A Desperate and Earnest Plea

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind,to set at liberty those who are oppressed... -- Jesus

Part of the work of Jesus in the world, and therefore part of the work of the disciples of Jesus, is putting an end to oppression (Luke 4:18, Matthew 28:19-20). The very first step in that cause ought to be for the disciples of Jesus themselves to be most certain they are not part of the bad news, the darkness, and the oppression. For most Westerners, this task seems easy enough, but proves to be much more difficult upon closer inspection. Yet, the closer inspection must be made if we are to push back the darkness in our day and age and be a part of the healing and restoration Jesus offers to the world.

On first glance it appears easy because most of us probably don't own slaves, we don't beat our women, we aren't involved in the sex trade, we aren't paying our workers unfair and unlivable wages, we aren't actively stealing much needed basic resources from the world's poor, we shun discrimination and ideas of racial inequality, and we don't view ourselves as warmongers. Case closed. Right? Well, in all honesty, this may give us some comfort and allow us to continue our present way of living unhindered, but it isn't the truth.

I would be willing to bet that most of us eat bananas at the expense of exploiting Latin American peasants. Or if not bananas, then we drink coffee to much the same effect. Or how about our clothes? Are they made in sweatshops where people are forced to work like machines for unthinkable stretches of hours for pathetically low pay? I have searched lately, and I can find precious little clothing that isn't made under these conditions. Similar charges could be levied against many of our appliances, bedding, transportation options, jewelry, medicines, tourism, household cleaners, and on and on. It can be almost overwhelming if you begin to take it all in and realize the amount of social injustice, inequality, and oppression that must go into keeping the vast majority of westerners "happy" and comfortable. In a world of limited resources, does our lust for comfort and prosperity mean the poverty of others?

If you buy coffee that is grown by peasants that are kept in poverty by low wages, then you are just as guilty of oppression as the landowner who sets those low wages. If you buy clothing made by people who are not treated like humans and who have overly strenuous work loads, then you are just as guilty of oppression as the corporation that created those conditions in the name of higher profits. In other words, voluntarily being a part of a system that creates oppression makes you just as guilty of oppression as the creators of that system because you are helping to perpetuate that system and the oppression it creates.

What I am making here is a desperate and earnest plea, in the name of God, for the followers of Jesus to begin moving towards a way of living that does not involve the oppression of our fellow human beings.

This is not an idea that I came up with myself, but a very ancient one that I am currently trying to bring my life into alignment with. Hear the words of Jesus:

'Depart from me, you cursed...For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’

The point is clear: Jesus identifies with the poor and oppressed in such as way that failing to help correct an evil that you see is held in the same regard as if you were actually inflicting the evil on Jesus himself.

Hear again the words of God through the prophet Isaiah:

Is not this the fast that I choose:to loose the bonds of wickedness,to undo the straps of the yoke,to let the oppressed go free,and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house;when you see the naked, to cover him,and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?

Again the point is clear: the style of "religion" that our Creator desires is the type that produces mercy, justice, and an end to oppression.

I do not pretend that this path will be an easy one to tread, but is a journey that I feel we must make. It would be better to go about in your underwear and cause no suffering, than to be well dressed but contribute to injustice and inequality. Even if it was so bad that you had to make your own clothes, so be it. Even if you had to grow your own food to avoid a food industry that creates poverty, so be it.

Although difficult, this is possible. There are fair trade food products available. There are "sweat free" clothing lines. Become, in the name of love, mercy, justice, and Jesus, a conscientious consumer. Do your homework, do your research, and live in such a way that your life causes no injustice and no oppression.

King Solomon speaks well on this subject:

If you faint in the day of adversity,your strength is small. Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, “Behold, we did not know this,” does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it, and will he not repay man according to his work?

It is not my intention that you would react to this from guilt, but from love and because of the hope set before you. What hope? Listen again to the prophet Isaiah:

Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’ If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday. And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in.

May Jesus Christ, the Son of God and savior of all who call on him, make you an instrument of his peace and give you strength in this task.

Why We Need Artists

Since arriving here in Boulder, I have had the good pleasure of meeting and making good friends with a number of different artists (musicians, painters, screenplay writers, poets, etc.). During this time I have come to realize that artistis are not only a nice addition to a society, but are absolutely vital to any given culture. Why? Well, artists (if they are good ones) make it their business to spend a large amount of time thinking about and reflecting on deep and important issues. Things such as life, death, suicide, love, relationships, friendship, social justice, poverty, riches, and work are all the domain of the artistis. Artists spend lots of time ruminating on these things, and then put them in a form that those of us who don't have time or don't make time for such pursuits can recieve easily and profoundly. This is very important to a culture and society, and any society that doesn't have artists of some kind is bound to stagnate. So, my encouragment to all of us is to awaken the artist in ourselves, make friends with artists, and support the arts when we are able.

