Tag Archives: justice

Homelessness Not on the Funny List (Yet)

13 Sep

Right now I live a little less than three hours away from my fiancee. We recently met up for a mid- week date in Shelbyville, KY at a little coffee shop called 6th and Main. We only had a few hours together and since the coffee shop is all we knew about this pleasant town, we spent a good portion of the evening strolling through the downtown area.

We are eagerly anticipating the time when we will have our own place, be married, and can be together. We were looking for a place to sit and talk with relative safety and privacy. Passing by a doorway of one of the buildings, she joked innocently that we could pretend to be homeless and just chill in the doorway.

Within the next ten steps we came across a small loading dock that indented into a building. It was the kind of place that would be a perfect shelter for someone who needed it. Perhaps it should not have surprised me to see a worn out mattress resting against the wall of the small area. Sobering.

Homelessness, like AIDs, is still not on the funny list. Yet. However, The Kingdom of God is changing all that. One day we will remember only vaguely what it meant to live with unrighteousness or injustice, and we will laugh freely in celebration of the completion of the work or redemption over both sin and death. Let us live towards that goal.

May the Lord’s will be done,

CWillZ

Giving Highlight: International Justice Mission

4 Sep

Recently I posted asking for input on where to give money.  I then featured Kiva as where I decided to give and gave a brief intro to micro financing.  I want to start featuring at least one place each month that I am going to give money or have given money to.  My hope is to highlight some of the light that is being cast into this dismal world and to encourage both the organizations and those who may chose to give, pray, or join with them.

And the August giving highlight goes to … The International Justice Mission.  Here is a  blurb stolen from their website:

International Justice Mission is a human rights agency that secures justice for victims of slavery, sexual exploitation and other forms of violent oppression. IJM lawyers, investigators and aftercare professionals work with local governments to ensure victim rescue, to prosecute perpetrators and to strengthen the community and civic factors that promote functioning public justice systems.

IJM’s justice professionals work in their communities in 12 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America to secure tangible and sustainable protection of national laws through local court systems.

It is obvious to see why this is a great org. to support.  Seek justice, protect the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow. (Isaiah 1:17).  This is all part of the love affair we enjoy in the Kingdom.

May the Lord’s will be done,

CWillZ

Watch Commercials, Unleash the Oppressed

10 Aug

This letter was sent to the members of a group called “Dream for Darfur”, who hope to raise world awareness and influence the People’s Republic of China to use their political power for the good of the Darfurian people. It is a good opportunity to creatively impact your world.

Dear Friends,

Terror continues for the people of Darfur. Despite our efforts and yours, China has not used its unique influence with Sudan and its role as Olympic host to try to address the Darfur conflict.

China has ignored the people of Darfur. Tomorrow at www.DarfurOlympics.org you can send Beijing a message by refusing to watch Chinese propaganda during the Olympics.

Every time China touts itself as a responsible world power during the Games, tune into our alternative Olympic programming on the web. Watch the Alternative Opening Ceremony with artists including Talib Kweli and R.E.M. and then watch Mia Farrow’s daily webcast from a Darfurian refugee camp from August 8 to 15 at www.darfurolympics.org.

We hope that you will join us in helping to bring peace to the people of Darfur.

In Peace,
Dream for Darfur

May the Lord’s Will Be Done

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Don’t Get Sick!?: Healthcare and it’s costs

31 Jul

I had to laugh a little late one night I Carol and I were on the interstate coming home from a wedding in Knoxville. We passed a car whose bumper sticker read, “Republican Healthcare Plan: Don’t Get Sick”. It made me chuckle a little, but the bumper sticker is a little unfair to those who truly believe that the private sector and innovation eventually will pay off in the long run. However, the bumber sticker revealed an existing belief that some in our society hold about the private sector — its a phrase that people hide behind so they don’t have to do anything about injustice (again not fair or entirely true).

Whether believe that healthcare should be left to unrestricted free market or if you are of the opinon that government should become increasingly involved (about 20% of healthcare costs are subsidized), the real cost of healthcare is this: we get sick. However, many if not most of the diseases that cost us the most are preventable.

Heart disease, diabetes, lung and mouth cancer, and high blood pressure are all very costly conditions that can be avoided by simply taking care of oneself. Its pretty simple really: eat healthy, don’t use tabacco, and get moderate exercise. Save yourself and everyone some green.

“Don’t get sick” is a wise plan reducing the costs of healthcare, and how those reduced costs are paid is another debate entirely. I’d rather pay the same or a little higher for my healthcare and allow for those 7 – 12% who don’t have insurance and couldn’t pay the bills if they did be taken care of too. I’m still hopefully for the private sector to get creative and make progress, but its hard not to be jaded.

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My Money, Your Money, Our World…Transformed

30 Jul

Yesterday I aksed for input about where I should give money. One of the joys of having a budget is being able to give.

Since Adam was the only one to comment so far, and I need to take care of July’s giving before the end of July, I took one of his suggestions and headed over to Kiva.org and chekced out what they do. Basically, they are a place that lets people lend money to others who need it to develop themselves personally or professionally. This is called microfinancing.

Microfinancing is all about helping people that banks either cannot (too risky, not enough money to be worth it) or will not (it’s in thier interest to keep people only partially successful). A small loan helps people “prime the well”.

