Education Lifeline

PRISM
on earth as it is in heaven: radical love made visible
Education
Lifeline
How churches can power up our
public schools
In praise of the
comfort zone
Finding Jesus
in the profane
SPRING 2014
Also:
Harmony on a Native American farm | Gender imbalance in the church
Head over heels for Over the Rhine | Unpacking the Transition movement
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PRISM
Vol. 21, No. 2 Spring 2014
Editor
Creative Director
Copy Editor
Deputy Director
Publishers
Operations Manager
Kristyn Komarnicki
Rhian Tomassetti
Leslie Hammond
Sarah Withrow King
Al Tizon & Paul
Alexander
Josh Cradic
Contributing Editors
Christine Aroney-Sine
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
Myron Augsburger
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
Editorial Board
Miriam Adeney
Tony Campolo
Luis Cortés
Richard Foster
G. Gaebelein Hull
Karen Mains
Vinay Samuel
Tom Sine
Eldin Villafane
George Barna
Rodney Clapp
Samuel Escobar
William Frey
Roberta Hestenes
John Perkins
Amy Sherman
Vinson Synan
Harold DeanTrulear
Ron Sider
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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 © 2014 ESA/PRISM magazine.
CONTENTS
SPRING 2014
2 REFLECTIONS The Power of Fleas
3 TALK BACK
WHOLE
4 Why Shouldn’t We GiveDirectly?
5 Good in the ’Hood; Street Children Score at World Cup
6 A Place at the Table
7 Modeling the Harmony Way
8 Not the End of the Story
9 Living Into Vulnerability; Connecting for Good
PROTESTIMONY
10 Ban the Box
11 Holy Disruptions
12 Media Watchdogs, Rejoice! Rights for Rapists? Laps, not Apps!
COUNTERCULTURE
46 Compassion on the Labor Ward
47 Is Reality Secular?
48 Transitioning to a Positive Future
49 Tackling the Empathy Deficit; Real Hope
for the Homeless; Radical Forgiveness
14 School Equality as a Matter of Faith
People of faith have the opportunity—and the responsibility—to help close the achievement gap and open the
doors of possibility for our nation’s poorest schoolchildren.
19 Church/School Partnerships = Win/Win
A growing number of churches and faith-based organizations are joining hands with principals, teachers, and
students to fortify public education and build beloved
community.
22 The World Is Our Classroom
When neighbors share life, children learn valuable lessons about what it means to be human.
24 A Safe Place to Grow
Society’s young cast-offs find a nurturing home and God’s
love at Children’s Garden in Manila.
28 Revelation at the Ping-Pong Emporium
Even sacrilege has something to say about the sacred:
Jonathan Merritt plumbs the profane for signs of God.
32 Christianity: Now in 3D and Living Color
What if Christians were comfortable with mystery, honest
about brokenness, and known for our vibrant, authentic
faith?
34 Confronting the Oppressor with Humanity
CONSUME
Meet Palestinian activists who offer tea and kindness to
the Israeli soldiers who make their lives so difficult.
50 Meet Me at the Edge of the World;
40 Because Stones Can Speak
Bringing C.S. Lewis to the Stage
A look at what is lost—and who loses—when places of
51 From the Couch Commando: Commercials African American historical importance are destroyed.
52 Book reviews
54 New books and films to check out
42 What’s Wrong with Being Comfortable?
55 esXaton Practicing ESA in India
56 THE LAST WORD Easter Morning by Qi He
Rather than producing spiritual maturity, discomfort for
its own sake can squander the gifts of the Spirit.
[So that people] may know wisdom and instruction, understand words of insight, receive
instruction in wise dealing, righteousness, justice, and equity; that prudence may be given
to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth…
Proverbs 1:2-4
REFLECTIONS
The Power of
Fleas
I consider myself an educator at heart, but I have
never attended a PTO or school board meeting in
my city of Philadelphia, which is dealing with more
budget and institutional crises than ever before.
(Facing a $304 million shortfall, the city closed 23
public schools last year. Ouch.) Beyond signing
some petitions and marching once in a schoolsnot-prisons protest (the city also launched a $400
million new prison project last year), I have never
personally enlisted in the fight for educational equity. Why? Because it is demanding and time-consuming work, that’s why! I’m spending all my hours
figuring out the best education for my own three
boys and trying to keep things together at home
and work. Who has the time or energy to fight for
other people’s kids?
But we would do well to consider what we
hope for our children’s future. As Marian Wright
Edelman has said, “The future which we hold in
trust for our own children will be shaped by our fairness to other people’s children.” Ouch again. Yet my
question about what we have time for is still valid.
Most of us work too much and play too little as it is.
Playing with our children—and modeling lifelong
play for all the children in our lives—is essential
to their education as whole persons. Do we really
need to add one more giant cause to our lives?
This is why our cover story for this issue is
so compelling. It shows us that we don’t have to
take on this cause all by ourselves. Rather it urges
the church—individuals working together as the
body of Christ—to stand in the gap for our nation’s failing schools. Together, myriad small acts
will function as a tidal wave of support for students,
teachers, staff, and principals. “You just need to be
a flea against injustice,” says Edelman. “Enough
committed fleas biting strategically can make even
the biggest dog uncomfortable and transform even
the biggest nation.”
When the local church takes up the cause
of the local school (or one in a not-so-privileged
zip code), it becomes a community effort each of
us can plug into according to our gifts and availability. And there is truly something for everyone
here—from praying for a specific teacher, grade,
or school to organizing donations for school supplies. From playground clean-up days to providing
snacks and encouragement for a teachers’ meeting. From reading with a kid for an hour a week to
2
providing an annual award
to acknowledge a student
who excels at scholarship,
art, or citizenship. The possibilities are limited only by
our creativity.
In these pages you’ll
meet Dallas-area believers
who are discovering that
when they partner with
schools to help kids get the
education they deserve,
they themselves learn
more than they bargained
for—hearts
expand,
community deepens, faith
surges. You’ll tour a Denver neighborhood where
folks are rediscovering the
lost art of education via the
sharing of stories, wisdom,
and skills in the garden,
in the kitchen, and on the
front porch. You’ll meet the
boys at Children’s Garden
in Manila, for whom education starts with finding a
safe home and learning to trust others, love God,
and respect themselves.
Close your eyes for a few minutes and think
about those moments when you learned something life-changing and positive, when you gained
a sense of who you were made to be, what you
were capable of, and how your mind, body, or
spirit works. They weren’t always (or even often)
in a classroom perhaps, but they always came at
the hands of someone—author, teacher, mentor,
friend—who led you into an experience you would
not otherwise have had.
At 16 I read C. S. Lewis’ Till We Have Faces,
at my father’s suggestion, and tumbled headlong
into a foreign world that was strangely familiar. I
remember standing outside my bedroom with the
book in my hand, groping for words. “This book is
about something, but it’s also about lots of other
things at the same time,” I said. Dad just smiled,
sensing that I had discovered the joys of subtext,
myth, and deep meaning in literature. In college
I scrambled behind a friend to the top of several
towering stone “needles” in South Dakota’s Black
Hills and descended a changed person, with new
respect for (even awe for) my body and its capabilities. My father and my friend were just two among
the many who have opened educational doors for
me throughout my life.
“You just need to be a flea
against injustice. Enough
committed fleas biting
strategically can make even
the biggest dog uncomfortable
and transform even the biggest
nation.”
- Marian Wright Edelman
Imagine the accumulated wisdom of an entire
church being accessible to a disadvantaged school.
Think of how many young lives would be transformed if we shared our collective education with
these children. How would even our own children’s
futures be forever altered?
This month we celebrate the resurrection of
the greatest teacher who ever lived. Although fully
divine, he needed others to help him grow in wisdom even as he grew in stature. His parents, Uncle
Zechariah, his neighbors, the local rabbi, the Scriptures. Let us walk in their beautiful footsteps, leaving enlivened minds and hearts behind us wherever
we go. Together, with our strategically placed flea
bites, we can provide a good education to all God’s
children.
As a kid, Kristyn Komarnicki
(pictured here in 7th grade)
was privileged to attend
good public schools. Her
three sons didn't really have
that option, so she has spent
the last 15 years begging,
borrowing, and bartering an
education for them through a
combination of home, public, and private education.
TALK BACK
Re: the Americans Who Tell the Truth portrait series featured in the Winter
issue—I pray that once this project is completed it will be housed with an
organization that will get it into the schools, to inspire our young people in
knowing that change is possible and that as individuals they have the power to
make a difference.
I love PRISM and the ePistle. I’m so inspired and blessed every time I
read them. Thanks for becoming the voice that needs to be heard. I’m a United
Church of Canada minister in Etobicoke, a West Toronto neighborhood, and
I pray to see the passion I read in your articles in my people—the “social
gospel” descendants.
The Winter issue had many wonderful articles, but a relatively simple thing
stood out in Rebekah Bell’s “Which Way Does Your Faith Point?” Rebekah
says about a lady that criticized her halter-top dress, “This girl had never
once initiated a friendship with me, never asked how I was or even knew
if I was a Christian. Instead, the solitary time she communicated with me
was when my standard of modesty didn’t mesh with hers.” This apparently
Christian lady did not see the significance of having a relationship with
someone before criticizing her clothing.
As Christians we need to remember what Rebekah says: “It is one
thing for a friend to gently and lovingly speak truth into a situation, but
quite another for a stranger to tell you how to live your life.” Let us build
relationships before we critique others.
D’Thea Webster
Toronto, Ont.
@ Email the editor: kkomarni@eastern.edu
f @Facebook.com/evansocaction
t @twitter.com/PRISMMagazine1
e EvangelicalsforSocialAction.org/ePistle
The litany of lame excuses, self-pity, and contrived rationalizations
presented in “Wonderfully Made” in the Winter issue simply strengthened
my resolve to lose my spare tire and to help my older son do the same.
The entire gist of the article is that being overweight (a) is beyond one’s
control, (b) is perfectly healthy, and (c) ought not be considered aesthetically unappealing. Given the dramatic rise in American obesity rates in
recent decades, I find all three notions ludicrous. I personally struggle to
stay fit and to have our sons eat healthier and get more exercise instead
of playing video games, watching TV, or screwing around on the internet.
If our family took the author’s advice, we’d just throw in the towel, get
comfortable on the couch, and happily watch our waistlines expand. No
thanks.
Mike Nacrelli
Portland, Ore.
Clay Singleton
Caitlin Ng
Ryan Rodrick Beiler
Jonathan Merritt
Whitney Bauck
Nicole Baker
Fulgham
Aria Kirkland-Harris David Schmidt
Emily Dause
Nita Thomason
Len Schmidt
Keep on sending the magazine, please, for PRISM, as the Sri Lankan
preacher D.T. Niles famously said about evangelism, “is just one beggar
telling another beggar where to find bread.” That starving beggar is me!
Richard S. Schechter
Monroe, Ohio
Anthony Grimes
THIS ISSUE’S CONTRIBUTORS INCLUDE:
Randy Gabrielse
Grand Rapids, Mich.
3
Photos: Coe Burchfield, The Simple Way
Good in the ’Hood
When Jesus called Nathanael to join his growing
team of disciples, Nathanael was doubtful as soon
as he heard where Jesus was from. “Nazareth!”
he scoffed. “Can anything good come from there?”
(John 1:46)
The answer was, of course, “Yes. Jesus.”
A lot of us make the same mistake about our
cities’ poorest neighborhoods. “Can anything good
come from there?” we ask, and we conclude that,
no, we must take the goodness to the ghetto instead. That’s what I thought when I left a comfortable life in rural Oklahoma to do inner-city ministry.
But I discovered that, like in Nazareth, Jesus was
already there. The ghetto is his home turf, and all
we need to do is partner with him when we get
there.
My team had been assigned to walk through
the neighborhood and talk to people about hope;
we asked whether they felt their neighborhood was
hopeless, temporarily stuck, or moving forward. I
heard many different perspectives that day, from
those who wouldn’t admit to any problems (despite
shootings and drug deals going down on a daily
basis) to those who said the situation was desperate and they could do nothing to change it. But
talking to one man, who turned out to be a minister
at one of our partner ministries, changed my perspective on the inner city forever.
When we stopped to interview this man,
whom I’ll call Sam, on a frankly frightening corner
of the city, I had no idea I was stepping into one of
the best sermons I would ever hear. Sam started
off by telling us a little bit of his story, that he had
been addicted to drugs and caught up in the problems of inner-city life before coming to Christ and
getting clean. He now runs a ministry for recovering drug addicts in the same neighborhood he
grew up in.
Sam compared his story with that of the
Gerasene demoniac in Mark 5. Jesus exorcised a
legion of demons from this man who had been liv-
4
ing in the tombs, a tortured soul beyond human help. As
Jesus turned to leave him, the now sane man “begged to
go with him. Jesus did not let him, but said, ’Go home to
your own people and tell them how much the Lord has
done for you and how he has had mercy on you’” (Mark
5:18b-19).
Like the man freed from demons, Sam tried to find
a way to leave the ghetto behind and build a new life
for himself elsewhere, but Jesus told him, “Naw, man. Go
back to your crib, to your neighborhood. You got work to
do there.” It is essential, said Sam, that the people living
in the ’hood, in the brokenness, be healed and remain
there in order to heal the community as a whole, from
within. Even if many individuals are saved, brought out
of drug addictions, prostitution, or doubt, if they don’t
remain in the community, the community remains unchanged.
This was an eye-opener for me, since I have often
been taught that our ultimate goal in ministering to the
inner cities is to “rescue” or “release” the people we
serve from their bondage there, allowing them to go off
and find a better life elsewhere. But what if God’s will is
not to give people an escape from the broken community but to change the community itself? That is a much
bigger, more God-sized goal than anything I could have
dreamed of on my own. It changed the way I looked at
inner-city ministry, especially the local church, built and
maintained by members of the community, not by outsiders like me.
To conclude his mini-sermon, Sam called one of
his friends over, to ask him whether he saw hope for the
inner city. The friend looked at me and said, “Did anything
good ever come out of Nazareth? There is good in the
’hood.”
From the most unlikely community in Israel came
the Son of God. From the ’hood comes a crop of ministers who have experienced all the problems in their
community and yet are still able to stay and change lives
there. There is hope in the inner city, because there are
people who, like the Gerasene demoniac, like Sam, stay
where they are and create a strong local church where
we, as outsiders, could never be as effective.
There is overwhelming good in the ’hood. All we
have to do is partner with it and marvel at what God is doing.
Kayla Castleberry studies nutrition and
dietetics at Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Okla. She has spent time in various inner cities each summer since the age of 12.
She hopes to use her career as a dietitian to
benefit food banks or low-income health clinics.
STREET CHILDREN
SCORE
AT WORLD CUP
This summer 32 teams from around the world will
gather to represent their countries in the 2014
FIFA World Cup. And while that event is one of
the world’s biggest sporting events, another
significant but lesser known world soccer event is
taking place right now.
On March 28, the Street Child World Cup
kicked off its 10-day tournament in Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil. Ahead of each FIFA World Cup, organizers
unite street children from across five continents to
play soccer and join a unique international conference. The event seeks to both empower and raise
awareness of children whose life circumstances have
forced them to live on the streets. This year children
from 20 countries (a number that’s doubled since
the event debuted in 2010) have the opportunity to
represent their country on a global stage, interact and
share their experiences with others, and advocate for
the rights of street children.
Established in response to the rounding up of
street children in Durban, South Africa, as a city-wide
“clean-up” before the 2010 FIFA World Cup, this event
seeks to give a voice to children who have typically
been silenced in their own cities. The 2010 Street Child
World Cup allowed the children to partner with local
A Place at the
Table
When I began as a volunteer at the Center
for AIDS Services, I knew little about it except
that it had been started by Mother Teresa’s
Missions of Charity community on a visit to
Oakland, Calif.—a part of her North American mission to care for the dying. This was
several years before retroviral medications
were available; a diagnosis of full-blown
AIDS meant you could measure your life in
days and weeks instead of years. I was assigned to the kitchen, putting food on plates
for the guests eating lunch at the center.
Having just come through a season of con-
artists to express the plight of street
children around the world, and they
also had a chance to dialogue with
a group of police officers about the
conditions they endure and the factors
that led to their living on the streets.
As a result of the last conference, two
documents—“The Durban Declaration” (presented to the UN Committee
on Human Rights) and “The Street
Girls’ Manifesto”—were produced to
6
advocate on behalf of street children.
Many of the 2010 teams
received huge receptions upon arriving
back in their home countries, and local
efforts have been launched to begin
to address care for street children.
Garnering support from a variety of
sources, including soccer star David
Beckham and Archbishop Desmond
Tutu, the Street Child World Cup appears to be gaining momentum and
scoring big for the poorest of children
around the world.
flict as an associate pastor, I was content with this simple task
and glad to spend the day away from other concerns.
After I had volunteered for a few weeks, Sister Jacinta,
the center’s director, looked at me curiously and asked, “Why
are you staying in the kitchen?” At her urging, I began to
not just serve the meal but also enjoy it with those gathered
around the table, talking, eating, and laughing with them and
listening to them.
At first I felt awkward. After all, I was healthy, while all
the people at the center were HIV-positive or had AIDS. I was
straight, while many of the people at the center were gay. I
was white and middle-class, while many of the people at the
center were members of minority groups and poor. The communities of gay people in the Bay Area were and are remarkable at caring for their own. But these men and women had
mostly been rejected by their communities because they were
transgendered or from ethnic-minority communities and both
gay and sick, sometimes homeless.
Here I was the other. But the community also felt other
to me.
It wasn’t long before I realized that the awkwardness
belonged to me; it was not shared by the community of
people there. They simply made a place for me at the table.
We ate together and told our stories. I was only there once a
week, but every Thursday I was both welcomed and remembered at the table.
Sister Jacinta had attended more wakes and funeral
masses and memorial services than she could number. But
she never forgot anyone she met, and she carried their stories within her. Even though there was grief and loss, Sister
Jacinta’s stories kept the dead alive and remembered. And
these people within her and around her were her joy. I’m sure
she felt sadness, but what I noticed most about her is the way
she celebrated the life of everyone around her, those who
had died and those still living—including me. As director of
the center, she trained her mostly volunteer staff by telling
these stories. As I listened, I remembered reading about the
desert mothers and fathers who instructed their followers
with stories and aphorisms.
Sister Jacinta was an amma, a desert mother instructing her disciples. Her desert was not a landscape of sand
and rock but a landscape of people and the wilderness
of the AIDS epidemic. Hers was a radical hospitality that
reached out to anyone who came across her path, including
me. Sometimes she would take the train from the East Bay
to San Francisco where she found a place to sit on the steps
of the Civic Center with a sandwich cut in half, waiting to see
who would sit beside her. Whoever took that sandwich half
became her honored companion for the afternoon, and she
their listening friend.
The clients at the Center for AIDS Services offered to
me just what Sister Jacinta offered to the person who sat
next to her on the steps of the Civic Center. They cut their
sandwiches in half and gave me a share, and I had a place
at their table—the center’s guests were my hosts. I knew
I belonged when one day during a rummage sale
a transgendered woman and I ended up bickering
over the same skirt. Finally she threw up her hands
and gave it to me. “You want it that bad, girl, you
take it home,” she said.
As I returned each week, I recognized that I
experienced at the center a truer sense of belonging than I found in my own faith community. These
men and women knew how to receive one another
without judgment. The sick, sometimes dying community of outsiders at the center knew about welcoming; they understood hospitality. They knew
about celebrating one another’s stories even when
that story was one of illness and death.
What I wanted was a break from my own conflicted community. What I found was a doorway into
welcome and sharing in this richer life lived among
those who were poor—in health, in finances, in
family. What I found was a place at the table. An
encounter with “the other” in the Scriptures is also
surprisingly often a place of meeting God’s Spirit,
the presence of the holy.
Helen Cepero trains spiritual directors at the C. John Weborg Center
for Spiritual Direction at North Park
Seminary and is executive director
of the Spiritual Direction Formation
Program at the Journey Center in Santa Rosa, Calif.
This article is an excerpt from Christ-Shaped Character by Helen Cepero (InterVarsity Press, 2014).
It appears here by kind permission of InterVarsity
Press, P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515
(IVPress.com).
5
WHOLE
Healing a fractured world.
Why Shouldn’t
We Give
Directly?
One of the most exciting new ways for people to give
to the poor in developing countries is through transferring cash directly to them—yes, that’s right—
simply giving money to the poor. The new nonprofit
GiveDirectly collects funds from internet donors and
then zaps them into the cellphone-based e-money
accounts of rural East Africans.
GiveDirectly was founded in 2008 by Paul Niehaus, an evangelical Christian and assistant professor in the economics department of the University
of California at San Diego, with colleagues from his
graduate school days at Harvard. GiveDirectly has
taken the development world by storm and has
been the subject of significant media attention for its
novel approach to helping the poor lift themselves
havior, such as keeping children in school.
It is this second novelty that has produced the
controversy. What if the poor spend the money on
liquor, gambling, and cigarettes? That is one question Johannes Haushofer and Jeremy Shapiro of MIT
asked in carrying out a randomized controlled trial
of the GiveDirectly program, a study whose results
were released last October. In fact, in their study
involving over 1,000 households, they found no
fers in productive ways
rather than on booze
and cigarettes mirrors
the results of other
studies, such as that
on the conditional cash
transfer program, Progresa, in Mexico.
We can learn
several things from the
research on this innovative new approach
to development. One is
that perhaps we should
learn to trust the poor
more with resources. Sometimes we pretend to
know what impoverished people need (or want)
without listening to them or trusting their instincts.
Secondly, the technology offers innovative
new ways of coming alongside the poor to help
break poverty traps. We should make use of this
new technology to become better givers, to be
looser with our wallets when it comes to the needs
of others. Now it’s as easy to give to the poor as to
buy something for ourselves—there
goes at least one excuse for being
tight-fisted with our money.
What the results of this study
also mean is that we now have the
beginnings of a benchmark that other
faith-based and secular development
organizations working in the area of
in-kind goods donation must measure themselves
against. Given that about 92 percent of the internet
donations transferred to GiveDirectly go right into
the bank accounts of recipients, the burden of proof
has now shifted to other development organizations
to show that their approach does as much good as
simply giving the poor cash. Moreover, it emphasizes
the need for more serious research about what we
can do to alleviate poverty in the developing world.
GiveDirectly also serves as an example of what a
heart for the poor, advanced training in economics,
and new technology are capable of when working
together.
Sometimes we pretend to know what
impoverished people need (or want) without
listening to them or trusting their instincts.
out of poverty.
The GiveDirectly approach is novel for two
reasons. First, it uses new technology creatively,
operating through the M-Pesa system, the mobilephone-based money transfer service for telecommunication firms Safaricom and Vodacom in Tanzania and Kenya. Many places in East Africa have
leapfrogged our own paper currency system, where
people now make purchases routinely through electronic transfers via their cellphones. GiveDirectly
harnesses this new technology to provide help to
the poor through a series of e-injections of cash
into these phone-based bank accounts. Transfers
typically peak at about $1,000 over the course of
a year, when they terminate.
