We have read all the statistics. But can we relate?
We know we have poverty here in the US. We see the people standing on the street corners with their little signs stating they are homeless and will work for food. But do we believe them?
If we have children in school, at the beginning of each new semester we have to fill out a form saying that yes, our children qualify for the “reduced” or free lunch or we say no, we can afford to pay for their meals. But do we realize as we sign no how many little children in our own school districts, maybe sitting in the desk right next to our own, go to bed hungry at night?
We read about the hundreds of thousands of US citizens who do not have insurance. But do we really understand that they don’t have insurance because they must choose between insurance and food? Or housing? Or a car? Do we realize that the person without insurance maybe as close as the very words that we are reading? …such as me?
And what about foreclosures? Great deals if one can get them. But do we stop to think that a little child may have had sweet dreams or nightmares in that bedroom? That familes may have grown up in that home? Or that a couple may have grown old in that home? It is not just a "good deal"...Life happened there. Somebody cried there. Somebody laughed there. Somebody loved there.
Schools in the US are falling far behind when compared to schools in many other countries. Our children have their backpacks checked each day prior to walking through the metal detectors as they head to their classes. The classes are overcrowded with children, each one with a special need whether it is detected or not. Kids are offered drugs on the playground. The teachers are underpaid and overworked. Too often, not only are they disrespected but their physical well beings are threatened. Our schools are war zones. And we worry about whether or not some little white kid in the ‘burbs can pray out loud or whether or not he can wear a t-shirt with offensive language comparing Obama to terrorists.
These are instances of poverty that exist within our daily lives yet we ignore or justify these signs.
Can we pull ourselves out of our self absorbed nature and realize that life as we do not know it is happening all around us? If we cannot imagine a life in poverty as it sits or stands right beside us, how can we wrap our minds around the magnitude of extreme poverty that exists in the world outside of our national boundaries?
30,000 children in this world die every day from preventable and treatable diseases caused by extreme poverty. What is extreme poverty? Poverty that is so insidious that it kills. It is poverty that is preventable and for the most part, here in the US we have done that. It is the poverty that is so insipid that it kills the young and the old because people starve to death or die of malaria or measles or from many of the diseases that the western world has basically stopped from happening through vaccines and clean water. We can stop these deaths from happening in under-developed worlds just as we did in our own neighborhoods.
We seem so fond of lining up statistics so that we can relate to the actual number. Surely it does not take a mile marker or a football field to imagine 30,000 dead children each day, 365.2422 days of the year.
More than 100 million children world-wide don’t even go to school, bad schools or otherwise. Of all those children that do not ever get to attend school, most of them are female. The Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth does not allow women to be priests; far too many places in under-developed parts of our world don’t allow women to do anything but care for their husband and families.
There are 8 Millennium Development Goals in all. Go to http://www.e4gr.org/ to read them all and to find resources that will help inform.
Let us just think about these three goals – extreme poverty (which will help on all the other goals), primary education for all children, gender equality and empowerment of women. These are the three key goals. If these three are achieved, all the others will fall into a solvable category.
So today, let us try to wrap our minds and our hearts around these three goals. Let us open ourselves up – our eyes, our minds, our hearts – to all those in our own viewable world who live on the streets, whose children go to bed hungry, who work without benefits or in extremely underpaid jobs, to our school systems which under educate our children. Then let us go even further, with God’s help, to imagine our national problems multiplied. We do not even have to multiply it by a very big number.
We must be able to empathize. Sympathy is a Hallmark card. We have to feel the pain; smell the death; hear the cries. Only then will we find the compassion that drives us to DO something.
Today…
PRAY as if our own child’s life depended upon it.
FAST from all excess if not from a meal. With each bite of food, with every sip of water, remember that there are not just a few but a great many who have no choice in what they eat or what they drink.
WITNESS not only to God’ steadfast love but to the idea that we can love our neighbor and show that love.
Tomorrow…
Hold tightly to all these memories. Because it is in the re-memory that we learn. It is in this re-memory that we change.
