fruitful faith » poverty

india trip

Dale — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 09:29:09 +0000

Not that I always maintain regular posting, but I’ll not (probably?) be posting for a couple weeks, as I leave Sunday night (or Monday morning, actually) for Kolkata, India with a group from my church. We are helping Freeset refurbish their new building to expand their business. Freeset make fair-trade, organic, eco-friendly and pretty stinkin’ classy jute bags; and they are expanding to making t-shirts with the new building. Their reason for existence is to provide alternative employment for Indian women who want out of the sex trade – a form of human trafficking.

Team 1 (3 people) is already over there now; our team (Team 2 – 11 people) goes this weekend; and Team 3 (4 people) go later in February. We’ve got a great range of people going over, from tradesmen to those just willing to pitch in wherever needed.

stinking stimulus

Dale — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 23:09:54 +0000

Anyone who has a knee jerk (i.e. less than critical) reaction to political events in general and the recent U.S. stimulus package in particular, should shut up and think before ranting.

That said, I just don’t like the thought (much less the passing) of the new stimulus package (and I’m not at all anti-Obama – to be crystal clear). $US838 BILLION – on what I can’t help but see as a kind of massively over-sized whallop to a horse that is eventually going to die. Yes, I’m aware of the complexity to all this, and No, I don’t think there are any quick fixes. But I still cannot understand or begin to support spending nearly a trillion dollars on trying to preserve the “American Way of Life” ™.

What kind of precedent are we setting for future generations? What are we saying to the rest of the world – much of which is living in some mild or severe form of poverty; a different kind of poverty indeed to the ‘poverty’ some are facing in ‘developed’ nations around the world.

Some may think, “Oh, but financial prosperity for the ‘rich west’ will enable them to be generous to the ‘poor rest’…” That kind of capitalistic mentality (a.k.a. ‘the rising tide will lift many small boats’) is utter Bull. Greed does not engender generosity.

Instead of our bank account levels needing to go ‘up’, we need our standard of living to go ‘down’ to a realistic and sustainable place. And as long as ‘going out and spending money to stimulate the economy’ is part of doing your ‘patriotic duty’, then I think I want to be unpatriotic.

buying rubbish

Dale — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 10:23:51 +0000

It’s ‘inorganic rubbish collection’ time in Northcote, Auckland, New Zealand.

Northcote street-sides are loaded down with previously-wanted, cheaply-made, briefly-enjoyed and hastily-discarded stuff.

Interestingly, a rather large percentage of the items you’ll see piled outside homes in the area can be seen in pre-broken, pre-rusted or pre-outdated condition in store advertising fliers like the “Outdoor Living ’08” catalogue from the Warehouse (the near-exact New Zealand equivalent of ‘Wal-Mart’ – that corporation-of-all-corporations emanating from the U.S.).

Yes, the American disease of paying far-too-little for far-too-much is migrating shopping mall by shopping mall to New Zealand.

(I note in passing the ‘hard to resist’ wording chosen for the message overlayed the picture of ‘Sylvia Park’ shopping centre – which I watched suck the life out of what used to be the Panmure business district. Really, we did need another shopping mall, didn’t we? Seriously, someone had to do something for those poor, confused Auckland women wandering the streets not knowing where they could obtain their 54th pair of shoes… but I digress…)

But the cause for the amount of rubbish on Northcote streets (which seems – subjectively – more than last year?) has not only to do with the demand (which is met with abundant supply) for cheap goods… It also has to do with our disposable culture.

The chair (or table, or BBQ, or microwave, or printer, or computer, or lounge suite, or washing machine, or computer desk, etc.) is broken. I could fix it. But – really – who can be bothered when I can buy a cheap replacement?

My good friend Derek Lind told me once about a small village he visited in a less-fortunate (or less cursed?) country. He observed one ‘family business’ which collected all sizes and shapes of broken bits of brake-light reflectors from cars – and glued them carefully back together to sell.

These good people would find the streets of Northcote a literal gold-mine of (relatively) easily fixed goods to fix, use and/or sell.

What an interesting world we live, buy, use, sell, demand, shop, waste and dispose in.

(For a quite telling summary of how all this works, I can’t reccomend strongly enough ‘The Story of Stuff‘ – watch it right this moment.)

(p.s. – I wonder if fender-bender car crashes are more frequent during these times? There seem to be a lot of people ‘shopping’ for use-able stuff on the side of the road – and paying a bit less attention to cars in front of them?)

anthropocentric ethics

Dale — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 01:57:15 +0000

Anthropocentric Ethics – In Ancient & Modern Perspective

The author/composer/poet/community which produced the text we know of as Genesis 1 observed many things. Just one of these is the uniqueness of humans in relation to our environment.

