I'm coming away from reading this post wowed by your courage and your faith, Idella. You didn't have to share this intimate story with an audience that is sometimes hostile, but you did, at a cost. That alone is faith. Thank you. May white folks like me who read this walk away resolved to do better.
I was so moved by this article from Kyle Korver. Thanks for sharing it here. What struck me most was his teachability--that softness of heart and willingness to change. What if Christians were known for our willingness to confess and repent (ie. turn from) sins of racism? As Calvinists, our creativity in twisting God's good intentions and looking out for ourselves first should come as no surprise to us.
Syd, I'm really moved by this. What an example of a mustard seed of faith entrusted to a good God who wants to "expand our borders" beyond what we can imagine!
Hi Doug, we've had this conversation before. Here's our comment policy, in case you haven't seen it. Our goal is to post one Do Justice piece per week on the Network. I've just reviewed our metrics from this quarter and we met that goal.
This sounds great! I'd love to hear more about what you learned so that we can share it with other churches. Maybe some of this could end up as a resource on the Safe Church Ministry site so that other ministries and churches can share it?
Hi John, just to clarify how refugee systems work: it is impossible for individual citizens to sponsor refugees without working with the government. It's not quite as simple as putting the responsibility on individual citizens. As we've seen with the recent mass layoffs at World Relief, government decisions to limit the number of refugees coming into the country directly and immediately affect the ability of churches to welcome refugees. The CRC has a long history of churches welcoming refugees, on both sides of the border, and we can't do that without working with the U.S. and Canadian governments.
Doug, I would urge you to really listen to the stories of people who attended residential schools in the US or Canada. Systematic devaluing of Indigenous cultures and Indigenous lives is far different from the details you have shared from your own childhood, and it continues today, though in different forms. The roots of that devaluing go deep and Christians often gave it tacit or explicit approval. That matters. We need to hear those stories.
Thanks for this reflection, Scott! I think you really nailed it. It took me going to Mali with World Renew and working with the Fulani, an Indigenous group there, to open my hard, self-involved heart to the injustices that Indigenous people in my own country face. Why? Because I am involved in those injustices. I benefit from them. It's harder to see them because I and those around me have all kinds of pre-fabricated stereotypes and reasons that the status quo is okay and not our fault. And yet where can we have the deepest impact? Why does World Renew work with local partners? Because we can often have the strongest impact when we speak where it "costs" us the most and where we already know the complex dynamics of the situation--at home. (This is not an argument against working overseas, but an argument for paying attention to the injustices in our own backyards, as you said, even and perhaps especially when it hurts.)
I so appreciate this piece. Thanks for the challenge.
Happy to respond to that, Doug. You are actually currently participating in one of the ways we do commenting on Do Justice--through The Network. We post Do Justice articles quite regularly on The Network, and will be posting every single article from this series. OSJ staff are very active on The Network responding to comments. We also post every single Do Justice article on the OSJ Facebook page and about one article per week on the Christian Reformed Centre for Public Dialogue's Facebook page. (By the way, Do Justice is a joint project of the OSJ and the Centre for Public Dialogue, a CRC ministry in Canada.)
We want to steward our ministry share-funded staff time well, so we have chosen to manage comments on these two pre-existing, well-used venues for commenting rather than opening up commenting directly on Do Justice.
Dialogue happens not just when people talk to (or yell at!) each other, but when they are actively listening and responding thoughtfully to the other's thoughts. I appreciate your respectful tone in this comment, Doug, and I hope that we can continue to have respectful conversations in the future.
Posted in: My Thoughts After Watching the Video of the Killing of George Floyd
I'm coming away from reading this post wowed by your courage and your faith, Idella. You didn't have to share this intimate story with an audience that is sometimes hostile, but you did, at a cost. That alone is faith. Thank you. May white folks like me who read this walk away resolved to do better.
