I sat down at lunch with some Shimerian friends of mine and we began to talk as we always do. I can't begin to say what brought up the discussion, but we began talking about contraceptives and abortion. This being almost a non-issue since we all agreed on where we stood about these things, we began talking about the absurdity of anti-choice. Let me be clear that I hate abortion, I would just as soon eliminate it from the universe, but unfortunately I don't think legislating against it will do us any good. History has shown us that when you take something away from people who are accustomed to having something, they're only going to go against the laws in order to have it anyway (Prohibition Act of 1920, illegalization of Marijuana). The real solution to abortion is to be a people who lovingly come alongside women who are contemplating abortion, who have just had an abortion, and also women who don't know what to think. Love is key, and frankly, is the most absent virtue among Christians. I would go so far as to say manipulation and politics-based-on-ignorance are the two most common things you'll find in the Church. That's a pretty sad state of affairs, my friends. I can't understand why messages from the pulpit are all about G-d's love for the sinner who may yet come to know Perfect Love, but what do Christians do when things don't go the way they think they should? They whine and moan about it to politicians instead of crying out to G-d for a Kingdom-minded solution.
Regardless, this blog entry is not about my dissatisfaction with the Church. It's a pretty safe bet that if there's an issue the Church is upset about, I'm upset at the Church for the way they're handling it.
What really struck me was that our conversation turned to how the rationale is that pregnancy is the natural consequence of having sex without using contraceptives. That's pretty much a no-brainer, I have yet to see any scientific data that proves the Natural Family Planning Method works (trying to guestimate when your partner is least fertile as the ideal time to have sex). We started talking about the narrative that goes a little something like this, "You have sex, you need to take responsibility for your actions". The implication being that if you get pregnant you're responsibility is to the unborn child. There's a much more sinister implication that the child is a punishment for having sex.
As someone who looks forward to one day being a father, I think anyone who use a child as a punishment is seriously messed up in the head. I don't care how important personal responsibility is to you. A child is a child, a gift from G-d, and under no circumstances should we ever use these little human beings as punishments. To those who would insist on this misguided idea of responsibility, I have to ask, "Just what the hell is wrong with you?" It's bad enough that you think sex has to be punished (another evil implication by the rationale of anti-choice doctrine), but then to use children- who you are supposedly trying to protect, as a weapon of punishment (and ultimately it's backdoor slut-shaming) is morally wrong and despicable.
It's time to stop playing the games of worldly politics and reactionary rhetoric, we must fall to our knees and ask G-d for solutions to these problems, with Love as our first response. It's hard, Love is not an easy thing to do especially when we've been doing the contrary for so many years. I'm just as equally guilty of this. Even now, I struggle to practice Love towards people who upset me with their backwards thinking. It's time to withdraw from the political debate and start a revolution of Love and compassion.
O Lord, how long, Lord?
James
Showing posts with label social justice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label social justice. Show all posts
Saturday, November 10, 2012
Sunday, September 2, 2012
Kateja
Today I went grocery shopping. I decided to go shopping at Dominicks since I was going to Best Buy which is kiddy-corner to the grocery store. Having successfully returned the computer mouse at Best Buy, I made my way over to Dominicks when young woman stopped me and said, "Excuse me, sir, could you help me out- I'm trying to a few dollars to eat?" My first thought was to say "no" since I try to avoid giving money directly to random people on the street. I came to a solution of offering to buy her something at Subway. We sat down and I tried to get to know her. Her name is Kateja (Kuh-tee-jah) and she's seven months pregnant. She lives on the South side (although at the moment she doesn't have an actual place to live). With the baby's father in jail and her family absent from the picture, she truly is alone.
Did I mention she's only 20?
It makes me so frustrated, why is Kateja on the streets with a baby on the way and I'm safe and cozy at Shimer College? What did I do to deserve the luxuries I enjoy on a daily basis? It's not fair, it's not right, and so I cannot just sit idly by while people like her go on suffering. No, I can't save her, I'm not Jesus. I can't even pretend that I know what to do or that she should trust me, but I can't just walk on by and do nothing. I decided to take down her full name and number and told her I would get in touch with some people to see if there was anything that could be worked out.
Now that I'm back here, I'm telling you all her story, but even that is only a fraction of what's going on. I sent an e-mail to my church's mercy ministry to find out what ministries we're connected with. Now all I can do is wait and pray that G-d shows Himself to be faithful through this.