The Souljourning Message Board

This blog has been a great for me in that it allows me to express things that I am learning and struggling with, but for all of that it has been missing one thing...discusion.

In order to facilitate discusion about the things that this blog is devoted to, and to keep this from becoming nothing more than "The Jason Show," I have created and am now launching the Souljourning Message Board.

The topics on the board are world issues, theology, and culture. I hope to see many of you there, and I am looking forward to what we can learn from and teach one another. Please don't be shy, and post away.

Here is the link:http://s11.invisionfree.com/Souljourning/, but the board can also be accessed through the link under "The Hookah Circle."

Irish Blessing

May the blessing of light be on you...
light without and light within.
May the blessed sunlight shine on you
and warm your heart
till it glows like a great fire.

Chew on This

"We can't solve today's problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." -Albert Einstein

Emerging Thoughts

I have read D.A. Carson's book on the emerging church, I have read many of Brian McLaren's writings on the emerging church, and I have been involved in many discussions about the emerging church, but this may be the best thing that I have read concerning the whole emerging conversation/movement.

It is Scot McKnight's presentation to Westminster Theological Seminary concerning the emerging church during Westminster's Fall Contemporary Issues Conference, and it is worth every minute that it will take you to read it.

What is the Emerging Church? by Scot McKnight

Missions Motivation Mondays

"I will lay my bones by the Ganges that India might know there is one who cares." - Alexander Duff

"And so I aspire to preach the gospel, not where Christ was already named so that I would not build on another man's foundation." - Paul

"Other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring" - Jesus

"Tell the students to give up their small ambitions and come eastward to preach the gospel of Christ." - Francis Xavier

Police Violence Against Children in Papua New Guinea

(New York, October 30, 2006) – Police violence against children remains rampant in Papua New Guinea, despite recent juvenile justice reform efforts, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Children and others in police custody are often raped and tortured.

“Police rapes and torture are crimes, not methods of crime control,” said Zama Coursen-Neff, senior researcher for Human Rights Watch’s Children’s Rights Division. “These brutal tactics have destroyed public confidence in the police.”

Another problem, Human Rights Watch said, is that that police routinely lock children up with adults, even when separate space is available, placing them at risk of rape and other forms of violence. Police rarely provide children with medical care, even when seriously injured.

Although dismissals and prosecutions are not completely unheard of, they are so rare compared with the scale of violations as to nullify any deterrent effect. Papua New Guineans describe police violence as so common that they consider it normal; however, that does not mean that it is acceptable. People around the country have told Human Rights Watch that they want a police force that protects, not endangers, them.

“By choosing not to punish abusive police, Papua New Guinea’s leaders leave ordinary people as afraid of the police as they are of criminals,” Coursen-Neff said. “This problem will not diminish unless police perpetrators are prosecuted.” The violence may contribute to Papua New Guinea’s rapidly escalating HIV epidemic. With an estimated 140,000 people living with HIV/AIDS, Papua New Guinea has the highest infection rate in the South Pacific. Police abuse – particularly the targeting of sex workers and boys and men perceived to be homosexual, as well as harassment of people carrying condoms – may worsen the epidemic by undermining HIV prevention efforts.

Human Rights Watch found small signs of progress in the juvenile justice system in 2006. Police established a two-person unit to monitor police treatment of children, and a few individual police officers stepped forward to implement this system. In addition, several juvenile magistrates promised to implement checks on abuses. Outside of the government, some nongovernmental organizations are attempting to address aspects of police violence. Although these are promising developments, they have yet to produce demonstrable change in police treatment of children.

“Progress in juvenile justice is encouraging but extremely fragile,” Coursen-Neff said. “The government must do all it can to entrench these developments and avoid falling back to business as usual.”

Source

Indonesia: Pastor Murdered by Masked Gunman

On October 16, 2006, Pastor Irianto Kongkoli was shot and killed by two masked gunmen. He was 42 years old.

The attack happened at 8:15 a.m. local time. That morning, Pastor Kongkoli was shopping for tile with his wife, Mrs. Rita Arianti Kopa, and five-year-old daughter, Galatea. The trio took the family van to a local hardware shop. Pastor Kongkoli was browsing the store’s yard when two masked men shot him in the head at a range of two meters. According to witnesses, one of the men was on a motorbike. Following the attack, the masked men fled. Pastor Kongkoli’s wife heard the shots from inside the van and rushed to help her husband. Rita, who is a member of the East Palu police force, immediately took her husband to a hospital for aid. He died that same day.

Local police are following a lead on the two men suspected in Pastor Kongkoli’s murder. The suspects are also wanted for the murder of Pastor Susianti Tinulele, a pastor shot in the back of her head during a Sunday service, and the murder of an unidentified employee at a gold shop. Pastor Kongkoli actively worked to promote peace between Christians and Muslims. His body is to be buried in Palu, the capital of Central Sulawesi, instead of Tentena, the Christian district, to prevent retaliation against his death.

