jonathan stegall: creative tension

Follow Me to Freedom

2010-03-03T04:15:57Z

I recently read Follow Me to Freedom: Leading As an Ordinary Radical by Shane Claiborne and John Perkins, and as I expected it was a wonderful read. Shane’s has been an invaluable voice for me the last few years, and John Perkins is a fascinating person as well. This particular one is important, both because it brings together two very different voices in dialog with each other, and because of the subject of radical leadership in the kind of ministry and activism that these two do.

Among these kind of communities, as well as in the broader emerging/missional church, leadership is often a tricky issue. It is hard to lead people who have been burnt by bad leadership, and are often skeptical that there is such a thing as good leadership. But that’s what this book is about: good leadership. This is leadership that is willing to lead and follow folks into something bigger than an individual, through crisis and pain, rejecting the power of violence and oppression in favor of the power of the Cross, toward freedom and real community; patiently waiting for the dreams of God.

I’ve read a number of books on leadership, from a business and a ministry perspective. This one and Henri Nouwen’s In the Name of Jesus stand apart from all the others, and have shaken the ways I think about the idea and the practice of leading. I can’t recommend both highly enough, and I really think it’s possible to spend a lifetime learning the principles that both teach.

But at the moment, I want to look at two specific concepts from this one, as they deal directly with a deep fear that I have, and a dangerous tendency that I have.

The first is said like this:

A blessing is like a living organism, not some kind of plaque we hang on a wall or meal we eat at the end of the day. The promise contains hope, but there is always an element of it that goes unfulfilled. Sure, we might make progress and see some of that promise come about, but what we pass along is hope and a vision that can be carried forth, and a little bit more of it will be fulfilled by the next generation, and then the next.

I often wonder if I’ll accomplish anything with my life. Part of it, I’m sure, is American individualism. Another, just selfish pride. Part, still, is a genuine desire to be used for the kingdom of Jesus, but the fear is betrayed when I grasp the truth of simple things like this. I do think there is a tension between living into a view of promise like this one, and living into a good story, and I think that is where the Spirit can take us.

It seems as though I could lean on this idea of a future promise and never do anything, and later wonder why I didn’t live a good story; yet it also seems that I could try to force myself into a story and accomplish nothing better than burnout, hurting any number of folks around me. Folks like Donald Miller and Shane Claiborne, encouraging us to live into good stories, are not pushers of legalism but it is possible for us to take their thoughts, like so many other beautiful thoughts, and put legalistic demands upon ourselves. I need to learn this.

The second concept that I hope to learn is said like this:

One of the great things about my generation is our global awareness. With the Internet and all, the world has shrunk into a global neighborhood. Folks are aware of what’s happening in Uganda and East Timor. Young folks care about who made their clothes and where their bananas come from and how much the folks who grew their coffee got paid. But there is also a sort of missional ADD. Young people want to do everything … for three months.

The discussion there goes on to talk about the need for developing roots, and the need for patience – especially in the kind of neighborhoods where people like Shane and John live. John makes a statement that it takes 10 to 12 years to see lasting change in these kind of places. The same is true for folks in underground subcultures – roots and stability are necessary things.

I’ve yet to find a place where I feel I can put down these kind of roots, and part of it is because of this kind of “missional ADD” that Shane talks about. I see so many beautiful things that God is doing in the world, and so many places where the world bleeds for the peace and justice of the kingdom of God, and I want to do something for all of them. It becomes paralyzing to narrow down the things I could do and the places I could go because I fear that I’ll miss out on what I should be doing.

I don’t have the financial resources to follow through on this kind of missional ADD, at least in an extreme sense, but I fear the potential of spending five years in one place, two years in another, three in another, and so on without planting these kind of roots into something bigger than myself.

Send a tent to Haiti

2010-02-22T13:29:18Z

As you may know, Haiti has a rainy season that is in its beginning stages. You may also know that an unbearable number of Haitians are homeless. Many have been given nothing but tarps to shelter through the rain. Too many NGOs and government organizations discouraged the sending of tents to the country (due to space, apparently), and further too many of these large organizations bought out the stock of tents for themselves. Finally, though, the UN pleaded for tents as a desperate need.

