intersections

Camp Meeting 2.0 - Domestic Violence and the Spirit-Body Unity

Continuing our Camp Meeting 2.0- Bloggin' the 28, is this installment from our friend, Sherman Hayward Cox II at Vanderbilt University.

Sherman highlights the importance of our "embodiedness" by pointing to a contemporary social ill - domestic abuse. We are all aware that domestic abuse is ubiquitous. What we may also suspect, but may not know, is that

71% of pastors who returned the survey never counsel a woman to leave or separate based on domestic violence.⁶   92% never counsel the woman to get a divorce because of domestic violence.⁷   26% of pastors told women to go back to an abusive situation and submit.⁸ They said that God would bless the decision. In addition, 25% told the woman that her lack of submission was the cause of the abuse.⁹

Sherman points to the Adventist teaching of "spirited bodies" or body/spirit unity as a theological corrective to unchallenged domestic abuse.

Read the whole piece here.

In addition, I humbly confess that I, like several other bloggers in this project, have fallen behind in posting links to the other Camp Meeting 2.0 posts. After the jump, you will find the links I've missed in the past several weeks.

No Child Left Behind

In my faith reflection which I gave on the Capital steps in Sacramento last week, I said,

We, the leaders of religious communities, are unwilling to sacrifice our children on the alter of some narrow understanding of free-markets. As a society, we long ago decided that our children should have access to free education, regardless of economic class. Why would we deny equally important access to health care for our children?

Little did I know that The Heritage Foundation had issued a press release entitled, "The Middle-Class Welfare Kid Next Door" in which they argue that

Twisting SCHIP's original purpose like this creates a Trojan horse to conceal the ultimate agenda: imposing universal, government-run health care -- one middle-class child at a time.

Yesterday, Paul Krugman wrote an incredible op-ed piece in the New York Times entitled, "A Socialist Plot." (Unfortunately, his op-eds are part of Times Select, which is a paid subscription service. You can get a 14-day free trial OR if you're a student, like me, you can access it for free.) Krugman argues, much as I did last week, that there is no difference between saying that every child is entitled to free, quality health care, regardless of income level and free, quality education regardless of income level. But the politicized smear campaign that the right is perpetrating against S-CHIP reauthorization is just that ridiculous. This administration's sloganering just isn't consistent. On the one hand they make great claims to improving government-paid and administered public education under the guise of No Child Left Behind and then deliberate leave children behind by not giving them access to health care. In fact, two of the top causes of student absence in school is asthma and dental problems (Source: Linking Health & Academic Success).

It seems one is either committed to not leaving any child behind or not. Which is it going to be?

Clergy, make your voice heard! After the jump...read the letter the PICO National Network Clergy are sending to President Bush. If you are clergy, you can add your signature to this important petition! The link is after the jump.

Saving Girls in Thailand

Last night my family and I made the 2 hour trek to Tehachapi -  a wonderful little city nestled in the rolling hills of the High Dessert, north of Lancaster and east of Bakersfield. I remember driving through Tehachapi as a kid on my way to my grandparents house in Mariposa and seeing those beautiful windmills generating all that wonderful green energy, but that's another post for a different day.

What took us to Tehachapi last night was a benefit dinner, put on by a young woman named Andrea Joham, of the Tehachapi Seventh-day Adventist Church. The dinner was specifically benefiting the the "Keep Girls Safe" program of ADRA Thailand. It was an outstanding success. I first met Andrea a few weeks ago in my office and she subsequently asked me to MC the evening, which I did. It was a lot of fun. My two girls sat with a number of other girls at the head table, symbolizing the innocence of young girls. The event raised $8,000 $10,195.00 for ADRA.

Two ADRA representatives flew out from Washington, D.C. to be at the event: Greg Young (pictured), former ADRA Thailand country director and founder of the "Keep Girls Safe" program. Also the director of the ADRA Ambassador program came out for the evening. Greg spoke about the problem of the sexual exploitation of girls in Thailand the trafficking trade.

Every part of the evening was donated by businesses in the city, from the Thai food we ate, to the items in the silent auction. Andrea literally brought the whole city of Tehachapi together to focus on this challenge. It was a real privilege to be a part of it.