And it is all about change. We have no choice.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.” Luke 4:18-19
Barbi Click is the Director of Christian Education at Christ Church Cathedral (Episcopal) in St. Louis, Missouri. She wrote this piece for her blog "Feathers and Faith" on Sept. 25 for World MDG Blogging Day.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
"Imagine All God's Children" -- by Barbi Click
Monday, October 13, 2008
"Eradicating Poverty: Let's Stop 'Plugging the Holes' So We Can Repair the Foundation " -- by the Rev. John Denson
On Sept. 25, as we highlighted the work we've done and the work left to go on the Millennium Development Goals, I pondered two crises.
The first was one most Americans were pondering: the failures of investment banks on Wall Street and the $700,000,000,000 federal government bailout. As with everyone, I am staggered by the immensity of the crisis and worried about the implications for both the present and the future. Will the bailout succeed? Who will suffer because resources dedicated to the bailout will not be available for those who live on the economic margins of our society?
The second crisis is much less immense, but no less troubling. Last month, I attended a meeting organized by a local New Hampshire state senator to discuss the heating oil crisis and what the state government was prepared to do to help citizens buy enough heating oil to keep their homes warm this winter. In 2007, the average grant given by the state government for fuel assistance was $633. While the hope is to give more this year because of the sharp increase in the price of oil, the reality is that the fuel assistance will not be nearly enough. The 2007 fuel assistance grant would provide approximately 25% of the oil needed to heat a home in 2008-2009. What are people supposed to for the remaining three-quarters of the winter?
As I ponder these crises I am struck by the realization that the responses to each do not really solve anything. Each response attempts to "plug a hole in the dam" but does nothing to repair the various cracks in the foundation that supports the dam and makes it strong. We are hoping to fix the symptoms while we avoid the underlying causes. If we continue this way, nothing will change.
The Episcopal Church dedicated Sept. 25 as a day of prayer, fasting, and witness for the end of poverty in our world. This call relates to the first of the Millennium Development Goals: eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. These goals were adopted in 2000 by the United Nations with the hope that they would be fulfilled by 2015. So, we're halfway there and all we're doing is plugging holes while we avoid the real changes that must be made.
In his book Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope* Brian McLaren compares the "four spiritual laws of theocapitalism" (money worship) with the four spiritual laws of the kingdom of God economy.
Without going into the details of the laws here, let me list some of the characteristics and qualities of theocapitalism (note, he is not indicting the corporations, but the "spiritual ideology" that drives our society):
* Progress is measured by rapid growth in the short-term. One must do everything possible to achieve the highest growth and increased productivity, whatever the cost.
* Happiness and serenity are found through possession and consumption. We need to own more. We need the latest and best product. We consume as much as possible and throw away the rest.
* Competition is good. Some are going to win and some are going to lose. So, make sure you win.
* Freedom to prosper is more important than accountability. There is no moral code here and no sense of responsibility to anyone other than ourselves.
Compare this with the characteristics and qualities of the "kingdom of God economy" advocated by Jesus:
* In place of economic growth, Jesus offers a new economy based on good deeds for the common good. We are called to a higher concern than ourselves. We are called to dedicate resources to the common good, especially to the needs of the poor and the marginalized. Sustainability is more important than growth. For a biblical example, see Luke 12:13-21.
* Happiness comes not through possession and consumption but through gratitude and sharing. Gratitude, McLaren writes, is "an act of defiant contemplation" because gratitude celebrates what you have, not what you don't have. If I am grateful for what I have, I don't need more to make myself happy. And once I'm happy with what I have, I can share it with others so that everyone receives a portion. For a biblical reference, see Mark 6:30-44.
* Salvation comes not through winning but through seeking justice. "Happy are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled," Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:6). The paradox here is that seeking justice for all, not winning the competition, will finally bring true prosperity to all. For a biblical reference, see Matthew 20:20-28.
* Freedom comes through collaboration, through the rich and the poor coming together to build community. As McLaren writes, for Jesus "both the rich and the poor need saving; one needs liberation from addictive wealth and the other, liberation from oppressive poverty. Part of the work of the kingdom of God is to turn them from their ideologies of exploitation and victimization to a vision of collaboration." For a biblical reference, see Luke 19:1-10.
If we are going to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger it is going to take much more than plugging holes to avert a crisis. It is going to take systemic change, change that begins with individuals and communities who choose to live with a different set of values. We need to see ourselves as sustainers instead of consumers, as collaborators instead of competitors, as sharers instead of hoarders, and as justice seekers instead of self-seekers. We need to work not simply for ourselves but for the common good. We need to answer Jesus' call to repent and live in the divine reality he calls the kingdom of God.
