kind of theme song, “Army of Love,” for the group comprising several dozen Carolina artists. Inspiring the song was 92-year-old Rosanell Eaton, who registered to vote in the early 1940s at age 21. She’d been an activist when the Voting Rights Act of 1965 helped to ensure that other African Americans could exercise the right to vote that they had won soon after the Civil War. “She thought things were smooth sailing,” Eaton’s daughter Armenta told ThinkProgress. “She’s seen the good, bad, and the ugly. Now she’s seeing the ugly again. She fought for civil rights, she was a civil rights worker, and now she sees that it’s going backward.”
After watching Eaton get arrested in an act of civil disobedience in June, Blakey picked up on her theme: “We’ve come too far to go back and the first shall be last and the last shall be first, so we’ll run, we are comin’ far and wide and with justice on our side.” The NC Music Love Army aims to release these and a total of 10 songs on two sides of a vinyl record exactly a year before the 2014 election, when they hope to replace the current majority with a more mercy-minded caucus. “The prayer date is November 5,” says Cary, mindful of the hiccups that can slow a musical release, especially on vinyl. “Wouldn’t that be poetic? And aren’t we going to do that? We definitely wanted to press vinyl because that just feels right for this.” “We Are Not For Sale,” the song that kicked off this movement, has been compared to a Woody Guthrie-style protest song, and the NC Music Love Army is trying to stay connected to the country
preachers, elderly activists, and traditional folk singers who have helped to shape American politics. Most of the songs are arranged in a country-rock style with group sing-along choruses. Here in the Bible belt, they’re also drawing on Jewish and Christian language to try and hold their legislators to gospel ethics. “Vote suppression is a sin,” sings Ben Folds’ collaborator Britt Harper “Snuzz” Uzzell on his protest song “North Carolina, We’re Better Than This.” “[It’s] the only way you’ll get elected again.”
Jesse James DeConto is a freelance journalist and musician in Durham, N.C. He also writes songs, sings, and performs indie pop with his band, The Pinkerton Raid.
Photo by Rodney Boles (rodneyboles.com)
Is This Here What Jesus Would Do?
God Clothing Adam and Eve by William de Brailes (from A Book of Hours)
Beyond the Fig Leaf
T
ake Christians out of the development of music, and you deprive the world of Bach. Take Christians out of the history of painting, and you sacrifice the Sistine Chapel. Take Christians out of modern medicine, and you lose the leader of the Human Genome Project. Take Christians out of the contemporary fashion world, and you get ... the contemporary fashion world. If Jesus’ people have bequeathed a treasured legacy in so many spheres of culture, why such a negligible impact in the realm of fashion? For decades, this question represented a nonissue, as fashion was generally dismissed in both secular and faith circles as shallow and trivial. But as respected scholars begin to appreciate the study of clothing for its contributions to anthropology and history, and well-known art museums begin to grant couture exhibits space in their coveted galleries, it is becoming harder to ignore the massive role that fashion plays in both influencing and mirroring culture. Strangely, the Christian world seems to be doing just that—trying to ignore a multi-billion dollar industry that provides jobs to millions and inspiration to countless others. Those justifying this attitude of dismissal fall on a spectrum of belief that views fashion as unimportant at best and downright harmful at worst. Many whose beliefs lie somewhere on this spectrum even have scriptural support for their viewpoint.
in the ivory tower, both these spheres and the church herself would suffer. As with any other industry, involvement in fashion requires wisdom and determined fidelity in order to stay on the straight and narrow. The problem lies in the fact that the Christian majority has singled fashion out as a particularly mine-ridden field and has subsequently refused to touch it. But the God who leads his faithful to pray “Lead us not into temptation” is the same God who gives his people “a spirit not of timidity, but of power and love and self-control” (2 Tim. 1:7). The church does not need more Pharisees whose commitment to law-keeping causes them to forbid worthwhile pursuits they deem too risky. Instead, she needs creative believers who will venture into uncharted territory with boldness and discernment, whose commitment to excellence will challenge and revolutionize their chosen field. This means letting the Bible inform fashion in a manner far deeper and wider than “Abreadcrumb & Fish” (parody of Abercrombie & Fitch) T-shirts and “John 3:16” emblazoned on Forever 21 bags. But in the end, the goal should not be to create a league of undercover agents who infiltrate the field with the sole purpose of leav-
The church needs creative believers to challenge and revolutionize the fashion industry with boldness, discernment, and excellence. won’t even do away with clothing in the afterlife (Revelation 7:9). And lest any ill-informed misogynist decide that fashion only receives the Lord’s stamp of approval as long as it stays in the reasonable hands of men, let’s not forget that the woman described in Proverbs 31—often held up as an example of the ideal Christian woman—was herself a radiantly attired clothier (see verses 22 and 24). Of course, fashion often parades handin-hand with consumerism, image-obsession, materialism, and other pitfalls the discerning disciple is wise to avoid, but one must remember that there are temptations unique to every industry. If all of Christ’s people were to avoid business because of the insatiable greed that may appear on Wall Street, or academia because of the pride and arrogance frequently found
ing some kind of Christian mark on the fashion landscape. Not only would such an attempt likely prove ineffectual, it would also demonstrate a skewed understanding of fashion as just one more art to exploit for the sake of evangelism. Jesus’ followers must learn to appreciate fashion for what it offers in and of itself. Only then will they be truly able to engage it in a way that points to the One forever clothed in holiness.
Whitney Bauck is a photography student at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill. Read more of her excellent critical thinking on fashion and faith at her blog, Unwrinkling.com.
5
Art & Soul
Didn’t Peter warn against letting one’s beauty come from outer adornment, specifically “elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes” (1 Pet. 3:3)? And Paul’s comment about clothing in 1 Timothy 2:9 is best known for its exhortation to dress modestly. Neither of these references seems very compatible with the advice one would expect to find between the glossy covers of next month’s Vogue. Nonetheless, a conversation about fashion dominated by these references is a deeply impoverished one. Moreover, it is a conversation that fails to do justice to the rich and holistic attitude towards clothing woven throughout the Bible narrative. If God meant for Christians to regard clothing as nothing more than a Fall-induced afterthought, he sure had a funny way of communicating it in his Word. He designed the first-ever garments himself, commanded that his Levitical representatives to the people be the best-dressed guys around (Exodus 28), and, according to John’s vision,
May I Have a Word? Beale Air Force Base near Marysville, Calif., is the home of Global Hawk surveillance drones, which identify targets for armed drone attacks. Drones are remote-control, pilotless, aerial vehicles that are controlled by “pilots” who sit at computer terminals in the United States and launch attacks in countries half a world away. I was arrested last October for crossing the line onto federal property during an anti-drone demonstration at Beale. During this act of civil disobedience, I was wearing my clergy collar as a symbol of the authority of the Holy Spirit and the presence of the Prince of Peace. I was arraigned with four others for misdemeanor trespass, which carries a penalty of up to six months in jail. At a party I attended a few weeks later, a woman approached me and brought up the topic of drones. She said, “I believe in peace. I’ve gone to anti-war demonstrations. But isn’t it better to use drones to take out a few bad guys than to have an all-out war?” She was struggling with whether the use of drones in targeted killings could be justified. Her question reminded me of the argument of Caiphus before the Sanhedrin so long ago: “It is expedient that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not” (John 11:50). The case against Jesus was built upon the claim that he was a threat
6
trial, judge, or jury, often in countries where we are not at war. Although the Obama administration justifies the legality of such attacks, many claim that drone attacks violate international law. Jesus said, “Do to others as you would have them do to you” (Luke 6:31), but friends who have travelled to rural Pakistan tell about whole communities being terrorized by drones, where people are afraid to gather for weddings or funerals, afraid to send their terrified children to school. Our drones have engaged in secondary strikes, attacking the same target twice. This makes it difficult for emergency response teams and would-be good Samaritans to rescue victims or alleviate their suffering. Drone attacks foster anti-American sentiment and create future terrorists. Violence begets violence. Our policies are creating enemies that may last for generations. Furthermore, over 70 countries now have drones. If the United States acts with impunity, other countries will follow our example. This could lead to a drone arms race and a complete breakdown of international law. What we do to others, they may in the future do to us. Who is responsible for the use of drones in targeted killings and signature strikes? We can’t blame just the drone operators, some of whom suffer from PTSD. Those responsible include religious leaders who, like Caiaphas, provide moral justification for the preservation of empire at any cost; public officials like Pilate, who wash their hands of culpability; corporate lobbyists who promote increased military funding for high-tech weaponry; an out-of-control military industrial complex that has taken on a life of its own; a corporate media that both interprets and shapes reality; and a public that suffers from moral confusion, the failure of critical thinking, and resignation to the powers of this world. Jesus ushered in a new way of being, not based on domination and violence but on love of God and neighbor. May those of us who follow Jesus live and love accordingly, for the well-being of the world and for the glory of God.
Jesus didn’t talk about political expediency but about loving God and neighbor. strikes to assassinate terrorists who are planning to attack the United States, wouldn’t that prevent an even greater harm? Wouldn’t that be morally justified? This question is debatable, but the idea that US drones are simply “taking out a few bad guys” is erroneous. Only 2 percent of drone victims are so-called high-level targets. Our nation’s “signature strikes” target groups that fit a particular profile. In some regions of Western Pakistan all military-age men are considered militants and therefore legitimate targets, which makes accurate accounting of civilian deaths impossible. US drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Iraq, and Afghanistan have killed thousands of people, many of them civilians, including children, with many more injured. These people are our neighbors, precious souls for whom Christ died. These “extrajudicial” killings take place without
Sharon Delgado (Sharon Delgado.org) is a United Methodist minister, the exectutive director of Earth Justice Ministries, and author of Shaking the Gates of Hell.
Fail-35 by Truthout.org
Resisting Drone Warfare
to national security. The argument that it is expedient to use drones for the sake of national security is a big part of the conversation today. How can Christians sort through the moral complexities reflected in public perceptions and attitudes about drone warfare? The teaching and example of Jesus can provide a compass with which to navigate our way to clarity and solid ground. Jesus didn’t talk about expediency but about loving God and neighbor. He even said that we should love our enemies, a radical idea both at the time and today in the age of international terrorism. You’ve seen the bumper sticker that states: “When Jesus said, ‘Love your enemies,’ I think he probably meant don’t kill them.” In reality, however, Christians differ in their beliefs about whether or not war or execution by the state can be considered just. If we could target and use surgical
BONO ON CAPITALISM WITH A CONSCIENCE
I
n June, U2 frontman Bono made ripples across evangelical America with an interview1 with Focus on the Family's Jim Daly. In the interview Bono affirmed his Christian faith, reciting a stream of biblical quotes along with his own commentary and applications to daily life. At one point he clearly stated, “I believe that Jesus was the Son of God.” His public affirmation of Christian faith impacts our culture in a positive way. Another of his views—on the welcome role of capitalism as a solution to global ills—is lesser known but will have a greater impact on youth culture than this Focus on the Family interview. Bono has been lauded for years by justiceminded people for using his and U2’s platform to advance worthy causes. If you’ve ever been to a U2 concert you’ve seen pitches for human rights, foreign aid, health emergencies, transfer of wealth, and an end to war. On the other hand, Bono has been criticized by economic conservatives who have perceived him, more or less, as a socialist proponent of wealth redistribution. Case in point is Marian Tupy, who writes at the Cato Institute blog, “For years, Bono has been something of a pain, banging on about the need for billions of dollars in Western foreign aid…”2 The world has taken notice that Bono has adjusted his economic tune. In a November 2012 speech at Georgetown University, Bono said,
7
Global Positions
“Aid is just a stopgap. bottom line. We desire a multiple bottom line, one Commerce [and] enthat acknowledges people, purpose, and planet trepreneurial capitalism alongside profit as vital components to the “life take more people out of that is truly life” (1 Tim. 6:19). poverty than aid.”3 One Two examples of this multiple bottom line are month earlier Bono had Dignity Coconut in the Philippines and Broetje Orshared at a tech conferchards in the state of Washington. Dignity Coconut ence in Ireland that he operates a coconut processing plant in Cagmanawas humbled to realize ba Barangay that produces virgin coconut oil and the importance of capitalcoconut shell powder for global markets.8 Their ism and entrepreneurship quadruple bottom line emphasizes shared profit, in philanthropy.4 community transformation, spiritual formation, and These recent decenvironmental stewardship. At Broetje Orchards, larations, however, have one of the largest privately owned apple farms in been brewing for a few America, more than a thousand employees benefit years. A 2010 New York from a quadruple bottom line of people, planet, Times op-ed by Bono profit, and purpose. A number of the employees notes how “lefty camparticipate as de facto program officers in the paigners” and business company’s philanthropic decision making.9 elites are learning to col“Job creators and innovators are just laborate: “The energy of the key, and aid is just a bridge,” says Bono.10 I these opposagree. From my ing groups “Aid is just years leading an is coming inner-city ministry in a stopgap. together [beCalifornia I know the cause both] Commerce [and] difference between see poor governance as the biggest entrepreneurial relief and developcapitalism take ment. Relief is a obstacle they face.”5 Bono’s affirmation—that busi- more people out man taking home ness takes more people out of pov- of poverty than bread from the food erty than aid—should be a rallying pantry so his famaid.” - Bono cry for a new generation. ily eats that night. If you desire to help as many people out of Development is that man earning a paycheck at a poverty as possible, consider the evidence that sustainable job—a job sustained by sales of prodentrepreneurship and capitalism are the routes ucts and services that people want, not by a grant for greatest impact. Laurence Chandy and Geoffrey that runs out after a period of time. Gertz at the Brookings Institution note in a 2011 Like any powerful force—sex, religion, paper that economic growth in countries with large food—business must be bounded by morality and poor populations (China, India, Bangladesh, Tanvirtue—capitalism with a conscience. Any force zania, Ethiopia, Vietnam) helped cut the number of outside the moral strictures of Scripture will go poor people in the world by nearly half a billion.6 astray. That’s why approaches such as the multiple Microfinance, while empowering individuals bottom line, approaches that foster accountability, and capturing the imagination of many emerging should be embraced by young people the world justice activists, has little impact on large global over who seek to end poverty. numbers. Michael Strong at the Carnegie CounI think Bono would agree. cil says that leading economists assess microfinance’s contribution to economic growth as “not (Editor’s note: You’ll find the endnotes for this article much.”7 Strong also notes that “one of the great at PRISMmagazine.org/endnotes.) ironies of global approaches to poverty alleviation is the ambivalent role toward capitalism among Rudy Carrasco is the US many of those—including NGOs—who seek to regional facilitator for Partalleviate poverty.” ners Worldwide and a board I know where the ambivalence comes from. member of the Christian We who consider ourselves justice advocates do Community Development not subscribe to a single bottom line, the financial Association (CCDA.org).
THE PRIESTHOOD OF ALL BELIEVERS How one church helps congregants integrate their faith with their work by Landon Eckhardt
8
A couple of years ago I was living and working in New York City, where I embraced the daily challenge of trying to integrate my faith with both my work life and the culture of the city. New York City has five boroughs, where more than 8 million people speak over 800 languages in the sectors of commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and entertainment. Each sector prides itself on employing the brightest leaders to bring top-notch innovation to their field, and a 70-80-hour work week is common. But that lifestyle imbalance quickly began to weigh on me. My closest relationships were with coworkers, as we not only worked together but also hung out after work. As a Christian, I knew my faith could not survive New York City without a church home that offered discipleship, accountability, and fellowship. So I quickly joined a church and began serving in leadership capacities, all while working my fulltime day job as an admissions counselor at a Christian college in the city. I experienced much spiritual growth during this season of my life, but I also felt a lack of connection between my work life and spiritual life. Growing up in an evangelical church, I knew that having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and sharing my faith with those around me was an essential aspect of Christianity. My church emphasized parishioners surrendering to vocational ministry (e.g., pastoring a church and taking mission trips) as the best way to work for the kingdom of God. It wasn’t until I found myself working in a cubicle in downtown Manhattan surrounded by people of different denominations, cultures, and races that I began to question this theology of ministry. In the early 20th century renowned English writer Dorothy Sayers stated, “In nothing has the church so lost her hold on reality as in her failure to understand and respect the secular vocation. She has allowed work and religion to become separate departments…” If this is true, the church is just another faith system rather than a transforming worldview, and this explains why the church has lost cultural influence over the past several decades. Transformation for the common good Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan takes Dorothy Sayers’ comment to heart in implementing a ministry called the Center for Faith & Work to engage Christians in the workplace. According to the church website, this ministry is the “cultural renewal arm of the Redeemer movement, founded to equip, connect, and mobilize [the] church community in their professional and industry spheres toward gospel-centered transformation for the common good.” The center started organically in January 2003 when parishioners began meeting on Sundays out of a hunger to find connection between theology and their careers. Parishioners knew their careers mattered to God, but they did not know how to effectively use their careers to bring justice and shalom within the kingdom of God in New York. “One main theological and biblical foundation for the Center for Faith & Work is that
“We are getting together to think about how Scripture and the whole message of the gospel speak specifically to our workplace context.” Kenyon Adams, recent arts ministry coordinator, CF&W
“As we bring faith into our understanding of work, what we are really looking to do is bring back the joy— working purposefully to make this world a better place, and that glorifies God.” Katherine Leary Alsdorf, founder and director emeritus, CF&W
“People are looking for biblical truth to govern the ways they think about their work. What they learn through theology, really, is how important their work is to God.” Rev. David H. Kim, executive director and pastor, CF&W
“We live out the gospel on a day-to-day basis in probably two areas first and foremost—our homes and our places of work. If we don’t live out the gospel there, I don’t know where we’re going to live it out.” Eric Tienou, recent leader, Business Fellowship, CF&W
we believe the gospel is a public truth and therefore changes everything! We must seek to broaden our scope of understanding the gospel’s power to transform not only at the personal level, but at the relational and societal levels as well,” says Amilee Watkins, leader development director of the center. Prior to joining the staff, Watkins also participated in the Center for Faith & Work’s 2008 inaugural class of Gotham Fellows, a nine-month intensive program designed to give theological and leadership training to young adults interested in integrating their faith with work.
9
Many Christians will balk at the idea of the gospel as a public truth, picturing folks standing on their desks and preaching into a bullhorn in hopes of converting coworkers. But this could not be farther from what Christ calls us to do. The apostle Peter says in 1 Peter 2:9, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” Christ is not just calling us to proclaim the gospel using words, but also to live out the gospel through our deeds. As Christians we are part of that royal priesthood; we are all priests with our own parishes. God has given us the responsibility within these personal parishes—which include our family, church, job, neighborhood, and friendships—to disciple, shape, and ultimately renew the culture and people around us by ushering in the kingdom of God through both our words and our deeds. Timothy Keller, senior pastor of Redeemer, says, “The Center for Faith & Work is really just a way of discipling people for their public life.” It is Redeemer’s hope that a parishioner’s discipleship experience through the Center for Faith & Work will be a stepping-stone in discipling those in close proximity to their own lives, specifically relationships in the workplace. Watkins adds, “As we recognize that humans are made in the image of a triune God, a God who is in his very essence communal, we understand why human relationships matter.” Redeemer’s holistic theological grounding of the biblical narrative—creation, fall, redemption, and renewal—gives space for parishioners to embrace the cultural mandate found in Genesis 1:28 and work toward a vision of new creation within their work environment. The word culture is derived from the Latin word cultura and is used to denote the cultivation, care, and tending of plants and animals. In a religious sense, the Latin word cultus, a derivation of cultura, has a worship component of revering or venerating. Thus, the cultural mandate to participate in the redemption of a broken society becomes a way of worshiping God. Each year the Center for Faith & Work holds a Gospel & Culture Conference at which keynote speakers share their experiences and ideas to infuse the culture with the gospel of Jesus Christ. While the financial crisis of 2008 damaged much of the public trust in the economic, financial, and business sectors of society, Redeemer embraces the idea, expressed by Jeff Van Duzer in his book Why Business Matters to God, that “Business exists in order to produce goods and services that would enable the community to flourish.” While acknowledging that it can be used for ill gain, Redeemer views business primarily as a way to work for the common good of society. The Center for Faith & Work addresses this issue with two vocational groups, the Business Fellowship and the Financial Services Ministry. Both of these groups are parishioner-led and hold monthly meetings involving prayer, fellowship, and lectures pertaining to business and finance. Often the lectures include taking a secular leadership manual or article, juxtaposing it with the gospel, and having an
10
“What would the city look like if we saw ourselves in our current vocations as agents of restoration for the common good? CFW helps us understand how our work becomes a subset of God’s work.” Amilee Watkins, leader development director, CF&W
“The Center for Faith & Work is really just a way of discipling people for their public life.“ Timothy Keller, senior pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church
informative discussion afterwards. In the Financial Services Ministry, worksite leaders in six of the top financial institutions—Barclays, Blackrock, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, UBS—engage weekly with other members of the ministry who work in their institution. The group also offers an eight-week Faith and Finance course twice a year to the Redeemer community and participates in various service projects, such as finance coaching for small business owners, hosting a women’s networking night in the Bowery Mission, and taking mission trips to Honduras that focus on microfinance projects. Weaving the gospel into every area of life The Center for Faith & Work also understands the lasting benefit of creating new business ventures that reflect the redeeming principles of Christianity. In 2005, the Entrepreneurship Initiative (Ei) was created to meet this need. In the words of the center’s executive director, Katherine Leary Alsdorf, its purpose is to be a “church-planting network for non-church planters.” Ei has four main components: the Ei Forum, the NYC Entrepreneurs Fellowship, the NYC Business Plan Competition, and the Ei Network. The NYC Entrepreneurs Fellowship is a vocational group that meets monthly, enabling entrepreneurs to inspire and support each other. The annual NYC Business Plan Competition brings together entrepreneurs across the New York City area to participate in workshops where marketplace leaders can help write or tweak contestants’ business plans prior to the competition itself. After a rigorous selection process, the finalists present their plans to a panel of judges. Winners receive a year of coaching, consulting, and financial planning advice from the Center for Faith & Work along with $5,000 to $20,000 of capital to start their venture. April Nickell, program director and arts educator at Jaradoa Theater and a 2008 NYC Business Plan winner, talks about how the competition process helped clarify her vision. In a video posted on the website, she says, “It was so great to be forced to answer questions such as, ‘Why do we exist? Why should we exist? What is the problem in the world? What is the unique solution? And how am I going to be sustainable?’” Nickell and 19 other past winners have ventures in everything from nonprofits working against sex trafficking to for-profits in search engine optimization and social networking.