Since the earthquake, an acquaintance of ours, Shaun King, has been working tirelessly here in Atlanta and with folks on the ground in Haiti to bring awareness to these things, calling for and providing tents from the beginning. The need, though, continues to be dire. Please send a tent if you can.

Shaun has shared seminary classes with Kiera at Candler. He also blogs, tweets prolifically, and pastors a church here in Atlanta. We don’t agree with him on everything, but he is real and crazy, and is getting things done. You can trust him. You can purchase a tent and send it directly to his church, or you can donate money and they will purchase it. Either way it will then be sent directly to teams on the ground in Haiti.

He’ll be taking trips to Haiti in March, but as I said he has been working with small, effective groups on the ground in Haiti since the earthquake. He has been able to avoid the utter gridlock that often happens when bigger organizations like the Red Cross were not previously in the country, and their aid gets stopped at the Haitian government (this is the benefit of both long-term organizations like World Concern, and of small groups of untrained, passionate individuals who work with those organizations).

If you are curious about Shaun, explore his Twitter stream. If you can, send a tent.

Theology From the Mop Closet

2010-02-23T02:30:57Z

I got married, as I’ve said, on December 6, 2003. A couple of weeks after that, I got a job as a full-time, night shift (4pm – midnight) custodian at First United Methodist Church of Lakeland, Florida. At the time, I was a junior in college. I kept the job until February of 2006, less than a year before I finished at my second college.

For most of the time that I worked there, I worked with another guy who was double majoring in religion and music at another college in Lakeland. The college where I pursued undergraduate theological education is fairly conservative, and is solidly situated in the Pentecostal movement, and more specifically in the Assemblies of God. The college where my friend pursued his undergraduate education is solidly situated in classic liberal Christianity, and has connections with the United Methodist Church.

Both of these colleges have religion departments. Sadly, there is no dialogue between the two colleges or their religion departments, which are barely two miles apart; just as there is very little dialogue between the larger worlds of conservative and liberal Christianity in the United States. In a very broad sense, though with notable exceptions, the one I attended is more focused on “church ministry,” while my friend’s is focused more on theology, and expects folks to go on to seminary to learn “church ministry.” In any case, because my friend and I worked together, for forty hours a week for roughly two years; cleaning toilets, vacuuming rooms, sweeping and mopping floors, and moving lots of heavy furniture, we spent a lot of time in this kind of dialogue.

During the time that we worked together, we impacted each other’s theological and spiritual views and thoughts in significant ways. We spent large amounts of time discussing theology, the Bible, spirituality, ministry, politics, activism, and any number of other things. We agreed, disagreed, changed each other’s minds, agreed to continue disagreeing, and knew regardless that both of us were seeking the heart of God. Later I was in his wedding. We remain close friends today.

For a year or so, I also taught the high school Sunday School class with him at that church, and loved it. I think the folks in the class benefited from dialoging with us, as we trusted one another enough to give freedom to teach things differently than we would have taught them, even within the same lesson. Even now, four or five years after the last time we taught them, we occasionally hear from some who remember things we said and did, and were impacted by them.

Now. This all probably sounds fluffy and idealistic. But for the first several months that we worked together, at least, we didn’t do any of this. We just argued. We talked past each other, we didn’t listen to each other, we didn’t hang out with each other. As I’ve said, our colleges didn’t dialog with each other. But they did mention each other. Students at his college thought the folks at my school were crazy, primitive conservatives in the vein of the Falwells and Robertsons of the world, maybe combined with some old-fashioned revivalism. Students at my college thought the folks at his school were crazy, overeducated liberals in the vein of the Jesus Seminar, maybe combined with a complete lack of experience of the Spirit.

Neither were true. It took us time to learn this. Time to learn that we could listen to each other’s theologies, experience each other’s spiritualities – and take on and be shaped by them to varying extents (though we did, and still, disagree on many things) – without losing our own identities, our own theologies, our own convictions. These things are important. The failure to remember this is the failure of the ecumenical movement of the 20th century.

It could potentially be the dividing factor of Emergent Village, and this is why many of us who are not saying goodbye are saddened by the goodbyes of those who are. For the last few years, I have seen this kind of dialog happen within Emergent circles. To an extent it is continuing to happen as folks here and there state that, regardless of whatever theological differences they might have with whomever they might have them they don’t need to say goodbye. I’m with them on that.

