words are not enough » Politics

Chase Livingston: Social Justice and the Lord’s Prayer…

Joe Kennedy — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:00:43 +0000

…Or How an Unemployed, Fat Guy Thought It’d be a Good Idea to Bike Cross-Country for Kenya

Joe’s right. Words are not enough.

Once, long ago, words bore the power to inspire change. Now, inspiration is a category of greeting cards and change is a campaign mantra.

We have a need to feel empathy and we fulfill that need in 2 hour increments with movies like The Blind Side or Blood Diamond. We throw away our popcorn and go back to our homes with no intent of living any differently.

In Blood Diamond, Solomon Vandy asks the reporter (regarding her article), ”So when people in your country read it, they will come help, yes?” She says, “Probably not.”

Words are not enough and yet I believe in stories. Sometimes, I think our response to stories is what makes them true. A true story is so even without our proper reaction except that no argument will persuade us to believe a thing we’ve determined to ignore.

The world is wrecked but is that the whole story? I don’t think so.

In the past, I’ve been so overwhelmed by the devastation that I averted my eyes. In doing so, I missed the point. Hope grew distant but I am tired of being hopeless.

My hope is in Christ. My prayer is the same one that He taught His first disciples, “Our Father in heaven hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven.”

But words are not enough. To pray that and not be moved in some tangible way to benefit Jesus’ least of these is to pray in vain. It offends the heart of God.

Realizing this has motivated me to sign-on for a crazy adventure. This summer I, along with 17 others, will bike 3,100 miles from San Diego to Myrtle Beach to raise money to build water wells, latrines, and clinics in Marsabit, Kenya.

I’m a lazy 250 pound guy who gets lost in Wal-Mart and has been unemployed for a year now. Why am I doing this? Because words are not enough.

For more information and to give go to http://www.ridewelltour.org.

A note from Joe: I’ve never met Chase Livingston, but we’ve got some mutual friends. He is a native of Alabama and graduate of the Baptist College of Florida where he met my future New Orleans Seminary next-door neighbor, Jeff Watkins. Since he is raising funds for the Ride:Well Tour, I asked Chase to contribute a guest post to Words Are Not Enough. You can donate at the link above or by clicking here. Chase lives in Jackson, Tennessee and you can find him on Twitter or at his blog.

The Privileged and the Forgotten…

Joe Kennedy — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 06:13:09 +0000

“It is a sad fact that on this earth at this late date there are still two worlds, “the privileged world” and “the forgotten world”. The privileged world consists of the affluent, developed nations, comprising twenty-five to thirty percent of the world population, in which most of the people live in a luxury never before experienced by man outside the Garden of Eden. The forgotten world is made up primarily of the developing nations, where most of the people, comprising more than fifty percent of the total world population, live in poverty, with hunger as a constant companion and fear of famine a continual menace.”

[Norman Borlaug, "father of the Green Revolution," during his 1970 Nobel Laureate lecture]

Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.

[Jesus, as recorded in the Gospel of Luke 12:48b]

A State of Absolute Poverty…

Joe Kennedy — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 14:00:17 +0000

This is absolute poverty: a condition of life so limited as to prevent realization of the potential of the genes with which one is born; a condition of life so degrading as to insult human dignity–and yet a condition of life so common as to be the lot of some 40% of the peoples of the developing nations. And are not we who tolerate such poverty, when it is within our power to reduce the number afflicted by it, failing to fulfill the fundamental obligations accepted by civilized men since the beginning of time? … There are, of course, many grounds for development assistance, among others, the expansion of trade, the strengthening of international stability and the reduction of social tensions. But in my view, the fundamental case for development assistance is the moral one. The whole of human history has recognized the principle-at least in the abstract-that the rich and the powerful have a moral obligation to assist the poor and the weak. This is what the sense of community is all about.

[Robert S. McNamara, President of the World Bank (1968-1981) in his address to the World Bank, September 1973]

Three Sites You Should Know About…

Joe Kennedy — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:35:39 +0000

I’ve been aware of these sites for a while now, but I know some of you aren’t quite as nerdy as I am. Seriously, I get it. You have real lives, so you’re not exploring the Internet like I am. If there are three sites I would strongly suggest you get to know- ones that I know haven’t gone completely mainstream- these would be the ones. “TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with the annual TED Conference in Long Beach, California, and the TEDGlobal conference in Oxford UK, TED includes the award-winning TEDTalks video site, the Open Translation Program, the new TEDx community program, this year’s TEDIndia Conference and the annual TED Prize.”