DIG DEEPER Business as a Calling: Work and the Examined Life by Michael Novak (The Free Press, 1995) Why Business Matters to God (and What Still Needs to Be Fixed) by Jeff Van Duzer (IVP Academic, 2010)
Work Matters: Lessons from Scripture by R. Paul Stevens (Eerdmans, 2012)
Doing God’s Business: Meaning and Motivation for the Marketplace by R. Paul Stevens (Eerdmans, 2006)
Courage & Calling: Embracing Your God-Given Potential by Gordon T. Smith (IVP, 1999)
With the aid of the annual Ei Forum, in which entrepreneurs and investors all over the country come together and collaborate on best practices to start a movement of gospel-centered ventures, the Ei Network has emerged. This network of individuals and organizations around the globe fosters creativity, synergy, and empowerment, and brings financial capital to the cities where the members operate. Redeemer’s Center for Faith & Work has strategically emphasized both social justice and personal salvation, weaving the thread of the gospel into each area of their ministries to bring about holistic cultural transformation across New York City. The center is also one of the few ministries in Manhattan that embraces those in the arts—actors, dancers, fashion designers, filmmakers, musicians, and writers—and incorporates them in the mission of cultural renewal through fellowships, exhibitions, and monthly vocational group meetings. As evangelical Christians we are sometimes quick to assume that Jesus’ call in “making disciples of all nations” is only for those in vocational ministry or doing mission work in a distant country. Could discipleship be this and so much more? Surely discipleship is meant for everyone, from
Discipleship: following in the footsteps of Jesus Theology is not just about God. It is also about us. We live out of our understanding of who we are in relationship to God, to one another, and
Mastering Monday: A Guide to Integrating Faith and Work by John D. Beckett (InterVarsity Press, 2006)
Faith at Work: Finding Purpose Beyond the Paycheck by Kevin Lowry (Our Sunday Visitor, 2011)
The Other Six Days: Vocation, Work, and Ministry in Biblical Perspective by R. Paul Stevens (Eerdmans, 2000)
How Then Should We Work? Rediscovering the Biblical Doctrine of Work by Hugh Whelchel (WestBowPress, 2012)
the sexton to the pastor and from the secretary to the CEO, especially for the ordinary Christian living in the daily grind of work. What would it take for the church at large to embrace this? Jesus reached people not only on a spiritual level but also within the social, economic, and political contexts of the day. If the church is intentional about discipling, nurturing, and growing parishioners holistically, Christians will in turn be equipped to reach people in a holistic manner, even in the workplace. It is time to call forth the priests to find and embrace their parishes—just as they are doing so effectively at Redeemer’s Center for Faith & Work.
Landon Eckhardt is currently living and working in Washington Heights, a neighborhood in upper Manhattan in New York City. As a barista at a local Starbucks in his neighborhood, he is seeking to renew culture by living out the gospel (both word and deed) at work. He is also pursuing an MDiv/MBA in economic development dual degree from Palmer Theological Seminary of Eastern University.
to the world. The Christian faith is grounded in the love and grace of God, experienced through Jesus Christ, and empowered by the Holy Spirit. The Christian life is our response to God’s love and grace. The church calls our response to God Christian discipleship. Discipleship focuses on actively following in the footsteps of Jesus. As Christian disciples, we are not passive specta-
tors but energetic participants in God’s activity in the world. Because of what God has done for us, we offer our lives back to God. We order our lives in ways that embody Christ’s ministry in our families, workplaces, communities, and the world.
From What Every Teacher Needs to Know About Theology (Discipleship Resources, 2003)
11
The Eternal Value of “Whatever You Do” A conversation with Hugh Whelchel of the Institute for Faith, Work & Economics Interview by Kristyn Komarnicki
H
ugh Whelchel is the founder and executive director of the Institute for Faith, Work & Economics (IFWE), a nonprofit that seeks to educate and inspire Christians to think biblically about justice, equality, and the economy and to steward their whole lives in a way that benefits society and glorifies God.
You talk about “the biblical doctrine of work.” Can you sketch that out briefly for us? In the mid-1990s I was a Christian working in the business world. If you had asked me then to describe the work I was doing that was important to God, I would have told you about my work in the lay leadership of my church, the adult Sunday School class that I taught, and the work I did with Christian nonprofit groups. I secretly envied pastors, missionaries, and others who got to work “full time” for God. I saw little to no connection between what I did as a businessman and God’s kingdom. Then I made an amazing discovery. As I studied the Bible over the next 10 years, I realized that the Bible teaches that the chief end of our work as Christians should be to glorify God, serve the common good, and advance God’s kingdom. God has called us to engage the world through all of our work (including our vocations), announcing and exercising the presence and lordship of Christ over every part of it. I also discovered five foundational ideas that radically changed my view of work, giving it new meaning and significance. Interestingly, these ideas have been taught by the church for centuries, yet I had never heard them. •First, I found out that the gospel is in four parts: creation, the fall, redemption, and restoration. The gospel does not end with my personal salvation, but it continues on with God’s plan to use Christians to bring about the restoration of all things. •Second, God gave a job description to Adam in the Garden of Eden which applies to all Christians today. The cultural mandate (Genesis 1:28) reveals that the call to have dominion over the earth through our work is a divine calling for each of us, not just a means of providing sustenance.
12
•Third, I finally understood what Jesus meant when he said that “the kingdom of God is at hand” and what that means to my everyday work. We can be a part of bringing about flourishing and a true sense of shalom to our fallen world by following God’s calling on our lives. •Fourth, I discovered a truth about God’s work in the world that is particularly helpful to those of us working with non-Christians and in secular environments. Even those who are not Christians are providing valuable service to the world through what we call “common grace.” Because all truth is God’s truth, we can partner with non-Christians to achieve godly purposes. •Fifth, I realized what the biblical meaning of success really looks like and how different it is from the definition that our current culture embraces. The world defines success as money and prestige, while the biblical definition is to become the best you can be using what God has given you. This view of success brings a far greater sense of purpose and fulfillment than any earthly achievement could provide. These five principles are explained in more detail in my book How Then Should We Work? Rediscovering the Biblical Doctrine of Work.
“If we want to impact our culture and truly be salt and light, we must teach Christians how to integrate their faith and their work. We must teach them how to do their jobs with Christian distinctiveness, with excellence, and with accountability.” How did discovering this doctrine change the way you viewed your work? Discovering the biblical doctrine of work transformed my life. Work for me went from being just a means to an end to having transcendent purpose in and of itself. It wasn’t just an avenue simply for sharing my faith or for creating wealth to donate to missions work; it was the very thing through which I could be the salt and light Jesus called me to be. I saw it as the most important tool that God had given me to impact the culture and make a difference. In fact, my vocational work was part of a larger grand story that God was writing, a story that started in the Garden of Eden and continues when Jesus returns and establishes the new heavens and the new earth. I realized that my work as a businessman, or whatever I was to do, had real value and purpose in God’s kingdom. This understanding that our work matters to God was incredibly fulfilling and freeing. It gave my work true significance and meaning. I finally understood what Dorothy Sayers meant when she wrote, “... work is not, primarily, a thing one does to live, but the thing one lives to do. It is, or should be, the full expression of the worker’s
faculties, the thing in which he finds spiritual, mental, and bodily satisfaction, and the medium in which he offers himself to God.” What has been the most surprising or fulfilling thing since this change in your approach? First, I feel great satisfaction knowing that what I do through my vocational calling has eternal significance. Second, I have realized that by understanding and applying the biblical view of work, what I do can radically impact culture. It can make a positive, sustainable difference in my community, my city, this country, and our world for the glory of God and God’s kingdom. What are some small steps that Christians can take to begin integrating their faith and work? First, we can take a verse like Colossians 3:17 and apply it to our vocational work: “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” This verse tells us that all of our work has significance in God’s eyes. Even the most mundane things we do at work are important to God and should be important to us because everything we do should glorify God, serve the common good, and further God’s kingdom. It means that whether we work as an assembly line worker, as a Fortune 500 executive, or as a stay-at-home mom, our work matters to God just as much as the work of the pastor or priest. Second, we need to understand that we work for a heavenly boss and therefore have to hold ourselves to a higher standard. It means I don't slip out at 3 p.m., because I am ultimately accountable to God. But it also means knowing that your work doesn't just have earthly value—it has eternal value. I’ve read that some business owners shy away from the term “calling“ as it implies that God is going to make the business financially successful, and a lack of entrepreneurial success could thus cause disillusionment.* If a person suspects that he/she has been called into business by God, is financial success one essential proof of the calling, God's seal of approval as it were? In other words, does being called into business imply financial success, or might God call us to discover something else in our calling to business? I believe our problem today is not how we define calling but how we define success. Christians have been so influenced by the modern culture that far too many measure success in two ways: the number of dollars they earn or the degree of status their job provides them. Furthermore, in our fast food culture, that success is expected to come fairly quickly. Yet, God calls us to pursue biblical success, which does not always translate into worldly success. If we faithfully use the talents God has given us, we will have both joy and peace of mind knowing we have done our best through the power of Christ as he works through us to accomplish what he has called us to do in order to make a difference in the world. This is true of all vocational callings, whether they involve working in a factory, starting a business as an entrepreneur, or becoming a missionary in Africa. What the Scriptures teach us is that if we are persistent in what God has called to do, we will be successful. Proverbs 13:4 reads, “The soul of
*Editor’s note: See “The Christian Entrepreneur: Worthy of His Calling?” by Richard J. Goossen at bit.ly/1edWztX.
13
Faith and Business Networks Blackaby Ministries International (Blackaby.net) uses books, conferences, and online networking to counsel and encourage people in their walk with Christ. They also offer leadership coaching either on the phone or in person. C12 Group (C12Group.com) is a leadership development organization for Christian CEOs and business owners that provides both support and coaching for Christian business leaders. Catalyst Conference (CatalystConference.com) gathers young leaders who love Jesus and are committed to following God’s call in a challenging and dynamic world. Catalyst hosts several conferences throughout the year across the US and attracts a diverse and passionate group of leaders and attendees.
Entrepreneurial Leaders (ELeaders.org) supports, connects, and encourages Christian entrepreneurs to pursue excellence and innovation in business ventures. Faith Driven Business (FaithDrivenBusiness.org) is an online site for Christian entrepreneurs and those in business who want to connect with other Christian businesspersons. They offer videos, articles, and a newsletter as part of their web of resources. The Institute for Faith, Work & Economics (TIFWE.org) seeks to awaken Christians to the strategic role their work plays in God’s loving and redemptive narrative in the world. The goal is to help Christians have, through their work, a positive, sustainable impact in their communities, the nation, and throughout the world.
Ministries @ Work (Ministries atWork.org) provides biblical business training to help facilitate small Bible study groups for Christians working in the business sector. Attendees strive to support one another through prayer, study, and discussion. Pinnacle Forum (Pinnacle Forum.com) is made up of Christian leaders who meet in “forums” of six to 12 men and women who work in leadership positions. These groups strive to equip leaders with the skills necessary to make a positive difference in their positions of influence. Saddleback@Work (bit.ly/ RVCNw7) is a ministry of Saddleback Church that strives to help people find meaning and vocation in their work. They offer resources for starting small groups, a blog, and weekly meetings for support in Southern California.
the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied.” The 18thcentury British politician William Wilberforce once said, “Our motto must continue to be perseverance. And ultimately I trust the Almighty will crown our efforts with success.” Wilberforce’s life is a prefect example. God vocationally called him to be a member of the British House of Commons and to fight against the slave trade. Wilberforce first introduced anti-slave-trade legislation into Parliament in 1787, but it was quickly defeated. Over the next 20 years, he continued to submit bill after bill without success. To most of his contemporaries, Wilberforce looked like a failure because he was not succeeding in his efforts. But in God’s eyes, that was not the case. Each year, as Wilberforce did everything he could do, he was being used to accomplish God’s ends. Finally, in 1807, Wilberforce prevailed and passed a bill that ended the slave trade in Great Britain. So if business owners honestly work at their calling and persevere, they will eventually be successful, although that success may look very different from what the world expects. It may look like creating thousands of jobs or finding a cure for cancer, but it also may look like a business that struggles or even fails, giving God the opportunity to strengthen their faith and teach them valuable lessons through the experience. Earthly failure does not necessarily mean that you were not following your calling. Sometimes it simply means that God measures success very differently. Like the stewards in the parable of the talents, we work not for our own fame but because we love the Master. Our only desire at the end of the day should be to hear God say, “‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.” If work is, as you earlier quoted Dorothy Sayers saying, the medium in which we offer ourselves to God, how should we view retirement? Based on my study of the Bible and history, retirement is primarily a Western, 20th-century phenomenon. Our culture has promoted the idea that retirement revolves around withdrawing from one's work or labor and enjoying life to the fullest without obligation, commitment, or worry. You can do what you feel like doing whenever you want to do it. Retirement is all about you. The only place in the Bible that mentions anything like retirement is found in Numbers
14
“We must rediscover that our primary vocation is the call to follow Jesus and realize that this call embraces the whole of our lives, including our everyday work. We cannot separate our spiritual lives from our socalled ‘secular’ lives and engage in the dualism that is epidemic in evangelical Christianity. We must rediscover the priesthood of all believers seeing every part of our life, work, civic, family, recreational, church, as a ‘living sacrifice’ to God.”
8:23-26. God tells Moses that the Levites (the priests who were charged with serving God by doing much of the work in and around the tabernacle) began their work at age 25 and worked until the mandatory retirement age of 50. However, these retired priests did not pack their bags and spend the rest of their lives at the beach in Tel Aviv. Instead, they assisted the younger men in performing their work. They mentored the younger men in their trade by providing the wisdom and leadership that came from 25 years of experience in serving the Lord. Today, if a Christian is fortunate enough to not need to depend on a salary, that person may retire from his or her job or career any time he or she chooses. However, a Christian never retires from serving God through their vocational call. While we may have moved into a new season in our lives, we are still called to grow and invest our gifts and talents in the work God is doing in the world. There is inherent dignity of labor in the Scripture, and God calls us to labor in God’s vineyard until called home. It may not be at one particular job, but we have to be actively productive as long as we possibly can, being faithful to our vocational call to glorify God, serve the common good, and further God’s kingdom.
Learn more at TIFWE.org and HowThenShouldWeWork. com.
OVERHEARD “Church priorities continue to tilt heavily toward private faith and away from ministries that might equip believers for a robust public faith. Crucial questions about vocation and money—central in so many lives today— are met with indifference, confusion, or even hostility. “In failing to bridge faith and work, the church has failed itself and society with far-reaching consequences, for the challenges facing business, government, and other sectors in the 21st century raise profound questions about the purposes of our institutions, the value of human beings, and the criteria for good work.” -John C. Knapp in How the Church Fails Businesspeople (and what can be done about it) (Eerdmans, 2012)
Work = "Any necessary and meaningful task that God calls and gifts you to do, and which can be undertaken to the glory of God and for edification and aid of others, being inspired by the Spirit and foreshadowing the realities of the new creation."
Ben Witherington III in Work: A Kingdom Perspective on Labor (Eerdmans, 2011)
I advise young [marketplace] leaders to live by Romans 12:2. “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” What this has meant for me is the following: 1. Plan your life path as diligently as you plan your career path. 2. Depend on God, not yourself. 3. Give away yourself and all you have. 4. Understand that it’s not about you. 5. Develop a love for the things of the world to come. 6. Learn the lessons of the valley. 7. Live a life of worship.
Bob Doll, senior advisor for the asset management company BlackRock, interviewed in Consequential Leadership: 15 Leaders Fighting for Our Cities, Our Poor, Our Youth, and Our Culture by Mac Pier (2012). (Used by permission of InterVarsity Press, PO Box 1400, Downers Grove, Ill. 60515; IVPress.com.) "To be a Christian in business… means much more than just being honest or not sleeping with our coworkers. It even means more than personal evangelism or holding a Bible study at the office. Rather, it means thinking out the implications of the gospel worldview and God’s purposes for your whole work life—and for the whole of the organization under your influence." Timothy Keller in Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God's Work (Dutton Adult, 2012)
15
Generation E INTERVIEWS BY CAT KNARR
values with one’s personal conduct. “If we want to change the world, we have to change ourselves first,” he says. Currently a communications major in Colorado, Hunter married his wife, Emily, in June and hopes to go on to get a master’s degree in entertainment business or internet marketing. What dreams do you have for your future career? I love music, photography, and art in general—there are a lot of things I love in life. But the biggest accomplishment would be if I were a good husband and father. After that, I would love to see slavery abolished in my lifetime, and I would love if my generation were known for something more than selfishness and screen addiction.
Zach Hunter Author of four books and founder of Loose Change to Loosen Chains @zachjhunter
A
t the age of 21, Zach Hunter has authored four Christian books, founded an anti-slavery campaign, and spoken at multiple national conferences. An abolitionist, he writes about how young adults can fight modern-day slavery—a reality that he learned about at the age of 12. “Kids my age were being horribly treated around the world,” he says. “I realized I had to do something.” That something was the founding of Loose Change to Loosen Chains, which is now a fund through the National Christian Foundation. Hunter’s most “I would love if recent book is Chivalry: my generation The Quest for a Personwere known for al Code of Honor in an something more Unjust World (Tyndale, than selfishness and 2013), about the need to integrate one’s screen addiction.”
16
How does your Christian faith inspire your career? Jesus is the best example of how to treat people. He was very loving. In the Bible, there were people who were so religious that their rules got in the way of treating people well. So that really is my example—seeing how Jesus treated the poor and oppressed, and how he treated his friends with respect. Everything I know about what it means to be a good man, a humanitarian—that’s what Jesus exemplified and what Christianity means. We’ve lost some of that over the years, with the reputation Christians have now. What I remember most vividly from your first book, Be the Change, was your story about overcoming anxiety and becoming a public speaker. What is your greatest fear now? I have a lot of fears, weirdly. Well, maybe not weirdly—everyone’s afraid of a lot of things. There’s a whole chapter about fear in Chivalry, and I talk about my anxiety issues even more openly. Getting married and starting a more adult life opens up a lot more opportunities to be fearful of things. You want to do right by this person. We’re both in college, and I just want us to not have to worry about money and different things, but it’s part of this season of life. As a guy, even though I view myself as forward thinking and even call myself a Christian feminist, I still feel this pressure to provide. It’s the best time of my whole life, but I have the same fears every guy has, about insecurity, self-worth, and wanting to be successful. In what ways has your understanding of abolition work changed since you launched Loose Change to Loosen Chains? A lot more people are involved and knowledgeable about modern-day slavery and human trafficking, which is awesome. Obviously, there is still work to be done. My skill set is more given to “speak[ing] up for those who can’t speak for themselves” (Prov. 31:8-9) than physically rescuing people. I guess I can be an example for other abolitionists and activists in two ways: First, I’m painfully normal. There is little or nothing special about me, yet God is using me. Second, anyone can use their voice. You don’t need money or fame to make a difference. Everyone has influence. Use yours for good.
YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS ON DREAMS, FEARS, AND THE FAITH THAT PUSHES THEM FORWARD
world’s most prestigious global accelerator programs, Start-Up Chile and the 2013 Microsoft Imagine Cup. What dreams do you have for your future career? The next step for YFS Magazine and the brand itself is to reach more people on a global scale. One thing that’s very unique about our media platform is that “You can’t we have a strong readership across the US, separate UK, India, and Africa. We have a very diverse your readership who share one simple commonalbusiness ity—they want to fulfill their dreams through entrepreneurship. from your
beliefs.
