Below is an excerpt from a weekly e-article that I receive from a former professor of mine. I've posted occasional copies of his work in the past. What struck me about this writing is that it is exactly what I have been confronted with over the past few months. I am finding that the very things that bother me the most about other people are the things that convict me within my own life. I get frustrated with certain personality traits others possess but then notice how I hold those same traits. It's almost like the old quote I read a while back, something to the tune of, "The biggest penalty for a liar is that he can never believe anyone else." (I know I've butchered that quote but I can't place it, so I had to go with how I remembered it, you'll just have to take it in the spirit of the quote.) Take a look for yourself:
In November 2006, amidst great scandal, Ted Haggard the senior pastor of the 14,000-member New Life Church in Colorado and president of the National Association of Evangelicals resigned from his ministry. A loud and public critic of homosexuality, he confessed to inappropriate gay encounters of his own.
We might quickly cry "Hypocrisy!" but something deeper beckons our consideration.
Gordon MacDonald wrote in a pastoral note:
“When I see a leader who becomes stubborn and rigid ... less compassionate toward his adversaries [and] increasingly tyrannical ... I wonder if he is not generating all of this heat because he is trying so hard to say ‘no’ to something surging deep within his own soul. Are his words and deeds not so much directed against an enemy ‘out there’ as they are against a much more cunning enemy within his own soul? More than once I have visited with pastors who have spent hours immersed in pornography and then gone on to preach their most 'spirit-filled' sermons against immorality a day or two later.”
This phenomenon spans the centuries. Shakespeare had Queen Gertrude exclaim, “The lady doth protest too much” in a scene in which a conniving woman kept insisting on her loyalty to her husband (Hamlet , III, ii, 239).
Excessive protests and overly vigorous opposition sometimes indicates wounds or weaknesses within us . Indeed, our own pain and failure can give us deep conviction and passion. Consequently, it may help us to clarify if our fervor and stridency arises because we are sorrowful for the fallen or struggling with ourselves. A critical spirit may reveal more of our self-perception than how we view others...
Any suggestion that we have no sin will undermine our capacity to touch others ... family members, friends, co-workers, neighbors, or fellow-believers.
Before we crusade to tear down the strongholds in others, let's confront our own demons then speak truth out of lives of humility, obedience, and sincerity. Therein lies genuine freedom for all of us, including Ted.
Herein lies the only problem that I see, I believe we are still called to speak out against sin. But the difference is our attitude. In calling out that sin we are not to believe we are above it, that we have it all figured out. We must also confess that we too are sinners, that we struggle with many of these same issues. And together we must confess our sins to the Lord, thank Him for His grace, and together ask Him to shape us into followers or Him who take on the image of His Son. As my prof signs off, In Hope!
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Anyone who knows me knows of my disdain and cynicism for large-scale international developmental aid as championed by the UN, USAID, World Bank, etc. William Easterly opened my eyes to this issue in "White Man's Burden" when he used the case study of Amaretch, the young Ethiopian girl who daily trekked from her village to Addis Ababa to sell a load of firewood for a few dollars. When interviewed, she said, "I don't want to have to carry firewood all my life. But at the moment I have no choice because we are so poor...I would prefer to be able to just go to school and not have to worry about getting money."
But therein lies the problem, in spite of the billions and billions of dollars poured into nations like Ethiopia over the years, the lives of children like Ameretch or their family have not improved one bit. If anything, their situations have grown more dire, as Paul Theroux, on his second tour through Africa, points out in "Dark Star Safari," noting how large-scale farming was on the secline, survival through subsistence farming was the focus of most families. What can be done to allow children like Ameretch to go to school?
I have always believed in private, grass-roots organizations as the solution to these problems. Of course, it will take literally hundreds, even thousands of organizations stepping forward and making connections around the world where they can make a difference, but it is happening. Just today there was a front-page article in the Wall Street Journal on a dam project in the Machakos District of Kenya, a place we travel when we journey to Kenya. I know from experience that the rains only come once or twice a year, and then only if the people are lucky. We see the remnants of where the rivers flow in the rainy season, but in July and August it is a parched land.