GiveDirectly is also a novel approach because
it begins with trusting the poor to spend donated
money in the way they view as best for themselves.
This contrasts with the traditional approach, which
only trusts the poor with in-kind goods, such as an
animal donation, a new stove, a microfinance loan,
education, or even a “conditional” cash transfer in
which the transfer is contingent upon a required be-
6
increase in expenditures in the treated households
on “temptation” goods: cigarettes, alcohol, or gambling.
So how do the recipients of these East African
transfers spend the money? It turns out they spend
it mostly on food for their families and building up the
size of their animal herds. Specifically, in the year after the initial transfer, Haushofer and Shapiro found
that households that received transfers increased
food consumption by 20 percent. This brought
about a 30 percent reduction in the likelihood of a
family member going to bed hungry during the week
preceding the follow-up survey. A 42 percent reduction was also recorded in the number of days children in transfer-recipient households went without
food. These are significant impacts on hunger.
The researchers also found that the unconditional cash transfers led to a 58 percent increase
in productive assets, in this context mainly a greater
investment in herd animals: cattle, sheep, and goats.
Revenue from animal husbandry increased by nearly 50 percent.
That the poor tend to spend the cash trans-
Bruce Wydick is professor of
economics at the University of San
Francisco, a writer for Christianity
Today, and a contributing editor
to PRISM. His novel on the lives
of coffee growers in Guatemala, The Taste of
Many Mountains, is forthcoming in July 2014 from
Thomas Nelson (HarperCollins).
Modeling the
Harmony Way
Eagle’s Wings Ministry, Inc. was founded in 1999 by
Randy Woodley and his wife, Edith. The ministry is
a largely Native American community in Newberg,
Ore., where the Woodleys reach out with the good
news of Christ while respecting indigenous cultures.
Based on the Native American “harmony
way” (shalom) tradition of spiritual and emotional
health, social and environmental balance, and economic prosperity, Eagle’s Wings seeks to model
and promote the wellbeing of Native American and
other communities in ways that are culturally contextual, holistic, and community-based. Central to
the ministry is a commitment to leadership training
appropriate for traditional indigenous cultures. This
work is advanced through the Eloheh Village for
Indigenous Leadership and Ministry Development,
which is a mentoring school, and Eloheh Farm,
which is a demonstrational community where new
life skills are acquired through direct experience.
We asked Woodley to walk us through his
ministry’s holistic approach to community transformation.
Tell us how Eloheh Farm came into being and
what it means to you.
God helped us see that we not only needed to be
culturally contextual but also holistic. That’s when
we really began to develop a theology of the land
and knew we needed to find a place of ministry. We
had in mind sort of an indigenous L’Abri, but we
also came to understand that what we were teaching our indigenous people was needed and desired
by nonindigenous folks as well. In other words, we
are going to need to heal together.
Indigenous spirituality, culture, and education
must begin with the land. You know the old saying
“Give a person a fish and they eat for a day, but
teach a person to fish and they eat every day.”
Traditionally, our indigenous people have always
“It is from our place on
the land that we derive
our identity.”
possessed the skills to survive in even the harshest
of environments. We have known “how to fish.” But
what if someone poisons the river? Then no one
can fish. What if someone sells the river? Then only
the one who owns the river gets to eat.
Life is much more complex today than in the
past, and simply learning how to fish isn’t enough
anymore. In order to develop young leaders we
need to be concerned with the whole person and
the whole community living in the whole world. This
means that we must understand our world as it is
but always remain grounded in the indigenous spirituality and values that have allowed our people to
survive for millennia.
We’ve found that education must be done in
the context of land. It is from our place on the land
that we derive our identity. Can we really learn when
we don’t know who we are? Where will this learning go? How will we understand unless we have
the land to teach us? Living with the land—and
our covenant on the land and with Creator and all
creation—is the lived experience and accumulated
knowledge, wisdom, and understanding that distinguishes us from other ministries, schools, and communities. In such a model of community we tangibly
witness for Christ and bring much needed hope to
others.
What specific kinds of things can people learn
in your community?
The work of shalom is advanced through both Eloheh Village and Eloheh Farm. Some of the areas we
address while mentoring others include culturally
appropriate theology, mission, and ministry; traditional indigenous values, ethics, and ceremony;
economic development opportunities through
small-scale, culturally appropriate business models;
sustainable living skills; regenerative farming methods; whole physical and emotional health; marriage
and parenting skills; abuse and intervention training; educational and career assistance and development; and community building and organizing.
Our goal is to heal and mentor the whole person
who can then, in turn, offer healing to and help others create more whole communities.
At the farm we are seeking to be a wholehealth regenerative food circle of heirloom and native food varieties. We are nonprofit, chemical-free,
and in a relationship of harmony with the land. Eloheh (pronounced Ay-luh-hay) is a Cherokee word
describing a physical place where the Cherokee
harmony way is practiced. We began Eloheh Village
as a model, permaculture venture in rural Kentucky
in 2004 on 50 acres. Eventually, we were “run out”
by a white supremacist paramilitary group, which
caused us to lose our life’s savings.
But in 2010 we purchased a small, 3.75-acre,
96-year-old farmstead that needed lots of work. We
are still working on it but are well on our way to a
good relationship with the land once again. Why?
We can eat healthier. We can eat for less. We can live
greener. We can share with friends and sell excess
food. Our food tastes better. Our bodies respond in
better health. We can live more independently from
corporate greed and poisons. We can give freely to
those in need. And we can show others how to do
all of the above.
What is the greatest challenge to your work?
There are many. But I think the greatest problem is
that American culture is rooted in a dualistic worldview, which resists a holistic way of life. I hope that
eventually it will sink in for people that our relationship with God has everything to do with our relationship with our neighbor, which is related to our
relationship with the earth, which is related to how
we obtain our food, which is related to the political
views we support, etc. Salvation or “healing” is a
grand construct, and Jesus is grand enough and
good enough to help us understand all the implications of our healing.
In what ways do you encounter Christ in the
people you serve?
Well, I find Christ in the most unlikely places. I think
Jesus occupies the whole earth and beyond. So I
not only encounter him in other people but also
in all of creation. It seems to me that God is always interested in my conversion, not just in the
conversion of those I encounter. This means be-
7
ing changed into Christ’s likeness by his truth. I
find truth of Christ in a tree, a butterfly, and even
in the soil itself. I find Christ in the people who are
like me but even more in those different from me.
I encountered Christ in an amazing way the other
day through three homeless young men. As they
sat and shared, I thought about the wise men in the
birth narrative of Christ. Their wisdom was simple
and yet so profound. I especially sense God’s presence in community when all people have a voice. It
seems to me that the Spirit especially creates new
ways for us to think and find new options when the
dignity of everyone’s voice is heard.
How would you define success in holistic
ministry?
I think success has to do with how we go about doing what we do. I want to ask myself many questions before thinking about success. Are all voices
being heard, especially the ones that disagree or
are least likely to be heard? Have we considered
how this will affect everything else and also future
generations? Is it honoring of others and the Creator? Will this effort give whole life to others or just
a temporary fix?
And then there’s the true litmus test, for me:
What does my wife think about it? She’s the one
who really knows me and can help me figure out
how much is personal stuff working itself out in
my life and how much is God’s leading. Often it is
a mixture of both.
Money never really matters (much) to us,
because we never seem to have it. We just learn
to do what we need to do with very little funds, so
things are never looking very successful according
to worldly standards.
What scripture has guided you most through
the years, and why?
Luke 15. I pretty much live there. Jesus is not just
telling the Pharisees (and us) in these parables to
find the lost; the point of each story is to always
be extending the ever-expanding invitation to join
the community or party to others, especially those
most unlike us. I especially love the image of the
father in the story who has been humiliated and dishonored by his son, who seems to be daily watching for the son to return, and when “he is a long
way off” the father runs to the son. The son has a
standard speech prepared, but the father doesn’t
even hear him. It’s not about our grand schemes
and plans for the kingdom. It’s just about accepting
the love of the Father. Jesus portrays God as the
most vulnerable being existing. And that’s what real
power is about. It is love!
8
Not the End of the Story
I grew up on a Midwestern farm surrounded by
golden fields of wheat and pastures dotted with
cattle. In the summer I picked warm cherries from
the orchard, and in the winter I built snowmen with
my siblings. It was an idyllic and carefree childhood. I
approached the world with a sense of childlike wonder and awe. I believed that God was great and that
the world was good.
Today, the world doesn’t look quite as good
as it did when I was a child. I know more now, and it
hurts to know more. I often wish I could go back to
the innocence of my childhood, even for a day. But
that innocence is gone, undermined by every atrocity I hear about—school shootings, child soldiers,
rape as a weapon of war. Surrounded by daily reminders of evil and injustice, I am tempted to believe
that the world is a lost cause and people are past
the point of redemption.
While we necessarily lose our childhood naïveté, as Christians we are admonished not to lose
heart (2 Corinthians 4:16). Yet how do we remain
hopeful in a world that threatens to overwhelm us
with disease, despair, and death? How do we retain
hope when each nightly news segment seems worst
than the last?
The story of Lazarus in John 11 provides a
clue. Devastated by the death of her brother, Martha greets Jesus with this heart-wrenching refrain:
“Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not
have died.”
I often think that way. Lord, if you had been
here, the drunk driver wouldn’t have run into her.
If you had been here, the cancer wouldn’t have
killed him. Lord, if you had been here, the gunman
wouldn’t have gotten into that school. You are the
life-giver, storm-calmer, the death-reverser. If only
you had been here… I guess you weren’t here after
all.
Martha’s remark makes perfect sense to me,
and yet biblical commentators insist that her response reveals her failure to grasp who Jesus truly
was. She was right to assume that Jesus could have
prevented Lazarus’ death, but she didn’t understand that even if he did not prevent it Jesus was
still more powerful than death. This is what I so often forget—that the end of the story is never really the end of
the story when Jesus is involved.
When I was 13, I began experiencing severe neurological problems. My parents took me to countless doctors and neurologists, but none could discern what was
causing the problems or how to cure them. I cried out
to God, begging him to heal me, and heard nothing but
silence.
But one day, in the midst of it, I reread the resurrection story. While the Bible details the horror of Jesus’
crucifixion on Friday and the jubilee of his resurrection
on Sunday, it is strangely silent about Saturday. From my
vantage point 2,000 years after the cross, I know that
this violent historical moment was redeemed when a good
God overturned death itself to give us hope for life beyond this world. I take for granted that Sunday morning
will reveal a risen Lord, forgetting what that first Easter
weekend would have been like for disciples who were not
expecting their beloved teacher to be resurrected. On that
Saturday, the disciples didn’t know that the following day
would be a game changer for human history. Saturday
was to them what many moments of life are like for us:
soul-oppressive and dark, with no light in sight. Saturday
is the middle of the story.
Jesus responded to Martha’s “Lord-if-you-hadbeen-here" lament with a succinct but earth-shattering
statement: “I am the resurrection and the life.”
Even when God is silent, we have this to hold on
to—the knowledge that the story isn’t over yet, the promise of life in the presence of death. This is not a naïve,
look-on-the-bright-side hope that ignores reality or trivializes tragedy. This is a hard-fought, white-knuckled hope.
This is a deep and difficult hope, one that clings to a good
God despite circumstances that will never make sense this
side of heaven. This is a hope that rejects Christian clichés
in favor of the deeper reality. This is a hope that remembers, as Tony Campolo reminds us, that “it’s Friday, but
Sunday’s coming!”
Rebekah Bell is a writer and speaker who
enjoys encouraging young people to embrace God’s goodness amidst a life of
transition.
decisions. The process of discernment that the Quakers have developed over the years is known today as a
clearness committee.
The clearness committee is a two-hour session
where three to four people discern on behalf of a friend
who is in need of direction. Three elements emerge that
can be helpful in any circumstance as those in the church
seek to help one another.
Living
into
Vulnerability
Asking for help is bold, even courageous. Asking for help requires a confession of neediness. It involves great vulnerability.
Perhaps this is why, when faced with a
complex decision such as a marriage partner, a
career, or even a calling, the easiest response
is to internalize the process. Choosing vulnerability seems too risky. What brave soul would
announce, even to his most trusted friends,
that he cannot see clearly?
In recent times, it has become fashionable in certain circles to draw attention to vulnerability as a key attribute of godliness. This
impulse to focus on authenticity, honesty, and
transparency has deep roots in the church.
This is true even if it has been a long-forgotten
virtue.
Where past generations focused on truth
as objective reality, the current trend is to focus
on truth as an inward reality. This, again, is an
impulse to return to that which is thoroughly
according to the way of Jesus. Still, there is
much work to be done in the incarnation of
vulnerability in the Christian community.
While there may be several starting
places on the road to (re)discovering what
it means to be truly vulnerable in the context
of community, the church as a whole could
benefit from a practice that has been quietly
taking place for centuries. Since the 17th century, the Quakers have actively sought out the
counsel of one another on life’s most pressing
1. Resisting the urge to fix
When a friend comes with a dilemma, it is only natural
to offer well-meaning advice intended to alleviate their
angst. But offering quick solutions to difficult problems
can be damaging. People need to wrestle with questions that will shape the course of their lives, and giving
friends support and enabling them to reach their own
conclusions can be an invaluable gift.
Connecting
for Good
“Digital inclusion is one of the most
important social justice and economic
development issues of our day,” says
Michael Liimatta, president of Connecting for Good in Kansas City, Mo. He calls
the unconnected “a growing underclass” who are unable to apply for jobs
online, connect with family and friends,
or access educational resources or
health information. “They are shut out
2. Asking open and honest questions
Reflecting on the need for honest questions in the clearness committee, Quaker author and spiritual director
Parker Palmer wrote, “The best single mark of an honest, open question is that the questioner could not possibly anticipate the answer to it...” This practice, of asking
questions that do not anticipate an answer, allows space
for the one being asked to mirror back openness to the
one asking. If the church is after meaningful conversation, then beginning to ask open and honest questions
of one another is a great place to begin.
3. Total Attentiveness
Each person in the clearness committee accepts the responsibility to be fully present throughout the process.
With innumerable distractions available at a moment’s
notice, imagine the gift that total attentiveness could
bring into the lives of friends, family, spouse, children,
and coworkers! This community vulnerability requires
sacrifice, discipline, and focus.
The work of incarnating vulnerability takes intentionality, time, and practice. But by resisting the urge to
fix, by asking open and honest questions, and by bringing total attentiveness to honor the vulnerability of others we can change the culture of the church.
The question then becomes: Will the church honor
the boldness and courage that is required in asking for
help, in admitting neediness, and living into vulnerability?
Casey Hobbs is the author of Trembling
Love: Fear, Freedom, and the God Who Is
for Us (Wipf & Stock, 2013).
Refurbishing workshop manager Karita
Matlock at work
of the benefits of connectivity that most
of us take for granted.”
But since 2011, Liimatta has
been changing all that. Last year alone,
Connecting for Good trained over 1,000
people from under-resourced urban
neighborhoods in its free digital life
skills classes, brought free in-home
Wi-Fi internet to about 500 families in
three low-income housing projects, and
refurbished and sold 600 donated computers at low cost to qualifying students.
It has built and continues to expand an
innovative network of interconnected
microwave dishes for increased access,
both in people’s homes and via free
hotspots in strategic locations. The
organization also offers tech support to
cash-strapped nonprofits.
Learn more at ConnectingforGood.org.
9
PROTESTIMONY
Ban the Box
Following Jesus in the public square.
Nor does it create jobs.
We need more than ban-the-box laws. We need to ask ourselves as
a society: Are the odds stacked so high against returning citizens that we
increase the likelihood that they re-offend? We need to ask ourselves as
Christians: Can we influence the culture and legislation by changing our own
hearts and attitudes toward the formerly incarcerated? Are we willing to
put our faith into action by welcoming and, whenever possible, hiring exoffenders?
In a recent conversation among evangelical leaders in correctional
ministries, several of us talked about the need for Christians to develop a
biblically informed awareness of just who the incarcerated are. First, they
are all created in the image of God, a theological affirmation that should
mitigate against the objectifying and dehumanization of the incarcerated—
and the 95 percent of them who come home. Many were raised in our
congregations. We knew them as children and youth; their parents and
grandparents attend worship every Sunday, burdened by the unspoken fact
that the hopes they had for their family member seem dashed and that “the
In a growing movement around the country, advocates for formerly incarcerated persons are pressing for “ban-the-box” legislation that would
eliminate questions concerning a person’s criminal history from an initial
job application. Many applications require an applicant to check a box if he
or she has ever been arrested for or convicted of a felony. The job market
is already difficult for the nation as a whole in the current economy; the
challenges are exacerbated for those who are poor, less skilled, and undereducated, so you can imagine the obstacle that disclosing a criminal past
adds to entering (or reentering) the job market.
Ban-the-box legislation comes in various forms. At its most basic level,
it prohibits employers from asking questions about applicants’ criminal past
on the initial application. In this mode, applicants can still be queried, and
even be subject to criminal background checks, once they come in for an
interview. If you picture employment as a house, this form of legislation will
get applicants onto the porch but no further. In its strictest form,
such as the legislation enacted last summer in Richmond, Calif.,
employers in certain categories are not permitted to ask about
criminal backgrounds at all.
What is the just position?
Last year the British ad agency Leo Burnett created an interactive message called
First, no legislation currently exists (proposed or passed) “Second Chance” for the nonprofit Business in the Community’s ban-the-box campaign.
that completely eliminates questions concerning criminal past The short film puts the viewer in the position of an employer interviewing for a job
nor that requires employers to hire people with criminal records. opening. Will you listen to the applicant for even 30 seconds? Or will you click on the
Some positions carry a legal and common sense prohibition “Skip Ad” button and move on?
against hiring people who have committed certain offenses. It
For insight into the discrimination returning citizens face, check out this clever
makes sense that a person convicted of an offense against a and poignant message at BitC.org.uk/banthebox.
child would be barred from teaching kindergarten or that a person with a history of retail theft (or embezzlement) would face
post-incarceration sanctions concerning employment in jobs
that require handling money and/or merchandise.
Second, many ban-the-box provisions require employers
to consider both the nature of the crime and the amount of
time that has passed since an individual’s conviction. The law
in Newark, N.J., considers both, where employers are only allowed to consider offenses within the past five to eight years
(depending on the type of crime). This excludes such offenses
as murder, voluntary manslaughter, and sex offenses (the last of
which requires registry).
Third, once applicants arrive “on the porch” for an interview, many employers can still perform a background check.
circle has been broken” by walls and wire.
Federal guidelines dictate, however, that a check cannot go forward without
Second, most returning citizens do not have violent convictions but
the candidate’s permission. What happens if an applicant refuses to give
rather have drug offenses that would be better served by treatment than
consent to a background check? Put this in the common sense column.
incarceration. The growth of drug courts in our nation recognizes such.
Fourth, those opposing ban-the-box legislation consistently point
Why can’t the church?
to issues of public safety. Retailers voice concern about legal liability to
Third, our efforts to reclaim the offender must be matched with comcustomers and coworkers. Others point to character issues they say are
passion and healing for victims. Much of the opposition to assisting the forrevealed in a criminal past.
merly incarcerated comes from persons whose own victimization by crime
In the end, each attempt at reform concerning the job application
goes unaddressed in our pastoral care, counseling, and fellowship. Indeed,
process must be measured against all of these issues. The variety of banmany inmates, especially women (studies place women’s numbers between
the-box measures, from Richmond to Newark, make each attempt worth
50 and 90 percent), were victims of violence prior to developing the beconsidering on its own merits and a realistic appraisal of what it can achaviors that led to their incarceration. Restorative justice models provide a
complish. One thing the legislation does not do is guarantee employment.
Second Chance?
10
context for healing past hurts and preventing further damage.
Ban-the-box legislation rightly addresses the issue of justice in access
to employment. Its various forms require that each proposal and enactment
be considered individually. But in the end, it is our hearts—Christian hearts,
including those of legislators, employers, and the public—that must find
room for people to justly pursue gainful employment consistent with the
fulfillment of human dignity.
Holy Disruptions
DONOR-ACTIVIST EMILY NIELSEN JONES
WORKS FOR GENDER JUSTICE
There are some things Emily Nielsen Jones just can’t accept. Girls should
not be born into a world that values them less than boys. Women should
not bear the brunt of crushing economic inequalities. And our religious
traditions should not in any way validate patriarchal gender norms that
attempt to “keep women in their place.”
“In this moment in time, when we see how enslaving the world is,
with so many human rights violations,” says Nielsen Jones, “we need
to work harder to enlist our religious traditions in ameliorating these
structural inequalities, not exacerbating them, by bringing out the deeper
essence of our spiritual ideals which support human equality. We can
do better. We have to connect the dots so that we move forward, not
backward.”
For Nielsen Jones, cofounder and president of the Imago Dei Fund
in Boston, Mass., that means partnering with “change agents, locally and
around the world, to build bridges of peace and create a world where girls
and women can thrive and achieve their full human potential.”
As a donor-activist in the women-led philanthropy movement, Nielsen
Jones started the Imago Dei Fund in 2009 with her husband, Ross Jones,
and Executive Director Debra Veth. Their early research and development
took them to Cambodia, where they saw anti-trafficking efforts firsthand
and became partners with the faith-based anti-trafficking collaborative
Harold Dean Trulear is director of the Healing Communities
Prison Ministry and a fellow at the Center for Public Justice.
He speaks and writes extensively on issues related to incarceration and is the coeditor of Ministry with Prisoners &
Families: The Way Forward (Judson Press, 2011).
Chab Dai. As they engaged there, they gradually found a niche helping
these organizations establish a clearer framework for gender equality
by translating Christians for Biblical Equality materials into Khmer and
cosponsoring forums around women’s leadership. The more they learned,
the more focused their goal became: to invest their resources to further
God’s kingdom by affirming the unique creation of every person’s calling
in the world.
Today the Imago Dei Fund supports unique educational and microenterprising efforts in Uganda, Cambodia, Haiti, and the United States
so as to “co-create” a world that respects and enhances the freedom
and dignity of all. Using a “gender lens,” they strategically partner with
organizations to make sure all of their policies and efforts in the world
are working to increase gender balance and thus send out empowering
ripples of change into what are still highly patriarchal cultural contexts.
Motivated by how few Christian organizations have women on their boards,
the Imago Dei Fund helped initiate a national academic study on women in
evangelical leadership by partnering with Gordon College, and it has been
instrumental in helping some seminaries create more opportunities for
women.
The granddaughter of immigrants from Sweden and Norway, Nielsen
Jones was raised in upstate New York in a family where she and her two
sisters learned early on “not to drink the Kool-Aid” of gender messages
in their evangelical community. Her parents and grandmother instilled an
empowering ethic, and along the way she learned to tune out disempowering religious messages and to “listen to my own heart.” When she came
home from church one afternoon complaining that only the boys in Sunday
school at her Southern Baptist church were asked to pray, the response
was along the lines of “This is not okay, and we need to go complain!”
