The Kingdom Is Now & Everyone Is Invited

Mbird

Franciscan Father Richard Rohr, director of the Center for Action and Contemplation, recently wrote in his Daily Meditation newsletter, that: "The human soul is being gradually readied so that actual intimacy and partnership with the Divine are the result. It’s all moving toward a final marriage between God and creation. Note that such salvation is a social and cosmic concept, not just about isolated individuals 'going to heaven.' The Church was meant to bring this corporate salvation to conscious and visible possibility."

I have to confess that this was not the main takeaway I had from twelve years of  religious education.

But it's still pretty good news.

And the idea of salvation being social actually makes a lot of sense.

Practically speaking, if I can't love my neighbors, why would I want to spend time in heaven with them?

John writes in one of his epistles: "If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see?" (John 1 4:30 NLT).


And John makes a really good point about the connection between loving people we can see and loving God, who we can't.

Jesus himself said that the gold standard for others knowing if we love and follow Him is how we treat others. "Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples." (John 13:35 NLT).

The whole idea is that God has invited us to intimate relationship, grounded in love, that isn't predicated on how worthy we are.

Rohr goes on to note: 

"It is important not to confuse divine union with human perfection. The choice for union is always from God’s side; our response is always and forever partial and feeble.

BrianWhirledge.com

Jesus came to give us the courage to trust and allow our inherent union with God, and he modeled it for us in this world. Union is not a place we go to later—if we are good; union is the place from which we come, the place from which we’re called to live now. We wasted centuries confusing union with personal perfection. Union is God’s choice for us in our very imperfect world. Divine Love has no trouble loving imperfect things!" 

This makes sense as well, considering that, as far as God was concerned, any reconciling that needed to be done, on God's end, has already been accomplished. When Jesus said "It is finished," while on the cross, he meant it.

Keeping all of what Rohr writes in mind, has helped me gain a deeper understanding of the parable of The Prodigal Son. Almost everyone, Christian or not, has some idea of this story that Jesus told about two sons. One of them is responsible and works hard on his father's estate. The other is more focused on getting and promptly spending the inheritance his father has set aside for him.

After spending a few years away from home, eventually becoming broke and discouraged, the prodigal returns home, intending to work as a hired hand.

But his father, seeing him coming up the road, tells his staff to prepare a feast and runs to embrace his son. By doing so, the older, faithful son, becomes furious at his father. He's unable to understand why his dad is so happy about seeing a child who basically deserted the family.

GreekOrthodoxArchdiocese of America

As the story is usually told, the emphasis is on the two children - one being the "good" kid, the other being the "bad" one. And that the "good" kid needed to extend forgiveness to the "bad" son.

A few weeks ago when attending church, the parable took on a new meaning. The main point being that Jesus was telling a story about a father and two kids. And the father was extending grace to both of his children. To the one who needed forgiveness, it felt like grace; but to the older, faithful son, it felt like condemnation. 

The father had two kids. He loved them both equally. Jesus was making the point that it wasn't an either-or situation, it was yes, and. 

Considering that Jesus was telling this parable to the Pharisees (who readily identified with the older, faithful son) makes the point even clearer.

The kingdom is now, and everyone is invited. 

The Mueller Report, Immigration & Being a Faithful Witness

A witness is someone who has seen an event or change and has personal experience because of it. The legal term includes someone who attests, most often in a court of law, to an event.

The Bible has a lot to say about being a faithful witness. In fact, one of the Ten Commandments deals with the subject of bearing false witness, or lying. Those of the Jewish, Buddhist or Muslim faith are also encouraged to be truthful. 

Christians living in the West recently celebrated Easter. The gospel accounts record how the trial of Jesus was extralegal and involved individuals giving false testimony. 

It's very easy for anyone reading those gospel accounts to point the finger and accuse these individuals of cowardice.

But, remembering the definition of a witness, what sort of witnessing are we called to in 2019?

Right now, there are about 800,000 refugees at or near the border we share with Mexico who are waiting for the US legal system to process their cases. The current administration in the White House has adopted a hard-line approach, doing everything they can to delay the processing of these individuals.

