Two weeks ago, in the interview here with Sara Groves and Charlie Peacock, Charlie brought up a topic in response to my questioning how he/we can continue to press on without despair in the face of such overwhelming need. In his answer, Charlie talked about the idea of “proximate justice” - you can read a little more about proximate justice in a short article by Steven Garber here.
I want to take a little time to explore this idea of proximate justice more. We so often see things in black and white - they either are or are not. Either I serve God or I serve man/myself/Satan. Either I choose to do something or I don’t. Either . . . or . . . To be honest, my first inclination is to address everything in this way. The problem is, when it comes to the real world with real problems that are bigger than anyone one of us, absolutes are often not readily achievable.
We want to end hunger in the world; yet, no matter how much effort we make there always seem to be those who are out of our reach and continue to suffer. We want to bring justice to the world, the justice and peace of our Lord and Saviour; but we live in a fallen world where evil exists, where powers and principalities work to overthrow the will of Jehovah. In the face of such truth, of such seemingly insurmountable difficulties, how can we continue? How can we keep doing what seems to barely make a dent in the evil we oppose? How can we abide in God’s will without being destroyed by cynicism? These are some of the types of questions which Garber and others have tried to address by talking about proximate justice. It’s not about compromise, not about giving up the quest for God’s kingdom to be known on earth - rather, this is the idea that we will never know the fullness of God’s justice while living in a fallen world and learning to work as best we can within that framework.
In the article, Garber traces the idea of proximate justice all the way back to Augustine, and tries to bring relevance to our lives today. Here are a few excerpts from the article - what are some of your thoughts on this? How does the idea of proximate justice lie in your life?
This weeks News Wrap Up is focusing on some of the organizations fighting for human rights, and the recent news stories surrounding their work.
~ International Justice Mission: “14 freed from slavery in Indian Rock Quarry"- “BANGALORE, INDIA – Today, a young father and thirteen other former slaves live in freedom after an IJM Bangalore operation in collaboration with local authorities. The slaves were trapped in a rock quarry, where they were held against their wills and disconnected even from the other laborers in the facility because they did not speak the local language. Using threats and physical intimidation to isolate and control the victims, the owners beat, threatened and verbally abused them. “
~UNICEF-
First Emergency Supplies Airlifted Into Goma. “GOMA, 11 November 2008 - The first four planes carrying supplies to curb cholera and respiratory infections have arrived in Goma.” More supplies including, “One million water purification tablets and thousands of buckets and plastic tarpaulin sheets are now being packaged for distribution.”
~Supporting Families of Victims of the Collapsed School in Haiti. “PORT-AU-PRINCE, 8 November 2008 – While search and rescue operations continue to extricate students and teachers from the rubbles of La Promesse school in Pétion-Ville (Port-au-Prince), UNICEF expresses sympathies and solidarity with the families of the victims.
An estimated 700 students were registered in the private school for children of lower-income families. A number of them were in the classrooms when the walls and the roof collapsed.
In the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, UNICEF and its partners dispatched social workers and psychologists to hospitals to provide psychosocial support for those affected by the tragedy. Although no final count for the number of victims is yet available, search and rescue teams fear a heavy death toll.”
~Compassion:
Religious Conflict in India: “The violence between Hindus and Christians is subsiding.
Six child development centers have reopened and are currently operating normally.
One center plans to reopen on November 20, 2008.
Two centers remain closed.
Although the government will soon close the relief camps, many people are still afraid to return home.
With the coming winter season, the big concerns now are shelter and clothing.
Praise God that the situation seems to be stabilizing and for His faithful protection of our children and staff.”
~Blood Water Mission:
* Illinois Teen Raises $10,000 For Clean Water: “By the end of the day, over $10,000 was raised for Blood:Water Mission. Additionally, hundreds of students have taken the two week challenge to make water their only beverage for two weeks. They are saving the money they would have spent on non-water drinks and sending it in to provide the essential beverage for Africans, water.”
