Ethics Reflection: Re-imagining

Ethics Reading Reflection – Erin Kruger April 16^th

Occupy Religion and The Occupy Handbook

Rieger and Pui-lan present a theology of the multitude grounded in the Greek ekklesia nature of church, God’s place in restoring relationships while siding with the abused and exploited, and a consideration of ecclesial practices and rituals that could structure this faith community.  Within light of the Ocuppy Movement’s focus on the ineffectiveness of a top-down economy and the oppressive powers in a hierarchical economic structure, these authors point out that the default images of God are dominant and powerful.  The classic theism originating from dominant Roman philosophical ideas of God as omnipotent, immutable, and impassable contributes to another oppressive hierarchical power system in which God is at the top.  Striving to reimagine these concepts of God through scriptures in which Jesus lives and teaches mercy, kindness, and a preference to the poor also means a reimaging of neighbor towards appreciation and respect. 

            The articles in the Occupy Handbook range in topics from Voluntary Financial Transaction Tax and Medicare to Global Capitalism through Smuggling.  Each author offering different critiques on the current economic system supporting their understanding as to how America (and the world) got here and what could perhaps change towards something more positive.  I must admit, I am still very fuzzy within Gross’s explainations of Procyclicality as to the physics of leverage, and find While and Li’s background on the difficulties of bankruptcy legislation and reform fascinating, mortgages in general I find an elusive realm.  It was Mathews article on a “Globalization from Below” that struck a chord with my worldview.  In response to a story of the reality of a merchant being cheated, Mathews explains “It’s a common story, but most merchants talk neither or cheating more of being cheated, but only of their ongoing efforts to make a living in a business whose parameters, due to ever-changing rates, an ever-changing flow of customers, and an ever- change array of phones for sale, are always difficult.”  (Kindle, 462) 

            In a world in which making a living is always difficult, the theology of the multitude attempts to give a deep sense of hope rooted in God.  Addressing these very real everyday concerns, so quickly can become life or death especially in developing countries, also must address who God is and as followers of God how to live within broken relationships, class oppression, and as events of Monday April 15^th feature – violence.  Rieger and Pui-lan’s question if the dominant images of God speak to our experiences (especially in The Occupy Movement) and the implications to how we understand both humanity and divinity.  Although ones own anthropology does impact their theology, I have become suspicious of approaching God through human experience if not also explicitly also through scripture and tradition.  My own human experience is, like so many others, very broken, and it becomes easy through that brokenness to want God on “my” side.  Grounding in study, solidarity with the community, and scripture all guide me to agreeing with many of the solutions offered in envisioning what church could mean from the bottom up.  I simply hold tightly to keeping the focus of the faith and the church on God, and allowing a firm grounding in the love of God to be what nurtures and inspires people of faith to care for every other living thing.    

I am drawn to this quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer (in Letters and Papers from Prison) "It is only by living completely in this world that one learns to have faith.... In so doing, we throw ourselves completely into the arms of God, taking seriously, not our own sufferings, but those of God in the world."  

Yes - let's reimagine God together.  

Yes - let's live in solidarity with one another with appreciation and mutual respect.  

Yes - it's going to be hard.  

Yes - let's challenge oppressive hierarchical systems like the economy.  

Always through and with the Triune God who lives and walks in the world as is it, guiding us towards a world as it should be.  

Garland's Steps to Advocacy Programs

Olson and Friedrich lay out Diana Garlands principles for organizing an effective advocacy program, which provide a step by step practical approach to advocacy as she outline in her book Precious in His Sight: A Guide to Child Advocacy.  