11
Thus began her journey of faith-based
gender activism!
“I might get into evangelical hot
waters by saying this, but I have always
believed in my own equality as a woman—
and women’s equality—without needing a
biblical argument or exegesis to say so,”
she says. “Of course, it’s important to
find a clear biblical explanation for gender
equality; however, sometimes I wonder if we
set ourselves up for an ongoing debate and
disagreement, as if burying our heads in the
Bible is the only way we can arrive at truth
rather than listening to our own hearts. Both
are important.”
That gender lens is what has shaped
both her personal vision and the direction
of the Imago Dei Fund. Now, as more ministries and churches combat
human trafficking, Nielsen Jones hopes they will also begin to look more
deeply at the religious messages that prop up male power over women
and legitimize male-only leadership models. These factor into the “dangerous humanitarian mix” that continues to devalue the dignity and worth of
females, making them vulnerable to a host of violence and discrimination
at a time when women and NGOs all over the world are working so hard to
empower girls and women.
“The best trafficking ’prevention’ the church can be engaged in is
establishing a very clear, very solid spiritual framework of human equality
for men and women alike and working toward gender balancing our own
organizations.” The irony of advocating for girls around the globe while
preserving all (or mostly) male leadership structures at home and within
our churches and organizations is obvious, she says, and another reason
we need what she refers to as “holy disruptions.”
“We have more economic inequalities in today’s world than when
American slavery was an institution,” she says, “and that weighs on me.
Something’s wrong when people are in such duress that they sell our own
bodies and dignity in order to survive.”
As long as these injustices exist, Nielsen Jones will be looking for
ways to address them. “As a donor-activist, I don’t always get to see the
work, but I can help connect the dots between religious ideas around
gender and their humanitarian implications. I find great joy in doing my
part in the global movement for gender balance that we see across so
many sectors of society, including our faith traditions. But things are still
tenuous, so a good first step for Christians here and around the globe is
to look within and make sure we are not part of the problem!”
Learn more at ImagoDeiFund.org.
“The best trafficking ‘prevention’
the church can be
engaged in is establishing a solid
spiritual framework of equality for men and
women alike and
working toward
gender balancing
our own organizations.”
Jo Kadlecek is the senior writer and
journalist-in-residence at Gordon College in
Wenham, Mass. She is the author of almost a
dozen books, including Desperate Women of
the Bible (Baker Books, 2006).
12
MEDIA WATCHDOGS,
REJOICE!
For the past three years, The Representation
Project has used #NotBuyingIt on Twitter
to call out sexism in the media and hold
brands accountable. Tens of thousands have
tweeted, successfully pushing companies like Amazon and Go Daddy to change
sexist products or practices, and making media sexism a trending topic around
the world. Now you can download the #NotBuyingIt app, the world’s first app
dedicated to fighting media sexism. Go to bit.ly/KIeocl to access this organizing
tool, designed to put the power of social change at your fingertips. Use it to
upload images of sexism in the media or larger culture, tag offending brands,
and spread the word about the campaign.
RIGHTS FOR RAPISTS?
Every year in the US more than 25,000
pregnancies result from rape. As shocking as
it sounds, 31 states allow those responsible
for the horrific violence to sue for custodial
or visitation rights over the children they
conceive.
Last July, Rep. Debbie Wasserman
Schultz [D-FL] introduced HR 2772: The Rape Survivor Child Custody Act.
Florida is one of only six states that provide rape victims with the legal action
needed to avoid custody battles with their perpetrator, and Schultz wants to see
more states follow suit.
The organization 31 States is working hard to raise awareness of the
issue. Go to 31States.com to learn more and to watch an interview with a brave
teenager caught in a maddening web of legal gaps, blame-the-victim politics,
and legislative absurdity.
LAPS, NOT APPS!
That’s what babies need, say the good folks at
the Campaign for a Commercial-free Childhood.
They are targeting Fisher-Price for its Newbornto-Toddler Apptivity™ Seat for iPad®, a
bouncy seat for infants that features a holder
for an iPad directly above the baby’s face. Talk
about a captive audience.
The ultimate electronic babysitter, the Apptivity Seat encourages parents
to plug babies into the entertainment world from day one, in spite of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ warnings that kids under 2 should live screen-free.
To learn more about how the manufacturer is marketing this product (as educational, of course), go to CommercialfreeChildhood.org/actions, where you can
also send a message to Fisher-Price asking them to pull the plug immediately on
this appalling product.
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.
15
16
SCHOOL
EQUAL=
ITY AS A
MATTER
OF FAITH
How Christians can
do justice to public
education
BY NICOLE BAKER FULGHAM AND ARIA KIRKLAND-HARRIS
“I looked for someone among them who would build up the wall and stand before
me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found
no one.” Ezekiel 22:30
Illustration by Linda Frichtel (LindaFrichtel.com)
D
espite the fact that our nation officially ended racial segregation in public
education nearly 60 years ago with the landmark Brown v. Board of
Education decision, we still have two very separate and unequal school
systems in our nation.
The authors of this article are two examples of public school done right.
We are both African American women of faith who grew up in stable, two-parent
households. Our parents were able to pursue higher education, and those values
were instilled in us from an early age. We had teachers who warned our parents
about underperforming neighborhood schools, and our parents figured out how
to navigate the system and got us into stronger schools in other neighborhoods.
We went to magnet middle and high schools with competitive AP courses, STEM,
and International Baccalaureate programs. With the help, love, and support of our
parents, teachers, and church families, we were able to parlay our public school
educations into Ivy League educations and doctoral degrees.
But the cold truth is that the educational opportunities that were afforded us
are neither typical nor characteristic of the experiences that most African American and Latino children have in our nation’s public schools, especially
if they are living in low-income communities.
When we became public school teachers (in
Southern California and DC), we were hit hard by
the reality that common race does not necessarily
mean common experience. We had race in common
with our students, but we had had educational opportunities that set us apart, and that realization
was a big awakening. Our students were schooled
in substandard facilities—broken windows that
were never repaired, rotten floorboards that had
been chewed up by mice and termites, restroom
facilities that prompted parents to call the health
department, torn and tattered textbooks, food
that was sometimes spoiled and moldy, and the list
goes on. Those are the hurdles that we faced as
teachers coming out of the gate, before we even
started to think about instruction or the challenges
that our students faced outside of the school walls.
Many hardworking, dedicated teachers and leaders
in our school buildings have learned how to make
do with less, but 60 years after Brown v. Board of
Education, they shouldn’t have to.
INCOME AND OUTCOMES
Now, before we go any further, we want to make
it clear that we stand firm on the position that we
cannot allow poverty to lower our expectations for
students, but at the same time we cannot ignore
the impact that it has on educational outcomes. By
the time they reach fourth grade, students from
low-income communities are already three grade
levels behind their wealthier peers. That means that
there are 10-year-olds reading on a first-grade level. And while their wealthier peers are working with
complex fractions, these same kids are still learning to count and struggling with basic addition. This
disparity only worsens over time. Half of students
living in poverty will not graduate from high school,
and the ones that do make it are graduating with
eighth-grade skills. Out of that 50 percent who do
graduate from high school, only one in 10 will go on
to graduate from a four-year college or university.
We cannot afford to ignore these issues.
The set of statistics and inequalities that we
just laid out are collectively referred to as “the
achievement gap” or “educational inequity.” In its
most technical sense, the achievement gap refers
to the persistent disparity in educational outcomes
(or test scores) between different subgroups of
students, particularly those defined by gender,
race, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status. But the
inequalities go much deeper than standardized test
15
Five Things Every Christian Can Do—Right Now—to Help
Close the Achievement Gap
① VOLUNTEER AS A TUTOR, MENTOR, OR READING PARTNER.
School-based and off-site tutoring and mentoring programs are always in need of volunteers. Their lessons are typically scripted,
and they provide training for people who may need to brush up on those old elementary school skills. National service organizations like Boys and Girls Clubs of America and The United Way will facilitate the volunteer placement process for you as they
specialize in connecting volunteers with direct reading, tutoring, and mentoring opportunities.
② SUPPORT PUBLIC SCHOOL PARTNERSHIPS THROUGH YOUR CHURCH.
Many congregations are already supporting schools and families through book drives or school clean-up days and by sponsoring field trips or offering after-school and summer programs for neighborhood students. Find out what your church is doing and
volunteer. Many of these ministries need administrative and logistical support, so even people with unpredictable work schedules
can still help. For more ideas, check out the terrific resources in the “More than Paper and Pencils” on page 18, and read about
the many exciting things happening in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area in “Church/School Partnerships = Win/Win” on page 19.
③ ADVOCATE FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION AND OTHER IMPORTANT REFORMS IN YOUR STATE.
This can be done through the traditional routes of civic engagement by contacting your congressperson or state legislature. You
can also educate yourself and others on pressing educational issues by researching the following organizations: National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC.org), The Children’s Defense Fund (ChildrensDefense.org), Stand for Children
(Stand.org), and The Education Trust (EdTrust.org).
④ MAKE FINANCIAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO EFFECTIVE ORGANIZATIONS.
Most educational equity organizations are nonprofits that rely on the gracious financial stewardship of individuals. In addition
to offering our time and talents, financial contributions are yet another way that we all can support organizations that are working tirelessly to make educational equity a reality for all children. Most organizations also accept online donations through their
websites. (See “More that Paper and Pencils” on page 18.)
⑤ BECOME AN “AMBASSADOR” FOR THE EXPECTATIONS PROJECT IN YOUR REGION.
TEP Ambassadors are a huge asset to us as they help form grassroots coalitions of churches in regions where TEP does not
have a permanent office. TEP staff will provide training and support materials for those interested in educating others about
the achievement gap, forming small groups around the book Educating All God’s Children, committing committing to praying for
our children and schools, as well as a host of other opportunities. For more information, go to TheExpectationsProject.org >
Get involved.
Race Equity Equality by Clayton Singleton(ClaytonSingleton.com)
scores. Some describe it as an
“opportunity gap,” bringing attention to the difference between
a child’s potential and her actual
achievement. Others describe
the gap in terms of having “low
expectations” for students in
poverty and believe that there is
widespread acceptance of mediocrity in how we value our nation’s most vulnerable children.
However you choose to define the achievement gap, these
gross educational disparities
are at the core of our nation’s
struggle to provide pathways
out of poverty, and we must
do something to change them.
Since a quality education helps
open the doors of opportunity
for children to engage fully in a
civic, academic, and purposefilled life, what is our role and
responsibility as people of faith
in eliminating educational inequity? How can we close the
achievement gap to ensure that
all God’s children receive a high
quality education?
This is the lifeblood of
our work at The Expectations
Project, and, more importantly,
it is the hope of the gospel. We
believe that the same God who
specializes in making old things
new, the One whose strength is
made perfect in our weakness
(and our lack of answers), the
God who loves justice and commands us to love our neighbor
as ourselves, can and will heal
our broken education system.
We believe that if more faith-motivated people will commit to this
work of closing the achievement
gap, we can shift the paradigm
and transform the way the education community thinks about
reform.
THE CHALLENGE OF PRIVILEGE
As is often true with social challenges, the decision makers
in the education reform space
who influence policy do not
18
overwhelmingly reflect the backgrounds of the individuals most in need of
transformational change and equality. At first glance, it may seem as though
most of us do not fit the description of education leaders and influencers.
After all, only a few privileged individuals possess that level of power. But if
we dig a little bit deeper, we will find that these decision-making privileges
also exist in the day-to-day interactions between those who exercise an
ability to influence systems, to whatever degree possible, and those who
do not. Within the context of education, privilege boils down to opportunity and choice. That means that if you had the advantage of attending a
high-performing school, based on zip code, rather than an underperforming
school, then you are privileged. If your child has the
option to enroll in honors, AP, or gifted classes, when
plenty of schools do not offer these options, you are
privileged. These are wonderful options that all children
should have, and parents should not feel guilty about
doing whatever they can to make these opportunities a
reality for their children. But as Christians, we are commanded to love our neighbors (and their children) as
ourselves, so shouldn’t we be fighting for all children to
have these opportunities?
This question seems like a no-brainer, but navigating these challenges of limited opportunity and
choice has proven to be a momentous challenge for
everyone involved—privileged or not. However, if the
group of education decision makers in the room is
made up exclusively of those who have educational, racial, or economic privilege, can we really expect to come
up with solutions that will be acceptable and fair for all?
If we are going to do this work right, we must reflect
on our own experiences with privilege and be honest
about how those experiences affect the ways in which we engage others.
We must acknowledge our privileged educational circumstances, be truthful
about our desire to have what’s best for own children, and then humbly
and fearlessly use our power, privilege, and influence to extend the same
opportunities to others.
Every faith tradition argues for working on behalf of the disenfranchised, and as Christians we are called to “speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute” (Prov.
31:8). Scriptures like this one, along with the opening passage, from Ezekiel
22:30, remind us that our God is looking for intercessors. The education
sector calls it advocacy, but when you look closely, advocacy and intercession are really the same thing. We hope to settle disagreements between
opposing sides. We defend those who cannot, for whatever reason, defend
themselves. We have all been called to stand in this gap.
Educational advocacy organizations are constantly trying to figure out
how to authentically and respectfully engage members of communities that
have been failed by the public education system. If we want to fix this broken
education system, the voices and perspectives of those who are impacted
by poverty must be included in the policy- and decision-making processes.
It’s one thing to reach out to a group of low-income families and tell them
about our idea for change, but it will largely remain at the surface level. A
more effective and sincere approach would be to truly seek out ideas from
those same families and be willing to change our own perspectives based
on what we hear and learn from them. That mindset and action will help
us dismantle our own privilege and will more likely yield true community
support for sustainable solutions. Consensus building may be messy and
take longer, but we believe it’s a more authentic, faith-filled approach that
genuinely values everyone. This is no easy task, so it must be done with a
spirit of humility, civility, and desire for reconciliation.
CHRISTIAN CIVILITY IN THE DEBATE
The question about civility’s role in the education space is complex, but
it doesn’t have to be. It has proven to be one of the biggest challenges
in education reform. At its best, civility helps newcomers feel welcomed in
unknown spaces, something that is desperately needed by our disenfran-
The same God whose strength is made
perfect in our weakness, the God who
loves justice and commands us to love our
neighbor as ourselves, can and will heal our
broken education system. If more faithmotivated people will commit to closing the
achievement gap, we can shift the paradigm and transform the way the education
community thinks about reform.
chised families. Feeling at ease in a new place is a blessing and helps us
to open up and share our thoughts and ideas with others, and that is what
authentic community engagement requires. But at its worst, civility can lack
respect and the sincerity of heart that true collaboration and open dialogue
require. Far too often, “being civil” is used to describe how we behave with
people we don’t care for and prefer not to spend time with; we use empty
courtesies that mask disdain or disapproval. Unfortunately, the latter is often seen in public education debates. This work is hard, even painstaking at
times, and progress requires strong commitment, conviction, and a willingness to compromise. Christians have a tremendous opportunity to make an
impact in this space of need.
Once individual participants in the education reform space have
achieved genuine civility, we must open a new dialogue and invest the time
and care that it takes to develop authentic relationships. If we can forgive
past hurts, put disagreements aside, and focus on our shared belief that all
children deserve the best education that our world has to offer them, then
we will have a real shot at fixing this broken system.
PUTTING FAITH INTO ACTION
The Expectations Project has as its sole mission to mobilize and equip people of faith to help eliminate inequity in public education. We wrestle every
day with the notions of privilege and authentic community engagement, and
we are deeply committed to operating in a way that will help children in our
most disenfranchised communities—and to holding ourselves accountable
to doing the work in a way that reflects our faith.
17
More than Paper and Pencils
These national organizations help Christians partner with their public schools through
mentoring programs, community revitalization, and more.
✎ America’s Promise (AmericasPromise.org) helps mobilize Americans to act via
their 400+ national partner organizations and local affiliates. Its top priority: ensuring that all young people graduate from high school ready for college, work, and
life through its Grad Nation movement to end the nation’s dropout crisis. Their work
involves raising awareness, creating connections, and sharing knowledge to provide
children these five key supports: caring adults, safe places, a healthy start, an effective education, and opportunities to help others.
✎ BeUndivided (BeUndivided.com) helps churches that want to invest time and
effort year-round in students and schools—whatever the need and without agenda
or strings attached. Their resource-rich website will walk you throughout the steps
needed to initiate and establish your own church-school partnership.
✎ Communities in Schools (CommunitiesinSchools.org) began in the 1970s when
founder Bill Milliken, then a youth advocate in New York City, came up with the idea
of bringing community resources inside a public school building where they are accessible, coordinated, and accountable. Since then it has become the nation’s leading
dropout prevention organization, with a unique model that positions a coordinator
inside schools to assess needs and deliver necessary resources that remove barriers
to success.
✎ DonorsChoose (DonorsChoose.org) engages the “public” in public schools by
giving people a simple, accountable, and personal way to address educational inequity. Teachers post classroom project requests—“ranging from pencils for poetry to
microscopes for mitochondria”—and donors can give as little or as much as they
want. Requested items are then purchased and shipped to a classroom in need.
✎ Faith for Change (FaithforChange.org) is a growing coalition of houses of faith
across the country united by a desire and calling to improve academic outcomes for
underperforming and high-needs public school students, from pre-K to 12th grade.
Through the Community School Model, educational reform, and programming resources, the coalition works to bring about academic success for all students. Faith
for Change is a community foundation operating under the Institute for Educational
Leadership.
✎ Kids Hope USA (KidsHopeUSA.org) offers churches and schools a proven,
award-winning model to meet the emotional, social, and academic needs of children.
Its programs create one-on-one mentoring relationships between adult church members who are willing to give a little time and a lot of love and at-risk elementary school
children in their community who desperately need loving, caring adults in their lives.
✎ National Church Adopt-a-School Initiative (ChurchAdoptaSchool.org) was
formed to both train and equip churches to replicate Dr. Tony Evans’s proven model
of social outreach in their area. NCAASI promotes community revitalization through
church-based social services by leveraging the existing structures of both churches
and schools.
18
We have been given amazing opportunities to support faith leaders and congregations who want to help our
nation’s public schools. We are partnering with national denominations and faith-based organizations to educate their
members about the massive inequities in public schools, and
we are encouraging them to get involved at the local level. In
Indianapolis, our faith leaders are working with area superintendents and parents to ensure that all of their city’s children have access to exceptional early childhood education.
In Washington, DC, we have a growing network of clergy who
are partnering with neighborhood schools and are supporting efforts to educate and empower parents to advocate for
educational equity. Growing networks of local pastors want
to ensure that teachers in their local schools are trained
and supported so they can do the herculean work of closing
achievement gaps.
It’s an exciting time to be involved in this work! It can
be hard, messy, and complex, but we learn as we go, and it is
glorious. There is much work to be done, and we need your
help. Consider getting involved in educational change. Get
started today by checking out “Five Things Every Christian
Can Do—Right Now—to Help Close the Achievement Gap”
on page 16.
As people of faith, we serve a God who will help us reflect on our own privilege, reconcile caustic debates, and operate in a way that truly engages communities and changes
the game for kids. Together, we can help change educational
outcomes for this generation and for many more to come.
The Expectations Project partners with faith-motivated individuals, leaders, congregations, and organizations to develop local and national campaigns that help enact transformational change for low-income public schools. They strategize
with, equip, and support their faith community partners by
developing media campaigns, influencing local and national
decision makers, and mobilizing people of faith to take action on key education issues. Learn more at TheExpectationsProject.org.
Nicole Baker Fulgham is the founder and president of The
Expectations Project and is the author of Educating All God’s
Children: What Christians Can–and Should–Do to Improve
Public Education for Low-Income Kids (Brazos Press, April
2013).
Aria Kirkland-Harris is a child advocate, educator, and intercessor. As a former elementary school teacher in Washington, DC, she came face-to-face with the achievement gap
and eventually decided to explore and implement community-based approaches to school turnaround.
CHURCH/SCHOOL
PARTNERSHIPS=
WIN/WIN
A church that wants to impact the community needs
look no further than the public school
Linda Frichtel (LindaFrichtel.com)
BY NITA THOMASON
“I was driving through West Dallas recently and
barely recognized it,” a woman said at a recent
gathering of Christian leaders. A few weeks earlier, similar sentiments were expressed among
a group of friends discussing tutoring in a Title
I school in the Dallas-Ft. Worth suburbs. At a
meeting of culturally diverse church leaders
in Dallas, there was increasing enthusiasm for
church collaboration, and an attitude of hope
prevailed.
As the largest recipient of refugees of any
US metropolitan area, DFW is home to a population of which 44 percent are first- or secondgeneration immigrants. The Dallas schools
are nearly 70 percent Hispanic and over 20
percent African American. Rebecca Walls is
executive director of Unite, a network of DFW
churches joining forces to engage and transform the community. She sees these changes
as an unprecedented opportunity for churches
to mobilize collaboratively in externally focused
community transformation.
Last year Christians from across Dallas
joined together at Park Cities Baptist Church
to launch a Christ-centered network called A
Prayed For City (AP4C.org) and began covering
the metroplex in united prayer 365 days a year.
Churches, private citizens, and government officials are joining together to work for, among
other things, improved schools with effective
principals leading them and skilled teachers in
every classroom.
Walls believes that the single most impactful thing a church can do to positively change a
19
Hopefully one day soon,
every Title I school will
have at least one church
partner coming alongside
it to provide quality
education and care for
every child.
community is to partner with a public school. Unite has already identified 175 church-school partnerships in Dallas and Collin Counties.
“We’re in the process of determining what each partnership involves,” says Walls,“so that together we can increase effectiveness,
build capacity, and encourage more churches to build these kinds of
relationships.” She hopes that one day soon, every Title I school will
have at least one church partner coming alongside it to provide quality
education and care for every child.
Schools frequently welcome church engagement. The TurnAround Agenda (TTA) of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship Church has become a model for church and public school partnerships as it seeks
to rebuild communities from the inside out by addressing moral and
spiritual foundations. Utilizing public schools as a primary vehicle for
delivering social services, the TTA model incorporates technology and
education programs, a family care pregnancy center, human needs
assistance, and school-based after-school and summer programs.
TTA began as a crisis intervention when a local high school principal
asked Pastor Tony Evans for assistance in dealing with gang activity
and other disruptive behavior among students. Today their volunteers
partner in 61 schools in the Dallas area and offer services as varied
as one-on-one mentoring, literacy and computer instruction, sports
leagues, and abstinence education facilitators.
Larry James, author of The Wealth of the Poor: How Valuing Every Neighbor Restores Hope in Our Cities, started his urban ministry
decades ago when he left his suburban church in response to an invitation to start a food pantry for some of the poorest residents of
Dallas. Now with a ministry called CitySquare, James lobbies hard for
fair immigration policy. Why? His friendships with many young people
who are undocumented have led him to ask, “Why would we want to
waste the investment we’ve already made in these young lives in the
form of public education?” James understands that advocacy for the
poor frequently involves challenging the systemic forces that contribute to poverty. Certainly the complex issue of educational equity is
frequently entangled in the political arena, and partisan roadblocks
hinder positive change.
