Recently in Social Justice Category

While we spill pixels about John Edwards, how many write about this?

John McCain's band of white advisers had best take a stroll down the lane of African-American oratorical history before they launch their next anti-Obama missive. [This is not to suggest that there is anything racial about McCain's ad. I'm sure that his color blind associates aren't even aware that Sen. Obama has more melanin than Sen. McCain.]

McCain's new web ad, "The One" mocks Obama's grand, seemingly arrogant oratory.

The problem with it is that it simultaneously mocks generations of African-American oratory. As my friend Patton Dodd pointed out to me, would the fact that Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., filled his speeches with grand rhetorical flourishes make us doubt his ability to lead? I'm wondering what the ad meisters would do with this "arrogance"

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

Or consider Barbara Jordan. Should her 1976 convention speech, one of the greatest political speeches in American history, have caused people to doubt her leadership ability simply because she said,

There is something special about tonight. What is different? What is Special? I, Barbara Jordan, am a keynote speaker.

A lot of years passed since 1832, and during that time it would have been most unusual for any national political party to ask that a Barbara Jordan deliver a keynote address...but tonight here I am. And I feel that notwithstanding the past that my presence here is one additional bit of evidence that the American Dream need not forever be deferred.

By the McCain camp's standards, every great speaker should be disqualified from public office simply because they refer to themselves in the personal pronoun and because they use rhetorical flourishes. Perhaps this gives an insight into who McCain is considering for his VP pick - someone who utterly boring in their public addresses... Al Gore.

How different are they? Really? James Dobson and Barack Obama?

On the face of it there is little, save their shared humanity, that seems to unite the two men. From their skin color to their positions on abortion, gay marriage, poverty, the role of government, from their views on the separation of church and state to their positions on the Iraq War, the men are about as far apart as men can get.

But appearances are deceiving. The men are actually very, very similar. (And this goes beyond their common love of basketball).

Both men see their religious faith as one of their primary political weapons. They take that faith and move in opposite directions, but their philosophy, their spirituality is very similar.

Dr. Dobson attacked Sen. Obama for having a flawed view - a deliberately skewed view - of Biblical theology "deliberately distorting the Bible," "dragging biblical understanding through the gutter," "willfully trying to confuse people," and having a "fruitcake interpretation of the Constitution." Obama responded by saying Dobson either hadn't read his speech (at a Sojourners event on poverty) or was just trying to score political points.

That back and forth, however, is simply the exchange of men who long ago decided that their faith was a tool for material ends.

It is a common mistake, a common temptation - the temptation to take the very hard work of the spiritual life - living humbly, loving your enemies, putting others first, forgiving always - and replace it with the easy work of politics - the promise that this policy or plan will bring about a sort of spiritual nirvana.

That is what unites Obama and Dobson. That they take those politics in different directions is incidental.

Being a dad, I am strong in the animal sounds category. Pigs oink and cows mooo and rhinos snort and snuff (astute readers of Moo, Baa, La la la will get that reference) sheep baaa and goats maaaa.

Jesus warns that at the end of days the nations will be brought before him and he will separate out the sheep from the goats. The goats, to put it colloquially, are screwed. The sheep will be living large. And the difference? A consonant - a b or an m... a baaa or a maaa.

It is a haunting scene he lays out at the end of Matthew 25. There has been much theological debate about what it means and who the animals represent. Many argue that what Jesus is saying here doesn't apply to those who follow him - that this is a sort of second chance for those who hadn't made the decision to follow him. Others argue that this is a terrifying challenge for all believers - a challenge to never become comfortable in their faith.

I don't know what it means. I do know, however, that it has haunted me.

One sleepless night in Uganda I started thinking of this passage in a new way.

The thing that haunted me is the thing that haunts many who read the passages. Jesus is saying to one group that as they served the least of the world they were serving him. And he was saying to another group that as they failed to serve the least they failed to serve him. But what does serving him mean? Jesus says that as they visited the imprisoned and fed the hungry and clothed the naked they served him. But how much is enough? How much isn't enough? What is that line between really serving Jesus and really failing him?

In the midst of the suffering I was witnessing something came clear - my questions were all wrong. Jesus wasn't saying, "Well, you visited me 9 days a year in prison, welcome to paradise." He wasn't saying "Gosh, you only visited me 1 day in prison, see ya." He was simply saying, "Thank you for serving me as I was found in the least of the least."