Day and night, earth and sky, sea and land, vegetation, and fruits, creatures great and tiny, both in the sea and on land…

And then behold – human beings. These humans are at the pinnacle of creation and are invested with the task and responsibility of governing the entire earth.

*** *** ***

That is an ancient text/song/poem, and the world is very much a different place – we’ve got a lot more technology, for example. But maybe in a few important ways, not much has changed?

Our planet is a mixture of peace and war, beauty and wreckage, feasting and famine, truth and deception, order and chaos (you might say ‘light’ and ‘darkness’).

Who will govern it?

Who will speak, think and act against war, wreckage, famine, deception and chaos?

Who will speak, think and act for peace, beauty, feasting, truth and order?

*** *** ***

We have the ability to govern the earth. The rest of the earth is waiting (you might say ‘groaning’). The sea-lions, the trees, the ants, the pandas, the grass… they all wait for humans to rise up and govern them with wisdom and justice.

We also have the ability to govern ourselves. We have the ability to control our desires (whether they be for excess power, excess wealth, excess food or excess sex). We have the ability to control our thoughts and actions.

May we do so. May we be truly and fully human.

May God help us.

why the “economic stimulus” is a load of bull…

Dale — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 02:06:29 +0000

The US of A just spent $168 billion…

(or 152, depending on sources)

Might wanna read that again…

What did they spend it on?

Shopping… that’s right, shopping…

This makes me want to release a torrent of various expletives…

Each tax-paying American recently received hundreds of dollars to –yes– go shopping. The ridiculous rhetoric used for this was that of (as seen in the picture) ‘boosting our economy’. Why are they all smiling? Because you can rest assured, they all got rewarded (i.e. paid-off) wonderfully well by the various corporations that no doubt pushed this one through.

Millions of American ‘consumers’ (a label I refuse to be applied to me, nor do I think anyone should tolerate such objectification of human beings) will flock to various places of business (I’m thinking Wal-Mart will do splendidly…) and buy various things they don’t need and probably can’t afford (instead of… oh… I don’t know… maybe paying off a little of that credit card debt?)…

Why am I so disgusted by this?

Two main reasons…

1. The ease with which the US government spent these billions to ‘stimulate the economy’ compared with the constant fighting, delaying and avoidance with regard to dropping third-world debt is nothing less than murderous. The number of billions to ‘stimulate the economy’? Over 150. The number of billions given (or is it really just promised?) to debt-relief? Only in the single-digits. But hey, after all, apparently the empty stomachs of those in other parts of the world are less important than the peace-of-mind of American business-owners…

This is horridly and clearly illustrated in the following quote from Nevada Senator Harry Reid (leader of the Democratic majority party in the U.S. Senate – emphasis mine).

The bipartisan plan the president signed today will help millions of Americans who are struggling in an uncertain economy. …Congress promised to act quickly and effectively to help those who need it most, and this law represents a promise kept to the American people.(source)

What an utter load of horse manure. “Those who need it most”, you say? Forget about silly notions of ‘promises’ to the ‘American people’; what about our human responsibility to the poor!!??

(1b. The utter dehumanisation of summing up human beings as ‘consumers’, as if the main thing about being human was spending money!)

2. I am not a capitalist. But, apparently president Bush (and especially the corporations putting cash in his pocket, no doubt) is. The article (or should I say propaganda?) at ‘america.gov’ reads (again, emphasis mine):

In signing the bill, Bush reaffirmed both his commitment to pro-growth governmental policies and his faith in the strength and resilience of the U.S. economy. “Over the past seven years, this system has absorbed shocks — recession, corporate scandals, terrorist attacks, global war. Yet the genius of our system is that it can absorb such shocks and emerge even stronger,” he said.

More horse manure. Putting our hope in the ‘rising tide’ of the ‘global economy’ (to quote Derek Webb) is “not just murder, it’s suicide.” There’s nothing ‘genius’ about greed; and that’s precisely what this junk is all about. US politicians (and the corporations padding their wallets) are trusting in the greed of Americans to make all things well.

That’s not ‘strength’, it’s abuse…

That’s not ‘growth’, it’s cancer…

While I’m quoting Derek Webb, I think the lyrics of ‘A Savior on Capital Hill’ seem appropriate here…

I’m so tired of these mortal men
with their hands on their wallets and their hearts full of sin
scared of their enemies, scared of their friends
and always running for re-election
so come to DC if it be thy will
because we’ve never had a savior on Capitol Hill

you can always trust the devil or a politician
to be the devil or a politician
but beyond that friends you’d best beware
’cause at the Pentagon bar they’re an inseparable pair
and as long as the lobbyists are paying their bills
we’ll never have a savior on Capitol Hill