Mike Clawson’s to that effect is especially relevant in the context here, as he reflects upon the accusation that Brian McLaren (in light of the controversy around his new book) and other folks are too liberal, while in the setting of a mainline seminary they are not liberal at all. This is where the dialog can end, and maybe it is unavoidable. I’m hoping it isn’t.

This is another example of us talking past one another. The friend I’ve mentioned in this post is a liberal, attending a liberal seminary (where my wife is, as well). Professors regularly call him a heretic. I occasionally think he’s really sketchy. Aside from his ecclesiology (which may in fact be part of the broader issue here, with jobs and such on the line), he thinks most Emergent theological thought is moderate to conservative.

But it’s okay. There’s a deep awareness that, regardless of disagreements, the Spirit is present. Desire for the kingdom of God and the lordship of Jesus in the lives of real people is present. And it goes back to a mop closet, a custodial cart, and a vacuum cleaner.

Thy Kingdom Connected

2010-02-09T04:40:13Z

Thanks to TheOOZE Viral Bloggers, I recently got to read Thy Kingdom Connected: What the Church Can Learn from Facebook, the Internet, and Other Networks by Dwight Friesen. He is a professor at Mars Hill Graduate School in Seattle. As a person who has a passion for web and user experience design, and for the church and its mission in the world, I love it when I find people, or books, or other things that speak into both worlds, and this is one of those things.

The book seeks to link together a number of thoughts and disciplines – ecclesiology, science, network theory, missiology, and spirituality, among others – to indicate the incredible interconnectedness in which we can live, and how that affects the way we think about leadership, theology, ministry, and the mission of God and the church in the world.

The subtitle is a little misleading, first of all. I don’t recall more than one or two mentions of Facebook, specifically, in the entire book. This is a wonderful thing, as far as I’m concerned, because Facebook is just one part, albeit a very large and influential part, of much broader things that are going on in culture. It is also just one manifestation of the larger discussion that Dwight brings to us of scale-free networks, of hubs and links and nodes of various sizes and connectedness, connecting everyone to everything.

A related observation: the book does not spend time telling us how to use Facebook, or Twitter, or any other specific networks. I think he assumes we can get this information elsewhere, or that we are already doing these things. This is one of the great strengths of the book, as most books that try to tell people how to use social networks are out of date by the time the print has dried. Thinking about networks theologically and thinking about the church through network theory is, in my opinion, far more valuable and can help us understand the implications of these core parts of culture.

This is the image that he gives us of the people of God – nodes of people connected through real relationships and encounters to other people. He also gives us this image of a connected, linking God, and reminds us of the perichoresis. God is not a lighthouse, standing afar off from us, but even in God’s essence there is linking, connecting, and relating in the Great Dance between the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, and we are invited into that Dance.

There are beautiful thoughts on leadership in the days of Google, which for me fit really well with the conversations that are happening around Theology After Google. The ideas being presented in the book remind us that people don’t come to us, as the church or as ministers or as individuals, giving us authority or asking us to give them information.

They come to us, and we can give away our authority by creating genuine connections. Connections with God and the reconciling work of Jesus in the world, and connections with others. This kind of image of the kingdom of God, then, is relational and always moving, and is thus chaotically unpredictable.

These images lead into specific practices, and specific ways of creating space for people to engage God and others. There are beautiful ideas on how leaders can creatively seek to create this kind of space in their networks, and how each network has to be in relation to other networks in order to thrive. This leads into discussions of missiology, and how we understand our encounters with people who are fully Other from us; whether or not we allow ourselves to be shaped by these encounters.

All of the images in the book move back to the mission of God in the world – creatively reconciling people to God and to each other, and understanding that mission in light of things we know about the world through computer networks, ecological systems, tapestries, and other intricately connected things. I’d highly recommend this one.

Thoughts on Jim Wallis in Atlanta

2010-02-06T21:51:22Z

Lastnight, we had the opportunity to see Jim Wallis of Sojourners in Atlanta on the book tour for his new book, Rediscovering Values: On Wall Street, Main Street, and Your Street. We were a little late, and since the main room was full, he was broadcasted into an overflow room where we sat.