The hope was that such an approach, including falsely accusing refugees of being criminals bent on overrunning the US, would serve as a deterrent to stop them from seeking asylum. It hasn't worked. In fact, during the current administration's time in the White House, the number of refugees seeking asylum has increased by fifty percent.

At one point, the current president tried to obtain over $5 billion to build sections of the wall between Mexico and the US, while claiming there was "a national emergency" on the border.

While he physically went to the border we share with Mexico, he was not a faithful witness. Neither are the members of his administration, including Stephen Miller, the chief architect of this bizarre immigration policy.

Robert Mueller/Wall Street Journal

Neither is the current vice-president, who seems to silently give his consent, except when he opens his mouth to add additional false statements, becoming complicit with the current president's line of giving false testimony.

Last week Special Counsel Robert Muller released the report of his investigation into the president's actions in regards to collusion and obstruction of justice charges. Before releasing the redacted report to the public, the current attorney general held a press conference in which he stated that the report found there was no collusion and declared the current president innocent of all charges. 

The current attorney general was not being a faithful witness.

The Associated Press has written a handy synopsis of the lies that have been told by these unfaithful witnesses about the Mueller Report.

Perhaps the biggest lie being peddled by the president, vice president and almost all of his senior advisors, is that the current president has been declared innocent. In fact, the Mueller Report concluded: "While this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him."

The Mueller Report is actually a guide to further prosecution.

Attorney General William Barr

To sum up, the current administration in Washington seems determined to set a record in spreading lies. 

PolitiFact, an organization that has won a Pulitzer Prize, is keeping a tally of the current president's track record in truth-telling; or more precisely, the lack of it. So far, PolitiFact has found only four percent of the president's statements as being true. Another eleven percent are mostly true. The other eight-five percent of his statements have been declared half-truths, mostly false, or "pants on fire" (at fifteen percent). 

It doesn't take a genius to quickly determine that the current president is not a faithful witness.

What can we do to be a faithful witness? We can call our Congressional representatives and ask them their position on immigration, funding for a border wall, and the Mueller Report. Especially if they happen to be Republican, let them know that you're determined to elect and hold accountable faithful witnesses in Washington. 

The Congressional Switchboard at our nation's capitol is: Senate: 202.224.3121; House of Representatives 202.225.3121.

Find your US Representative here

Find your US Senator here

Meet Lynn Hector, Media & Communications Manager with Mercy Corps

Lynn Hector

Lynn Hector is Media & Communications Manager for Mercy Corps. She is based in Portland, OR, but works with communities in over forty countries to help them get back on their feet when disaster strikes, economies collapse or conflict erupts. She recently spent time in Colombia, near the Venezuelan border.

Can you tell us a bit about Mercy Corps, its vision and mission?

Mercy Corps is a global organization with 5,500 team members, the majority from the countries where they work. Our mission is to alleviate suffering, poverty and oppression by helping people build secure, productive and just communities. We truly believe a better world is possible, and across more than 40 countries we focus on helping people survive through crisis, build better lives and transform their communities for good. We have a wide range of programs ranging from disaster relief and disaster risk reduction to economic and agricultural development to conflict prevention to food security, health, and water and sanitation.

How does Mercy Corps help support lasting change in the countries where it’s involved?

We believe that to truly create lasting change, communities themselves must be the agents of their own change. In 2018, we invested 74% of our program spending into long-term solutions that build stronger communities for tomorrow. We don’t just deliver aid or implement one-off development projects; we work with communities to identify their greatest challenges and then connect them with the resources they need to build solutions. Everywhere we work we bring together partners that play a critical role in ensuring a community’s long-term resilience – often these partners include local and national governments, the private sector and local civil society groups. As just one example, in our agricultural programs we don’t just provide agricultural inputs like seeds or fertilizers; we help connect farmers to trainings and education, financial services (bank accounts, loans, savings groups) and other information (weather, global commodity prices) to help them improve their crop yields and incomes over time.

Colombia/Mercy Corps

You recently spent time in Colombia. What did you experience there?