How does your Christian faith inspire your The core career? values You can’t separate your business from your you beliefs. The core values you develop in busidevelop in ness drive your company culture. All of this has a lot to do with the core fundamentals business of a founder. Being a Christian and being a drive your successful businesswoman can go hand in company hand. One of the driving forces behind YFS culture.” Magazine’s mission is Proverbs 16:3, “Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and the Lord will establish your plans.” My faith in God is a driving force personally and professionally within my global portfolio of companies.
Erica Nicole Founder of YFS Magazine @YFSEricaNicole
B
y her early 20s, Erica Nicole had already built successful companies, but she sensed she needed to do something bigger. She asked God, “What do I need to be doing? How can I serve your people?” The response: “Use your gifts in global business development.” That’s how YFS Magazine—that stands for Young, Fabulous, and Self-Employed—was launched in late 2009. Nicole founded it with the goal of making entrepreneurship accessible to anyone who wanted to start a business but might not have the knowledge necessary to get started. “We exist to make entrepreneurship accessible by delivering thought leadership to seed, early-stage, and growth companies,” explains Nicole. “It’s the beginning for a lot of would-be entrepreneurs who have so much talent locked up inside but need access to practical knowledge, tips, tools, and strategies to move their vision forward.” In the past year alone, YFS Magazine has seen its readership grow 300 percent and has attracted the attention and partnership of Fortune 500 advertisers. Nicole has also been recognized for her success in the global small business community. She was selected to judge two of the
What is your greatest fear, and how do you overcome it? It is not necessarily one big thing but the day-in and day-out leaps of faith that are required. Oftentimes you must do what you have never done before. The best way to overcome fear is by the renewal of your mind. With knowledge, you’re empowered and you no longer fear what you do not know. There is a quote, attributed to Ambrose Redmoon, that suggests: “Courage is not the absence of fear but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.” There is much truth in this statement. I would challenge everyone to ask themselves, “What’s more important to me than fear?” and focus on it. Some might think you have three strikes against you in the business world: you’re young, a woman, and a person of color. How have you turned these potential liabilities into assets? As a global businesswoman, I don’t consider being young, a woman, or an African American to have impeded my progress. In fact, it is an asset. It makes me unique and ultimately sets the stage for wild success. Entrepreneurs should not “tilt at windmills” when it comes to other people’s perceptions. I am not moving out of anyone else’s thoughts—I am iterating and building out of my own. Whoever you are, it is important to operate from a baseline of authenticity. As I noted in an article for Forbes, “Authenticity in business is a baseline of belief in what you say and in what you sell. It is the courage to offer unique value and market yourself in a way that is consistent with your brand. Being everything to everyone sets you up to be nothing to no one.” There is no liability in uniqueness—only untapped potential. Learn more at YFSentrepreneur.com.
17
that Oprah show, who knows what I’d be doing. It really changed my life. I’d just like to be able to do that for other people, to open their eyes to what’s going on in the world around them. How does your Christian faith inspire your career? It’s grounded my entire life. Kids Caring 4 Kids wouldn’t be in existence if I hadn’t felt like God was pulling me toward that. Looking back, Kids Caring 4 Kids has by far been the greatest blessing of my life. As Christians, you talk about saying yes to God’s call, and that’s what I was doing when I started Kids Caring 4 Kids. I’ve seen firsthand God’s power in a big way in my life. It’s given me the power to say yes to more things. As I get older, I obviously question things more, and that blind faith that I had when I was 11 is no longer. I have to push myself to find that.
Kendall Ciesemier Founder of Kids Caring 4 Kids @kciesemier
A
t the age of 11, Kendall Ciesemier founded Kids Caring 4 Kids, a nonprofit for AIDS orphans in Africa. It all started with an Oprah special she saw on TV, which prompted her to sponsor a World Vision child with her Christmas money. Later that year, Ciesemier— who was born with a rare liver disease—needed two liver transplants. Recognizing this as an opportunity to help others, she decided to sponsor an entire village in Zambia, asking her friends and family to donate to her cause instead of giving her flowers and gifts. That cause soon grew into a nonprofit driven by kids taking action. “I wanted to tap into an untapped resource—kids giving,” Ciesemier said. Now Ciesemier is a junior at Georgetown University, where she studies sociology and minors in journalism and theology. An aspiring broadcast journalist, she works as an on-air reporter for mtvU and has interned at Fox Chicago, Oprah Radio, Meet the Press, and the New Chapter Entertainment production company. She appeared on The Oprah Winfrey “My greatest Show in high school and spoke at fear is living this year’s UN Youth Assembly and a boring life. I TEDxGeorgetown. What dreams do you have for your future career? One of my dreams would be to host a talk show someday. I really believe in the power of telling people’s stories, and that’s what I want to use my life to do. If I hadn’t seen
18
overcome that by working really hard and placing myself in uncomfortable positions.”
What is your greatest fear, and how do you overcome it? My greatest fear is living a boring life. I overcome that by working really hard and placing myself in uncomfortable positions. When I was trying to decide what college to go to, my mom said, “If you’re comfortable on Day 1, you’ll be bored by the time you graduate.” I tried to pick a college that would push me out of my comfort zone. That’s how I combat my fear of not reaching the potential God has for my life; I keep putting myself in a position to grow in a variety of ways. Working hard doesn’t mean just school or career goals. I want to be someone who works hard in my relationships and on my character. It’s putting effort into every area of my life, to be the best I can be. What are some things you’ve learned through founding Kids Caring 4 Kids? I’ve learned a lot about global poverty, and I’m convinced that it’s really the big issue to tackle. It’s a huge and seemingly insurmountable problem, and its effects manifest themselves in secondary issues like parentless children, hunger, disease, human trafficking—the list goes on. I’ve learned that kids are resilient and risk-taking optimists and that they should be consulted when solving problems because they see things that older people cannot. I’ve learned that I enjoy settings where I am allowed to be a selfstarter and creator. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed being the visionary behind Kids Caring 4 Kids. It’s a great outlet to be creative. I’ve learned that God’s plan is much better than anything I could ever plan for myself, full of both incredible struggles and blessings. Learn more at KidsCaring4Kids.org.
Cat Knarr is the editor and community manager for Faith Driven Business, a new network for Christian entrepreneurs (faithdrivenbusiness.org). She lives in St. Louis, Mo., with her husband, Ben, tweets from @CatherineKnarr, and writes for Christian magazines about race and social justice.
ENTREPRENEURS FOR SOCIAL ACTION! by Rebecca Hall, with research by Cat Knarr
RESOURCEFUL, BUSINESS-SAVVY, AND DEVOTED TO JUSTICE—MEET SOME OF TODAY’S MOST CREATIVE ENTREPRENEURS AS THEY PUT THEIR MINDS AND MONEY TO WORK FOR JUSTICE.
Favio Chávez and Nicolás Gómez: The Recycled Orchestra The children who live in Cateura are some of the poorest in Uruguay. Miles away from the prosperous capital, they and their families eke a living from the trash dump their town was built on. Hope came to Cateura, however, when musicians Favio Chávez and Nicolás Gómez came together to found the Recycled Orchestra, a group of local children who play music on instruments fashioned from trash. Their story is chronicled in the movie Landfill Harmonic (LandfillHarmonicmovie.com), whose directors plan to spread the model of the Recycled Orchestra to povertystricken areas worldwide.
Angie Beatty and Shawn McKie: The J.U.I.C.E. Project Located in a low-income neighborhood of St. Louis, Mo., The J.U.I.C.E. Project combats disease mortality by reinventing the corner store as a one-stop shop for nutritious yet affordable food, free exercise training and activities, media/health literacy education, and art programs. An acronym for Jumpstarting Urban Innovation with Critical Thinking and Exercise, the project empowers youth to make healthy lifestyle choices by helping them understand how food, physical activity, and behaviors (such as heavy screen use and alcohol/tobacco consumption) impact their physical and mental health.
Veronika Scott: The Empowerment Plan As part of a college project a couple of years ago, design student Veronika Scott found a unique way to tackle both the short- and long-term needs of Detroit’s homeless population. She designed a coat that, by night, can be used as a sleeping bag to ward off the chill of Michigan winters. But she also trains women who are homeless to sew the coats, helping them gain valuable skills and earn the money they need to move out of the shelter. Called the Empowerment Plan (EmpowermentPlan.org), Scott’s project currently employs five women who are in the process of transitioning out of homelessness.
Josh Garrels: NoiseTrade In a music industry that generates billions of dollars for recording labels and artists, Josh Garrels stands out from the crowd. He has made a habit of practicing “jubilee” by either giving his albums away for free or donating the proceeds to charity. This past spring, partnering with Noisetrade (Noisetrade.com/JoshGarrels), Garrels made all five of his albums available for free download, committed to donating any tips he received to a World Relief project located in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and raised over $70,000 in donations in just two weeks.
Pete Leonard: I Have a Bean At first glance, coffee and rehabilitation may have little to do with each other. Yet, for Pete Leonard the two are intricately linked. Six years ago, he founded a company that would not only create quality coffee but also empower former inmates to overcome one of the main obstacles that leads to recidivism—unemployment. I Have a Bean (IHaveaBean. com) primarily employs local ex-convicts and works with other Illinois nonprofits to ensure that their employees receive the counseling and other services they need in order to get their lives back on track. Leonard’s dream is “that men and women will no longer be preemptively judged by the errors of their past but will be known instead by the present evidence of the content of their character.”
Becca Stevens: Thistle Farms Founded by Episcopal priest Becca Stevens, Thistle Farms (Thistlefarms.org) is a social enterprise run by formerly trafficked and abused women who live in a healing community called Magdalene in Nashville, Tenn. The women create natural bath and body products and learn skills in manufacturing, packaging, marketing, sales, and administration so they can move back into the world with viable skills and earn a living wage. Learn more from our interview with Stevens on page 52. Jeff Shinabarger: Plywood People Jeff Shinabarger started collecting discarded billboards before he knew what they could be used for. All he knew was that he wanted to find some way to empower and employ the growing refugee population in Atlanta, Ga. Eventually they designed a way to fashion the boards into bags that could be marketed as viable products, and Plywood People (PlywoodPeople.com) was born. Besides the employment side of their organiza-
19
tion, they also collect unused or partially used gift cards to distribute to other nonprofits and give workshops and seminars to companies that want to create similar ventures. Sam Goldman, Ned Tozun, and Xianyi Wu: d.light Solar In 2004, while on Peace Corps service in Benin, Africa, Sam Goldman saw his young neighbor severely burned by kerosene from an overturned lamp. Prompted by that experience and the fact that 2.3 billion people in the world still do not have access to reliable electricity, Goldman took a class called Entrepreneurial Design for Extreme Affordability at the Stanford Design School, where he met Ned Tozun and Xianyi Wu. Together they developed a prototype solar lantern and cofounded d.light (dlightdesign.com), a company that designs and manufactures affordable solar-powered lamps. In countries where no reliable electrical grid is in place, these lamps are supplying families with a safe, environmentally friendly, long-term source of light.
OTHER GREAT IDEAS
Rebecca Hall is a Sider Scholar and MDiv student at Palmer Theological Seminary of Eastern University. Special thanks go to our friends at Faith Driven Business (FaithDrivenBusiness. org) for turning us on to these exciting endeavors.
Pay-As-You-Can Restaurants While many soup kitchens serve an urgent and real need, clients need not only a free meal but also a chance to be empowered and have their dignity affirmed. Restaurants across the country, such as SAME Café (SoAllMayEat. org) in Denver and A Better World Cafe (BetterWorldCafe.org) in New Jersey, have adopted a new business model known as the “pay-as-you-can” method. Clients are allowed to either pay “whatever price they think is fair” or to volunteer their time as payment. Not only do clients get the opportunity to eat a healthy meal, but they can also learn (or relearn) job skills and interact with others in their community, regardless of income. FearLess Revolution At a time when consumers are increasingly aware of the effects of what we buy, yet often feel powerless to make better choices, the FearLess Revolution (FearLessRevolution.com) offers a glimpse into what a better model of business might look like. Through consulting, the Conscious Consumer Bill of Rights, and a new, communal brand known as COMMON, they seek to provide ethically sound options for, in their words, “conscious consumers.”
Mocha Missions A unique business serves coffee, pours profits into justice ministries around the world by Mike Thompson
D
ave and Jill Helgerson, longtime active members of Midland Evangelical Free Church in Midland, Mich., are making a difference one cup of coffee at a time. They say their efforts are rooted in a deep conviction that God wants them to go beyond church attendance, Bible studies, and financial giving. “Of course, those things are good, but God was challenging us to do so much more,” explains Jill. “It was a call to action, as in James 1:22: ‘Do not merely listen to the Word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.’” When the last of their four children left home, the couple considered leaving their empty nest for new lives of overseas anti-poverty mission service. But friends suggested that, with their marketing and business backgrounds at Dow Chemical, they might consider starting a small business, both to raise awareness of anti-poverty needs and to use their profits to support justice efforts around the world.
20
In 2009, when a local coffee shop went out of business, the Helgersons took ownership and launched Grounds for a Better World, LLC. To date, the business has raised almost half a million dollars from after-tax profits and generous donors for 10 international and local worthy causes. These range from overseas projects such as medical expeditions in South Africa and education outreach in Jordan to local ministries such as cancer patient care, a domestic violence shelter, and youth work. The Helgersons work hard to strike a balance between advocacy for the projects they support and running their enterprise as a successful business. “We realize we must first run a world-class coffee business if we want to maximize both awareness of and financial support for our mission partners,” David emphasizes. To promote excellence, the couple has worked closely with their coffee roasters in gaining expertise, performed extensive market research, and interacted with experts. They do not inflate their prices for charity but offer competitively priced espressos, brewed and iced coffees and teas, and baked goods. The enterprise has captured local newspaper reader polls
for best cup of coffee, best locally owned business, and most friendly employees. On overhead screens, customers can view short films featuring their mission partners’ efforts. While they still call Midland home, the Helgersons regularly visit the organizations and people supported by the business. One of their main destinations is Faith Village, an orphanage in Northern Thailand where their daughter Lindsey, 23, plans to serve as a full-time missionary beginning early next year. “It’s much easier to write checks than to get your hands dirty. Our mission is to serve, encourage, and raise awareness,” says Jill. “Our long-term goal is to promote self-sufficiency of our partners, whenever possible.” Dave adds, “God has been so incredibly gracious in allowing us to be part of his work in and through Grounds for a Better World.” Learn more at GroundsforaBetterWorld.com.
Mike Thompson is a semiretired reporter who worked for 33 years at The Saginaw News in Saginaw, Mich.
Conversation. Community. Communion. Join ESA as we convene a conversation with Jesus followers from Palestine, Israel, and the U.S. on the theological and practical issues at work in the Holy Land. December 4-6, 2013
Philadelphia, PA
Register Today! ImpactHolyLand.org
21
The Shoe on the Other Foot Charity vs. the business of alleviating poverty by Christopher Hutton
I
love TOMS. When Blake Mycoskie started the charitable shoe company in 2006 after seeing a need in Argentina, it was hard for me not to support him. Giving away free shoes by having people buy two pairs and walk out with only one is a brilliant idea, for the shoes are not only useful but also stylish and can be worn with virtually everything. (I like to think of TOMS as the “socially conscious Chuck Taylor.”) Dozens of companies have since taken on Mycoskie’s principle of one-for-one giving. Names like Sevenly, Warby Parker, and Roma Boots are leading this charge towards a new economic movement that is sure to revolutionize our economy. The idea is to raise the quality of life all over the globe. So what’s not to like? Sadly, there is a lot not to like. The very development of TOMS Shoes has radically shifted the way we make and raise money and the way we serve the world. When considering Mycoskie and his
22
company, I see two red flags: (1) The one-for-one model of giving is subliminally changing the way we view our need to give; (2) The one-for-one method of giving does not help developing economies. Throughout the ages, giving and buying were separate practices. With the one-for-one method, we are able to fulfill both in a single purchase. This seems innocent in and of itself, but the problem lies in the potential mixture of social purchases and social charity. If one can perform the act of philanthropy while receiving material goods in exchange, is it actual philanthropy or just socially conscious consumerism? Like TOMS, Roma makes boots for people who need them (“giving poverty the boot” is one of their clever slogans). However, Roma markets its products first and foremost as fashion. “Fashion on a mission” is their main
SoleRebels founder Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu, pictured left
motto. People buy the boots because they are well designed and fashionable. The first aspect emphasized is not generosity but fashion. What happens if our support of a social justice issue gets linked to a fashion trend? Will the support, like fashion trends, eventually fade away? Or what happens if, having bought our boots, we consider ourselves as having done our part and thus replace philanthropy or selfless giving with selfservicing consumerism? While the philosophical premises of the one-for-one method are already troublesome, there exists yet another dilemma—namely that this method for tackling poverty is in reality corrosive to the economic development of other nations. There are three stages of development that nonprofits participate in when trying to help a developing country: immediate poverty alleviation, economic training to create self-reliance, and the eventual development of a local economy. How does TOMS fit into the picture? The company doesn’t seek to alleviate poverty. As Where Am I Wearing? author Kelsey Timmerman states,TOMS focuses on fixing the problem of shoelessness. However, the real problem isn’t shoelessness, Timmerman points out, but poverty. The TOMS method of charity is highly impractical and ineffective in the long term. While giving away shoes seems compassionate and just at first glance, it not only fails to address poverty but it also encourages people to view social action like something as passing as a fashion trend. Socially conscious consumerism is problematic, for it doesn’t relieve people of their self-driven consumerism, nor does it make a purchase of shoes less selfish. As consumers, we need to encourage companies like TOMS to engage in the long-term alleviation of poverty. They would do well to take some business-model tips from smaller and more effective companies, like soleRebels, an indigenous, Ethiopia-based fair trade shoe business that creates local jobs, provides health and education benefits to its workers, and functions sustainably to allow the local economy to flourish. The shoes are made for Westerners, but the model is mutually beneficial for both the local workers and the end user, who enjoys a socially responsible product. That’s not charity or philanthropy. That’s just good business. Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu, social entrepreneur and founder of soleRebels, articulates her philosophy this way: “If you give a kid shoes, they wear out or they grow out of them, and then what do they have? If you give the kid’s parents a job, the whole family will always have shoes.”
TOMS founder Blake Mycoskie
The first African brand to successfully franchise itself internationally, soleRebels has stand-alone retail stores in Africa as well as Asia and Europe, with plans to open others in North America in the next couple years. The company repurposes materials like car and truck tires to make sturdy but flexible soles and incorporates sustainable materials such as Abyssinian hemp and koba. Local heritage artisans, many of them women, hand spin and loom every meter of the fabrics used, and rather than outsourcing in any way, soleRebels employees conceive, design, and develop everything in their own workshop in Addis Ababa facilities right in the community. (Learn more at soleRebelsfootwear.co.) TOMS has acted as a catalyst to help us remember the problem of poverty. But TOMS must modify its business model to aim beyond fashion, beyond “shoelessness,” and work to feed local economies. That’s the only way to save lives, change minds, and open doors for millions around the planet.
Christopher Hutton is a freelance writer. He currently interns at Rivendell Sanctuary in Bloomington, Minn., and blogs at Liter8.net.
Here and opposite: soleRebels runs on local craftsmanship and natural or repurposed materials.
23
Lean ing into Jesus What happens when we allow Jesus to exchange our scarcity for his abundance? by Shane Enete still remember how I felt when I received my first paycheck on a cool spring day during my sophomore year of high school. I was a 15-year-old Taco Bell “team member” at the time. I quickly tore open the letter that contained a check for $219. As I stared at such a huge sum, various emotions flooded my wide-eyed teenage heart, including worry (“What if I regret what I am going to do with my money?”), craving (“Man, I want more of this money”) and pride (“This is my hard-earned money”). I’m pretty sure I didn’t experience what you might call a spiritual emotion.