1.  Acknowledge Abundance.  
In a materialistic culture, it is hard for most of us to come to the realization that we have more.  This is a difficult thing to accept, and it can bring up feelings of entitlement and defensiveness.  The reality is that there are enough resources in the world to provide for everyone if they are redistributed.  This is a difficult concept to unpack and really needs to be done first.  The reality of privilege can be paralyzing for many, however acknowledgement is the first step to empowering and advocating for others.  
2. Infuse Theology
The love of God and love of neighbor is our foundation, or as the authors describe, our loom.  This is what makes us different from other social justice organizations.  Always ask - "Where is God in this?" and we will find much more in common throughout the body of Christ.  
3. Identify Obstacles
The reality is there are many obstacles that need to be expressed before advocacy work can be done.  A few that Garland lifts up include "there's really nothing we can do to stop child abuse, we should leave it to professionals", "we are already doing so much", "we need to take care of our own children first", "we don't have the money".  All of these are valid obstacles, but do not have to be the end of a good idea.  
4. Engage Allies 
Don't reinvent the wheel! Find other organizations in the community or across the denomination to offer assistance, provide resources, and partner with you working towards a communal goal. 
5. Develop Structure 
It is important to consider the logistics of who will be responsible for what, where supplies will be stored, what committees will be effected, and making sure to have potential leaders.  
6. Build Plan 
This is the part of the larger plan in which prioritizing issues and goals should be done.  Prayer, brainstorming, discernment, and conversation is crucial to making sure all people involved are on the same page and working in the same direction for the biggest impact.  
7. Foster Action 
Committees can meet, dream, and talk all day - but at some time (sooner than later hopefully!) the work discussed needs to be done!  This can be in the form of articles being written, events, trainings, phone calls to legislators, and many more.  
8. Evaluate Response
Taking time to reflect and evaluate is one of the most important steps to continuing to make a impact.  During this intentional evaluation, changes can be made to streamline processes, update educational pieces, or bring in new people to continue to build the advocacy program.

Programs can very difficult to get started, especially if they are lead by the pastor or staff.  Ownership by the community is one of the most important elements to motivate to work towards sustainability.  Each of these steps can be done as response and reaction to parishioners if they are guided and encouraged to work with others with specialties in different areas.  For example, Olson and  Friedrich tell a story of a pastor who asks a foreign businessman, accountant, teacher, and stay at home mother to help lead a book study together.  A year later they were actively engaged leaders in a social justice program they began.

What needs do you see in the communities you are doing ministry in?
How can you bring gifted and called folks together to learn about these ministries and begin to address some of the issues that arise?

Personally, one of the greatest needs in one of the communities I serve is having a safe place for children in the afternoon.  The church has created an after school program which is working to fill this need, with the help and support of many other agencies in the community.

Peace,
Erin

Rhythm of Life

For one of my classes we were assigned to construct a "Rule of Life".  Our group threw out the idea of a rhythm of life a little better than a rule... but anyway.  The idea comes from the Rule of St. Benedict, but many traditions follow this practice.  It's a way of committing to yourself and others you choose to help you be accountable a pattern of spiritual practices (disciplines) you feel called/drawn to during this season of your life.  They are often patterned off a scripture passage as well...

Here's mine! 

Rhythm of Life  

Season: Spring 2012

Walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing forbearance to one another in love, 3 being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Ecclesiastes 4: 1-3

At this time in my life I am being called and guided by God to GROW.  To honestly put more work into adding more structure (roots) to my life, my every day.  I recognize that in several different areas: 

Walking with God: 

-      * to walk with God, to be in relationship with God requires immersion in scripture, something my life has been lacking lately.  I would like to make a goal to read scripture (not for class) 5 days a week, particularly in the morning. 

-    *to focus on and purse my calling, recognizing and accepting it fully as where I need to be right now and dedicating the time necessary to work towards the steps of my education and ordination. (weekly) 

With humility, gentleness, and patience:

-      * by immersing myself daily in scripture I hope to reduce my personal stress and put more effort into bearing these fruits, and grow in humility through reflection and journaling each evening to process through the choices I made each day.

-      * by meditating at least 3 times a week to rest and be patient.

Love and Unity: 

-       *I will strive to be a connection and to share the love of God to everyone I have the opportunity to meet.  Specifically I want to be present in each conversation routine and meaningful, as well as mundane or new.  Each evening I will daily pray for others in my life. 

-      * I feel called to live simply, so that others may simply live.  To love my neighbors in such a way that I am an educated consumer and am tuned in to the hurting world around me and across the globe.

