Category: Social Justice

Call + Response

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So last night I got a chance to go see the documentary Call+Response about modern day slavery. I have to start by saying – go see this film. It should be required viewing for anyone with a beating heart. I know a lot about modern day slavery – I’ve read the books, I’ve seen the pictures, I’ve heard the stories. I still left this movie raw. It is hard not to have a visceral reaction of absolute rage after seeing it. Rage at the greedy bastards who enslave people for profit. Rage at the men who create the demand for sex slaves because they are ruled by their dicks. Rage at those who dismiss this discussion in the name of political or economic philosophy. Rage at myself for supporting the system that rewards slavery.

The rage starts the moment the movie begins and you see a group of 5 and 6 year old girls lined up in a brothel explaining what sex acts they offer. And it continues as one sees story after story portrayed of those in slavery – women chained in brothels, an entire family still enslaved for a debt incurred four generations ago, children abducted and trained as marauding soldiers and rapists. Atrocities that exist all around us and support the systems and lifestyles we take for granted.

The theme holding the film together is that of music. Music that is the voice of the people sending out their call. And as in the old spirituals that musical call must be answered with a response. So musicians came together to sound the call and be informative agents for this often unknown plague. Those who hear the call – hear the stories – are now expected to respond.

One line that struck me in the movie was when in an interview Dr. Cornel West spoke of the need to encourage those prone to paralysis to action. When I heard that phrase, the lines from the hymn Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing sprung to mind – “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.” So often we hear sin and rebellion described simply as this wander away from God. The hymn pleads for God to fetter our hearts to him to prevent such wandering away. But Dr. West’s word’s reminded me that all too often the worst we can do is to do nothing. We are prone to paralysis. We don’t respond to the call. We ignore injustice, or, worse, find some excuse as to why we really shouldn’t bother to care. We do nothing.

And that multiplies the rage.

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Self-Interest and Justice

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At a conference I attended recently, the speaker mentioned that she was confused by the current interest in environmental issues as justice issues.  In her view caring for the environment, although a good thing, is merely enlightened self-interest.  We care for the environment because we care about our own survival.  Mess this place up, use up all our resources, and we have a problem.  If we want to ensure a decent, comfortable existence, we take care of the world around us.  It’s as simple as that.

I chuckled at the simplicity of her equation, but failed to see the reality behind her words.   Just because something is obviously and unequivocally good for us doesn’t mean that most people will actually be moved to do it.  Take healthy living as an example.  Most people know that smoking is bad for them or that a diet of fried food, sugar, and red meat might not be the best thing for living a long life.  But people still smoke and super-size it up in the drive-thru.  Similarly, most people know that taking care of the earth is a good thing, but few of them even make time for baby step environmentalism like recycling.  So enlightened self-interest isn’t exactly a motivating factor that works.

I think the recent popularity of seeing environmental issues as justice issues has developed because people need something outside of themselves to motivate them.  Behaviorism and rewards can only work for so long before people get bored.  If the carrot that is dangled before me is that my life will be improved (or safer) if I make the effort to care for creation, I can easily choose to opt out of that particular reward.  If it’s all about me, then it’s only about me.  But seeing environmental responsibility as a justice issue brings love into the equation.

If seeking justice involves loving God and loving others with every aspect of our lives, we then are pushed beyond ourselves into patterns of discipleship and worship.  We can always choose to opt out of such things as well, but sacrificing our relationships with God and with others is a much harder step to take.  So we need to understand that we love God by taking care of his creation and his children.  We demonstrate that love by refusing to trash our oceans and preserving the food supply for communities around the world.  We stop emitting toxic gases into the atmosphere that alter ecosystems in areas of the world where most people have never even driven a car.  We push for the restriction of pesticide use for the sake of the farmer’s exposure to such poisons every day.

Caring for creation is just that – an act of compassion that is done for others.  We aren’t buying into some trend just for the sake of saving our own butts, but because we care about the people God has commanded us to care for.  In loving our neighbor, we are restoring our relationship with them.  If that relationship so far has been based on destroying their ecosystem, then restoring that relationship means ending that destruction.  Instead of being self-centered, it is about being other-centered in obedience to following and serving God.

In short, it is not about me.