Oh LORD how long, LORD?
James
Did I mention she's only 20?
It makes me so frustrated, why is Kateja on the streets with a baby on the way and I'm safe and cozy at Shimer College? What did I do to deserve the luxuries I enjoy on a daily basis? It's not fair, it's not right, and so I cannot just sit idly by while people like her go on suffering. No, I can't save her, I'm not Jesus. I can't even pretend that I know what to do or that she should trust me, but I can't just walk on by and do nothing. I decided to take down her full name and number and told her I would get in touch with some people to see if there was anything that could be worked out.
Now that I'm back here, I'm telling you all her story, but even that is only a fraction of what's going on. I sent an e-mail to my church's mercy ministry to find out what ministries we're connected with. Now all I can do is wait and pray that G-d shows Himself to be faithful through this.
Oh LORD how long, LORD?
James
Monday, August 27, 2012
The Gay Marriage Debate and the Homeless Neighbor
I find myself at a loss for words in discussing the gay marriage debate. While I want to respect both sides of the argument, I'm beginning to see a strong shift from ambiguity to clearly defined and polarized sides of the issue. As a follower of Jesus, I walk a fine line between wanting to see the LGBTQ community treated as equals without qualifiers or stipulations, but I also want to maintain a level of theological integrity in the message I preach. Having heated and peaceful debates with both liberals and conservatives on the issue of gay marriage, I would like to point out what I'm thinking and feeling.
I'm so frustrated with more conservative Christians who, in their naive ignorance of the deep pain we've caused, think they can simply decide how best to compromise on the issue of gay marriage. The issue becomes further complicated by the perverse intertwining of political and spiritual narratives which is so pervasive among the conservative evangelicals and fundamentalists. The distinction between political and Church doctrine become so blurred that address either aspect inspires the ire of many saints. They build mega-churches and have high-quality worship productions that could lead you to believe you were at a rock concert, but when it comes time to put head to the plow there's a lackluster performance in the follow-through. They have the righteousness concept refined to near legalism, but are completely missing the justice aspect of G-d's character. The evangelical and fundamentalist conservatives tend to be more individualistic and therefore do not conceive of salvation as something beyond the personal prayer made at the point of conversion. The question for them is, "who is your neighbor and what limit does Jesus put on loving them?"
The liberal Christians have no more satisfactory answers than their conservative siblings in the faith. Their watered-down theology lacks any sort of moral backbone that they end up rendering the Gospel nothing short of a limp noodle, useful for good feelings and tingles when the glossy messages of "love" come from the pulpit, but are wholly lacking in a message of G-d's call to live a new way. They have the concept of justice down to a well-oiled machine, yet they lack the righteousness that goes with it. These followers of Jesus run the risk of becoming like the salt without flavor, to be scattered among the ground and trampled on. The question for them is, "which do you love more, Jesus or social justice?"
When speaking to my conservative brothers and sisters on the issue of gay marriage, the best I have seen thus far is the concession that the LGBTQ community should have equal marriage rights, but they want to see a separate legal precedent established to make this possible. In doing this, they reject the reality that doing so establishes a government-sanctioned act of discrimination and bigotry towards gays and lesbians. They also can't seem to understand that vast difference between a G-d-ordained marriage and a legal marriage. No matter how many times I try to explain that legalizing gay marriage on a federal level would not be a threat to G-d-ordained marriages, it falls back on twisted political rhetoric that somehow G-d wants us to protect legal marriage as if it were one-and-the-same with G-d's holy unions. The most foul and evil corruption in the Church is the lie that our American political establishments are the same as G-d's most holy rites.
When speaking to my liberal brothers and sisters on the issue of gay marriage, they demonize their conservative siblings for being intolerant. The "Us vs. Them" mentality begins to create a cyclical call and response. When the conservatives come down on an issue, the liberals respond by opening their arms wide with an ever-embracing message of G-d's love and a swift back-hand to the conservatives for their "backwards thinking ways". Even I can't escape their fiery message of anti-judgmentalism (which ironically reeks of judgmentalism), and for what is my crime? I only want the Gospel preached as it in the Bible. You know the parts where Jesus tells the prostitute to "go and sin no more" or of forgiving a brother seventy times seven. Again, the wicked and idolatrous political polarization happens here with liberals always trying to be the exact opposite of their conservative siblings. It's like twins who are sicking of being mixed up trying to be so different from each other that they both end up looking like freaks.