Posted in: Fragile Beauty and Racism
I was so moved by this article from Kyle Korver. Thanks for sharing it here. What struck me most was his teachability--that softness of heart and willingness to change. What if Christians were known for our willingness to confess and repent (ie. turn from) sins of racism? As Calvinists, our creativity in twisting God's good intentions and looking out for ourselves first should come as no surprise to us.
Posted in: Alejandro's Driving Lessons: Reflections on Refugees and my Faith Formation
Syd, I'm really moved by this. What an example of a mustard seed of faith entrusted to a good God who wants to "expand our borders" beyond what we can imagine!
Posted in: Diversity and Discernment
Hi Doug, we've had this conversation before. Here's our comment policy, in case you haven't seen it. Our goal is to post one Do Justice piece per week on the Network. I've just reviewed our metrics from this quarter and we met that goal.
Posted in: Diversity and Discernment
Thank you for sharing those thoughts, Jack.
Posted in: Canadian Classes Gather to Talk Safe Church and Refugees
This sounds great! I'd love to hear more about what you learned so that we can share it with other churches. Maybe some of this could end up as a resource on the Safe Church Ministry site so that other ministries and churches can share it?
Posted in: How Should the Church Respond to Trump’s Travel Ban?
Hi John, just to clarify how refugee systems work: it is impossible for individual citizens to sponsor refugees without working with the government. It's not quite as simple as putting the responsibility on individual citizens. As we've seen with the recent mass layoffs at World Relief, government decisions to limit the number of refugees coming into the country directly and immediately affect the ability of churches to welcome refugees. The CRC has a long history of churches welcoming refugees, on both sides of the border, and we can't do that without working with the U.S. and Canadian governments.
Posted in: Confessing My Sin in Trumpland
Thanks for leading with transparency and humility like this, Syd! Really appreciate it.
Posted in: Homosexuality and Holy Uncertainty
Thanks Syd. Really appreciate this. A friend often says that the pull of the "idol of theological certainty" is strong for us.
Posted in: Why the Church Should Pay Attention to the DOD Task Force
Doug, I would urge you to really listen to the stories of people who attended residential schools in the US or Canada. Systematic devaluing of Indigenous cultures and Indigenous lives is far different from the details you have shared from your own childhood, and it continues today, though in different forms. The roots of that devaluing go deep and Christians often gave it tacit or explicit approval. That matters. We need to hear those stories.
Posted in: Think Globally, Push Back Locally
Thanks for this reflection, Scott! I think you really nailed it. It took me going to Mali with World Renew and working with the Fulani, an Indigenous group there, to open my hard, self-involved heart to the injustices that Indigenous people in my own country face. Why? Because I am involved in those injustices. I benefit from them. It's harder to see them because I and those around me have all kinds of pre-fabricated stereotypes and reasons that the status quo is okay and not our fault. And yet where can we have the deepest impact? Why does World Renew work with local partners? Because we can often have the strongest impact when we speak where it "costs" us the most and where we already know the complex dynamics of the situation--at home. (This is not an argument against working overseas, but an argument for paying attention to the injustices in our own backyards, as you said, even and perhaps especially when it hurts.)
I so appreciate this piece. Thanks for the challenge.
Posted in: Series: How to Stay in Conversation With the “Other Side”
Happy to respond to that, Doug. You are actually currently participating in one of the ways we do commenting on Do Justice--through The Network. We post Do Justice articles quite regularly on The Network, and will be posting every single article from this series. OSJ staff are very active on The Network responding to comments. We also post every single Do Justice article on the OSJ Facebook page and about one article per week on the Christian Reformed Centre for Public Dialogue's Facebook page. (By the way, Do Justice is a joint project of the OSJ and the Centre for Public Dialogue, a CRC ministry in Canada.)
We want to steward our ministry share-funded staff time well, so we have chosen to manage comments on these two pre-existing, well-used venues for commenting rather than opening up commenting directly on Do Justice.
Dialogue happens not just when people talk to (or yell at!) each other, but when they are actively listening and responding thoughtfully to the other's thoughts. I appreciate your respectful tone in this comment, Doug, and I hope that we can continue to have respectful conversations in the future.