~The Movie “CALL+RESPONSE,” is now in theaters. CALL+RESPONSE goes deep undercover where slavery is thriving from the child brothels of Cambodia to the slave brick kilns of rural India to reveal that in 2007, Slave Traders made more money than Google, Nike and Starbucks combined.
*Luminaries on the issue such as Cornel West, Madeleine Albright, Daryl Hannah, Julia Ormond, Ashley Judd, Nicholas Kristof, and many other prominent political and cultural figures offer first hand account of this 21st century trade. Performances from Grammy-winning and critically acclaimed artists including Moby, Natasha Bedingfield, Cold War Kids, Matisyahu, Imogen Heap, Talib Kweli, Five For Fighting, Switchfoot, members of Nickel Creek and Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers, Rocco Deluca move this chilling information into inspiration for stopping it.” (Click to view cities and ticket info)
*We need to continue to pray for and support these great organizations who are on the front lines, fighting against injustices, and for human rights.
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“All that is needed for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”
~Edmund Burke
Reknowned singer/songwriter Cindy Morgan has released a new song (for free) on her website.
Cindy talks about the song, “This song was written by myself and my good friend Ty smith.... our inspiration were the stories of the kids in sex slave and the very sad story they live through....”
We’ve been writing a lot about the worsening crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo lately. As of tonight, 250,000 displaced people sit in makeshift camps in the area, most of them with very limited access to food, water, or shelter. It’s the rainy season and cholera is starting to spread. The humanitarian situation there is dire.
How can we help? One thing you can do is donate to Heal Africa, a hospital run by Congolese Christians in the city of Goma. The staff at Heal Africa purchase anti-cholera medications locally in order to fight the epidemic, and provide a number of other services to victims of the conflict. Click here to donate to Heal Africa.
Another step you can take is more personal. The conflict in the DRC is driven in part by conflicts over resources, including a mineral called coltan. Coltan is a superconductor and is an essential component of cell phone batteries, LCD screens in laptops, Sony PlayStations, and many other items. Since 80% of the world’s coltan reserves are found in the eastern Congo, it is very likely that each of us owns electronic products that contain the mineral. And given that most of the coltan coming out of the Congo is “conflict coltan” - meaning that the proceeds from the sale of the commodity finance rebel groups who commit human rights abuses - each of us has a connection to the war.
You can make it harder for these groups to continue fighting. Write a letter to the makers of your electronics, and ask them how they can ensure that their coltan sources are conflict-free. A sample letter that you can copy and paste, along with email addresses for several electronics corporation CEO’s, is available after the jump.
“The Democratic Republic of Congo, equal in size to the United States east of the Mississippi, is home to vast expanses of pristine rain forest, rare animal species and a large potential for wealth in the form of highly valuable minerals and natural resources. Yet Congo is also one of the poorest, most chaotic nations on the planet, ruined by unrest that is estimated to have claimed millions of lives in the past 10 years. In many corners of the country, law, order, electricity and medicine are virtually nonexistent.”
~New York Times
~Attacks Resume: About 100 LRA combatants infiltrated Dungu town on 1 November through Lina Kofo zone, 12km north, after crossing River Dungu by boat.
“They began by entering the houses [to pillage] ... the people called FARDC [the DRC army] and fighting started,” said Jean Marie Mbikaba, an adviser with the peace and justice commission in Dungu.
According to local authorities, about 50 people were kidnapped by the LRA rebels during the attack, among them 30 children, mainly girls. “The women and children fled with no clothes and spent the night in the cold,” said Mbikaba.
“What is happening in Dungu is painful ... a humanitarian tragedy is unfolding,” said Gabriel Mapendo, a local resident.
Besides insecurity, poor roads have also contributed to preventing humanitarian access in Dungu. OCHA estimated at least 50,000 people have been displaced.”
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North Kivu: “Earlier in the week, Fontanini said, UNHCR had helped to improve shelter and sanitation facilities at the crowded Kibati IDP camp, which is close to Goma and whose population grew from 15,000 to some 65,000 people in the space of a few days.