Fortunately for the people of this area, a group of farmers in Ohio stepped up to the plate. Selling cattle and holding fundraisers, this group of farmers donated money, around $70,000 to a project in the area that sought to build a dam on a local river to keep the water flowing year-round. In the past, the river would dry shortly after the rains, but now it runs almost around the clock, allowing farmers to expand the crops they plant and harvest two or even three crops per year. One farmer was able to raise his annual income rom $100 to $500 by selling his surplus vegetables at the local market. In the spirit of entrepreneurship, the farmers have also purchased tools and other materials to increase their irrigable land and profit from the extra water. In addition, since the farmers now have more time on their hands since they don't have to travel miles to find water, they have taken it upon themselves to fix the local roads, something the government of Kenya and Western nations have pledged millions for, to little success, probably being redirected to foreign banks in the accounts of the corrupt leaders.
How can we ensure that children like Ameretch are able to go to school instead of carrying firewood every day into the city? How can we help farmers increase their crop yields? How can we help the eight million people who die from starvation each year? How can we get bed neets to the thousands who die every day or malaria? The answers are not easy, but we've tried the large-school development which has not seemed to work, though private, grass-roots has its limits, it seems to be the best alternative to truly meeting the needs of the people.
But therein lies the problem, in spite of the billions and billions of dollars poured into nations like Ethiopia over the years, the lives of children like Ameretch or their family have not improved one bit. If anything, their situations have grown more dire, as Paul Theroux, on his second tour through Africa, points out in "Dark Star Safari," noting how large-scale farming was on the secline, survival through subsistence farming was the focus of most families. What can be done to allow children like Ameretch to go to school?
I have always believed in private, grass-roots organizations as the solution to these problems. Of course, it will take literally hundreds, even thousands of organizations stepping forward and making connections around the world where they can make a difference, but it is happening. Just today there was a front-page article in the Wall Street Journal on a dam project in the Machakos District of Kenya, a place we travel when we journey to Kenya. I know from experience that the rains only come once or twice a year, and then only if the people are lucky. We see the remnants of where the rivers flow in the rainy season, but in July and August it is a parched land.
Fortunately for the people of this area, a group of farmers in Ohio stepped up to the plate. Selling cattle and holding fundraisers, this group of farmers donated money, around $70,000 to a project in the area that sought to build a dam on a local river to keep the water flowing year-round. In the past, the river would dry shortly after the rains, but now it runs almost around the clock, allowing farmers to expand the crops they plant and harvest two or even three crops per year. One farmer was able to raise his annual income rom $100 to $500 by selling his surplus vegetables at the local market. In the spirit of entrepreneurship, the farmers have also purchased tools and other materials to increase their irrigable land and profit from the extra water. In addition, since the farmers now have more time on their hands since they don't have to travel miles to find water, they have taken it upon themselves to fix the local roads, something the government of Kenya and Western nations have pledged millions for, to little success, probably being redirected to foreign banks in the accounts of the corrupt leaders.
How can we ensure that children like Ameretch are able to go to school instead of carrying firewood every day into the city? How can we help farmers increase their crop yields? How can we help the eight million people who die from starvation each year? How can we get bed neets to the thousands who die every day or malaria? The answers are not easy, but we've tried the large-school development which has not seemed to work, though private, grass-roots has its limits, it seems to be the best alternative to truly meeting the needs of the people.
Monday, April 23, 2007
Pretty cool quote in the recent issue of Atlantic Monthly:
Stalin Was Right
"A single death is a tragedy," Joseph Stalin said. "A million deaths is a statistic." Now a psychology professor at the University of Oregon has tried to figure out why, with a paper suggesting that an evolved behavioral response may mean that we don’t feel that genocide is real unless we can focus on a particular individual. People understand reality in two ways, he argues: one is intuitive and experiential, the other is analytical and rational. Making decisions based on intuition is usually easier and more efficient than forming a judgment after analysis, and although our rational processes are supposed to monitor our intuitive impressions, they’re often "rather lax." A case in point: When participants in a study were asked to donate money either to a starving girl in Mali or to a larger group of famine victims represented only by a number, they gave significantly greater amounts to the wide-eyed girl. Moreover, contributions to the starving girl actually dropped when statistical information about the number of people suffering from severe hunger accompanied the girl’s name and picture.
