The Underground Railroad

I Love Lac La Biche

There. I admit it. I love this messy, crazy, colorful, wonderful, conflicted, peaceful, redneck, hippie collision of nowheresvilles, Alberta. Happy?

Yes.

I am.

If anyone knows me well, they know I am prone to long rambles along the highways around LLB. Not exactly the safest route, I've been told, but still... no better view of the town at sunset, in starlight or moonlight, or during the afternoon sun as me on the open highway. Anyone who knows me well will also know that I will do almost whatever it takes to get the best view of... anywhere... anything. To really, truly experience a place -- a sense of being -- you have to go straight to the edge of all things... a look down... look across... look out... look in...

After convincing myself that God really wanted me in "The Inner-City of Somewhere Else", I was relieved to be ditching this place. I was done with.... (insert list here of all things I perceived to be wrong, broken, frustrating, and blocked). But then God happened.

He happens at the most inconvenient of times, I must say.

"Why are you announcing community, intentionally love where you are moving to if you have not learned to truly love the community you are in?"

BAM.

Checkmate.

Running away to the proverbial mission under the guise that I wanted to good (which I did), was only a thin veneer for dodging messy community in all its glory (which I was). In the past couple days, I've taken extremely long rambles about the trucking bypass and began to realize something: I really do love this place. I really have been given a heart for this place. What a shock! In all this beauty, scenic nature, cultural diversity, religious affiliations, here I am. In all the conflicts, family wars, gang junk, racial tension, drug & alcohol abuse, legalism, here I am.

Some have said that, despite this being my 7th year here (has a rather biblical tone, does it not?), I will never be from here. I wasn't born and raised here, thus I will never be able to call this home. Others even more transient than I have been in life marvel that I have stayed as long as I have. Well, in response to both perspectives, I go to John 1... read it just this morning:

 ¹² Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— ¹³ children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

Call me crazy (don't worry, a lot of people have, me being one of them), but I am not of this world as the world knows itself to be. I am flesh, created in the image of God, but more than that I am not of this world. So that I am not of good ol' LLB is quite true... yet the roots I put down here are deeper than physical birth. My identity, my birth, my personhood is of another kingdom, a deeper one -- a richer one that is eternal.

I was thinking all of this as Collective Soul sang out into my iPod: "So I walk up on high and I step to the edge to see the world I love. And I laugh at myself as the tears roll down, 'cause it's the world I love.

It's the world I love."

Thinking deeply as I spied the Mosque across from the bypass, as I chatted with some leisurely paced mule deer in a field, as I watched my own shadow grow longer in the afternoon winter sun, as every 18-wheeler passed me, as I passed churches, forests, barns, trailer courts, gas stations, suburbs... everywhere...

Some days I want to pull out my hair over the petty squabbles... other days there is deep sorrow for the injustices we have inflicted upon one another... other days I am awed at the beauty of the cultures who have found their way here, in whatever manner... and still on other days, I sometimes think I would pay a million bucks just for someone to take me to the Sir Francis Winspear Centre for Music in Edmonton so I could get a breath of wondrous classical music because I just can't take another second of another twangy country voice anymore.

(Smiles)

So here I am... Coming Home.

Here's Collective Soul's "The World I Know" - http://youtu.be/n7TLTjqUyog

unChristian: A Book Review

So why are Christians thought of as judgmental... hypocritical... antigay... boring? David Kinnaman's 3-year research study through the Barna Group aims to answer some of those questions in his book unChristian. I have read the book, and have some thoughts on his findings. Remember: this is only a brief post trying to cover an entire book on a touchy subject. I will do my best to be concise!

At first I couldn't wait to dive into the book. At last! Someone speaking some reality! Immediately, however, George Barna sets the tone for him in the introduction by deriding written works relying on personal anecdotes (p.8). 

Great.

Another research snob.

If it isn't logically studied through the lens of the scientific method, it is of little worth.

Don't get me wrong! Solid research has its place and is valuable, but not at the expense of other sources of knowledge, insight and wisdom.

Okay... Barna's bias is set, but to be fair this is an attitude of many-a-statistician, Christian or not. Press through it and move on. Kinnaman seems to truly have done a thorough and solid work in his research -- interviews, anecdotes (qualitative); and tools gathering statistics (quantitative). Over a period of 3 years, using population samples crossing ethnic and socioecnomic lines, as well as religious differences, it appears the foundation is well set.

Definitions:

Outsiders: those claiming to be looking at the Christian faith from the outside in (p.17)
Insiders: those claiming to be of the Christian faith looking at it from the inside out 
Busters: those born between 1965-1983
Mosaics: those born between 1984-2002 

I appreciated Kinnaman pointing out that using lanaguage such as "pagan" or "the lost" labels outsiders in such a negative light that these people are immediatley put on the defensive. He refuses to use traditional labels, nor does he "name names" -- Christian leaders, churches or groups who have 'done wrong'. His discretion is well taken.