Will we make any real change if we do all of this? I don't know. All I know is that we have a responsibility to try.
The Rev. John Denson is an Episcopal priest in Exeter, New Hampshire. He wrote this piece for MDG blogging day on Sept. 25 and blogs regularly at "Living Faithfully in the 21st Century Village."
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
"The Daunting Task of Being One" -- by Rachel Swan
On Thursday, Sept. 25, more than 300 bloggers around the world participated in World MDG Blogging Day -- spreading the word about God's mission of global reconciliation and the Millennium Development Goals. Over the coming weeks, some of our daily entries on the EGR blog will include some of those entries. Like this one!
Have you heard of the ONE campaign? Most likely, yes. Not just because Mr. Hotpants is a major spokesperson, but because you may have seen people wearing the white wristbands or you have seen the YouTube videos? Maybe you have been to an event, a rally, raised your voice to your congressperson or senator. Maybe you saw that someone signed up for the ONE group on their facebook or myspace causes? Maybe you are a huge U2 fan, and follow the work of Bono, ultra hip and cool rockstar/humanitarian.
In the Episcopal Church, we have an group kind of similar called E4GR. E4GR (Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation) is an Episcopal grassroots movement of connection and collaboration to seek and serve Christ in the extreme poor around the world. It is this group that has had me put a badge on my blog, and invited me to lend my voice to the other almost 2,000 other bloggers who have committed to writing, praying and fasting last Thursday, Sept. 25, the day that the UN Secretary-General and the President of the UN General Assembly are convening a High-level Event on the Millennium Development Goals at UN Headquarters in New York. So what is all this hoopla about?
The MDGs (Millennium Development Goals). What are the MDGs you ask? Google it, I dare you. You will come up with about a gah-gillion hits (ok... about 4,010,000 for MDG in 0.21 seconds) , with literally hundreds and hundreds of organizations, governments, and everyday people talking about the MDGs. People like Ellen, Bill Gates, Angelina Jolie and Ryan Hanson (aka Mr. Joe Average American) are all spreading the word. So I too, am lending my voice.
The Millennium Development Goals are a concise set of goals, numerical targets and quantifiable indicators to assess progress in development. The set includes 8 goals, 18 targets and over 40 indicators. All United Nations Member States have pledged to meet the following goals by the year 2015.
They are:
But *ugh*. Really, what can I do, just me, little ol' me?
WARNING: HONEST Reality check. My heart screams "YES! Right on! I am so in!" and the rest of me is an apathetic piece of s#@*%$@! who can hardly bring herself to vote in the primary, is scared to call her congressperson or senator because she has never done it before, and really, just wants to write her check, and be done. I WANT more for myself, I want to be more, do more, but the reality is most days I am as selfish and lame as the next person when it comes to my social activism. I hate this truth about me, and I am ashamed, but feel like maybe there are some of you who feel like I do. I am no Angelina Jolie I say to myself. What can I do?
I can pray.
God, are you sick of me yet? Forgive me and my apathy, and create in me a clean heart and a right spirit to be ONE, in the way you have made me to be. Jesus, table flipper-redeemer-grace beyond grace giver-transformer, show me, teach me, rattle me with the stories of who and whos I am. Holy Spirit, nudger-havok reeker-heart restarter, breathe life into my apathethic bones, and the bones of my neighbors, government, leaders. Help me believe that You are in fact at work in this crazy, messed up island home we call earth. Help me to discern what I can do.
(and the E4GR Prayer)
Most loving God,
as your desire for mercy for the poor is unrelenting,
may we be unrelenting in our pursuit of mercy for all;
as your compassion for the suffering of the poor knows no limit,
may our hearts overflow with compassion for all;
as you long for justice for the poor, may we strive for justice for all.
Open our eyes to the structures of oppression from which we benefit,
and give us courage to accept our responsibility,
wisdom to chart a sound course amid complexity,
and perseverance to continue our work until it is finished.
Breathe your life-giving Spirit afresh into your Church
to free us from apathy and indifference;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Rachel Swan is a self-described Episco-Lutheran? Luther-palian? young adult who works for the Minneapolis-area synod of the ELCA and who dreams of owning her own dive bar. You can read her regular musings at swandive.typepad.com