Wish me luck!  

your sister in Christ,
Erin 

Always learning, always growing, always challenged

Oh summer camp, how you consume my life for months and allow me to both be myself and stretch me in every way possible!  Oh God how you have given me this incredible blessing of summer camp, yet challenge me to never be still and comfortable!  Anyway - I'm hoping to share more here again on a regular basis now that it's almost September. 

Yet, I am turning to a new chapter in my life as well.  Since last January when I began working full time at camp, I have fully settled in here and LOVE my job.  This summer I had the opportunity to work with an amazing group of young people on staff and support them/challenge them/and see them grow.  I loved every minute of it (even if I didn't think so at the time) and I only hope that God continues to bless our camps and myself with many more years of summer camp!

However, now I will attempt work at camp (full time) with seminary (part time, and as much online as possible).  Yes friends.  I am starting.  Who knows how long it will take me to finish this way - but I love my job in ministry here and I don't want to quit to go to school to do what I'm already doing here!!!  I feel called to serve.  I have a heart for the church, yes I know that she has her flaws - but that's mostly because the church just like the world is full of people, and we are all flawed!  We hold grudges, we like our routines, we struggle with change, we judge each other, and we fail to reach out.  But I still love the church.  (And people in general).  Even after lots of reflection, I honestly don't think that my love of people solely rests upon my intense optimism, it rests upon my Lord and God.  It hasn't always been there.  Many people in my life have hurt me and I have been wounded in ways that don't tend to heal easily.  Yet behold the amazing power and love of God!  He can fill us all with his love for creation and his people.  There are so many others out there still hurting and struggling to simply provide for their families and live life.  Church - lets go to them and help!  In every way possible - from sharing our food to sharing our hearts and welcoming others into our places and spaces, making a home together. 

Never easy, this I know.  But church, I'm not backing down.  I love camp - but I love camp not just for the obvious beauty, but for the fact that camp is such an amazing place to embrace the wounded and nurture them until they are ready to go back out and into the world.  We all need to go.  Jesus makes that clear - "go out and make disciples".  No matter how much we love our churches, our families, and yes even camp - we need to go out into the world and share the love and light of God. 

So I'm going out to seminary.  To learn more to in turn teach more.  I'm ridiculously nervous about it and excited all at the same time.  A deacon.  Sigh.  Someday.  That is my calling, to the best of my understanding.  A deacon working at camp.  ?  Or at least a deacon working in the world. 

Prayers for the world,
prayers for our leaders,
prayers for new students.
Peace,
your sister in Christ ~Erin

Change the World

The United Methodist Church is sponsoring a day of volunteering around the globe.  Awesome!  This is the second year of this project and I'm excited about it. 

Get involved locally. 
Improve health globally.
Change the World. 

That's something I'm proud of coming out of our church.  :) 
The idea of the event is to challenge local congregations to partner with other groups in town and do some volunteer or service work.  If you would like to, they also encourage you to raise money for Imagine No Malaria.  (Related to Nothing But Nets - but do more than prevention - treatment, education, etc)

There are a lot of humanitarian organizations out there.  Some I agree with, some I am alittle leary of.  I do however appreciate the church (my church) getting out and doing something.  Not that they don't, there are many amazing programs happening on the local/conference/jurisdictional/etc level.  Prison ministries, homeless ministries, etc, but this is uniting, simple, and easy. 

That weekend my home church is coming to camp for a retreat.  Perhaps I'll talk them into a project somewhere.... :) 

What will you DO to change the world? 
Peace,
your sister in Christ~Erin

No more is the Land of Limbo!

I have been in the Land of Limbo for the majority of the last fall through January.  Sigh... not a comfortable and relaxing place to be!! 

But as do all good things, the time has come when more exciting and permanent things have come about!  I am now the Camp Assistant for the United Methodist Camps of Wisconsin.  I work back and forth at both Lake Lucerne and Pine Lake, while I am living on site at Pine Lake.  I assist with whatever is needed from taking care of animals, nature programming, helping with summer programming, typical office work, serving food/dishes, and hosting groups. 

In a lot of ways I can see myself here for a while.  (crossing my fingers!) 