Change is reverberating west of the Trinity River where Mercy
Street Ministry leads the charge for community transformation, committed relationships, and catalytic leadership development. They be-
20
lieve that true and lasting change will be brought about by the residents of their community but that sometimes an infusion of hope is needed from the outside. Garrett Smith,
Mercy Street’s director of mentoring, reports that while many of their staff live in the
West Dallas community, their pool of 400 mentors comes from churches both inside and
outside the West Dallas area, with many coming from Watermark Church in North Dallas
and Park Cities Presbyterian Church.
Trey Hill, executive director of Mercy Street, says, “We believe that community transformation happens primarily through relationship and not through programs. So what we
ask people to do is get engaged in the life of a child and walk with the children from 4th
to 12th grade, believing it is the long-term relationship where the real impact is made, not
just in the student’s life but in the mentor’s life as well.”
Watermark Church and the Village Church are two of a number of Dallas churches
becoming known for community engagement through relational ministry. A younger generation of evangelicals is picking up the tempo for change. With less interest in making
money and more interest in making a difference, many young people in their 20s are
choosing service among the poor as a way of life.
Lindsey Boatman is a single young adult who teaches “at-risk” high school students
ages 16-21 at Cornerstone Crossroads Academy (CCA), exposing them to the hope and
abundant life found in Jesus. Boatman lives in the Fair Park community where she teaches
and attends the Village Church, where many young adults have seriously engaged troubled youth in Dallas through mentoring programs and by living in impoverished neighborhoods and developing relationships with the young people there.
Located directly across from the local middle school, Village Church also sponsors
clean-up days at the middle and high schools, hosts faculty/staff breakfasts, and invites
students over to the church for basketball games and barbeques. “I wouldn’t want to
be [here] without that kind of support,” Thomas Jefferson High School Principal Sandi
Massey told the Dallas News. “The outside force of the community coming in gives us
this hope and courage to not stop doing what we are doing and not give up on our kids.”
Woodcreek Church in a northern suburb of Dallas has developed a vibrant ministry
with a Title I school, Forman Elementary in Plano, over the past seven years. Strong
friendships grew from the start between school personnel and church members. The
partnership includes a classroom academic tutoring program staffed by church volunteers. Principal Tramy Tran explains, “The Woodcreek mentors are what we think of when
we think of academic mentors.” The church also collects and donates thousands of dollars of school supplies to Forman each year.
The evolution of the church’s holiday gift program for the students shows how the
hearts and attitudes of the church members have matured through the relationship with
the school. Initially Woodcreek members adopted Forman families identified by the school
as particularly needy, and church members offered huge bags of gifts chosen specifically
for them. Donors enjoyed sharing their abundance, but the Woodcreek team felt unsettled
by the charity aspect of the process, which robbed parents of the joy and dignity of
selecting their own gifts. Instead the church began hosting a big party for the families
each year, where Christmas stories, holiday food, and festive songs created a climate of
celebration that all could share in, and gifts were provided in a more discreet manner.
Still, church leaders recognized the chasm between the givers and the receivers.
So following the suggestion of Principal Tran, the church moved away from the family
gift-giving to providing “parent gifts” for the Forman “store.” Each year thousands of
dollars’ worth of note cards, body lotions, tool kits, picture frames, etc., are donated and
displayed so that children can shop for their parents for the holidays. The school uses an
incentive program, awarding students with “Falcon Bucks” for positive behaviors such as
turning in homework and demonstrating admirable character. Students exchange their
bucks for goods in the school store or other rewards.
The “parent gifts” are hot items during the Christmas season. The program encourages generosity in the children, promotes self-initiative, and helps students learn important lessons about the free enterprise system as they “spend” their own earnings on gifts
for their parents. Last December three other churches—Legacy Church, Plano Bible Chapel, and North Dallas Community
Church—helped provide gifts, and all four churches worked together to sponsor Forman Game Night for the students so
parents could go Christmas shopping.
Another way that Woodcreek supports Forman is through the Pine Cove Base Camp sponsored by the Forman PTA.
Church members provide scholarships so Forman students can attend this upscale summer day camp experience. Woodcreek also sponsors a vibrant ESL ministry, a strong component of which is the program provided for the children while
EDUCATE
YOURSELF
Resources to explore and share
Educating All God's Children: What Christians Can—and Should—Do to Improve
Public Education for Low-Income Kids
by Nicole Baker Fulgham (Brazos, 2013)
This book provides concrete action steps for working to ensure that every kid gets the
quality public education she deserves. Personal narratives from Christian public school
teachers demonstrate how the achievement gap can be solved.
"Experiencing Public Schools: A Process of Immersion and Discernment" is a short
online guide from the United Church of Christ to help a congregation set up, carry out, and
reflect on an immersion trip to a local public schools. Access it at bit.ly/1mZl7jX.
Give Me Strength: Personal Prayers for School Teachers
by Sharon Harris-Ewing (Pilgrim Press, 2013)
This book not only makes a great gift for the school teachers you know but also sensitizes
non-teachers to the challenges those in education face.
How It's Being Done: Urgent Lessons from Unexpected Schools
by Karin Chenoweth (Harvard Education Press, 2009)
This book provides detailed accounts of the ways in schools with high-poverty and
high-minority student populations have dramatically boosted student achievement and
diminished (and often eliminated) achievement gaps.
The Smartest Kids in the World: And How They Got That Way
by Amanda Ripley (Simon & Schuster, 2013)
In a handful of nations, virtually all children are learning to make complex arguments and solve problems they’ve
never seen before. This book is about building resilience in a new world, as told by the young Americans who have the
most at stake.
Unfinished Business: Closing the Racial Achievement Gap in Our Schools
by Pedro Noguera and Jean Yonemura Wing (Jossey-Bass, 2008)
This book investigates the dynamics of race and achievement at Berkeley High School,
where cultural attitudes, academic tracking, curricular access, and after-school activities
serve as sorting mechanisms that set students on paths of success or failure.
TEACHED (from Loudspeaker Films) is a series of short documentary films that candidly
address the causes and consequences of our nation's race-based achievement gap,
looking at continuing inequality in our public school system and taking viewers into those
communities where its effects are most severe. Learn more at Teached.org.
the adults attend English classes.
Program Director Kay Hurley says, “A
high-quality preschool environment,
geared to teaching toddlers and
preschoolers the English language
through a rich experiential learning
environment, enhances the development of the children’s ability to understand and speak English. So when
they enter a more formal program,
such as Head Start or public kindergarten, they will already have a better
grasp of English.”
The Stewpot of First Presbyterian
Church of Dallas started serving the
hungry in the inner city in 1975, but
now it provides a wide range of social services, including a program for
children. Suzanne Erickson, director
of children and youth at the Stewpot,
understands that poverty doesn’t
need to be the future of the children
they serve.
“Our program for middle
school and high school students
includes homework tutoring,” says
Erickson,“but it also provides enrichment activities such as engineering
and art projects that promote higher
thinking skills. We incorporate career
and college exploration into our programming with trips to Texas universities. We then provide $2,000 in college scholarship money per year for
students up to a $10,000 total.”
Many challenges remain in the
DFW schools, but an invigorating
wave of progress is moving through
the area in the form of collaborative
partnerships between churches and
schools, with efforts moving away
from charity and toward empowerment. When community sectors such
as schools, churches, nonprofits, and
government work together, everyone
wins.
Nita Thomason teaches future teachers in the education department of
Collin College. She leads the Community Impact Ministry of Woodcreek
Church.
21
The World
Is Our
Classroom:
These neighborhood girls love to roam the block and check in on
Recovering the humanity
of education
by Anthony Grimes
T
he form of education should follow its function. That is to say
that once we agree upon the purpose of education, dialogue
about which pedagogies best accomplish this end becomes more
meaningful. We may even dare to raise the question, “Does compulsory
schooling as currently constructed actually educate kids?” By “educate”
I don’t necessarily mean help them to become more obedient or more
assimilated to white American culture––schools do these things quite well.
By “educate” I mean help kids to become more human.
Does school encourage kids to think more critically both about the
world and all the profound, life-giving possibilities that they themselves
embody? The great American crisis is that for all too many precious,
pliable, and eager children riding the assembly line of schooling from
preschool to a college degree, while sitting through thousands of hours
of lectures and evaluations, the answer is “no.” The greater crisis is that
some fall off this conveyor belt prematurely, robbing them of even the
mediocre status quo. Both realities should cause us to pause and grieve.
Selah. As my wise uncle and teacher Dr. Vincent Harding often repeats,
“We’ve got work to do!”
Of course, we have the important work of innovating curriculum.
Of course, under-resourced schools need more funding and better policy.
(I recently worked for months in Colorado on a failed campaign attempt
to pass an innovative school funding act called Amendment 66, because,
as a former teacher, I recognize the economic restrictions that handicap
urban and rural public schools.) Yet the much more important and often
neglected work lies outside of the classroom––in the people themselves.
We must find ways to shrink the ever-widening gap between schooling and
education.
22
We do this by reorienting society to
better value the informal and far less tangible ways
that kids everywhere are becoming more human. Let’s celebrate much more a
kid’s effort to think critically and compassionately about the world and far less
one who can simply regurgitate the disembodied names of continents. What
our country needs now more than ever is an awakening of ordinary citizens
to take on the task of rehumanizing education right in the magnificently complicated neighborhoods where children live. School starts on the block––the
world is a classroom.
Let’s summon our inner Moses to tell Pharaoh-like institutions “Let my
children go!” Don’t disown them, but set them loose; let them create; encourage them to follow their naturally curious selves into awe-ful discoveries that
we adults often overlook for the sake of expediency. Let them be a little less
predictable and manicured and far more dangerous. After all, it was children
who eventually led the Birmingham Campaign of 1963 that toppled the cities’
discrimination laws—children showing up by the hundreds, skipping entire
days of school, enduring high-pressure water hoses at the hands of racist
police officers, and, yes, being locked up in paddy wagons and then school
buses on their way to jail. Maybe we underestimate the revolutionary potential
of our little ones. Or maybe it’s that the very design of schooling makes it
difficult for these kinds of expressions of democratic creativity to take place
today. Instead, the next standardized test looms.
Creative education gets stifled in a market-driven society. The privatization and professionalization of schooling has influenced more and more
academic institutions to elevate job placement as their crowning achievement.
This is evidenced not only by more job-centric advertising methods at major
universities but also by increasingly sparse enrollment rates in humanities
neighbors.
departments. Consider, for example, a recent Wall Street Journal
article, which revealed that the number of humanities degrees
at Harvard University has dropped by more than half since
the 1960s.1
Likewise, it’s become rare to find subjects such
as physical education or music offered in primary
or secondary schools. When the financial future
of students (or teachers) becomes the supreme
end, school gets reduced to its most expedited
form. The street hustler and student alike have
the same goal––get paper at all costs. Such a
process, void of passion for discovery and true
character, would be utterly foreign to the ancient
Greeks, who viewed education (paideia) as the
means to becoming a more humane and involved
member of community.2
We are seeing glimpses of a reorienting,
rehumanizing educational movement in Northeast
Park Hill, an urban neighborhood in Denver, Colo.,
where I was raised and to which I recently returned,
along with my wife, Erika. Northeast Park Hill is home to
some of the most vulnerable youth in Denver. Roughly 56
percent of the kids in my neighborhood were born to teen
mothers, mothers without a high school education, or born at
or below the poverty line. What’s more, Holly Square, situated a few
blocks away from us, has an infamous reputation for its long history of
gang violence. A $5 million Boys and Girls Club was recently built there, but
the area still evokes a debilitating aura of fear for some. A young street kid
once sadly explained to me why he desperately wants to escape the neighborhood: “Everyone gets shot in Park Hill.”
One day, I curiously walked across the street to talk with Mrs. Jones––
our 85-year-old Caribbean neighbor who has lived in her house since before
I was born––and asked her, amidst the noise of sirens in the distance, what
she felt our neighborhood needed most. Her response was simply that she
wished people would unglue themselves from the TV and talk to each other
more. Our block was missing that intangible quality of togetherness that I enjoyed as a boy and that makes a place a neighborhood instead of just a ’hood.
In response to Mrs. Jones’s wish, we launched a backyard community
garden on our street to provide a safe place for kids to learn the life skills
contained in farming and, more importantly, for them to rub shoulders
with the gray hairs of the block. Our crops won’t win any farmer’s market awards anytime soon, but the vision caught. People are coming out
of their mini fortresses––kids are outside painting Zechariah’s vision
with the skid-marks of their scooters: “And the streets of the city shall
be full of boys and girls playing” (Zech. 8:5). They’re beginning to
plumb the deep wells of wisdom and knowledge all around them. The
world is a wondrous classroom, filled with gifts. In this classroom there
are no expert teachers, because everyone has lessons to teach, even
them. And this process of eliminating the teacher-student contradiction
is, as Paulo Freire describes, the starting point of education.3
I often look across the street, right next to Mrs. Jones’ house, and
see kids huddling around Mrs. Cici’s steps as she tends her front yard. Mrs.
Cici’s imposing 6’2” frame houses the spirit of a hilarious Southern monarch.
There’s always a funny joke imbedded in her riveting stories about characters
she once met in Europe or deep inside Latin American jungles. Like a migrat-
ing herd, the children scurry along to whomever welcomes them––
sometimes traversing in and out of our front door––always picking
up valuable nuggets wherever they go: a recipe here, a history lesson
there, family training everywhere, the spirituals of their African ancestors, social critique by Joel-the-Conspiracy-Theorist. This is learning
undomesticated by a discombobulated series of bells and analysis. They
are becoming, in the words of Freire, “people educat[ing] each other
through the mediation of the world.”4 Jesus himself taught like this––
like a person who realized the infinite potential of the world around him
to illustrate the mysteries of his kingdom.
I know, I know. “This kind of ’education’ is wildly unpredictable,
irreproducible, and intangible,” the critics will be quick to respond.
Indeed, and that’s exactly why I would never claim that the experience
on our block can replace formal schooling. Still, I wonder: What would
happen if we took the best of what is happening on Eudora Street and
in renewed pockets of poverty-riddled communities all across the US
and, somehow, someway merged it into more formal classroom spaces,
and vice versa? I think it would be revolutionary. Because although the
education served by this ragtag roster of eclectic resident-teachers may
not formally prepare these kids for the next standardized test, it does
what education is supposed to do: It makes us all a little more human.
And it’s about time we celebrated that.
Writer and activist Anthony Grimes (AnthonyGrimes.com) has a vision
to see empowered neighbors building beloved community. He is the
founder of UrbanMuse Media. As a leader within the Christian Community
Development Association, he locally and nationally engages the social
issues of education and mass incarceration.
(Editor’s note: endnotes for this article are posted at PRISMmagazine.
org/endnotes.)
The author and his son tend the backyard community garden.
23
A SAFE PLACE TO
At Children’s Garden in Manila, young lives reach
for the light
Story and photos by Whitney Bauck
T
oday’s young people have sometimes been referred to as “Generation Me,” and their use of social media to fill the world with
endless updates about everything from their breakfast fare to
the ever-popular “selfie” seems to justify the label. However, even
amongst a demographic often chastised for their self-centeredness, pockets of young people are doing God’s will in innovative,
sacrificial, and redemptive ways. In 2004, in the crowded capital of the Philippines, one such group was
forming. A young Filipino pastor named “Buddy” Gallo, along with a handful of
20-somethings from his church, had begun hanging out every Thursday evening
in an area called Antipolo, getting to know the teenage street boys who would
show up on the curb after the police had vacated the area. The informal ministry
was entirely funded out of the volunteers’ own pockets. Regardless, the young
volunteers loved what they were doing so much that the project quickly snowballed. One of the original volunteers, Sharon Gersava, recalls, “We did it once a
week, then twice a week, and then we were just kinda like, ’Okay, who’s going there
today? Who’s going there tomorrow?’” For about two years, the young people
continued to spend their evenings playing with the boys, feeding them, getting to
know their stories, and building friendships with them.
Though the volunteers didn’t yet know it, the seed for the ministry that
would become Children’s Garden had been planted. It was becoming clear that
“we needed to do something more,” says Gersava. As they prayed about their
next step, the volunteers concluded that they needed to shelter their new friends.
But as young people either still in college or having just entered the workforce,
Thanks to God’s provision to date, Children’s Garden cofounder Sharon
Gersava is optimistic about the ministry’s ambitious plans.
24
GROW
coming up with the money necessary for
such an endeavor appeared impossible.
However, as the volunteers continued to pray faithfully, an answer popped up
seemingly from nowhere when Pastor Gallo
bumped into a woman who was willing to let
the group use a property in Antipolo, free of
charge. Before they knew it, the team was
meeting with the board members of a waning organization called Children’s Garden,
which had served as an orphanage, feeding
program, and preschool at different stages
since its founding in 1955. After countless
legal discussions, the new group decided to
carry on the legacy of Children’s Garden by
adopting the name for their own endeavor.
As a new board of directors was assembled
and all the necessary permits renewed, “CG
part II, the new beginning,” as Gersava calls
it, came into being in 2007.
In its current manifestation, Children’s
Garden provides residential care for former
street boys aged 10-18. The program
provides the Alternative Learning System
(ALS), the Filipino equivalent of a GED, to
help older boys who dropped out of school
at an early age to earn their high school diplomas; younger boys are enrolled in regular public school. The boys can also enroll
in TESDA, a technical/vocational education
program instituted by the government,
where they can learn practical skills like carpentry or welding to help render them employable in the future. CG’s five full-time staff
members also disciple the boys through
informal mentoring, Bible studies, and worship. CG feeds into another program called
After Care, which caters to young men who
have passed through Children’s Garden but
are not yet living independently.
CG’s ministries don’t stop with the
boys: The staff also runs numerous outreaches to the community throughout the
week, including service to neighborhood
squatters, Bible studies with prostituted
women and in the nearby women’s prison,
and of course the Thursday evenings with
the street kids of Antipolo that date back to
the early days of the ministry. The boys accompany the staff to many of these street
outreaches, where they are “very good at
serving, because they’re ministering to people who come from
their same background,” according to Gersava.
Now CG’s administrative
head, Gersava declares that
“Whenever I talk about Children’s
Garden I always say, ’It’s all God’s
thing, from day one.’” The staff’s
conviction that God “orchestrated
everything” certainly doesn’t
stem from a lack of setbacks,
however. Despite the early volunteers’ full-time commitment to the
ministry, they essentially worked
for free.
“These were passionate
people who knew this was their
calling,” explains Gersava. “You
don’t really earn money [working] here. They don’t care. They
just have the heart to help these
people.”
For the first year or two that
volunteers lived fulltime at CG,
their only tangible compensation
came in the form of free room
and board and enough money
to cover toiletries. Even now, staff
salaries are almost always late,
and the administration is often
uncertain about how it will provide for their needs.
But Gersava’s attitude towards the perpetually tight budget remains doggedly optimistic.
She describes one situation when
CG had no food for the next meal
and no money to buy any as
“one of the highlights of working
here.”
“We gathered and were
like, ’God, we don’t have food
anymore.’ We had 20 boys and
10 staff. We were praying, ’Just
provide for us. You called us to
do this, and you will sustain us,
we know that.’ The moment right
after that prayer, the phone rings.
The man on the other end was
asking where CG was—but we
“Now I have this hope, and
I know that God has given
me great talent to use.”
My name is Francis Kim. I grew up without parents. My brother and I were
taken care of by an uncle, but I was really hurt by what had happened with
my parents. My attitude soured, and I screwed up my studies.
At 13, they transferred me to my other tita [aunt], and my life got
worse. I started smoking, drinking, doing marijuana, drugs. And if I didn’t
have money, I had sex with men. I was very rebellious, and I was asking
myself, “Why is my life like this?”
Then I had a friend who was talking about skills training, and I asked
if I could join him, because I wanted to earn money. So we attended this
camp, and I’m very thankful—if it hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t have this
relationship with Jesus! During the camp, one of the staff asked if I wanted to
continue studying. So I filled out a form, and I was thinking, Why not try CG?
I was brought to Children’s Garden in January 2010, and I had this fire
in my heart to know God more. If I hadn’t known him I wouldn’t have experienced all these things; he brings me to places I don’t know, to situations
where I can only trust and rely upon him. Now I have this hope, and I know
that God has given me great talent to use.
I am now involved in the ministry. I am in charge of maintaining this
building—I started with a mop, sweeping the floor, arranging the chairs.
Now I’m in charge of the audio system, and I’m part of the worship team.
I really thank God, because if he hadn’t taken me from the dark part of my
life, I wouldn’t be like this. I know how to have a good relationship with other
people; God has changed me. The most important thing is that the fear of
the Lord is in me.
25
were very careful about giving out information, for safety reasons.
We didn’t give the man CG’s location. But a few minutes later, a car
parked at the garage, and he got out with bags of groceries, rice,
and toiletries that would last us for several weeks. We still don’t really
know who he was.”
Gersava notes that this is just one of the many incredible acts
of provision that have helped sustain CG since the beginning. This
strong sense of God’s presence, as well as the undeniable impact of
the ministry, is what keeps the staff going.
“To see lives transformed really warms our hearts,” says Gersava. “These were delinquent boys, most of them. They were pickpocketing, using rugby [glue to get high] and other drugs; they even
sold their bodies back in the street just to survive—all these messy,
ugly things... But to see them now, living their lives with meaning by
the grace of God—there’s really hope, you know? They can dream.
They’re not perfect, they still have struggles, but to see God change
them is awesome.”
Although constant funding issues would be a deterrent to
many, Gersava refuses to stop dreaming about the future of CG. “I
think God has told me not to worry anymore,” she says, claiming that
she’s seen enough unexpected provision that she’s “excited for how
God will show himself, because he always does.”
The staff’s current hope is to be able to open a safe house
for the women in prostitution that CG has begun to reach out to. She
relates the story of 17- and 21-year-old sisters who never finished
elementary school and are now in prostitution, a reality for many girls
and young women due to lack of alternatives.
“They say to me, ’I know this is really wrong. But I don’t have
an option, I have to do this. I have a kid who has to go to school.”
Others end up selling themselves out of emotional desperation, as
demonstrated by the tragic story of a 12-year-old who used to attend CG’s Bible study. Gersava recalls, “She just longed for the love,
you know? And she’s like, ’These guys need me. I don’t have to try
for their attention; they want me.’” “What we’re praying for now is to have a drop-in center,” Gersava continues. “And then people can come there, and we can talk
to them, mentor them, counsel them, disciple them, tell them about
Jesus. A place where they can be safe, a place where they can learn.”
She notes that such a safe house might serve as an intermediary
step towards the ultimate founding of a girls’ home, similar to what
is in place for boys now.