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Blog Action Day – Poverty in Austin

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So it’s Blog Action Day and I signed up to blog about poverty issues in Austin. Great idea – but I sheepishly have to admit that I have no idea what to blog about. Having just moved back into the area less than two months ago I haven’t had much of a chance to understand the state of the city’s culture today. Most of my knowledge of poverty issues in Austin is from a dozen years ago or so when I last lived here.

My experiences started as I lived through Austin’s final attempts at desegregation in the early 90’s and was bused to East Austin for Jr. High. East Austin is often called the “bad side of town” and I had friends who weren’t allowed to cross to the east side of I-35 even in the “good” areas. I recall someone even running for city council on the platform of tunneling the highway underground so as to eliminate east and west sides and therefore the economic divide in the city. But for a Jr. Higher, passing prostitutes and witnessing drug deals on streets lined with trash and broken glass to then enter a highly secure locked down school did more to inspire fear than compassion. Add to that the resentment and violence the local students had toward us bused in students and it was easy to simply think of them as “other.” Poverty wasn’t a problem to be solved, but a situation to be avoided.

Fast forward a few years and I became part of the establishment of the Austin based outreach group Mission Possible. I know little of the large organization it has become, but in the beginning it was about loving and helping children in poverty. We would work in local housing projects providing tutoring and activities for the kids. A couple of friends and I started girls clubs and spent our weekends in the projects with the kids. We were in High School and we couldn’t do much, but we did what we could. Our youth pastor told us to stop working with those kids because it took us away from youth group activities, but we did it anyway. Getting involved and providing opportunities these kids didn’t normally have were the small steps we could take to reversing the constraints of poverty.

So as I return to Austin and blog about poverty here today it was these personal stories I remember. There are of course huge systemic issues at play – the sort of stuff I usually discuss here. But so far my time back here has just brought me personal stories. Neighbors struggling to get by in this crazy economy. A single mom of a teenager who has become an adopted mom to all the teens in the neighborhood – providing love and some stability where she can (even though her dog scares me to death). Another single mom with a girl Emma’s age who has moved back in with her parents as she battles cancer and the financial troubles that brings. Real people, real stories.

I’m still trying to figure out my role in this particular story of poverty issues here in Austin. Where I am going and what I’ll end up doing here is up for grabs. For now I’m just listening to stories.

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Thank You Bono…

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… for not being afraid to speak truth to power.

From Reuters –

As Congress debates a White House-proposed $700 billion bailout for the worst financial crisis since the Depression of the 1930s, Bono questioned why wealthy countries had not been able to come up with enough aid for the world’s problems.

“It is extraordinary to me that you can find $700 billion to save Wall Street and the entire G8 can’t find $25 billion to save 25,000 children who die every day of preventable treatable disease and hunger,” the U2 lead singer told Clinton’s fourth annual philanthropic summit in New York. “That’s mad, that is mad.” … “Bankruptcy is a serious business and we all know people who have lost their jobs,” Bono said, referring to the bankruptcy declared by Wall Street investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. “But this is moral bankruptcy.”

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Motivation and the Kingdom

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So for the past month or so I’ve been thinking about the motivation behind one’s pursuit of a cause. Do we do things because they are the right thing to do or because we desire to succeed at reaching a goal? Must a goal be obtainable if we decide to pursue it?

Let me explain the context of my thoughts. Before we moved, I went to go see The Dark Knight with a group of friends. On the way home we were discussing the movie and I brought up Peter Rollin’s blog post on Batman as the ultimate capitalist superhero. In this post Rollins writes –

Batman is unable to see that the subjective crime he fights on a nightly basis is the direct manifestation of the objective crime he perpetrates on a daily basis. The street crime is the explosion of violence that results from greedy, large industries obsessed with the increase of abstract capital at the expense of all else.

As part of the discussion a friend suggested that if someone like Bruce Wayne (with infinite resources and a desire for justice) couldn’t manage to succeed at living justly within the economic system, who could? For her this discouraged her pursuit of such a lifestyle. If one could not obtain the goal of living completely justly within an economic system then why bother at all.  She needed a goal to strive towards that could ultimately be obtained.