So seminary, - I have still begun my ordination process and am planning on attending seminary and following my calling as a deacon.  Therefore I will begin school part time next fall as I maintain my full time job here.  Hopefully I will be able to do many of my classes online!  I am also looking at the possibility of taking the train down from Portage to Chicago when necessary.

Just some life details.  I love being at camp and getting to meet all sorts of wonderful people from all over the state.  It's also very relieving to have a "real" job again and be able to pay the bills.  I am still learning to put my trust in God, in good times and in Limbo Land.

God Bless you and yours,
your sister in Christ~Erin  

Rabbit Trails

I love the little things that color the world.  Little changes, unexpected, that draw your attention for maybe just a minute or a week... Rabbit Trails we call them sometimes (at staff meetings) and I am fully distracted by them!  All these little things, from blog posts to a radio bit, a comment from someone, a new book, just add a pop of color I didn't expect for my day.  It's fun. 

I know, I'm young.  I don't really know much.  Many days I feel starved for information, yet today- it's not hard to get.  (good sources a little trickery.. )  I can study Bonheoffer online, or contemplate how cool it would be if I could get birds to eat from my hand.  Yes, I know I'm alittle scattered, but it makes sense in my head - and God gave me this crazy head, so I've decided to embrace the way I think. 

Being young and not knowing nearly enough to really have my opinions... (ha - that doesn't stop me) I consistently attempt to listen first and speak later.  Difficult for me, I know.  But I also remind people that as I learn and grow my opinions and ideas will change.  Please have patience for me... and the rest of the human race. 

I just started reading an interesting book called "Black" - by Ted Dekker.  It took a while for me to get into it, but I loved it and am onto "Red"  the next book of the series.  There are great images of a loving God and a people fully in love with their creator.  Spending the better part of each day worshiping or preparing to worship.  The immense love felt by the characters is so touching. 

It's so much easier for me just to contemplate the ideology behind universalism and debate if it is "cheap grace" or not, than for me to really let my guard down and be wholely in love with the God who created me. 

So much easier to put down a book full of, in my head, rediculous oversimplistic claims of conservative evangelist Christianity and go volunteer at a local church and feel good about my social justice - than to really studying personally (not academically) the words of my God. 

Eh?  I dont' understand myself most days... but I'm glad I read.  Blogs, books, billboards... really it all adds fun color and random thoughts to each day helping me enjoy what has been created for me. 

Peace,
your sister in Christ~Erin

Songs of Christmas Past

Hello friends!  Christmas consumes all life!

I do very much miss easy internet access.  Sigh.  But there are other wonderful things in life.  Like Christmas!

So my pastor, knowing how much I love worship, asked me to put together the service for Sunday seeing that she is doing everything for all the Christmas eve services.  YES!  I miss putting services together...

So we are doing a history of christmas carols thing, and I think it will be awesome!  I got a bunch of instrumentalists (go instrumentalists!!!) to play the carols while someone is going to read a short paragraph I put together and then we all sing the first verse.  6 carols, lots of fun.

I just love Christmas, but interestingly enough I recently learned some people really do not.  I love the lights, the smells, the smiles, the decorations, and the SOUNDS!  So happy, filled with love.  But is it over commercialized and not really about Christ's birth?  Well... this is going to sound bad - but who cares?

I take the side of the sergeant in Guy's and Dolls when she finds out the reason all the gamblers are at the prayer meeting is that they lost a bet.  Isn't it wonderful that God can use anything to bring people the message of salvation?  We don't control when people are ready to hear the word - like the parable of the sower, we can't help it if people aren't ready to grow.  But I am grateful that this beautiful and wonderful season gives people the opportunity to (I know it doesn't happen in every household) hear the story of God coming to earth.  What they think of it I can't say.

All I know is that this time of year, more than any other, people are kinder to one another and I'm grateful.  Yes, I would love for that to continue throughout the year, but I'll take what I can get and keep on loving people.  I can only control myself and through the grace of God I will do my best.

I pray that you and your loved ones have a very happy and warm Christmas.  God Bless!