However, Kinnaman's bias does ring out almost as quickly as Barna's with such as phrases as how we "hijack Jesus" by "softening or re-shaping the Gospel" (pp.32-33). I would agree but Kinnaman is coming at this research as a conservative Christian addressing Christians (p.27). Here, I sighed... Okay, he and I are looking at the same issues from quite different parts of the Christian continuum. For example, when the author repeatedly includes buying a lottery ticket as a form of sin, I disagreed completely. So I had to really scrutinize those actions Kinnaman labelled as sinful, because this would obviously affect his numbers. Bear in mind, numbers are as easily manipulated as words. Furthermore, I disagreed with his definitions of things like discipleship ("learning about Christ, learning about the Bible", p.50), or lifestyle ("doing good and not sinning", p.50). This could be left for a different post entirely, but suffice it to say that discipleship is far deeper than helping someone memorize Scripture, and lifestyle can be far richer than just a moral compass.

So as I read through the pages, I realized I was reading through the lens of an outsider still on the inside. Many of his findings I have found to personally apply to me, and yes... I am one who would really rather not "bring a friend to church". So there's my bias.

Moving on.

Kinnaman focuses on the 6 top areas respondants said evangelical Christians were being destructive towards people to. Now, this is the spot where some evangelicals will say: "But even Jesus said THEY will hate us because of Him!" Rightly, Kinnaman addresses this issue stating "we have become famous for what we oppose rather than what we are for" (p.26). Christians are not being repelled because of our radical love for Christ and others, but because our version of 'love' has been to beat people down with their sin, get converts, demand repentance, and then... leave them. If this is how people are experiencing church, then absolutely attention needs to be paid to what outsiders are saying! They are not hating Jesus... they are hating US!!!

Kinnaman digs into 10 broad areas that repeatedly announced themselves in the results he took from respondants (6 of which he focuses on in the book). He focuses mainly on the 16-29 age group. I was not surprised in the least when the author said the top 3 reasons people leave the church or refuse to become part of one are: 1) we're antigay; 2) we're judgemental, and 3) we're hypocrites. He begins each chapter with how the thousands of respondants perceive Christians, and then proposes a new perception whe could work towards.

Hypocrisy:
Perception: Christians say one thing but live something entirely different.
New Perception: Christians are transparent about their flaws and act first, talk second (p.41).  

Kinnaman claims that as much of a perception as this is, Mosaics and Busters aren't always bothered by hypocrisy because at some level, everyone is a hypocrite, and our generations apparently are okay with living this kind of dissonance. I'm not sure I appreciate his take on all of us being okay with hypocrisy, but I did appreciate his pointing out that Jesus called only the religious leaders of the day "hypocrites!"... guess who's taken on that role today? Us. 

Point taken.

We have such a holier-than-thou attitude, with a few doctrines of grace and love thrown in that we seem like lying snakes (p.51... the snake thing I added). Remember: perceptions are important here. We are not being seen as relational and approachable, but aloof. I know I can't live up to the moral standards set out by this flavour of Christianity. It turns my stomach. Yet... I pause here and look inward to see where hypocrisy is rearing its ugly head in my own life.

Get Saved!
Perception: Christians are insincere and concerned only with converting others
New Perception: Christians cultivate relationships & environments where others can be deeply transformed by God (p.67) 

Ummm... why aren't we creating environments and cultivating relationships where we all are deeply transformed? I was put off immediately by the well-intentioned new perception, but it still had the air of pomposity to it: we create the places, we cultivate the relationships, we are Christians and we draw people in. It is still reductionist dogma, consumer-driven "God is just for ME" individualism. I saw where he was coming from but it fell short. Yes, we do need to create sacred spaces of healing, reconciliation and restoration, but thinking that it is always for 'the other' still perpetuates the us/them myth.

As one astute young man who came into our drop-in centre so aptly put it: "You Christians don't give a shit about me. You just want to convert me so I'll think like you. You don't love me at all. Even if I did convert, you wouldn't love me until I acted like you."

Ouch.

I can't blame the guy. I am sick to the teeth of this "Repent or go to hell!" message that excludes a holistic magnificence in the Gospel. It's wrong. That's my interpretation, I guess. But after living nearly 20 years with the fear of hell gripping my life, driving me to near psychosis, and the love of God so far away, I can say as an evangelical reject (as Kurt Willem's would call me!) that reducing the Gospel to a heaven/hell issue is an afront to all of who Christ is and why He came.

Antihomosexual
Perception: Christians show contempt for gays and lesbians
New Perception: Christians show compassion and love to all people, regardless of their lifestyle (p.91) 

Now I know with a limited amount of space, Kinnaman couldn't address ALL aspects of his research in depth, but the attiude of "We all KNOW it's wrong, but we're going about expressing it the wrong way" attitude was another put off. Again, it seemed like a veiled attempt for another evangelical stance to come at "the problem" in a nicer way. Was there any discussion as to whether or not Scripture has been misinterpreted? Was there any intentional attempt to dialogue with the LGBTQ community to learn new perspectives? It was hard to swallow the "hate the sin, love the sinner" merry-go-round when it still sounded so arrogant. What about gays who have been "born again" (as Kinnaman describes it) and still struggle? What about Christians who discover they are gay? What about gays who have been abused by the church?

However I did appreciate that Kinnaman pointed out the complexity of the LGBTQ community, its experience with the evangelical church, and vice versa. It is not a black/white issue. So while I perceived the author's attempt to elevate the conversation to fall somewhat short, it was not entirely without merit. For a great resource about conversations and really elevating the conversation between gays and Christians, check out Andrew Marin's, my friend and former classmate, book Love is an Orientation. You won't find black/white, yes/no answers. But you will find some of your questions posed there, and how others have addressed things. The Marin Foundation is doing some great working building bridges between churches and the LGBTQ community where others have certainly feared or disdained to tread.