And now I turn your attention to another matter entirely, but one of both personal and social nature. On 33rd and State on any given weekday you can be sure to find a scruffy-looking man asking for change. I've seen this man on multiple occasions over the past two and half years I've been in Chicago and asked him about his life. He told me about his family and how the internal strife and some poor choices led to being kicked out. First time I saw him I gave him some money so he could use the CTA to get into a shelter (it was February). The next time I saw him I bought him some hot chocolate and (I tried to get him to eat a banana) an oatmeal cookie at Starbucks. The third time I saw him I was a little miffed because I wanted to help him, but wasn't about to just hand him my bank account if only to see him come crawling back to me for more in a couple weeks. He told me he needed money for the CTA, so this time I gave him my farecard since I was armed with a second one which I could fall back on. Not more than two days later, I saw him again at the Jimmy John's begging for some food: whining and crying that he was hungry. I watched, utterly flabbergasted as a gentleman had the gumption to say something to the effect, "Get off my street and don't come begging here no more. This is my street, I pay my taxes, now go take your begging somewhere else..." The exchange had an even more interesting dynamic seeing as how the angry gentleman was black and the scruffy beggar is white. Would this black man be so callously dismissive if the beggar had been a black man?
Every time I see this scruffy homeless man, I can't help but feel guilty because I haven't done enough to help him. Another side of me thinks that this man is just leeching off of my generosity. How do I discern what my next step should be? Should I be trying to find him a place to stay that will help him transition from homelessness to a more stable life? Would that be too much of "rich privileged white college kid saving the day" for it to be a practical solution that respects his dignity as a human being to choose? I can't seem to make sense of the complicated nature of homelessness. The fact is that what I've been doing isn't working, but not doing anything is completely against everything I believe Christ taught me to do. Over the summer, I learned about lamenting the things I cannot change, and so now I lament the fact that I cannot find a simple solution to this man's situation. There's no magic potion, no flow chart to follow in dealing with this brokenness. Worse still, there are millions like him...
Oh LORD how long, LORD?
James
I'm so frustrated with more conservative Christians who, in their naive ignorance of the deep pain we've caused, think they can simply decide how best to compromise on the issue of gay marriage. The issue becomes further complicated by the perverse intertwining of political and spiritual narratives which is so pervasive among the conservative evangelicals and fundamentalists. The distinction between political and Church doctrine become so blurred that address either aspect inspires the ire of many saints. They build mega-churches and have high-quality worship productions that could lead you to believe you were at a rock concert, but when it comes time to put head to the plow there's a lackluster performance in the follow-through. They have the righteousness concept refined to near legalism, but are completely missing the justice aspect of G-d's character. The evangelical and fundamentalist conservatives tend to be more individualistic and therefore do not conceive of salvation as something beyond the personal prayer made at the point of conversion. The question for them is, "who is your neighbor and what limit does Jesus put on loving them?"
The liberal Christians have no more satisfactory answers than their conservative siblings in the faith. Their watered-down theology lacks any sort of moral backbone that they end up rendering the Gospel nothing short of a limp noodle, useful for good feelings and tingles when the glossy messages of "love" come from the pulpit, but are wholly lacking in a message of G-d's call to live a new way. They have the concept of justice down to a well-oiled machine, yet they lack the righteousness that goes with it. These followers of Jesus run the risk of becoming like the salt without flavor, to be scattered among the ground and trampled on. The question for them is, "which do you love more, Jesus or social justice?"
When speaking to my conservative brothers and sisters on the issue of gay marriage, the best I have seen thus far is the concession that the LGBTQ community should have equal marriage rights, but they want to see a separate legal precedent established to make this possible. In doing this, they reject the reality that doing so establishes a government-sanctioned act of discrimination and bigotry towards gays and lesbians. They also can't seem to understand that vast difference between a G-d-ordained marriage and a legal marriage. No matter how many times I try to explain that legalizing gay marriage on a federal level would not be a threat to G-d-ordained marriages, it falls back on twisted political rhetoric that somehow G-d wants us to protect legal marriage as if it were one-and-the-same with G-d's holy unions. The most foul and evil corruption in the Church is the lie that our American political establishments are the same as G-d's most holy rites.