Your sister in Christ~Erin

Oh Books... how I love you!!!! (dreamy sigh....)

I LOVE to read.  Just in case you didn't know.  LOVE IT!

It's a retreat into another world - wonderful, colorful, and full of all kinds of emotion and adventure.  I just finished reading Eragon, Eldest, and Brigsinger only to find out that their is a fourth book that concludes the story but isn't out yet!!!

I just started The Time Traveler's Wife.  Oh my goodness... (happy sigh...)  fabulous.

I was having a conversation with my grandmother (- who is also a reader) about what it is we love about books.  I love the characters - how you can relate, or not, but exploring who they are as a person and why they choose to do what they do with the situations presented to them.  Grandma loves the plot.  Very different from the characters, the story itself not necessarily who is caught up in it.  Finding that out is wonderful insight to my grandmother and what makes us different.  =)

I love people.  Young people - old people.  People in general.  Thank you God for giving me a love of your people.  I think it's where most of my patience comes from.  At the heart of the matter I do believe people are good, even though many times their actions are bad.  Due to circumstances unknown people make a lot of choices that don't make sense or get frustrated, but when you get to know someone you learn all the wonderful things about them.  Their likes and dislikes, how to encourage them or how to make them angry.  The little things - it's what I love about people and in connection - reading about people.

Often quoted from the bible is the saying "We were created in God's image".  People I get.  God?  Not so easy.  I can't just go over to God's place and hang out, learn the things that make God happy, the way God likes a sandwich or just watch the general day to day life of what makes God - well, God.  I want to know more - and all my questions point me to the bible.  But it's not the same.  It's like reading the diary of your best friend and wanting them to be there telling you about it instead.

Yet I was wonderfully warmed by the beginning of The Time Traveler's Wife.  In a way, I felt like it related to my relationship with God.  Sometimes I feel God's presence.  Sometimes I don't.  Sometimes I feel like I know God is with me and where we are going and other times I am alone and lost.  And often it happens abruptly.  I pray for the strength to keep seeking God.  To read and learn more.  To continue to deepen that relationship.

I love to refer to God as "the lover of my soul".  Most day's I can't imagine how anyone who has really seen my soul and who I am can love me, yet I am loved.  Loved and accepted and encouraged.  I also know love isn't just a feeling, it's a choice.  Many times when I am reading stories of what God has done I don't love God - I hate God.  Sodom and Gomorra?  Even the battle of Jericho?  What about the people who lived in that city?  What about the babies of Bethlehem?  It's complicated I know - sometimes it's about human free will... but sometimes it seems like it's about punishment and vengeance.  I have this love for people - all people, not just Christians, not just "nice" people - but all people.  I think if you get to know someone you can find redeeming qualities and pain that causes things that you don't like.  But we are called to love our neighbors.  Everyone.

Faith, Hope, and Love.  I've seen that if I share love, I can give hope, and eventually help teach faith.  But in that order.  Love someone first.  Not just the people who love you.  Love all of God's children.  and love God - even when it isn't easy.

That doesn't mean not to ask questions.  Niether does it mean in this relationship I will always understand or get my way.  But if God can love me with my flaws, I won't give up on loving God and trying to learn more and continue to seek.

In peace and love,
your sister in Christ~Erin

Imagine a world...

Many people tell me I really only about 8 - or act like it many days.  I love to play pretend and color!  Even at work my favorite phrase starts with "Can we... "  I love to rearrange the furniture and change things up to keep it new and fresh.  Color, music, movement, and nothing for too long.  Imagination is a huge part of me.

Yet I am not always stuck in my 8 year old world.  None of us are.  Something makes all of us mature and grow up.  Sometimes we want it... sometimes we don't.  People say the world ages us.  We have all seen pictures of children who seem much older and wiser than their years.  It's the tough situations in life like poverty, hunger, violence, fear, anger, and injustice that age us.

Yet there are many of us who haven't experienced that side of life.  Imagine the college frat boy whose parents pay for college and spends more time partying than studying.  Now imagine the college boy who's father walked out on his pregnant mother before he was born who is working 4 jobs to support himself and his family as he goes through college.  Who is "older"?  Now imagine a 20 something old boy who is in a refugee camp trying to protect his family and get as much education as possible while being displaced and fighting for his daily needs.  Who is "older"?

