"Economic Disparities Contribute to Social Unrest in India" -- by Lallie Lloyd

A recent news article tells of sectarian violence between Hindus and Christians in Orissa, an impoverished state in northeast India that is fueled in part by the kind of economic differences targeted by the MDGs.
Christians have been attacked by mobs with using sticks, axes, swords and knives. Sixteen people have been killed, 1,600 homes destroyed, 80 churches and small prayer houses destroyed and 13,500 are estimated to be living in refugee camps. A nun from the order founded by Mother Theresa was among those attacked. Survivors say they recognized neighbors among their attackers.

What has prompted these attacks? Local tensions have been high since the August murder of a local guru associated with a radical Hindu group. While evidence suggests a Maoist group committed the murder, some local Hindu activists blame Christians.

I looked into this story and found a blog reporting on “Christian attacks on Hinduism.” I read a reference to an employee of World Vision who, the article implied, had been arrested by police.

I’ve known and trusted World Vision’s work for decades, and I wanted to know how they were reacting to the violence and particularly to the report that one of their employees had been arrested in conjunction with the murder.

So I called Word Vision. Turns out the employee was picked up by police when he was fleeing for his life, and was released after his identity was verified. He was never a suspect in the murder.

Part of the context here is that people are not receiving the health care and educations they need from their government. Despite India’s rapid economic growth, huge segments of the population are excluded from opportunity because of geography, social prejudice, health and education among other barriers. The New York Times notes, “Orissa has long suffered from government neglect, and Christian missionaries provide services, including schooling, much better than most residents receive from the government. While that has caused friction before, the stakes are higher now that better-educated people have more of a chance of joining the economic boom.”

Another part of the context is that many – but not all – Christians are Dalits, also known as “Untouchables.” In the traditional Indian caste system Dalits’ jobs dealt with dead animals and human waste, making the Dalits ritually impure. They were frequently segregated from higher caste people to avoid contamination. Though illegal, discrimination continues. During relief efforts after the tsunami of 2004, Dalits were not allowed to drink fresh water from the same sources available to other refugees. Not by law, but by custom, enforced by local authorities.

So, is the violence in Orissa based on religion, ethnicity or social class? The answer, of course, is all three.

Just as in Jesus’ time, poverty has many dimensions. The poor are outcast economically, socially and politically.

The MDG challenges facing India are enormous and are complicated by its vast size and social complexity. At a national level, some progress has been made:

• The proportion of the population living on less than $1 a day dropped from 41.8 percent in 1993 to 34.3 percent in 2004. This represents about 82 million people.

• The mortality rate for children under five has dropped from 123 per thousand live births in 1990, to 74 in 2005.

• The ratio of girls to boys in primary education increased from 87.4 girls to every 100 boys in 2000 to 96.1 girls to every hundred boys in 2004.

But much remains to be done:

• The proportion of children immunized against measles hasn’t changed since 1990.

• The number of women dying from complications of childbirth barely moved from 570 per 100,000 live births in 1990 to 540 in 2000 (this ratio in the US is 17; in Sweden it’s 2).

But even these numbers fail to tell the whole story.

Disparities within India are enormous. The national economy is huge, exceeding over $3.5 trillion in 2005. But the population is also huge: exceeding 1.1 billion (one-sixth of the world’s population live in India). In 2005, India’s per capita income was lower than Iraq’s or Cuba’s. Meanwhile expenditures on public health per person are about one-fifth the global average. Chronic hunger and preventable disease abound.

The violence in Orissa is not caused by religious differences alone, nor is it caused by poverty. Violence is caused by criminals who take by force what they cannot gain by legitimate means.

But the MDGs are directly relevant to the situation in Orissa. A robust social fabric – with, among other things, the rule of law, open markets, health care, education and clean water (all targets of the MDGs) – is less likely to spawn the despair that harbors and supports criminal activity. When income disparities increase and economic prospects expand for some and shrink for others, a scarcity mentality takes hold and it is human nature to look for someone to blame.
Ancient religious differences are as good a way to choose an enemy as are ethnic and class differences.

Jesus knew this too. And warned us against this temptation. His call to community and mutuality ia a call to love in action, a call to turn away from demonizing. Like other faith-based NGO’s World Vision provides direct services to people in stark need, as a witness to God’s love for all and until such time as they themselves, or their governments can meet the needs themselves.