I 24
This is because God was not really in the picture. I had earned this paycheck through mopping floors and making outstanding bean burritos, and so this moment was all about me. God should have been a part of my paycheck experience. However, I was without God on that cool, spring day, and so my paycheck ushered me into a world of emotions devoid of God’s promises and truth, which was a heavy burden to bear. There is a better way. We can all radically change how we feel about money by living out the hope of Jesus Christ in our hearts and minds and responding with joyful generosity. When we consider our paychecks from a spiritual vantage point, we transform our worry into worship, craving into
contentment, and pride into humility. From worry to worship Worry is the most common emotion associated with money. It is fueled by our belief in a world where we, not God, own everything. The more we believe that we are the true owner of our money, the more we are responsible to protect it from the world we live in, where resources are scarce. Treasure can be stolen. Private property is not secure. These thoughts cause worry. For many years after college, I was basically unemployed. I’d take on a temp job for a few weeks and then go back to searching for real work. I lived from one temp check to the next and worried about money constantly, not knowing if I could pay my rent the next month. One day, as I was going over my pathetic “budget,” trying desperately to see if I could exercise some control over my unpredictable situation, it dawned on me that there was something I could do. The words of 2 Corinthians 9:10-15 were ringing in my ear: He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God. For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God. By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission flowing from your confession of the gospel of Christ, and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others, while they long for you and pray for you, because of the surpassing grace of God upon you. Thanks be to God for this inexpressible gift! I responded to my confession of the gospel of Christ by being generous, and that turned my worry over money into joyful worship of God. It was an extraordinary moment when I realized that simply giving back to God was the key to transforming my worry over money into worship. When we give in response to the gospel of Christ, we turn our eyes from the gifts of God to God’s self. As we stretch out our hands to give, our eyes are forced to look past the gift, up into the eyes of the Giver. And the more we do this, the more we will want the Giver more than the gifts. From craving to contentment How is the following quote even possible? “‘People think we make $3 million or $4 million a year,’ explained Texas Ranger outfielder Pete Incaviglia. ‘They don’t realize that most of us only make $500,000.’”* Perhaps King Solomon, who was the wisest and richest person to ever live, might have some answers: “He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity” (Eccles. 5:10). If we do not consider the great abundance of God, we will crave things. We will want more. Our world will be defined by unlimited wants and limited means (scarcity), so we will always want just a little bit more. We might think that we will stop wanting more the moment we reach a certain level, but rest assured there is no ceiling. We will never be satisfied with money by getting more money. Money only creates cravings for more money. Many people think that getting $10 million is the key to not wanting
more money. But the problem lies in human psychology: No matter what amount we get, we will get used to it. This is called adaptability. No matter how high a level of wealth we reach, we will adapt to it. Money loses its happiness-giving effects shortly after one climbs out of poverty. This effect on us is very similar to that of alcohol. The initial buzz of the first beer loses its potency as we consume more beers. To put it in economic terms, money has a diminishing marginal utility. And if we are only in the world with our money, then our cravings will cause our stomach to groan. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world (1 John 2:16). The woman at the well in John 4 is a story about Jesus walking into the life of a woman and asking something from her. This woman is drawing water because she is thirsty. Jesus then asks her for a drink of water. Why does he do that? It is the woman who is in need. Why is Jesus demanding something from her? The answer is found in Jesus’ words to the woman: “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” Jesus wanted the woman to give him her small portion so that he could exchange it with his giant portion. In another example, Mark 6 describes a crowd of dedicated people following Jesus to hear his words. They grow hungry, and when his disciples present the problem of no money and lots of hungry people, Jesus simply says, “You give them something to eat.” How can they? They do not have enough money to pay for all the food that is needed. Why does Jesus ask them to give what they have— just five loaves of bread and two fish? It is not going to be enough for 5,000 people! How ridiculous! But Jesus asks us to give to him what we have so that he can take our sorry little loaf of bread and exchange it for something magnificent. Jesus exchanges our scarcity for abundance. Abundance infers that you have more than you need, and you are content. But we must first give him what we have. We give God our small cup of water from the well, and God gives us an everlasting fountain, complete and whole: Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life (John 4:13-15). Giving is the boundary that helps us replace our craving with contentment: If you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday. And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail (Isa. 58:10-11). *from The Pursuit of Happiness by David G. Myers
25
FAQs Q: What if I am currently in debt? If I give money off the top of my paycheck to God now, aren’t I just giving away borrowed money, which isn’t mine to give? In other words, how can I start living like this now, if I am already in debt? A: Even if I were burdened with debt, I would not go more than a few months without giving, because it is dangerous for my heart to stop giving. I worry about my heart when I stop giving, because the less I give, the more I begin to think that the money is mine and that I am fully responsible for my financial fate. There is a beautiful freedom that occurs when I give God’s money back to God. Even though the money is from a bank, it is still ultimately God’s money. In addition, when I stop giving it becomes harder to give since giving is like a muscle, and it goes into atrophy without exercise. I do not want to live a life where my giving muscle is weak and I am a stingy person. Please note that my advice is to pay off debt while giving in order to have a healthy heart. I am not recommending that a person ignore financial responsibility. Instead, giving helps move me from thinking I am an owner, into remembering that I am a steward, which will result in more God-honoring financial decisions over time. Q: What if my living expenses are equal to or greater than my income? How can I give money away when I know I will need all of it to be able to pay my bills? A: For me, even back in my post-college, temp-job days, my giving was always done at the point I received money. It was a “first-fruit” action, as well as a priority. I gave what was in my heart to give when I received any kind of paycheck and then watched as God spread what was left over in a sufficient way. When I gave first, I did not have to get into debt or significantly lower my standard of living. I simply gave to God first (transforming my worry to worship) and then, like the oil of Elijah and the old woman, found that there was always enough left over to get me what I needed.
Through giving in response to the gospel, we are able to transform our bottomless craving into a delightful feeling of contentment every time we manage money. Pride to humility Pride is in our blood. If we think we are earning our money, this pride of ownership will fuel our natural disposition to think that the world revolves around us. If we think that we are independent of our neighbor and that everything is governed by the law (without grace), then our pride will swell to dangerous levels: “Take care lest you Just as John leaned back forget the Lord your against Jesus during the God by not keeping his last supper, I keep increascommandments and his ing my giving until I find rules and his statutes, that I am leaning against which I command you Jesus, resting in his promtoday, lest, when you ises and provisions. have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God” (Deut. 8:11-14).
Money has a way of allowing people to believe that they are in full control. Just like the Israelites of old, if we forget God in our giving, our pride will prevent us from ever thinking that our money is God’s money. If we have received grace, we understand that we could never deserve it, and this breaks our pride. As we receive money looking at the cross of Christ, we will feel humbled. We Q: Do you pray over every paycheck and decide at that point what to give and are humble because we realize that everything we are receivwhere? Or do you have a system that involves a regular percentage? ing is undeserved—our breath, our time, even our money. King David, when generously giving towards the building A: The percentage of my giving from income changes over time. The amount that I of the temple, showed a humble attitude about his received decide to give each time is determined by what I call “the lean.” Just as John leaned possessions: “‘But who am I, and who are my people, that back against Jesus during the last supper (John 13:25), I keep increasing my giving we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything until I find that I am leaning against Jesus, resting in his promises and provisions. comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from The amount of giving that is required for me to “lean” is always different depending your hand”’ (1 Chron. 29:14). on the circumstances of my life, but my heart knows the moment I am giving in a Through giving in response to the gospel, we are able to way that I am able to rest against my Lord and Savior. transform our destructive feeling of pride over money into a healthy feeling of humility every time we manage money. So, let’s pay attention to our feelings when we receive our paychecks. If money causes worry, cravings, or pride to This prophecy from Isaiah was fulfilled by the coming of Jesus Christ. Jesus creep into our hearts, then there is a strong possibility that the antidote asks that we give him all of our self, and he responds by giving all of for us is to first experience the hope of the gospel of Jesus Christ in our himself to us. And getting all of Christ is what it means to be whole. heart and mind and then respond by giving generously. In doing this over time, our feelings about money will radically change. Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and Shane Enete is a chartered financial analyst based in Southern CaliforI know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned nia, an adjunct finance professor at Biola University, and the author of the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do Practical Generosity: How to Choose Between Spending, Saving, and Giving all things through him who strengthens me (Phil. 4:11-13). (WinePress, 2012). He blogs at PracticalGenerosity.com.
26
What does it mean to follow Jesus in the 21st century?
The same that it always has: radically and faithfully. Ronald J. Sider and Evangelicals for Social Action are most respected for their pioneering work in the area of evangelical social concern. However, Sider’s great contribution to social justice is but a part of a larger vision – namely, biblical discipleship. His works, which span more than four decades, have guided the faithful to be authentic gospel-bearers in ecclesial, cultural, and political arenas. This book honors Ron Sider by bringing together a group of scholar-activists, old and young, to reflect upon the gospel and its radical implications for the 21st century. Contributors include Craig Keener, Vinay Samuel, Melba Maggay, John Perkins, and Heid Unruh. 27
Confessions of a Sunday School RSuperstarR 28
What happens when we grow up? by Janell Anema If there were a hall of fame for Bible-thumping, my portrait rubies, and emeralds earned by doing chores around the house, memorizing scripture would surely hang upon those sacred walls. My stories of Sunday verses, and participating in the Bible Olympics. No need to cast blame and judgment toward school superstardom are tales of epic proportions. I have years my parents. My mom was creative, sure, but this system of jewel distribution was not her of material, enough to keep my millennial peers laughing (and idea. This was the doing of our local Sunday school. My relationship with God became limited some days crying) for hours. to my ability to perform and gather treasures that were redeemable in heaven. I could colI grew up in church. Stories from my childhood play like one lect blue ribbons and tiny jewels, and my faith was substantiated and quantified. And I loved of those drug education commercials from the early 1990s, but it! I loved being good at religion. instead of featuring the hard-lit egg frying on a stove, the story Graduating from jewels as I entered junior high youth group, I began collecting whatwould be blanketed in Presbyterian stained glass light and aniever sort of religious currency the church was passing out like Monopoly money. I took a mated across felt boards. “This is Janell’s brain. This is Janell’s ride on the reading railroad, traveling through Kings, Chronicles, and Corinthians. Twice. My brain on Christianity!” mom would often take my brothers and me to drop off Thanksgiving baskets to kids whose I came to faith at a young age because, truth be told, I fell parents were in jail. Bail money is hard to come by when there’s no such thing as Free quickly for the man with the lamb—the captivating Christ. You Parking. I avoided landing on Marvin Gardens of Gethsemane but worked to build a hotel know the one, with the long locks and the deep blue eyes. I was on Saint James Place and consecrate it to the lord of prosperity. Another Easter. Another head over heels for dreamy Jesus. Advent. Pass Go. Collect $200. Tithe $20. And round the board I went. In the midst of what must have been the party for my fifth Ever the overachiever, I was at church Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and twice on birthday, I quietly slipped past the amateur distractions of cake Sundays. I was baptized and presents into my darkened bedroom, to kneel down in front at 14, not as a symbol of my bed. Assuming the position of a Precious Moments figurine, of my discipleship but hands clasped at heart’s center, I invited that blue-eyed dreamboat to take up residence inside my I fell quickly for the man with the heart. My parents had told me that Jesus was the greatest lamb—the captivating Christ. You know gift of all, and seeing how it was my birthday, I was going the one, with the long locks and the to put that gift on lockdown. It seemed only fitting. deep blue eyes. I was head over heels I became a Christian that September afternoon, and for dreamy Jesus. then again a few months later at a Christmas Eve service. Over the next decade, in variations to ensure my eligibility on the themes of the Four Spiritual Laws, I invited Sweet Blue to cast a vote at budget Eyes into my heart anytime I heard the “Sinner’s Prayer.” But I meetings as a full memoften found myself wondering if I had accidentally cancelled out ber of the congregation. I worked tirelessly to become an informed voter, taking notes my salvation. Can two prayers negate a conversion? Does the during Sunday night business meetings as earnestly as I took sermon notes on Sunday second, fourth, or 128th prayer cancel the first, third, or 127th? mornings. Color-coded, doodled memory verses and Lottie Moon offering estimations filled Am I on odds or evens? At best, it was recommitment; at worst it my journals. was obsessive-compulsive. Yea, though I walk through the valley I was being informed, yes, but I was also being trained and equipped. During “Big C” of the shadow of overanalysis… church on Sunday mornings, I often found myself battling in prayer for the pastor: “Lord, My faith as a child and adolescent was all-consuming— prohibit the enemy from distracting us with coughing and cell phone rings. Surely you will and this all-consuming fire of a faith wasn’t just about conversilence the mouths of crying babies seeking to detract from what the pastor has to say!” sion; it was also about fashion. I certainly looked the part of a Never had I felt like such an integral part of the Lord’s army. Sunday school superstar. Every Wednesday night I buttoned up I loved the militarism of my faith. It was rigid and ritualistic. And I was always on a maroon polyester vest accessorized with three plastic crowns, the winning team. Our youth group summer games of capture the flag easily informed each about the size of a silver dollar—crowns with holes so my growing understanding of missions, my birthright as an American Christian, and my small one might not notice them were it not for the jewels. The responsibilities as such. crowns were studded with small-yet-oh-so-sparkly sapphires, I’m sure we’ve all heard these kinds of stories before from people of my generation.
29
With a dash of wit and a pinch of cynicism, from conferences to camp reunions, I have swapped stories with fellow Sunday school superstars (we’re everywhere!), we who reveled in our religiosity, we who celebrated our cultural Christianity—American Christianity our mother tongue. But what happens when we grow up? Heading off to a state university and then choosing to study abroad, I left my Christian subculture and then the continent. I moved to Switzerland for a semester, and in ironic providence the only bag that was lost en route contained my electronic converters, my belts, and my Bible. I would be alone in “post-Christendom” Europe without those things that were supposed to gird me—to protect me—from strange currents and strange customs. On yet another September afternoon, in a conference room in Geneva, I listened to the communications director from Doctors Without Borders share about their most recent expedition to West Africa. He told harrowing tales of life in post-conflict Liberia, about the last capital city in the world without municipal power and running water, about a nation where less than 10 percent of the population had access to healthcare and upwards of 90 percent of the women had been victims of gender-based violence. Questions flooded my mind. Where is Liberia? Why does their flag look so much like ours? What did he just say? They performed surgeries on children who had been wounded in war—not as mere victims, but as soldiers? Did he just say child soldiers? How could this be real? How could they skip over the wounds of these wars on global missions Sundays at my church back home? And what kind of God allows this horror and trauma to ravage humanity? I thought Jesus loved the little children, all the children of the world. At least that’s what I had been singing. The world was broken. It was more damaged and disregarded than I knew what to do with. I questioned. I wept. No easy answers came. In those 90 minutes the world unexpectedly became too big and too broken for my one-dimensional Jesus, and my Sunday school religion and I experienced an acute sensation of unraveling. I was in foreign territory and found that I was fluent in a faith that no longer made sense. I suddenly became wildly uncomfortable with the militaristic connotations—nay, integral components—of my religious vocabulary. I didn’t want to be a soldier in the Lord’s army anymore. I didn’t want to be a soldier at all. My understanding of God was all too elementary. It now seemed more important to find God living in and among this world and its people than to believe that God lived only in my heart. How could I wait patiently, looking to heaven, when there was a lived hell for so many here and now? The jewels I had collected from childhood and worn proudly were tarnished, representative of little more than my ability to memorize words and phrases. Those words, those Scriptures, as I knew them, bore no direct correlations to the way I was now encountering the world. I was undone. I returned to the United States wanting to exchange my outdated religious currency. But my local church was still setting the rate. Sunday services seemed irrelevant to all that I had experienced and learned in my months away. Messages were preached according to the same sort of isolationist Christianity that had precipitated my crisis of faith, this great unraveling. As it often goes, a loss of innocence can lead to an increase in humanity—and I was desperate to engage this new paradigm, to know more of humanity, to know more of this big, broken, and beautiful world. Not knowing how to engage the deep pain and brokenness of the world in the church, but hungry for answers, I went back to school. During my first semester at Eastern University in the Campolo College for Graduate Studies, I enrolled in a course entitled “Economic Development for Developing Nations.” My beloved professor, Dr. John Stapleford (who had the imagination to assign a Bonhoeffer text in an economics course), asked us to write a reflection paper on the interface between economic systems and the kingdom of God. And what did I do? I Googled “kingdom+of+God.” I was a Sunday school superstar. I was raised in church. I had been digesting spiritual truths as long as I had been eating solid food. And I was 24 years old when I first learned about the kingdom of God—on the internet rather than in a pew. I spent the rest of my semester with Brian McLaren, John Howard Yoder, Stanley Hauerwas, and Lesslie Newbigin—my theological boyfriends. (Later I drew insight from Lauren Win-
30
I was a Sunday school superstar, but I didn’t know a compassionate Christ who was unimpressed with my crown of jewels, yet ardently, patiently, and passionately in love with his child. ner, Joan Chittister, Cynthia Bourgeault, and Anne Lamott—my spiritual sisters.) Bonhoeffer finally felt like an ally and not an accuser. Slowly, every scripture verse I had hidden in my heart was illuminated and translated in ways that brought me such life. I was childlike in my faith once again, but it felt honest and fresh. It was enlivening. I was being knit back together. So this is what it feels like to be born again ... I was ravenous for this new knowledge—this new kind of Christianity, this new kind of king, and this new kind of kingdom. A kingdom that is now and not yet realized. God’s dreams for the world coming true. The mustard seed. The yeast. The pearl. I devoured the texts and relished every word. In the perfect combination of my naïve persistence and God’s infinite kindness, I was given the chance to go to Liberia and work among those very children whose existence had sparked my personal reformation. I couldn’t wait to put my love into practice—to have my faith inform my praxis. I was equipped, but this time I had Derek Webb on my iPod and a fresh pair of TOMs shoes. I set out to love the world, one child at a time. I lived and worked in Monrovia, Liberia’s capital city, in the equivalent of Child Protective Services. There was one incredible project our organization was running where young women who had been perpetrators and victims of war were living together. A home functioned as a rehabilitation center for 25 female former child soldiers and other vulnerable females and their children (this particular cycle had young
women ranging from 12 to 24 years old, and 10 of them had children, ranging from a few months to 5 years old). The girls lived at the home for nine months and took accelerated learning programs in the morning and vocational skills training classes in the afternoon, as well as participating in twice-daily devotional times, social skills/health dialogues, and one-on-one counseling opportunities with their social worker. This home was a safe place where the women’s physical, emotional, educational, and spiritual needs could be met. The housemothers and counselors approached me, hoping I would spend the afternoons doing physical activities with the young women and facilitating some sort of Christian Bible study. Eager to share about God with those girls, those babies with babies, I mapped out a nine-week curriculum on the fruit of the Spirit. I stopped at the market to purchase markers and colored papers. I arts-and-crafted each fruit, each characteristic, carefully and with great attention to detail. Week one: apples and love. I brought a bag full of apples to share and drew a leaf and a stem on the “o” in the word “love” so the women might see the connection between the sweet fruit of the Spirit and the sweet fruit in their mouths. Genius, I thought. I talked about how much God loved them. How he loved them so much that he gave his one and only son. I’m certain that we ended the day with my recitation of John 3:16. I’m
I had been digesting spiritual truths as long as I had been eating solid food. And I was 24 years old when I first learned about the kingdom of God—on the internet rather than in a pew.
not sure they even understood my English, but that was not important to me. The speaking of the Word would certainly be planting seeds, just like the apple, that would bear fruit in this life and the next. Week two: bananas and joy. I spoke of the kind of deep joy that we can have even if circumstances are painful. Joy is not happiness, I was sure to remind them, and I may or may not have performed “I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart.” It wasn’t until week three that I even noticed the disconnection between the words that I was reciting and the realities of life for those young women in Liberia. I had brought pineapple because that day we were going to talk about peace, and the platitudes rolled so quickly off my tongue: pineapple and peace. I liked the sound of that! I told the ladies that God gives them peace like rivers in their souls (unlike the rivers in Nimba County that were dyed red with the blood of a nation only a few short years ago). I shared that Jesus is the Prince of Peace (not like Prince Johnson, the warlord who murdered so many Liberians, maybe even some of their own family members). I preached about the peace that passes understanding to children of a nation recovering from 14 years of civil war. Week four: oranges and self-control. I passed the orange slices along as I asked the young women—girls who had been abused, girls who had been raped, child brides, child soldiers—to brainstorm times when they had seen people exhibit self-control. Our lesson was short that day. During my final week in Liberia, I gathered the last $83 stashed in my suitcase and used it to purchase gifts for the young women. I racked my brain thinking about the ways that I could most effectively put my money to use. I couldn’t pay for all of their school fees, and while Susanna’s young son clearly had tuberculosis, how could I neglect the wounds and illnesses of the other young children at his expense? With the pressing needs of child health in front of me, I settled on a gift that moths and rust would not destroy. I purchased 25 hardcover, gold-paged, red-lettered King James Bibles. I preached at those girls, educating them about kindness and goodness and faithfulness. With each lesson, I found I was not sharing words of love, but telling lifeless stories about a God I didn’t understand and a Christ I didn’t know. I didn’t know a Christ who was the Word, the Word made flesh, the Word who entered the world and its sciences, its humanity and its suffering, its wars and its wounded. Paralyzed by the sorrow and brokenness in the world and in the lives of those young women, and in a cheap effort to alleviate my own discomfort, I handed out religious presents instead of offering my presence as a follower in the way of Jesus. I didn’t know how to share kingdom theology or how to speak new kinds of Christianity, so I quickly transitioned back into my first language: evangelical fundamentalism in a mission trip dialect. As the weight of the disconnection grew heavier, I rooted myself more firmly in my old-time religion, a version of Christianity that I had spent so much time trying to unlearn. I had lost the language of the kingdom. Ralph Waldo Emerson once said that “the world is all gates, all opportunities, strings of tension waiting to be struck.” I had set out into the world ready to pass through the gates and take advantage of opportunities before me. But I had not yet developed a theology of tension, the kind of theology that lets us live well as faithful, integrated, connected followers of Jesus. I was a Sunday school superstar, but I didn’t know a compassionate Christ who was unimpressed with my crown of jewels, yet ardently, patiently, and passionately in love with his child. As I think about my life as a Sunday school superstar, I struggle with tenses. It sounds much better to say that I was a Sunday school superstar. My faith was disconnected. I was impotent. I was paralyzed. But I still find it much easier to be good at religion than to press in and ask for revelation. My native tongue is one of platitudes and parables that read much more like Aesop’s fables than the living and active Word of God. If I’m not careful, I still live like a Sunday school superstar. I’ve exchanged my polyester vest for a social justice sash. Instead of jewels for scripture memory, I now earn merit badges for new, emerging kinds of Christianity. There’s the relocate-to-abandoned-places-of-the-empire badge. The fair-trade-shopping badge. The paci-
31
NEW FROM
RUTGERS I still find it much easier to be good at religion than to press in and ask for revelation. If I’m not careful, I still live like a Sunday school superstar. fism badge. I’m more green, more locally rooted, more affirming. And I’ve found that I can also be good at this new kind of Christianity. But I want more. So those who have ears let them hear. Let these words fall on soft soil, that we might look at those eager children and active youth in our churches and in our families and be compelled to speak life into them, model an integrated faith for them, and press into the tensions of this world with them, groaning and longing for the kingdom that is not yet and is now coming. Together. As I’ve learned to question and be questioned by Scripture, I have come to affirm its power. My confessions are not accusations against the Bible but evidence of my inability to use it as a translator to engage the world. My words are evidence of my incapacity to know the Word as Emmanuel, God with us. Let me affirm that in the midst of my striving and failing, in the midst of my disconnection, God was (and is) still sovereign. God was still on the move, gathering sons and daughters. God was in Liberia before I got there, and God’s been there since I left. And in those few short months, both in and in spite of me, God was working. Let these confessions do what they can, as both admissions of guilt and acts of praise. God is making all things new—even the faith of this Sunday school superstar.