I countered that while I believe that it is impossible to live completely justly within our current economic system, I know that I can work to help create a system that is just little by little. Instead of being an individual pursuing a certain goal, I see myself as just part of a larger movement. I have been called to live a certain way – to seek first the Kingdom of God in all things – and I will follow that command. I merely fulfill my duty to the best of my ability.

This distinction is one I hear repeated often. I’ve heard over and over again the accusation that small lifestyle changes (like using cfl light-bulbs or buying fair trade) really have very little effect in the grand scheme of things. Those actions won’t solve all the problems, so why bother? Or if I show support for a religious gathering or political movement I am accused of placing my hope and salvation in their hands. Apparently if I support anything it is because I think they have the power to change everything with the wave of a magic wand. It’s all or nothing in this view. Either the goal is out there, obtainable to all, or it’s not worth getting involved at all.

Maybe I’m just too postmodern, but I prefer to just be part of the process. I know that revolutions take time. I can’t name a date in the future and say that by that date all economic systems will be just. I can’t even say that someday such a goal will be reached. Certain things like justice aren’t goals to be checked off a to do list and forgotten as we move on to the next item. They are constant pursuits – elusive and everchanging. Seekers and followers must adapt and change as circumstances change. To engage at all we must be willing to merely be part of a process – players in a larger game motivated not by the idea of winning the game but by enjoyment of (or commitment to) the game itself.

But the question remains – is the average modern person capable of eschewing goals? Or are we too entrenched in skinneristic systems and outcome oriented structures to abandon goals and live in the ambiguity of process? Is seeking the Kingdom enough or do we insist on grasping hold of it?

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Experience and Empathy

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I’ve been thinking a lot about empathy and experience these past few weeks. I am fully aware how my access to a top rated hospital and health insurance saved mine and Aidan’s lives. Even as the medical bills pile higher and higher, I know that without on demand imaging services and easily available medications things could have gone much differently. I am beginning to understand (a little) of what most women in the world face when they bear children – the uncertainty of if they or the child will even survive.

It’s one thing to intellectually acknowledge the need for better health care around the world, I am discovering it is another thing altogether to attempt to imagine oneself in another’s position. I knew the need for equity before, but my experiences have helped me to empathize. I know I am lucky and privileged. I don’t desire to trivialize or cheapen the plight of others by claiming to truly understand, but I am a firm believer that empathy is necessary if one is to truly care and make a difference. And experience helps with that.

This message hit me recently in two ways. In the first I saw how experience and empathy can be betrayed by selfish interest and in the second how the hurting can be betrayed by our lack of experience. In the first instance I watched with incredulous sorrow as John McCain denounced the Supreme Court’s decision to offer basic legal rights to prisoners of war. It has pained me to watch this former POW compromise his convictions over the past couple of years as he panders to what he assumes the voters wish to hear. The empathy his experience once gave him for those suffering similar abuses has been traded at the alter of greed and selfish ambition. He abandoned the call to care for the Other with compassion and now looks to secure his own desires. His experience has been betrayed and its lessons squandered.

The second message came to me as I was re-reading one of my favorite fantasy series. In this instance the main character has just managed to rescue a group of women from essentially sex slavery. These women were given money to help establish new lives after the horrors they had faced. Thinking on this, the protagonist mused, “There are many things wealth cannot buy, and most of those are enumerated by philosophers who have never woken wondering if this day would be their last. It pleased me to know that the survivors… would, at the least, not have to worry about buying bread” (Jacqueline Carey, Kushiel’s Avatar, p.463). That idea struck me as it reminded me of the number of times I have heard calls for monetary charity argued away with just such philosophical excuses. Those who have not experienced starvation or the horrors of life often think we are doing others a favor by not making them dependent on outside aid or by offering them spiritual (not physical) help. Our lack of experience prevents us from truly being able to empathize with them or see their true needs. Sure, perhaps money cannot buy happiness, but basic survival needs must be met before happiness can even be considered. In these areas perhaps empathy should always be promoted before sophistry.

I’ve heard it said that learning to see things from the perspective of the other is the highest and hardest form of development. It takes a lot to put aside the self and beginning to understand things from another’s perspective. Yet the irony is that our own experiences are often what help us to learn how to empathize in such ways.