[Bridge]
all of our problems gonna disappear
when we can whisper right in that President’s ear
he could walk right across the reflection pool
in his combat boots and ten thousand dollar suit

you can render unto Caesar everything that’s his
you can trust in his power to come to your defense
it’s the way of the world, the way of the gun
it’s the trading of an evil for a lesser one
so don’t hold your breath or your vote until
you think you’ve finally found a savior up on Capitol Hill

(Derek Webb – from album ‘The Ringing Bell’)

Rant ended…

brian walsh: targum of Romans 1:1-17

Dale — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 00:30:50 +0000

Read Romans 1:1-17 (in a good, easy to read translation like NIV or CEV), and then check out Brian J. Walsh’s ‘targum’ (an interpretive ‘modernisation’ of a given passage) of it… (Copied from here)

I just love this stuff…

Paul, a slave of Jesus the Messiah, called to a ministry of authority in a world that is suspicious of all authority, set apart in a world that attempts to construct a bland consumerist sameness, proclaimer of nothing less then the gospel God, the good news of God’s radical kingdom.

This gospel, this kingdom proclamation, is nothing new. It was promised by the Hebrew prophets and it is the news of Jesus – the Son of God. This Jesus is a blood descendant of the infamous King David but was pronounced to be God’s Son by the explosive power of the Spirit of all that is pure, all that is deeply right, when he rose from the dead.

He isn’t the Son of God because he was elected, or because he has the most economic power, or because he commands great armies. No, he is the Son of God because he blew apart the power of death.

This is Jesus the Messiah. This is Jesus who I dare to call my Master. It is through this Jesus, the Messianic Master, that I have met a grace that makes beauty out of ugly things, the deepest of all gifts.

And it is through this gift of grace that I have received my call to proclaim his good news in order to bring about faithful obedience amongst all people. I do this subject to his name.

If I am to be branded, then let me be branded with the name of Jesus. He is my Master, not some corporate logo. And I do this inviting others to bear the brand of Jesus, including you, my friends, who are happy to be known as belonging to Jesus.

To all of you who live in the empire of global capitalism, to you who live at the very heart of that empire and are called out to be an alternative people:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Master, Jesus Christ. Grace and peace. You won’t have one without the other, and both are on offer from Jesus.

I am so thankful for all of you. You see, while the CNN news that issues forth from your town throughout the whole world tends to be about the exploits of the empire, there is another news that comes from the heart of the empire.

The news of your faithfulness has been proclaimed throughout the world. Your commitment to the poorest of the poor who live within walking distance of the corridors of power, your courage in standing up against the injustice of fair trade agreements that serve the rich and exploit the poor, your audacity in praying on the steps of the hill where the political leaders hatch their conspiracies – all of this is liberatingly good news, and it filters out to the very furthest reaches of the empire.

I tell you that the God whom I serve in announcing the liberating good news of his Son, bears witness to my constant prayers for you all. And what I pray is that I might actually get through the homeland security wall in order to get to you.

The longer I have been delayed and blocked from coming to you, the more severe has the ache in my heart become. What I want is to come and bring you a measure of grace that will give you the strength to go on against all the odds.

But to be honest, I’m looking for some encouragment too, and I am sure that I will find it in the midst of your alternative discipleship community.

You know, my friends, I’ve been trying to come to you for years now so that I could join in the revolution that you are a part of. This irresistable revolution of Jesus is breaking out everywhere, and I want to help it happen at the heart of the empire. But there have been obstacles along the way.

Sometimes other urgent ministries came up, and sometimes (as you know) the authorities have blocked my way. But here’s the thing. I will not play by the rules of the empire.

I will not go along with their racial profiling, their immoral surveillance tools, their demonization of any and all who would dare to not fit, who would dare question the inherent goodness of the empire and the story of progress that it proclaims.

Because I follow Jesus and proclaim his good news of redemptive love, I am obligated, indeed I am indebted to both Americans and Iraqis, to Canadian troops and to the Taliban, to Jews and Palestinians, to straight and gay, to wealthy and impoverished, to the educated elite and the illiterate poor, to those who fit and to those who don’t.

And because I am indebted to all, including those most excluded, shameful and despised, I am incredibly eager to come to your city – the very heart of an exclusionary empire – to proclaim the embracive good news of Jesus.

And here’s the kicker, friends. I will not be ashamed of this gospel. I refuse to be ashamed of this gospel because I will not submit myself to the empire’s categories of shame. I will not be ashamed of this gospel, even when it is perverted and employed for shameful purposes by those who would make Christian faith the handmaiden of the empire.

I will not be ashamed of this gospel because it is nothing less than the power of God that can blow apart the empire as it brings salvation – real salvation, not the cheap consumerist salvation of the empire; real salvation, not the salvation for democracy that is imposed by the empire’s military force; real salvation, not human centred immitation that is proclaimed in the empire’s stories and symbols – it is the salvation of God for everyone who is faithful to its call, to the Jews who brought us Jesus first, and then to the non-Jews.