It's often hard for me to connect to the stories and parables of Jesus.  I wonder what kind of a world he lived in.  Obviously not a world where he grew up going to public school and had his own personal computer to blog his thoughts out to the world and keep up with his friends on facebook.  The stories he tells relates to his life and the lives of the people similar to him.  The broad concepts relate to my life - struggling with money, struggling with sin, not wanting to love my neighbor.  And these are the ways the church and our church leaders teach us today.  Yet their are significant differences.

Social Justice is a concept many "religious" people grab onto and run with or run from.  For some it is what the gospel is all about.  For some it has nothing to do with the gospel and how dare you try to  make it.  I believe social justice is something Jesus was all about.

Love your neighbor.  Not just the one who lives next door or upstairs, but everyone on the planet.  Get to know people who are different than you.  A different race, culture, gender, religion.  Don't judge.  Share your beliefs and your belongings.  Take care of the widows, the orphans, and the sick.  Not just by throwing some money in a plate or towards a charity.  Go out and do it.  It can and may change your life.     That's what Jesus did.  He didn't give all his money to the synagogue  and work towards becoming the next "Nazareth's Carpenter of the Year".  Jesus went out and walked among God's children and told them that first - they were loved.  Second - they needed to follow him.

I read an amazing book (almost in one day!) by Barbara Kingsolver called "The Bean Trees".  It's an amazing story of a young girl whose goal is to get through high school without getting pregnant and make something of herself somewhere far away from home.  She ends up going from Kentucky to Arizona and along the way "inherits" a small child.  Once in Tucson she starts making a life for herself working at a tire repair shop that just also happens to be a safe house for Central American refugees.  In my eyes, it's a story of how Taylor Greer grows up.

My favorite line is during a conversation with a friend who happens to be a refugee from Guatemala who has experienced some awful things in his life.  After hearing his story Taylor says "I hate to say it, but I really don't know.  I can't even being to think about a world where people have to make choices like that."  Her friend replies - "You live in that world."

I live in that world.  We say it all the time, especially faced with something beyond words difficult, I can't imagine... what that would be like, or I can't imagine a world where that happens.

We don't have to imagine it.  It's here.  The question is what do we do about it.  What does our christian faith move in us to do about it?

Give.
Be there.
Go out and love people.

Not just go out and preach to people about how Jesus saves.  I mean, yes Jesus saves.  But if I was a widow walking to the drug store wondering about how I'm going to afford my medication and you handed me a pamphlet about God I might curse at you.  If you walked with me and became my friend, perhaps helped me with my paperwork for healthcare I would say "God Bless You"  and go to church if you invited me.

If I was a poor young adult struggling to find steady work to pay the bills and wondering what is good in this world and you tried to tell me Jesus was good I would ask you if he was hiring.

Meet basic needs.
Preserve human dignity.
Don't do it through a middle man - go out and make a friend.

The best way I know to not get lost in the imaginative world is to experience the real one.  Don't keep yourself in a pretty imaginative world were everyone has what they need.  Go out and live, love, and share the love of God.

In peace,
your sister in Christ~
Erin

I

Don't you just love it when you a reading a book and you completely agree with what the author is saying! Sometimes when I'm reading I feel like I'm learning, sometimes I am just being entertained by a good story, sometimes I get mad because I don't agree with the thoughts and ideas, occasionally however I completely agree!

As I am reading "Blue like jazz" the author comes to the conclusion that there is a problem with people.  In christian terminology we refer to this as being a "broken" people.  In life this represents our failures.  I am consistently 5-20 minutes late.   I get really excited and tend to interrupt others ALOT.  Laundry and I sit in our own corners and stare  - we'll see who wins.  I can't seem to shake my loneliness sometimes.  I am flawed; I am broken.