"Beijing Circles" -- by Lallie Lloyd

The EGR blog in recent days resounds with the voices of people from around the world talking about the MDGs and ending extreme poverty. On July 24 we heard from British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who was Tony Blair’s Chancellor of the Exchequer and helped make the MDGs a top priority of the 2005 Gleneagles G8 meeting. Mr. Brown stood before a gathering of interfaith leaders hosted by the Archbishop of Canterbury and thanked people of faith for holding political leaders accountable for their promises to end extreme poverty.

We heard the voice of Martin McCann, who told the story of his Tanzanian namesake, seven-month old Martin Mazengo, who died from malaria. And how that one loss touched so many in their village – a loss that is felt 4 million times a day as children die from malaria, which is both preventable and treatable.

We heard the voice of Fanta Lingani from Burkina Faso, who only eats after the children and her husband are fed, if there is any food left now that food is so expensive.

How do we here in the US raise our voices and make a difference?

On September 26 and 27 Episcopal Divinity School will host a conference on “Beijing Circles,” a process for building community and encouraging women to find their voices, to speak and to act for the change they want in the world.

Beijing Circles are a circle process so-named because their content comes from a 1995 Beijing conference when 189 nations of the world called for changes in girls’ and women’s status, access and support. The circle process reminds us that the challenges facing women around the world are the same as those faced by women in our own communities and that when we do our work, as individuals and neighbors as well as citizens, we build relationships and community with those who may differ from us, and we make the oneness of the body of Christ alive and real.

The Beijing Circle process is intimately related to all the MDGs and especially to the gender-related ones (#2 Universal primary education; #3 Promote gender equality and empower women; #5 Improve maternal health). And that 1995 conference was an important foundation for the work of the 2000 Millennium Summit that spawned the MDGs.

It turns out that when we listen to women around the world, they want food for their children, and nets to protect the children from malaria. They want roads and clinics and schools. They want the fighting to stop and the men to stay home.

And when women gather in circles here at home, we can find our longing and recognize our passion and know that our desire to heal the suffering of the world is a God-given grace that will not overwhelm us if we speak it to others, ground it in prayer and reflection and release it through action and expression.

So come to the Beijing Conference in September if you can. And tell your circles of friends and colleagues. And learn about Beijing Circles. Material and information is available through the Office of Women’s Ministries at the Episcopal Church and through a website founded by Eleanor Ellsworth and Janie Davis (www.beijingcircle.org).

"UnChristian?" -- by Lallie Lloyd

I recently read David Kinnaman’s new book, UnChristian, which is a great gift to the church, though not a comfortable read. I’ve been thinking about how to apply his research findings to our work for the MDGs and have come up with these notes. I hope they’re helpful to you.

Kinnaman is a researcher for The Barna Group and spent years doing rigorous research into how young adults, ages 16 – 29, perceive Christianity. He includes reflections on his own life and faith journey and tells powerful stories about people he knows. He writes with an engaging humility and self-awareness that challenges us to drop our defenses, and he balances his message with a passionate invitation to Christians to take responsibility for how we are perceived.

But it’s not a pretty picture.

Kinnaman’s findings are summarized in his title, Christians are unChristian. We are hypocritical (say one thing and live something else entirely), focused on saving others (insincere and concerned only with converting), too political (identified with extreme conservative politics), anti-homosexual (show contempt for gays and lesbians), sheltered (boring, unintelligent old-fashioned and out of touch with reality) and judgmental (prideful and quick to find fault with others). Ouch.

Turns out young adults don’t avoid church because of Jesus. Many of them don’t know much about him, but they like what they do know. They avoid church because they don’t like Christians.

Here are two implications of his research for our MDG ministries:

First, we can tell the people we know –outside the church, and inside, about the work we do to end extreme poverty, and why we do it. “Our relationships, our interactions with people, comprise the picture of Jesus that people retain,” Kinnaman writes.

Our culture is hungry for a church that leads the country to repentance for consumerism, greed, destruction of the environment and arrogant dismissal of the basic human dignity and survival needs of the worlds’ poor. In other words a church that lifts up the MDGs. A church that is on the forefront of this movement will be more recognizable as the living body of Christ. This isn’t about spinning the Christian message; it’s about living it.