Sheltered
Perception: Christians are boring, unintelligent, old-fashioned, and out of touch with reality
New Perception: Christians are engaged, informed, and offer sophisticated responses to the issues people face (p. 121) 

What greater evil force is there than hate? Rejection. When Christians deign not to associate with outsiders, we are perceived as snobby, arrogant, fearful, in our own little worlds, too good for others, etc., etc. We've all heard it before. Kinnaman (shown left) makes a distinction that there are times when we pull back from the world (for example, not letting a child watch innappropriate videos), yet our isolationism in the name of not being of this world has hampered our rep. 

Yup.

Bring out the torches and pitchforks, because I cringe when believers yank their kids out of every activity where perceived demonism or sin might be lurking. Sin is everywhere. It certainly won't hesitate to be in your home (if we're going to go that route). Hiding is cowardice. Conforming is also a risk, but Jesus took that risk & faced conformity by acting radically amongst the untouchable classes. 

Too Political
Perception: Christians are primarily motivated by a political agenda and promote right-wing politics
New Perception: Christians are characterized by respecting people, thinking biblically, & finding solutions to complex issues (p.153) 

The Moral Majority... The Tea Party... Canada's conservative Right... traditional family values... anyone else feel like fingernails are being scraped over a blackboard? 

The author points out that conservatives are trying very hard to create a Christian government. I would agree, but add that we did that already -- with disastrous consequences. We had power centuries ago and still do today whether we like to admit it or not, made policies that created genocides, slavery, poverty, disease and death. This isn't Jesus Christ. Why would we want that back? Are we that power hungry?

Should Christians back out of politics altogether? The author says "no" since the Christian influence needs to extend into every area of life. But advocating for things like making gay sex illegal is dangerous. Christians might be successful in gaining that policy (scary!), but they will effectively destroy any hope of creating relationships with gays and lesbians (and what is with our fixation on homosexuality anyway!?). Not only that, but policy will logically have to extend to YOUR bedroom as well. Do YOU want the government dictating your sex life? Thought not.

Judgmental
Perception: Christians are prideful and quick to find fault in others
New Perception: Christians show grace by finding the good in others and seeing their potential to be Christ followers (p.181) 

This one struck me hard. Not only because I've felt deeply judged and wronged, but because I know I've been judgmental too... towards conservative Christians especially of late. It's wrong and I know it. It's one thing to disagree on issues, but to truly dislike conservative ideology and let that trickle into the Body of Christ... well... let's just say a friend of mine and I have committed to each other that our jaded spirits do need healing FROM church, but we also need reconciliation WITH church. A sincere transformation of Love is in order... and wanted. It is so easy to slide into judgmentalism. As a wise professor once told me: "Hurt people hurt people." 

That being said, some days I think If I hear that the social gospel is not the "real" gospel one more time, I'll ---!!!!!!! Remember, I'm looking at this issue being an outsider on the inside. When I am told that my faith is not real, it is not sharing the Gospel to enough people, that my 'conversion experience' was a false conversion, when it is not a real gospel, or that I'm preaching communism or nazi socialism, feelings do get hurt. I get jaded. I feel alone. 

And I'm not the only one.

I was waiting for the abortion shoe to be dropped, and here it is. Kinnaman describes an interview he conducted with a young woman named "Lisa" (p.162). An outsider, she attended an "insiders" women's group on and off. One day, the group was talking about sexuality, intimacy and those sorts of issues women do tend to wander off on at times. She joined in the conversation by sharing how she was empathizing with her outsider friend who had had an abortion. The conversation immediately changed in tone: it went from sharing with one another, to insider women preaching and condemning Lisa. It wasn't until Lisa had the chance to explain herself that she, herself, had once had an abortion and how badly it wounded her, no one really quite knew where to go from there.

Silence.

I can only imagine the pins dropping all over the place in that church.

Once again, I disagree with Kinnaman's broad sweep that Mosaics and Busters are morally relativistic and content be so. Newsflash: EVERYONE is morally relative (as my brother would say). Yet, the plain truth of the matter is that insiders' words and actions have done deep damage to outsiders. These outsiders are not "pagans" or "lost", but by and large people who have encountered church and Christianity already! But because of bad behaviour, and wounding judgments, they/we never go back. We give up. I mean, who wants to be speared week after week? Not me.

Kinnaman is correct in stating stereotypes must go if judgmentalism is to be demolished (p.191). They do kill relationships. Christians don't have all the correct lenses through which we see the world. Far from it. Just look at how entangled we are in insisting that our countries (US and Canada) are Christian nations, whose forefathers founded our great empires on godly principles, thus our definition of freedom, capitalism, and democracy are THE correct and godly ways to live. Where does it say THAT in Scripture?

From unChristian to Christian

The author sums up his book with ways insiders can change perceptions - resolve the image problem. It's true there will always be nay-sayers, doubters, and spiteful critics. However, it's also true that insiders can live better than how we are. 

