Courage

On the front page of the New York Times this morning there is an article about a human rights lawyer in China. His name is Gao Zhisheng, and he has founded a law firm in Beijing that represents citizens in disputes against the Chinese government (land and asset seizures), political dissidents, Christians (who are forbidden from practicing openly), other religious sects, and now citizens in Taishi, Guangdong (last week saw the largest use of military force against civilians in China since the Tiananmin Square massacres in 1989 as police and security forces killed at least 20 villagers and wounded hundreds others in their efforts to dispel protests over government seizures of privately-held land).

Gao's family has been threatened, he is trailed by security forces wherever he goes, and his firm has been shut down by the government for failing to submit a change of address form with the authorities when it moved offices. Despite these intimidation tactics, Gao continues his work. According to the article by Joseph Khan, Gao is currently trying to encourage an underground church in Xingjiang (far western China) to sue China's secret police for harassment and intimidation. He told church members,

I can't guarantee that you will win the lawsuit -- in fact you will most certainly lose. But I warn you that if you are too timid to confront their barbaric behavior, you will be completely defeated.-- Gao Zhisheng, quoted in the NYT 12-13-05

Gao knows the Court will not protect the underground church from the secret police. He knows the danger of their seeking legal protection. He also knows that certain defeat is not sufficient reason for inaction -- the cost of inaction (oppression, suppression of human dignity, injustice) is higher than the cost of defeat (imprisonment, physical abuse, further harassment).

This is the calculus that has sustained human rights advocates over centuries -- from early abolitionists to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Bishop Desmond Tutu, Aung San Suu Kyi, and countless others. Defeat in individual cases may be certain, but the struggle is the only thing that prevents one's complete loss of self. The struggle is the seed of hope.

I'm going to be praying for Gao and I hope you will as well. He and his team of lawyers bring hope (if not immediate victory) to an oppressed people. Gandhi said that his life was his message. Gao could certainly say the same thing. As we go through our days and lift Gao and his colleagues up in prayer, let's also pray for God to show us how our lives might change so they may also be our message -- Our message that God's love, hope, and peace will never yield to brittle threats of physical violence and dysfunctional systems of injustice. Despair will never triumph so long as people like Gao work to build God's kingdom. Let's work alongside him.

Love,

Becky

Pollyanna Ain't Easy

Hey there, sorry I've been AWOL, but the end of the semester is kicking my tail. I've had the best of intentions -- last Saturday, December 10th was the 57th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and I was going to write about how we are doing as a world in terms of living out this declaration (great in some areas and terribly in others) and what we as Christians are called to do in our own communities. I was going to reference Jesus' first public teaching where he read from Isaiah 61 and claims as his mission:

The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. -- Luke 4: 18-19

I was going to end with a compelling reminder that in all we do as Christians, we are called to model Christ. Christ is our living example of how our Creator intended us to live in union with God and with all of creation, and if Christ claims the poor, the prisoners, the blind, and the oppressed as his people, so ought we. If their lives were the focus of his ministry and attention, then so ought they be ours.

But then I didn't write it and the anniversary passed so I scrapped it. Today I am inspired to write on something different. Oddly, it relates. A friend and I were talking last night and he told me he doesn't think I see the real him. Because I have this Pollyanna-ish habit of focusing on the good in people he thinks I don't see his bad. In some ways he's right. My friend's got walls I don't know if the folks who climb Everest could scale -- he certainly doesn't let me peek behind them -- so he prevents me from knowing him completely. And of course, that is absolutely his right.

But at the heart of his accusation is a profound misunderstanding of who we are called to be as Christians and who I have chosen consciously to become. Here's the thing, it's not that I don't see my friends' faults (and it's not just this one friend from last night; like anyone I am a keen observer of others' weaknesses!); it's that I see them and I choose not to focus on them. Paul tells the Ephesians:

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.... Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. -- Ephesians 4: 29-32

We don't build people up by focusing on their bad. We don't strengthen God's kingdom when we nitpick and tear down. We recognize weakness in others and we respond in love. We see their needs (where they live in brokenness) and we respond in ways that offer them opportunities to heal.

I have to tell you, it's not easy. But we all have areas of poverty in our lives; all of us are imprisoned, blinded, or oppressed by something. We fulfill the potential God showed us in Christ when we find those areas in one another and work to help each other find freedom, recovery, and release.

We can't do that if we don't see the weaknesses in our brothers and sisters, but we can't do that if we harp on them either. The premise behind the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is that regard for our inherent dignity is the foundation for freedom, justice and peace. Amen. Our lives are crazy right now with Christmas, but we choose how we act. Let's choose to act consciously in ways that build one another up, knowing that this is one important way we fulfill the potential of the One whose birth we are preparing to celebrate. Spend the next two weeks as Pollyanna, and see whether the gifts you give to those you love actually come in shiny wrapping paper and big poofy bows. I bet the gifts your loved ones will remember are the ones that come in a smile, a word of encourgement, and a promise of hope.