The biggest obstacle for humanitarian workers in North Kivu, she said, was the reduced or non-existent access to the most vulnerable civilians.”
I recently had a chance to attend the Arts*Music*Justice tour, featuring Sara Groves, Charlie Peacock, Derek Webb, Sandra McCracken, and Brandon Heath. The tour is sponsoring primarily the work of Food for the Hungryand International Justice Mission. I had a chance before the show to sit and chat with Sara and Charlie for a little bit about the tour and about the work of IJM. It’s a bit long to read, but well worth it. They have some interesting answers as to what IJM does, how we can help, and how we can press on in the face of despair.
Euphrony:Sara, what was the impetus for starting this tour? Sara: There were several steps, of course. Like anything, it was in process for a while, but about four years ago I was at am IJM event and I was talking to the IJM vice president at the time. I was saying to him what can I do that’s more than just playing music at fundraisers; you know what else can I do? And we were just having a great conversation where he really left me with a challenge. He said I feel like its time and God’s able to give Christian artists better ideas than kind of what we’ve done so far, and he said I think of all artists, Christian artists should be recapturing imagination and dreaming big and coming up with what he called “blue ocean” ideas. Red ocean is very competitive, everyone’s doing it, its kind of the way things have been done all along. When you move into a blue ocean you have an idea, something fresh, something people haven’t seen before – it’s like nothing people have experienced. I left that thinking about that. And then my husband came on board, after the Andrew Peterson “Behold the Lamb” tour. It seemed just a really neat line-up, the flow is just really natural from person to person. It’s not about one artist, it’s very communal. So we kind of combined those two ideas and through several brainstorming sessions came up with the layout for [the Arts*Music*Justice tour] that has not changed a great deal from the time we sort of envisioned it.
READ MORE...
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Pray for the work of IJM and for the spead of peace and justice throughout the world.
Perhaps you’ve received emails or read blog posts that suggest that something awful will happen if one candidate or the other is elected. Regardless of the outcome of today’s presidential, Congressional, and state-level elections, though, we can be sure of two things: First, we know that God is in control. As Romans 13:1 says, “...there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.”
Second, we should pray for our new leaders. Running the government is a difficult task even for the most experienced of politicians, and choosing the people who will run the new administration is among the most significant decisions the new president will make. We should pray that the new president, representatives, Senators, and other leaders make wise decisions and govern justly.
Take Action Today:
Vote, remember that God is in control, and pray for our newly elected leaders.
These are the goals of International Justice Mission. Today, we at Inspired to Action are asking to you to consider the work of IJM. Please take a few moments and look at their website, read a little bit about their work, and share some of that with us. Feel free to comment here on this post - or, if you have more to say that will fit in a comment, blog about it on you own and link to it below.
We are also asking you to take time today, in fasting and in prayer, for the work of these people. They do more than just try to bring justice and freedom to the oppressed, they work with these victims to help provide for them a life after being freed. This is from a recent news story:
A 13-year-old girl who said she had been raped was stoned to death in Somalia after being accused of adultery by Islamic militants, a human rights group said.
Dozens of men stoned Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow to death Oct. 27 in a stadium packed with 1,000 spectators in the southern port city of Kismayo, Amnesty International and Somali media reported, citing witnesses. The Islamic militia in charge of Kismayo had accused her of adultery after she reported that three men had raped her, the rights group said.
From a recent CNN article
Freedom does not necessarily mean that the nightmare is over. IJM works with people who have been released from slavery, from sexual bondage, to help them find healing and peace in their lives. One of the biggest things they ask for and need is prayer for this process. Girls who have been enslaved as prostitutes are often fearful of returning home - dreading what their family and friends will think of them or do to them, fearful of the stigma and shame they see following them. Our prayer can help release them from this continued bondage.
As you read about IJM, consider becoming a prayer partner with them. And share with us what you learn today about IJM.