I’ve been a fan of Sojourners and Jim Wallis for almost ten years, but I’d never met or seen him in person, so this was a great experience for me. We listened to his talk, and then we almost accidentally bumped into him when everyone was heading into the lobby. We bought his new book, and got to shake his hand and thank him for coming, and he asked us a couple of questions, and then we left.

When we first came in, he was talking about the excessive bonuses that bankers from the biggest Wall Street firms recently received. He spoke of all of the things that the hundreds of millions of dollars could have done instead, and also of the folks who have been foreclosed upon because of their unjust practices (people who had enough money for a house loan but were tricked into dangerous loans, for example). He compared the story of these bankers to the parable of the unjust servant that Jesus told. The bankers were given extraordinary grace, in that sense, when we bailed them out; but they have refused to extend that same grace to folks who have been affected by their own choices.

Moving on from the specific example of the bankers and their bonuses, he spoke profoundly about the condition of which the bankers are a symptom. Our need to have everything, focus on ourselves, and only worry about the present has led us into the present economic crisis, and we can either (gradually) go back to the way we were, and at some point find ourselves in another crisis, or we can be truly affected by where these things have brought us, and move somewhere else. We can realize that “enough is enough,” “we are all in this together”, and think about “the seventh generation out,” as he reminded us.

He spoke of the winds of change that are occurring, speaking of his experiences at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where he had conversations about values and morality in our economic system with folks ranging from Eric Schmidt to Barney Frank. He spoke of his own travels around the country, speaking with folks who have the two great hungers he sees – spirituality and social justice – and the desire for something to bring them together.

He constantly reminded us that religion does not have a monopoly on morality, but that faith traditions offer practices and perspectives and histories to achieve these kind of changes. He reminded us of the need for a hopeful populism. If you know of Jim Wallis, you know that he is not a Tea Partier, and he recognizes that they have affected our perception of the word populism, and reframed it differently than the focuses that they have into something that is much more concerned with justice, the poor, and hope.

After talking for an hour or so about these kind of things, he answered several questions and then went into the lobby to hang out with folks. Not having read the book yet, I’m not sure how much of his talk was from it and how much was just informed by its concepts, but either way I’d encourage you to see the tour if it comes near you, and pick up the book. I disagree with him from time to time, as I often lean more toward the Anabaptist way of looking at culture, but he is an important voice for those of us who want to see spirituality and justice come close.

Abstinence education, pledges, and real life

2010-02-04T04:21:53Z

Recently, for various reasons¹, there has been a good deal of talk about the merits and failures of abstinence-only sex education. The idea is, for some folks, that it is unrealistic to expect anyone to avoid sex before marriage, and that abstinence pledges are ineffective and dangerous. The idea for other folks is that we have to expect everyone to avoid sex before marriage, and that to even teach teenagers about contraceptives is immoral and dangerous.

This is basically where the debate stands, at least within the church. Liberals on one side, conservatives on another. Just like so many other things. I’m interested in a third way, though. I’ve seen a few other people mention that they’d like a third way too, but it usually ends up fitting within either the conservative or liberal framework within which they find themselves. Maybe mine will too. Either way, it’s worth a try.

Context within pluralism

To start: abstinence-only sex education in a pluralistic society fails because it isn’t realistic for people without convictions that sex before marriage is wrong to avoid it. It’s just not. People without this conviction shouldn’t be forced to live as though they have it. But whether a conviction is from Christianity, Judaism, Islam, another religion, straight-edge (there aren’t many of those left, but still a few), or a sincere desire to focus on other parts of life is irrelevant – the fact is that there is a conviction for certain folks, and that gives things, at the very least, the potential of being different.

Fine. But of course, focusing on folks with that conviction doesn’t account for the multitudes of teenagers who sign the oft-mocked virginity pledges at youth rallies, indicating that they’ll be abstinent until marriage. We know that most of them aren’t. We also know that many of them do genuinely desire to keep these pledges and the convictions associated with them, and that when they don’t, many of them become burdened with guilt and self-judgment, sometimes affecting their capability to have healthy sex lives once they do get married.

The reaction to this is, for some, a belief that it is unrealistic and outdated for us to expect followers of Jesus to live lives of abstinence before marriage. Various interpretative stances are taken on various Scriptures, and we are left with a vague notion of teaching teenagers about contraceptives and how to have sex intelligently.