Love,

Becky

Step One

We are beginning our second week of Advent, which is a time of preparation in anticipation of Christ’s birth at Christmas (no, Jesus was probably not born literally on December 25th, but this is when the church celebrates the important event, and precision need not impede our commemoration). We know ‘advent’ to mean ‘coming’ (as in 'the advent of electricity'). For Christians, Advent is the time when we wait for the coming of the One who has come already – and the one we believe will come again.

If we’re willing, we can spend the season learning about who Christ was, and who we ourselves are called to be. If taken seriously, it is a period of reflection, repentance, and renewal. Each of those words can sound scary on its own; in combination, they can read like a real brick wall of church-talk. I hope we can accept them as an invitation. As we learn about Jesus’ life and work we learn about our potential. The challenge as we reflect on Jesus as a man is to move past the stereotypes we have in our heads about who Jesus was (we tend to see more lamb than rebel. Trust me, the boy was a whole lot of rebel!).

Honest reflection on who Christ was and who this tells us we can be often leads us to repentance – not the stale, self-defeating repentance that unceasingly beats up on ourselves for our incapacity to do right, but the living repentance that recognizes that we have choices in how we live, and that we could choose to live differently if we really thought it would be better. To repent is to change direction, and we can change how we act if we want to. When we ask God to help us, we can even change our hearts too.

This change in direction can only renew us. It’s hard to live the half-hearted, deadened, compromised lives so many of us have convinced ourselves is the best we can do. Right? It's tough to live lives with such lukewarm expectations of ourselves and others! So let’s not do it anymore. Let’s live differently. I know it’s scary to risk believing that we can do more, but that risk gives us life. That risk of living as Christ lived connects us to others in a truly elemental way; it breathes God into our actions, and in doing that, it breathes God into us.

So let’s look at that this week. Take some time and read Isaiah 61. I know you might not think that reading an Old Testament prophet will help you understand Christ, but in Luke’s account of Christ’s first public teaching, Jesus claims the mission outlined in Isaiah 61 as his own. So read it, and ask God what good news you can bring to oppressed, how you might heal the brokenhearted, how you may proclaim liberty to those held captive or imprisoned. How might God use you to build up those around you? Just take 5 minutes right now and let God breathe into you a little. And tell me if it doesn't scare the snot out of you at the same time it makes you feel just a little excited.

Love,

Becky

Sometimes it Takes a Little Crazy

I was reading John 6 this morning (biblegateway.com's verse for the day is from John 6 today and I thought I'd get the context -- in my opinion reading the whole chapter is always better than reading a verse or two out of context). As I was reading John 6 I came across the passage where Jesus tells his disciples that he is the bread of life (John 6: 22-71). Read it; it's hysterical! It never occurred to me just how insane Christ sounded when he was talking to his disciples. Here's a small snippet:

So Jesus said to them, "Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. -- John 6: 53-56.

Are you kidding me? No wonder the story goes on to note, "Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him."-- John 6:66. No doubt!

But the twelve stayed. Christ asked them, "'Do you also wish to go away?' Simon Peter answered him, 'Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God'." -- John 6: 67-69.

Now it's not that they really understood what Jesus was telling them (later accounts in John show that they still didn't quite get what was happening with Christ's death. Not a very shocking revelation seeing as how the whole story is pretty incredible). It's that they saw through the insanity of the situation ('eat my flesh') to the truth that lay behind it. It doesn't appear that they even knew what the truth meant; they just knew that Jesus had it, and they were going to stick to him like glue.

They didn't know what it meant; they didn't know where it would take them; they didn't know how they would get where ever it was leading them. They just couldn't deny it.

Thank God for those twelve.

I was at the annual dinner for the International Justice Mission Thursday night, and this story reminds me of them. IJM is a human rights organization that rescues victims of violence, sexual exploitation, slavery, and oppression. They have offices throughout the developing world and do things like pull girls out of brothels who have been sold as prostitutes, close down the 'clinics' that perform female genital mutilation, and help individuals who have been scammed into bondage gain their emancipation (did you know that in India, where thousands of people live in debt bondage and are forced to make bricks 14 hour days, 7 days a week, the average debt that keeps a family enslaved for generations is $20? Look in your wallet and see how many people you could free right now. If you're interested in learning more about modern slavery, check out Kevin Bales' book, Disposable People).

Overall, roughly 27 million people live in slavery today. Every year, 1 million new girls are trafficked as sex slaves. Like their adult counterparts in India, Pakistan, Brazil, Mauritania, and elsewhere, they are well hidden; they are silent; and they are completely powerless.