I recently spent a few days with our team in northern Colombia near the Venezuelan border, in the department of La Guajira where tens of thousands of Venezuelan migrants and refugees are living. Over the course of two days, we met Venezuelans with harrowing stories who have risked everything just on the hope of a new life promising some semblance of safety and opportunity. We spoke with a mother who brought her baby over from Venezuela when she couldn’t pay for treatment for his pneumonia; a 12-year-old girl who hasn’t been in school since leaving Venezuela and can no longer even write her name or do very basic multiplication; and a mother with a severely malnourished infant, weighing under a dozen pounds at one year old. At the border crossing, I saw hundreds of Venezuelans streaming over on foot in just the span of just 30 minutes or so – many with all of their possessions in a few bags or suitcases they could manage to carry. While there are “pendulum migrants” who cross over just to purchase food, medicine and other supplies they can no longer get in Venezuela before returning, the people we saw headed back toward Venezuela were few and far between. The number of Venezuelans fleeing to Colombia each and every day (believed to be about 4,000) is staggering when you see it up close; Paraguachon, where I was at, is just one legal border crossing along a porous 1,300 mile border (about the distance from Los Angeles to Oklahoma City). Many Venezuelans cross over via “trochas,” or illegal paths (many visible from legal crossings) where they are subject to extortion, robbery and violence; women are particularly vulnerable to sexual assault, and their children at risk of being swept up by traffickers or recruited into armed groups.

From your time spent there, what would you say is influencing the migration of Venezuelan residents to Colombia?

The decision to flee your country is a deeply personal one, and the Venezuelans we met near the border each had their own stories and reasons. But all of them left when they could no longer make ends meet and decided they were better off risking everything. Often, it was because they could no longer get reliable access to money, food, healthcare or medicine, or that there just wasn’t enough work to sustain their family. Many pregnant women had not received any prenatal care in Venezuela and were fearful of having their baby in Venezuela, where hospitals are short on doctors and supplies. Venezuela has had crippling electricity blackouts recently, and I met one woman who had just arrived and finally decided to leave with her husband and children when they could no longer get any cash out at ATMs because of the blackouts. 

What is Mercy Corps currently doing to directly address the plight of those Venezuelan refugees?

Mercy Corps is currently providing emergency cash assistance to Venezuelans in the La Guajira and Cesar departments of Colombia, in the northern part of the country near the Venezuelan border. We provide pre-paid debit cards that can be used at stores or at ATMs so people can buy what they need most – whether that is food, water, medicine or to pay for shelter. We’ve assisted more than 11,000 people since starting our response last summer. We are also supporting Venezuelans who have migrated to other parts of Colombia where we already work to provide assistance to vulnerable Colombians displaced by ongoing conflict.

Colombia/Mercy Corps

Would you say that Colombia has been an example of how to treat refugees with kindness?

Absolutely. The Government of Colombia and individual Colombians should be commended for generously welcoming Venezuelans. The government at all levels (national, local) is working with local groups and international organizations like Mercy Corps to figure out solutions as this migration crisis continues to grow. And our teams have met countless individual Colombians opening up their homes to help Venezuelans. But Colombia is struggling under this weight, and it can’t do it alone. There are more than 1 million Venezuelans in Colombia. Venezuelan migration into Colombia is putting pressure on Colombia’s already-stretched capacity to respond as the country faces ongoing volatility, challenges implementing the 2016 peace accords and its own protracted humanitarian crisis.

From Mercy Corps’ point of view, where are the current “hot spots” most in need of humanitarian aid?

The humanitarian community, including Mercy Corps, is stretched incredibly thin and there is no end of need in the world today. The important thing to recognize though is that the “hot spots” most in need of humanitarian assistance are all struggling with some form of conflict: Yemen, Syria, Northeast Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Central African Republic to name a few. A decade ago, 80% of all humanitarian need was driven by natural disasters like earthquakes or tsunamis. But today, 80% is driven by conflict. In all of these places, traditional humanitarian assistance (and funding to support it) is absolutely needed to help people survive, but ultimately humanitarian aid alone is not the answer – there needs to be political solutions to the conflicts driving this unprecedented level of need, and a greater focus on preventing violence from erupting in the first place.