Janell Anema has worked as a baker, a church secretary, a waitress, and a professor, all in the last five years. Currently she is the director of operations at The Simple Way in Philadelphia, Pa., and spends most of her free time reading, writing, and drinking red wine. She is a wordsmith, a wanderer, a lover of people, a lover of places, and a member of churches. This article was adapted from chapter 2 of Faith Forward: A Dialogue on Children, Youth, and a New Kind of Christianity, edited by David M. Csinos and Melvin Bray (CopperHouse, an imprint of Wood Lake Publishing Inc., 2013). It is reproduced here by kind permission of the publisher (WoodlakeBooks.com).
A Dialogue on Children, Youth, and a New Kind of Christianity Edited by David M. Csinos and Melvin Bray Foreword by Shane Claiborne
WHEN DIVERSITY DROPS
Race, Religion, and Affirmative Action in Higher Education Julie J. Park paper $24.95
“ With clear writing, sound methodology, and compelling analysis, When Diversity Drops makes a strong argument that will be of interest to scholars of race, evangelism, campus life, and social theory.”
—Paul Bramadat, University of Victoria
“This is a seminal book in every sense of that word… It describes for us an entirely accessible landscape of hope and holy purpose.” PHYLLIS TICKLE
eNewsletter Sign Up
“ Park’s groundbreaking work shows us what happens to students’ capacity for bridging racial divides and reconciling conflicts under either color-blind or race-conscious conditions. She provides a remarkably fresh approach that forces us to reconsider the impact of diversity.” —Mitchell J. Chang, University of California, Los Angeles Also available as an ebook
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Receive free email alerts
Visit our new website and sign up for news and special offers.
http://rutgerspress.rutgers.edu
32
eNewsletter Sign Up
www.woodlakebooks.com 20% off all web orders
Mark Van Steenwyk explores the various ways we the Christian community have failed our mission by embracing the ways of the world and advancing our own agendas. He shows us that the starting place of authentic Christian witness is repentance, and that while Jesus’ kingdom is not of this world, it remains the only hope of the world.
Mark Van Steenwyk is cofounder of the Mennonite Worker, a Christian intentional community in Minneapolis. Mark is an editor at JesusRadicals.com and the producer and cohost of the Iconocast podcast.
likewisebooks.com 800.843.9487
33
A bear trap sold at a slum market to locals who want to keep the vagrant children off their property.
A boy cries on the streets of Kampala, Uganda.
A street kid shows where his toes were cut off by a bear trap.
Finding Hope One Child aT a Time In Uganda, home-grown NGOs tackle daunting atrocities against children by Shannon Sutherland Smith photos by Zoriah Miller 34
Young, homeless boys get high on streets of Kampala, Uganda’s worst slum.
e has bandaged the wounds of homeless children whose limbs have been torn off by rusty, metal-jawed bear traps. He has soothed a 5-year-old after an attempted abduction at a time when area children are being stolen by Ugandan witch doctors who murder, dismember, and bury them alive in the belief that such atrocities will bring prosperity. He has transported a dozen children fevered with malaria to a hospital, not knowing how many would survive the ride there. He has seen children die. He has comforted children who want to die. And he has stood shoulder-to-shoulder with people who believe these kids deserve to die. Yet Patrick Ssenyonjo, 23, says his faith has taught him to look up and reach out rather than sink into bitterness or hopelessness. “God is good,” he insists, his faith unshaken in the face of so much pain. Referred to by the children as Daddy Patrick, Ssenyonjo knows what it is to come from the streets, as he lived there himself with his sister, Allen, for many years before an American missionary discovered their plight while they were still teenagers. “The woman was on her way to Ethiopia,” Ssenyonjo explains from the safe house he operates in Bulenga, just outside Kampala. “But she stopped in Uganda and saw my sister and me on the streets and had pity on us and rented us a house. We couldn’t believe it when we went into our new house. It was all so new to us. I remember the first time we flushed the toilet, we ran out of the house screaming, we were so scared.” Shortly after they settled into the two-bedroom house, he and his sister were walking to church when they heard a child crying. They found an infant in a sack—a little girl around 1 year of age. They took the child to church with them and showed her to their pastor. “The pastor said, ‘We don’t know what to tell you to do. There’s nowhere to take her.’ So we took
H
her home with us,” says Ssenyonjo. “We knew how blessed we were to have that house, and we wanted to share it, so soon we had many children living with us. And the little girl, we named her Elizabeth, she is still with us and is happy and healthy and is doing great.” In the five years since then, Ssenyonjo and his sister, as well as friends locally and internationally who have come alongside him, have transformed what started out as an informal outreach to orphans and street kids into a government-registered nonprofit. He now runs the safe house through his NGO, Raising Up Hope for Uganda, while his sister operates an orphanage in the city. Ssenyonjo’s heart has always been drawn to the street children—children widely considered to be a nuisance at best and, at worst, completely disposable. Often the kids turn to drugs and alcohol to dull the pain of hunger and abuse and the fear of violence. “All we can say is that these children face immense challenges,” says Faith Ojambo, program director at the Uganda field office of Compassion International, which tries to prevent children from becoming homeless by intervening through a child sponsorship program. “Like all street-living kids, they are exploited sexually, battered, insulted, stigmatized, and absolutely despised. Some NGOs have stepped in to help them, but their support is like a drop in the ocean.” Grisly measures of control The Ugandan government has tried to address many of these issues as of late, but the impact is negligible. For instance, in an effort to “get kids off the street,” the authorities are simply picking up children from Kampala and locking them up at the notorious Kampiringisa Rehabilitation Centre, according to a 2010 report by the Uganda Human Rights Commission. The UHRC
35
“We can’t always give these kids everything they need—the needs are so great. But we can love them and care for them and do our best.” report said that although Kampiringisa was designed to accommodate 140 juveniles, the center is now overwhelmed with hundreds of children dumped there by the Kampala City Council.1 According to Ssenyonjo, when people complain about street children, the police capture and imprison them in horrific conditions, and the children live in terror of Kampiringisa. Ssenyonjo says that large iron bear traps are also used by property owners in the city to keep homeless kids off their property and are widely considered to be a strategy to rid the streets of homeless children. He says that the traps are not removed by local authorities when they are reported and are freely sold in the markets with the purpose of “deterring” street kids. When doing his weekly medical outreach to clean and bandage the wounds of street kids, he has cared for children whose feet, hands, fingers, and toes have been torn off by the traps, which are illegal to use even for animals in most US states. “No one cares what happens to these kids—if they live or die,” says Ssenyonjo, “and we have so many children here who have been hurt and exploited.” Child sacrifice In October 2011, a BBC journalist went undercover in Kampala and was told by a local witch doctor that he would be willing to bury a child alive on a construction site to bring prosperity to the landowner. The Emmy-nominated news story exposed yet another gruesome reality of the city’s children. The government and NGOs such as Save the Children have put up posters warning children of the dangers of abduction related to child sacrifice, and a special police task force comprised of 15 officers was formed to address the issue. Kidnapped children are often dismembered and beheaded, then
36
left on roadsides or in the bush. Children who survive are often left maimed, as the witch doctors often cut off body parts—most commonly the genitals. The work of the police task force has been strongly criticized by the UK-based charity, Jubilee Campaign, which works with Kyampisi Childcare Ministries, a local NGO featured in the BBC investigative report. Jubilee says that more than 900 cases have yet to be investigated by the police, although police reports have been filed.2 “Our research, and the investigation by Chris Rogers and the BBC team in 2011, has shown that witch doctors are ready and willing to sacrifice children,” says Peter Ssewakiryanga, executive director of Kyampisi Childcare Ministries. “They have done it before, although they will deny it in public. Most of them do the sacrifice secretly, and there is little chance of being caught in the act. Also, many families do not report the abduction or murder of their children to the police, so many such cases go unreported.” Ssewakiryanga says it is likely that hundreds of cases are left uninvestigated by the police due to the lack of resources. “I think that most of the missing children that are never found are victims of child sacrifice or trafficking,” he says. “In our area alone we have many children who are survivors of sacrifice or children who are missing and suspected victims of sacrifice. This is equal to or higher than the statistic that has been published for the entire country.” About one child is sacrificed every week in Uganda, according to a 2013 report on child sacrifice and mutilation in that country, released by Humane Africa in partnership with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). The report says the children’s body parts are usually sold for between US$200 and $400, depending on the age of the victim and the amount of time taken to hunt down the victim.3
Street kids pass time in an alleyway where up to 30 kids sleep each night.
Patrick Ssenyonjo bandages the open wounds of an addicted child during a slum outreach.
Yet Ssewakiryanga says he finds hope one child at a time as lives are restored. “The stories of healing that have kept me going are many,” he says. “Amidst the trauma, frustration, and fear for my life, the life of George Mukisa, a 6-year-old boy I took for surgery in Australia, encourages me. His genitals were completely mutilated, and he was left to die in Uganda until God opened a door for him to go to Australia for a life-saving surgery. He is now free from pain that he had endured for three years and is happy and going to school. His family is hopeful for his future.” Preventable diseases George Mukisa, however, is an exception. Most children in need of healthcare have nowhere to turn for assistance or even basic healthcare. Research from Kids In Need (KIN), an NGO that assists street children, found that about 80 percent of the boys and girls on the streets have lost parents or guardians due to AIDS-related illnesses. There is simply no one watching out for them anymore. Ssenyonjo says that in addition to the children infected with HIV, it is also a struggle to deal with diseases like malaria. “We can’t really use mosquito nets, because most of the kids don’t even have beds for us to attach the nets to,” he says. “It’s very upsetting to see the kids getting so sick and even dying from diseases that are preventable and treatable.” Recently, almost all the children in the safe house became very ill with malaria, and three had to be hospitalized. Uganda has the third-highest death rate from malaria in Africa, according to UNICEF, and malaria accounts for about one-third to one-half of outpatient care and up to one-in-six in-patient deaths. “We can’t always give these kids everything they need—the needs are so great,” says Ssenyonjo. “But we can love them and care for them and do our best.” He has big dreams—dreams of building on the land they have purchased in the country and helping more kids and providing them with vocational training and access to medical care. He has plans to farm the land they now own and feed the children with what they produce and teach
children about agriculture. And he believes that if he remains in God’s will and remains humble and faithful, God will provide. “Every day, every hour, every second, every moment is an opportunity that God has given to me for the purpose he has put me on this earth,” says Ssewakiryanga. He continues to work with local authorities to prosecute one case at a time while also providing support to families victimized by the practice of child sacrifice. “We need people to pray for the country for healing from this gruesome act,” he says. “We need people to pray for us and the staff here that are engaged in traumatizing stories and issues related to child mutilations and sacrifice. We need people to pray for the victims and their families who have inconsolable stories.” (Editor’s note: You’ll find the endnotes for this article at PRISMmagazine.org/ endnotes.)
Learn more at RaisingUpHope.org and Kyampisi.org.
Shannon Sutherland Smith is a writer, editor, and columnist based in Alberta, Canada. She works for several metropolitan daily newspapers as well as magazines and NGOs with a special focus on faith and social justice issues. She is also a wife and a mother of five, working to raise the next generation of anti-apathetic Christ followers. Zoriah Miller's photography is recognized around the globe. See more of his poignant and beautiful photographs at Zoriah.com.
37
38
The Dangers of Voluntourism
When good intentions just aren’t enough by Tania DoCarmo, Charlie Smith-Brake, and Julia Smith-Brake
Courtesy of Friends-International.org
T
cases, an orphanage model may be necessary, especially following a natural disaster or as a short-term solution when alternative safe housing for a child cannot be found. However, the reality is that in most cases there are alternative family solutions to institutionalization, even in developing countries,2 and orphanages should be considered a last resort. This is by no means a condemnation of the church’s involvement in overseas ministry or of Christians’ motives for helping orphaned children. Rather, we’re suggesting that we begin asking ourselves some challenging questions. “Why are orphanages unacceptable for children in my country, but acceptable for children in the developing world?” “Would I ever want my child to end up in an orphanage?” “Why do I visit orphanages?” “Is it in the best interest of children to have strangers and visitors coming in and out of their already unstable lives?” “What happens to the children once they become an adult and have to leave?” Over 60 years of global research has demonstrated many adverse impacts of residential care (orphanages) on the development of children, including personality disorders, growth and speech delays, and an impaired ability to reenter society later in life.3 Orphanages have also been shown to place children at serious risk of physical and sexual abuse. Orphanages often turn to international donors and volunteers in hopes of raising money. As a result, short-term volunteers, who have not undergone background checks, are frequently given access to children, posing significant risk to child protection. In addition, due to a high turnover of caregivers, children must repeatedly try to form emotional connections with different adults. When volunteers leave, these bonds are broken and children experience
here’s no doubt the church cares about orphans. For decades we’ve prayed, given money, and participated in international campaigns for “AIDS orphans” in Africa. We’ve supported orphans through child sponsorship, participated in drives to supply orphanages with items such as school supplies and clothes; and many of us have at one time or another gone on a short-term mission trip focused on caring for orphans in an orphanage or children’s’ home. And why not? The Bible is clear that God cares about orphans. In fact, God demands that we care and advocate for the “fatherless” and “widow” (e.g. James 1:27, Isaiah 1:17), just as God cares for us. Whether it’s a concern for local foster children, orphans in Asia, or other vulnerable populations, it is our duty to be concerned for men, women, and children who have lost their families. When it comes to orphans, however, what the church hasn’t done particularly well is take heed of what history and research have to teach us about child development, child protection, and what it means to live in a sustainable and healthy family environment. Instead we continue to hold on to the belief that the best way to help is “WHEN PEOPLE START AN ORPHANAGE, THEY TEND TO FOCUS ON through an orphanage model in which we (the church) care for orphans ourTHE NEEDS OF THE MOST VULNERABLE CHILDREN… WHAT WE’VE selves. Certainly, vulnerable children are FOUND THROUGH OUR RESEARCH WAS THAT VULNERABILITY WAS in need of safety, care, and support; however, the idea that the primary way NOT TAKEN AWAY AS THE CHILDREN GREW UP. IT WAS ACTUALLY to do this is by building more orphanages and/or welcoming volunteers JUST DELAYED UNTIL THE CHILDREN LEFT. IN CAMBODIA, THERE from overseas to “love” and work with orphans—regardless of the “good in- ARE NOT ORPHANAGES BECAUSE THERE ARE ORPHANS, THERE ARE tentions” behind doing so—is not only antiquated (and somewhat biased) but ORPHANS BECAUSE THERE ARE ORPHANAGES. THE VAST MAJORalso can be downright harmful. Research dating all the way back to the 1950s1 ITY OF THE CHILDREN LIVING IN ORPHANAGES IN CAMBODIA HAVE presents clear evidence that both orphanages and orphanage “tourism” can PARENTS, HAVE FAMILY, AND THE FACT THAT THEY’RE IN THE have serious detrimental consequences, not only for children but also for the ORPHANAGE SEPARATES THEM FROM THEIR FAMILIES, ALIENATES community at large. And yet the Western church has played an active role not only THEM FROM THEIR COMMUNITIES TO SUCH AN EXTENT THAT WHEN in funding orphanages where they may not be needed, but also in encouraging THEY LEAVE THE ORPHANAGES THEY ARE NO LONGER PART OF “orphanage tourism” disguised in the form of short-term mission trips. THOSE FAMILIES.” A last resort Please don’t misunderstand. In some
- SARAH CHHIN, COUNTRY ADVISOR FOR PROJECT SKY 39
abandonment once again.4 One common misconception is that children in orphanages are “double orphans” (meaning both parents are deceased) or do not have families. The truth is, however, that because so many orphanages are funded by international donors who also provide good food and education, many children are in orphanages for other reasons, such as poverty, and many are brought to the orphanage by their own parents. These parents, often facing extreme poverty, illness, or lack of education, believe that by placing their child in an orphanage they are providing them with opportunities for a better education. It is not true that these families simply abandoned or do not care for their children. In many cases they simply have no better alternative, especially in countries where there are few social services.
In Cambodia, for example, a 2011 study5 found that 44 percent of children in residential care were brought by their own parents, and 61 percent have at least one living parent or close relative. The single most contributing factor for placement in residential care was education, with 90 percent of those in the community saying they thought a family member should send a child to an orphanage for education if they cannot afford the local school. Contrary to the Royal Government of Cambodia’s recent policies stating that family and community-based care are the best option for children and
Finding Alternatives
that new residential programs should not be encouraged or pursued, the number of children in orphanages has increased by 75 percent since 2005, and the majority of these children were accepted by nonprofit international organizations (as opposed to the government). According to the same government database, over 45 percent of children placed in residential care since 2005 were placed there primarily due to poverty and not because they did not have living relatives. Ironically, Cambodia has a long tradition of caring for children through kinship care with extended family, but the rapid proliferation of residential care facilities threatens to erode these existing systems, placing more children at risk. By investing in institutionalized care as opposed to alternative solutions such as foster care, kinship care, or by assisting families through community development (providing access to education, vocational training, employment, micro-finance, etc.), we perpetuate a reliance on institutions instead of family. Children who could otherwise remain in a natural family setting are instead placed in risky situations where their development and safety may be compromised. Advocates for community-based care argue that these alternative solutions are not only more cost-effective but are also much more sustainable and provide families with the opportunity to care for themselves without depending on international aid programs. Orphanage tourism Orphanage tourism generally refers to Westerners who visit or volunteer to work at a residential care center (orphanage) in the developing world. These trips can be arranged by a tour or travel company, a nonprofit, or by a church and can mean anything from one person dropping in to visit children at an orphanage for a few hours or a group of a dozen people coming to work at the orphanage for several weeks or months. Sometimes visitors and volunteers pay the orphanage a “donation” to visit, or sometimes the group may pay the orphanage to stay on the premises during their visit. Orphanage tourism includes many different scenarios and generally occurs out of good intentions. Regardless of intentions, however, orphanage tourism can be extremely harmful and is usually not in the best interest of children. In worst-case scenarios, orphanage tourism leads to significant misappropriation of funds. When tourists or groups visit an organization in a developing country, they are encouraged to leave a donation for the operations and
The following resources and organizations are focused on innovative solutions in Cambodia and beyond:
International Cooperation Cambodia is home to Project Sky (ICC.org. kh/activities/sky), a nonprofit that helps integrate young adult orphans into their local community as healthy, productive citizens.
Better Care Network (crin.org/ BCN) is dedicated to facilitating information exchange and collaboration between different organizations that strive to combat the institutionalization of children without families.
Children Are Not Tourist Attractions (ThinkChildSafe.org/ThinkBeforeVisiting) is a campaign launched by Friends-International (and UNICEF) that seeks to stop the phenomenon known as orphanage tourism in Cambodia by educating tourists and other potential donors to Cambodian orphanages.
Children in Families (Childrenin Families.org) is a nonprofit based in Cambodia that is concerned with the over-institutionalization of at-risk children. It seeks to place children who cannot be reunited with their birth parents with loving families through kinship care (in the homes of relatives) or long-term foster care.
Cambodia’s Orphan Business (tinyurl.com/lnwvtau), an Al Jazeera Special Report, is a 25-minute investigative video that looks critically at the exploitation of children from unscrupulous businessmen and international organizations who use orphanages and orphanage tourism for their own financial gain.
40
Orphanages Not the Solution (Orphanages.no/index.html) is a resource for tourists, visitors, and those looking to volunteer in Cambodia to help them make informed decisions about their interaction with and support of orphanages in Cambodia. Uniting for Children (unitingfor children.org) uses stories and articles to expand the conversation with those directly involved with at-risk children worldwide about the best way to care for these children. Be sure to watch the poignant “Why Not a Family?” video on the homepage.