When speaking to my liberal brothers and sisters on the issue of gay marriage, they demonize their conservative siblings for being intolerant. The "Us vs. Them" mentality begins to create a cyclical call and response. When the conservatives come down on an issue, the liberals respond by opening their arms wide with an ever-embracing message of G-d's love and a swift back-hand to the conservatives for their "backwards thinking ways". Even I can't escape their fiery message of anti-judgmentalism (which ironically reeks of judgmentalism), and for what is my crime? I only want the Gospel preached as it in the Bible. You know the parts where Jesus tells the prostitute to "go and sin no more" or of forgiving a brother seventy times seven. Again, the wicked and idolatrous political polarization happens here with liberals always trying to be the exact opposite of their conservative siblings. It's like twins who are sicking of being mixed up trying to be so different from each other that they both end up looking like freaks.
And now I turn your attention to another matter entirely, but one of both personal and social nature. On 33rd and State on any given weekday you can be sure to find a scruffy-looking man asking for change. I've seen this man on multiple occasions over the past two and half years I've been in Chicago and asked him about his life. He told me about his family and how the internal strife and some poor choices led to being kicked out. First time I saw him I gave him some money so he could use the CTA to get into a shelter (it was February). The next time I saw him I bought him some hot chocolate and (I tried to get him to eat a banana) an oatmeal cookie at Starbucks. The third time I saw him I was a little miffed because I wanted to help him, but wasn't about to just hand him my bank account if only to see him come crawling back to me for more in a couple weeks. He told me he needed money for the CTA, so this time I gave him my farecard since I was armed with a second one which I could fall back on. Not more than two days later, I saw him again at the Jimmy John's begging for some food: whining and crying that he was hungry. I watched, utterly flabbergasted as a gentleman had the gumption to say something to the effect, "Get off my street and don't come begging here no more. This is my street, I pay my taxes, now go take your begging somewhere else..." The exchange had an even more interesting dynamic seeing as how the angry gentleman was black and the scruffy beggar is white. Would this black man be so callously dismissive if the beggar had been a black man?
Every time I see this scruffy homeless man, I can't help but feel guilty because I haven't done enough to help him. Another side of me thinks that this man is just leeching off of my generosity. How do I discern what my next step should be? Should I be trying to find him a place to stay that will help him transition from homelessness to a more stable life? Would that be too much of "rich privileged white college kid saving the day" for it to be a practical solution that respects his dignity as a human being to choose? I can't seem to make sense of the complicated nature of homelessness. The fact is that what I've been doing isn't working, but not doing anything is completely against everything I believe Christ taught me to do. Over the summer, I learned about lamenting the things I cannot change, and so now I lament the fact that I cannot find a simple solution to this man's situation. There's no magic potion, no flow chart to follow in dealing with this brokenness. Worse still, there are millions like him...
Oh LORD how long, LORD?
James
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Anecdotal Introduction
It's nearing the end of the academic year and most of my peers are worn out, but I'm rather pumped up. I've been itching for months to have someone come and talk about consumer justice at my chapter of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship (IVCF/IV). The night finally arrives and I'm trying not to let my feelings of excitement overwhelm my ability to listen. I knew some things about justice and how consumers could be a contributor in gross injustices with the purchases they make, but I had not heard most of the information that night. I don't even remember specific talking points from that night except that it is important to take baby steps. Fast-forward about three weeks and I'm trying implement what I had learned. I had determined that my baby step was going to be replacing my belt at a thrift store instead of buying a new one. I spent a few hours just looking for thrift stores and as it turns out there aren't a whole lot of them in Minnesota. Since I live in Chicago I take it for granted that there's a thrift store around almost every corner. In Minnesota where my parents live I had just one thrift store within a reasonable distance from their house. I went there hoping to be able to buy dress clothes for church, but if all else failed I just wanted to get a belt to replace my rusty old one. After about an hour and a half of searching through shirts, pants, shoes, and belts I came out of that store with dress pants, a dress shirt, but no belt. I felt like I had wasted my time even though I had gotten a shirt and pants there. I ended up getting my belt at Walmart.