Take Action Today:
Thus has the LORD of hosts said, “Dispense true justice and practice kindness and compassion each to his brother.” - Zechariah 7:9
CNDP rebels spent this week advancing on Goma, a provincial capital in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Tens of thousands of people are on the run, and the army is retreating, leaving the city of 600,000 vulnerable to attack. While the rebels called a ceasefire late Wednesday, it is far from clear that the ceasefire will hold or that they will not eventually invade the city, which is now protected only by UN peacekeepers. The last time these rebels took a city in the eastern Congo, they went on a door-to-door spree of looting, raping, and terrorizing the population.
I lived in Goma a couple of years back and have many friends there. Insecurity is a way of life in the Congo, but this level of violence is beyond normal even by the standards of a region in which conflict has killed an estimated 5.4 million people in the last ten years. While expatriate humanitarian aid workers will be able to evacuate, many Congolese will not. As those aid workers evacuate, the food they distribute and the other services they provide stop reaching the people. Other local groups will not leave and will do their best to cope with the rapidly deteriorating security and humanitarian situations. Please pray for their safety, and that if the rebels do enter the city, they will do so peacefully. And please pray for peace in the country and for a lasting solution to the citizenship, territorial, and resource disputes that have driven this conflict for so long.
The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear?
Psalm 27: 1
A wonderful passage, filling us with comfort and hope.
But how would you react to find this verse scrawled on the wall of a room six-feet by eight-feet, written by the hand of a fifteen year old girl, kidnapped by a family friend and sold into slavery in a foreign land? A girl sold to a brothel, where she was forced to accommodate ten men a day?
Does this shift your reality a little? Whom have I to fear, that this young girl has not faced, ten times over?
Elizabeth was rescued from that brothel. Noticed by an operative from International Justice Mission, a man of peace, who brought this before the local authorities, before another man of peace, who worked to save her.
Whom shall I fear? I fear myself. I fear my own ignorance. I fear my own apathy. I fear my own lack of concern; for that it my greatest enemy, as I sit in the comfort of my home.
Next Monday, we will be hosting a day of fasting and prayer. The focus is the work of International Justice Mission. Go to their website and read stories of people like Elizabeth, whose lives have been changed by men of peace. Join us at I2A next Monday, and share what you have learned about IJM. Let your reality be shifted a little, for the better.
Hey, everybody. I’ve been a bit absent from the site recently. Okay, to be honest, it seems that most everyone has been absent from the site recently (with the exception of spam commenters - they to have plenty of time on their hands). I want that to change, both from my own involvement and from the involvement of the community of readers. Here are a couple of things I’m cooking up at the moment.
First, I’m going to be posting soon an interview with Sara Groves and Charlie Peacock, talking with them about the Arts*Music*Justice Tour, International Justice Mission, and their involvement in these events. Now, I can’t say exactly what day that will be because I won’t be talking to them until this Sunday (if all goes well). Since there are a few days left before I talk to them I want to give others a chance to chime in with what you might like to find out. If you could pose a few questions regarding IJM, Food for the Hungry, or the tour, what would you ask them?
Now, I’ve asked the same question on my personal blog, and had a few responses thus far. Anything I receive before Sunday noon I’ll look at and consider rolling into my set of questions. (I’ll even credit you for the question!) After the interview I’ll start transcribing and post when I’m done.
Second is that starting on Monday, November 3rd, we will begin what is to be, in part, a continuation of the 40 Day Fast. No, it will not be another forty days of fasting, and this will be much more loosely organized. We will begin hosting a First Monday Fast, to be repeated the first Monday of every month for anyone who wants to participate. With some thought in choosing, we will select a topic/cause/organization that will be highlighted by all who participate. What we’re really asking from everyone is to take some time and look into the selected topic themselves, find out a few things on your own, then come back to the I2A post on that day and comment on one or two things you have discovered or that have moved you. When we try to teach others we learn so much more ourselves; let’s teach one another about these things. (Like I said, I hope to see more involvement of the community of readers of this blog - and what better way than to share and build each other up?) If the topic is something you are especially passionate about and a few lines in a comment seem to few for your thoughts, you can write your own blog post about this topic and link to it from the I2A post.