Gary Haugen is the lawyer who saw through that insanity in 1997 and started IJM. He didn't know what that meant, or where it would take him, or how he would get to where he is. He just couldn't deny what he knew: His brothers and sisters were being exploited and God had given him the legal training and heart to help. He started with an office in the Washington, DC area. Eight years later IJM has over 10 offices worldwide and employs over 100 people who offer victim relief (getting people out of their exploitive situation), hold perpetrators to account (using countries' legal systems to punish those who exploit), develop means of prevention (educating those at risk and developing local capacity to enforce existing laws), and provide victim aftercare (helping those who have been exploited transition into new lives of hope).

How did one guy ever think he'd be able to do that? He didn't let the insanity of what was presented to him get in his way of the truth. I imagine Gary's encountered people like the Jews who confronted Jesus that day in Capernaum. People who say, "Who are you? Aren't you just that guy we've always known? Who are you to think you have something special in you?" or "You think I ought to be doing what? That's crazy. I live in the real world here, and I'm going to take care of my real world problems. You can go chase fairies on your own." I'm glad he did. Last year IJM freed 200 victims. 200 people who were enslaved, exploited, and oppressed live free lives today because of the work IJM does around the world. We can't know how many more were saved from being enslaved to begin with as IJM's prevention programs take root.

Thank God for crazy people.

Love,

Becky

The Stench of Death

Cheery title, huh? Well, I don’t want you to feel cheery today. Today, (December 1st) is World AIDS Day. World AIDS Day began in 1988 to promote awareness and action in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Back then the World Health Organization (WHO) reported 84,256 cases of AIDS worldwide. Today, over 40 million people are infected with HIV. That’s the entire state of California plus an extra 4 million (South Carolina? Kentucky?) people living with HIV. Over the past year, 3.1 million people have died from this disease (all of Mississippi or Iowa). Of those 3.1 million deaths, 1.2 million were women (Hawaii, New Hampshire, Rhode Island) and 510,000 were children under the age 15 (the whole state of Wyoming).

Thankfully, with international attention and the generous financial assistance of folks like us, groups like The Global Fund has begun programs in developing countries to educate people about how to avoid contracting HIV and how to avoid spreading it if they’re already infected. They also raise funds and launch local programs to ensure that everyone has access to the anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) they need to live (and for expectant mothers not to pass the disease along to their children in childbirth).

Interested in learning more about the global AIDS epidemic? The One Campaign has a great one-page fact sheet you can read to get quick info. For more detailed information, the UNAIDS-WHO partnership has published the AIDS Epidemic Update.

As we all know, AIDS isn’t just ‘out there’. America currently has over 1 million people infected with HIV (CDC estimates that a quarter of those infected are undiagnosed and unaware of their infection). That's a lot less than the 1 in 10 people in Rwanda who are infected, but it's still 1 million too many. Something I didn’t know until I started snooping for this post was this – AIDS is a scourge in the American black community. Some information I found from the Black Coalition on AIDS:

• AIDS now accounts for 1 in 3 deaths among Black men aged 25 to 4
• More children with AIDS are Black than all other race and ethnic groups combined
• Every day in the U.S. about 100 people of color become infected with HIV
• More than two-thirds of all women in the U.S. who are infected with the AIDS virus are Black
• Blacks represent 57% of all new AIDS cases in the United States, though comprising only 13% of the population
• AIDS is the leading cause of death of Blacks, age 25-44
• AIDS is the leading cause of death for Black women

Monday we reflected on what it means to love our neighbor. The author of 1 John told us that we demonstrate our love of God by loving our brothers in sisters. Our brothers and sisters are sick, and those who don’t have money (and that’s most people, don’t forget) are dieing simply because they’re poor. Knowing that this deadly disease robs millions of people of their health, hope, families, and futures, what is our response?

First, we have a responsibility to educate our own children, youth, and friends about how HIV is contracted and how responsible, protected sex can help prevent our infection. Oh, and how ‘pseudo-sex’ acts don’t necessarily keep us safe – those of us who abstain and still fool around? We’re fooling ourselves. Ditto for those who use intravenous drugs. The drugs will kill you if you give them long enough; the infected blood on the syringe used will do the trick as well.

Second, Most towns have a group that serves their HIV positive community. Just google “AIDS volunteer ‘your town’” and see what comes up.

Third, President Bush is making a speech today on World AIDS day. You can share your thoughts on U.S. policy in combating AIDS by writing to The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500; calling 202-456-1111; or emailing comments@whitehouse.gov. You can learn more about what our government is doing by reading here.

Fourth, the Global Fund can certainly use all of our help. If you would like to help, check them out here.

What else can we do? If anyone knows this issue, please let us know!

Love you,

Becky