For other folks, of course, the reaction is a deeper entrenchment into the culture wars, stating that this is all the fault of the media, politicians, liberals, homosexuals, or whoever else can be scapegoated with the blame for the “failure” of youth to live up to the standards put upon them. This, of course, leads to more guilt, and it also (rightly) leads the people that are being scapegoated to have even more dislike for Christian culture than they already do.

A possible third way

So this third way, as I call it for lack of other things to call it, is for those who do, for whatever religious or cultural or philosophical reasons, believe that sex should exist within a marriage. It doesn’t necessarily depend upon a specific faith, though it would be shaped by whatever context in which it found itself. For this purpose, I’m writing for followers of Jesus, as that is the perspective from which my wife and I approached it in our lives, and the perspective from which I’d love my own kids to approach it one day.

My wife and I married as virgins. Seriously. Both of us are genuinely grateful for this, and can’t overstate the freedom that is present in learning how to live sexually and how to be vulnerable and seek to love one another, together, without needing prior knowledge. I can’t overstate how great an opportunity I think that is. This is not to say that we suddenly became sexual creatures when we got married because we never had thoughts or desires or temptations before that time, or that we immediately became amazing sexual masters when we got married. Neither is the case, and neither is a realistic expectation for people to have.

This journey of ours is one of the reasons I believe sex is designed to happen within a marriage. I think there are marriages in which sex shouldn’t happen without intense change, because there are far too many marriages in which it happens ignorantly, oppressively, and beneath its potential for both powerful love and vulnerability, and for glimpses of the sacred. But I do, still, believe that it is designed to exist and flourish within a healthy marriage. I’m familiar with exegetical and theological arguments that put such thoughts in the realm of biblical interpretations that we should resign to the past, and I disagree with them.²

I think it is preferable and realistic for followers of Jesus to live this way. Teaching it includes everything from how to deal with temptations while seeking to live a kingdom-focused life, to understanding why sexuality is relevant to such a life, to learning how to think about one’s spouse in an holistic and egalitarian way when marriage does happen. It also involves helping people to embrace the lavish grace that Jesus gives to us in order to, and when we fail to, treat sexuality as we should – both in significant and seemingly insignificant ways, and both inside and outside of marriage. All of these things have powerful potential to impact lives and marriages.

People who believe that an important part of following Jesus is waiting for sex within marriage don’t do it by signing a pledge at a youth rally when they are 12, 13, or even 20. It doesn’t work that way. They do it the same way anyone follows Jesus in any other area – day by day, learning the rhythms of grace. They do it by seeking to be in situations, and in relationships with people, that help them and empower them, and by seeking to resist things that don’t. They do it by living in communion with the Spirit, and seeking to reject sin and injustice, both personal and systemic, as the Spirit helps them.

Including a recent study that indicated some success in a program that encouraged teenagers to abstain from sex. It is a small study, but it seems to have had an encouraging focus on dialog and honest discussion, rather than fear and hiding of facts.
Note that I’m not commenting on the biblical interpretations of homosexuality, as I feel that they are very complex, and I don’t know – or think I need to know – what the right answer is. Suffice it to say, at the moment, that I strongly support marriage for my GLBT brothers and sisters, and include their relationships as those that should have healthy, married sex.

Thinking of Israel

2010-02-01T14:01:40Z

I’ve never been a person who wanted to go to Israel. I’ve known lots of people who wanted to go, and a good number of people – pastors and professors and such – who have been, but nothing I’d heard in the past has been at all compelling. Plus, I find most of the talk of Israel, both within the church and within American politics on both sides, to be disgusting, and that doesn’t help. Israel is an occupying force, and no one wants to talk about it.

But recently, I’ve seen a different side, that of nonviolent activism for peace, on the part of Israelis and Palestinians, starting with this interview on The Daily Show a couple of months ago, but really becoming something else entirely with the trip that Brian McLaren, Mike Todd, and other folks have been on a trip “to see the places where the Spirit of God is working now – for reconciliation, justice, and peace in the midst of turmoil.”

I want to draw attention to the things that have been said about and during, and the issues that are being examined. I’m sure both of them will continue reflecting now that they are home, and I encourage you to read all of their thoughts on this.