Regardless of what possible expansions the ministry might
make in the future, Gersava and the other staff members keep moving forward in the belief that “we must be blinded in our own physical eyes to see how God’s going to work.” The staff continue to be
grateful for the ways they see God using them, and the testimonies of
changed lives continue to propel them forward.
Gersava sums up the Children’s Garden mindset simply, asking,
“If you can do something now, why not do it?”
Learn more at ChildrensGarden.ph.
A missionary kid who grew up in the Philippines, Whitney Bauck is
a photographer and art student at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill.
26
“Before I
wanted
to be a
soldier,
but God
changed
that to
dreams
of becoming
a missionary.”
My name is Michael, and I’m 21 years old. When I was 5, I lived on the streets of Manila. I picked
pockets just to survive. As I grew up, I began using drugs, and I learned to rob.
At age 12, my friend and I were so high on solvent that we beat a guy and left him for dead.
After that, we robbed a jeepney [a public transportation vehicle], but the operation didn’t work
and I got caught.
They couldn’t put me in jail, because I was a minor, so they put me in rehab. I stayed there
for three and a half years while attending court hearings, and I kept asking why God allowed these
things to happen, if there’s really a God that cares.
I was truly angry. I wanted to be a soldier someday—not to help people but to have
revenge on the relatives who hurt my family; all five of my sisters were sexually abused by my
relatives. So when I received my dismissal, I thought that maybe it was the right time to take my
revenge.
But they sent me to Children’s Garden. The people here told me how to know God. I didn’t
really care, but I paid attention to what they said. Then they said how to forgive people who sin
against you. Forgiveness was very hard for me—how could I forgive people who were supposed to care
for us but instead did something bad? But after a few years, God worked in my heart. He used the
staff here, and I decided to forgive, because God had forgiven me.
I was lucky I made it here. I was blessed. I was a grade 2 student when I came, around 15
or 16 years old. What’s amazing is that I can thank God for everything in my life, even if it was
awful—it’s all God’s plan, and he has a purpose for me, like he said in Jeremiah 29:11. He gave
me opportunities that not all people have. Right now I have a good job at CG. I’m on junior staff,
helping the other staff relate to the boys, because I’ve experienced what the boys are facing.
Before I wanted to be a soldier, but God changed that to dreams of becoming a missionary
someday. And I’m looking forward. I don’t know where God will put me, but I just keep on asking
and praying. If he wants me somewhere, I will go.
Is the GOD who created
us better than the GOD
we’ve created?
I n h is n ew b ook , a ccl ai m e d
w r i t e r J O N AT H A N M E R R I T T
tells never-before-shared
stories of how he learned to
encounter Jesus in unexpected
ways, and invites us to discover
the messy mercy and crazy grace
of a sometimes startling savior.
“He shows you the
Jesus who challenges
the chosen, includes
the excluded, assaults
closed minds, opens
hard hearts, and
defies all the boxes,
categories, and camps.”
—Shane Claiborne, activist and
bestselling author of The Irresistible
Revolution and Becoming the
Answer to Our Prayers
“Brutally honest
and stubbornly
hopeful. Grace
permeates
every page.”
—Rachel Held Evans, New York Times
bestselling author of A Year of
Biblical Womanhood and Evolving
in Monkey Town
Available in hardcover and e-book
jonathanmerritt.com
www.faithwords.com
29
FAITHWORDS IS A DIVISION OF HACHETTE BOOK GROUP
Christianity:
Instead it is a faith that simply
seeks to see and hear the
people and stories around us
and help where we can. It is
a faith that communicates at
its heart, in the words of Over
the Rhine,
All my favorite people are
broken
Believe me, my heart should
know
Some prayers are better left
unspoken
I just want to hold you and let
the rest go
All my friends are part saint
and part sinner
We lean on each other, try to
rise above
We are not afraid to admit we
are all still beginners
We are all late bloomers when
it comes to love
by Emily A. Dause
L
ife’s reality is very different from what I was taught to expect growing
up as a middle-class American Christian. In that context, church meant
traditional families brushed and smiling, all members present. Religious
activities meant coloring books of a clean-cut Jesus and his disciples and Bible
stories as two-dimensional as the flannel board on which they were played out.
Testimonies meant point-by-point speeches that described hardship and sin in
the past tense—and dramatic and permanent change suddenly materializing
to save the day. Christianity meant a clearly defined right and wrong for every
situation—and absolute judgment for those who did not abide by our standards.
As a young adult, I know Christians who live and share lives that are threedimensional and colorful, lives of depth and experience-reflecting truth that look
beyond false absolutes and black-and-white thinking. This kind of living involves
a faith that does not worry as much about hardline “shoulds” and “should nots”
and lists of “rights” and “wrongs” as difficult to prove as they are polarizing.
32
This type of colorful, multidimensional faith requires
honesty about ourselves as
weak, broken people. It also
requires a humility regarding the uncertainty tied up in
belief. Paradoxically, our lack
of completeness and surety
is one fact in which we can be
confident. Instead of hiding
behind a false and uninteresting image, we can emerge
as complicated and insecure
people to truly engage with
God and others around us.
I am blessed to have the people in my church help me to move beyond
a two-dimensional, uniform faith to one that acknowledges life’s hardship and
uncertainty as inevitable and even good. In my church, there are people who
are married, single, divorced, and widowed. People who have no family and attend church alone, people who have family yet attend church alone, and families.
People who are younger and older, both in terms of actual age and in terms of
the experiences life has thrown at them. People who feel confident in their faith
and people who doubt more often than not. People who struggle with depression and people who cannot understand its pull. People who have found relief
from a difficult situation and people who seem so valiant in their efforts to climb
out of a situation, though a reprieve seems nowhere in sight. People who find
common ground despite disagreeing with one another about theology, politics,
and even the ins and outs of everyday morality. People who, despite all these
differences, are equally welcome and, as my pastor has said, all “completely and
Illustration by Caitlin Ng
Now in 3D and
Living Color
utterly dependent on God’s grace and kindness.”
Going through the process of counseling has similarly challenged my perceptions about what it means to be a Christian. Prior to counseling, while I was
aware to a certain extent of my flaws and maladjustments, my knowledge of
my own depravity was also paired with an uncompromised belief that I was still
“okay” and, however subconsciously, that I was somehow better off than others.
Through counseling I have come to a more honest assessment of my own state,
one that is strangely more aware of my own brokenness and unknowing while
much less disturbed by it. It is in increasingly fuller knowledge of my own bereft
and fragmented state that I have begun to realize I am no less weak and destitute
than anyone else.
And yet, although we all have it in common, it seems we would rather hide
our weakness and destitution. Since Adam and Eve and their useless fig leaves,
we have been trying ineffectively to hide. We don’t use fig leaves anymore, but
we wear masks and labels, such as “Christian,” that we use to thank God that we
“are not like other people,” like the Pharisee in Luke 18. Whatever sins we have
committed, whatever situations we find ourselves in, however flawed our theology, at least (we believe) there is someone out there who is worse than we are
or who knows less than we do. We are not willing, like the tax collector, to beg for
mercy or acknowledge the depth of our inadequacy.
It is only in seeing and sharing our brokenness that we can truly realize
and share the power of Christ’s redemption, even redemption not yet realized.
Christ’s redemptive power is more vast than we can comprehend, especially
given the physical comfort and less visible sins and trials that define most of
our lives. Most of us do not have stories like that of Cambodian Kang Kek Iew,
or “Comrade Duch,” of the Communist Khmer Rouge base. He oversaw the
torturing and execution of tens of thousands of people during the late 1970s.
Between fleeing Cambodia because of Vietnamese invasion and eventually being
discovered and arrested in the late 1990s, Kek Iew converted to Christianity and
spent time working for refugee and relief organizations, including World Vision.
During his trial in the late 2000s, Kek Iew fully confessed to his crimes and begged
for forgiveness, despite other leading members’ refusal to acknowledge their
part. This kind of radical transformation—from unspeakably horrific actions to
remorse and full cooperation—is one we are unlikely to witness or experience
in a concrete fashion.
In the context of our relatively protected First World lives, our wounds (both
inflicted and received) are less dramatic and less noticeable, as are the redemptive patterns that may coincide with those wounds. All the more need to identify
and communicate both our wounds and our healing, regardless of whether either
line up neatly with the way we want or expect life to happen.
If we are to present ourselves to each other and to unbelievers in this
authentic manner, we must let go of our need to command and wield the Scriptures for our own purposes. “To take the Scriptures seriously is not to take them
literally,” writes Richard Rohr, Franciscan priest and founder of the Center for
Action and Contemplation. “Literalism is invariably the lowest and least level of
meaning.” Instead, when we read the Bible for its transformative message rather
than a historical or utilitarian text, it becomes “true on many levels, instead of
trying to prove it is true on just the one simple, factual level.” We can become so
concerned with proving our faith that we forget that the nature of faith is that it
cannot be proven. A faith ironed flat to avoid any hint of ambiguity is not much
of a faith at all. We should never stop trying to learn and understand, but at the
same time, we live in the mystery of a peace that passes understanding.
When we let go of the desire to feel secure in our own knowing, we can
truly listen to others. In The Idolatry of God: Breaking Our Addiction to Certainty
and Satisfaction, Peter Rollins terms this practice “literalistic listening.” As Rollins
explains, when we approach someone with a differing view, we typically come
from a place where we consider our own views and experiences above theirs.
We automatically assume we need to make a decision about whether we agree
or disagree or give some kind of biblical advice. When engaging in literalistic
listening, however, we allow the other person’s views to “challenge and unsettle
our own.” Instead of assuming we know what they are trying to say or that we
need to make a judgment, we consciously monitor our own experience-based
filters and try to imagine the other person’s position as they see it. This is not an
attempt to understand someone’s perspective in a way we cannot or to assess
their position so as to persuade them otherwise, but to genuinely consider their
position with more weight than we give our own.
What if Christians
were comfortable with
mystery, honest about our
brokenness, and known
for our vibrant, authentic
faith? Wouldn’t people
be drawn to the person
of Christ rather than
repulsed by a religion
that is static, flat, and so
easily caricatured?
I am not suggesting we glorify our brokenness or that we abandon
our sense of absolute truth. We do not need to start introducing ourselves with
our name and a description of our issues and ask others to do the same. We
also do not need to begin and end every explanation of a particular conviction
with the qualifier, “but I really have no idea what is and is not true.” However,
there is a demeanor of grace and humility with which we can present ourselves
and engage others, a demeanor that will encourage authentic interactions that
acknowledge our weakness in order to point towards our hope of redemption.
The past few years of my own life have been tumultuous, and I have increasingly found myself seeking out people who are open about experiencing
hardship, wanderings, and doubt. These are people with whom I can be in true
relationship, because I can relate to them and they to me. They live in the reality
that we have no guarantees about how earthly life will unfold and the realization
that there is much about life we do not know or understand.
The reason movies in color and 3D are exciting is because they seem more
real. What if Christians were comfortable with mystery, honest about our brokenness, and known for our vibrant, authentic faith? Wouldn’t people be drawn to
the person of Christ rather than repulsed by a religion that is static, flat, and so
easily caricatured? What would happen if, as Christians, we could communicate
the words of Over the Rhine to the world around us?
All [our] favorite people are broken
Believe [us], [our] heart[s] should know
Awful believers, skeptical dreamers, you’re welcome
Yeah, you’re safe right here, you don’t have to go.
Emily A. Dause is a public school teacher and freelance writer. She blogs at
sliversofhope.blogspot.com and is @EmilyADause on Twitter.
33
Confronting the
with Humanity
Mahmoud Al'aa Elddin confronts heavily armed Israeli soldiers in a weekly nonviolent demonstration against the Israeli separation wall in Al-Masara, West Bank.
If the route of the separation barrier is completed as planned, it will cut off the village of Al-Masara from agricultural lands belonging to village residents.
36
Oppressor
Peaceful
protesters get
up-close and
personal with
Israeli soldiers
STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY
RYAN RODRICK BEILER
M
ahmoud Al’aa Elddin spends most Friday afternoons in “dialogue” with the Israeli soldiers who invade his West Bank
village of Al-Masara. Each week since 2006, Palestinian,
international, and Israeli activists have attempted to march
from Al-Masara to agricultural lands that will be cut off by the Israeli separation barrier if extended as planned. Armed only with a Palestinian flag,
Al’aa Elddin faces a row of gun-toting, riot-shielded conscripts blocking
the road.
Here, as with 85 percent of its route, the barrier would take more
Palestinian land for Israeli settlements instead of separating the West
Bank from Israel on the internationally recognized border, or Green Line.
Both the barrier and the settlements are illegal under international law
because Israel is building them on occupied Palestinian territory.
Many believe the barrier that is in place has stopped Palestinian
suicide bombings, which ended in 2008. Between October 2000 and February 2008, these and other acts of violence killed 1,012 Israelis. During
the same period Israelis killed 4,536 Palestinians. Most victims on both
sides were noncombatant civilians. But even now, only two-thirds of the
barrier’s planned route is complete. Large gaps, which could easily be
infiltrated by would-be attackers, allow tens of thousands of unauthor-
35
Al'aa Elddin offers a cup of tea to unreceptive
Israeli soldiers during a weekly demonstration
against the separation wall.
ized Palestinians1 to enter Jerusalem or Israel on a daily basis to find work. Even
former Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Arens told an Israeli newspaper, “It’s clear
there is no connection between the wall and the cessation of attacks.”2
“Some people think that this wall is just to protect the Israeli people for
security,” says Al’aa Elddin. “But they don’t know at the same time this wall is
dividing the land and separating families.”
To protest the barrier, several Palestinian villages started weekly demonstrations, including those documented in the films Budrus and the Oscar-nominated Five Broken Cameras. In these two cases, activism succeeded in moving the barrier closer to the Green Line, leaving more village land accessible for
cultivation.
Most of the organized protests are peaceful. But unaffiliated youth some-
according to a leaked US State Department cable.5 The same document describes
how the military will “be more assertive in how it deals with these demonstrations,
even demonstrations that appear peaceful.”
While the army has used tear gas and stun grenades to disperse the AlMasara demonstration, most weeks the marchers get very up-close and personal with the soldiers blocking the road. The ensuing “dialogue” embodies the
problem often ignored by would-be peacemakers who recommend reconciliation
without acknowledging the power disparity between Palestinians and their military
occupiers. Those with greater power have little motivation to risk genuine conversation, or to change anything as a result.
“We just want to put some keys in their mind just to open it and to think
more as a person,” says activist Moath Al Lahham of Bethlehem. “Sometimes
“Just put your guns on the ground and come to our side if you want peace,”
Al’aa Elddin tells one soldier. “We will welcome you, and we will drink
coffee. We will discuss it, and we will find a solution.”
times throw stones at the wall, jeeps, or soldiers. At the Al-Masara demonstration,
there is almost never stone-throwing. “Peaceful resistance is important because
there is no reason for the Israeli army to shoot,” says Al’aa Elddin. “And this will
show who uses violence.”
The Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem has reported on the army’s
systematic “dispersal of demonstrations using force, even when demonstrators
were not violent in any way.”3 In the last decade, the military has killed 15 protesters4 and injured scores more through unlawful use of tear gas projectiles, rubbercoated steel bullets, and live ammunition.
“We don’t do Gandhi very well,” admits Israeli Major-General Amos Gilad,
36
they don’t want to speak, they just want to stand and block the road. Some of
them said, ’I don’t like it, but this is an order. I want to leave, but I don’t have the
chance.’ And some of them said these words like a machine: ’It’s our land. God
promised. You as a Palestinian, you shouldn’t be here. It’s just for Jews.”
Though none of these activists are Christians, their actions often embody
the kind of radical reign-of-God subversion that Jesus preached in the Sermon
on the Mount. What some dismiss as passivism in Christ’s commands to turn the
other cheek, offer the cloak as well as the coat, and go the second mile (Matthew
5:29-31), others interpret as confronting the oppressor with one’s humanity. Activists have even offered the soldiers cups of tea, bites of birthday cake, and
plates of pasta. Each gesture asserts the dignity of the host, while
heaping hot coals (Romans 12) on
the heads of uninvited guests.
“Just put your guns on the
ground and come to our side if you
want peace,” Al’aa Elddin tells one
soldier. “We will welcome you, and
we will drink coffee. We will discuss
it, and we will find a solution.”
When asked about his response to this invitation, the soldier says in unaccented English,
“I didn’t understand him.” When
reminded that Al’aa Elddin was
speaking English, the soldier says,
“I didn’t listen.”
But these activists know
their main audience lies beyond
the row of riot shields. Even if a
few soldiers’ hearts and minds are
opened, a just peace will only come
through pressure on an Israeli society content with the status quo. “I
think in this peaceful demonstration, the important and the first
thing is to make a change in the
thinking of many people around
the world,” says Al’aa Elddin. “I
have the hope and I have the
power inside me to continue. But in
the same time I don’t have power
like the Israeli occupation. They
have the power; they have all the
guns. But for me, my weapons and
my power are more and more the
international people and the Israeli
people who come and stand by my
side.”
“Our problem is not with the
Israeli people,” says Al’aa Elddin.
“Israeli people come, and they participate with us in our demonstration. The problem is with the Israeli
army and the settlers who occupy
the land, build the settlements, and
use violence against Palestinians.”
According to Israeli activist
Sahar Vardi, her main role is “simply to show solidarity, to convey the
message that Palestinians are not
alone in resisting the occupation.”
Other Jewish activists express a religious motivation. “The
most important teaching in the To-
37
“For Jews, it is a profound challenge for us," says Rabbi Brant Rosen, an
activist with the US group Jewish Voice for Peace, "because we need to look
inside ourselves and understand the ways that we have become oppressors
ourselves.”
rah is that God stands with the oppressed and that God demands that we stand
with the oppressed,” said Rabbi Brant Rosen, an activist with the US group Jewish
Voice for Peace, at one week’s protest. “For Jews, it is a profound challenge for us
because we need to look inside ourselves and understand the ways that we have
become oppressors ourselves.”
Solidarity activists also leverage their presence and privilege against unjust
structures. “The cost of getting arrested for an Israeli activist is much smaller
than for a Palestinian activist for the same action,” says Vardi, who once physically
blocked soldiers attempting to arrest a Palestinian boy.6
While Israelis live under civil law, Palestinians like Al’aa Elddin live under the
military rule of occupation. “Palestinian residents have no vested freedom of
protest,” reports B’Tselem.7 “Even nonviolent resistance and civil protest involving peaceful assembly are forbidden.”
Many Palestinian activists have been imprisoned under false accusations
of violence or charges of organizing “illegal demonstrations.” Al’aa Elddin once
Palestinian activists wrapped in chains in solidarity with prisoners in Israeli jails.
38
spent a week in Israeli prison, charged with assaulting an Israeli officer. Despite
video evidence proving his innocence, the military court ordered him to pay 3,000
shekels for his release—more than five months’ wages for the average Palestinian.
Yet despite such risks, Mahmoud Al’aa Elddin remains committed to nonviolent activism: “I think that peace will not come by using violence. Peace will
come by the nonviolent way, because violence never brings peace or freedom to
any people.”
Ryan Rodrick Beiler is a service worker with Mennonite Central Committee (MCC)
in Palestine and Israel. He blogs at MCCPalestine.wordpress.com.
(Editor’s note: endnotes for this article are posted at PRISMmagazine.org/endnotes.)
41
Because Stones
Can Speak
Doing justice to African American
historic places
by Andi Cumbo-Floyd
John Robinson
40
I
tect these sacred sites. I have spent over a decade trying to locate, research,
n Charlottesville, Va., a small graveyard sits quietly amongst a grove of
and protect historic African American cemeteries. I have come to view this work
trees behind a two-story farmhouse. Here the bodies of at least six promias an opportunity to bring the past lives of ordinary and extraordinary African
nent African Americans lay at rest near the area they knew best—the HyAmericans into the light.”
draulic Mills Neighborhood, a once thriving community of free people of color.
And light is needed. So much of African American history is marginalized
Jesse Scott Sammons and his family have been interred in this cemetery
or unknown. Because enslaved African Americans in the United States were not
for over 100 years, but in 2013, their peaceful rest was nearly destroyed when
often allowed to learn to read and write, and because Jim Crow laws in the South
a proposed highway bypass called for their bodies to be exhumed and moved to
kept many African Americans from receiving a full education for many decades,
another location. While the moving of any grave is a troubling, disruptive experithe accomplishments, stories, and daily experiences of many black people in
ence, this removal was particularly disquieting since it was planned without the
the United States went unrecorded. Thus, the places in which these people
permission—or even the knowledge of—the Sammons family descendants.
lived, worked, and were buried sometimes provide the only information we have
As Erica Caple James, a Sammons descendant and professor of anthroto learn from and understand a crucial segment of our American history.
pology at MIT, said about the news that the bypass had been rerouted around
Further, the lack of care shown to the Sammons Cemetery and other hisa pet cemetery but not around her own family’s graves, “It’s tremendously
torical places associated with the lives and accomplishments of African Ameridisturbing and makes one wonder about the politics involved.”
cans indicates a larger societal disregard for these people and their stories.
Fortunately someone informed a Sammons family member and told a
As Cinder Stanton, former historian at Monticello said, “You already have to
group of local historians, the Central Virginia History Researchers (CVHR),
be written into history to some degree to have your properties or your person
about the planned exhumation, and they informed other members of the Samor your social status to be considered significant.” Yet, in the case of African
mons family, who leapt to action and garnered media coverage and political
Americans, American history has largely written them out. Thus, the places aswill to stall the removal. At this moment it seems that the bypass will have to
sociated with their stories are even more important as we try to build a society
take another route, but the Sammons family and the members of CVHR are still
where equality is a fact and not just a myth.
vigilant to be sure that the highway doesn’t disturb the graves of these people.
Sadly the near destruction
of the Sammons Cemetery and the
nearby Jesse Scott Sammons house
Americans in Central Virginia. Their work has led
Once a month, the Central Virginia History Researchis just one example of the countless
to the creation of the African American Families
ers (CVHR), a group of professional and independent
places of African American historidatabase, a public space where people can trace
historians, meet to share their own research endeavors,
cal importance that have been deAfrican American genealogies in Virginia. For
genealogical traces, books—and sometimes they hear
stroyed through ignorance, apathy,
more information, visit their website at
from people who want to trace their ancestry. The speor occasional malevolence. In Charcialty of this group is the history and genealogy of African CentralVirginiaHistory.org.
lottesville, the Hydraulic Mills neighborhood was flooded when the local
reservoir was built in 1966. At plantations all over the South, slave cemeteries
As Christians, we are called to be agents of justice, or mishpat. In an
are paved over or bulldozed through. At the plantation where I was raised, my
August 2013 article in Relevant magazine, Tim Keller explains the most basic
father accidentally mined the stone foundations and hearths from slave cabins
meaning of the word justice: “to treat people equitably. Mishpat, then, is giving
when building walls around the estate, a decision he rues to this day. With every
people what they are due, whether punishment or protection or care. ... It also
destruction a segment of our important history as a country is erased.
means giving people their rights.”