Second, most young Americans don’t give the Bible moral weight and don’t know its stories and images, so we need to use language that is fresh, accurate and meaningful when we describe why the MDGs are important to us. Kinnaman urges us to be creative, be “engaged, winsome and intentional.”

Fresh talk comes from our hearts and personal experiences; it may not be the way we are accustomed to talking in church, but if we want to be understood outside church, and if we want to invite our lay and ordained leaders to work for the MDGS, then we each need to develop our parables, stories and metaphors. I’m a vision-driven person and believe a world in which the MDGs have been met is an inherently attractive vision. But I need to tell my personal story. It may take time, reflection and practice to get your story clear in your own mind, but when you do, it will be easier for people to hear you, you’ll be more relaxed, and your ‘talks’ will feel more like conversations -- they’ll refresh you instead of draining you.

Get the book and see what you think.

Lallie Lloyd is the author of "Eradicating Global Poverty: A Christian Study Guide on the MDGs" for the National Council of Churches and co-chair of Standing Commission on Domestic Mission and Evangelism.

"Connecting to One Another through Economic Discipleship" - by Lallie Lloyd

One of the ways EGR is a blessing to me is the way it brings together Christians from across the theological spectrum. People who self-identify as liberal, conservative, progressive, evangelical or none-of-the-above have come together because they are called to seek and serve Christ in the extreme poor around the world.

Since EGR’s very earliest days, this is one thing that has worked for us. And not by accident. We make a priority of praying and worshipping together, of sharing meals and faith stories, and we reach out to one another across boundaries, even the ones that are pretty real and painful. God has blessed us, and blesses us still, with powerful bonds of affection.

Maybe you’ve experienced this in your work for the MDGs too? I hope so.

Over recent months on this blog I’ve been sharing the story of how a few of us are reviving the MDG movement at Trinity Church, a big historic parish in downtown Boston.

Last week a few of us met with Rachel Anderson, executive director the Boston Faith and Justice Network (www.bostonfaithjustice.org). BFJN is an ecumenical community practicing economic discipleship in three ways: increasing giving to poverty-fighting ministries; transforming Greater Boston into a fair trade community and developing a strong Christian voice for global health, hunger relief and environmental sustainability for the poor. So far the churches that have joined cut across lots of the denominational barriers you’d find in any major US city.

BFJN uses a small group curriculum, Lazarus at the Gate, that invites prayerful lifestyle change to enable generosity to the poor. Fair trade allows us to support low-income farmers and workers around the world by what we buy, and the MDGs are the frame for policy advocacy work.

What draws me to BFJN is that it links my ongoing personal conversion to social and community acts of economic discipleship, and it does this at the personal, community and national levels. It speaks to me as a whole person, embedded in a family, congregation, neighborhood, city and nation. A person with an inner and outer life, with voting rights and economic power.

I suspect it will deeply challenge my relationship with money and I hope it will help me align this complicated part of my life with my longing for God. And I want to take this journey with other Christians because I want to learn from them, see through their eyes, know what God is doing in their lives.

So this week my MDG friends and colleagues at Trinity and I talked about starting a Lazarus at the Gate group to launch a deep and spiritually-grounded conversation about wealth, poverty and our call as Christians. This is what EGR has been about from the beginning, and it’s great to see the same hopes and longings emerging in a new place – like tender new shoots of a young vine.

Lallie Lloyd is the author of "Eradicating Global Poverty: A Christian Study Guide on the MDGs" for the National Council of Churches, co-chair of Standing Commission on Domestic Mission and Evangelism.

"Tales from the Trenches -- re-starting a congregational MDG ministry " -- by Lallie Lloyd

Last month I wrote about stirring up the MDG’s at Trinity Church in Boston, the congregation I joined this winter. Re-starting an MDG ministry is more accurate, because over the years a lot of different things have gone on here: book groups and large events; lectures and sermons. But to date a community of parishioners committed to the MDGs has not really gelled.

So Warren, Paul and I proposed a movie night on a pretty short planning horizon (less than a month). We wanted to do something in Lent, to continue the momentum developed over the last two years with Lenten MDG events. And by the time we met to plan this event, there wasn’t much time left in Lent, and we had to put something together pretty quickly. Movies are good for that.