"A single death is a tragedy," Joseph Stalin said. "A million deaths is a statistic." Now a psychology professor at the University of Oregon has tried to figure out why, with a paper suggesting that an evolved behavioral response may mean that we don’t feel that genocide is real unless we can focus on a particular individual. People understand reality in two ways, he argues: one is intuitive and experiential, the other is analytical and rational. Making decisions based on intuition is usually easier and more efficient than forming a judgment after analysis, and although our rational processes are supposed to monitor our intuitive impressions, they’re often "rather lax." A case in point: When participants in a study were asked to donate money either to a starving girl in Mali or to a larger group of famine victims represented only by a number, they gave significantly greater amounts to the wide-eyed girl. Moreover, contributions to the starving girl actually dropped when statistical information about the number of people suffering from severe hunger accompanied the girl’s name and picture.
The full article is linked here. What hit me in the above text was the fact that this is so true of me. Tell me about the twenty million slaves around the world and I’ll cringe, but provide me with a first-hand account of a child sex-slave or a kidnapped domestic slaved trapped in hell on earth, and I’ll be spurred to action. Notify me of the forty million AIDS orphans around the world and my heart will go out to them, but chronicle me the story of a young girl who watched first her father and then her mother die of this dreaded disease and I’ll be moved provide for her education and the care of her siblings. Provide me the statistics of the Rwandan genocide and I’ll be the typical Westerner in “Hotel Rwanda” who saw the tragedy on TV and took a cup of coffee and said, “That’s too bad.” But travel to that country and interview survivors of the genocide, tell me their stories, how they survived, the loved ones they lost, and I’ll be burdened for their cause and hardships. This seems like a very accurate portrayal of how we respond to tragedies, how we make decisions, what spurs us to action.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
I've ripped on Wallis in the past, but I really enjoy what he wrote this week about the Virginia Tech tragedy, although as much as I consider myself a conservationist, I'm not sure of his inclusion of elephants in the narrative:
We are sad today, and we will be sad for quite a while. We are not moving on, we are embracing our mourning. ... We do not understand this tragedy. We know we did nothing to deserve it, but neither does a child in Africa dying of AIDS, neither do the invisible children walking the night away to avoid being captured by the rogue army, neither does the baby elephant watching his community being devastated for ivory, neither does the Mexican child looking for fresh water, neither does the Appalachian infant killed in the middle of the night in his crib in the home his father built with his own hands being run over by a boulder because the land was destabilized. No one deserves a tragedy.
Unfortunatly, these tragedies are a result of the fallen world that we live in, a world that is still under the control of the evil one. Thanks be to God for giving us a way out!
We are sad today, and we will be sad for quite a while. We are not moving on, we are embracing our mourning. ... We do not understand this tragedy. We know we did nothing to deserve it, but neither does a child in Africa dying of AIDS, neither do the invisible children walking the night away to avoid being captured by the rogue army, neither does the baby elephant watching his community being devastated for ivory, neither does the Mexican child looking for fresh water, neither does the Appalachian infant killed in the middle of the night in his crib in the home his father built with his own hands being run over by a boulder because the land was destabilized. No one deserves a tragedy.
Unfortunatly, these tragedies are a result of the fallen world that we live in, a world that is still under the control of the evil one. Thanks be to God for giving us a way out!
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
My high school had a hosted a pretty cool assembly this afternoon, it was called something like "Voices of Men" and dealt with different types of abuse, mostly directed at females, and how men need to take a stand on this issue. I thought it would be a man-hating feminist ordeal, but instead we were treated to a one-man play as he did celebrity impersonations and showed very moving video clips. I thoroughly enjoyed it. At the end he asked every man in the room who felt called to stand and take a pledge that they would treat women with respect and be a voice to those who didn't.