~ respond with the right perspective
~ connect with people
~ be creative (evangelicals aren't known for their creativity or passion for the arts as expressions of worship, despite their being evangelical artists... we certainly can do much better here)
~ serve people (social justice IS a part of a whole Gospel! To denounce otherwise is to denounce major reasons why Christ came)
~ a lifestyle of compassion (pp.205-215)

Okay... a brief summary after a lengthy blog: I did not agree with many Kinnaman's definitions of sin, spiritual disciplines or what it means to be evangelical. I did not like his rather proud sounding tone at times which bordered on hubris. I certainly felt disappointed when he truly grappled with a complex issue but then fell short of actually shedding light on solutions that could come from places other than traditional dogma. His guest authors who contribute to his work spanned the spectrum from John Stott to Brian McLaren. I am still unsure as to whether this was a deep intention to include diverse voices from across Christianity, or just a tip of the hat to show conservatives were playing ball (and don't think the minority of women's voices went unnoticed).

However...

I remember how Paulo Friere insisted that true change of an oppressed people could only come from within. I believe the same to be true here. Conservative Christianity, in my mind, has become not oppressed but an oppressor group. Known for its disrespect of persons, dehumanizing methods (calling it 'love' so people are fully aware of their sin), ignorance, isolationism, and poor judgments, deep and true change can only come from within the group. David Kinnaman appears to be just such a voice. I could blather on and on until I'm blue in the face as to why telling unwed mothers they are not "God's true vision for the family" is abhorrent, but until people like the author stand up and share these realities between themselves, we all will stil be known as unChristian.

Next up... "You Lost Me"

 

For The Slave is Our Brother...

How do we end slavery in our own communities? We create family... we welcome those in chains... we see the chains we wield or carry ourselves and surrender them to Jesus... we seek active peace, confess the reality of divisions between us denominationally, racially, socio-economically, and work vigorously to reconcile them... we lament injustice, praise when it is called for, & see all life as sacred worship... we play, laugh, and choose a rooted love in a hypermobile culture... we become new creatures unlike any created thing ever seen, & declare in word & silence the Spirit's transformation all of our lives.

"Chains Shall He Break..."

As I stood with my congregation this morning, it was with the uneasy frustration of "nothingness" once again. Why the jadedness, I cannot say for sure at this point, but each time I rise to sing, I feel guilty for praising God with my lips, but having my heart far from Him.

Yet today... even the entire congregation was different. We sang traditional carols of the season, but there was an "umph" to our voices... a desperation... a shouting out that I had not heard (or perhaps had not been able to hear) for many months. We were a hungry people -- arms reached out to gather their loved ones close, shoulders were touched gently, and our spirits began to become loud, rather than our physical voices. I cannot explain it. Nor do I care to.

We began singing "O Holy Night", and our voices crescendoed. As we came to the next verse, my heart about stopped: "How had I been so blind as to not see this before?" I had sung this song many, many times, yet these words have never pierced me so profoundly as they did today.

"Truly He taught us to love one another..."

People are hard to love. We are. Sometimes, we turn to the poor and marginalized so that we can find someone "easy to love" because of their circumstance, rather than turning to the person next to us with whom we might have a disagreement, with whom we might be afraid of, or for whom we harbor secret resentments. Only we find the poor and marginalized are just as hard to love as ourselves, for the reflect the very same things we see in ourselves that we resent, fear, and loathe.

"His law is Love, and His gospel is peace..."

Jesus did not merely teach love. Had He stopped at that, we all know it would have come to nothing more than a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. But Jesus Christ IS love... thus His good news can be no other way than love and peace. God cannot be other than He is, and He is love. He loved us, and commands us to love one another not to oppress us, but to shape us more into His likeness. "Ahhh... but people are so hard to love"... hmmm. Yet is was God who chose to put skin on. Take a moment to think about how hard that was.

"Chains shall He break, for the slave... he is our brother..."

Advent is our timing of preparation. Not only do we prepare to announce compassion and justice, to assist victims, or to raise awareness of the chains people around the world bear daily... but we prepare ourselves to welcome warmly and lovingly these people we once considered beneath us. That thought might sound repugnant to us, especially those of us who emphatically believe in equality before God, but when push comes to shove: there are people groups whom we distance ourselves from. Oh sure, it's all well and good once they 'repent' and become like us, but until then, they must drop the chains themselves.

This line in the verse I nearly shouted... HE shall break the chains. It will not be any work of ours alone, nor are we to stand back and demand slaves free themselves of their burdens and look like we do first before they sense our love. Hence... we prepare. Often we think we are ready to embrace the released captive, only to find skeletons in our closets that prevent us from doing so.

"... and in His Name, ALL OPPRESSION SHALL CEASE."

Done.

Gone.

No more.

Not from traffickers.

Not from pimps.

Not from buyers.

Not from you.

Not from me.

Not from history.

Not from now.

Not from governments.

Not from corporations.

Not from each other.

No more.

I belted out this stanza like I had never sung it before in my life. For the children bought and sold to make our carpets... for the men bought and sold for their organs... for the women bought and sold just because they are women... for the many bought and sold to be destroyed through indentured servitude... for the many of all ages bought and sold to be destroyed by sex, porn, and prostitution... for the many bought and sold in the name of God for whatever deceitful purpose contrived by evil doers... we all sang together as one this morning. I pray that our humble and broken offering does not fall on deaf ears, divine or human.