WITHOUT A THOUGHTFUL, CLEAR PERCEPTION OF YOUR OWN IDEAS,
Alternative family solutions are more cost-effective than orphanages, more sustainable, and provide families with the opportunity to care for themselves without depending on international aid programs. (Photo by Philip Date / Shutterstock.com)
YOU WILL NOT BE EQUIPPED TO DEVELOP AWARENESS REGARDING THE STEREOTYPES TO WHICH YOU SUBSCRIBE, AND YOU WILL LIMIT ANY DEEPER UNDERSTANDING OF GLOBAL INEQUALITIES THAT YOUR TRIP MAY TRY TO ADDRESS. programs of the organization. In some cases, the donation is redirected— not to the children or to the costs of the orphanage but into the pockets of opportunistic directors or leaders.6 In addition to requiring children in the orphanage to dance, sing, or perform for visitors (sometimes under threat of violence or neglect), there have also been cases in Cambodia of orphanage leadership sexually exploiting children in their care.7 Unfortunately, abuse and exploitation occur not only in orphanages where directors and leaders have self-serving intentions. Because of the lack of regulation and accountability in orphanages, abuse and neglect are often rampant. Orphanages that accept visitors or volunteers (regardless of whether they know them or not) overwhelmingly lack proper screening for people visiting their facilities. This can have multiple ill effects. First, the easier it is to access these children, the more people will do so. The higher the demand for these types of opportunities to visit an orphanage, the more orphanages will consider allowing visitors and even opening new orphanages. Because nonprofits and ministries are often competitive in their need for funds, it can be difficult to resist the wants and desires of potential donors. Second, easy access to children in orphanages means easy access for everyone—including predators, child sex tourists, and pedophiles who seek out vulnerable children. Predators rarely look or seem “dangerous” and can usually win the trust of groups who believe all volunteers have equally good intentions. Even if visitors are not directly abusing children they are often not equipped to interact with traumatized or vulnerable children, and their wellmeaning involvement can actually increase a child’s vulnerability to abuse in the future, especially if they perceive all Westerners as safe and well meaning. Personal motivations Perhaps you’re thinking, “But I’m not going to visit just any orphanage. I’m going to my friend/church/known organization’s orphanage, so I will not fall into these voluntourism traps.” Perhaps you are moved by supporting or visiting an orphanage because it closely parallels your idea of a perfect vacation8 because you can connect with local children in a way that simply having a tour guide or purchasing goods from a shop owner does not afford. Or perhaps you simply want to help. Unfortunately, however, the reality
is that orphanage tourism—regardless of how happy the child seems or how big a donation you give to the organization—is not a true connection between peers. The children you visit will likely never have the opportunity to reciprocate a visit, nor do they really have a choice about meeting and spending time with visitors. Your visit is much more about your emotional desire than it is about what the children need to be healthy and/or happy. Before thinking about visiting an orphanage, honestly consider your motivations. What are you going to get out of your visit? Is your visit in the children’s emotional best interest in the long-term? How would you feel if the situation were reversed? Is there a way you can better support these children that doesn’t include a visit? Without a thoughtful, clear perception of your own ideas, you will not be equipped to develop awareness regarding the stereotypes to which you subscribe, and you will limit any deeper understanding of global inequalities that your trip may try to address.9 Conclusion Based on the reasons we’ve outlined here, we do not believe orphanages are the way forward for children. But what does this mean? How can the church be part of the solution? Thankfully, many ministries and organizations around the world have realized the shortcomings of orphanages and are working on innovative solutions to ensure orphans are cared for in safe and loving families. (See “Finding Alternatives” on page 40.) The journey toward change is never easy, however the more the church commits to understanding how we can better serve others, the more likely we are to succeed. (Editor’s note: You’ll find the endnotes for this article at PRISMmagazine. org/endnotes.)
Tania DoCarmo and Charlie and Julia Smith-Brake work for Chab Dai, an international Christian organization dedicated to addressing abuse and human trafficking in Cambodia, the United States, Canada, and other partner regions. For more info, go to ChabDai.org.
41
Ecclesia Behind the Razor Wire Church communities are on the rise inside America’s prisons—and so is their indigenous leadership by Harold Dean Trulear
42
Prisoners need to be visited above all others, as they are commonly solitary and forsaken by the rest of the world. —John Wesley The sun shone brightly overhead in a high, cloudless sky as we entered the Joseph Harp Correctional facility in Lexington, Okla. Our goal was to connect the ministry at the prison with the Oklahoma League of Healing Communities, a network of congregations involved in ministry to prisoners, formerly incarcerated persons, crime victims, and their families in a statewide restorative justice effort. Accompanied by prison staff and Oklahoma Department of Corrections’ Victim Services Coordinator Rev. Ilinda Jackson, we made our way through the prison yard to the chapel. As inmates trickled into the simple space where the Church on the Yard met for worship, Bible study, and fellowship, Jackson told me we would meet the pastor shortly. “Here comes the pastor,” she finally announced. I looked for the chaplain—or at least some volunteer preacher who would fit the title. I was still looking over the shoulder of the inmate now standing in front of me when he thrust out his hand and announced, “Welcome to Church on the Yard. I’m one of the pastors.” I missed his name, my attention fixed on his prison uniform while worrying what this preacher had done to get himself locked up. I knew ministers who had done time—I was one of them. So my speculation on his transgression eclipsed any initial connection. All I saw was this clean-cut inmate in prison browns. What had the pastor done? His voice pulled me back into the moment. He was telling me his story— of his biker days and how that lifestyle resulted in him taking another man’s life. Sentenced to life in prison, he had come to faith in Christ while at Joseph Harp. “Jesus saved me and cleaned me up,” he said, no doubt reading my mind as I tried to picture him with a scruffier appearance. “And now I am an ordained pastor at this church.” Having my full attention now, he continued: “The chaplain views himself as someone with an apostolic ministry. As an apostle, he comes from the outside to plant indigenous congregations. And indigenous congregations should have indigenous leaders.” I marveled at how this basic principle of missions made perfect sense in the prison context. “So that is what we are—the chaplain discipled me, had me ordained a deacon, then an elder, and now a pastor.” Indeed, it turns out that the chaplain had brought in duly constituted ministerial authorities to perform actual ordinations. While maintaining his administrative and spiritual leadership role as chaplain of the facility, he offered inmates the opportunity for empowerment and accountability within the prison. Discipled, they grew into leaders. Sustained discipleship on the inside The idea of a prison-based congregation, as opposed to a traditional arrangement of chaplain as pastor, volunteers as preachers, and inmates as members, has grown over the past 30 years. In fact, the organization Prison Congregations of America (PrisonCongregations.org) lists over a dozen denominational churches planted behind prison walls by traditions as diverse as the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America and the General Baptist Convention. Additionally, six of the congregations, including the two United Methodist churches, serve women’s correctional facilities. The critical components of prison-based congregations include developing inmate leadership, building real relationships between congregations and members outside the walls with those inside the walls, and heightening aware-
ness of issues concerning incarceration, crime, victimization, and restoration as central to the churches’ mission. Traditional prison ministry involving volunteers heading in rotation to correctional facilities to provide worship services and Bible studies has its place. But proponents of the prison-based congregation see the building of relationships and leadership as vital to ministry in prisons. One pastor lamented, “I always thought we were doing something in just sending volunteers to preach, until I realized that those were persons that I would not have preach to my congregation on Sunday.” Another offered, “Prisoners and sick folk are on the same list in Matthew 25, but one gets the whole church while the other gets three volunteers from someone else’s church.” Mary Mortenson currently leads Prison Congregations of America. In her role as a mission planter, she works with denominational and correctional officials to establish congregations behind bars. When asked about the need for such congregations, she replies that they exist “for the same reasons that anyone would attend a congregation.” Mortenson notes that prison congregations provide a “sense of community, opportunities for service, and leadership, hospitality, and a venue for healthy problem-solving. Our congregations get involved in real service: CROP Hunger Walks, collecting money for outside projects like digging wells in poor countries, and adopting overseas children.” Mortenson’s passion for the work contributes to its growing edges, as more congregations are planned for other prisons and formal reentry training develops for “outside” churches that partner with prison congregations. “We do not replace traditional prison ministry,” she says, “but supplement and complement it with the capacity to do sustained discipleship on the inside.” With trained denominational ministers as pastors, as well as denominational and other outside financial support, correctional facilities can enhance their ability to provide faith services at little cost to the prison itself. Roots of the movement Interestingly, pre-dating the efforts of the denominations in Prison Congregations of America, the late Chaplain William Barrett established the Reconciliation Church of Christ as a full-fledged member of the Progressive Baptist Convention a few years after his arrival in 1976 as chaplain at Rahway State Prison in New Jersey. Two months after his appointment as chaplain at the maximum security facility, Barrett lamented to a reporter from the Lawrence Journal-World that though inmates came to worship services, they did not form a Christian community. He saw upwards of 50 people coming to services seeking faith but no form of organization or accountability among these men, most of whom had not attended church while on the outside. Barrett organized the worshiping faithful into a church, with deacons and other officers, and even discipled one formerly violent inmate into the role of pastor. In the mid-’80s, a local minister was sentenced to the prison following a violent confrontation and became the cellmate of the inmate pastor. He helped prepare “his cellie” for ministry on the outside, while the inmate pastor prepared him for pastoral ministry within the walls. The Saint Dismas prison ministry, an effort of the Episcopal Church at the Graterford Prison in Pennsylvania, began even earlier, in 1970. However, it did not become a formal mission congregation of the Diocese of Pennsylvania until 1991, when it discovered the denominational congregation model being used in other prisons. In its early years, it received much energy from clergy, but also from one inmate, Vaughan Booker, serving time for killing his wife in a domestic dispute. Booker, who tells his story of addiction, violence, incarceration,
43
Baptism, teaching, and worship at Celebration Fellowship, Ionia Correctional Facility in Michigan.
repentance, and transformation in his autobiography, From Prison to Pulpit, received training for leadership, and ultimately ordination as a deacon, while an inmate at Graterford. He both attended college and worked in a church while on a work-release program, and he eventually attended Virginia Seminary upon release and was ordained a priest in the denomination. Fr. George Master currently serves as vicar of St. Dismas, going out every Tuesday to provide what he calls “a sacramental, Protestant presence.” As with most of the congregations listed on the Prison Congregations of America website, Master serves as a pastor from outside the walls. This does not negate the reality of inmate leadership, however. Master notes that a number of the men have completed the Education for Ministry program, originated at the University of the South’s Sewanee School of Theology. This program of theological discipline and discipleship finds lodging in many congregations and diocese of the Episcopal Church. Master builds relationships of accountability with those who have taken the courses, “because they need to put their training into practice and not just make their [record] look good for the parole board.” Partly because services are on Tuesdays when many inmates have jobs, and also because of the smaller number of sacramental Protestants (Episcopalians and Lutherans) in this facility, attendance hovers at around 10 for worship, half that for Bible study. But Master spends significant time ministering with “lifers” at the prison as well. Masters is white and wonders why it has been difficult to attract black volunteers to work with him on his Tuesdays at the prison. “I do this because I believe it fulfills the biblical requirements of justice. It does not make sense that the majority of people who live in Pennsylvania look like me, while the majority of residents at Graterford are black and brown. This is an evil system, and when I make the 100-mile round trip between my Philadelphia parish and my prison congregation, I return with a sense that God is at work on behalf of the voiceless in that facility.” Sisters on the inside Women at the Well, a United Methodist church, was launched in July 2006, with the combined efforts of Prison Congregations of America, the Iowa Annual Conference restorative justice committee, Bishop Gregory Palmer, and, interestingly, the prayers of the prison congregation in Fort Dodge, Iowa. Located at the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women (ICIW), the church has a detailed website covering all aspects of an outside congregation’s visit from arrival through departure, demonstrating their sense of hospitality: “Choose to join us within the razor wire as a weekly witness that the love of Christ knows no boundaries or limitations, and that in Christ we are all truly one in the Spirit.” Pastor Lee Schott deems her work “clearly a divine appointment.” She had previously served on the “outside council,” which shared lay governance with an “inside council” consisting of inmates at ICIW, but she saw her primary calling “outside” until she began to discern a call “inside.” “By the time I was appointed, I knew this was what God wanted, and once I got here I discovered I loved it.” Like Barrett and Mortenson, she points to
44
the sense of community. “I am with them four days a week—when their father dies, when there are tensions with roommates, when parole says no, when they can’t find work...” Pastor Lee spends her Sundays preaching in other congregations, raising awareness and money for Women at the Well. She preaches at the prison congregation’s Thursday night services. Once, while Lee was away, an inmate preached as part of discerning her own call to ministry. Inmates led most of the service. The planning process was tense, but the presence of community gave them the opportunity to work things through—what church functions without tension?—and hold a Spirit-filled worship service. Ecclesia behind bars The Celebration Fellowship at the Ionia Correctional Facility in Michigan is a congregation of the Christian Reformed Church. The Rev. Rich Rienstra and his wife, Carol, work closely with the pastor and congregation; she leads a book club within the prison congregation, and he supports the creative worship efforts of the congregation. The congregation has benefitted from support by the denomination (including the CRC’s “Sea-to-Sea” cycling fundraiser), Calvin Seminary, a Lilly grant, and other resources that develop a strong worship presence in the facility. They use a variety of worship materials, including a worship guide for families of inmates prepared by ForeverFamily, a longstanding agency ministering to children of the incarcerated in Atlanta, Ga. Rienstra sees the congregation as a response to a “Troas call”—a reference to the Apostle Paul’s vision in which he heard a call to come to Macedonia and help struggling saints (Acts 16)—“affirming that the men behind bars can have church.” Like the other prison congregations, a strong relationship exists between the church on the inside and on the outside. Additionally, the outside churches provide a support network for those coming home. However, as is the case in the other congregations, a good number will find their “outside” church home in another tradition upon release. Prison congregations exist because of the vision and will of people like Mortenson, Rienstra, Barrett, Schott, and Master. But they also exist because they fulfill the basic requirements of the “ecclesia”—the congregation called out to be an assembly of accountable believers. In this era of mass incarceration, we clearly need policies that provide alternatives to incarceration for many. But in the meantime, preparation for accountable living, discipleship, and service find embodiment in prison-based congregational life. Would that we had more.
Harold Dean Trulear is director of the Healing Communities Prison Ministry and Prisoner Reentry Project of the Philadelphia Leadership Foundation. He is an ordained American Baptist minister and serves as associate professor of applied theology and director of the doctor of ministry program at Howard University in Washington, DC. He is on the pastoral staff of Praise and Glory Tabernacle in Southwest Philadelphia and serves as a fellow at the Center for Public Justice in Annapolis, Md.
Behind Bars by Truthout.org
I was raised in a politically conservative, evangelical Christian home, and my parents supported the death penalty, so I did too. While in college, I worked for the Nebraska Republican Party and argued in favor of capital punishment in debates on campus. Then a girl I had mentored for two years from my hometown went missing. Soon afterwards, while driving my car one day, I learned that her body had been found. I pulled to the side of the road because I could no longer see through the tears. I had been holding out hope that they would find her alive. My grief gave way to rage as an acquaintance from my high school years turned himself in and confessed to her murder. I wanted him dead! Her killer was sentenced to death. At the time, someone mentioned to me that it was unlikely that he would ever be executed. That’s when my learning process about America’s death penalty system began. Still, the teachings of my faith started running through my brain. Vengeance is not mine. Forgive as I’ve been forgiven. Love my enemies. I was confused. Armed with a broken heart and a political science degree, I dove into research to answer my questions about our system of capital punishment. I also needed help to resolve my struggle with what Jesus taught us about forgiving people. I ended up reading more than two
supported repeal this year, a huge increase from 2009 when only 13 senators voted in favor of ending capital punishment. Regrettably there were not enough votes to stop a filibuster, and the bill died. But it’s abundantly clear that Nebraska legislators are beginning to understand the weight of what they’re voting on and that many are referring back to their faith in the process. Evangelical lawmakers I am speaking with are increasingly seeing this as a justice issue precisely because of their religious beliefs. They are viewing new information about the death penalty system, from innocence to costs, through the precepts of their faith, and it’s causing them to reevaluate. They are also being influenced by voters. More faith communities are inviting me to make presentations about the death penalty and then contacting their legislators and telling them why
I believe that evangelical Christians coming to terms with capital punishment based on their faith, as well as the facts, could make all the difference when they vote on this issue again. they too should be against executions. I believe that evangelical Christians coming to terms with capital punishment based on their faith, as well as the facts, could make all the difference when they vote on this issue again. I was a captive to feelings of hate and retribution about my friend’s murder, and was set free only by living as Jesus taught. Not surprisingly, my friend’s murderer still sits on Nebraska’s death row as the appeals keep grinding on, with no end in sight. So, my message to evangelicals is this: Go back, study the issue, and get all of the facts. Once you learn about the death penalty system in America, it will become clear that ending it is the only option left to us. Stacy Anderson is executive director of Nebraskans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (NADP.net), which has worked to end the death penalty in Nebraska since 1981.
45
Washington Watch
Evangelicals and the Death Penalty
dozen books about the death penalty in the United States, including many from a biblical perspective. The Bible challenged my notions of justice, and I discovered that the theoretical type of capital punishment it articulates is different from the practical application of the death penalty in this country. I believe my faith calls on me to work for justice for the poor. I reflected on everything that I had learned about how the death penalty works in the United States for all who come into contact with it: the condemned, the families of both victims and offenders, and many others. My research and my faith began my journey to work towards ending the death penalty in Nebraska. Today, as executive director of Nebraskans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, I speak with evangelicals daily about the failures of the system. I understand how they can look at Romans 13 and believe God intends to use the government as an instrument of wrath against people who commit murder. But I have also seen them register surprise and disgust when I tell them about the many problems that plague the system of capital punishment in this country: the risk of executing innocent people, the racial and economic disparities between who gets the death sentence and who does not, the added fiscal impacts compared to life without parole, and the repeated trauma for victims’ families caused by years of uncertainty and endless appeals. During the 2013 legislative session, for the first time ever in Nebraska, an evangelical pastor testified in support of a bill to repeal the state’s death penalty. “Throughout the Old Testament,” Bill Thornton told members of the Judiciary Committee, “we find various laws that God established to ensure that the poor would not be unjustly treated in courts, that those innocent would never be executed, and that there would be fair application of the law and fair application of the death penalty. Evangelicals are … becoming increasingly aware of the massive injustices carried out in the death penalty system,” he said. The Judiciary Committee ended up voting unanimously to send the death penalty repeal bill to the full legislature for a vote, and there’s no doubt that Pastor Thornton’s testimony had an impact. A majority of Nebraska legislators
A Different Shade of Green
Breaking the Resource Curse
E
velyn Adams won the lottery (twice). But despite hitting the jackpot to the tune of $5.4 million, she currently lives in a trailer in New Jersey, broke. Billy Bob Harrell Jr. won $31 million and committed suicide after his life fell apart. Janite Lee won an $18 million jackpot and filed for bankruptcy eight years later. Apparently winning the lottery is a good way to ruin your life.* In much the same way, many of the countries that are sitting on jackpots of oil and mineral wealth—Congo, Nigeria, Guinea, Venezuela, Angola, Iraq—seem ruined. In international rankings, resource-rich nations often languish at the bottom of indices of development. They have slow economic growth, low incomes, vast inequalities, and weak political institutions. They are plagued with corruption, conflict, civil war, political oppression, and human rights abuses. The paradoxical “resource curse,” shouldn’t surprise Christians, who know that fallen humans seek money for nothing. The socalled value of natural resources are not linked to anything anyone has done. They are a free gift from God, but instead of sharing and using those resources wisely, we declare ownership: Those gifts are fenced off, auctioned off, stolen, traded for bribes, or sold to the highest bidder. Humans create long chains of moneyfed enterprise to extract and upgrade natural resources, and the market price of steel, for
46
example, reflects the money paid to iron ore miners, equipment operators, transportation workers, steelworkers, support personnel, and others who work in the sector. They all earn a well-deserved income. In contrast, the money paid to “owners” of the unmined iron ore is unearned income; it consists of the excess value, or rent, that comes from selling steel, after all other workers in the value chain have been paid. Unearned income is just that— money for nothing. Money for nothing is almost always a curse rather than a blessing. Whoever controls the resource wins the prize, but how is control won? The reality is that access and control are usually stolen, often from indigenous people or subsistence farmers, who are powerless to demand a slice of the unearned income. Governments often claim sovereignty over the resource and then auction off or grant access rights to the entity with the most money or power. Extraction companies go to great lengths for access to natural resources, using their experience to manipulate negotiations. In countries with weak systems of accountability, officials themselves face a temptation. They know what companies are willing to pay, and they may accept (or demand) some of that value in the form of bribes and payoffs rather than filling public coffers. The resource curse comes about in two main ways. First, the prospect of high profits distorts economies by drawing productive private and government investment capital into a single bandwagon sector. Second, money for nothing brings out the worst in society, leading to a culture of corruption and greed where powerful economic interests scramble for the biggest piece of the unearned income pie. Out of ignorance, malfeasance, or economic and political blackmail from more powerful nations, governments permit too much of the resource value to leave the country in the hands of mining companies. And the temptation to divert those vast resources from public benefit to personal gain is overwhelming. Even public spending can
be misallocated, as officials choose projects that guarantee the security of their tenure and build patronage. Is there a way to escape the curse? Responsible resource development requires transparency. Democratic institutions, the rule of law, and the political empowerment of citizens are all necessary, but without public knowledge of what corporations pay for access to resources, there can be no accountability. A growing movement is demanding that international corporations publicly report what they pay for natural resource concessions, along with other informal payments like bribes. The global coalition Publish What You Pay (PublishWhatYouPay.org) campaigns to force companies in the extractive sector to disclose what they pay to governments (and to force governments to account for how they spend those revenues). Last November, the government of Guinea published its contracts with extractive companies online, an unprecedented breakthrough in transparency. As a result, citizens can demand accountability from their government, shareholders can demand accountability from the corporations they own, and governments can see what the going price is for natural resources in another part of the world. Demands for accountability do not go unopposed. In the US in July, a federal court required the Securities and Exchange Commission to reexamine some of its new rules on transparency (part of the Dodd-Frank Act) in response to a challenge from the American Petroleum Institute, the US Chamber of Commerce, and others, who had sought but were refused exemptions from public reporting requirements. The SEC should reissue the rules, with additional explanations to satisfy the court. Transparency from corporations is a necessary first step in ensuring that abundant, God-created natural resources really do lead to human flourishing.