Brian, at one point, writes several things that have stuck out to me:

If you get a chance to go to Israel and Palestine, I encourage you to take it – but only if you can go on an alternative tour that will have you spending time in the West Bank, meeting both Palestinians and Israelis so you can see for yourself how different the reality is from the impressions gained from our well-managed media and highly-lobbied government.

January 29

We have spoken with many Palestinians in the West Bank and in East Jerusalem so far in our pilgrimage, both Christian and Muslim. Their voices are seldom heard in our corporate media, so it has made sense to meet, listen to, and understand them. But of course we’ve met with Israeli folks too. Yesterday we had some particularly important conversations with Israeli Jewish voices. They agreed that there will be no change in Israeli policy until the US decides to stop giving Israel a blank check.

January 27

If you’ve never been in both Israel and Palestine, I hope you will start questioning what you think you know about the situation here. I’ve been an avid reader on the subject for quite a while, but being here now, I see how many of my most basic assumptions were skewed from a lifetime of half-truths, unfair and imbalanced news, well-planned propaganda, and misinformation.

January 25

It was a reminder that the struggle here is not about people. It’s not about Jews versus Palestinians or vice versa. It’s not about choosing who the good guys and bad guys are, as our media so often portrays it (and sadly, as our religious leaders so often do as well).

January 23

But what is especially powerful – and what keeps us from being overwhelmed with cynicism or anger – is the lack of hatred among the Palestinians we are meeting with – both Christians and Muslims. Again and again we hear the word “non-violent” and we see a desire not for revenge or even isolation … but for reconciliation. To my surprise (based on expectations from the US media), I haven’t met a single Palestinian who wants a two-state solution. They want to live in peace with Israelis.

January 22

Mike writes equally poignant things, though he does not blog as much when he travels and will write more in the coming days and weeks:

The church has for too long swallowed the prevailing narrative about Israel’s policies in the occupied territories without question.

January 29

This is not about choosing sides. However, I’ll repeat an earlier assertion I’ve made, and that is that we have been fed a narrative that is simply wrong. It’s fiction, if you will. More about that to come I’m sure, but this is a big one: The church in the west must start thinking again, and not simply buy what we are told. From where I’m sitting this morning we are looking very foolish.

January 25

Again, I can’t encourage you enough to read the full posts, and the other things that Mike and Brian will be writing as they continue to process.

But I have to say: this honestly makes me willing to go to Israel on this kind of trip, should the opportunity ever arise. There is a beauty that is present there that, certainly we could assume was there, but I at least hadn’t heard anything about – people who have voices that we need to hear, stories that would inspire and change us, and a real desire for peace and nonviolent reconciliation.

I would like to see Barack Obama sit in this realm with his discussions of and with Israel. He is often accused of standing against Israel, but this is a completely unrealistic accusation as there is never any criticism or attempt to talk about the issues of segregation and oppression by Israel. This is consistently bolstered by the unwavering support of Israel in whatever it does by the mainstream media, to the point that it really is politically impossible for anyone on any side of American politics to criticize Israel for any of the oppressive things it does, or to suggest that there really is a necessity for reconciliation.

The American church today should be in this part of the story, seeking ways to encourage peace and reconciliation, but instead it is contributing to this kind of political climate, using various theological concepts to suggest that Israel is blessed by God regardless of what it does. Do you see the opportunity we could have?

I’d love to see more people go on trips like this, and come back to tell us what they see and learn. I’d love to see our role in this change.

Help Invisible Children win $1 million

2010-01-30T17:40:15Z

I talk fairly often here about my passion for Invisible Children, and the power of their story and the impact that it has on people’s lives. This happens both in Uganda where they build schools and wells, help folks start businesses, and elsewhere where they raise awareness, engage in political activism, and any number of other things designed to help those affected by Africa’s longest running war.

The reason I mention this at the moment is that right now, until January 22, Invisible Children is a finalist to win $1 million in the Chase Community Giving Challenge on Facebook. You do need to have a Facebook account to vote, and will need to add the Chase Community Giving application (it does not send you anything), but please take the 30 seconds and vote.

There are many beautiful organizations in this challenge, but I seriously believe that Invisible Children is the best one to get the $1 million from this event. The video below details what will be done with the money (partner schools in Uganda, wells, roadie tours in the U.S., political action, and more), and helps give perspective on why I think this is the organization that best deserves your vote.