We agreed on The Girl in the Café, chose the date, ordered food for fifteen (without having a clue how many to expect), checked with clergy and staff about rooms, food, AV equipment, kitchen use, etc., made phone calls and prepared handouts. Each of us called three people who we knew were interested in the MDGs, and we asked each of them to bring three people. We picked a time – Sunday after the 6pm service – when lots of people would be at church already, and put a notice in the bulletin. The rector mentioned it during announcements Sunday morning – not the usual, and very encouraging.

Six people came. That includes me, Warren, and Bruce my intrepid and very supportive boyfriend. And Trinity is a really big congregation. We heard that evening that people didn’t even know it was happening until it was too late for them to plan to come.

The movie was funnier than I’d remembered and right on about the challenges of exercising moral leadership in diplomatic contexts (this one about debt reduction). But it was a movie, so we sat next to each other in the dark without talking for 90 minutes – that’s what we do at movies. Next time we‘ll plan something that invites connection, stories, questions and conversations. That’s what we hunger for.

We had a nice conversation afterwards about what Trinity has done about the MDGs recently and about what we accomplish at our kick-off event in early April.

Part of me was disappointed, to be honest. I’d hoped more people would want to come. But I really do believe the right people come to events like this. The three newcomers were interested and engaged, and they had good questions. Each of them is a leader in the parish, in very different ways, so it was nice to have time together in a small group. We got to know one another a little; it was a relaxed conversation. I left that evening grateful for the folks who came and happy for the time together.

So to my list of eight pieces of advice from last month (see blog address), I’ll add these:

9. Don’t use a movie as your first organizing event.

10. Give yourself a long enough planning horizon that you can really get the word out.

11. Remember that while we may plant, water and harvest, it is God who gives the growth, so relax and celebrate at your event, even if it’s really different from what you’d imagined!

You never know what may come next.

Lallie Lloyd is the author of "Eradicating Global Poverty: A Christian Study Guide on the MDGs" for the National Council of Churches and co-chair of the Standing Commission on Domestic Mission and Evangelism.

"Stirring Up the MDGs at Trinity Church, Boston" -- by Lallie Lloyd

When I speak to congregations, people often ask how they can get started toward the MDGs. I’m going to use my blogs for the next few months to tell about what we’re doing in my new congregation, and we’ll if our experience is useful!

When Bruce and I moved to Boston in November, we joined Trinity Church. I lived in a suburb of Boston until 2006 and worked with people from Trinity in the early years of EGR, so it was no surprise one Sunday coffee hour when my friend, Paul asked if I’d meet with him and another friend, Warren, to see if we could re-energize the Trinity community around the MDGs.

We met for lunch and talked. I needed to know a few things: What’s the history of the MDGs at Trinity? Is the rector an advocate? What’s her leadership style? Where do we want Trinity to be on the MDGs in three years? What might we reasonably accomplish in the short-term to get us started?

Here is some of the context for the MDGs at Trinity: Five years ago there was a nascent movement for the MDGs; many are still here, doing wonderful things. Last year and the year before, Paul and Warren led Lenten book discussion groups about the MDGs. EGR board member and Five Talents executive director Craig Cole spoke at our adult forum in the fall. That same morning, some women weavers from the women’s cooperative Judith Radtke founded in Mexico sat nearby and worked on their looms. Trinity’s rector Anne Bonnyman supports the MDGs and has preached about them.

Over lunch Paul, Warren and I decided we needed to gather more people – people who’ve been on board for a while, people who are ready to re-connect and people who are ready to learn about the MDGs for the first time. The longer-term decisions would be made by this larger group.

We agreed we could pull together a movie and conversation night on fairly short notice - a jump start gathering to connect and invite new people in, to form a group that would decide where to go from there. We picked a Sunday evening a few weeks out (Feb 24) and chose to show The Girlin the Café after the 6pm Eucharist. I agreed to handle the specifics of room, equipment, food, publicity. We generated a list of people to call and divided them up.

