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brotherly love

Wow so long since I posted and a lot has happened since I was gone. Over the coming months I will bring you up-to-date. But first let me update you on the previous post “politeness: an excuse for inaction.”

Several people in the church, particularly our adult ministries pastor befriended James, who was the homeless man in that post. James was always smiling but had real difficulty sitting through services and had to get up and wander around somewhat nervously. Never-the-less people genuinely loved James and I also enjoyed talking with him even though he never really had too much to say. After several months James made a confession of faith and was baptized.

Some months later on a mid-winter Sunday I said “hello” to James and asked as I always did, “how are you doing?” Instead of replying with the expected “fine” he said, “not that well—I have lung cancer—they told me last Friday.”

It was not long before James had gone. Large number of his extended family attended his funeral and they praised James’ his good points and spoke candidly about his struggles—for all these things clearly they loved James.

One of the family members looked at me and said, “who are you?” “I am from Philpott Church” I replied. “James loved that church” she said. “We loved him too” I responded.

As I think of James I realize that homeless people can go to to get all kinds of social service help but where can they go to get help and also be loved like a brother? Well hopefully they can go to you and your church! So look out for James because he or someone like him will need not only your help, but your love.

politness: an excuse for inaction?

Last week I noticed that a person who was homeless sitting near me in Church needed a shower and a change of clothes. Some may say that it is impolite for me to mention such things and better to ignore it, but I disagree because politeness can prevent us from addressing people’s real needs.

I am sure the lack of freshness was not this guy’s fault, after all how does a homeless person go about getting a change of clothing and a shower? If politeness means I ignore his condition then I may also be ignoring what God expects me to do. A friend sitting next to me said she was remembering how Jesus washed his disciple’s feet—how can I do any less?

Note to self: Ask those at church working with people who are homeless what I can do to help.

you asked - and I am back!

A few people have asked me to come back to blogging, some have even begged!

Okay so I am back!

I was going to move this blog to a wordpress site and I had taken all the posts offline ready to go, but then Blogger added some new features and so I am back here again and I am repopulating all the old posts as well as indexing them too (a nice new feature). This may take some time but when it is done I will go back to adding new posts once again.

Enjoy!

narnia - not a perfect world

I am anticipating the release of the movie, “The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.” Today’s sermon at church starts a series of three sermons on the topic. The issue I want to raise here on this Christian social justice site is the racist and sexist content of the books.

Are the books racist and sexist? YES. But we shouldn’t expect them to be otherwise; as much as I admire the author C. S. Lewis he was a conservative male, he was part of a very elite and privileged class, he worked in a male institution in an age where racism and sexism were unapologetically embedded in society. Watch the movie “chariots of fire” and you get a glimpse of that racism in academia at the time, particularly toward people from the middle-east and this particular form of racism plays itself out in the stereotypes Lewis uses, especially Narnia book “the horse and his boy.” Sexism is evident in all the books!

I don’t think that Lewis deliberately set out to spread racist or sexist ideas, instead I think his life decisions and his writing inadvertently produced predominant societal values. Before we judge him too harshly for this I remind you that racism, sexism and other isms are still with us today even though we have learnt to more effectively eradicate them from our language.

Should parts of the Narnia books should be re-drafted to get rid of the offensive sections? I think so—I believe that if Lewis had the insights we have today about the ways racism and sexism operate he would welcome the change. Fortunately in this first movie some minor changes have been made to better represent his work for today's audience.

In the mean time I plan to re-read the books and I will enjoy them even though in some parts the isms will make me cringe! But still — way to go C S Lewis — you remain one of my favorite authors flaws and all! And let us remember - although the Narnia stories are not perfect - the story they represent is!

goodbye george

George Best (pronounced "Georgie" Best) shown above in the number 11 shirt dies today. As stated by the London Times:

"GEORGE BEST was the greatest footballer that ever lived. Let us be perfectly clear about that, no matter what other judgments we make about a life that mixed the beautiful with the banal in dreadful and ultimately lethal ways." read more

Some people point out that George was a “drunk” and argue that we should not celebrate his life. For sure George's demon was drink – he was an alcoholic and the bottle was something he was never able to kick – in the end it killed him. Yet I wonder if any of George’s critics, even though stone cold sober, will ever touch as many hearts as he did. Even when hung over George could and did outplay the best in the world! Perhaps it was this apparently superhuman talent combined with his human failures that made many of us love him so.

Rest in peace George Best – let us remember you for who you were – a very human superhero!

goodbye rosa parks

Rosa Parks passed away today. Many people say "it took Rosa to sit down for Martin to stand up," and that was so! Most people know her as the Black woman who was arrested in 1955 for sitting in a bus in the Whites-only section. Actually she sat Black section of the bus but refused to move when the driver ordered her out of her seat so that a White person could have it. Either way, Rosa was determined not to be moved:

"If you don't stand up, I'm going to call the police," the driver threatened. "You may do that" she replied.