Even in the brothels, there is the sacred. If God is everywhere, then He is indeed everywhere. It makes the saddest and most horrific of darknesses the holiest of nights. I don't say this lightly, or to suggest that because God is present, He is condoning the buying of flesh. Hardly.

What I am saying is... "chains shall He brake for the slave, he is our brother. And in His Name, all oppression shall cease."

If God Love chooses to enter flesh by way of the poorest class, nation, gender on earth, then no one anywhere is out of reach of His peace. The promise is true. Oppression will cease.

I Happen to Love the Dark

I am one of those freaky people who loves it when it gets dark by 4pm. I love the snow... I love the early sunsets... I love being hushed by the dark on my way home from work.

Please don't misunderstand me: I've struggled with my share of depression related to long dark days without sunlight. I know it can be taxing on body and spirit when we live in darkness for too long. Perhaps that's the point... 

There was a time when all darkness held for me was sheer terror... ghosts... demons... memories... pain... agony... when all things evil were related to the dark, there was no possibility for me to see the beauty in the darkness. Deep healing and freedom needed to come so that I could encounter Jesus Christ in the darkness -- the darkness He created, the darkness His Spirit hovered in while over the face of the deep (Genesis 1), the darkness He came to Nicodemus by, the darkness that showed His natal star...

Such wonder! Awe... beauty... quiet... somber reflection as I tell myself the story of Advent in the reaches of the night... 

I close my eyes, and I see snow-laden paths in a wood -- 2 paths diverging away from each other, yet other than that, equally adrift with snow, equally dark 'round the bend, equal in every respect. There are no footprints, no signs, no light but the wan moon trying to break through the deep clouds. Which do I take? 

Neither. 

This sacred space is a crossroads for me to stop... to remember... to wait... Advent is preparation, waiting, and desiring. I need not move from this untouched scene. It is cold. It is dark. I can feel winter's chill, but the journey is also about stopping before moving on. So here I am in Advent... loving both trails into the forest... eager to explore both... yet sensing the Spirit closer than my own frosty breath on the air soaking into my own soul. He dwells here. So here I dwell. He enjoys this place. So I enjoy it. I need not fear of becoming stagnant. He will tell me when to move on. I need not fear evil invading this place, for it is not allowed -- no temptation of mine, no evil of others, no demons of the pit. For now... for tonight... I am to be enveloped by the all consuming silence, but for the snowflakes tapping against my coat.

This is my prayer for our young children, bought and sold around the world.

Anyone who has worked with people exploited by the slave trade, especially the sex trade (or any form of abuse, for that matter), will know that the night holds a special kind of terror and bondage for them. I was never bought or sold. But I understand the terror. Acting out, tantrums, freak outs often all happen at bedtime or during the night. This is where the darkness -- created by God -- has itself been abused and exploited. This is when deeds of evil are gleeful. This is when many acts of exploitation are at their peak. The memories of these things are no less violating than the acts themselves.

So as I move into Advent... still in the darkness of the wood, snow, and Spirit... it is my fervent prayer that our youth will know darkness as beauty... as safe... as restful... as peaceful... as Spirit-filled. It will not be an easy road to come to. I know this as a truth. For some, it will take a lifetime.

But the Spirit moves and dwells in the dark as He does in the Light, exposing deeds of darkness (darkness here referring to evil, rather than the Spirit-created darkness). When freedom comes, may it come not only with tears and toil, but with a tired, weary, young head laying her head down on a pillow, breathing slowly... softly... as a child should... secure that her Lord and Shepherd is guarding her very essence, her body, her dreams... her life.

Lord, may it be so.

Amen. 

Conspiracy Christmas Challenge 04: Creating Advent

Every year for the past few years, I've encouraged readers to follow the great Advent Conspiracy -- claiming that Christmas can still change the world. It can only happen, however, if we as ordinary people of God change our spending habits.

"Like it's going to help."

"It's not like it's wrong to own an XBox. Just chill."

"Some of us have more money than others. Why are those others envious just because we can afford certain things for our kids?"

This isn't Advent, folks. This is consumerism; and while we think we are the consumers, each year I am more and more convinced that we are the ones being consumed -- by greed, lust, and deceit that we NEED to have the latest gadgets, games, wheels, threads, or what have you. We are being eaten alive and the worst part about it is: we like it. We have justified it in every way. 

So this year's challenge is simply this: find our way back to Advent -- the waiting in expectation and pregnancy before Christ comes. Journey on this road towards this holy place, and walk thereon. Many evangelicals do not adhere to the church calendar, and these "rituals" are often glossed over since they aren't seen as an inherent need to salvation. Some even deride these practices because they are not based in Scripture.

Well if we're going to go THERE, then perhaps we should start with the true meaning of the Christmas tree?... mistletoe?... holly?... how about Christmas itself not technically being mentioned as an observance in the Bible? No? Save that for another day. Fair enough. 

So many of us are starved at Christmas -- not physically, but spiritually malnourished. Our cores are screaming for connection and nourishment from something Deeper than an iPod or a Halo game. There's GOT to be more than this... there HAS to be... If not, why the stupid tree?