Shelley Murphy, president of the Central Virginia Afro-American GeneaIn our culture, which values story and place and family as core features
logical and Historical Society, explained to me just why these places are so
of our identity, one way we can bring justice is to work and preserve the places
important to the African American community and the American culture at large.
of historical import for everyone in our community. If we couple that call to jus“It is important for children today to understand who was here and how that
tice with the biblical mandate to serve those who are oppressed and silenced,
person connects to them. I believe it is critical to the family as well as the
then we find ourselves with a clarion call to be sure African American history is
community to be able to identify and honor those that came before us. Burial
preserved—be it in story, archival document, or place.
grounds are a way to show who was here and their contributions as a family or
Perhaps if we, as followers of Christ, will begin to learn about these
community member. It is another way of ’telling the story.’”
places that are so important to the African American members of our family
I spoke about this with Lynn Rainville, author of Hidden History: African
and our nation, if we will begin to appreciate them and treasure them like we
do other great places often associated only with European American history—
American Cemeteries in Central Virginia (University of Virginia Press, 2014)
Monticello and Mt. Vernon, for example—perhaps then we will move one step
and professor of anthropological archaeology. “In the case of African Americloser to building a nation that is truly just and equal.
can history,” said Rainville, “not only is this subject sometimes overlooked in
the history books—like ignoring the role of Maggie L. Walker, the first black
woman to form a bank in America—but the sites associated with black families
Andi Cumbo-Floyd (AndiLit.com) is a writer, editor, and writing teacher whose
(the farm where Booker T. Washington grew up), their contributions (the first
book The Slaves Have Names tells the story of the people enslaved on the
safety hood for protecting firefighters from smoke inhalation, invented by Garplantation where she was raised. She and her husband live on God’s Whisper
rett Morgan), and their burial sites (the New York African Burial Ground that
Farm in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. was almost destroyed by a federal building project in the early 1990s) are
sometimes forgotten and/or destroyed. It is an important shared duty to pro-
41
44
What’s Wrong
with Being
Comfortable?
IN PRAISE OF THE MUCH-MALIGNED “COMFORT ZONE”
by Len and David Schmidt
N
Illustration by Caitlin Ng
o matter where we turn these days, we seem to run into a
preacher telling us that we need to “get out of our comfort
zone.” The exhortation is often couched in positive terms:
“You can do it! God wants you to move out of your comfort
zone and into your faith zone!” Sometimes, however, the message contains
darker undertones and nearly threatening implications: If you’re in your
comfort zone, if you’re using your natural talents and gifts and feel fulfilled
doing so, watch out…God just might take it all away from you. To be sure, at certain times in life we definitely need to move beyond
our personal comforts. The “comfort zone” becomes a problem when we
fall into complacency and laziness, when we trust in our material abundance as if it were eternal, when we assume our spiritual life no longer has
any room for improvement. We must stretch ourselves to pursue worthwhile goals, to help others in need, and to answer even the most delightful
calls on our lives—a marriage, for example, or a cross-country move for
a new job. Most importantly, getting out of our unhealthy comfort zones is
an integral part of spiritual growth. When we move beyond our customary
patterns, ruts, addictions, habits, and dysfunctional relationships, it almost
always feels uncomfortable—but it is always worth it in the end. As C. S.
Lewis once said, “The blows of [God’s] chisel which hurt us so much are
what make us perfect.”
If all we meant by the “comfort zone” were a state of indifferent
complacency, it would make sense to always set our sights beyond it. Many
preachers cast a broader net with the term, however, suggesting that we
should make a conscious effort to be uncomfortable for the sake of being
uncomfortable—that discomfort is a desirable state to inhabit. The theology of turmoil A pastor once described how he and his wife ended up on the mission field
in India. The couple had been happily serving a church in the US for years,
using their talents, abilities, and natural inclinations to bless the lives of
their congregation. Suddenly and without warning, however, the pastor
felt that God was unhappy with this situation. He began to experience guilt
that he and his wife felt happy and fulfilled, and he drew the conclusion
that God was calling them to be missionaries. With no knowledge of the
language or culture, the Midwestern couple relocated to Mumbai to live in
misery for six unproductive years.
No Hollywood-esque happy ending awaited them, no victorious
accomplishment that made all the sacrifice worth it. In the end, the pastor
and his wife anticlimactically decided that their calling was over and moved
back to the States. Rather than redeeming the experience or impregnating
it with any sort of meaning, he simply (and ominously) concluded: “Sometimes God will take you out of your comfort zone and send you somewhere
you don’t want to go.”
The implication of this sermon, and others like it, seems to be that
there is something inherently holy about unhappiness and discomfort.
Unpredictability and chaos are canonized and beatified ad absurdum,
baptized as “the place where God wants us.”
But is this really something we should be striving for? And should we
feel inadequate as Christians if we stay inside the comfort zone?
The blessings of the comfort zone
God often uses people’s personal comfort zones to do divine work. When
a person goes under the knife for major surgery, the patient is put at
ease by the knowledge that the doctor is working within his or her area of
comfortable expertise. The last thing the patient wants to hear from the
surgeon is, “I’m really much better at driving a tractor than performing
surgery, but I feel God wants me to challenge myself to work outside of my
comfort zone.” When we entrust trained professionals with the wellbeing of our bodies, children, and cars, we are rightfully consoled by the
knowledge that these people are operating within their respective comfort
zones.
In addition to the service we can provide to others from within our
comfort zone, there are plenty of other reasons why this can be a blessing.
Productivity: While Germanic efficiency isn’t everything, the fact
remains that we are at our most productive when we’re doing those
things that are within the scope of our interest, training, experience, and
competence. Joy: If you’re working in a field you enjoy, living in a place that suits
43
you, and are happy about the people who
populate your life, this type of comfort can be
a source of great fulfillment. Rejoice and be
glad.
Comforting others: When you are in
your own comfort zone, this can itself become
a tremendous source of comfort to those who
desperately need it. Without even realizing it,
you may be providing them with stability and
security by virtue of the simple fact that you
are not, yourself, distressed or destabilized.
In addition, when we are in a grounded place
in life, this makes it much easier for us to look
beyond ourselves and expend attention, emotion, and energy on others. So if the comfort zone can serve as a
place of refuge, a source of strength for ourselves and others, and a resource that God can
use to bless others, this begs the question: Why
the obsession with getting out of it for the mere
sake of discomfort itself? Why the guilt-induced
encouragements to leave the comfort zone?
Part of the answer may lay in the theology that
one might call “deism-lite.”
The myth of the
“supernatural”
Whether or not they articulate it as such, many
contemporary Christians unconsciously hold
to the false notion that two separate realms
exist: the natural and the supernatural. While
the deists of the 18th century believed that
the natural world functioned on its own accord,
without any interference from the Creator, many
in the church today adhere to a watered-down
version of this philosophy, believing that the
world usually follows natural laws and every
now and then God intervenes in the natural
world with what we would call a “miracle.”
To be sure, God often works in extraordinary ways, with what the biblical authors
referred to as “signs and wonders.” The
Passover, the Virgin Birth, the Resurrection—these are wondrous occurrences that
fall outside of ordinary human experience.
The mistake committed by many believers,
however, is when we describe these occurrences as “divine intervention”—as if God
were not already present and active in the
ordinary and the mundane.
The myth of supernatural intervention
is a mainstay for dramatic personal stories
of faith. Deism-lite is common in testimonies
of faith across the globe. In the case of
Americans who have overcome a terminal ill-
44
ness, former members of the Russian mafia,
and recovering drug addicts in Mexico, the
statements are nearly identical: “The counselors couldn’t help me, doctors couldn’t
help me, psychologists couldn’t help me…
God was the one who helped me.”
We don’t doubt that God often helps
people in astounding ways. The implication
of these testimonies, however, is that God is
especially present in occurrences that seem
out of the ordinary, abnormal, illogical, or
unnatural—in those that seem supernatural. Whereas Augustine defined evil as the
absentia boni, the “absence of good,” many
contemporary Christians seem to believe
that there is an inherent absentia Dei in the
natural world.
This view of God’s intervention is
what one college professor coined the
“jelly donut” model. If the natural world is
the dry, baked cake—devoid of God’s activity—God’s supernatural intrusion is the jelly
being injected into it. If we adhere to this
worldview, it can be easy to relegate our
comfort zone of inclinations and abilities to
the dry sterility of the natural world. Many
assume that a vocation can only be of God
(or, at least, is more God-ordained) if it lies
entirely outside of our own proclivities and
talents. The proof verses commonly invoked
to back up this view are myriad: “…His
power is made perfect in our weakness…”,
“…not by might, not by power, but by the
Spirit of God…”, “…if God is for us, who
can be against us?”
Of course, the Scriptures are full
of stories in which God used people in
ways that went beyond what we would call
their own natural abilities. All of us have
heard how Moses suffered from a speech
impediment, David was dwarfed in size by
Goliath, Abraham seemed too old to have
children—but God used them anyway.
When we focus only on these stories
of wonders and marvels, however, we run
the risk of implying that God is less present when humans exercise their natural
inclinations and abilities. As such, God is
left to prove God’s presence by superseding our talents, leaving a divine calling card
by using us in ways that are unequivocally
supernatural. Inspirational stories abound
that tell of a ministry that prospered in
spite of all the rules of logic. The tale of
the mission outpost, parachurch ministry, or
new congregation that was run by unqualified, inexperienced people but
somehow succeeded has an unfortunate subtext: The more it sounds like
a bad idea, the more God’s hand must be in it.
The infatuation with supernatural experiences can take turns farcical—and sometimes deeply tragic. Shortly after the horrific earthquake
struck Haiti, one church from Temecula, Calif., sent a team of 10 men
to Port-au-Prince on a mission trip, beyond the bounds of their comfort
zone. The trip leader emphasized that
participants would “see how God can use
people in spite of their own abilities.”
The American volunteers were set to
work building crude wooden benches and
performing other menial tasks for a Haitian church. Regarding the inspirational
experience, many of the mission-trippers
repeated variations of this statement:
“This is amazing. I’m not a carpenter, I’ve
never picked up a hammer, but God used
me to build these benches for a church
in Haiti!”
The tragedy, of course, is that the
Haitian believers could have built their
own benches for a fraction of the cost.
More significantly, the thousands of
dollars that were spent for the volunteers
to have this beyond-the-comfort-zone
experience could have been used to save
Haitian lives had the money been donated
to Haitian groups operating within their
comfort zone. A qualified Haitian ministry
or NGO could have provided desperately
needed food, shelter, or medical care to
an entire camp of earthquake survivors
with the same funds. But for many people,
when humans bless other humans in a
logical, orderly fashion, it “just feels less
supernatural.”
Where is God?
According to an old anecdote, the pastor
of a country parish discovered a couple
of local boys stealing from the collection plate. Hoping to instill in them some
respect for the church, he sat one of the
youngsters down in his office and stared
at the boy in silence for several minutes.
The pastor eventually leaned across his
desk and asked in a stern voice, “Young
man, where is God? Where is God?!”
The boy ran out of the office and
met up with his friend. “Man, are we in
trouble,” he gasped. “I don’t know what
happened, but I think they’ve lost God,
and they’re trying to blame us for it!”
The pastor’s question has been
asked by humans since time immemorial: “Where is God?” The answer
usually given has been that God is “someplace else.” (To this day, most
human languages use the same word for “the sky” and “Heaven.”) If God
is “out there” or “up there,” it stands to reason that most of the time, in
most places, and in most circumstances, God is not here, making interventions all the more extraordinary and unusual.
In order to cling to belief in this supernatural/natural dichotomy,
however, we must ignore all the biblical figures
that God used by way of their talents and abilities.
The apostle Paul used his brilliant rhetorical clarity
to exhort the early church; Solomon instructed
through his wisdom; Esther used her privileged
position to prevent genocide. These people were
not acting on their own in the natural world, an
enclosed biosphere devoid of God’s activity. They
were active participants in God’s work on earth, an
earth in which every good and perfect gift is from
God, where all of us live and move and have our
being in God. In a universe whose very existence is
constantly sustained by God, there is no such thing
as the “natural” world—every second we are alive
is a miracle.
Of course, sometimes God does use people
in remarkable ways. Sometimes God’s presence is
revealed in an unexpected manner despite horrific
conditions, sometimes doing great things with
projects, churches, and ministries that were poorly
planned from day one. But to canonize the mythical
land of supernatural miracles as especially holy is
tantamount to ignoring God’s presence inside the
comfort zone.
To be sure, challenging yourself and moving
beyond what you are comfortable with can bring
spiritual growth. But more often than not, feeling
neurotically guilty about being in the comfort zone
can, in fact, stifle spiritual growth. In addition, it can
blind us from seeing the everyday miracles that take
place inside our comfort zone—the place where
we are content and fulfilled, doing what we do best.
When a skilled surgeon relieves a man’s suffering,
a well-trained counselor brings a woman back from
the brink of suicide, or a persistent human rights
attorney rescues a child from prostitution, God is
very much present and active.
Len Schmidt has spent 25 years in the ministry as
a pastor, associate pastor, youth minister, and US
Air Force chaplain. David Schmidt, Len’s son, has
experience in cross-cultural ministry in Latin America
and Russia and is a freelance writer, author, and
translator who speaks eight languages fluently.
If all we meant
by the “comfort
zone” were a
state of indifferent complacency, it would
make sense
to always set
our sights beyond it. Many
preachers cast
a broader net
with the term,
however, suggesting that we
should make a
conscious effort to be uncomfortable
for the sake of
being uncomfortable—that
discomfort is a
desirable state
to inhabit.
45
COUNTERCULTURE
Swimming upstream.
by Rachel Marie Stone
The first time I walked into the hospital here in Malawi, I felt awkward and useless. I’m a volunteer doula, trained to give physical and emotional support to a woman as she labors, but clinical
duties like measuring blood pressure or listening for fetal heart tones lie outside my scope. In a
place with such grave material needs—and shortages of trained staff—why should I take up
space in a crowded maternity ward?
Empathetic connection with a person suffering
from pain undoes that world-contracting isolation
that is pain’s essence.
Inexplicably, the hospital where I volunteer allows no one—not even the baby’s father—
to accompany a woman to the labor ward, but, inexplicably again, I’ve been granted permission
to volunteer there. I sit by the women as they labor, wiping brows, rubbing backs, whispering
encouragement.
The midwives, who have been trained to manage the medical side of delivery, tend not to
see much purpose in sitting by a laboring woman until the baby actually emerges and there are
tangible medical tasks—cord clamping, suctioning, suturing—for them to do. Even if they did
see value in just sitting by and waiting, they might not be able to do so: Wards are routinely so
overcrowded that some women deliver lying on the floor.
Once, I was alone with a woman when she delivered. I caught the baby and handed her
to her mother, feeling keenly my lack of medical training. Later, the woman whose baby I caught
gave me a high-five and a broad smile, then grabbed both my hands and held them to her.
Other women whose backs I’ve rubbed and brows I’ve wiped during their labors have done
the same.
“In biblical traditions,” writes biblical scholar Phyllis Trible, the womb, “an organ unique to
the female, becomes a vehicle pointing to the compassion of God.” The meaning of “womb,”
46
Rachel Marie Stone is the author of Eat with Joy:
Redeeming God’s Gift of Food (InterVarsity Press,
2013) and The Unexpected Way, a forthcoming
children’s book about Jesus (Olive Branch Books).
She is a regular contributor to both PRISM and Her.
meneutics, Christianity Today’s blog for women.
Doula by Gioia Albano (AlbanoGioia.com/index_uk.html)
Compassion on the
Labor Ward
she argues, is compassion. Biblical writers, Trible says, saw the womb
as the seat of a love that “protects and nourishes but does not possess and control,” though it does not restrict this quality to women
alone. God is also said to be rahum: merciful. Womb-like.
Perhaps not incidentally, for millennia—and, indeed, among
many traditional cultures to this day—compassion was considered
the most important qualification for a midwife. It is ironic that as medical technology has advanced, the very quality once considered most
essential is now regarded as luxurious if not useless.
Neighbors and friends here in Malawi acknowledge the necessity of modernizing maternity care—their mothers may have delivered them in grass-roofed, mud-floored huts, but they make sure to
get to the hospital or clinic for their own deliveries—but they also
regret the sensitivity that is often lacking, and they express appreciation for even the smallest human kindnesses. “I had a difficult labor
with my third-born,” said my neighbor, “and the nurse came and put
her hands on my shoulder.” It was a tiny gesture of sympathy, but she
remembered it with gratitude more than five years later.
So why, in countries like Malawi, which are striving to meet the
Millennium Development Goals for improvements in maternal health,
should compassion be considered an unnecessary extra? I have
been told of a hospital several miles away from here where women
are slapped if they cry out during labor, and the Washington Post
recently reported that nurses in a hospital in nearby Zimbabwe had
taken to charging women the equivalent of $5—nearly 5 percent of
the average annual income—for each scream. It’s a dynamic that
sometimes occurs when traditional birth cultures are displaced by
contemporary Western practices, according to anthropologist Brigitte
Jordan.
Maternal health improves—and it is improving in Malawi as
elsewhere in Africa—but “useless” amenities like hand-holding and
back-rubbing often become relics. Studies in some countries—such
as India—have suggested that incorporating traditional birth attendants into modernized medical contexts (performing much the
same role as doulas) can have tremendous benefits. Here in Malawi,
the mothers of the women giving birth wait nervously outside the
labor ward even as their daughters cry for them. Their presence
could so easily be made more useful than either they or any of the
medical professionals might suspect.
Philosopher Elaine Scarry suggested that an empathetic connection with a person suffering from pain undoes that world-contracting isolation that is pain’s essence. Reading this a few months ago
and reflecting upon my time in the labor ward and my conversations
with my neighbor, it occurred to me that compassionate presence in
times of great suffering—even, or perhaps especially, when there’s
nothing more to be done except to be—may be as far from useless
as birth is from death.
Is Reality
Secular?
My father faithfully took us to church each
Sunday. With its towering stone structure, dark
wooden beams, and intricate stained glass windows, the church felt holy. I remember weeping
at Good Friday services, as if at the funeral of
a dear friend whom I did not really know, yet experiencing great joy when we sang the Hallelujah
Chorus on Easter morning. Beyond this, I didn’t
really understand the gospel; church was something we did on Sundays.
After teaching elementary school for several years, I left my hometown for graduate school,
where I became intellectually awakened. The
world opened up to me, and I enjoyed walking
through doors where the enticements were not
only intellectually engaging but also sometimes
personally dangerous. There I shed the last vestiges of Christianity. The intellectuals in my circle
considered Christianity irrelevant to serious
scholarship at best and oppressive at worst. The
world and our work had to be secular because
secularism was considered more objective, neutral, pluralistic, and safe.
By the late 1980s I was
work of her Missionaries of Charity.
After two months of working primarily with
teaching radical feminism,
sick and handicapped babies in the spring of
social constructivism, critical
1996, I returned from sabbatical. Groups began
theory, and postmodernism;
to ask me to share about my experience. Aware
I tried much of what the New
Age movement
had to offer. I
A few weeks later I found mythought of myself as smart, self at a communion rail, muropen-minded,
and happy, re- muring, “If you are real, please
gardless of the
fact that I was
come and get me.”
taking antidepressants, was serially mothat many of these were primarily secular groups,
nogamous, and was instructI found myself explaining Mother Teresa without
ing students that they could
describing her relationship with Jesus. I was lying
use any book except the
to make her more acceptable to intellectuals who
Bible in their written work.
had long ago given up the idea that ChristianI called myself “spiritual
ity has any unique knowledge. We see the same
but not religious,” meaning
secularization of the religious motivations of
I did not need a religion to
Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson
be “good.” I had excluded
Mandela, Elie Wiesel, César Chávez, Alexander
Christianity altogether from
Solzhenitsyn, Simone Weil, Dorothy Day, Sojournany real consideration, and
er Truth, and Lech Walesa. From the worldviews
no rational apologetic could
I was teaching and had been taught, the real
have convinced me otherwise.
Mother Teresa was completely incomprehensible.
But in 1992 I had a profound dream unlike
Right before I left India, Mother Teresa told
any I had had before; I remembered every deme that God does not call everyone to work with
tail—thoughts, feelings, physical sensations, and
the poor or to live like the poor, as she and the
color (a first for me). Christ figured prominently
Missionaries of Charity had been called. Then
in the dream, and I was able to see clearly the
she exclaimed emphatically, shaking her finger at
deplorable condition of my soul. When I woke, I
me, “But God does call everyone to a Calcutta;
realized the dream’s gravity and shared it with
you have to find yours!”
a colleague from a different university whom I
I discovered my Calcutta in a profound
believed was spiritually attuned, although I did
intellectual crisis that forced me to define and
not know of what order. My colleague suggested
reexamine the worldviews dominant in the elite
I begin to read the Psalms, Proverbs, and New
intellectual culture: material-naturalism, secular
Testament, a suggestion I found shocking even
humanism, and pantheism. The dominance of
though Jesus himself had appeared in the dream.
secularism, especially in the last century, has
A few weeks later I found myself at a communion
convinced many in the world, including many
rail, murmuring, “If you are real, please come
Christians, that reality is secular and religion just
and get me.” At that very moment I felt the same
a feel-good option.
indescribable peace I had experienced at the end
What is your Calcutta? What is it that drives
of the dream, and I tentatively began seeking to
you to allow, as Dallas Willard puts it, “the reality
follow Christ. Only three months had passed since
of God to stand in the midst of your life”?
the dream.
A year later, I saw Ann and Jeanette PetMary Poplin is a professor of
rie’s documentary on Mother Teresa, in which
education at Claremont Graduate
she said that her work was not social work but
University and the author of the
religious work. I found the film strangely moving
new book Is Reality Secular?
and sensed that if I was going to understand how
Testing the Assumptions of Four
my newfound faith related to my work—research
Global Worldviews (2014) and Finding Calcutta:
on the best ways to educate the poor—I would
What Mother Teresa Taught Me (2008); both are
need to go to Calcutta and immerse myself in the
published by InterVarsity Press.
47
Transitioning
to a Positive
Future
Circulating under the radar, in the hands of community organizers, victory gardeners, slow food advocates, social justice workers, climate activists, locavores, and do-it-yourselfers, is a book—rather a
couple of books—written by a Brit who is subverting
not only the dominant narrative of globalization and
runaway economic growth but also the gloom-anddoom of much of Western environmentalism. The
Transition Handbook (2008) and the newer Transition Companion (2011) receive little public press
but have captured the imagination of thousands of
people concerned with restoring the integrity of local communities and the resilience they display in the
face of disaster and shock. Beginning in the United
Kingdom but rapidly becoming a worldwide phenomenon, the Transition movement is taking root in the
US as well.
Emergency preparedness as it is typically
understood is about getting communities back to
where they were before the crisis hit—whether that
is a tornado, hurricane, flood, or fire. The Transition
movement purports to prepare communities for
the deeper crises that will come with the inevitable
disappearance of cheap oil, the disruption that will
accompany climate change, and the collapse and
retrenchment of the global economic system.