*BusinessInsider.com (read.bi/17ZDLQp)
A natural resource economist, Rusty Pritchard is the CEO of Flourish (FlourishOnline.org), equipping Christians to engage the world of environmental science and action.
I
n 1978, affirmative action in higher education went before the Supreme Court in Bakke v. University of California. With the Court split down the middle, the opinion written by Justice Powell stated that universities had a “compelling interest” in attracting racial diversity. While the Bakke case struck down the use of quotas for different racial/ethnic groups, it allowed universities to still consider race as a factor in admissions decisions. Powell’s defense of the policy was upheld again in the University of Michigan affirmative action cases and most recently in Fisher v. Texas. Why does diversity matter for higher education, and why should Christians care about it? First, diversity strengthens university education. Studies by Gary Orfield of the UCLA Civil Rights Project indicate that the vast majority of students come to college with little meaningful experience with people of other races. Engagement inside and outside of the classroom with diverse perspectives helps spur student learning by interrupting students’ assumptions, challenging them to consider multiple points of view and come to a more complex understanding of issues. Numerous empirical studies document the educational benefits associated with engagement in a racially
Julie J. Park is an assistant professor of education at the University of Maryland and the author of When Diversity Drops (Rutgers University Press, 2013).
47
Educare is a Latin verb meaning to bring up, train, teach
Racial Diversity in Higher Education
most Christian students will come to college from not only racially homogeneous high schools but also racially homogeneous churches, the university years are an essential time for Christian college students to learn from people of other backgrounds, racial/ethnic and otherwise. In my research, I found that students who identified as religious, affiliated as Protestant, and were involved in religious student organizations were significantly less likely to have close friends of other races during college. This is tremendously troubling. While there is a place for ethnic churches and ethnically based campus fellowships, Christians need to be equipped to leave their comfort zones in order to learn to understand and empathize with those from different backgrounds. College is a special time. Especially for those who attend a more traditional four-year institution, there is probably no other stage in life when people have this much time to “do life” with the people around them. From latenight talks in the residence halls to spontaneous encounters in the dining hall to attending class together, university life provides a natural community that is difficult to find in post-collegiate life. My book, When Diversity Drops: Race, Religion, and Affirmative Action in Higher Education, documents how students can foster rich, racially diverse communities that provide avenues for interracial friendship, honest conversations about race, and shared vision. As students form relationships across campus and learn to love their (literal) neighbors of different backgrounds, they will encounter a bigger picture of God’s kingdom and of God’s love that knows no boundary. We will continue to grapple with the original sin of racism this side of heaven, and we long for God to bring renewal of all that is broken. As young people enter adulthood, college is a pivotal time for them to grapple with the big questions of the day and to prepare for citizenship in a diverse democracy. Christians cannot afford to sit on the sidelines; we are called to be reconcilers, and there is no better place to begin that journey than in the university.
Edu-care
diverse student body, although racial diversity on its own does not necessarily spur these benefits. Students must engage with each other, and such engagement across racial/ethnic lines cannot occur without the literal presence of students of other races. Engagement in a racially diverse student body also prepares students for global citizenship in a diverse democracy. Our country has diversified at a rapid rate, and students need to be ready to engage with people of different races and socioeconomic backgrounds. While affirmative action affects only a small fraction of higher education institutions (i.e., selective institutions), these universities educate a disproportionate percentage of those who will advance to leadership and influence in society. Thus, encountering diversity in the university setting is critical to preparing students for the world that they will encounter post-graduation. Finally, diversity in higher education is needed because of the acute lack of diversity that most people experience both prior to and following college. Due to our country’s history of systemic injustice, neighborhoods and K-12 education are often divided along racial lines. The same goes for churches and friendship groups. One study found that in 2004 only 15 percent of US adults reported having a friend of another race with whom they discussed important matters (find the study at bit.ly/18hwiJR). Racially diverse universities can help stem the cycle of segregation, and studies show that a number of long-term gains are associated with college diversity. As Christians we have a stake in ensuring that our nation’s universities are equitable and welcoming environments for students of all races and socioeconomic backgrounds. Given that
Off the Shelf
Gospel Justice by Bruce Strom Moody Books
Just Spirituality by Mae Elise Cannon InterVarsity Press
reviewed by Ted Oswald
reviewed by Drick Boyd
We find ourselves in an increasingly complex world, framed by an intricate web of laws and faced with a legal system that is often impenetrable. Every day injustices go unreported (and frequently unseen), and justice is too often denied because guides are not present to navigate through the strange lands of litigation and oral argument. Gospel Justice is a call to Christians to confront this reality and step into the justice gap. And the gap is wide. While the poor are promised a public defender in criminal matters, no such protection exists in the civil context where matters of tremendous personal import are decided daily involving family, housing, employment, tax, immigration, and a slew of other areas. Nearly 4,300 people in need of legal counsel are turned away every day from overworked and cash-strapped legal service agencies in the US. Penned by Bruce Strom, an attorney and director of a robust legal aid ministry in the Chicago area called Administer Justice, Gospel Justice ably articulates the call to biblical justice and one form of response, Christian Legal Aid (CLA). Strom uses the Scriptures to buttress his argument at every turn, using a combination of his own journey, an extended exploration of the Good Samaritan parable, and client stories to illustrate the depth of need and the transformative potential of CLA in serving the modern-day widow, fatherless, alien, and impoverished. CLA is presented as an opportunity to ground a client’s legal need in a spiritual context, providing comfort for the client who may be a believer and possible salvation for the client who is not. Individuals walk through the doors of an organization or volunteer clinic often in dire straits and with a keen receptivity to the gospel. This type of ministry enlists seemingly unlikely ministers—attorneys!—to offer help that’s urgently needed and hope that secular legal service cannot provide. Launching with the book is a new organization committed to promoting CLA across the country, the Gospel Justice Initiative (GJI.org), also headed by Strom. Readers are urged to survey their community’s and church’s needs to see whether forming a hub where legal professionals, conflict-coaches, and financial advisers can incarnate Christ in a practical way and meet those needs. While aiming for a general audience, the conversation skews towards legal professionals. One chapter is set aside to articulate a vision for Christian lawyering, and that may be helpful for those legal types who haven’t delved into more generally focused books like Schutt’s Redeeming Law, Alleghretti’s The Lawyer’s Calling, or Shaffer’s On Being a Christian and a Lawyer. Accessible and urgent, Gospel Justice offers a strong biblical foundation for building ministries that will tend to the pressing spiritual and legal needs of our neighbors, transforming clients and lawyers alike.
In her book Just Spirituality: How Faith Practices Fuel Social Action, Mae Elise Cannon addresses a pressing need among social justice-oriented Christians by linking our commitment to social activism to the need for a disciplined spiritual life. She does this by exploring the inner spiritual lives of seven “iconic” Christians known for their social justice work: Mother Teresa, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Watchman Nee, Martin Luther King Jr., Fairuz, Desmond Tutu, and Oscar Romero. In her introduction Cannon contends that “the practice of disciplines—such as silence, prayer, community worship, Sabbath, and submission—provide the fuel by which people are inspired to make a difference in the world.” In so doing she makes the case that pursuing the spiritual life and working for justice are not antithetical but rather integral to one another. After an opening chapter introducing the outline and purpose of the book, each chapter describes the work of the historic Christian individual and then focuses on the spiritual discipline that was significant in that individual’s life: silence (Mother Teresa), Bible-reading (Watchman Nee), prayer (Bonhoeffer), and so on. Then the story of a contemporary individual is told, who likewise has practiced that discipline while being a social justice activist or advocate. These stories are augmented by insights from Christian spirituality writers such as John Ortberg and Richard Foster. Each chapter then concludes with concrete suggestions for practicing the spiritual discipline under discussion. The final chapter charges the reader to adopt spiritual disciplines as a means toward making a difference in the world. A discussion guide in the appendix makes the book practical for individual or small group study. I was eager to get a glimpse into the inner lives of these well-known Christian figures, and the stories of Bonhoeffer, Tutu, Romero, and the like were both humbling and inspiring. Cannon adeptly illustrates how significantly their spiritual practices sustained them in the face of overwhelming evil and suffering. Furthermore, the suggestions at the end of each chapter were easy to understand and apply. In general, the book demonstrates the significance of the inner life for justice-seeking Christians. However, I confess that Just Spirituality fell short of my expectations. First, I question the inclusion of Watchman Nee and Fairuz as examples of Christians working for social justice. While obviously dedicated Christians who suffered for their faith, they are not known for their social justice work and thus do not fit with the others in the book. Second, the connection between the individual and their spiritual practice was not always clear. For instance, when talking about Archbishop Desmond Tutu, she makes a strong case theologically for the relationship between Sabbath observance and the concept of Shalom, but she does not sufficiently describe how Tutu himself regularly observes the Sabbath in a disciplined way. Nonetheless, I commend Cannon for lifting up the examples of these historic Christian individuals and thereby challenging contemporary Christians working for social justice to attend to their inner lives. I applaud her for reminding us that there is an inviolable connection between a disciplined spiritual life and a commitment to social justice.
Ted Oswald is staff attorney at Christian Legal Clinics of Philadelphia and the author of Because We Are One: A Novel of Haiti.
Drick Boyd is an associate professor of Urban and Interdisciplinary Studies at Eastern University in Philadelphia, Pa.
48
My Bright Abyss by Christian Wiman Farrar, Straus & Giroux
No Oil in the Lamp by Andy Mellen and Neil Hollow Darton, Longman & Todd
reviewed by Howard Pinder
reviewed by Rusty Pritchard
Christian Wiman is a well-known poet and poetry magazine editor who several years ago was faced with the possibility of losing his life to cancer. His latest book, My Bright Abyss: Meditation of a Modern Believer, chronicles his journey as he reclaims his Christian faith as an adult believer. Wiman’s book is equal parts spiritual autobiography, poetry, and theological musings. Wiman’s poetic prose is a joy to read, and his questions about the use of language in Christianity are apt for anyone with a stake in the church today: “Does the decay of belief among educated people in the West precede the decay of language used to define and explore belief, or do we find the fire of belief fading in us only because the words are sodden with overuse and imprecision, and will not burn?” Wiman’s application and deep knowledge of language and poetry (both his own and others’) gives this book a different feel from most spiritual autobiographies out there. Visual artists will also be inspired by Wiman’s meditations. Any artist who has ever searched for motivation or struggled with authenticity or ambition will find wisdom on that subject here. Wiman writes that “human imagination is not simply our means of reaching out to God but God’s means of manifesting himself to us.” Wiman’s musings on theology don’t come off as lived experience as much as his other thoughts do, but his words about Jesus are touching— perhaps because he is not completely steeped in Christian language, his tenderness towards Jesus stands out as refreshingly sincere. This book would be a good gift for an artist, lover of literature, or anyone who wants to understand how new believers think. Wiman bravely puts his own thoughts and struggles out on the page as an encouragement for all believers. Anyone who has had to deal with serious illness, whether directly or indirectly, will connect with Wiman’s description of his experience with cancer. His description of pain is the most vivid I have ever read and merits sharing here:
Most books about Christianity and the environment are of the “can’t live with it” variety—about the problems of climate change, mercury pollution, solid waste, or toxic chemicals. Andy Mellen and Neil Hollow have brought out a book—No Oil in the Lamp: Fuel, Faith, and the Energy Crisis—of the “can’t live without it” kind. Oil runs the planet, fuels our transport, feeds the fertilizer industry, and processes our food. Human society depends critically on a resource that is running out. Peak oil is the name given to the empirical observation that oil consumption, for any given resource base, tends to peak when the stocks are about half gone. After the halfway point, for a variety of reasons, consumption begins to drop. This is true on every scale, from individual wells to well fields right up oil regions. It’s probably also true at the global scale. Technology and new discoveries can delay the turning point but can’t prevent it. At some point in the future, we will be consuming much less oil. Rising consumption of oil brought rising prosperity for most of the world’s people. It was slower coming for some, unequally distributed, and attended by messy transitions, predatory institutions, massive ecological damage, and the collapse of many traditional institutions and societies. But the fact remains that abundant oil fueled massive consumption of other resources and unprecedented advances in health, lifespan, leisure, education, technology, recreation, political freedoms (for some), and diminished experience of violence. Nearly every manufactured item and nearly every service we enjoy is a product of the oil boom. What will the bust bring about? Less of everything, unless substitutes can be found. The authors consider in detail the ability of alternatives to maintain current levels of prosperity, and they find that natural gas, coal, nuclear power, and renewables are unlikely to make up for the decline in oil. Energy efficiency helps, as does conservation. Dematerialization is a buzzword used by some futurists to imagine an economy decoupled from resource use, but it’s a fairy tale. Mellen and Hollow are both realists and idealists. We will need to make do with less, and we would be better off making do with less. Our real need is for the moral courage to face a very different future and the holy imagination to rethink what makes a flourishing society. They dare to imagine a prosperous way down. PRISM readers will be encouraged at the participatory forms of community development embodied in the Transition Cities movement that the authors describe. There are key roles for Christians and churches to take on in catalyzing inclusive planning for the decline in energy use. One chapter of the book offers a theology of peak oil, which will help Christians offer a hopeful, scriptural, and moral perspective as they engage what is largely a secular conversation. The authors have a profound vision of the church as salt and light in the preparations for an energy-constrained future, and the book provides the information and inspiration needed to get started.
It islands you. You sit there in your little skeletal constriction of self— of disappearing self—watching everyone you love, however steadfastly they may remain by our side, drift farther and farther away. ... Mornings I make my way out of bed very early and, after taking all the pain medicine I can take without dying, sit on the couch and try to make myself small by bending over and holding my ankles. And I pray. Not to God, though, who also seems to have abandoned this island, but to the pain. That it ease up ever so little, that it let me breathe. That it not—but I know it will—get worse.
Having recently earned his MDiv from Palmer Theological Seminary of Eastern University, Howard Pinder is doing his chaplain residency at Einstein Medical Center in North Philadelphia.
A natural resource economist, Rusty Pritchard is a regular contributor to PRISM. See his column on page 46.
49
Unexpected Gifts by Chris Heuertz Howard Books
Quiet by Susan Cain Broadway Books
reviewed by David Fuller
reviewed by Rebecca Hall
In Unexpected Gifts: Discovering the Way of Community, Chris Heuertz draws on his decades’ experience as a part of Word Made Flesh, an international network of intentional communities serving Jesus among the poorest of the poor in major urban areas around the world. While failure, doubt, insulation, isolation, transition, betrayal, incompatibility, ingratitude, grief, and restlessness all sound like proof that community has failed, Heuertz passionately shows that these struggles, while often interpreted as signs that it is time to go, are actually invitations to stay, for when we do, the challenges yield surprising blessings. Each chapter tackles one of these thorny issues with stories of hope rising from despair and victory from defeat. Yet this book is not a flowery, feelgood kind of book. Reading it brings to mind that gnawing feeling deep within your soul that reminds you of the times you yourself have failed miserably, and it renews your hope in finding your own unexpected gift from the hardships of doing life with others. Three gems stand out. First, he makes it clear that community is really, really hard. He never faults those who have left community because of these struggles, but he makes it clear that these challenges are what actually make community worthwhile. Second, in his discussion on betrayal, he states the sometimes-forgotten truth that friendship is the basis for community. When people come together for community solely for the sake of community, we are bound to fail because “without authentic relationship, community is merely a backdrop for someone’s journey of self-discovery, and community members are used up along the way.” What about when we are in community with people who are not our friends, maybe even people we just do not like? Heurertz’s story about his friend Tuna will explain where the gift lies in that. Finally, out of all the “requirements” of community, gratitude is perhaps the most important. Not only is acknowledging and thanking those in our community important to life together, but gratitude and celebration also help us to deal with the pain and sorrow in our own lives. In a couple of places, Heuertz’s writing shifts from the unexpected blessings of community to a soapbox speech on his particular brand of Christianity. Careful readers will quickly notice his thinly-veiled pokes at those with whom he disagrees. But even so, these digressions reveal his deep love for Jesus as well as his incredibly rich experience among the world’s most poor and vulnerable. In a world where anyone with a computer and a brain can be published and followed, it is nice to hear from a man with both deep commitments and the extensive experience to back it up. Unexpected Gifts is a carefully expressed, movingly illustrated, and convincingly told memoir/manifesto. Readers making an attempt at community living will find the ideas compelling and challenging. For those not part of intentional community, many of the gems might be lost, but curiosity about community—and perhaps a genuine interest in it—might be sparked nonetheless.
For many years, the church propagated a onesize-fits-all view of God and humanity. The loudest and most powerful voices decided who God was and how to be a Christian. Those who did not accept their views were meant to feel shame and inadequacy. Thankfully, due to the efforts of many, the church has been rediscovering the importance of context. From liberation theology to womanism to white feminism, scholars have expounded upon the importance of race, sex, gender, and class as categories which, however misguided, are central to a person’s experience and, therefore, their view of God. Theologians across the spectrum are claiming the right to make their voices heard. One non-dominant group, however, remains largely misunderstood by the church: introverts. As Susan Cain writes in her book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, modern US culture is built on what she calls the Extrovert Ideal, the idea that every person should be self-confident, gregarious, and outgoing. By contrast, introversion “is now a second-class personality trait, somewhere between a disappointment and a pathology.” Cain, an introvert herself, devotes her book to exploring introversion in a sympathetic way, focusing on the strengths that many introverts bring to the table instead of on their liabilities. Such strengths include prudence, sensitivity, a propensity for deep thought, and, in leadership situations, a more hands-off approach that allows others to develop their own ideas. Cain also highlights the abilities that introverts bring to business, education, and, yes, even the church. Cain interviews evangelical leader Adam McHugh, who reveals the church’s misapprehension of introverts in his comment that “the evangelical culture ties together faithfulness with extroversion.” The church rightly emphasizes community, but, taken to the extreme, that emphasis can cause introverts to feel guilt and anxiety, to mistake their very natures as sinful. As a Christian introvert, I myself have experienced many of those same feelings. It has taken time to understand that, as Cain points out, introversion does not mean that I am uninterested in community. It just means that I am easily overstimulated and need “alone time” to recharge. Introverts simply prefer to be in community in a different way—we seek a few, deeper, more meaningful relationships rather than many casual friendships. Quiet is a must-read for everyone seeking a better understanding of the different ways in which people interact in community. According to Cain, introverts make up at least a third of people in the United States. Chances are, most churches are home to roughly the same percentage of introverts, even if some of them display extroverted tendencies. And what kind of community are we creating if we expect all members to act or react in the same way? That’s not community—that’s uniformity. It’s destructive to any real unity. And if the church really wants to value and create community, then it needs to accept all forms of diversity. Introverts like me want and deserve a seat at the table—even if we might not make the required small talk when we get there.
An MDiv/MBA student at Palmer Theological Seminary and pastoral intern at City Line Church in Philadelphia, David Fuller resides with his wife and young son at Praxis House, ESA’s intentional Christian community.
50
Rebecca Hall is an ESA Sider Scholar and MDiv student at Palmer Theological Seminary.