Why am I not ashamed of this gospel? Because in this good news about Jesus we meet the righteousness of God. The world is put to rights when the restorative justice of God is revealed. You want an ‘infinite justice’? Then don’t look to the violent justice of the empire, but turn to the justice of God manifest in Jesus tortured in a Baghdad prison, executed by imperial forces.

In this gospel we meet an Operation Infinite Justice that realizes its goal by non-violently resisting the empire precisely through the Messiah subjecting himself to the violence of the empire…unto death. The good news of Jesus has an empire-overturning power precisely because in Jesus the embracing and forgiving power of God is revealed.

And it is revealed through God’s faithfulness in Jesus Christ that calls forth our faithfulness as subjects of his coming kingdom. That is why, in the shadow of an earlier empire, the prophet Habakuk wrote that, “the one who will be righteous will live by faith.”

Righteousness, justice, faithfulness – all in the shadow of empire. This is the fruit of the gospel that I long to proclaim in your midst.

good books new zealand

Dale — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 05:50:29 +0000

I love books.

Now I’ve got a new source (hat tip: Andrew Madjar).

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls; behold GoodBooksNZ.

All – yes ALL – profits from book sales from GoodBooksNZ goes to Oxfam.

Here’s a blurb from their site:

Our offer is simple: Every time you buy a book from Goodbooks – any book – we contribute all profits to Oxfam to help fight its global battle against poverty and social injustice. There is no extra cost to you. We do not mark up our books to cover this contribution; our prices remain among the lowest you will find; delivery worldwide is completely free, and with over two million titles in stock our range is one of the largest you will find.

Help us open a new chapter in the fight against inequality.

I urge you to purchase your books from them! I know I will be! Check out the 30-second video below…

poor christianity

Dale — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 11:15:00 +0000

“And when James, Cephas (Peter), and John… perceived the grace that had been given to me, they gave me and Barnabas the right hand of the fellowship, that we should go to the (uncircumcised) Gentiles and they to the circumcised (Jews). They desired only that we should remember the poor, the very thing which I also was eager to do.”
- Paul in Galatians 2:9-10 NKJV

Wow. Welcoming those filthy, stinking, sinning, dirty Gentiles into the people of God, and such inconvenient, impractical and idealistic priority given to serving the poor?While we can’t reduce Christianity to these two characteristics, they remain at the very heart of the types of attitude and action that should characterise Christians.Welcoming Gentiles Today
It’s hard to imagine just how wrong it would have felt to many faithful Jews at that time even to entertain the idea that Gentiles could be justified by God simply by faith – no Jewish-ness (‘works of the law’ – Gal. 2:16) required. The accomplishment of Jesus had not only surpassed every hope of the Jews, but had also come with a sharp word of prophet-like judgment to them as well. All nations were supposed to be blessed in Abraham and by Abraham’s descendants. Instead, they had taken on some of the characteristics of the various empires that had continually been oppressing them. As N.T. Wright brilliantly puts it, God’s rescuers needed rescuing themselves. The invitation to Gentiles had always been open throughout Israel’s history, but for the most part, it was an invitation that wasn’t getting delivered.

The language of the New Testament is vibrantly coloured by the tension of Gentile-Jew relations, but the language of our world isn’t. Perhaps this can keep us from noticing how often we can take up the same attitude towards people who do not share our faith in Jesus. Our self-righteousness is often disgusting. In the same way that Paul talks about Gentiles ‘doing the things contained in the law’ (Romans 2:14), many people today are doing great things for the world with no faith in Jesus at all. God’s people are identified by faith, and this doesn’t give us the right to make it harder for people that don’t look like us to come to this faith. Not only will we have to be more willing to allow them join us in our work, but we may have to humble ourselves and join them in their work.

Remembering The Poor Today
The leading apostles gave the ‘Gentile side’ of the ministry to Paul and the one thing that was of utmost importance to both of them was care for the poor. One does not have to read the Bible for very long to see how God is angered when His people don’t care for the poor. Multiple prophecy-warnings by prophets in the Old Testament, Jesus in the Gospel narratives, and the New Testament all confirm this concern of God that is to be our concern as well.

What keeps us from ‘remembering’ the poor? Allow me to suggest that our minds are on other things. If you live in a Western nation in the 21st century, that means that you are bombarded with advertising images and slogans that are determined to keep your mind on whatever it is they are trying to sell you. We need to re-capture the eager-ness of Paul and his fellow Apostles (or more importantly, the eager-ness of Jesus our Lord) to care for the poor. Comfort, convenience, home-improvement, investment (let alone drowning in debt), fashion and the like should all take a back seat to our eager-ness to remember the poor. There are countless ways to serve the needs of less privileged people around the world. We must make it our priority.