We have the chance to take this time before Christmas to prepare (like Lent before Easter) for the coming Messiah. Each day can be intentional in holiness, wonder, awe, and grief. As Israel was waiting in pain for her Messiah, as Mary was waiting in discomfort and slanderous rumours for her child, as God was waiting for the precise moment, we are able to wait too. We can return to this place of preparation, observe the trasnformation in ourselves and others by God, and sense the entire season becoming one of intense beauty, grief, grace, and wonder.

Come.

Come find this place of Advent.

Come reclaim Christmas that releases us from being devoured, and sets us on a path of relational and agape love winding up at the foot of a manger. 

Fair Trade Black Friday

Happy Black Friday.

Sense the sincere lack of enthusiasm in those wishes? Good.

Forget for a moment the glaring double-standard of people tenting outside of major store outlets or mobbing them once the entrances are opened are now time-honoured Christmas traditions, but Occupy tents and peaceful protesters are pepper-sprayed and forcibly disbanded. This just goes to show where our priorities are. It's sad. 

My deeper concern?

Fair Trade companies, and those micro-businesses and social enterprises working to assist marginalized people groups (women out of the sex trade, villages revitalizing themselves, etc), are jumping on the advertising bandwagon to keep up with Target, Apple, Wal-Mart, and the huge giants that tell us we NEED all their crap.

While I appreciate the need for these smaller operations to stay sustainable and alive as a part of vibrant community living and health, it is my person opinion that using the Black Friday ethos to peddle fair trade wares lives in direct opposition to the reasons why social enterprise and fair trade exists at all.

Why bother?

If these do-good enterprises are only feeding our gluttony, rather than helping to establish a more just and equitable world, why buy from them and not target? We're still perpetuating the cycles of greed and consumerism.

Soap box down.

Now down to the problem solving part.

How can we support both the ethos of social enterprise (peace, relationships, unity, community, equality, etc), as well as the enterprises themselves without falling into the tempatation consuming, consuming, consuming?

Thoughts? Ideas?

Would Grandpa Approve of My Pacifism?

He flew Spitfires and Hurricanes. He was trained in a special opps unit. He was at London... Dunkirk... North Africa... he is a decorated veteran. 

He killed people. People tried to kill him. More than once, God literally broke through Mother Nature and saved his life to bring him home. It was war. He was a teenage man who fought for the Allies. I've heard the stories. The G.A.M Thomas -- Murray Thomas, Grandpa Thomas -- has become legend, as he was a man. 

Every year now around Remembrance Day, I struggle. Pacifism is not a popular stand to take. I've been accused of being anti-troops, anti-Canadian, an ungrateful Christian, a coward, and worse. Yet the name calling aside, I've always wondered: Would Grandpa be proud of me? Him... a decorated war hero who survived the atrocities to come home and father four amazing children, one of whom turned into my godly, wise and incredible father?

You know what?

I think he would.

Grandpa was a man of few words. Especially as the Alzheimer's took hold more and more each passing year, it became harder and harder for him to communicate as we understand communication to be. Since our part of the family lived on the other side of the country, my access to him as a child was even more limited. Yet I do remember my interactions with him. One encounter I remember vividly is when my parents saved up for us all to take the train across Canada back to Ontario to visit our families over Christmas. Uncle Joel and Aunt Joy lived on an acreage by a river then, so skating was popular in the winter and swimming was a delight in the summer.

I was 9. My little legs could not keep up with my older cousins. I remember my ankles hurting, and my knees aching, and my balance refusing to cooperate. Suddenly, from behind me, there came a gentle hand on my back. Grandpa quietly came alongside me, put one arm around me, and held my other hand.

"It's okay," he said softly. "here's how we do it. 1...2...3... glide... 1...2...3...glide"

He matched his skating strides to my little ones and every step we took he counted softly: "1...2...3..."

And that's how I learned to skate.

A man of such quiet steady calm is a man of war?

I know and understand the Just Way Theory... the Redmeptive War theory... and the circumstances of "choice" when WWI and WWII were declared. Am I proud of Grandpa? You bet I am. Do I believe he would do it again?

I don't know.

Dad recalls a story of when he was a boy and they were all taking a vacation in Ontario's cottage country. Through a series of unfortunate events, certain people assumed that Grandpa's family were Jews -- his children being named Stephen, Rebecca, Joel, and Benjamin. Without giving way one way or the other, Grandpa is reported to have said: "Does it matter?"

And he took his family home.

From what I know of Grandpa and from what few stories he told me, I believe he would be proud of me for standing up against injustice, just like he did, yet doing so without bloodshed. He saw too much -- including "enemy soldiers" reflecting the same look in his eyes: "Why are we doing this?"

The documentary Soldiers of Conscience describe how only 20% of the soldiers in WWII did 80% of the actual killing. Most men and women of both Axis and Allied forces simply could not pull the trigger. The sanctity of life on both sides was still so reverent that enemies began to find common ground in the futility of killing one another for a cause not their own. The documentary goes on to describe the brutal indoctrination tactics militaries of "free" countries use to that men and women do not feel such loathing when they kill another human being.

We want our citizens to lose their conscious? Deliberately?

Pacifism is not "non-action". Non-action would be laziness. It is rather active, deliberate, and hard working. It seeks peace through peaceful means, rather than war so that all parties may see, know and eventually come to accept one another without the taking of life. The misused "eye for an eye" phrase from the Bible becomes rationale for bloodshed, and yet... is our world in any greater state of peace than before WWII? Grandpa once said that the First World War was supposed to be 'the end', that the fighters said 'never again', but then he was thrust into a plane. It happened again.