So I am using my “giving” money to microfinance through Kiva. When they pay me back I will either reinvest in someone else, or donate it to another cause.

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A Knife Is Better Than a Gun

28 Jul

While in Montego Bay, Jamaica I met a man named Michael. The first time we interacted with him he was yelling at us something about how white missionaries come to the island, use the beach every day and never clean it up. He continued on his way spouting off something about colonization and how there can be no peace without justice.

I went back to where we saw him first and waited. Eventually he came back and we started a real conversation. That led to a few of our students becoming his friends and sharing time, clothes, and food with him.

Michael and I talked and sat along the Hip Strip during our short week on the island. One topic was violence and how the rasta fight with words instead of weapons. He reminded me over and over of the prophesy of weapons being pounded into plowshares.

“A knife is better than a gun because it can be used to peel fruit.”

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Alarm Clock at 5:30 Feeling

3 Mar

Tonight I watched Lord of War starring Nicholas Cage. I would highly recommend this movie because of the moral choices that it presents. I won’t ruin the plot, but one of the biggest ideas of the movie is honesty and the difference between legal and right.

I am disturbed by the movie, because I know that it represents something true. Arms dealers or traffickers exist, but only because of war. Why does war exist?

I came back to my room and started praying. Something like this is what came out of me:

“I have seen innocent blood shed, even though it is a movie, this is my world. Why, God? Jesus, is this the “year of the Lord’s favor?”

Over the weekend I talked at our Spring Christian Ed retreat about the Exodus and the movement of God in the life of the individual and in societies. During that talk I presented the way Jesus began his ministry, which was by reading this in a synagogue in Capernum:

The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
Because He has anointed me
To Preach the Good News to the poor
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind,
To release the oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

Over the summer, I was praying about hunger. I asked God why it existed, I dared to ask God why He would let it happen

It is hard to describe, but the answer to that prayer was sorrowful.
“My children go hungry because my other children let them.”
Mother Theresa must have listened to the same voice for she said, “As long as there are empty mouths in the world, the Eucharist is incomplete.”

God has and will give his family more than enough. We just wont share. We have our own peace, but will not share.

Why do I go through a day and not ask where the clothes that cover my flesh come from, who worked to make them? How can I drink my coffee without thinking of who picked it, and whether or not they can live off the wages they earned? Why do I believe the lie that it is not my responsibility to make sure those people are getting what they deserve?

When have we given enough? When can we feel good about ourselves? When we all have enough, when we all have peace, when God is feared.

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Learning to Dance

21 Jan

A Selection of Dr. King’s words from “I Have a Dream” August 28, 1963:

 I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

WE ARE not free.  Yet.  Last week my class stayed at the International Teams guest house in inner-city Lawndale, Chicago.  Our host Mark Soderquist and his friend and fellow churchman Derrick joined us for a discussion about their story.  I cannot tell it well, but basically these two men of faith in our Lord have learned to trust each other and love each other although they did not when they started their relationship nearly twenty years ago.  They have now realized fuller that they are both created in the image of the Holy God, although their skin had different tones of beauty.

Later that week our class had the privilege of invading a sacred gathering of men that have become the Chicago Urban Reconciliation Enterprise (CURE).  They showed us about how being dedicated to spending time with people who are different than you can help you to love and understand them.  They even showed us how that can help to understand Scripture in new ways, bringing a more full understanding of how the Word is alive.

Surely this group is one that believes that the “banks of justice” and “vaults of opportunity” are not empty.

The Lord is saying “Love one another,” as He always has.  Dr. King is right when he says that our freedoms are inextricably bound.  ”We cannot walk alone”

Mr. Mandela reminds us that freedom requires steady and unrelenting passion, and Dr. King reminds us that we must do it together.  For everyone who is sick of the talk, hates it when they hear a man say “they have gotten what they wanted”, and who has yet to feel like they can trust and be trusted by their character alone….keep going.  

 ”Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.”  To the Glory of God.

 

 

Bed Sheets

12 Nov

As I got into bed tonight, I thanked God for my comforter. It seems like a small thing, but I love being wrapped up like burrito in it. Then I remembered to pray for those don’t have bedding and need it.

Over the summer I read something that said something to the effect of, “As long as there are empty mouths in the Body of Christ, the eucharist is incomplete.” While I think that Christ’s death was enough to buy me into being able to be in God’s family, I see the point.

As I write, I can see the faces of Christians that I have taken communion with that did without basic necessities today. I am compelled to write that I am ashamed that my truest brothers and sisters do not have enough.

I have two comforters on my bed. Most of the time the smaller of the two is pushed to the side against the wall.

The Lord is clear that nothing I have I have because I have earned it, or by some way am entitled to it. Job’s cry for mercy was met with a threatening truth. “I made you from dust, you will be dust again” and “Where were you when I hung the stars?”

How about this for haunting: “If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?.”

I have pity, but I know how quickly it will be gone by the time I finish my breakfast tomorrow and am worried with not being late to class (again).

I understand why it seems no one does anything. We have never thought seriously about our own survival. Gross, Sick, Untrue.

May God grant us the mercy of being moved to care for our fellow believers. OUR FLESH AND BLOOD IN CHRIST.
Come quickly Lord.

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