Monthly Archives: November 2011

Beyond the Bubble

It’s a fairly safe assumption that most Americans are perfectly pleased to live in their own world, only vaguely aware of what goes on beyond the end of their street.  For some people this may be acceptable, but for Christians I believe it is our duty to be aware of all that is going on in the world, and the effect we have on it.  If this means seeking out the news from multiple venues, so be it.

It would seem by the rate we consume in America that we are unaware that the planet is now home to more than 7 billion people with not nearly enough resources for any one person to take more than he needs.  Sadly, I see more non-believing liberals driving hybrids and reducing their consumption than Christians.  I think that this is due, in a large part, to how, and where Christians in this country get their news.  I have to believe that if they only understood what was going on beyond their personal drama, they would behave differently.

A study came out recently that said that people who watch Fox News actually know less about what is going on in the world than people who watch no news at all (to be fair MSNBC watchers didn’t fair much better).  Since, in my personal experience, this seems to be the main news source for most Christians (and is the dominant news source for most Americans), I feel like this explains a great deal.  But Fox News isn’t totally responsible, I have had to go outside of the United States to organizations like the UN, and surprisingly, Al Jazeera, for more reliable news, even about things happening within the United States.

With so little regular exposure to the “outside world”, it’s easy to get wrapped up in the goings-on of our own personal dramas, celebrity dramas, or political freak shows, but Christians have a God-given responsibility to not only our neighbors but also our enemies. In this ever-shrinking world we live in, our “neighbors” are at the same time closer and farther away than ever before.  Since we are now aware that one child dies every 6 seconds in Somalia due to a famine our country helped to create, I believe Christians are going to be responsible to God for what we choose to do or not do.  Not only that, I believe we will also be responsible for choosing to remain ignorant of the world we, especially as Americans, have such a large and lasting effect on.

For example, the electronics we are always so eager to purchase are directly helping to fund child slavery and soldiery in the eastern Congo conflict – the worst conflict since the end of WWII.  As a Christian, with this knowledge available to you, how can you justify to your Creator why you just kept buying them?

The world is so terrible and so dark – it’s an incredible temptation to want to just shut our eyes and ears and live in our safe, American, suburban bubble. Our children are no longer crippled by polio, blinded by measles, or killed by a mosquito bite.  Let us not become complacent in our blessings – not one of us deserves them.  To condemn the innocent, whether by our action or inaction, is something I believe we will be judged for.

American Priorities

It would seem that the main moral/political concern of conservative Christian Americans is abortion.  While I agree that championing the unborn, the most vulnerable of children, is an incredibly worthy cause, it is a deep and complicated issue that will take a great deal of work over a long period of time.  Meanwhile, it feels like God’s people, to whom Jesus said,

“‘For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me…’Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me’”. (Matt 25:35-36, 40)

have completely forgotten the already-born and suffering children around the world who are perishing at numbers of 24,000 a day (compared to the number of American children lost to abortion everyday: 3315). 24,000 children die every day across the globe of completely preventable causes.  This single-issue political mindset is not only counter-productive, it’s deadly.  If Christians would devote a fraction of the resources and energy that they give to abortion to issues like poverty and hunger, they could do unimaginable good.

Mother Theresa often spoke of what a blessing it was for her to work so closely with the poor because she got to see her Lord’s face in the face of each person she helped.  She even developed her “5 finger gospel”, which went, “You Did It To Me”, and she took it literally as I believe our Lord meant it to be taken.  If He was anything, He was at the very least a lover of children and champion for the poor and outcast.

As we enter the Christmas season, and Christians once again get up in arms about which stores use “Christmas” and which ones use “holiday” or “season” , let’s try and remember what the season is really all about, and it has nothing to do with shopping or how stores advertise.  The Lord of the universe came into the world as a helpless, fragile infant completely dependent on His parents and vulnerable to world.  So many babies everyday are lost because their parents don’t have the food to feed them, or mothers are so hungry that their bodies can’t produce milk for their infants and are forced to watch their babies starve before their eyes.  Children drink the only water they have available and die from the bacteria they consume, or are crippled or killed by diseases long since eradicated in our country by the wonder of inoculation.  As we celebrate the miracle of the baby Jesus, remember some of what He taught as an adult and help some of the many worthy organizations give food to the hungry, water to the thirsty, clothes to the naked, and medicine to the sick and dying.