 

 

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Faith and Hope

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Last night we finally got around to watching the movie Children of Men. It was one of those movies we had meant to see when it came out, but given that we hardly ever watch movies anymore that never happened. But in my beached whale on couch stage, Netflix has come in quite handy. I thought the movie itself was engaging – a story of survival and possible hope in a post-apocalyptic world. The story of a world that has destroyed itself where no children are born and prejudice and violence reign of course provided good social commentary for where we are headed as a world today.

But what I found almost more interesting was a short documentary feature included on the DVD. The Possibility of Hope explored the themes of the movie and how close they are to our realities today. Commentary for this feature was provided by philosophers like Slavoj Zizek and writers like Naomi Klein. While the title of the piece implied something vaguely hopeful, I found it to be overly pessimistic. As they presented it, the world is so far past the breaking point that there is little chance for recovery. As some of them put it, even if everyone started to care about issues like the environment, poverty and globalization it wouldn’t matter at this point since we are so far gone. Then they claimed that getting everyone to care would be impossible anyway since caring for others just runs against the grain of human nature. Those who think otherwise were mocked for seeking a fairy tale Utopia. Of course the whole thing ended on a rather cheezy note of – “but we all should continue to have children because maybe they can provide some hope.”

Honestly this is one of those attitudes that I encounter often and that I have issues with. No I am not naive enough to believe that every single person on the planet will one day stop being selfish or that salvation/utopia will suddenly appear if they did. But at least within the bounds of my Christian faith, I don’t see compassion as entirely impossible. Perhaps we are inherently selfish creatures (or perhaps that is partially the conditioning of our individualistic culture), but the whole point of our faith is to be transformed. To assume that just means some magic wand takes care of the economic exchange of sin and forgiveness but does nothing to change who we are as people is a cheap and hollow faith in my opinion. If our faith is real then we should have no problem at least trying to put into practice commands like – “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” Perhaps outside of religious faith compassion is too hard or a utopian dream, but within the Christian faith it forms the foundation for how we should be interacting with others. So I can’t buy that things can never change or that all hope is lost, not if I still believe in the transforming power of Jesus in people’s lives.

Unfortunately it is often Christians themselves who fight having to care at all. It is within the church that I hear the most prejudice, nationalism, and individualism. Excuses like – “but Jesus said the poor will always be with us so therefore we shouldn’t help them” to “I don’t want to condone sin (or their religion) if I given them aid” are often on the tip of our tongues. Others point blank state that their family’s needs will always come first (needs being a relative term in that sentence). And while the numbers who are anti-environmental are thankfully dwindling, it is still hard to find those who think that they personally need to make sacrifices to care for our world and its inhabitants.

In other words the one place compassion can and should be rampant is just as self-centered as the rest of the world. Even so, I don’t think this is a reflection of the way things have to be. Call it idealism or call it hope, I’m not ready to give up on my faith and the commands of the Bible that easily. I think the church (as in the body of Christ) can be transformed and be moved to love others. I don’t think all hope is lost or that we should just give up and retreat even further into ourselves. I actually do think there is the possibility of hope that things can be better – in both large and small ways. This is the naive utopianism that the documentary was mocking, I know. But it is part of what I’ve discovered I have to believe if I am serious about my faith. What’s the point of it anyway if I’m not following and trusting Jesus?

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Human Rights and Christian Comfort

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For this month’s Synchroblog we are joining in with the Amnesty International sponsored Bloggers Unite for Human Rights. I guess the idea is to give the Christian take on the issue. My first reaction to that idea though was to recall how uncomfortable most Christian circles I have been a part of are with the concept of human rights (not to mention Amnesty International). There are those who don’t like the topic because it focuses on human needs in the here and now, not spiritual paths to heaven. It is not about whether or not people should be tortured or starved, but that dealing with such issues distracts from evangelism. Others though who may intellectually agree with the concept of human rights don’t see them as necessarily Christian concerns. They say caring about whether or not people are treated humanely and fairly isn’t a Biblical issue it is modern cultural construct. So while we should care about such things as decent human beings, we shouldn’t bring our faith into it.

Obviously I have issues with both approaches. I don’t like extremes that dichotomize the body and soul or the sacred and the secular. I don’t like faith systems that prioritize one part of faith over another (evangelism over service, doctrine over practice… or the reverse). If my faith informs how I am to live my life and I am called to love others those things don’t matter. If feeding the hungry by making sure they have access to food is part of loving them, does it matter if it can be labeled as modern humanism or not? And no matter how fantastic evangelism is, can people really say that it’s okay to let people starve?