How is this to be done? In the dominant
industrial-environmental complex, the indicated
responses to energy crises, global warming, and
economic instability are about national and international policy: treaties, agreements, laws, and regulations that constrain behavior and restrict freedom.
Innovation, when it is sought, is believed to emerge
from investment in “research and development”
with an optimism that technology can and will save
us. Individual households are fed messages about
green purchasing and recycling but encouraged to
stay on the treadmill of resource consumption. Little
attention is given to the communities and institutions
that could generate true novelty and that sustain
changes in lifestyles.
In the Transition movement framework, new
ideas come from “unleashing” (a favorite word) local
people to think about local solutions to their problems, reconnecting in ways that counter the modern
deconstruction of social relations, and reorganiz-
48
ing to buffer cities, towns, and villages from outside
shocks.
Alexis de Tocqueville pointed out the value of
“intermediate institutions” in the 1830s America he
described—book clubs, volunteer fire departments,
social clubs, burial societies—and described their
functional value for social stability, political organizing, and local problem-solving in response to difficulty. Social scientists like Robert Putnam and cultural
commentators like Chuck Colson have lamented the
decline in “social capital” that comes with the loss
of these institutions. Transition movement advocates
agree, and they put forward a host of ideas for replenishing that social capital.
In Berea, Ky., one of the first US municipalities to declare itself a “Transition Town,” residents
banded together to create a “50 x 25” goal in
response to external threats, including the loss of
electricity from ice storms, the loss of jobs due to
INTERESTED IN LEARNING
MORE ABOUT THE TRANSITION
MOVEMENT?
CHECK OUT THESE RESOURCES:
•British Christians Andy Mellen and Neil Hollow
have written an entire book about the concept
of peak oil (No Oil in the Lamp: Fuel, Faith, and
the Energy Crisis, 2012), and their chapter
on Transition Towns is particularly helpful. The
book was reviewed in the Fall 2013 issue of
PRISM.
•The foundational books for the movement
are by Rob Hopkins: The Transition Handbook:
From Oil Dependency to Local Resilience
(2008) and The Transition Companion: Making
Your Community Resilient in Uncertain Times
(with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, 2011).
•Several feature films are available online; the
most recent is the one-hour In Transition 2.0
(bit.ly/1aWdgfz). For those who are limiting
their screen time (as we all should be!), try a
dose of Rob Hopkins via his TED talk at bit.
ly/1e16xn9.
regional economic shifts, and the threat of climate
change. By 2025 they aim to be using 50 percent
less energy, sourcing 50 percent of food locally,
and generating half of their income through locally
owned, independent businesses. Like other Transition Towns, they also address the “great forgetting”
induced by our integration into global markets,
whereby we lose the ability to grow and preserve
our own
food,
mend our
own clothes
and houses, and
repair our own machines;
re-skilling workshops involve
residents helping other residents recover
that knowledge.
Failure to pass meaningful climate legislation
or economic reforms after the financial crisis has left
many despairing for the future. But that’s putting all
our eggs in the political basket. Fans of the Transition movement suggest that reforming communities
and municipalities first will pave the way for meaningful change. For Sherry Maddock, a missionary who
lives with her family in an intentional community in inner-city Lexington, Ky., seeing the work in Berea and
reading the Transition books enlivened her thinking
about what working for shalom in her neighborhood
meant. “The things I had been reading were pretty
bleak. But the Transition movement seemed completely, extraordinarily positive.” She has found the
books to be relentlessly practical—and highly applicable to her urban experience of working for the
common good.
Peak oil was the original impetus for Transition
initiatives as they emerged in the UK, and that theme
continues to be woven into most Transition conversations, but the current fossil fuel boomlet has taken
the edge off that perceived crisis, according to Maddock. She also cautions that the movement has yet
to attract significant interest among poor and minority populations, but she says that may be changing
as people discover the virtues of self-reliance.
Andy Mellen and Neil Hollow are British Christians who see the pros and cons of the Transition
movement in the UK, and they encourage Christians
to engage, noting an interesting convergence: Both
Transition and Christianity invoke a powerful and
positive vision of the future. “With Transition, the
future is a sustainable, resilient, vibrant community;
for Christians, the future is the full appearance of the
kingdom of God.” There’s no reason to doubt that
the hopes and energy behind the Transition movement are God-given desires for shalom, and that
Christians could find a happy partnership there.
A natural resource economist, Rusty
Pritchard is the CEO of Flourish
(FlourishOnline.org), an environmental
ministry.
Radical
Forgiveness
Tackling the Empathy Deficit
“We live in a culture that discourages empathy,” then-Senator Barack Obama told college students in
2006. “A culture that too often tells us our principle goal in life is to be rich, thin, young, famous, safe,
and entertained. A culture where those in power too often encourage these selfish impulses.”
The Stand in My Shoes Project seeks to change that. Billed as a “global empathy moviement,”
it is a film-driven campaign that advocates for empathy as one of the most powerful tools for social
change. The team is filming around the world, raising awareness, and developing empathy-training
programs for schools and businesses. With the film set to release at the end of 2014, there’s still
plenty of time to get in on the ground floor action at StandinMyShoes.com.
Real Hope for
the Homeless
+ A program of Mobile Loaves & Fishes, Community First! Village is a 27-acre master-planned
community poised to provide affordable, sustainable housing and a supportive community to about
200 disabled, chronically homeless people in Central Texas. A collection of miniature houses, mobile
homes, teepees, and refurbished RVs will come with
a low monthly rent, and the village will include a
three-acre community garden, chapel, medical facility, and outdoor movie theater.
According to Alan Graham, who has been
helping homeless folks find jobs and get off the
streets for 14 years, the cost to taxpayers of not
housing these people amounts to about $10 million
a year. Mobile Loaves & Fishes’ capital campaign is
two-thirds of the way to its $6 million goal. Learn
more at MLF.org/community-first.
+ The state of Utah is taking a novel—and
radically respectful—approach to dealing with
homelessness. Over the past eight years, Utah has
moved over 2,000 people into apartments—no
strings attached, no questions asked. Why? When
decision makers added up the average annual
cost of emergency room visits and jail stays for the
homeless, they realized that providing a free apartment and a social worker to the homeless represented an almost $6,000 savings—per year, per
person! With the help of a caseworker, participants
work toward self-sufficiency, but even if they fail, the
apartment is still theirs. Learn more at HousingWorks.Utah.gov.
+ A few years ago, Doniece Sandoval, a successful marketing exec in San Francisco, overheard a homeless woman sobbing desperately,
“I’ll never be clean!” Sandoval started to imagine
what it would be like to be without the possibility of
showering or doing laundry, and something inside
her shifted. “There was something about that moment, in that place, that made me realize what I had
Ronnie Smith of Austin, Tex., was shot dead in
Benghazi last December. He had moved to Libya
with his wife and their infant son to teach at an
international high school, incarnate peace, and be
a good neighbor to the people of Benghazi.
When asked by CBS News if she thought she
and her husband were naïve to move to such a
dangerous part of the world, Anita Smith’s replied,
"Not at all. We knew before going into Libya that
there was risk. We
were doing this
because we wanted
to follow what God
has for us, and that’s
to show the Libyan
people his love and
his forgiveness."
Within days of
the murder, Smith
wrote an open
letter to all Libyans: "I
hear people speaking with hate, anger, and blame
over Ronnie’s death, but that’s not what Ronnie
would want. Ronnie would want his death to be an
opportunity for us to show one another love and
forgiveness, because that’s what God has shown
to us." To his killers, she writes, “I love them. And I
forgive them, and I have nothing against them."
been doing wasn’t enough,” she says.
That moment led to her researching the situation for her city’s approximately 6,500 homeless
people, half of whom live outside of shelters—and
she learned that only 16 public showers are available.
Long story short: She quit her job, raised
$75,000 through a crowdfunding campaign, and
launched the nonprofit Lava Mae (a play on lava me,
Spanish for “wash me”). The result: retrofitted municipal busses that hook up to public fire hydrants,
heat the water with propane tanks, and deliver it
through stainless steel showerheads. Changing
rooms, toilets, and sinks are also on board.
“Delivering dignity one shower at a time,”
Lava Mae launches officially this month in San Francisco. Learn more at LavaMae.org.
49
CONSUME
I
It’s not all bad out there.
n a camp in Southern Indiana, the air mattress lies on the linoleum floor of
a rec hall. While dense and warm outside, it’s too cold in here; someone
turned the air-conditioner on high. Earphones in, I am collapsed upon the
flocked, inflated plastic, taking a much-needed rest from the week’s activities as
leader of a five-day intensive men’s retreat. Karin Bergquist and Linford Detweiler
sing to me, "All I wanna be is a thousand black birds / Bursting from a tree into
the blue / Love—let it be not just a feeling / But the broken beauty / Of what
we choose to do." The piano, the sleepy electric guitar, and Karin’s tender voice
are a comfort as I doze and, later, waking up, mark how long I’ve slept by noting
which songs I’ve missed.
Over the Rhine’s new double-disk album Meet Me At the Edge of the World
has been grounded into a place and time for me, as any good album should be.
You buy a CD, and a new relationship is formed. The music speaks and marks
where you are in this time and place, and you listen to it until it’s stuck in your
internal iPod. More people relate personally to Karin and Linford’s music than to the
music of any other artists I know. We take ownership of their lyrics as if they’re
ours. My friends remark that having a new OTR album is like having a wonderful
hour-long phone call with a dear friend they haven’t heard from in a while. They
play back the conversation again and again, each time finding new insights and
nuances. Friends see their lives in the poetic reflection of these two very sincere
musician/songwriters. Anyone who is alive and awake to this world’s care and
cruelty can’t help being caught in the authenticity of Linford and Karin’s songs of
love or absence.
Faithfully making music since the mid-’90s, OTR is now in their mid-20s of
album-making. With that volume of creativity as a bulwark around them, there is
clarity of vision and maturity to their writing that clearly can come only with time
and experience. Karin sings, “The newness of uncovered skin / Your messy hair
your goofy grin / Your shattered places deep within / All of it was music.” And the
next verse: “To those I’ve wronged, Please forgive me / I hope this song, helps
you believe me / The holding on the letting go / It all gets buried soft and low /
But even then a song might grow / All of it was music.” There is wisdom of seeing both love and pain as part of the bigger melody. There is maturity in seeing
that forgiveness of what we have done and what we have left undone may be
used as a part of beauty and wonder.
Over the Rhine’s music is made up of grounded musings of their surroundings: a tupelo tree, ironweed, goldenrod, barren fields, a blue heron, a highway
shoulder, red-winged blackbirds, starlings, the Cuyahoga River, a chain-link fence,
and dishes left in a sink. They are not artists who look for grace, hope, and life in
the teeming streets of Paris or on an exotic beach. Instead they find wonder in
50
taking the time to be rooted in the locale of their home in Highland County, Ohio.
On this soil or concrete and within the relationships they have called their own,
they clearly have found a reverence for this world.
OTR’s songs wander into your ears like a familiar dog into your home—
the plunking of keys, the gentle and methodical strumming, Karin’s longing
and plaintiff voice, and the smoky meandering of an electric guitar—these are
welcome guests. This familiarity plays out with the traditional instruments they
use: an upright piano and bass, harmonium, chamberlin, autoharp, accordion,
and mandolin. And this down-to-earth philosophy is manifest in the authors from
whom they draw inspiration: Annie Dillard and Anne Lamott, two writers who, like
OTR, while grounded in this world clearly point to and long for the next.
Driving away from the camp through Jackson County’s sleepy landscape of
rolling corn fields and leafy trees with a scattering of high clouds above, I listen to
Karin and Linford sing, “Just the whisper of a breeze / Rollin’ up these threadbare
shirtsleeves / Love makes me want to bruise my knees / Sweet Jesus can you
come release me / Underneath a blue jean sky / Underneath a blue jean sky /
Open up your love and lay it on me / Underneath a blue jean sky / It’s just a faded
blue jean sky / Gimme a swig of a little kick ass beauty / Gimme a swig of a little
kick ass beauty.” And I’m seeing what they are saying a little clearer after the
week, and I can’t help but be thankful to have them along for this ride.
Tim Timmerman is a visual artist (TimTimmerman.com) and professor of art at George Fox
University in Newberg, Oreg.
Bringing C. S. Lewis to the Stage
After the New Testament, The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis was the second
Christian book that literary and theatrical artist Max McLean read while in his
early 20s. New to both Christianity and theater, McLean was fascinated with
Lewis because of “his ability and will to organize the world under a Christian
framework.” He had no idea at the time just how big a role the book would one
day play in his life, career, and ministry.
As an undergraduate at the University of Texas in Austin in the early
1970s, McLean struggled with social phobia, the fear of doing common things
in front of others. In an effort to overcome the phobia, he enrolled in a theater
class, which proved to be the perfect antidote. According to McLean, “acting
is about borrowing from yourself and applying that to the text you’re working
with.” He graduated with a BA in history and, smitten with the stage, continued
his theater education at a drama school in London, England.
Attracted to the idea of combining his theater skills with the Scriptures,
McLean began a theater ministry in partnership with the Christian and Ministry
From the Couch Commando: Commercials
Alliance, performing oral presentations of the Bible across the US during the '80s. In 1992 McLean founded his own arts ministry, Fellowship
for the Performing Arts, based in Manhattan since 2010.
McLean’s reconnection with the book that had fascinated him as a
new Christian began after Drew University Professor Jeff Fiske saw him
in a performance of Genesis and emailed him to suggest that he would
make a great Screwtape.
McLean and Fiske acquired the rights to Lewis’ book in 2005 and
began adapting it for the stage. The play enjoyed a 309-performance
run in New York City in 2010 and has since been performed in more
than 40 additional cities. Along the way it has garnered reviews like this
one by Don Aucoin in the Boston Globe: “A none-too-subtle allegory on
behalf of Christianity ... manages to be both engrossing and entertaining largely due to McLean’s silky, viperish performance ... loaded with
clever commentary on human foibles.”
One of Lewis’ most famous and influential books, The Screwtape
Letters addresses Christianity from an intelligent and persuasive
demon’s point of view. It centers on a series of letters between a senior
demon named Screwtape and his nephew Wormwood as the younger
demon seeks the damnation of a man referred to only as “the Patient.”
The book is both satirical and apologetic, and McLean and Fiske used
those elements to create a play that is funny yet poignant.
In his role as artistic director of the Fellowship for the Performing
Arts, McLean has three guiding principles: (1) carefully select and produce work that captures Christianity’s intellectual integrity and dramatic
power, (2) execute work at a level worthy to be produced in mainstream cultural venues where a diverse audience will see it, and (3) ask
the Christian community to support it. The health of the Fellowship is
evidenced by a second successful play—McLean’s recent adaptation
of Lewis’ brilliant allegory The Great Divorce. Adapted for the stage by
McLean and Brian Watkins, the play opened last September at the Kaye
Playhouse in New York.
The Great Divorce, whose title refers to the separation between
heaven and hell, centers around a bus ride from hell to paradise with
some fascinating passengers. “This collection of self-satisfied day
trippers,” reads the promotional material, “includes a belligerent bully
who only wants his rights, an old woman who can’t stop grumbling long
enough to question whether she has anything to grumble about, a
bishop too ’wise’ to actually believe, and a famous artist more focused
on his reputation than his art.” (Learn more at GreatDivorceonstage.
com.)
The idea of Christian theater, according to McLean, is that if
Christianity is true, a well-written—and enjoyable—play about faith and
God can reach a lot of people. “The power of theatre and storytelling is
that it flies ‘under the radar’ and hits us in our imagination—the place
where a knowledge of God (Romans 1:19) already exists. Art draws
people in. After a while they begin to wonder if the ideas that inspired
the work are really true.”
Kara Lofton is a senior communications major at Eastern
Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Va.
As much as I love television, I really hate television advertising: the volume (both auditory
and quantitative), the predictability, the messaging. Though there are a few commercials
that are clever, most every part of the vast majority of television advertising makes me
feel sad to be human.
So, at great personal sacrifice, I sifted through a few “Best and Worst Commercials
of 2013” lists just to see what was panned and praised. Skipping the commercials that
rely on the same old schtick (sex, envy, cheap laughs), here are a few notables:
ACTUALLY KIND OF COOL
Goldieblox “Girls” (bit.ly/1d7peDC) shows a trio of elementary-school-aged girls,
uninspired by pink-princess-themed toys, who create a Rube Goldberg machine in this
entertaining commercial for a company that encourages girls to engineer, invent, and
innovate.
Skype “Stay Together” (bit.ly/1gHAbfD) tells the story of two young women, each
born with one partial arm, who develop a friendship over e-mail and Skype, despite never
meeting face-to-face. Warning: this commercial will make you feel all the feelings. But it’s
quite a beautiful testament to the power of friendship.
WOLF IN SHEEP’S CLOTHING
Dove “Real Beauty Sketches” (bit.ly/1bizaoP)
The marketers over at Dove, owned by Unilever, maker of Axe body spray (the best at
scummy adverts preying on body insecurity), must think consumers are pretty shallow
and stupid. Sadly, given that the YouTube version of this commercial has been viewed
well over 61 million times, they might be right. The ad’s message is insidious and racist.
Out of more than six minutes of video, women of color are on the screen a scant few
seconds. The ad strongly implies that “beautiful” means thin, young, and pale, and it outright says that beauty is critically important to happiness. It’s the worst kind of damaging
message, masquerading itself as a public service for women.
Chipotle “Scarecrow” (bit.ly/1kwCzWt)
It really gets my goat when big companies try to pass themselves off as the mom-andpop-shop-next-door. The Funny or Die parody (bit.ly/LN6LlA) of Chipotle’s original ad
does a nice job pointing out the underlying messages of Scarecrow, and Mother Jones’
“Behind the Burrito” article (bit.ly/LZUVpb) expands the critique. Bottom line: if you want
healthy food, and if you want to advocate for healthy foods in your community, you’re not
going to find an ally in a national fast food chain.
Sarah Withrow King is the deputy director of ESA.
51
OUR HARSH LOGIC
by Breaking the Silence
Picador
Christians in an Age of
Wealth
Reviewed by Rebecca Hall
by Craig L. Blomberg
Zondervan
Every nation living in the midst of conflict creates
its own master narrative, which serves to idealize its cause and excuse any collateral damage.
In the case of Israel, that narrative is extremely
pronounced—one last outpost of “civilization” in the midst of a chaotic Middle
East, a beacon of Western civilization threatened by terrorism and barbarity. This
narrative is extremely popular in the West, and the United States in particular.
Unfortunately, it completely disregards the lived experiences of Palestinians residing in Occupied Territories, whose lives and resources are so often appropriated
and exploited by both settlers and members of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).
Thankfully, the Israeli organization Breaking the Silence is living up to its name by
educating Israel and the world about the realities of the Occupation. Their book,
Our Harsh Logic: Israeli Soldiers’ Testimonies from the Occupied Territories, 20002010, is unflinchingly honest in its portrayal of the IDF, its operations, and its
intentional disruption of the lives of Palestinian citizens.
The book is a compilation of close to 150 Israeli soldiers’ stories about their
experiences serving at different bases. Some unapologetically recount instances
of harassment against Palestinians, naming terrorist attacks and the murder of
friends as excuse for their own violence. Others, however, even those who participated in violence, recognize the injustice of the situation. Some even recount instances of trying to protect Palestinians or their property, only to find that they had
no support from their superiors. Many mentioned the total disconnect between life
as a citizen in Israel and their experiences as soldiers, participating in actions that
they knew folks back home would never understand.
The book is divided into four sections meant to mirror the four aspects of Israeli policy in the Occupied Territories: prevention (of terrorism), separation (from
Palestinians), “preserving the Palestinian “fabric of life,” and “enforcing the law.”
Each aspect reveals not only specific policies that disrupt Palestinian life but also
actions taken by soldiers on the ground. Soldiers recount how, in the name of
prevention, they would enter Palestinian neighborhoods in the middle of the night,
throwing stun grenades to announce their presence. They also recall shooting
Palestinian children and secretly occupying Palestinian homes, in effect holding
the occupants hostage.
Our Harsh Logic is a book every American Christian should read. Through
the testimonies of ordinary soldiers, it presents a compelling image of the dehumanization both of Palestinians and of Israeli soldiers themselves, trapped in
systems that compel them to engage in senseless and reactionary violence. The
format of short testimonies and interviews adds to the sense of chaos and senselessness and may prove emotionally exhausting to the reader, who is repeatedly
confronted with stories of abuse and violence. The geography and IDF terminology may also prove confusing to the average US reader, but the relevancy and
poignancy of the testimonies themselves remain.
Our Harsh Logic was originally compiled to enlighten Israelis about actions
carried out in their name and for their “protection.” Would to God that it would
also enlighten US Christians to the violent actions we endorse when we give our
unwavering, unquestioning support to the state of Israel.
Rebecca Hall is an ESA Sider Scholar and MDiv student at Palmer Theological
Seminary.
52
Reviewed by Shayna L. Lear
In his new book, Christians in an Age of Wealth:
A Biblical Theology of Stewardship, Craig Blomberg offers a biblically sound resource for Christians seeking to apply their faith to
their financial lives. He begins by establishing the need to address stewardship,
calling attention to the poor giving patterns of the church and the abundance
of advertising and propaganda that we are faced with on a daily basis. He then
poses several questions that he attempts to answer in the subsequent chapters,
being careful not to raise any questions “that the Bible does not address,” and
concludes with reflection.
Blomberg begins by examining the goodness of wealth as revealed in the
Bible, with an eye to avoiding not only the idolizing of it (as does the prosperity
theology that has taken hold of so many Christians) but also the demonizing of
it. He then examines the seductive power of wealth—to which we are vulnerable
when we view it apart from God as owner of all—and invites readers to see that
generous giving is not only a biblical precedent but also a safeguard against the
idolatry of wealth.
Tackling the topics of tithing and taxes and their place in the life of a Christian, he carefully argues for the “graduated tithe” while cautioning against giving with manipulative intentions. He concludes by outlining the urgency of the
church’s need to deal with stewardship as a matter of Christian maturity.
The reflection section, which focuses on the relevance and application of
each topic, offers a welcome relief from the more academically heavy parts of the
book by presenting anecdotal case studies. Blomberg relates the theology of
stewardship to the individual, government/business, and the church, while demonstrating how these principles can lead to transformation. The chapter on government and business merits its own book-length treatment, as space prohibited
the author from delving into the complexities of systemic sin and its implications
on wealth.
Seminarians and those in ministry will most likely find this book to be a
valuable resource to help them work through their thoughts and feelings regarding wealth and how it will be communicated in both the words and deeds of their
churches. Laypersons may struggle with the academic nature of the book, but
they may benefit by using it for a group Bible study on stewardship. Stewardship issues specific to certain subcultures of Western Christianity are not overtly
addressed and, therefore, ministers of diverse populations should refrain from
presenting the book as an across-the-board standard for all Christians.