“And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’”

Due to the current food crisis in Somalia it is estimated that one child dies every 6 minutes.

The Plight of Gulnaz

In 2009, 18-year-old Gulnaz, an unmarried virgin, was raped by her cousin’s husband and impregnated. Because of the Islamic laws that govern Afghanistan, she was found guilty of adultery and sentenced to 2 years in jail. She said she had tried to hide the attack at first because she knew she could be killed for bringing shame on her community. When her pregnancy exposed the attack, there was an official investigation that could find no evidence of rape and concluded that the sex was mutual; both Gulnaz and her attacker were charged with adultery.  He bribed his way out of jail, and insists that he did not have sex with her.  When she tried to appeal her sentence, it turned into 12 years. She is now being told that the only way her and her baby daughter, who was born in a cell, will ever be released is if she agrees to marry her rapist and legitimize the relationship.  She fears that she will have to raise her daughter in prison. Their only hope now is a petition that is circulating on the internet addressed to the Afghan president, Karzai, appealing to him to release Gulnaz and her daughter from prison with all charges cleared.

Take a moment to sign the petition and spread the word.  The more names signed, the more hope Gulnaz and her daughter have.

Sadly, this is just one instance of many where the rights of women and children are being shamelessly abused. Perhaps the plight of Gulnaz and her daughter will bring more attention to one of the gravest human rights issues in our day.

Conflict-Free Christmas List

How many electronics are on your Black Friday shopping list?  How about your Christmas list?  There’s a very good chance that some of the items on your list are funding the conflict in the Congo – the deadliest armed conflict since WWII. Armed groups earn hundreds of millions of dollars a year trading four main minerals: gold, tantalum, tungsten, and tin.  They use this money to buy weapons which allow them to continue their violence against civilians, mainly women and children.  The majority of these minerals eventually end up in cell phones, computers, mp3 players, and video game systems. Because of the lack of a transparent supply chain, American consumers have no way to ensure that their purchases are not financing armed groups that regularly commit mass atrocities.

John Predergast, founder of Enough, has a very enlightening video about conflict minerals and how they get from forced labor mines, where young children are sometimes forced to work with guns to their backs, to the cell phone in your back pocket.

The cause does not have to be a lost one. In response to consumer demand for conflict-free diamonds, the Kimberely Process was developed.  Its purpose was to “certify the origin of rough diamonds from sources which are free of conflict funded by diamond production”.  Now consumers can be certain that the diamonds they’re buying are conflict-free.  With enough support, a similar process could be developed for the four main minerals that fuel the conflict in eastern Congo.

Raise Hope for the Congo (raisehopeforthecongo.org) offers a ranking system of the 21 top electronics manufacturers and their progress toward making a conflict-free supply chain:  Conflict-Mineral Company Rankings.  Please try and support the companies making the best efforts toward offering conflict-free electronics.

Raise Hope for the Congo also offers very easy ways to spread the word about conflict-minerals to all your friends and family by offering this email form: spread the word!  Through another form on the site, you can commit to buying conflict-free products and let manufacturers know that you’ll buy from them when they make their products conflict free.

Since universities are such huge consumers of electronics, students can also have an enormous impact.  Raise Hope has a toolkit available for download (here) to help students urge their schools to publicly support conflict-free electronics.  They also have an advocacy guide and a list of schools that are already conflict free.

Because of consumer outrage, it is now possible to be assured of the origin of diamonds.  Should consumers not be just as out outraged that the innocent electronics that populate our homes fund a conflict that has already claimed over 5 million lives?  This Christmas season, be sure that the gifts you buy are not helping finance this deadly conflict – commit to buying conflict-free electronics.