No Need Among You

Today was the first full day of the No Need Among You conference. It started with a breakfast with the homeless at the Lutheran Church. I met a really nice guy named Will. He was dressed in the old Army camouflage head to toe with really shiny boots. He had throat cancer at some point, so he can't talk really loud or eat very much or very fast. I also met Thomas, who seemed to have schizophrenia. When I sat down, he acted like he was dozing off. Every now and then he would lift his head and mutter something. At one point, he waved to an invisible person, picked something invisible up and put it on the table, and I think he shot it. I introduced myself and he said something about be f*cking crucified and saying, "you won't like that. Nice knowing you for three minutes." I asked him his name and where he was from. I think I scared him off, because he went to go sit at another table soon after that. I also met Inez, who was pissed at someone at the Meyers Center for not supporting her to go to nursing school. I just listened. She has several kids and a set of twins. She was fun to talk to. She made no sense most of the time, but she was fun none the less.

I then made my way across town for the actual conference at the Crestview Church of Christ Community Center. They have a nice facility there. Fortunately, we weren't talking about poverty because I would have felt guilty with the four HDTVs and really nice sound system with several cameras and control booth. (Very professional setup)

The first speaker was Dr. Matthew Stanford on mental illness. This was generally good. Having grown up in a fairly conservative fundamentalist church, I wasn't at all surprised by that stats that say churches and pastors tell people that there is no such thing as mental illness, their only problem is a lack of faith or sin in their life, or both. It was overwhelming to think that pastors are almost the first and only person someone with a mental illness will see. According to his research, nearly 1/3 of Americans have a mental illness.

My first breakout session was on Confronting Human Trafficking with Dr. Kim Kotrala. This was very moving. Two thirds of those being exploited for either sex or labor are US citizens. 90% are female, and a large percentage are children. We heard about a law enforcement officer who testified before the state legislature that he could go to any truck stop and say something on his CB and within 5 minutes a thirteen year old girl would show up for sex. We also heard of a local couple who bought a twelve year old girl in Mexico City for $50. They abused her, starved her, and forced her to take care of her children. At some point they made her drink toilet water. This makes me so angry. It seriously makes me want to believe in redemptive violence. This is definitely something that churches need to address. This will take some creativity. There are so many people who need to be freed from oppression right here and right now.

Dr. Ray Rivera gave a sermon after lunch. It was interesting to hear about his experiences in NYC. He seems like he would be an interesting person to shadow, but I was mostly bored with the information. He spent a lot of time proving biblically that we need to be involved in helping the poor and the oppressed. I wanted to know more about how to get a church on board. Perhaps he was doing just that with his sermon. I went to his breakout session afterward and was a little disappointed. Don't get me wrong, he is an incredible man of God.

Totally not related, I finally had a date night with my wife. It was parents night out so it was so nice to have a break. We really should do this more often.

Culture of Death

Culture of Death
A response to "Will Babies with Down Syndrome Just Disappear?"

I remember when my wife was pregnant. We were excited, terrified, and had no clue what was going on. We got pregnant by "accident," meaning I didn't think it was that easy. We had just moved to Waco and I was about to begin seminary when we found out. I was having trouble finding a job and we couldn't get insurance, so after a few weeks we tried medicaid. (This is such an incredible blessing) After calling a few places and being rejected (doctors don't like medicaid in Waco) we tried Waco Women's Health, which turned out to be perfect. My wife wanted a woman and the only woman was a midwife. She was great. She always answered our questions and absolutely cared about us and our baby. I remember when it came time for the test to check for Downs. There are actually two, the first one is in the first trimester to check for irregularities. I was hesitant because first I didn't think they would find anything, and second I was concerned with the moral aspect of knowing. Abortion would never be an option for us. I didn't say anything but she must have picked up on what I was thinking. She told us that the test is great looking at the risk factors. She said there are a lot of false positives, but if a patient tests positive, they know to keep a closer eye on the pregnancy.

Later, in the third trimester, they did another test. The midwife explained this one is more accurate than the first and it is a good indicator for future treatment with a positive result. The test begins with a finger-prick and smearing a lot of blood on a card. If it is a positive result, meaning there appears to be a higher risk, they will take a sample of amniotic fluid. This does pose some risk to the baby, but not much.

Dr. Mohler's concern that the test will could be used as a litmus for abortion is valid, but that isn't the only use for the test. What if we knew we were going to have a Down Syndrome baby? We would have read every book we could find on the subject, we would found a doctor to treat the baby, and we would have been just a little more prepared for parenting this child. (As it turned out, our daughter was born healthy and wide-eyed. I remember her ripping off the thermometer under the heat lamp after her bath, the machine kept beeping and getting hotter. She's still doing stuff like that 17 months later.)

So the test really is a good thing, but like anything else can be abused.

I agree with Mohler that we are quickly becoming a "Culture of Death." In fact, I would take that a step further, American culture is a "Culture of Death." We claim re value human life and dignity but we train people to kill in war. We throw people in prison not to reform them, but to keep them out of sight. We execute prisoners in the name of justice. We oppress the poor by keeping them in substandard housing, low paying jobs, and dependent on welfare. Then we are supposed to be shocked that people don't want to keep an unborn baby? We are a "Culture of Death!"

Prayer Wars - This Christian's Perspective on the Mulsim Prayer Rally

I don't understand why Christians should be worried about Muslims praying "for reconciliation" in Washington D.C. From a Christian and missions perspective, this is a huge step in dialog with Muslims around the world. Here is a group of people who have been caricatured time and again by American Christians in particular. Islam is not a "hate" or "war" religion, it is a religion about personal salvation, humility, and spiritual commitment. I think Christianity could be described in those terms as well.

"Wait, Wait, Wait!" you tell me, "Christianity is not a religion!" Ok, what is a religion? I would call a religion the practice of a belief system. Miriam-Webster calls it "a particular system of faith and worship" and "a pursuit or interest to which someone ascribes supreme importance." With that definition, most Americans practice materialism and worship money. Some people worship science and some people worship an invisible god(s). Paul Tillich said that our god is our ultimate concern. If our ultimate concern is Jesus Christ, we worship him. If our concern is money, that is our god. Within this framework, Christianity is a religion. Religion is not a bad thing and Christians need to be able to embrace this concept if they are going to be able to honestly interact with cultures and religions around the world.

I will not make an exhaustive comparison of Islam and Christianity, but Christians should recognize that right now, there are Muslims who are seeking reconciliation and are praying for us to seek the same. If I were in the capitol on September 25th, I would make an effort to not pray against the Muslims, but to join them in prayer. America's hands are just as bloody as anyone else's in the world, the difference is, we have a large professional military while many other countries still have citizen soldiers.

Christians, pray not in opposition, but in the spirit of peace. Racism and religionism has not place in the Kingdom of God. Be the voice of peace and love in the world, not division and hate. Just LOVE!