What struck me during this play, though, was that I cannot think of one time in my life where I witnessed a man abusing a woman or child or where I felt a close friend or acquaintance or even someone I knew was being abused. And believe me I've racked my brain as I can't believe that I have never experienced this in my life, but I can't think of one instance. That is very rare. Not only am I extremely lucky that my father never laid a hand on my mother or one of us children, but the fact that I've never even been a part or heard of it outside of my family is unheard of. I thank God for that and as I mentioned in a previous post about sexual abuse, I pray to God that men stand up and be men and call other men to respect the women in their lives, praying also that God intervene when this does not happen and protect the women and children who face this abuse, giving them the peace and comfort that can only come from being in the hands of God.
What struck me during this play, though, was that I cannot think of one time in my life where I witnessed a man abusing a woman or child or where I felt a close friend or acquaintance or even someone I knew was being abused. And believe me I've racked my brain as I can't believe that I have never experienced this in my life, but I can't think of one instance. That is very rare. Not only am I extremely lucky that my father never laid a hand on my mother or one of us children, but the fact that I've never even been a part or heard of it outside of my family is unheard of. I thank God for that and as I mentioned in a previous post about sexual abuse, I pray to God that men stand up and be men and call other men to respect the women in their lives, praying also that God intervene when this does not happen and protect the women and children who face this abuse, giving them the peace and comfort that can only come from being in the hands of God.
While it could have just as easily come from The Onion, my main man William Easterly linked the following on his website:
De-velop_Mented is a sporadically-issued periodical produced by Zappalachian nomads on $150 laptops. Due to limitations on bandwidth and frequent aid-financed power outages, I have only been able to get the headlines to the stories, and even that only occasionally. Any stories that Zappalachian exiles wish to file can be send to William.Easterly@nyu.edu
Previous Headlines:
"UN announces new agency to combat excessive bureaucracy in foreign aid"
"Malawian mother adopts Britney Spears"
"Mammoth new global AIDS program vows to prevent one new infection for every 10,000 people receiving treatment"
"World Bank angrily denies charge it cares about people above $1 a day"
"UN campaign to reduce poverty headcount urges poor to refrain from
sex"
"G-8 trade ministers reach landmark agreement to remain on verge of
making progress on Doha round"
"UN Millennium Project announces that Madonna's Malawi baby has
attained Millennium Development Goals"
"IMF to distribute to poor Congolese 55,225,478 copies of Country
Report No. 04/224,'Democratic Republic of the Congo: Joint Staff
Assessment of the Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper Preparation
Status Report'"
"Destitute children demand royalties on photographs for aid publications"
"African leaders form commission advising Bono how to reform U2"
De-velop_Mented is a sporadically-issued periodical produced by Zappalachian nomads on $150 laptops. Due to limitations on bandwidth and frequent aid-financed power outages, I have only been able to get the headlines to the stories, and even that only occasionally. Any stories that Zappalachian exiles wish to file can be send to William.Easterly@nyu.edu
Previous Headlines:
"UN announces new agency to combat excessive bureaucracy in foreign aid"
"Malawian mother adopts Britney Spears"
"Mammoth new global AIDS program vows to prevent one new infection for every 10,000 people receiving treatment"
"World Bank angrily denies charge it cares about people above $1 a day"
"UN campaign to reduce poverty headcount urges poor to refrain from
sex"
"G-8 trade ministers reach landmark agreement to remain on verge of
making progress on Doha round"
"UN Millennium Project announces that Madonna's Malawi baby has
attained Millennium Development Goals"
"IMF to distribute to poor Congolese 55,225,478 copies of Country
Report No. 04/224,'Democratic Republic of the Congo: Joint Staff
Assessment of the Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper Preparation
Status Report'"
"Destitute children demand royalties on photographs for aid publications"
"African leaders form commission advising Bono how to reform U2"
Thursday, April 12, 2007
As I've written many times over the course of this blog, about three years ago in May I really felt the Lord gave me a clear heart and mandate for three particular peoples: widows and orphans, modern-day slaves, and unreached people groups. Shortly after that, I was introduced to Tumaini Int. Ministry and asked to become Vice-President, fulfilling my heart for widows and orphans, mainly orphans. Other than supporting missionaries, I had not much of a focus or window for working with slaves or unreached people groups. But lately, the Lord had laid a SEVERE burden on my heart for modern-day slaves and abused peoples, as He has on the heart of my brother Adam.