What's more though is that the world is broken.  In an incredibly insightful conversation with a friend, the author was confronted with his own humanity.  We are all humans and can do many things - some good, some horrific.  It is not difficult to look around and see the terrible things happening in our world, and often by humans to others.  "Are you capable of that (referring to murdering and raping people in the Congo)" - the authors friend asked.  Rock, meet hard place.  If I say no, I am saying that I am superior.  Therefore I must say yes, sigh - yikes.  The world is broken, and we are all involved and capable of breaking, and ... fixing?

Then the author comes to my favorite point in chapter 1 - I am the problem.  I am the problem.  I am selfish and self centered and hypocritical.  It is too hard for me to actually follow through with doing anything else.  I have to do what's good for me.  I don't have a choice - I need this.  Well at least I don't _______.  I am the problem.

I have been dancing around this idea trying to grasp my own understanding for some time now.  I am the problem in the world.  I like that.  Well, not that I want to be, but I love the honesty and fire it lights.  There is a combination of responsibility, privilege, consumerism, and selfishness I am trying to grasp.

For example, I am hungry - so I go to the grocery store and I buy some bread, salami (my favorite), cheese, melon, and a bar of chocolate.  I am privileged enough to go and buy those things that I like - even though some of them have traveled a long way to get to my plate here in Ohio.  Do I have a responsibility to my brothers and sisters around the world? - perhaps instead of buying a Nestle or a Hershey's chocolate bar I can buy one that is fair trade (like coffee).  Don't I have a responsibility to be an informed and good consumer?  However that is complicated, difficult, and I just want my lunch.  So salami sandwich (I have no idea about the quality of this meat and or the chemicals in it...) grill in my sandwich maker so I can have what I want.

Yes, I am the problem.

But I can help.  It takes time, knowledge, and I will mess up.  But I have to care.  I have to know where my food, my clothes, my money goes to support.  It is my responsibility.  So -

Little things I can do:
- be a chocolate snob (thanks Molly McKay!) buy organic fairly traded chocolate - it's better!
- look for local markets for produce
- buy things in season so they don't have to be shipped to you across the planet (bananas in Feb in Ohio)
- know your butcher and where your meat comes from
- research brands and companies - clothing, shoes, stores
- be picky and willing to spend a little more to make a difference for someone you'll never know
- share good food/clothes/information with your friends
- buy local - shop at the little stores and boycott the box stores whenever possible

Gotta love Ghandi -
"Be the change you want to see in the world."

I am capable of atrocities.  I am also capable of love.

In peace with love,
your sister in Christ~Erin

100 People Who Changed the World #1

1.  Jesus Christ
Ah!  Love it.  So I was looking around for some info on the wonderful world wide web, and stumbled across a site with biographies for the worlds top 100 People who "Changed the World" and was interested.  Number 1 on the list - God.  Awesome.

So I feel like this is cheating a bit... but here's some of their info from the bio:

A key characterist of Jesus's teachings are an emphasis on forgiveness and unconditional love. These represented a departure from the old scriptures which emphasised an eye for an eye. Jesus taught his followers to 'love their enemy' and 'turn the other cheek'

"But I tell you not to resist an evildoer. On the contrary, whoever slaps you on the right cheek, turn the other to him as well." - Matthew 5:39

"Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you". (Matthew 5:38-44)

Jesus Christ also taught that the Kingdom of heaven was within. To attain this state he taught it was important to be willing to give up attachment to the world and maintain humility and simplicity - to be like a child.

"The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, `Lo, here it is!' or `There!' for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you (or "within you") Luke 17:20

It was the radical nature of his teachings and a growing following which aroused the suspicions of the authorities.

Jesus was also known as a healer. The gospels recount many miracles where Jesus was able to heal the sick and even resurect the dead (Lazarus)

Teacher.  

Healer. 

Radical.  

#1 Person Who Changed the World

Dear Lord, I can never thank you enough for your presence in my life.  Please help me to live the life of a disciple, to be like Jesus and change the world for you.  The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand... we can love.  As we approach valentines day I ask that you open the hearts of your children to reach out and share your love with someone we typically would not.  Forgive me, your child, for my sinful nature and be my guide as I strive to live my life for you.  Amen