Pastor Kongkoli is survived by his wife, Rita, and three children. Rita is not seeking retaliation against her husband’s murders, but plans to let local authorities handle the case. “It is God’s will,” she said. “He gives life and then He also takes life.”

Source

We Love Our Cliches

This is a great post about Christian cliches by a friend of mine:

We Love Our Cliches

Be Holy

More than the world needs the followers of Jesus to be cool, hip, trendy, or relevant, it needs us to be a holy people. It needs us to be holy men and holy women. The phrase "meet them where they are at" is often used as an excuse to bypass holiness, but in reality, most honest people will admit that they are not completely satified with their lives where they are at. These people are not looking for a manager, a marketer, or a cool person, they are looking for a "holy man/woman" or a "man/woman of God" The questions these people are asking are not, "Are you cool?" or "Are you clever?", but "Can you help me to find the Divine?", "Can you help me find meaning in life?", "Can you help me make sense of all the suffering and evil in the world?" More than this world needs us to know all the cool songs, be good at sports, be good orators, or be good leaders, it needs us to be a people who show them true love, redemption, a new way to be human, and the beauty of Jesus Christ, the Son of God....teacher, man, God, king, social activist, contemplative, healer, miracle worker, theologian, partier, savior, sacrafice, high priest, ascended, and returning.

Come soon Lord Jesus.

Pitfalls in the Path

1. PITFALL: Falling in love with the present world.
PROTECTION: Think long and hard about the deadly poison of world-love and ponder the never-ending delights of the mountain spring of God's approval and fellowship and beauty.

2. PITFALL: Loss of horror at offending the majesty of God's holiness through sin.
PROTECTION: Meditate on the Biblical truth that all our acts are acts toward God and not just toward man, and that God is so holy and pure that he will not countenace the slightest sin, but hates it with omnipotent hatred, and that the holiness of God is the most valuable treasure in the universe and the very deepest of delights to those whose way is pure.

3. PITFALL: A sense of immunity from accountability and authority.
PROTECTION: Submit yourself to a council of Biblically minded, spiritually wise advisers.

4. PITFALL: Succumbing to itching ears as love of truth evaporates.
PROTECTION: Cultivate a love for truth, even in its smallest details, and turn a deaf ear to the desires of men to have their ears scratched with vague moralisms that massage them in their sin.

5. PITFALL: A vanishing attention to Scripture.
PROTECTION: Give yourself untiringly to the study, meditation and memorization of Holy Scripture.

6. PITFALL: A growing disregard for the spiritual good of all people
PROTECTION: Labor in praying and caring to stir up your heart to love all people.

7. PITFALL: Disregard for the Biblical mystery of marriage.
PROTECTION: Remind yourself repeatedly that your marriage is a living drama of Christ's relationship to the church.

8. PITFALL: Compartmentalizing of life.
PROTECTION: View everything—absolutely everything—as woven together by its relationship to the value of the glory of God.

9. PITFALL: A sense of being above the necessity of suffering and self-denial.
PROTECTION: Never forget the promise: "Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22). And never forget that the Son of Man had no place to lay his head (Luke 9:58). And develop a Biblical theology of futility and suffering, especially from Romans 8:17-30.

10. PITFALL: Giving in to self-pity under the pressures and loneliness of life.
PROTECTION: Embrace the essence of "Christian Hedonism"—the doctrine that no one who suffers the loss of any earthly blessing in the service of Christ will fail to be repaid a hundred-fold now (with persecutions!) and in the age to come eternal life (Mark 10:29-30).

Source: John Piper

I Read Dead People

I read dead people, especially as it relates to following Jesus, faith, and theology. Reading dead people takes me to a place intellectually, sensually, and emotionally that is almost impossible to find or understand in today's politically correct and emotionally restrained society with all its rush and distractions. Of course there is a place for reading contemporary thought on following Jesus, but I have often found it to be watered down at best. There are a few shining examples (John Piper, JI Packer, Dallas Willard, Don Miller), but in general the "Christian writing" of our day is often lacluster or even downright unhelpful. I find reading dead people really gets my fire going when the wood is wet (if you know what I mean). It has been a source of much joy, inspiration, and renewal for me through my journey. We have many things to learn from the great men of our past, and I commend them to you. Here are a few of my favorites:

Saint Augustine
Charles Spurgeon
John Owen
Martin Luther
Jonathan Edwards
John Calvin
Thomas A' Kempis
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Hudson Taylor (biography)
Adoniram Judson (biography)
William Carrey

Enjoy, and I wish you well on your journey. May these great saints of old aid you along the way.