According to Mercy Corps’ 2018 Annual Report, the organization did quite a bit of good in Yemen. Can you describe how Mercy Corps got aid into Yemen, given the logistical challenges created by war?

Last year we reached more than 3.7 million people in Yemen with assistance. We have a lot of experience working in conflict environments like Yemen. Our mission is to find safe ways in which we can connect people with the resources they need to survive and help their communities become stronger. We recognize that we need to accept a higher level of risk to keep operating in such a conflict.

More than anything, Mercy Corps relies on community acceptance. We know that if we and our work are valued, communities will commit to our protection. By engaging with communities over a long period of time and building trust, they’re able to secure the safety of our team members. In the conflict zones where we work across the world, we conduct daily security assessments of the routes team members travel to access our target areas. We are not blind to the risks involved in our work and dedicate a great deal of time and resources to understanding the communities where we operate as well as the impact of the aid and services that we provide.

Colombia/Mercy Corps

In general, what is Mercy Corps’ biggest challenge in bringing relief to refugees?

I would say one of our biggest challenges is just the lack of attention and funding – the conflict in Syria has dragged on for eight years now; the conflict in Yemen for four. Other conflicts producing refugees have raged for decades. Donors (governments, foundations, individuals) are fatigued, and keeping attention and funding coming in the door for protracted refugee crises where there is no political solution in sight to the conflicts driving them it is a challenge. We also need more funding for violence prevention and conflict mitigation programs; we can’t just keep focusing on addressing the symptoms instead of the causes.

A second challenge is integrating refugees into communities and getting the funding needed to pursue long-term, durable solutions. For many refugees who have now spent years away from their home country, or children who have now been born as refugees, the reality is that they likely will never go home. So we can’t just focus on providing “relief” in the traditional sense; we must also work with governments and civil society to help them build a new life in the countries where they are living – that means access to jobs and sustainable income, education and social services. That is an incredible challenge for any country hosting millions of refugees and the international community as a whole to tackle.

What myths get in the way of adequately addressing the plight of refugees?

There is a general myth that refugees just need ongoing hand-outs of support. But the refugees we meet in our programs have incredible skills to contribute – they were doctors, engineers, teachers, students in their home country. They can – and they want to – contribute to their new countries, but they need a way to do so. They need safe and legal access to education and jobs, support to start their own small businesses and a way to safely integrate into their new communities. Another myth, which I alluded to earlier, is that the solution to the global refugee crisis is a humanitarian one. It isn’t. Of course, it is critical that we continue helping refugees meet their basic needs – shelter, food, water – but we will not truly tackle the global refugee crisis unless we address the conflicts driving it. We need political solutions to the conflicts tearing our world apart or we will forever be chasing our own tails.

Does Mercy Corps have an official position of how the US is currently handling its own refugee challenge along the border it shares with Mexico? How about offering solutions?

Mercy Corps is deliberately nonpartisan, apolitical and independent. We take positions solely based on what we see in the more than 40 countries where we work around the world. We are not experts in border security, and we recognize that governments around the world make difficult decisions every day to keep their citizens safe. Ultimately the Administration and Congress, with input from American citizens, will need to determine what policies will best meet those challenges. What we do believe is that none of the current proposals will do anything to address the reason people are migrating in the first place. Building a wall won’t solve it, closing the border won’t solve it and cutting aid that goes to help people in Central America won’t solve it. If the Administration hopes to curb migration from Central America, it must address the causes forcing people to leave their homes in search of safety and opportunity elsewhere. Mercy Corps has worked in Central America for over 30 years. We know that the choice to migrate is complex. Families risk leaving their homes only when desperation has set in, when they feel physically unsafe and when they see no hope for their future. We urge the Administration to maintain, not cut, U.S. investment in Central America to address insecurity, corruption, poor governance and economic devastation, as part of any comprehensive border security and migration policy. By reducing violence and generating greater economic opportunities for the people most likely to migrate, we can, over time, address the reasons families are leaving Central America.