I cannot imagine what he went through, but nor can I forget the questions he had about war and violence and all the tragedy it caused for all countries and ethnic groups. As he led me through forests, teaching me about trees, berries, birds and bird calls, his faraway look made me feel sad. Yet his steady presence made him a giant in my eyes.

Yes... I believe he would be proud of me. He would be proud because he found ways to create peace without picking up a gun again. He saw two futures: one where we continued to kill one another, and blood was on all of our heads (thinking of the time he shot down a civilian plane); and he saw a world without war when everyone laid down their machines of war.

This piece of artwork was posted by my cousin, Rachel, today. This is her interpretation of a famous family photo of Grandpa. It is beautiful, heroic, and brave... not just because of what he did during WWII, but also because of what he did afterwards and the legacy he left his family.

We Are The 7 Billion

Some people are panicking. Others are rejoicing. Still others even raced to have their baby be THE 7 billionth person born on Planet Earth. And still others are totally oblivious to the fact that our world is quickly growing smaller and smaller with each passing day.

How did this happen? (well yes, I know HOW it happened... had that talk a long time ago)... How does this change our view? Should it? Will it? Canada being a multicultural society with political borders generally more open to refugees, and immigrants, what kinds of dialogues must we begin to have.

I don't have researched percentages for you, but I do want to share some realities that could put into perspective how believers can be a part of this teeming 7 billion as kingdom bringers, rather than people destroyers.

- we are running out of fresh water, & other natural resources
- families are still dying due to extreme poverty, or the effects thereof (malnourishment/starvation, disease, conflict in various regions)
- systems are still in place, in free market societies as well as harsher regimes, that oppress people of colour, sexual orientation, social class, education, religion, or location
- in crisis, people naturally react by 'defending their own'
- slaves in the world are numbering 30 million and rising
-... not an exhaustive list, but you get the idea

... and believers are often found targeting marginalized groups of people -- at the very least calling them down as lazy or unwanted or illegal. At the worst... well... history speaks enough for itself what believers have done in the name of God, and yet we insist on still believing that our governments were founded on Biblical principles and godly intentions.

Some thoughts to put some perspective on our populations growth:

- we are ALL the 7 billion... we can choose to seek justice, compassion, and love for our brothers and sisters or we can insist on setting ourselves apart, thus helping keep in place those hierarchies of race, religion, class, or orientation. We are all human, and Christ died once for ALL. Fear has no place for us as we face changes in our futures. We are called to be neighbours -- to everyone. Period. This is a core part of the Gospel we tend to gloss over in favour of high-sounding theology that stemmed from superiority and not grace, despite attempts to erase our histories.

- we will be called to sacrifice... when unjust systems are toppled, as they will be, many of us will find ourselves without work, without sociel networks to supplement our incomes, without pensions even. Do we trust God to provide, or do we trust our governments THAT MUCH that these incomes have become our inherent rights based on our work ethic? If it is the latter, we have neatly nullfied the grace and provision of God. Yet when people suffer because injustice is addressed, how will believers lovingly and eagerly support those who have lost out?

- we will be called to relinquish power... Christians were never called to DOMINATE. Yet this is what we have done for far too long in many countries, but especially in Canada and the United States. When believers panic over too many immigrants coming to our shores, we forget that every person was or is an immigrant on these shores. We forget just how much land and resources we have to share. We forget that we are to gladly welcome the alien in our midst. And we forget that what we have is not inherently OURS. We are stewards... nothing more. So when someone of another religion runs for political office, or helps develop new school curriculums, believers must cease and desist this resistance based on fear. We've lived the high life for far too long. We took this land (still do), its people and called it Christian, so this is where are minds tend to focus our lenses on. "If we don't stop The Global Community, we will have a Muslim for a prime minister, and gays will be teaching our children in schools!"

So?

Either we choose to continue being the bully in the sandbox, or we learn to share.

Believers are called to be in relationship with people around us, loving them above ourselves. I look at the Occupy Movement, and hear believers scoff and snarl at it to the point where I think: "D'uh! No wonder they don't want anything to do with Christ. Christians are pretty damn mean." (not all of us, I hope, but enough that the venom is seeping through our Body faster than we think). Yet Christ did not call us to create "Christian" societies, and force our values onto others. If we're that scared of being led by another of a different faith, put yourself in their shoes. How afraid or angry are they at us?

- we will be called to tear down dividing walls... too often, believers make snap judgements based on urban myths, realities that perhaps were true 10, 20, 30, 100 years ago (but are no longer so), our own selfish desires (see the point about stewardship and being a neighbour), and... you guessed it!... fear. Fear we won't get what we deserve, fear our kids will go hungry, fear that Christianity is coming to an end... fear, fear, fear... how deceptive it is!

- we are and will be called to choose our allegiance... will it be to our relatively young nations and our governments? Or will it be to Christ? You see, we do not get to pick and choose who's a neighbour and who is not. We all are. Canada will tumble. The US will tumble. This whole dying world will topple -- however that looks. If we think our great country is immune to such endings, we are delusional and deceiving others along with us.