Rosa was arrested and the rest is history. But the history did not stop with the bus boycott, Rosa continued to play a key role in social justice issues all her life.

Rosa we will miss you! Thank you for making us a better society even though it cost you so much! May we all learn from you to see racism and other forms of injustice for what it is, may we be inspired to have courage like yours and stand up (or sit down) for what is right even if there are social consequences. We need that vision and courage, because the work you helped begin is not done yet - we still have a long way to go to be rid of racism, sexism and other isms too.

Rosa "Lee" Louise Parks, civil rights campaigner, born February 4 1913; died October 24 2005 age 92.

Click here for audio report by Gary Younge.

showing mercy

To really show mercy in the way God intended you have to have experienced it—at least that is what today’s message said and also last weeks message too.

But when was I shown mercy? Well on the road to Jericho when the Good Samaritan stopped! That parable is not just about how we need to be like the Good Samaritan it is also about how each of us as a Christian have been shown mercy. When Lane (our Pastor) shared this it really struck home and I was reminded of an old truth in a new way.

Yes it was me on that mountain road beaten up and with no hope. There was nothing I could do to save myself, nothing I could do to get up, to make myself well, to make myself clean. All I could do is wait in the dirt for death. Religion was unable to help me and the law just condemned me—I was lost! But a stranger came along and showed mercy—his name was Jesus. Bandaging my wounds he took me to a safe place and paid the price for me to be healed.

When we as Christians help the poor and the destitute it is not because we are better than they, it is because we have been shown mercy and we want to go and do likewise in His name.

poverty: day of action

Monday October 17 is a Canadian National day of action to “make poverty history.” The Campaign 2000 Website has useful Canadian information and also has report cards that detail the ongoing extent and causes of children living in poverty within Canada. This campaign is not just about helping the poor through charity, but about tackling some of the causes of poverty in society. Just as the campaign 2000 WebSite gives details about structural causes of poverty in Canada and suggests some solutions, this BBC news report provides an analysis of the inequalities that cause poverty on a global scale and also suggests soltions.

liberty bell

In 1766 the Liberty Bell rang in the USA to proclaim Independence. The inscription on the Bell reads, "Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof." This text is a quote from Leviticus 25.10 that signaled the start of the jubilee in ancient Israel.

At my church we have been looking at these verses and thinking about our responsibility to help the poor. God set rules to help the poor on a day-by-day basis but He also set rules that stopped the causes of poverty—the rule of the Jubilee. In the year of jubilee, which took place every 50 years, the trumpet is sounded to "Proclaim Liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof" (the inscription on the Liberty Bell) and slaves were set free and all property that had been sold is returned to the original owning families—with the exception of property in walled cities. I think this exception was made because property inside cities was not linked to the primary means of production and wealth (fields and crops).

This law sets principles of social justice because any social system some people by either luck or good decisions will get wealthy while others by misfortune or poor choices will fall into poverty and as we know once you get rich it is easier to get richer and once you are poor it is hard to catch up. In Leviticus God allows this system to occur but only to an extent because in the jubilee He establishes a policy that settles all debts and returns all property. In today’s society we have no jubilee and we see how wealth begets wealth and poverty begets poverty generation after generation. Children born into poverty too easily become trapped in that cycle because they often lack good health care and nutrition, they live in the parts of the city where schooling is inadequate and even if they can obtain the grades they can't obtain funds for college or university. Simply stated the odds are that the children of the poor, the unemployed and the underemployed are not going to get the same life opportunities as the children of the President of the local shipping line or steel mill. Now of course such disadvantage does not always determine what we achieve because we all know people who beat the odds and successfully made it all the way up a very uneven playing field—but God is not satisfied to leave it like that. Instead God believed it necessary to level the playing field every 50 years. God essentially put limits on the extent people can compound their advantage over others and He limited to the extent poverty and inequality became generational.

Why are Christians not supporting a rule like this today? Most North American Evangelical Christians like to talk about justice and God’s law when it comes to individual crime, but shy away from God’s word and deny His will when it comes to His laws on social justice. Yet Leviticus 25 spells out a need for a societal system that limits the extent wealth and poverty are compounded. But how do we operationlise this in a modern world? I don’t think it is realistic to make those who own property give it all back and it will not work to put all the means of production in a common purse—in the modern world communism has been no more successful than capitalism in achieving social justice and equity. Instead the rich should be encouraged to keep their land and should continue to manage production, but for the privilege of keeping that which a jubilee would have them return, they should pay taxes to support opportunities to level the playing field. As a modern society we may not be able to have a social policy jubilee as set out by God in Leviticus 25, but we do need similar principles that mitigates against the rich monopolizing wealth and opportunity and the poor being consistently excluded from it.

If God saw the need for such a social system, so should we. Indeed, it is time for the liberty bell ring and the churches should be ringing it—we need to understand that as Christians we not only have simply an individual responsibility to the poor but we have a societal responsibility too—we need a modern day equivalent of jubilee.