Currently, they are number two in the leaderboard, but this can change very quickly, especially if you vote.

Update

We did it!

We won $1 million from Chase Community Giving… and it was YOU that did it. Thank You from Invisible Children. We are committed to wise stewardship of this award, and will keep you all well informed of how we’re turning this money into changed lives both in Uganda and at home.

Invisible Children

Processing suffering

2010-01-15T01:40:46Z

We continue to watch the misery that the Haitian people continue to endure. I feel that it is impossible to overstate, and also impossible for us on the outside to understand. We must do what we can to help, without understanding, and not forget Haiti after this week. But to let us in a little right now, there are countless videos, photos, stories, and other glimpses. One of the best collections of photojournalism in the country these days is at The Big Picture, the photo blog for The Boston Globe.

The pictures there now are haunting. Often they are beautiful. Sometimes beautiful and haunting, as they have been during the uprisings in Iran over the last year. The utter horror that they depict now, though, has made me consider the depth to which we are capable of processing what we are seeing, since we are not on the inside of it. I want to look at these issues, as they are different for us than they have been for any other generation in the history of humanity.

We know that there is more information, of all kinds, available to us today than there ever has been. More stories, more conversation, more news, more useless crap. Just more of everything. In times like these, though, many of us find that we cannot process all of the suffering that is in front of us. This is one of (many) reasons that I don’t watch news, aside from The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. Many of us are simply numb, and we can’t handle another video of another person trapped and dying under rocks that, in any other country in our hemisphere, someone could move.

And yet. When I got to hear Bill Clinton speak earlier this month, he spoke about the challenge of “our interdependence and interconnectedness” that he believes is the challenge of the 21st century.

But what does that mean, when we think of suffering?

It means that there is no suffering from which we are disconnected.

Jesus told us to love our neighbor, and told radical stories about what defines a neighbor. He expanded its definition to the limit of what was geographically available to the people of his day.

What does that mean when everyone is geographically available to us? When no story is unavailable to us? I don’t believe it means that we can watch every sad video, or look at every sad photo, or hear every sad soundbyte. We would never do anything else, for one thing, but it is still true that we simply are not mentally or emotionally capable of processing all of it.

But what it does mean is that we cannot ignore any story. We must process what we can, and enter into these stories. We must, as one of my favorite professors was fond of saying, “Take on the pain of the world each day.”

This same professor is a deep practitioner of contemplative and charismatic practices. He reads and prays deeply. He visits monasteries. He is a Pentecostal mystic, in a beautiful way.

This is essential, if we are to enter into these stories. We must, yes, go to the people and places the heart of God demands that we go. But we must also take those people and places to the heart of God. Remember this, in this suffering and all other sufferings.

Emergency aid for Haiti

2010-01-14T13:11:16Z

As you may know, yesterday a 7.0 magnitude earthquake rocked the country of Haiti. Hundreds of thousands of people could be dead, and millions could be without homes. The impact is unknown.

If you are able, please give, but give with caution. There is a good deal of corruption in Haiti, and it is important to understand advice like this. Especially in the next week or so, so much of the work will be dedicated to finding people that physical supplies are not much use. Donate money, if you can. One option is One Days Wages, who is partnering with World Concern. World Concern has been in Haiti since 1978, and has an incredibly high rating.

Recently, Bill Clinton and his foundation have been doing beautiful things in the country. You can see some of his remarks from an NPR segment that aired this afternoon. There is also painful content available on Andrew Sullivan’s blog, as he has covered the event today.

Every time there is an event like this, it seems that Pat Robertson blames the folks who’s lives are being destroyed. In this case, he believes that Haiti is cursed from a pact made with the devil. Many lovely people on Twitter have stated that he doesn’t speak for them, and Don Miller gave a profound response.

More poignantly, Rachel Held Evans reminded us that we failed Haiti. Haiti has a history of oppression that reveals the guilt of wealthy nations. They have not been cursed by God, they have been cursed by us. Her post is incredible, and asks us if we will fail them again.

I hope not. May God send help to Haiti – supernatural things we cannot imagine, and natural things that we can do, and do right now.