My ministry for the MDGs is a ministry of speaking, teaching and writing. I love this work, and I spend a lot of time alone at my computer. One thing I know is that I need to invest in my connections with people who share my passion and commitment to the MDGs. In addition to Paul, Warren, Judith and others, I am grateful for Rachel Anderson, director of the Boston Faith and Justice Network. Rachel is an organizer with Devon Anderson and the team in Minnesota on their MDG campaign (see Jan 17 EGR blog post). BFJN is building an ecumenical Christian community in Boston committed to economic discipleship, fair trade and the MDGs as a way of living the MDGs daily. I look forward to connecting more with BFJN.

So here’s my advice so far:

1. 1. Find others with time and energy to give to the MDGs.

2. 2. Do everything as a team.

3. 3. Know your local context (history and leadership) about the MDGs.

4. 4. Build on existing learning and gathering opportunities (worship, education, etc.)

5. 5. Organize an event you can manage (make it fun, easy to come to, include food and build in time for people to connect).

6. 6. Invite people personally.

7. 7. Know what you’re aiming for and make sure your first step heads in that direction.

8. 8. Invest in relationships that encourage and support you for the long haul.

Stay tuned!

Why should the CHURCH advocate for the MDGs?

by Lallie Lloyd

Here’s my big question: why should the church advocate for the MDGs? Put the emphasis on “church” not “MDGs” in this question, and you’ll hear it the way it echoes in my head. I’m not asking if a world in which the MDGs are achieved will be closer to the biblical vision of God’s just reign. Of course it will, and perhaps that is reason enough.

I’m asking about the nature and purpose of the church. What we pay attention to when we’re together, what our preachers teach from the pulpit and what lay people do the rest of the week.

For the better part of five years my faith and work have been challenged and strengthened by two groups in the Episcopal Church: EGR and the Standing Commission on Domestic Mission and Evangelism (SCDME), which reports to General Convention as one of the bodies that guide church policy and practice.

SCDME’s purpose is to reflect on trends in our church and recommend actions so we become a more healthy and growing faith community. It meets a few times a year and includes people of vastly diverse life experience: age, class, ethnicity, gender, geography, nationality, race, sexual orientation – the twelve of us cover almost every spectrum one can imagine. We are all baptized into the ministry of the laity; some are also ordained to the ministries of priest and bishop.

Here’s what I’ve learned from SCDME:

(1) The Episcopal church is in decline. As measured by the number of people who come to worship, all but four dioceses were smaller in 2005 than in 2000. Our domestic dioceses were more than eight percent smaller in 2005 than in 2000. We are hemorrhaging people.

(2) When we focus on what we have in common – the love of God as made known in the life and ministry of Jesus – we come to love people with whom we disagree on things we hold dear.

Christians aren’t called to capitalism or socialism, to parliamentary or representative democracy. Paul doesn’t say the world will know us by our resolutions, but by our love; Jesus doesn’t tell us to agree with one another; just to love one another.

I think the MDGs will be accomplished when ordinary lay people doing their work in commerce, education, manufacturing or whatever make connections between God’s vision for a just world and what they do in their daily lives.

I know a pediatric neurologist who supervises international training programs for a major teaching hospital. He helped arrange for doctors to work in a South African AIDS clinic alongside seminary students. When a seminarian asked a patient, “Where do you see the face of God?” the doctor cringed, but the patient smiled and patted the doctor’s arm, saying “Because my sister here has not forgotten me.” The young doctor tells this story as a moment of transformation.

Can a declining church turn itself around by focusing on the MDGs and a vision of global justice? Would my neurologist friend have made this connection without the advocacy for the MDGs that is a vibrant part of his congregation? We belong to a declining church. Can we afford to have preachers advocating issues that divide worshippers? Are the MDGs a case in point, or are they inherently different? When priests and bishops take positions on issues, even ones with apparently clear moral imperatives, can they simultaneously model and teach us to love people who see the issue differently? What do you think?

Maybe being a faithful Christian in these times means caring more about the MDGs than about the institutional survival of the Episcopal Church (or any other denomination). I’m not sure; that’s why I have this big question.

Lallie Lloyd is the author of "Eradicating Global Poverty: A Christian Study Guide on the MDGs" for the National Council of Churches and chair of the Standing Commission on Domestic Mission and Evangelism.

Tomorrow: Sarah Bush