Is there anything else you’d like to mention?

It is easy to feel hopeless and overwhelmed by the number of conflicts raging in the world and the massive levels of human displacement we see today – more than 68 million people on the run. But people are incredibly resilient and every day there are incredible stories of people overcoming adversity and making their lives and their communities better and stronger - you just don’t hear these stories as often. That’s why at Mercy Corps we believe a better world is possible and have 5,500 team members working under that fundamental belief every day. We encourage you to join us – as a donor, champion or advocate! 

To learn more about Mercy Corps or donate, click here

Faith & The Power of "Yes...and" Thinking

Lee Hecht Harrison

One of the primary rules of improvisational comedy is "yes." Meaning whatever your partner or member of the improv group is doing, you agree to it and then add to the sketch. Simply put, the rule is "yes, and..."

You could definitely say that binary (either...or) thinking does not work in the world of improv.

It doesn't work for a variety of reasons, including:
- improv means you're a member of a group
- improv means surrendering your individual preference, in terms of how the sketch develops
- improv means paying attention to the 'greater good' of the group
- improv means opening yourself up to the creativity of others.

It does not mean giving up your own creativity, or preference, but realizing there are other perspectives and that your creativity actually can be used to bring forth an even better, well-developed sketch.

Of course, the 'yes, and" rule of improv also means more enjoyment is to be had by everyone - the members of the improv group and the audience - who get to participate in the free-flowing formation of the sketch.

Interestingly, this same rule can work out in real life situations as well.

Take, for instance, matters of faith.

I can hold on to my own belief system and, at the same time, respect the religious viewpoints of others.

Preventconnect.org

Practically speaking, that means:
- not judging the faith of others as being inferior or incomplete
- not thinking my own faith view is the only valid one
- making room for dialogue on things we can agree on

Eboo Patel's book OUT OF MANY FAITHS contains a lively discourse on pluralism and faith perspectives. The book also includes three commentaries. I found the one by Robert P. Jones to be especially insightful.  Jones writes: "In my family's dining room is an antique table from the 1940s with six chairs. But one of the chairs is constructed differently from the rest. It is broader than the other chairs, and it is the only one with armrests. Sometimes called the 'captain's chair,' it was designed for the head of the table. Historically, that chair was meant to architecturally reinforce hierarchical family relationships, with the father occupying that throne-like seat, from which he could control the flow of the meal and the topics of conversation."

MedCity News

Jones continues: If we imagine America gathered around a dining room table, until very recently, white Christians, and particularly white Protestants, felt like they owned the table and were entitled to the patriarch's position. Others might be invited to pull up a chair, either as subordinate family members or as guests, but the power relationships and expectations were understood by all. If we are going to make progress toward fulfilling our nation's promise of religious liberty for all, we have to be clear about the problem. The chief impediment for pluralism today is not that we have run out of chairs. Rather, it is that many white Christians have been reluctant to relinquish the privileged seat of power."

A "yes, and" point of view also makes for a dynamic, well-rounded, inclusive discussion, tailor-made to attract diverse input. 

It's out-of-the-box, flexible, free-flowing and encourages the type of conversation where healing happens.

True Confession: I am not naturally prone to flexible thinking! It's a constant struggle to remind myself that my own point of view isn't the complete one, or the "right" one. 

But I keep at it because creation doesn't seem to be linear. Creation changes and evolves because it's a living, breathing thing. 

Meet Eboo Patel, Founder of Interfaith Youth Core

Eboo Patel

Eboo Patel is a leading voice in the movement for interfaith cooperation and the Founder and President of Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC), a national nonprofit working to make interfaith cooperation a social norm. He is the author of ACTS OF FAITH, SACRED GROUND, INTERFAITH LEADERSHIP and OUT OF MANY FAITHS. Named by US News & World Report as one of America’s Best Leaders of 2009, Eboo served on President Obama’s Inaugural Faith Council. He is a regular contributor to the public conversation around religion in America and a frequent speaker on the topic of religious pluralism. He holds a doctorate in the sociology of religion from Oxford University, where he studied on a Rhodes scholarship. For over fifteen years, Eboo has worked with governments, social sector organizations, and college and university campuses to help realize a future where religion is a bridge of cooperation rather than a barrier of division.