“I am Second is a movement where significance in life is a shared value among people of all kinds. Actors. Athletes. Musicians. Business leaders. Your next-door neighbors. People just like you. Their authentic stories here on iamsecond.com provide insight into dealing with typical struggles of everyday living. You’ll meet people who overcame destructive lifestyles. Plus you’ll discover those who’ve tried to go it alone and have failed, yet still found a life full of hope, peace, and fulfillment.”

“The story of Christ’s birth is a story of promise, hope, and a revolutionary love. So, what happened? What was once a time to celebrate the birth of a savior has somehow turned into a season of stress, traffic jams, and shopping lists. And when it’s all over, many of us are left with presents to return, looming debt that will take months to pay off, and this empty feeling of missed purpose. Is this what we really want out of Christmas? What if Christmas became a world-changing event again? Welcome to Advent Conspiracy.”

25 in 52…

Joe Kennedy — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 05:30:32 +0000

Over the last ten years or so, I’ve rarely read a book all the way through. I’ve given most books the college- or seminary-read; I read them just enough to get the point and most of the details then put them down and move on to another. Both college and grad school required that I either learn to speed-read or seminary-read. Starting on November 1, 2009, I’m going to attempt something that I haven’t ever done: read 25 books in 52 weeks.

Most of my seminary-educated friends would mock this attempt, since they read close to a book a week. My friend Adam Feldman is the inspiration for this little project. A while back he attempted to read 50 books in 52 weeks. You can read his final review here. For me, this is a stretch. I’m easily distracted. I live in the Internet age. If I want to know something, I look it up on Wikipedia, I Google it, or if my books aren’t packed in boxes and stuck in a storage room (and most are right now), I might open one of my books to look it up. I learn in ADHD. I learn in article format, not book format. And so far that learning method has worked for me. But I need to be more disciplined in reading.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. You see the list of books above and realize I’ve got a 20-something page children’s book filled with pictures up there. True. But sometimes less is more, and I think there’s a lot to be learned from Shel Silverstein. Also, I think The Giving Tree offsets NT Wright’s Justification, which I anticipate will be a pretty difficult book to sort through. It turns out The Word Became Flesh is written in a one year devotion style, so I’ll be reading it every day.

I’ve got a few alternates (that’s why you see 27 books listed above), just in case some turn out to be duds. And who knows- maybe I’ll beat my 2 books a month pace and read more. If you’re interested in any of these books listed above, click here and you can visit my Amazon.com aStore, where you’ll find the entire list with book descriptions. You can buy each book there, too (and I get a little cut from Amazon for each book you buy).

So this is actually a challenge. Twenty-five books in fifty-two weeks. Wish me luck. I’ll need it.

Let This Be Your Message…

Joe Kennedy — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 08:20:26 +0000

Our culture divides people into two classes: civilized men, a title bestowed on the persons who do the classifying; and others, who have only the human form, who may perish or go to the dogs for all the “civilized men” care.

Oh, this “noble” culture of ours! It speaks so piously of human dignity and human rights and then disregards this dignity and these rights of countless millions and treads them underfoot, only because they live overseas or because their skins are of different color or because they cannot help themselves. This culture does not know how hollow and miserable and full of glib talk it is, how common it looks to those who follow it across the seas and see what it has done there, and this culture has no right to speak of personal dignity and human rights…

I will not enumerate all the crimes that have been committed under the pretext of justice. People robbed native inhabitants of their land, made slaves of them, let loose the scum of mankind upon them. Think of the atrocities that were perpetrated upon people made subservient to us, how systematically we have ruined them with our alcoholic “gifts”, and everything else we have done…We decimate them, and then, by the stroke of a pen, we take their land so they have nothing left at all…

If all this oppression and all this sin and shame are perpetrated under the eye of the German God, or the American God, or the British God, and if our states do not feel obliged first to lay aside their claim to be “Christian” — then the name of Jesus is blasphemed and made a mockery. And the Christianity of our states is blasphemed and made a mockery before those poor people. The name of Jesus has become a curse, and our Christianity — yours and mine — has become a falsehood and a disgrace, if the crimes are not atoned for in the very place where they were instigated. For every person who committed an atrocity in Jesus’ name, someone must step in to help in Jesus’ name; for every person who robbed, someone must bring a replacement; for everyone who cursed, someone must bless.