The Hollywood Church will be hosting a training event to help people recognize victims of human trafficking on Saturday, October 6th. If you're in the Hollywood area, please join us a very important day. Our partners in that event are The Salvation Army and Kairos/LA. More on that later.

To read more about "Keep Girls Safe", click here.

11 years ago this morning...

...I made vows of fidelity to my wife! Here we are, 11 years later, with two beautiful girls, facing the world together. We don't own a house, the apartment we do have isn't perfectly clean, our children misbehave quite regularly, and we all make each other pretty upset at least once a week. But we're still here. Praise God!  And we're enjoying our life - we're finding that more frequently than before, we face our challenges together. I sometimes wonder how I could get through some of the "stuff" I have to deal with without Elysabeth.

The other day I was getting my hair cut (something some people say I should do more often) at a cool hair salon in my neighborhood called Rudy's. The girl cutting my hair was probably in her mid-20s. She saw my ring and asked how long I had been married. I said 10 years and she nearly dropped her scissors. The shock on her face and in her next question - "What's the secret?" - made it sound like I had just answered "50 years."

After I got over my surprise that 10 years now qualifies as a remarkable achievement, I thought about her question, "What is the secret?" It only took me a second. Commitment. It really boils down to that. There are times that things have been hard - really hard. We've both wanted to give up. But we remember that day, now 11  years ago, when we said, "for better or for worse, till death do us part!" Love is part of it, of course. Sex is important. The kids make a huge difference. The fact that we really are best friends, is vitally important. But when push comes to shove, I remember my commitment. I can't just walk away. With every ounce of my energy, I want to keep my promise, "till death do us part!"

Happy Anniversary, Elysabeth! Here's to another 11 years!

Adventist Health Message 2.0

As I mentioned below, I was in Sacramento yesterday doing some lobbying on behalf of children's health insurance. I'm always reluctant to use the word "lobbying" because of the negative connotations associated with that activity. The difference is, most lobbyists are paid to represent the interests of some powerful corporation than wants to influence public policy. Those same corporations are often donors to campaigns and so the whole thing gets mixed up with power, money and politics. The power of the PICO model of community organizing is that we are the people. We are not paid lobbyists. We are all volunteers, taking time off work to travel, sometimes all the way across the country. The other piece is this, at least for PICO, faith is the motivation for what we are doing, not profit or something else.

I had the privilege of giving the opening faith reflection at our Prayer Vigil, held on the capital steps. Here is the transcript of my faith reflection, if you care to read it.

Good morning!
My name is Ryan Bell. I am the senior pastor of the Hollywood Seventh-day Adventist Church. My congregation, along with 350 other congregations across the State of California, representing 450,000 California families, has worked diligently over the past several years to see that every child is covered by adequate health insurance.

We gather here today as leaders of a diverse group of faith communities, united in our concern, born of our faith, for the children of our communities. Many of us have traveled some distance today to be here in Sacramento, but our hearts are in our neighborhoods back home, where thousands upon thousands of our children cannot see a doctor or a dentist when they need to.

We live in a time when the dominant narrative of our lives is about consumerism and markets. Human beings have become commodities to be bought and sold; measured by their economic usefulness. But this was not always the economic rationality by which people lived. There were times when a more human narrative dominated the public discourse.

Health Care for Children Prayer Vigil in Sacramento

Very early tomorrow morning I and six or seven other delegate from LA Voice will head to Sacramento, along with dozens of other leaders from PICO California. I am speaking at a morning prayer vigil and then we plan to meet with Speaker of the State Assembly, Fabian Nunez, about the current legislation before the Senate and Assembly, to provide health insurance for all children.

Because the deadlock over the budget was broken yesterday, Governor Schwarzenegger is planning to sign the budget tomorrow, which will draw all the press to that event and away from our scheduled press conference. We will settle for a meeting with Speaker Nunez and see where we go from there.

I'll be home the same evening thanks to the wonders of air travel. I'll keep you posted on the events of the day.

Brian Swarts interviewed in "800 Words of RELEVANT"

This week, our friend and fellow Adventist, Brian Swarts, was interviewed by RELEVANT Magazine for their email newsletter called "800 words of RELEVANT." Because I can't find the interview anywhere online, here it is in its entirety. Hopefully I won't get sued!