Folks, I hear a lot of people talk about justice in terms of systemic injustices that exist across the globe in an all-encompassing nightmare we contribute to with the things we buy. If you're like me, you hear these things and are immediately moved by the shock and horror within you to find out that something you consume or a service you rely on is responsible for unethical and unjust actions. A younger me would get upset as soon as the shock and horror had passed, because there's no quick-fix to systemic injustice. Eventually that upset feeling would turn to apathy which would lead me to throw up my hands in surrender to the fact that I contribute to an injustice that harms someone else in some unseen place. While these feelings of being overwhelmed by the vastness of the injustices in our world are normal, they are not an excuse for apathy. The other feeling which I've had after learning that there is an injustice committed every time I buy something or pay for a service is resentment. I resent the fact that in order to live more justly I have to give up something I use regularly. This is also a legitimate feeling, but we need to recognize that our slight discomfort is not because we're being deprived of a necessity; we're learning to live without something we're accustomed to.
But why should justice matter? I can't give you a straight answer because I believe it is something you must be personally convicted of before you can engage in it. I'm not going to force justice down your throat. I'll point you to Isaiah 58, the book of Amos, Matthew 5-7 (Sermon on the Mount), and James 2; yet I don't believe for a second that reading a few passages of Scripture or a convincing argument about justice and righteousness is going to turn anyone to my point of view. Why? I think that, as someone coming from an evangelical ultra-conservative faith background, I see the issue of justice being a very skewed issue. No longer is about doing what is right, but rather it has become a political game. What should have been a focal point of faith in action has become a secular and liberal issue. In our minds, the issue of social justice is for liberal Christians and we have certain assumptions about Christians who are into that. This is a sad state of affairs because in searching the Scriptures with an open mind and heart, I have come to understand that God's desire for justice and righteousness is a calling for all His children. The divide between justice and righteousness are not so great, moreover they are not simply things that can be done and checked off on a list of to-dos. Justice and righteousness are synonymous words describing of lifestyle of Christ-like living in direct opposition to the broken systems of injustice and cruelty in our world.
I invite you all to laugh, cry, and struggle with me as I blog about my honest journey to living justly in this broken world.
James
Folks, I hear a lot of people talk about justice in terms of systemic injustices that exist across the globe in an all-encompassing nightmare we contribute to with the things we buy. If you're like me, you hear these things and are immediately moved by the shock and horror within you to find out that something you consume or a service you rely on is responsible for unethical and unjust actions. A younger me would get upset as soon as the shock and horror had passed, because there's no quick-fix to systemic injustice. Eventually that upset feeling would turn to apathy which would lead me to throw up my hands in surrender to the fact that I contribute to an injustice that harms someone else in some unseen place. While these feelings of being overwhelmed by the vastness of the injustices in our world are normal, they are not an excuse for apathy. The other feeling which I've had after learning that there is an injustice committed every time I buy something or pay for a service is resentment. I resent the fact that in order to live more justly I have to give up something I use regularly. This is also a legitimate feeling, but we need to recognize that our slight discomfort is not because we're being deprived of a necessity; we're learning to live without something we're accustomed to.
But why should justice matter? I can't give you a straight answer because I believe it is something you must be personally convicted of before you can engage in it. I'm not going to force justice down your throat. I'll point you to Isaiah 58, the book of Amos, Matthew 5-7 (Sermon on the Mount), and James 2; yet I don't believe for a second that reading a few passages of Scripture or a convincing argument about justice and righteousness is going to turn anyone to my point of view. Why? I think that, as someone coming from an evangelical ultra-conservative faith background, I see the issue of justice being a very skewed issue. No longer is about doing what is right, but rather it has become a political game. What should have been a focal point of faith in action has become a secular and liberal issue. In our minds, the issue of social justice is for liberal Christians and we have certain assumptions about Christians who are into that. This is a sad state of affairs because in searching the Scriptures with an open mind and heart, I have come to understand that God's desire for justice and righteousness is a calling for all His children. The divide between justice and righteousness are not so great, moreover they are not simply things that can be done and checked off on a list of to-dos. Justice and righteousness are synonymous words describing of lifestyle of Christ-like living in direct opposition to the broken systems of injustice and cruelty in our world.
I invite you all to laugh, cry, and struggle with me as I blog about my honest journey to living justly in this broken world.
James
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)