New Monasticism: Deepening our Pursuit of Reconciliation

There's been a good conversation happening on the God's Politics blog about the New Monastic movement and the challenges it has faced to sufficiently address racial reconciliation (for a short description of the New Monastic movement, check out this article on wikipedia). I highly recommend checking out a couple of the posts, especially for those involved in incarnational urban ministry or those who are interested in these issues. The most recent post, by Chanequa Brown, articulates a few ways in which those already involved in the New Monastic movement can help to throw open the doors of the movement for people of color to have more equal access, voice, and influence.

On Learning Centering Prayer

In the garden, settling down to wait,
White metal bench cold under my bare feet,
I close my eyes.
Shh...settle down, my thoughts.
Be still.

God -- God -- God
One word dropped gently into the stillness
Rippling out like water in a pond.
Like an infant snuggled at its mother's breast,
Blindly opening its mouth for milk,
I wait.
Oh Infinite, have mercy on the ignorant
And come near.

In the distance, a dog barks.
The metal bench cuts into my back.
Grumbling, a car starts up and my toes are cold.
I peek at my watch.
Only ten minutes passed!
Shh...settle down, my thoughts.
Be still and wait.
Shh, rest in the presence of the Eternal.
Shh.

The cool breeze slips timidly over my skin
As I open my eyes. The garden is still.
Shh! A coyote runs by, ears up, limping on three legs,
As I hold my breath and break into a smile.

Willamette love

I have a mixed relationship with my alma mater. Willamette was an outstanding place for me to grow, to be pushed to write well and often, to think critically, to thrive in a community of loving friends. I loved going to college there. But Willamette also frustrates me because, like many small liberal arts universities, it has difficulty attracting and retaining significant numbers of minority professors, and it also harbors a lot of white students who, just as in wider society, just don't get all the hullaballoo over racial justice and reconciliation and wish everyone would stop making such a big deal about it. I know those troubles are far from unique to Willamette, but it makes me sad.

All that being said, I was glad to see Willamette's name pop up recently for something good. The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) has highlighted Willamette in their 2008 "National Report Card on Sustainability in Higher Education." Out of the 1,068 colleges and universities surveyed, "the school engaged in the greatest number of [sustainability] activities is Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. Willamette is committed to energy efficiency and conservation, greener transportation, environmentally friendly landscaping practices, as well as to orienting personnel and faculty to the sustainability goals of the campus."

Sweet! Ah yes, more things to love about having gone to a small liberal arts college in Oregon :)

Thai Political Crisis

This is becoming ridiculous. I've been following the political crisis in Thailand off and on as the drama unfolds, and the prime minister who was forced to step down two days ago has apparently just been nominated again by his party to resume the position. Which doesn't solve any of the frustrations of the protesters or of the other parties. Sigh. When will a positive and effective solution be found?

If the World Could Vote...

...in the U.S. election, Obama would probably win. I point this out not to promote Obama per say, even though I do acknowledge that I prefer him as a candidate, but to bring attention to how the rest of the world sees what is currently happening here. And no, the rest of the world does not just think this because they are out to bring America down or any nonsense like that.

I bring this article up because America is far too deep in a bubble to usually see and understand the various perspectives of the international community, and therefore I feel compelled to keep poking holes in the bubble so that if we choose to, we can see out of it. I can't help it, it's how I grew up and how I see the world.

Food Justice

I've become more and more interested in issues of food justice and sustainability over this last year. The effects that my grocery shopping and restaurant choices have on the environment, on labor rights, on poverty, and on my health are all becoming increasingly important to me. Diamante and I eat less meat now than we used to (I still like meat too much to become vegetarian, but for daily consumption it's not worth the environmental and health consequences for me). We sometimes buy our veggies and fruits at a farmer's market and we buy cage-free eggs at Trader Joe's. For my morning at-home cup of coffee ritual I purchase only fair trade coffee, I am beginning to buy more local, and we are starting to read the ingredients in packaged food more closely (I had NO IDEA high fructose corn syrup was in everything under the sun!). Yet it feels like just the tip of the iceberg. There's still so far to go, but baby steps will keep us going in the right direction. Besides, I love food and cooking too much to let it be spoiled with the bad taste of deliberately knowing my food choices are creating massive environmental degradation or contributing to the oppression of other people's lives.