Now, I’m pretty excited about this. I think we all stand to learn a lot and grow a lot from this. In talking with the other I2A crew we all agreed that that a more regular, simpler fast day would be a good thing to keep people thinking and engaged, focused on the work of God on earth. I hope everyone will consider joining in, at least in some fashion, with the First Monday Fast.
For this month, we’re going to put the focus on International Justice Mission and the work they are doing. It’s really amazing where and how they are active around the world and the tangible changes their efforts have made to people’s lives. Look at their website, read about IJM, look for them in the news, and talk to people about what you’ve found. Come back here on November 3rd and share that with us, as we all learn where God is working. Perhaps we may even learn where God is calling us to work.
It’s October of an election year and that can mean only one thing: campaigns at every level start to get nasty. It will be almost impossible to escape the incessant negative advertising, false accusations, and completely crazy rumors over the next few weeks. The lies (and maybe some of the truth!) are enough to make most of us want to run as far from the voting booth as we can get!
Voting is part of being a good citizen. And our votes do matter. The decisions that politicians make determine everything from how much we pay in taxes to whether or not families in Africa get food aid.
But how do we know what’s true and what’s false, and how can we learn about the candidates whose names are on the ballot, but who aren’t running for president? If we base our decisions on rumors and accusations rather than the facts about the issues and the candidates, we’re doing our democracy a disservice. That’s why I believe it’s so important to take some time to think about how we’ll be voting before Election Day.
Being an informed voter isn’t as hard as it seems. Here are some of my favorite nonpartisan resources for learning about the candidates’ views and finding out what’s true:
1. Wondering if the candidates are telling the whole truth in their speeches? Factcheck.org examines statements made by the presidential candidates and assesses their validity. It’s a project of a center at the University of Pennsylvania and is very nonpartisan. Factcheck.org does real-time factchecking during debates, as well, so you can learn right away when a candidate lies or embellishes the truth.
Around this time of year, the food banks in our area start collecting donations to serve needy families a Thanksgiving dinner. Your donation can help so much with the food banks’ ability to provide enough food to those in your community. With the cold season just around the corner, the food banks need to stock up on plenty of food. Often your local grocery stores have drop boxes, or places where you can donate.
This is a great time of year to give a little!
Take Action Today:
Locate your local food bank, and make a donation today!
This October, join others in taking 10 days to purposefully give. From the website:
The 10 Day Give is a challenge that is designed to help us get our minds off of ourselves and start thinking about how we can help others.
The thing is, I think most people really want to make other people’s lives better, but with everything going on all around us all hours of the day, we just don’t get a chance. This is an opportunity to choose, on purpose, to give of ourselves. There really are hundreds of opportunities that we overlook each day. My goal is to just grab hold of one of them each day.
For some people that means giving money, for others time is far more precious than money, and for others it may mean their expertise in an area. But, no matter who you are, we all have something to give.
It could be taking someone out to lunch, it could be babysitting for an overworked mom, it can as simple as giving your precious time by taking your mom to the park to talk. There are no rules, no judges, and no right or wrong ways of completing the challenge.
But, I encourage you to sign up for the challenge and decide to give whatever you can - it’s only for 10 days. And who knows, maybe it will become a habit.
Starting on October 10th, 2008 we are going to give something to a different person, each day until October 19th, 2008. It doesn’t matter what the gift is, how much it costs, who it is given to, or how it is given. The point is to just to give - on purpose. We hope you decide to join us.
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I want to take a little time to explore this idea of proximate justice more. We so often see things in black and white - they either are or are not. Either I serve God or I serve man/myself/Satan. Either I choose to do something or I don’t. Either . . . or . . . To be honest, my first inclination is to address everything in this way. The problem is, when it comes to the real world with real problems that are bigger than anyone one of us, absolutes are often not readily achievable.