Maybe we can start with your own religious development. What’s your faith background and how did it influence you?
I wrote about this in my first book, ACTS OF FAITH. I grew up in an Ismaili Muslim household but basically had little to do with religion during my teenage years. It was in college, during my years as a hair-on-fire activist, that I first heard the name Dorothy Day and got a window into faith-based social action. After a summer in Catholic Worker Houses of Hospitality – which are remarkable social justice communities – I started to get curious about the theologies of social action in other religious traditions. In my exploration, I rediscovered the beauty of my home tradition. I’m now a proud Ismaili Muslim who does interfaith work!



You are the founder and director of Interfaith Youth Center. What’s the mission of the IFYC and what motivated you to start this organization?
We hope to help interfaith cooperation become a social norm by helping American higher education become a laboratory and launching pad for interfaith excellence.

In your book ACTS OF FAITH you define pluralism as “to see the other side, to defend another people, not despite your tradition, but because of it, is the heart of pluralism.” Can you go a bit deeper, or offer an example?
I have a three-part definition of pluralism: respect for identity, relationships between diverse people and communities, and some kind of common action for the common good.


In your book OUT OF MANY FAITHS, you make the point that “people whose nation gives them dignity will build up that society.” It seems like such an obvious idea, but why is this so difficult to achieve, particularly in the US?
I think these things are always easier said than done. I think humans find it challenging to immediately dignify patterns of belief and behavior that are different. It’s a challenge for all of us to remember how important it is to dignify the patterns of others.  


I love this thought from OUT OF MANY FAITHS: “When we say that we are an immigrant nation, we mean more than just that various religious and ethnic groups settled here in America… We are recognizing the fact that the institutions they built benefitted not just their own communities but also the common good of this country. The space between Jewish and American or Christian and American is not a barrier; it’s a bridge.” Can you tell us more about the “space” being a bridge, not a barrier?
One of the remarkable facts about American civil society is that so many of the civic institutions that serve the public good – schools, colleges, hospitals, etc. – were founded by faith communities. For me that’s an excellent illustration of the maxim: what makes me a better Muslim (or Jew, Christian, etc.) makes me a better American.

Eboo Patel

In OUT OF MANY FAITHS you offer an interesting perspective on the development of the phrase “Judeo-Christian.” Why is the history of that term so important to understand?
I think most people are so accustomed to hearing the idea that we are a Judeo-Christian nation that we don’t stop to wonder about the history of that term. When I found out that it was literally invented in the 1930s to serve a civic purpose – specifically, to help make Jews and Catholics feel more welcome in the United States – it occurred to me that we are in a moment that requires us to write the next chapter. Knowing that it was a set of interfaith leaders who wrote the ‘Judeo-Christian America’ chapter inspires us to believe that we can be similar authors in our own time.



How about the phrase “E Pluribus Unum” on the US Great Seal? What are your thoughts on how this came to be?

I love Danielle Allen’s (she’s a political philosopher at Harvard) take on this – that America, being diverse, should not aspire for oneness but rather for wholeness.

What do you see as the most significant stumbling block to achieving pluralism in the US?

The view that someone else’s identity takes something away from mine rather than contributes something essential to the common good.

What is the most important take-away you wish that readers would receive from OUT OF MANY FAITHS?
The idea ‘Judeo-Christian America’ did good work for eighty some years. It’s time to write the next chapter.

At the end of the day, what consistently gives you hope to continue your work?

So many exceptional young interfaith leaders today, so many remarkable interfaith leaders in America’s past.

Is there anything else you’d like to mention?
America is not best understood as a melting pot but rather as a potluck supper – we need every community to contribute, that’s the only way the nation feasts. 

To learn more about Interfaith Youth Core, click here. 

To learn more about Eboo Patel, click here.