Shayna L. Lear is a financial planner and financial literacy educator in Philadelphia, Pa. She assists with the Urban Affairs Coalition and the City of Philadelphia’s
Anti-Predatory Lending Initiative, helping low- to moderate-income families find
suitable home repair loans. Her book, Money on Purpose (Judson Press, 2012),
gives insight into how to live a financially balanced life.
Bonhoeffer the Assassin?
The Locust Effect
by Mark Thiessen Nation, Anthony Siegrist,
and Daniel Umbel
Baker Academic
by Gary Haugen
Oxford University Press
Reviewed by Tim Høiland
Reviewed by Bryan Stafford
The overarching narrative on the theological life
of Dietrich Bonhoeffer has remained essentially
the same since the day he was martyred: He started his adult life as a nationalist Christian from a proud German family, became
an antinationalist Christian pacifist, and ended his life as an antinationalist
Christian realist who was involved in a plot to kill Adolf Hitler. Calling into
doubt the last of these assumptions is the goal of the authors of Bonhoeffer the Assassin? Challenging the Myth, Recovering His Call to Peacemaking.
The question mark in the title is well chosen, since the whole book
interrogates the broadly held belief that Bonhoeffer was involved in certain
attempts on Hitler’s life and therefore had reneged on the pacifist views expressed so clearly in his book The Cost of Discipleship. The authors do this
through a multipronged approach that utilizes their comprehensive knowledge of the theologian’s life and works.
Two ideas are central to the authors’ approach. One is that they challenge several common historical misconceptions regarding Bonhoeffer, writing, for example, that he was neither arrested nor executed for involvement
in a failed attempt on Hitler’s life, as is commonly thought. The other is their
belief that Bonhoeffer’s pacifist theology was so well established and essential to his being that he was incapable of being involved in any assassination
attempts, even if the target was Hitler.
It is hard to imagine any Christian pacifist not wanting Nation, Siegrist,
and Umbel to succeed in their quest to reclaim Bonhoeffer’s pacifist identity.
After all, as Stanley Hauerwas says in the book’s forward, Bonhoeffer has
long served as the case in point to the idea that pacifism is not a viable option
in the face of extraordinary evils. But do the authors prove that Bonhoeffer
died a pacifist?
Not quite. The authors do manage to create reasonable doubt around
the previous model, which stated that Bonhoeffer was no longer a pacifist
during the final years of his life. However, they do this mostly through circumstantial evidence. Unfortunately, the book suffers from a dearth of direct
evidence and deals unconvincingly with several of the major arguments that
have traditionally pointed to Bonhoeffer’s eventual acceptance of violence.
Bonhoeffer the Assassin? is a well-researched and well-written book
that never quite fulfills its promise of reclaiming Bonhoeffer’s “call to peacemaking.” Hopefully, it will serve as a springboard for further scholarship into
Bonhoeffer’s life as a pacifist. If nothing else, it should garner quite a response from several of the more traditional Bonhoeffer scholars.
Bryan Stafford is Master of Divinity student at Palmer Theological Seminary.
King of Prussia, Pa.
In this game-changing new book, Gary Haugen of
International Justice Mission and Victor Boutros of
the US Department of Justice argue that the experience of being poor nearly always includes vulnerability to violence, which in turn fuels the cycle of poverty. “It turns out that
you can provide all manner of goods and services to the poor,” they write, “as
good people have been doing for decades, but if you are not restraining the
bullies in the community from violence and theft—as we have been failing to
do for decades—then we are going to find the outcomes of our efforts quite
disappointing.”
This book doesn’t make for easy bedtime reading. No one who reads it will
forget the story of Yuri, an 8-year-old victim of rape and murder in a remote Peruvian village, or the countless other stories of violent crime committed against
people living in poverty throughout the world. Moreover, while the authors’ thorough documentation of studies related to violence and poverty will give the book
credence among those whose decisions can truly affect the lives of billions, this
intellectual seriousness makes for a heavy read.
Haugen and Boutros avoid offering “silver bullet” solutions to poverty or
recommendations for any particular type of intervention. Rather than diminishing
the importance of traditional approaches to development, they say such efforts
should be redoubled. The authors’ aim, however, is “to make sure that we are
safeguarding the fruits of those efforts from being laid waste by the locusts of
predatory violence.” Making a forceful and convincing case for one thing does
not require pretending that nothing else matters; others who write about poverty
and development should take note.
Published by the prestigious Oxford University Press, The Locust Effect is
not an overtly Christian book. Nonetheless, anyone familiar with the work of Haugen and his IJM colleagues knows they are unquestionably motivated by deep
Christian faith. Further, it seems to me that this book outlines a distinctly Christian
way of doing human rights work, however subtly it is presented. Whereas activists often pit themselves antagonistically against corrupt systems and public
figures, Haugen and Boutros call for a different approach. They recognize the
corruption for what it is, to be sure, but they also understand that true flourishing
requires the transformation of unjust systems and people—not the eradication
of them.
Therefore, IJM isn’t content to shame corrupt or inadequate governments
and law enforcement personnel into changing their ways. Rather, the goal is to
establish trust and, ideally, one day become authentic partners in defending the
vulnerable and ensuring justice for all. “This can be a longer process than the approach of the dramatic, damning exposé,” they write, “but the truth is, it’s simply
naïve to believe that meaningful transformation of a dysfunctional criminal justice
system can ever occur without champions taking up the fight from the inside.”
With great moral urgency, The Locust Effect calls for courageous action on
behalf of the vulnerable poor. The sobering news is that the plague of hidden,
everyday violence is real. The good news is that it is not inevitable.
Tim Høiland is a writer, editor, and co-director of communications for Lemonade
International, which supports locally initiated community development in an urban slum in Guatemala. He tweets about faith, culture, and justice @tjhoiland.
53
LET’S GRAB THE TABLE BY THE WINDOW!
Soak up the spring sunshine and savor these new books about mission at home and abroad.
Learning from the Least
by Andrew F. Bush
Cascade
Wild and Wonderful
by Stan L. LeQuire and Chantelle du
Plessis
Resource Publications
Come on a journey with Palestinian Jesus followers, whose
radical servanthood out of weakness is a prophetic challenge
to Western Christians, a call to put aside the prerogatives of
power and wealth, to question triumphal theologies, and to
discover the vulnerability of the way of the cross.
From Times Square to Timbuktu
by Wesley Granberg-Michaelson
Eerdmans
The post-Christian West meets the non-Western church in this noble effort to discover
bridges that can cross vast cultural, theological, and geographical distances. “As global
shifts create new local realities,” writes the author, “the church can discover fresh
pathways for fashioning a vital missional presence within the culture.”
Letters from
“Apartheid Street”
by Michael T. McRay
Cascade
Suffering matters. Justice matters. Hope matters.
Stories matter. This book by a Christian peacemaker
in occupied Palestine matters because it has real
stories that show true suffering, hope, and longing
for justice and peace—borne from the depths of
experience and reflection. It will serve us well to
listen closely.
-Paul Alexander
Who’s making
the popcorn?
Movies we think you should watch, too.
It’s Better to Jump
Directed by Patrick Alexander Stewart, Gina M. Angelone, and Mouna B. Stewart
Cinema Libre Studio
For centuries the ancient city of Akka, along the northern coast of Israel, has
protected its citizens with a 40-foot sea wall. But as the city endures harsh
economic pressures and social changes, Palestinian families who have called
Akka home for generations are being pressured to leave. This film captures the
spirit of the town’s Arab citizens and their leap of faith towards a better future.
Learn more at ItsBettertoJump.com.
54
It sounds too good to be true: economic
development to reduce poverty in a way
that protects the environment and respects indigenous cultures while offering
stunning experiences and spectacular
sights for ecotourists. But it is happening. This delightful, carefully researched
book tells encouraging stories and offers
helpful analysis on how to expand and improve
this exciting, important development.
-Ron Sider
Incarnate
by Michael Frost
IVP Books
Written by an Australian missiologist, this
book examines the church in an age of
unprecedented rootlessness, addiction,
ambiguity, and disengagement—an age
of “excarnation.” Frost digs deep into
the manure and mulch of contemporary
culture to extract a living, breathing
body of believers.
Not My Life
Directed by Bob Bilheimer
Worldwide Documentaries
Available in both 30-minute and 70-minute versions, Not My Life reveals the brutalizing practices endemic to the multibillion dollar trade in human beings around the
world. Filmed on five continents, the film provides a tour through the exploitative
world of modern slavery, focusing specifically on the most vulnerable of all—children
in forced labor, domestic servitude, begging, sex tourism, and soldiering. Learn more
at NotMyLife.org.
Practicing ESA in India
esXaton
separated, ESA strives to cultivate theologically informed practitioners and
practically minded theologians.
One day, we went on a long prayer walk together, allowing the poverty,
the temples, the diesel fumes, and the hustle and bustle of daily life in Bangalore to inspire short prayers to the God who loves these people and their
pulsing, vibrant city. At ESA we are acutely aware that the battle we wage
against poverty, injustice, oppression, and deception in the world is ultimately
a spiritual one. We still have to get our hands dirty (see the rest of this issue
of PRISM!); but if we do not grow as practitioners of prayer, I fear that all of
our ministries of evangelism, compassion, justice, and reconciliation will be
for naught.
While in India our team began every morning with prayer and a brief
meditation from the Scriptures. Those prayer times were a highlight for us,
as God met us, sometimes intensely and sometimes gently. We sensed the
Spirit at work in our hearts with healing and conviction, as well as with a
desire to grow in love for God and neighbor, especially the poor. This, too, is
mission—that those sent out to change the world undergo profound change
It was the day before I left for India with a team from City Line Church of
Philadelphia, a partner church of ESA. We thought it would be fun to go to
an Indian restaurant as part of our last-minute preparations. We walked in,
moved a couple of tables around to accommodate the nine-member team,
and made our way to the buffet. I noticed two women at a nearby booth,
staring at us. Questions about this strange mix of people who just took over
the restaurant—three Asians, one Anglo, and five African-Americans, two of
whom were children—were written all over the faces. “I hope we’re not being
too noisy,” I said.
“Not at all,” one of them replied. “But if you don’t mind me asking (long
pause as her neck craned in the direction of our motley crew), what is this?”
“We’re from a nearby church, and we’re headed to India tomorrow to
lend a hand at an orphanage.”
“You’re from a nearby church, and you’re headed to India to work in an
orphanage?” I love East Coast repeat-talk.
“Yes.”
“Amazing,” said the other woman at the table. “I
“Amazing,” said the other woman at the table. “I didn’t
didn’t know churches like this existed,” obviously referring to the colorful diversity of the group. “It’s beautiful.”
know churches like this existed,” obviously referring to
I was gratified that our mission seemed to have
begun even before leaving for India. Just by virtue of
the colorful diversity of the group. “It’s beautiful.”
being a multi-ethnic church group, we were already
bearing witness to the good news of Christ’s peace
and reconciliation.
The City Line Church team in front of the rescue home in Bangalore
Beginning with this show of diversity, the trip as
a whole reflected other core values of ESA. The team
and I went primarily to work in a rescue home called
Nireekshanalya (which means “place of hope”), a
ministry that seeks to meet “the needs of body, spirit
and mind of some of the over 150,000 street children” in the city of Bangalore. That’s a pretty good
definition of holistic ministry, if you ask me, and in
fact we did get to know and love these boys in both
word and deed. They loved on us as well, feeding us,
praying for us, and guiding us around town. We played
together a lot, too: The pogo stick we brought was a
hit, they taught some of us how to play cricket, and
one of the boys kicked my butt in chess.
Faithful servants Prem and Kelly Bandaru, who
established the home, have committed their lives to
these kids, and we were privileged to come alongside
them for this brief time—a beautiful example of the
themselves.
body of Christ working together in partnership across the world to serve the
So this trip was about diversity, church, culture-crossing, holistic minpoor and powerless. If ESA can facilitate more of these kinds of holistic, onistry, serving the poor, partnership, theological reflection, prayer, and inner
the-ground collaborations between churches and ministries all over the world,
and outer transformation. It was about radical love made visible. The next
we would be doing well.
time someone asks me what ESA is all about, I’m just going to tell them about
The team and I led a chapel service at SAIACS, the South Asian Institute
my trip to India—at least until the next adventure. Where should we go next?
for Advanced Christian Studies, also located in Bangalore. My friend Dr. Paul
Joshua serves on the faculty there, and he set me up to teach for a half day
as well as to present a paper to the doctoral students and faculty. To have
Al Tizon is Ronald J. Sider Associate Professor of Holistic Ministry and coconnected with a seminary as we did may seem unrelated to the hands-on
president of Evangelicals for Social Action.
ministry we were involved in, but from ESA’s perspective, they align perfectly.
Convinced that theological reflection and ministry practice should never be
55
Ravi Zacharias
58
Easter Morning by Qi He
"Jesus does not offer to
make bad people good but
to make dead people alive." PRISM
STUDY/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
SPRING 2014 ISSUE
Good in the ’Hood (page 4)
Kayla Castleberry centers her article on a verse in John where, referring to Jesus’ hometown, Nathaniel exclaims, “Can anything good come of Nazareth?” What is your (or your church’s) Nazareth? How do you interact with that place and its inhabitants compared to the people and places that impress you? What steps can you take to authentically engage these areas or people and look for the good that necessarily exists there?
Castleberry describes one man’s belief that members of marginalized communities are healed not only for their own beneHit but also so that they can stay and work to heal their own communities. Think of the ministries that you or your church support with time or money. How many of them involve this kind of inside-­‐out vision? What steps could you take to enact a more community-­‐wide form of ministry?
A Place at the Table (page 5)
Helen Cepero describes how she—with all her privilege as a white, cisgender, middle-­‐class woman—was shown hospitality by those who, because of their sexual orientation, non-­‐binary gender, ethnicity, or economic status—and medical status—
were deeply marginalized. Have you ever put yourself at the mercy of marginalized people? Have you ever learned from or been blessed by those you reach out to help? Why Shouldn’t We GiveDirectly? (page 6)
How do you react to the idea of transferring money directly into the hands of the poor overseas? Would it be hard for you to trust people who are poor to spend the money in the most helpful ways? Why or why not? What is your response to the author’s statistics on how the money is spent? Does this have any effect on the way you view the charities you support?
Modeling the Harmony Way (page 7)
Randy Woodley asserts that his greatest challenge at Eagle’s Wings Ministry is that “American culture is rooted in a dualistic worldview, which resists a holistic way of life.” How many churches or ministries do you know that promote holistic ministry, addressing the needs of soul, mind, and body? Consider the questions Woodley asks in order to evaluate his ministry’s success, and apply them to any ministry you are involved in: How would you answer each of these questions? Are all voices being heard, especially the ones that disagree or are least likely to be heard? Have we considered how this will affect everything else and also future generations? Is it honoring of others and the Creator? Will this effort give whole life to others or just a temporary Hix?
Not the End of the Story (page 8) Rebekah Bell points out that although the Bible has much to say about Resurrection Sunday, it has very little to say about Saturday—about the “soul-­‐oppressive” darkness and doubt that we can Hind ourselves in. What Saturdays have you faced in your own life? How have you managed to keep your faith in God in the midst of such difHicult situations?
Living into Vulnerability (page 9)
Casey Hobbs describes a practice within Quaker tradition that allows those facing major life decisions to receive feedback and support from their faith community in a safe, non-­‐judgmental way. Does your own faith community have any similar practice? How do you practice vulnerability, transparency, and authenticity within the context of that community? What do you think would encourage greater vulnerability among members of your faith community?
Ban the Box (page 10)
Harold Dean Trulear calls on Christians to model acceptance and reconciliation for the larger culture by being willing to hire the formerly incarcerated. What do you think of his arguments? Would you or other members of the faith community be willing to follow his call? What might be the beneHits of hiring someone who has been in prison? What might be the challenges?
Watch the video at Business in the Community’s website and hit the “Skip Ad” button at various intervals to experience what a former prisoner might Hind at a job interview. Discuss how you might react to such a job applicant if he were asking you for a job, paying close attention to how his mounting desperation affects you—does it soften or harden your feelings toward him? Why do you think that is?
Holy Disruptions (page 11)
According to Emily Nielson Jones, “The best trafHicking ‘prevention’ the church can be engaged in is establishing a solid spiritual framework of equality for men and women alike and working toward gender balancing our own organizations.” How does that statement strike you? What does the gender balance look like in your faith community? To what do you attribute the presence or lack of balance?
School Equality as a Matter of Faith (page 14)
Read over the conditions on page 15 that the authors list as “normal” parts of the educational experience of minority, inner-­‐city kids—broken windows, termite infestations, old, almost unusable textbooks, and bad food. Now look at the signs of privilege listed on page 17—opportunity (in terms of being able to attend a high-­‐
performing school) and choice (in terms of the availability of advanced placement or other enrichment classes). Which of these situations is closest to your own school experience? What beneHits or challenges in your life do you attribute to your educational experience?
Look at “Five Things Every Christian Can Do—Right Now—to Help Close the Achievement Gap” (page 16) and brainstorm about these and any other options you can think of. Which would work best in the context of your community? What is one step (no matter how small) that you can take, individually or as a group, to reduce the opportunity gap?
Church/School Partnerships = Win/Win (page 19)
Title I schools (where more than 40% of the students come from low-­‐income families) do better when partnered with a congregation. How many Title I schools exist in your area? What could your church or your region do to promote collaboration?
Consider some of the examples of partnership included in this article—mentoring, pregnancy centers, summer programs, tutoring, Christmas parties, school stores, etc. Do any of these stand out to you or your faith community as particularly attractive and feasible? What would it take for you and your faith community to engage in at least one of these practices over the coming year?
The World Is Our Classroom (page 22)
Anthony Grimes opens his article with a compelling question: Do schools help students to become more human? Think of the schools in your neighborhood. In what ways do they work holistically with children to develop character, curiosity, and community? In what ways are they lacking?
Grimes points out that in a system designed to ensure that children are ready for job placement (and little else), creativity is stiHled and education becomes narrow. Think about the children in your life: Does their school experience broaden or narrow their education? What kinds of other opportunities exist for them to express their creativity and engage in critical thinking?
Where do you see opportunities for informal education in the world around you? How have you experienced, in the words of Freire, “people educat[ing] each other through the mediation of the world”?
A Safe Place to Grow (page 24)
Sharon Gersava and other workers at Children’s Garden rely on God’s provision, secure that they are doing what God has called them to do. Have you ever felt a similar security in the face of scarcity? How important do you think it is for a ministry to focus on being Hinancially solvent?
Gersava and others tell stories of transformation—boys Hilled with anger and hurt, involved in drug abuse and crime, who now have a chance at a better future. When you see troubled young people in your community, can you imagine them transformed, or do they seem like a lost cause? What helps or hinders you when picturing transformation for them?
Revelation at the Ping-­‐Pong Emporium (page 28—this article is available in the print version of the magazine only)
Jonathon Merritt writes that “What we call religion is often a malformation of true faith.” How do you distinguish between faith and religion? Do the faith communities you know put more emphasis on following Jesus or on following rules? What do you think it would take for you to follow Jesus more authentically and vulnerably?
Merritt reminds us that Jesus himself did not avoid “sinful” people—on the contrary, he speciHically sought them out and hung out with them. Who are the “sinful” people you or your faith community avoids? How can you work to put an end to that?
Christianity: Now in 3D and Living Color (page 32)
Emily Dause writes that “our lack of completeness … is one fact in which we can be conHident.” Does your faith community encourage you to be honest about your “lack of completeness,” or does it demand the kind of performance Dause writes about? If the latter, in what settings or relationships are you able to show and accept your own brokenness and vulnerability?
Dause points out how our inability to admit our own brokenness limits our ability to experience transformation and reconciliation, as well as our ability to witness to others about Christ. Why might this be true? How have you seen this in your own and others’ stories?
Confronting the Oppressor with Humanity (page 34)
Activist Moath Al Lahham remarks that he and other activists engage the Israeli soldiers in order to “put some keys in their mind just to open it and to think more as a person.” What effect do you think this humanizing of Palestinians has on the conHlict? How might reaching out to Israeli soldiers as individual people have an effect on the structures they work within? (Check out the review of Our Harsh Logic on page 52 for some possible insights.)
Beiler writes that “those with greater power have little motivation to risk genuine conversation.” Where have you seen this dynamic play out in your own community? What means have you used (or seen used) to induce genuine dialogue and conversation?
Because Stones Can Speak (page 40)
Andi Cumbo-­‐Floyd connects the preservation of historic African American spaces with the biblical call for mishpat, or justice. Think about your own community. In what ways are the collective experiences (or spaces) of marginalized peoples disrespected? What can you or your faith community do to Hight for mishpat in this context? Think about one area that you might begin to pray about, seeking God’s guidance before acting.
What’s Wrong with Being Comfortable? (page 42)
Len and David Schmidt are disturbed by the fairly widespread teaching that “there is something inherently holy about unhappiness and discomfort.” What does this belief say about God? The authors point out that many Christians sense that God is more or “especially present in occurrences that seem out of the ordinary, abnormal, illogical, or unnatural—in those that seem supernatural.” But they contend that God is “already present and active in the ordinary and the mundane.” Where/when do you tend to sense God most at work? What are the implications of God being active in the mundane? Compassion on the Labor Ward (page 46)
Rachel Marie Stone paraphrases Elaine Scarry, who suggests that “an empathetic connection with a person suffering from pain undoes that world-­‐contracting isolation that is pain’s essence.” What does this statement mean to you? Think back to times in your own life when you have been in extreme pain. Was there anything the people around you did (or could have done) to lessen your pain? In what ways do you offer comfort to people who are in pain?
Is Reality Secular? (page 47)
Mary Poplin has a rather dramatic conversion story of Christ appearing to her in a dream. Ask each person in your group to share his or her conversion story. What do the stories have in common? Who most often plays the role of the seeker—the person or Christ? ReHlect on the question Poplin asks at the end of her article, after describing her own process of conversion and call: What is your Calcutta? To what are you called at this point in your life?
Transitioning to a Positive Future (page 48)
The Transition movement is based on the idea that communities can work towards preparing for future economic shifts and climate change—and they can do it themselves, without waiting for governments to act on their behalf. To deepen this discussion with your church or neighborhood group, watch Transition 2.0, a story about how Transition groups around the world are responding to the challenges of depleting and costly energy resources, Hinancial instability, and environmental change. Or listen to Rob Hopkins’ TED talk about transitioning to a world without oil. What can you and your community do to prepare for future (whether close or far) challenges?
Practicing ESA in India (page 56)
Al Tizon highlights how, on a mission trip to India, he and his church were able to embody many of the principles of ESA—diversity, holistic ministry, and the connection between theology and praxis. Think about the ministries that you or your church is involved in. How do you embody these values within your context? How might you do it better?
What are the costs and beneHits of short-­‐term missions? What is their purpose, and who do you think most beneHits from them? In what ways might we maximize the beneHits of short-­‐term missions? ESSENTIAL RESOURCES FROM
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