From BBC: [there are] "a number of criteria that consumers should consider when buying food: how much energy and water are used to produce each calorie of food; what is the impact of the food item on climate, biodiversity, and the labour-force of the country it was grown in, and what are the health and financial costs of food."

If you are also interested in this topic, check out The Omnivore's Dilemma, Fast Food Nation, this Newsweek article on beef, and this BBC article on the eco-costs of food. And let me know in return of any other good resources on the topic that I should check out!

On Community

Sometimes one of the hardest parts of community is acknowledging one's own need for other people, and not just other people's needs and the ways one can assist them. Not wanting to be a burden, or a complainer, or a needy person can keep us stuck in our own mess...granted some people are way too codependent, but there's a necessary messiness inherent in bringing out one's own issues instead of just helping other people solve theirs. This is hard for me to accept.

"Our sin is that stubborn part inside that wants, above all else, to be independent. There's a part of us fiercely committed to living in a way where we do not have to depend on anyone--especially God. Then culture comes along with figures like John Wayne and James Bond and all those other 'real men,' and the one thing they have in common is that they are loners, they don't need anyone. We come to believe deep in our hearts that needing anyone for anything is a sort of weakness, a handicap." John Eldredge

the "o word"

"Oriental" has always been a word that feels offensive and derogatory to me, but in the past I haven't been able to articulate why. Then today I ran across this brief article, which discusses the "o-word" and why exactly it is so offensive when used to refer to people.

Where I seek my refuge

Work has been rough these days; actually practically ever since I started. But our intern class got together yesterday to pray for each other about work related issues, and I was enormously blessed by the prayer time. I was feeling very discouraged and defenseless, and even though I didn't tell anyone that before we prayed, God gave people all these images and verses for me about security, rest and protection in him. I feel like I have verbal and pictorial promises of the love of God now to cling to in the midst of my day at work no matter how crazy it gets.

Driving home after work today, Natasha Bedingfield's song "Pocketful of sunshine" was playing on the radio and the chorus really resonated with what I want right now:

Take me away, a secret place
A sweet escape, take me away
Take me away to better days
Take me away, a hiding place

But then I was thinking about it and I think that God doesn't necessarily remove us out of situations when things get hard, but that in relationship with him he gives us what we need to be able to survive...and even thrive. I have no Caribbean island or Oregon forest to escape to for weeks on end; my only hiding place and refuge is Jesus my Rock. This seems like a more realistic theology for the city and for living amidst urban poverty than a theology of escapism. The escape I think I want is not necessarily what I need.

banning the dispossessed?

Two news articles relevant to my work...

Finding L.A.'s hidden homeless

Homeward Banned, on homeless individuals banned from a homeless center in Dallas, TX. I have mixed feelings on this article, but I posted it because I wanted to make us think. The author is quite biased in favor of the individuals that have been banned from the shelter, arguing that they have been "banished from life itself."

From the perspective of someone who works in a homeless access center, I understand why people are banned. If an individual has threatened a staffmember or another person in our shelter, if they have deliberately and repeatedly destroyed the apartment that they are renting through our mental health program and harrassed the landlord, or if they have done other drastic things, they may be banned. There comes a point where it's too dangerous for other people for them to be receiving services at our location, or where we have attempted to provide all of the support and services we can and they choose to reject them and create chaos. People are banned for safety purposes and if they pose a serious problem for others receiving services. In general, I think hardcore homeless folks are homeless for a reason. Usually it's probably because they have serious mental health or addiction issues that keep them from making the steps they need to take or enabling them to work with the programs and agencies in existance. If people are sane enough and really want help, things can usually get better, although it can take a looong time to get all of the resources lined up.

But...fom the perspective of a follower of Jesus, I also see that no one is beyond the reach of the love of God, and that no one should be written off or abandoned by society. That's what christianity is supposed to be about...serving the lost and the least physically, emotionally, spiritually.

I just think that maybe there should be specialized agencies created to deal with people that are way out there on the edge, instead of expecting homeless agencies to serve the whole gamut of folks that are homeless, from those who have just fallen on hard times to those who are literally another kind of crazy.