And now, when you speak about missions, let this be your message: We must make atonement for all the terrible crimes we read of in the newspapers. We must make atonement for the still worse ones, which we do not read about in the papers, crimes that are shrouded in the silence of the jungle night… [Albert Schweitzer, January 6, 1905]

Praying through the News…

Joe Kennedy — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 05:00:31 +0000

Some people read the newspaper with the Bible in their other hand, reading the Bible into the news, trying to make the times more significant. When the media becomes the lens through which you view the Scriptures, you’re bound to end up in some gun-running cult in a rural Texas town. On the other hand, the media plays an extremely important role in a Christian life. The news can’t be our lens for the Bible, but it can be a guide for our prayer. That’s one of the reasons I read Foreign Policy on a daily basis. For the last five years, Foreign Policy and The Fund for Peace have offered a Failed States Index. In no way is this list the absolute truth with regard to national stability, but it sure is helpful. (Read the FAQ here.)

The label “failed” remains a powerful way to describe those states that no longer serve their people. That harsh term sharpens the attention of policymakers and helps single out countries that should be of utmost concern. The threat of such state failure also focuses attention on the soon-to-crumble; it is those countries that need the most external help. … Failed states have two defining criteria: They deliver very low quantities and qualities of political goods to their citizens, and they have lost their monopoly on violence. Nation-states on the cusp of failure are either “weak” or “failing”—but not “failed.” “Collapsed” ought to be reserved for geographical expressions without governments, such as Somalia. [Disorder in the Ranks, ForeignPolicy.com]

You’ll be surprised to know that, in the midst of the deaths of Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, Billy Mays, and Michael Jackson, millions of lives are in danger every day. It is not the Christian’s responsibility to save the world. That role belongs solely to God. It is our responsibility, however, to intercede in prayer on behalf of those who do not know Christ. We pray with the news as our guide. I encourage you to read through the Failed States articles and learn more about what’s happening in the world.

Do Something Good Today…

Joe Kennedy — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 03:05:09 +0000

This began as an effort to spice up my “In Support” page, and now I’m grabbing the most common, reputable, and helpful charities and non-profit organizations across the country and world. (And a few started by friends.) Now, after half a day of researching, I’m asking you to help me fill in the white space. Read a list of the ones I already have after the break.

So help me eliminate the white space and put your favorite charity, non-profit organization, or philanthropic society in the comments.

The Sanctity of Marriage…

Joe Kennedy — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 05:00:16 +0000

Today, April 27, is the first day that gay marriage is officially legal in Iowa. That Iowa was among the states providing equal marriage opportunity could be considered a surprise, since the state often leans toward the conservative. I came across Nate Silver’s prediction of when each state will eventually legalize gay marriage. Not surprisingly, Alabama and Mississippi are the last two states to give in.

I’m about to ask one question several different ways, but before I do that I want to clarify the point of this discussion. First, I am writing this primarily to a Christian audience. I appreciate the input of others, but I want to be clear about who this post is directed toward. The purpose of this post is not to discuss the legitimacy of homosexuality. I am not interested in debating whether or not it’s okay to be gay, nor will I allow this discussion to gravitate toward that topic. Do that on your own time, elsewhere. Okay, on to the question. Remember- this is one question worded a few different ways.

Is the sanctity of marriage less meaningful for a man and woman to uphold if a gay couple use the same word for their union?
What determines the sanctity of marriage: the law of the land or the couples who strive to honor God with their marriage?
Will the legalization of gay marriage (on a state, federal, or international level) somehow lessen, cheapen, or determine the sanctity of marriage on the whole?

In the United States, special status (with taxes in particular) is granted those who are married. If same-sex couples are allowed to marry, they would be granted these same rights. Some rights are granted through civil unions, although from what I’ve gathered, they are not to the same extent as those granted under marriage. However, the priority of this post is to discuss the sanctity of marriage.

Do not read this inquiry as a veiled attempt to show where I stand on the issue. Honestly, I’m not sure I care what the law says, and I do not consider holiness as something that is determined by any law found on Earth. In addition, many straight and gay marriages cheapen the sanctity of marriage when they are filled with adultery and violence. What I am seriously asking is how necessary the fight over the word “marriage” is. The question was recently posed, “Is legal same-sex marriage inevitable?“ I ask, in addition to the primary question above, does it matter?

(If you’re gay, I realize that questioning the sanctity of your marriage may offend you. That is not my goal, and again, I remind you of my intended audience. Christians, I ask you to reflect the love of Christ in your comments.)

A Prayer for the President…

Joe Kennedy — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 06:00:35 +0000

God of power and might, wisdom and justice, through you authority is rightly administered, laws are enacted, and judgment is decreed. Assist with your spirit of counsel and fortitude the President and other government leaders of these United States. May they always seek the ways of righteousness, justice and mercy. Grant that they may be enabled by your powerful protection to lead our country with honesty and integrity. We ask this through Christ our Lord. [Catholic Prayer for Government Leaders]

If you want to know how to pray for President Bush, go here.