Put more simply he is saying thank you for doing something.

And that is what it is about. We aren't called to try and solve all the world's problems. No one person is going to be able to care for the 2.5 million orphans living in Uganda... let alone the millions of orphans in other countries around the globe. We aren't going to eradicate the slums. We aren't going to be able to treat every single suffering person. But that isn't what we are called to do. Jesus just calls us to do something... do anything to help the hurting.

Paralysis in the face of the world's problems is the one thing we cannot afford to acquire. We have to engage. We have to do. We have to try. We have to make it part of our daily lives. We have to be his hands and feet on this earth.

This thought has liberated me; it has freed me up to do what I can while freeing me from the unrealistic expectation that I am going to be able to do everything... and it has given me the peace to believe that at the end of days I will be baaaaaaing and not maaaaaaaing.

On my first day at the unnamed hospital in Uganda, I met another little girl named Grace. I caught her out of the corner of my eye as I entered the children's ward and was talking to another little boy.

She had a tumor coming out of the side of her face that, from my distance of 20 feet or so, was big and multi-colored and unlike anything I'd ever seen before. It was like something out of a science fiction movie. I don't like science fiction movies. It scared me. She scared me.

But as I approached her bed, I noticed something else about her - her huge brown eyes, her big smile.

I looked into her eyes and for a few moments the tumor disappeared. All I saw was the little girl. I wish I could say that was all I saw for the rest of the time I was there but it wasn't. I didn't know how to get over the tumor, get past the tumor. So I didn't. I just enlisted her help in a project.

Kim had sent along some packs of Emer-gen-C - vitamins that you mix with water to create a drink. I needed someone to help me mix up all the bottles. I took Grace.

We held hands as we distributed the bottles to the sick kids. I could not, however, bring myself to hug her or hold her. I wish I could have - I know I should have.

The next day when I returned she was gone and the last day I was there she was gone as well. I don't know what happened to her. No one does.

Mother Teresa said she saw Jesus "in the distressing disguise of the poor." I hope I didn't miss the chance to hug Jesus.

One of the great joys of the first four days of the trip was hanging out with the other bloggers who were there to visit Uganda. They were, to a person, extraordinary. Here are two of them - Carlos and...

I'm sitting in a London hotel room having had a nice Lodon sleep after a nice London dinner. I am out of my skin excited about going home and seeing my family - I literally can't wait. But there is...

I'm going to be uploading some rough video shots to give a sense of the places... this short one ends with that little girl sitting alone on the blanket... Online Videos by Veoh.com...

Before I head back to the hospital this afternoon and before I begin the journey home tomorrow, some thoughts on what can be done here... initial thoughts I suppose: - Sponsor a child through Compassion International. The longer I am...

I saw this poster on the wall of the cancer clinic today: Yes, this cancer clinic: And yes, this IS the same Benny Hinn who sent out a request for his followers to pay for his new Gulfstream jet. Benny...

I'm not sure anyone should read this post. This is FAR from a happy post. It starts inside the gates of a Ugandan hospital. It starts getting out of the car and looking around convinced I must be in the...

This is one of the images I can't get out of my head: It was being pulled through the filthy streets of a slum by a bald headed girl in a pale yellow dress wearing worn red flip flops. [I...

Today's journey took us outside Kampala's squalor and desolation and into creation. Uganda is a land of rolling hills carpeted by rich soil that births vibrant green life. I just didn't know that yesterday. Today though, in Kisoga, I...

I couldn't escape the horror - that was the horror. That was my 2am realization. As I stood inside that 6' x 6' hell hole and as I walked through the slum the horror was that I couldn't get...

Tonight I am numb. I came to Uganda prepared to see suffering, to celebrate hope, and to provide - in the smallest ways through this blog - an insight for others into that mysterious thing called poverty. What I wanted...

I am preparing for a little journey to Africa. I will be visiting Uganda starting next week and I'll be blogging from there every day. I'll be going with a number of other bloggers to visit the work done...

I am watching John Edwards suspend his campaign and I am sad. I'm sad that his relentless voice for the poor and against the two Americas in which we live is leaving this race. I'm sad because we live in...

In the early summer of 1989, on a humid night, as China erupted on the other side of the world, in the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, I sat with several hundred other people, eating peppermint stick ice cream, listening...