While on vacation last week, I was able to read two profound books, "Memoirs of a Boy Soldier" and "Enslaved," the first about a child soldier in Sierra Leone (the movie "Blood Diamonds" could have been based on this book) and the second seven or eight stories of the plights of modern-day slaves, how they got in and out of slavery.
"Memoirs..." was a good read and I'm glad I read it. But "Enslaved" was the one that touched me the hardest, in fact I've not been able to sleep much of late due to the nightmares associated with some of the parts of the book. What I've noticed that is gripping me the most is the tales of sexual abuse and sex slavery that I'm hearing, both from this book, first-hand acconts from my students, and other instances that make their way into my life. The common denominator that I'm finding is that when rape or sexual abuse is involved, I cringe. I can read a story about someone being abused physically to the point of death, and I pause and feel for them, but any story about the slightest bit of sexual abuse makes me literally sick, and I say literally as I got sick to my stomach while reading "Enslaved" and was shaking at one point in the narrative.
Doug Hermann, a national abstinence speaker, asks the audience to choose one of the following hypothetical situations:
Situation A: You are leaving a mall, a group of thugs come in a van, kidnap you, take you to a remote location, stab you repeatedly, take you back to the mall, throw you out, you are found and seriously hurt, but you will be all right.
Situation B: You are leaving a mall, a group of thugs come in a van, kidnap you, take you to a remote location, rape you repeatedly, take you back to the mall, throw you out, you are found and seriously hurt, but you will be all right.
He asks his audiences which situation they would prefer and without fail they choose situation A. (In fact one time a male student of mine thought he would be smart and choose situation B until a girl in the class turned around and said "how about being raped by another man?" He shut up pretty quickly.) Of course the point Hermann is trying to make is that sex is not only physical but emotional as well. And that is the point I am making as well, there is something to rape and other sexual abuse that I don't believe one recovers from, ever, and the mere thought of it turns my stomach upside down.
All of this to then say that I feel the Lord working in my heart, I am praying for that working to find an outcome, something I can commit to in order to assist those in need, those going through this right now or those who have gone through it in the past. What that is I don't know, for now every night before I go to bed I utter something to the following:
"Dear Lord, be with those who have been raped or abused in the past. Right now give them a peace, let them know you are God, let them know that this is not your plan, that you are there for them with the peace only you can give. Father, stop those men right now who are abusing, who are leaving the taverns with plans on raping and abusing wives and children this evening. Stop them with the only power that can stop them, you! I implore you God to act, give the children, give the wives, give the slaves one night of reprieve, let them rest in your peace this evening, touch them in an even greater and more overpowering way that only you can do. And tomorrow may both the abused and the abuser wake up to an overpowering extension of your grace and may they choose to follow you. Thank you God. AMEN"
While on vacation last week, I was able to read two profound books, "Memoirs of a Boy Soldier" and "Enslaved," the first about a child soldier in Sierra Leone (the movie "Blood Diamonds" could have been based on this book) and the second seven or eight stories of the plights of modern-day slaves, how they got in and out of slavery.
"Memoirs..." was a good read and I'm glad I read it. But "Enslaved" was the one that touched me the hardest, in fact I've not been able to sleep much of late due to the nightmares associated with some of the parts of the book. What I've noticed that is gripping me the most is the tales of sexual abuse and sex slavery that I'm hearing, both from this book, first-hand acconts from my students, and other instances that make their way into my life. The common denominator that I'm finding is that when rape or sexual abuse is involved, I cringe. I can read a story about someone being abused physically to the point of death, and I pause and feel for them, but any story about the slightest bit of sexual abuse makes me literally sick, and I say literally as I got sick to my stomach while reading "Enslaved" and was shaking at one point in the narrative.
Doug Hermann, a national abstinence speaker, asks the audience to choose one of the following hypothetical situations:
Situation A: You are leaving a mall, a group of thugs come in a van, kidnap you, take you to a remote location, stab you repeatedly, take you back to the mall, throw you out, you are found and seriously hurt, but you will be all right.