Jubilee USA is a network of local congregations and more than 80 religious denominations, faith-based networks and development and community organizations in the United States working to pass congressional bills to end third-world debt relief. They’re also partnering with numerous anti-poverty organizations, such as the ONE Campaign, Bread for the World, Action Aid International, Oxfam and Sojourners. We recently spoke with Brian Swarts, the National Field Organizer at Jubilee USA.

Can you tell me how Jubilee got started?
The Jubilee movement was initiated about 10 years after a group known as the Debt Crisis Network launched a tour in the U.K. of African leaders and activists highlighting the devastating and unjust effects of debt on the poor in their countries. Due to the overwhelming popularity of this tour, numerous new groups joined the debt network, [and] it was renamed the Jubilee 2000 Coalition. But it was on May 16, 1998, the first day of the annual G8 summit of the world’s richest nations, that the Jubilee 2000 coalition got the world’s attention. More than 70,000 debt demonstrators from across the world formed a human chain around the building where G8 leaders were supposed to meet. This was the flowering of one of the most remarkable social (and faith) movements in recent history. A movement that joined millions of activists working for the survival of their countries, together with the leaders of churches, unions and aid organizations in Europe and the United States. It also, famously, formed an unlikely partnership between Bono and Pope John Paul II, who joined together in echoing Jesus’ own proclamation of a year of jubilee for the poor.

Your organization is based on the biblical principal of the year of jubilee, where all debts were canceled, property lost to debt was returned and slaves to debt were freed. What does this look like in a current context?
One of the most powerful quotes we use to describe the issue of debt today comes from the former president of Tanzania, speaking to the world’s rich leaders: “Must we starve our children to pay our debts?” It is a statement that echoes Hebrew prophets, like Amos, who complains, “The people of Israel have sinned … They sell into slavery honest people who cannot pay their debts, the poor who cannot repay even the price of a pair of sandals” (2:6-7, GNB).

In ancient Israel debt often became a vicious trap: The poor might lose their land to wealthy creditors. In the end, their only option might be to sell themselves or their children into slavery.

The indefinite continuation of this process and the permanent enslavement of the poor is what jubilee was meant to address. Today, in the world’s most impoverished nations we see a similar vicious debt trap. These countries can no longer afford to repay debts without neglecting their people's basic needs. For instance, in 2005–2006, Kenya's budget for debt payments was as much as for water, health, agriculture, roads, transport and finance combined.

Just as in Amos’ time, we are living in a world that is seriously out of balance. Every day, 13 percent of the world’s population goes hungry and more than 30,000 children die of easily preventable diseases. By committing to the U.N. Millennium Development goals to cut extreme poverty in half by 2015, world leaders acknowledged that things need to change. The biblical practice of jubilee has a lot to say to us in our current context.

How does canceling third-world governments’ debt help to relieve global poverty and trickle down to poor individuals?
The reality is that debt cancellation allows countries to keep more of their own money. This also means that our own foreign aid to these countries is more effective, since it is no longer continually drained from the countries in the form of debt payments. In the countries that have had more access to their own resources through debt relief, poverty-reduction spending doubled between 1999 and 2004, according to a 2004 World Bank/IMF study. Initial debt relief has benefited millions of people.

A bill currently before Congress, the Jubilee Act for Responsible Lending and Expanded Debt Cancellation of 2007, is an attempt to achieve the debt cancellation necessary in order to meet the Millennium Development Goals. It requires that lenders and borrowers alike meet basic standards of transparency and accountability so that they are accountable to those affected by their policies.

Your organization has declared a Sabbath year. Can you explain the significance of that?
Jubilee practice is governed by Sabbath cycles, which means that every seven years is a Sabbath year. Seven years after the historic Jubilee 2000 campaign we are using the Sabbath year to call for renewed focus on the unfinished agenda of debt cancellation. It is also important to note that 2007 is also the halfway point for the U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), so we are also joining groups like the ONE Campaign to remind people that we are not yet doing enough to support the MDGs and that debt cancellation is essential to reaching these goals. This year we have introduced the Jubilee Act (HR 2634) into Congress, which calls for debt cancellation to all countries that require it to reach the MDGs.