I think too often the ideology wars stand in the way of seeing what is actually happening to real people. Fighting for human rights isn’t about politics or philosophies ultimately. We can use such things as shields to protect us from reality. Could anyone honestly stand before someone starving because of oppression and injustice and tell them “screw you, you are too worthless for me to change my _______ (politics, theology, opinion, routine) to bother to help. I’m not responsible for you, and in fact you don’t deserve help anyway, so just deal with it.”

But of course we say such things every day.

So I think Christians coming together to say they support human rights is a significant step in the right direction. To leave behind our excuses and our theology shields and not be afraid to visibly care is a needed step in our world today.

Contributers to this Synchroblog (so far) include –

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Mother’s Day

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I think a yearly reminder of the original intent of Mother’s Day is always a good thing. A reminder that as women and mothers we can work together for peace, justice, and equality.

Mother’s Day Proclamation – 1870
by Julia Ward Howe

Arise then…women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts!
Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
“We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage,
For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country,
Will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.”

From the voice of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with
Our own. It says: “Disarm! Disarm!
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice.”
Blood does not wipe our dishonor,
Nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil
At the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home
For a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace…
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God –
In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality,
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.

And this video (ht: Josh) I think makes a fantastic point about how we raise our kids determining the world they will create. What things do we tell them are important and significant in this world? Do we encourage them towards peace, justice, and equality? Or do we give such things lip service while really conveying to them that money and power are the really important things in life?

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Jesus and Compassion

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I read something in the comments the other day over at Eugene Cho’s blog that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about. The post was in relation to the whole Seeds of Compassion event. I’ve been slightly disturbed by the outcry from some sects of the faith as to why Christians (Doug Pagitt and Rob Bell specifically, apparently Desmond Tutu doesn’t count to evangelicals) would participate in an event with the Dalai Lama and other non-Christians. Then after the fact the complaints turned into certain voices getting their panties all in a bunch because those guys didn’t give the four spiritual laws or something. I tried to ignore those fringe voices trying to cause trouble, the whole idea of not being in dialogue with people of all faiths is so farcical that it hardly deserves comment. But then I started hearing other issues raised – ones I found infinitely more disturbing. This comment illustrates the issue well –

Christ does not call Christians to ‘make the world more compassionate and a better place’. Christ calls us to proclaim the Gospel message of Christ Crucified for sinners. This message is not compatible with any other religion or spirituality.

The idea was that Christians have no place at an event discussing compassion since that has nothing to do with Jesus. I don’t deny that we are called to proclaim the Gospel (although I have a feeling that I might differ with the commenter on what exactly that involves), but to say that Jesus didn’t call us to spread compassion? Has this person read the Bible? Ever? Does she ignore the story of the good Samaritan and the subsequent command to “go and do likewise.”? Or ignore Jesus’ call to give food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, and care for the least of these? Or Jesus’ proclamation that he came to set the oppressed free? Or his commands to love, bless, and pray for even our enemies? Or his response when he witnessed the lack of compassion in the Temple?

Often when some of us talk about the full Gospel, or about reclaiming the message of Jesus, we are told “but everyone believes that anyway” (implying we should stop talking about it).  The idea is that just because it isn’t talked about, or takes a secondary place to preaching a doctrinal formation doesn’t mean that people have forgotten about it. But here I see the full extent of the dichotomy between doctrine and the Bible in action. When some can claim that being a Christian has nothing to do with making the world more compassionate I know petty prejudices have usurped scripture.

Perhaps since such commenters refuse to engage with people of other faiths, they may not have heard how many people see Christianity as utterly irrelevant because of this dichotomy. I’ve heard numerous people dismiss Christianity because all we care about is converting people to our club and not about meeting their real needs. They have not heard of Christ’s call to love, to give aid, and to make disciples who do the same. This truncated Gospel not only distorts scripture, it hurts our message. I would prefer truth to be discussed and demonstrated, but sadly that doesn’t always happen.  But even more disturbing – are there really people who think compassion is a bad thing? how has the church let this happen?

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