We must choose where are treasures lie: in love God and others first, which is a life that will never end? Or futilely defending our relatively safe and secure ways of life that tend to put others on the outs? This option will be stolen by theives, rusted out, and eaten away at by moths.

This 'social gospel' or 'social justice movement' has its roots firmly embedded in Jesus Christ as THE Word. We are not Nazis (as some have purported, afraid that Hitler is returning to destroy capitalism), and we do bear His Truth, unlike current claims to the contrary. So I ask you today: who are you as a believer, and who does God wish you to be?

7 billion are a lot of neighbours... we're going to need some more tea.

Slavery - Risk Factors We Work Hard to Ignore

I saw this poster on my newsfeed this morning. Kudos to the student who has 'made it'. It would be great to be debt-free... to work and go to school at the same time... to have the choice to choose to live below his/her means... ahhhh... there's that word: choice.

Not knocking hard work or living below one's means (I, myself, live below the poverty line by current Canadian standards), or in any way poo-pooing a strong work ethic, I want to address the myth this person appears to be perpetuating whether consciously or unconsciously.

Many Canadians (and Americans) live under the notion that we are all equal under the law, with equal access to all resources (in this case, school acceptance, scholarships, and a job), and equal opportunities for all. Unfortunately, this is not the reality we live in. The white Euro-centric work ethic of "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" has so permeated our churches, schools, and popular thought that to even think that someone could not live debt-free or not be able choose to live below their means is ridiculous... and lazy.

And there's that word again: choice. You know, for those people who have the supports and resources to have "made it", we sometimes take for granted that we have the choice to choose. Many -- a vast many, at that -- do not have that choice. They cannot choose to live below their means. That choice is made for them. They cannot apply for scholarships because they do not qualify for them or (which is so common, sadly) the options to apply are simply not presented to them because the poor really won't make the most of them... their GPA's just aren't... well... you know... they just are not quite there. If they graduate high school, THAT'S a victory! Soooo... maybe a trades school? Even the expectation of success changes when youth are seen as poor or of colour or of a different sexual orientation. But you see, we've convinced ourselves that 'those people' are just plain lazy. And we wipe our hands of it of all. How far from the truth have we come?

Example?

Living in a neighborhood without a grocery store, living as a single parent, 2 young kids (one in daycare and one in kindergarten), 2 jobs and night school. I mean... it's ALL about education right?... so without the parent trying to 'better' themselves, it all looks like laziness or bad choices. Any word to the contrary is made to sound like 'they' are blaming the government again. But on a typical day when said parent is exhausted, has no car, but picks up both kids faithfully, and has to take 3 buses to get to a market that is actually stocked with healthy, affordable food, back home again in time to make supper, put the kids to bed, pay the sitter, and whisk out the door to school, will he or she 'make it'? Well... what is your definition of 'making it'? The popular cultural thought is being debt-free, not living off the support of government welfare, and looking out for your own. According to this definition, said parent already has NOT made it. He or she might in the future... maybe. The kids? Well as long as they work hard enough... and around comes the cycle.

You know, it's great when a student learns early to manage limited funds. But post-secondary education does not come cheap at all, and the gap is growing monthly... yearly. Debt is almost inevitable. And when Christians come down hard on those who choose to enter into debt for that education, the guilt and stigma creates unnecesary schisms. If people only took the time to understand the risk factors that plague a broken world, a broken system, and broken people. It's not all about personal choice, and it's not all about a bad governing body. It IS about understanding the smaller and larger pictures... and choosing compassion overall.

So!

Some risk factors stemming out of this picture that can place any youth at risk for slavery (or any form of exploitation), and vulnerable to current/future poverty:

- low expectations (you expect certain classes or races - if we're going to use those terms - to do poorly, why should they measure up to you?)

- no access (many schools have guidance counselors and scholarship programs, but not all; friends have testified to counselors telling they wouldn't qualify for scholarships because of various silly reasons and the opportunity goes to someone else; lack of well paying jobs that do not create month-to-month choices between paying off loans or food; neighborhoods with community supports)

- no opportunity (in neighborhoods neglected and marginalized, it's hard to find places that will support a kid in their quest to make it out)... middle to upper class folks find this incredulous because hey! If we made it, then they can too. The schism widens.

- bad theology (the white Euro-centric ethic of making it on your own without anyone to blame is a distorted language of the Gospel... when a kid has 1 parent who works 2-3 jobs and still needs government support, lives in a neighborhood that is largely low income, teaches that skin colour DOES make a difference, sees oppressive elements everyday from drugs to prostitution to abuse, learns from a young age that law enforcement is not an institution to trust, and attends a school where the teachers checked out long ago -- you tell me... just how hard does this kid have to pull on hisor her bootstraps before he or she makes it?). When this is perpetuated in churches, attaching God's name tag to what is 'right' only further dominates so many people who are aching for freedom and relationship. But because one way worked for us, the privileged hard-working few (the definition of hard working is an entirely different discussion altogether), we are adamant that it must and WILL work for others. Anything else is laziness, excuses, and blame-gaming.

That's it for now. There are many more. Just 4 for now.
Low expectations
No access to supports
No opportunities for a future
Bad theology

Mull these over for a bit. Dig deeper. But don't stop here at the tough reality. How do we move forward?