To mark the Sabbath year, Jubilee is organizing the "Cancel Debt Fast," a 40-day fast to bring attention to third-world debt relief. Can you explain how the fast is going to work?
The highlight of the 2007 Sabbath year is the “Cancel Debt Fast” advocacy campaign. This is a 40-day rolling fast, from September 6 to October 15, during which it is expected that more than 20,000 supporters of debt cancellation will fast for a day or more and, on the same day, contact their member of Congress to urge their support for the Jubilee Act. Fasting is not limited to food, but can also include fasting from television, driving or particular kinds of food such as coffee. Children can fast from junk food or video games. Supporters will be joining the Reverend David Duncombe, who has committed to an open-ended fast beginning on September 6, while also walking the halls of Congress, building support for the Jubilee Act.

What kind of support are you looking for from ordinary citizens and government officials?
Join the fast and urge your members of Congress to support the Jubilee Act. Even if you don’t fast, contact your members of Congress. Also, talk to your schools and churches about Jubilee. Jubilee USA has a Jubilee Congregations program that provides resources and support to involve your faith community in this important issue. We even have resources, such as Bible studies, sermon notes and videos that you can use to hold educational or worship events.

One of the easiest ways to show support is to organize a “Collection of Plates” in your community. As a way to frame the message of the Cancel Debt Fast, we have begun encouraging Jubilee supporters to adopt the phrase “I’m hungry for justice!” During the fast, supporters will send this message to Congress written on empty paper plates to emphasize the message of the fast and build support for the Jubilee Act.

You can get more info by visiting www.jubileeusa.org.

Brian Swarts is the National Field Organizer at Jubilee USA. He has worked in both church ministry and community organizing in both the United States and internationally. He can be contacted at brian@jubileeusa.org or (202) 441-6763.

Author: Alecia Stephens 

Alecia Stephens is an editorial assistant at RELEVANT.

Quiz: What is the one thing homeless people need most?

Regular readers of my blog will know that a few weeks ago, our congregation participated in a Town Hall Meeting in which we were addressing the need for more affordable housing in the City of Los Angeles. It was an astounding success.

The Spectrum Blog very graciously posted a little YouTube of me being interviewed on ABC 7 News. What ensued was a thread of 85 comments. That conversation basically evolved into a debate about economics and strategies of alleviating poverty and homelessness. It was an interesting conversation that I admit I dropped out of, due to time constraints more than anything. My own blog has suffered of late.

I ran across this article, "Moving the homeless out of shelters, into homes," in the Christian Science Monitor. While not directly related to our affordable housing work, it does relate to another type of housing we've been advocating for in Hollywood - also through our partnership with LA Voice. This is something called Permanent Supportive Housing. It's catching on all over the country and while some of our most strident "free-market" evangelists will no doubt shudder, the information should be taken on its own terms.

My friend, Shane Goldsmith, recently wrote this post at LA's Homeless Blog - the blog of Joel Roberts, CEO of PATH (People Assisting the Homeless). I have put dozens and dozens of hours into promoting and shepherding the Gower Villas project from it's inception. I serve on the Gower Advisory Committee, where we are currently reviewing architectural renderings.

Read it here and tell me what you think in the comments below.

*Answer: Homes!

Un....believable!

New Music: Friend, Church Member, Lennox Fleary

My friend, fellow Hollywood Church member and singer/songwriter, Lennox Fleary, just released his first album a couple of weeks ago. Yesterday, Adventist News Network posted this story about Lennox. It's classic Lennox - authentic, deeply honest and self-revealing. That's exactly the man I know him to be.

Lennox moved to Los Angeles shortly after I did. When we met we both did this double take and realized we went to school together at Pacific Union College. His journey has now brought him to the Hollywood Church where is one of the emerging leaders in our congregation. In another post I'll share some conversations we've had recently that highlight how God is using people like Lennox to lead the missional transformation of the Hollywood Church.

In a few hours I'm helping Lennox move into his new apartment which is about 100 yards from the Hollywood Church - an intentional decision on his part to further integrate his life around a community he loves!

Thanks, Lennox for all you do and, more importantly, all that you are!

In the meantime, check out his MySpace, buy his album here (this would be a huge support to his music ministry), and read the ANN piece.

Oh yeah, and SAVE THE DATE - September 22 (evening) - My Father's House CD release party at the Hollywood Church!