When it comes to charitable giving are we more like: or: Well, apparently a bit of both: The truth is that Americans are generous when it comes to private aid, domestic or overseas. But the U.S. government is comparatively stingy...

From the Seattle Post intelligencer: “In the 50 years since the first African countries won independence, the world has spent $568 billion on Africa. Yet Africans are poorer now than a quarter century ago.” Why?...

Scott Harrison was a nightclub promoter in New York - successful, attractive, intelligent, and by his own account amazing self-absorbed. He sold $350 bottles of vodka and dated women who bought $5,000 handbags. Then, one day on a beach in...

I stumbled across an interesting article on noted actressRachel Weisz. Of note: Once she won the part [in The Constant Gardner] , she was off to Nairobi, Kenya, and its Kibera slum, the largest slum in sub-Saharan Africa, with more...

My friend Greg just sent this to me... it is a video about how we treat the animals we eat. It won't make you feel good....

Huge news. Here's a story bigger than the impact Huckabee/Romney have had in the past month. It is the story of someone living out their faith. It is the story of "the Eggman": Thanksgiving nearly two decades ago. He looked...

Today's NYT reports that food banks are low on food: Food banks around the country are reporting critical shortages that have forced them to ration supplies, distribute staples usually reserved for disaster relief and in some instances close. “It’s one...

Thanks for the great discussion about my last post on Darfur and Michael Vick. I want to start with a great and honest comment from one reader: ...humans are not "of greater worth" than animals. Humans *are* animals, and we...

Federal prosecutors have gotten disgraced NFL star Michael Vick to set aside $928,000 for the care and placement of the 54 pit bulls rescued from his horrendous dogfighting operation. That is quite a lot of money by every standard -...

A group trying to help end the genocide in Darfur has just released a report on efforts by Beijing Olympics sponsors to influence China to use its close relationship with the Sudanese government to end the brutality in Darfur....

I came across this piece that famed novelist Anne Rice wrote as New Orleans sank. It is as true today as it was two years ago. But to my country I want to say this: During this crisis you failed...

From my friend Jen's blog about her time in Haiti... She has managed to put words to something too awful for words... This was one of those days that just makes you wonder what the heck you can even do...

Here's a concept, something positive and a bit original to help people and there isn't any controversy. What a deal! State government and the Arkansas Interfaith Conference will work together in a pilot program to help Arkansans obtain their share...

Stephen Moore, opines in today's WSJ about a new United Nations report, "State of the Future". Of it he says: A new United Nations report called "State of the Future" concludes: "People around the world are becoming healthier, wealthier, better...

A powerful new ad from Save Darfur The offenders? Click below......

If you are like me and don't understand what happened in Jena, here is a helpful timeline....

Bill Clinton's new book, Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World is out to much fanfare. I haven't read it yet and frankly wasn't planning on reading it. But then a friend send me a note saying, "So...

More thoughts on that article on the lack of pain relief for the poor from Thinker: When I was a nurse, there seemed to be an unofficial kind of medicine for poor people - who might become addicted and for...

Horrifying story: The World Health Organization estimates that 4.8 million people a year with moderate to severe cancer pain receive no appropriate treatment. Nor do another 1.4 million with late-stage AIDS. For other causes of lingering pain — burns, car...

Over at SoMA, Paul O'Donnell revisits Social Gospel creator Walter Rauschenbusch on the 100th anniversary of his famed book, Christianity and the Social Crisis. The book has been re-issued with new essays by Jim Wallis, Stephen Carter, and others. Rauschenbusch's...

Whenever there is a disaster it is Christian relief and development organizations that are among the first on the ground. This is a fact too often lost in "sexier" conversations about politics or theology. But in Peru and in Southeast...

It is easy to look back of 21 centuries of Christendom and figure its rise was inevitable. The fashionable arguments of suppressed gospels, altered Gospels, corruption, conspiracy, and the like are well known to most moderns. But what is easy...

Several months ago I posted a story about a man in Hawaii who was giving away houses and suggested he be nominated for an award for his kindness. I haven't paid nearly enough attention to finding such stories. I came...

In today's Philly Inquirer, noted UPenn professor, sociologist, author, and former Bush faith-based head, John DiIulio writes a tenderly devastating piece about Bush's "compassion contradiction" that still offers Bush a chance to do the right thing. DiIulio notes that it...