W
hile I have focused most of my career and writing efforts on promoting female leadership, one question I find asking myself lately is: Who leads leading ladies? In particular, who leads these women spiritually? And if that leading lady is a pastor, who shepherds the shepherdess? Where do female ministry leaders in the local church find their own pastoral care? In general, most pastors and church leaders have no idea where to turn to find help. Many feel lonely, unsupported, and vulnerable, deeply desiring relationships where they can be real and honest with another person but fearful of sharing their heart’s deepest concerns with members of their particular church body, or even other leaders, so they frequently suffer in silence. Without support, but struggling with sin just like the rest of us, often they fail to practice repentance or confession and as a result are hampered in their ability to properly care for the people they are responsible for leading. So to whom do leading ladies turn? Unfortunately, many turn to no one, suffering alone and leading dysfunctional lives. Some turn to professional coaches and/or spiritual directors whom they pay for career advice and soul guidance. Others turn to mentors they meet with regularly, and many turn to a friend or group of friends they’ve developed over time. “I have found it vital to have strong personal and professional relationships to lean into as a leader,” says ministry and leadership coach Dr. Sheila Cornea.
• Find a mentor. Look at the female leaders you admire and ask them where they turn for support. Check out WomenMen-
torWomen.org and Women-Unlimited.com for more ideas on finding a mentor. If you can’t find a mentor, start a support group for women in your situation. Peer mentoring can offer comfort, support, and safety as long as all the members are on the same page. • Find a coach. The Christian Coaching Association (ICCAonline.net) and the Christian Coaches Network (ChristianCoaches. com) are two good places to start. • Find a spiritual director. The Evangelical Center for Spiritual Wisdom hosts the Evangelicals Spiritual Directors Association; check it out at ECSWisdom.org/esda. • Read The Friendships of Women: The Hidden Tradition of the Bible by Joan D. Chittister, and do an inventory of the women you already have in your life. Consider the particular roles they fill for you and how you can enhance these relationships. • If you already have good support, why not reach out and become a mentor/coach/friend to someone else? Many young women are looking for seasoned leading ladies to take some time to speak into their lives. It doesn’t have to be a structured program; even a small amount of time is enough to impact someone’s life. So who leads the leading lady? Anyone she allows herself to open up to who is interested in seeing her succeed physically, professionally, emotionally, and spiritually. Friends, coaches, mentors can fill that role, but it can’t happen if a leading lady doesn’t reach out to take the first step. If that lady is you, don’t wait until your ministry and your wellbeing are in danger. Having good leadership in your own life is critical to survival—both yours and your ministry’s.
Liz Rios is pastor of Save the Nations church in Davie, Fla., founder of the Center for Emerging Female Leadership (CEFL.org), and a consultant with edriosandassociates.com.
51
Leading Ladies
Who Leads the Leading Ladies?
“However, the one … I consider my ‘goto’ person, is my best friend of more than a decade. She is the one whom I lean on during tribulations and celebrations to remind me of who I am...she keeps it real. She steadies my focus on my dreams when I want to give up and challenges me to grow when I feel incapable. She also affirms me, encourages me, and celebrates with me in my successes.” In my book, Don’t Buy the Lie: Eradicating False Belief Systems That Keep You from Your Destiny, I share about my group of friends, whom I call the WEPA girls (Women Encouraging Progressing Advancing). These women have been God’s gift to me in some of the most challenging times of my ministerial career. You may wonder why you, as a leading lady, need to turn to anyone and how that even impacts your work. Being a church leader can be compared to herding cats, and it is far too common for leaders to become, over time, disillusioned, distracted, and/or depressed. Both the ministry and its leader suffer, and the result is often an unhealthy church or ministry that has little or no gospel influence. Sheryl Sandberg, author of Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, says that most women battle with “imposter syndrome”—the thought that you really don’t know what you are doing and that you got your job because of luck or likeability rather than real talent. Turning to someone who can affirm your strengths and confirm God’s call over your life will help you believe in yourself. You no longer have to suffer alone with your fear of not belonging or of being motivated by self-glory. You no longer need to keep your sins, doubts, and failures hidden, which is good because, as they say, you are only as sick as your secrets. Here are five things you can do right now:
Ministry Matters
move beyond just housing and start a social enterprise. Without the ability to earn a living wage, the women we were serving would always be dependent on systems and people to get by. The business has moved the ministry in beautiful and surprising ways, helping us educate thousands of people we would never have reached otherwise. It spreads the word that love heals and provides us with more than a million dollars a year to keep the ministry going. I am so grateful that by going down many side roads I ended up finding this beautiful intersection.
vens was named one of 15 Champions of Change by the White House as well as Social Entrepreneur of the Year in Nashville, Tenn., where she lives with her husband and three sons.
In what ways do you encounter Christ in the people you serve? We have a saying at Thistle Farms—“There goes God.” It is a spiritual practice to recognize the holy in the people we encounter. That means we see Christ, not just in the women who are residents of Magdalene and employees of Thistle Farms, but also in the donors and volunteers who keep us going. That means we see love in the people who buy products online and the women who never make it to our doorsteps. In my own life, several strangers have seen Christ in me and helped me. When we see Christ in others, it is a response of gratitude for all the mercy people have shown us. When we all see Christ in each other, surely we will be in the kingdom of heaven.
Can you talk about how business and ministry dovetail in the work you do? There is a beautiful intersection where healing and justice meet. It’s on the same corner where ministry and business dovetail. It is the space where we put nuts and bolts into the ideal of love so it has weight and can make the journey of healing. In 1997 we began housing women with criminal histories of prostitution and addiction. By 2001 we knew that if we were interested in healing we needed to
What are the three things you count on most when working in transformational ministry? The very first thing is community. It is the entity where the sum is truly greater than its parts. It is what holds us up and holds us accountable. Community helps provide the means to live into our individual visions. Community to me feels like a gift from the Holy Spirit that makes things more abundant and gives us a way to make the burden easier and refreshes us.
Healer & Truth-Teller: Becca Stevens
B
ecca Stevens (pictured above, left) is an Episcopal priest, a chaplain at Vanderbilt University, and the founder of two innovative ministries devoted to helping women rebuild their lives. Magdalene is a residential program that serves women, free of charge, for two years. Thistle Farms employs 40 residents and graduates who manufacture and market all-natural bath and beauty products that are sold in over 200 retail stores around the world. She calls herself a snake oil seller because she “takes natural oils, mixes them with a good story, sells them in an open market, and believes they help heal the world.” The most recent of her nine books is Snake Oil: The Art of Healing and Truth-Telling (Jericho Books, 2013). In 2011 Ste-
Photos by Lindsey Freitas (BellaluPhotography.com)
52
The second thing I count on is time. If I wait long enough, most things pass. Hard times and scarce seasons always pass and, if we can keep going in faith, things generally get much better. I love that I have 20 years of doing this ministry under my belt. It is truly a walk and not a run, and there is time to do the work well. The third thing I count on is words. I trust that I can write and speak the truths that I have felt for most of my life, and those words are my contribution to healing. I am so, so grateful that I have been entrusted to write books about healing and have been invited to speak around the country to share some words of hope. I don’t get the words right very often, but the more I pay attention to the ministry we are doing and the women we are serving, the closer the words get to expressing the depth and radical nature of love. What is the most exciting transformation you’ve witnessed in your work? A woman who was sold into prostitution at the age of 13 and lived for 20 years on the streets and in jails came to work at Thistle Farms almost two years ago and has blossomed from a scared and angry woman to a proud and passionate leader of the sales team. Last week she traveled to Chicago as a designated young leader-in-training for a national association. She said until she came into this community she had no idea how smart or beautiful she was. She is glowing in her transformation, and she reminds me how powerfully love heals. What do you think pastors need to know about sexual violence in order to serve their communities better? First, that there are survivors of sexual violence in every congregation. If a pastor doesn’t know about it, it’s not because it’s not there but because it’s not
a safe space to talk about sexual violence. Second, in sexual abuse of children, it is not enough for a pastor to repeat the safety rules for kids. It’s just as important for pastors to say that if an adult has violated those rules, children can talk about that with a designated and trained pastoral counselor. Sometimes kids think that since an adult broke the safety rules with them, they might be in trouble. If an adult decides to molest a child, even if a child knows all the safety rules, that child is vulnerable and can be manipulated. Pastors reflect the power of love when they reach out to the most vulnerable and offer a safe place to come and ease the burden of shame and secrecy so healing is possible for everyone. Third, the designations in our world that label women as abused, trafficked, or prostituted are not clear lines. All of those lines blur in the harsh light of sexual violence. There are universal effects of sexual violence that are borne on the individual backs of women—timeless and deep wounds that affect women throughout their lives. In 20 years of doing this work and healing from my own childhood abuse I have learned that people do not “get over it.” They just get deeper than it. They get to a place where the sexual violence they have known is not the story but just part of a larger story of healing and truth-telling. Our job as pastors is not to help people get over stuff. It is simply to go deep enough with folks who are healing so that they can find the roots of love that give them the nourishment and stability to flourish.
Ministry Matters provides a glimpse into the hearts and minds of innovative holistic ministry practitioners. We’ll feature Missourian peacemaker Lorenzo Lawson in the Winter issue.
CHASING THE D IVINE IN THE HOLY LAND
Ruth Everhart “In these pages Ruth Everhart writes eloquently about her trip into the dust and beauty of Christianity’s cradle — about her wrestling with her beliefs, her faith, and her past. If all pilgrims were as curious, insightful, introspective, firm, and openhearted as Ruth Everhart, our old world would roll more happily and safely through the universe. In her story you’ll find bloodshed, humor, and — most importantly — love.” — C LY D E E D G E RT O N ISBN 978-0-8028-6907-4 184 pages · paperback $18.00 At your bookstore, or call 800-253-7521 www.eerdmans.com 3043
53
Hands & Feet
Loving Locally
Megan Rosenbach (third from left) and some of the volunteers she inspired to transform her local grade school's library
T
eaching was not part of Megan Rosenbach's plan. Convinced throughout college that she wanted to be a community organizer, after listening to her mentors and God she decided she needed to know a community and embed herself in it if she wanted to change it. She believed in grassroots change and in empowering the people already in it. Teaching in a community seemed like a great way to get to know it. In 2008 Rosenbach was accepted to Teach for America and was placed at an elementary school in the low-income neighborhood of North Philadelphia, where she taught social studies to 7th and 8th graders for two years. She was amazed at the dedication of her colleagues— one teacher had been at the school for over 40 years—but the chaos and inconsistency of the school district frustrated her. “A school that doesn't have enough resources doesn’t do right by those children,” says Rosenbach. Her time with Teach for America ended, but she stayed on in Philadelphia, determined to make an impact on the education system that she now so clearly saw was broken. Rosenbach knew she wanted to be rooted in her faith community and the city she had come to love. Inspired by the convictions of her faith, she explains, “I feel called to follow a God who cares for those whom society views as the least among us. I am convicted to give a voice to the voiceless and demand that everyone's value be considered equally, as it is before God.” While she has changed jobs—she now works for the Bicycle Coalition, a nonprofit that promotes cycling as a healthy, low-cost, and environmentally friendly form of transportation and recreation—she has not lost her passion for education or community. In fact, her job keeps her in contact with schools across Philadelphia, schools she says inspire her to highlight through her work, “shining the light on what is already good.” When Rosenbach and her husband, Ben, bought a home in South Philadelphia three years ago, she wanted to connect to a school. Her Church, Circle of Hope, had already partnered with her neighborhood school, Child’s Elementary at 16th and Wharton. She phoned the art teacher to ask what was needed, and they started brainstorming ideas. That spring they raised
54
$1,000 for art supplies and hosted an art show of student work at Circle of Hope. Determined to build on that success, Rosenbach launched a neighborhood association—“Neighbors Investing in Childs Elementary” (NICE)—to support Child’s Elementary. Consisting of Rosenbach and a group of her neighbors, this "compassion team" sets its agenda by asking the school teachers and administrators what they need and responding appropriately. Rosenbach has seen that "many hands makes light work" and wants to connect people from her neighborhood to the compassionate efforts that spill over from her faith community. In the summer of 2012, the principal at Child’s took Rosenbach into the school’s disheveled, unused library and said, “We need someone to organize this.” The library was occasionally used for one-on-one tutoring, but the books just sat, collecting dust. Rosenbach responded to the need by organizing members of the community into a team that organized, computerized, and alphabetized the library. They cleaned and hung homemade curtains in the space. Hundreds of volunteers pitched in, and today Child’s has a fully functioning library. Although she is not yet a parent herself, Rosenbach also leads the South Philly Schools Coalition, which brings together community groups like NICE that support their neighborhood schools. She sits on the school’s advisory council, the school-wide body that makes decisions about the school’s strategic plan and budget. The team's next plan is to fundraise. Rosenbach is partnering with local businesses to get as much money for the school as possible.
This kind of outside support is more critical than ever, as Philadelphia is reeling from dozens of school closings, massive layoffs, and record budget deficits this fall. Students are being bussed far outside their neighborhoods; teachers, counselors, secretaries, coaches, and nurses have been cut from the payroll; and classrooms are crowded well past capacity. The South Philly Schools Coalition plans on reaching out to parents and students to see what will make the biggest impact on the students’ learning. Learning what the community members themselves see as their biggest needs is at the heart of Rosenbach’s passion to help educate the children. In her usual style, Rosenbach focuses on the assets already at work at Child’s. “They have a group of veteran teachers and an amazing art program,” she says. Rosenbach’s work in Philadelphia has opened her eyes to the overlap between good schools and community-organizing. “Strong schools are at the heart of strong communities,” Rosenbach stresses. And clearly strong neighbors, like Rosenbach and the folks she regularly rallies, are at the heart of strong schools. Hands & Feet profiles simple folks who put flesh on the gospel by going above and beyond to build God’s kingdom, often in simple, humble, and steadfast ways. If you know a “quiet saint” like the ones featured here, nominate her or him by using our contact info on page 3.
Every weekend Howard Pinder hits the streets of Philadelphia with his video camera and a sign that says “Tell Me Your Story.” See the results at TellMeYourStoryPhilly.com.
strated by God’s people today among the poor and oppressed? When we feed the hungry, visit prisoners, catalyze a development project, care for creation, raise our voice for the voiceless, march for peace, counsel the despondent, and otherwise love our neighbor, we provide glimpses of the coming kingdom in the here and now. In addition, implied in Jesus’ prayer are activities of reconciliation and healing—because how else can all the tribes and nations be gathered together in Revelation and not only refrain from killing each other but also be worshiping together unless the good news of Jesus today was actively dismantling the dividing walls of ethnicity and race? When we strive today not to be a black church, brown church, or white church but to be the black-brown-white church of Jesus Christ— in other words, when we engage in reconciliation and the healing of the nations, we provide a glimpse of the beautiful diversity of humankind—right here and now—that constitutes the ultimate citizenry of the coming kingdom. Evangelism, social transformation, and reconciliation: These are what it means to live out God’s will “on earth as it is in heaven.” The
esXaton [/ˈeskəˌtän/]: on earth as it is in Heaven; radical love made visible.
F
or the last several months, ESA has been in the middle of a re-visioning process, and the phrase “on earth as it is in heaven” has captivated, renewed, and excited us—so much so that we decided to make it our new vision statement. “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:9-10). In just a few lines, Jesus captures the essence of life in the gospel, lifting up and welding together the vertical and the horizontal, worship and mission—two arenas that seem to run on parallel tracks in many churches. Worship committees and mission committees seem siloed from each other as the worshiping, dancing singer-types do their thing and the missioning, active doertypes do their thing. But at ESA, we strive to break open the siloes and integrate worship and mission. The way Jesus taught us to pray tells us that’s the way to go: You are holy, God; now let your kingdom flourish on earth! Let’s consider worship here for a moment. Jesus instructed his disciples to salute God in prayer this way: “Our Father...” Today, many of us are used to calling God “Father,” so it doesn’t sound like that big of a deal. But in Jesus’ day,
esXaton
On Earth as It Is in Heaven
it was not only novel but also scandalous. Jesus urged us to begin with “Our Father” not so much to distinguish God as father from God as mother but to distinguish God as loving parent from God as impersonal deity or demanding boss or distant judge or inaccessible ruler. Go ahead, dared Jesus, when you pray, come to the Lord God, maker of heaven and earth, as you would to a loving parent. But Jesus also reminds us that when we are with God we are also in the presence of ultimate greatness, of fatal glory, for who can set their eyes upon the Lord and live? At the same time that we’re given permission to address God as “Abba,” we are also taught to pray, “Hallowed be your name.” This is worship. Jesus taught his disciples that when they pray, they begin with worshiping the living God, our Abba, who is in heaven. And immediately after worshiping God, Jesus then instructed them to pray what today we’d call a missional prayer. “Your kingdom come. Your will be done right now on earth as it is in heaven.” It’s a prayer of hope for God’s kingdom to come—and to come quickly. But what is the kingdom? Revelation hints at it in when it describes all tongues and tribes and nations gathered together for worship (7:9-10); when worship happens after the announcement of the fall of Babylon (19:1-8); and where God wipes away every tear, and pain and mourning and death are no more (21:1-5). We’re instructed to ask that this kingdom will come—God’s kingdom of peace, justice, healing, and wholeness for the throngs of people who have been redeemed from all tribes and nations. But we’re not just called to stand around waiting for the kingdom: “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” implies several missional activities. First is the activity of evangelism— because how else did all of those people, who were so numerous that their singing sounded like many waters and mighty peals of thunder (Revelation 19:6), get to heaven unless they heard and responded to the good news at some point in their lives? Jesus’ prayer, “on earth as it is in heaven,” implies God’s people doing authentic evangelism right here and now on earth. It also implies activities of social transformation—because how else can the suffering and pain and tears that we see abolished in the New Jerusalem be abolished now—on earth as it is in heaven—unless the good news is demon-
Today, many of us are used to calling God “Father,” so it doesn’t sound like that big of a deal. But in Jesus’ day, it was not only novel but also scandalous. fact that Jesus instructed us to pray this way after hallowing God’s name more than implies that our mission—authentic and holistic—must flow out of our deep and intimate relationship with God. This is what I hope ESA and every follower of Jesus will strive to be: worshiping missionaries and missionary worshipers of Abba Father, doing God’s “will on earth as it is in heaven,” and thus serve as signposts of God’s coming kingdom of peace, justice, and love. Amen.
Al Tizon is a professor of holistic ministry and copresident of ESA. This article is an adaption of a homily he gave at ESA’s Follow. Jesus.2013 Conference.
55
56
La FenĂŞtre (The Window) by Pierre Bonnard, 1921
"Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work ... For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy." Exodus 20:9-11
PRISM Vol. 20, No. 5
Fall 2013
Editorial Board
Miriam Adeney George Barna Tony Campolo Rodney Clapp Luis Cortés Samuel Escobar Richard Foster William Frey G. Gaebelein Hull Roberta Hestenes Karen Mains John Perkins Vinay Samuel Amy Sherman Tom Sine Vinson Synan Eldin Villafane Harold DeanTrulear Ron Sider
sharedjustice_PRISM.pdf
1
PASSIONATE ABOUT
CAUSE FATIGUE?
JUSTICE?
Editorial/Advertising Information PRISM Magazine offers affordable ad placement for organizations and businesses. To receive our ad placement form or to submit your ad art please contact us via email. Ads email: PRISM@eastern.edu Editor email: KKomarni@eastern.edu Unsolicited submissions will not be returned unless they include an SASE.
Subscription Information
C
Renewing your subscription? Visit PRISMmagazine.org/Renew
M
Regular PRISM Subscription Only $24 a year. Type: US/Canada Via air mail Good Stewards Subscription (PDF) Receive the same PRISM as everyone else but in your email box. Now free! International Subscription Receive PRISM via PDF only. Now free! Library Subscription Order PRISM for your library! Only $45 a year. PRISMmagazine.org P.O Box 367 Wayne, PA 19087 484-384-2990/PRISM@eastern.edu Note: Standard A mail is not forwarded; please contact us if your address changes.
A Publication of Evangelicals for Social Action The Sider Center on Ministry and Public Policy EvangelicalsforSocialAction.org Palmer Theological Seminary of Eastern University
All contents © 2013 ESA/PRISM magazine.
Our awareness of systemic injustice around the world has grown in recent years. Unfortunately, a unified vision for change has not grown with it, and there are now more worthy causes than anyone has the means to support. Tyler Wigg-Stevenson hopes to slow this trend, suggesting that our complex global situation is leading us to confront our real limits as world changers. His book is an invitation to leave aside the heady pursuit of causes and take your rightful place as a standard-bearer of God’s peace.
Y
CM
MY
CY
CMY
K
SO ARE WE. Shared Justice is a journal for twentyand thirty-somethings who are dedicated to Christ's call to pursue justice for all. As a trans-partisan, interactive journal written by and for our generation, we want to hear what you have to say.
Join the conversation at: sharedjustice.org
Scan here for our editorial series on poverty and opportunity
likewisebooks.com 800.843.9487
A publication of the Center for Public Justice.
8/8/1
Justice that works. For everyone.
Some people think all Evangelicals blindly support the death penalty. Show them they’re wrong. Speak up for what’s right. Sign thE pEtition Help build a constituency of Evangelicals who support repeal of the death penalty.
ejusa.org/evangelicals
“the death penalty is an anachronism. it trusts government too much. it kills innocent people... Let’s abolish the death penalty, and let’s do it without delay.”
— David Gushee, Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics at Mercer University
“We are one of very few nations in the world that still kills its own people.”
— Shane Claiborne, Christian activist and author