Situation B: You are leaving a mall, a group of thugs come in a van, kidnap you, take you to a remote location, rape you repeatedly, take you back to the mall, throw you out, you are found and seriously hurt, but you will be all right.
He asks his audiences which situation they would prefer and without fail they choose situation A. (In fact one time a male student of mine thought he would be smart and choose situation B until a girl in the class turned around and said "how about being raped by another man?" He shut up pretty quickly.) Of course the point Hermann is trying to make is that sex is not only physical but emotional as well. And that is the point I am making as well, there is something to rape and other sexual abuse that I don't believe one recovers from, ever, and the mere thought of it turns my stomach upside down.
All of this to then say that I feel the Lord working in my heart, I am praying for that working to find an outcome, something I can commit to in order to assist those in need, those going through this right now or those who have gone through it in the past. What that is I don't know, for now every night before I go to bed I utter something to the following:
"Dear Lord, be with those who have been raped or abused in the past. Right now give them a peace, let them know you are God, let them know that this is not your plan, that you are there for them with the peace only you can give. Father, stop those men right now who are abusing, who are leaving the taverns with plans on raping and abusing wives and children this evening. Stop them with the only power that can stop them, you! I implore you God to act, give the children, give the wives, give the slaves one night of reprieve, let them rest in your peace this evening, touch them in an even greater and more overpowering way that only you can do. And tomorrow may both the abused and the abuser wake up to an overpowering extension of your grace and may they choose to follow you. Thank you God. AMEN"
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
This made its way into my inbox this afternoon:
Shortly before Christmas, Dave Talbot's mother lay dying in hospital. Barely conscious for much of the time, and clearly in the last few days of her earthly journey, she slipped further and further away from her grieving family. Then, with a sudden surge, her eyes shot open. She raised herself up a little and cried, "Heaven! Heaven! Heaven!" She slumped back into her bed and soon departed.
The undertaker who came for her body noted that, in 5000 deaths, he had seen only five people die with a smile on their face like hers. Her suffering became a revelation and affirmation to her family of an eternal reality.
Today Colin Harrison -- a 32-year-old losing his battle with melanoma -- prepares for that same journey "across the bar," as Tennyson once famously described it. His wife, Kasey, has suffered with him through this 12-month ordeal. His labored breathing, little speech, and drifting consciousness make this torture from a human perspective. He's transforming from mortality to immortality, and from perishable to imperishable (see 1 Corinthians 15:42, 53).
Yesterday, Kasey sent an e-mail in which she affirmed:
In acceptance there is peace.
Let thy heart be still.
Let thy restless worries cease
And accept His will.
Though this test be not thy choice
It is His, therefore rejoice.
Not everyone sees or senses the hand of God during suffering. But sometimes, by His grace, He uses suffering to draw back the veil for a moment, so that we can see things eternal. He comes to us and reveals Himself amidst our pain.
Shortly before Christmas, Dave Talbot's mother lay dying in hospital. Barely conscious for much of the time, and clearly in the last few days of her earthly journey, she slipped further and further away from her grieving family. Then, with a sudden surge, her eyes shot open. She raised herself up a little and cried, "Heaven! Heaven! Heaven!" She slumped back into her bed and soon departed.
The undertaker who came for her body noted that, in 5000 deaths, he had seen only five people die with a smile on their face like hers. Her suffering became a revelation and affirmation to her family of an eternal reality.
Today Colin Harrison -- a 32-year-old losing his battle with melanoma -- prepares for that same journey "across the bar," as Tennyson once famously described it. His wife, Kasey, has suffered with him through this 12-month ordeal. His labored breathing, little speech, and drifting consciousness make this torture from a human perspective. He's transforming from mortality to immortality, and from perishable to imperishable (see 1 Corinthians 15:42, 53).
Yesterday, Kasey sent an e-mail in which she affirmed:
In acceptance there is peace.
Let thy heart be still.
Let thy restless worries cease
And accept His will.
Though this test be not thy choice
It is His, therefore rejoice.
Not everyone sees or senses the hand of God during suffering. But sometimes, by His grace, He uses suffering to draw back the veil for a moment, so that we can see things eternal. He comes to us and reveals Himself amidst our pain.
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