Following up from the recent entry about laptops for the poor...

How do you bring the Internet to countries like Mali, where more than 70 percent of the population is illiterate and the telecommunications infrastructure barely exists?

You use the radio.

This is an interesting article on helping bring appropriate communication technology to places that are extremely poor.

The complicating issues are how to evaluate and stay with the boundaries of keeping it appropriate technology.

And as Christians, it's important that we don't become absorbed in the delivery of technology for technology's sake, but rather for Jesus' sake.

We should become involved in initiatives like this if and because they empower people's lives, they help to lift people out of poverty, in a way that Jesus would commend. And that along the way

Any geeks out there with skills to use in this area, and willing to go to remote places to put your skills to work?

How do you balance this tension between technology and the digital divide, yet staying focused on really meeting the needs of the whole person?

Anyone thinking about going to Mali? Maybe you're there now, reading this... 

 

BBC's website has an interesting story about a woman named Girija Devi from the "untouchable" lowest social caste in India who has decided to make some waves.

She got fed up with poverty and being beaten by her husband who was an alcoholic, presumably out of depression from poverty. So she took action. Her efforts so far have led to 125 villages becoming "alcohol free" and a number of economic improvements with which the local government otherwise might not have been bothered.

Next week this woman will be speaking at the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affair's "50th Commission on the status of women."

The BBC article does not say what motivates this woman, whether faith or desperation or intolerance for the position of her people. 99% of the Musahir people in the state of Bihar are illiterate; 98% do not own any land.

There is a rapidly growing church among the untouchables of India, who have found dignity in the fact that Jesus created, loves, and embraces every single person because each one is made in the image of God. This Christian community faces a lot of social, political, and spiritual opposition. They really need the prayers of the rest of the worldwide church.

Jesus ignored society's qualms about "untouchable" people and so should we if we want to follow Jesus, who literally went out of his way to touch the untouchable.

But this can be really hard, and it involves sacrifice and risk!

In Jesus' day these included lepers, blind and crippled people, demon possessed, prostitutes, money swindlers, and "sinners" in general. (If you think of yourself as not-a-sinner it's apparently easy to point out the riffraff who are.)

In our day, the "untouchable" people who we might befriend and TOUCH and love in Jesus' name include those with HIV/AIDS; prisoners; those in extreme poverty; drug addicts; prostitutes; homosexuals, who have gotten the message that they are unwelcome in most churches; Muslims, many of whom are broadly associated with terrorism or extremism; atheists, with whom we don't know what to do; those who hate and those who are violent; those from a different (higher or lower) social class than we, even in our own society; Republicans or Democrats, with whom we may want nothing to do; those who are of another race, around whom we might feel uncomfortable. And there are those who are estranged from the church because of negative experiences. They might even feel untouchable.

There's no lack of "untouchables" among us, even in the United States, for a number of reasons which are not sanctioned by nor legitimate within the Kingdom of God.

Who are the people in your community that you would hesitate to engage with?

I encourage people to pray about this question and then be silent and listen for God's advice about the right thing to do. The only thing I can more or less guarantee is that God's leading will probably in some way be outside our comfort zone at first. Our "comfort zone" of people we don't mind rubbing shoulders with is itself a sinful barricade between us and the people Jesus loves.

Pray for Girija Devi and other women and men like her who would say "enough is enough" and take risks to bring about reform and respect for the dignity of human life in their societies. Pray for the work of God in their hearts. This kind of transformation of the whole person and whole society is literally "thy kingdom come on earth, as it is in heaven," just like Jesus taught us to pray.

Happy Valentines Day! When I stop to think of it, it's fascinating that our society takes a pause to celebrate love and human relationships.

In the middle of the third century, as several wars were underway, Claudius II of Rome temporarily banned engagements and marriages, to preserve the availability of young soldiers for war. This man was an Anti-Valentine before his time.

As tradition tells it, the priest Saint Valentine was ignoring the law and secretly marrying couples in small, candlelit rooms. He was caught and sentenced to death. As he awaited his punishment he got to know the young daughter of the prison guard, who allowed her to visit the prison occasionally.

Saint Valentine was killed on February 14, 269 A.D., but he had left a note for the guard's daughter, signed, "Love from your Valentine."

(Give us a little time and we'll figure out a way to associate chocolate with all of this. No complaints.)

This tragic story of Valentine reminds me of the love of another man three centuries earlier, who was unjustly killed for doing the right thing, against the priorities of people who loved the wrong things.

Jesus' loving words at the end of his life were "Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they are doing."

Today let's not limit our remembrance of love to human relationships. Let's remember love in it's full context.

For God so loved the world...

Among other gods, the emphasis that God is love and is the source of love might be the most unique characteristic of the God of the Bible, the God who created the miraculous world around us, the God who sent Jesus to become flesh and worse, on our behalf.

I mean this as a statement of fact, not some "my god is better than your god" stance. Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, and Buddhism, from my understanding, do not share this emphasis.

God has revealed deep and sacrificial love as a central theme throughout the Bible, a central part of who God is.

While human love tends to stray off to unintended directions, God has redefined love and eventually demonstrated it in the birth, life, teaching, example, sacrificial death, and resurrection of Jesus.

This is a mystery if I ever heard one.

The deeper the mystery, the more likely it will only be understood by those who really decide to learn about it. The spiritual term for this is faith -- choosing to believe based on knowing a little bit, even before the mystery has become fully understood.

In fact, in this life, God's love won't ever be fully understood. But we can strive toward that.

Paul wrote this to the Ephesians (3:17-19)

I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge -- that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Love that surpasses knowledge -- not completely out of our reach, but at the same time there's a lot more to Christ's love than the low hanging fruit we are able to grasp in this life. That's OK.

How do we love our selves? As God loves us?

How do we love our neighbor? Do we go out of our way?

How do we love our God? With all our heart, soul, and mind?

How do we love God's world? With prayer, learning, participation, and advocacy for the things we know God cares about?

Do people who know us experience at least some of God's love in knowing us?

The best way to love someone is to invite them to take steps closer to God as we journey along with them. This is true of romantic love, friendship, parent-child relationships, and loving people who we could easily avoid by crossing the street. It's even true of loving the poor.

Before we were capable of love, God loved us; we can love because we are made in God's image.

Would we love to the point that we risk our very lives, as did Jesus, or Saint Valentine for that matter?

Happy Valentines Day!

Loving the poor is in some ways more complicated in the 21st century than any time before. Here's why.

A helpful definition of poverty is a lack of options.

Almost without exception, people who live in poverty do not have an alternative, and on a daily basis they try to survive with extremely limited options for food, water, clothing, shelter, healthcare, education, employment, economic opportunity, and basic enjoyment of life.

They have not opted in to their poverty and they cannot opt out of it.

So in 2006, how would we help the poor that Jesus talks about in Matthew 25, or whom he befriended and loved throughout all the gospel narratives? One of the ways is to share the complete good news of Jesus, in word and in deed.

To empower the life of a poor person in today's world means in part to help provide the means to lift themselves out of poverty.

In a world where information has become so important, one of the ways to help people is to equip them with access to information, education, and the world's increasingly interconnected economy.

Technology can arguably help accomplish that goal, although it certainly has its downsides.

A recent initiative has a growing momentum, to design and create a laptop for the unprecedented low price of $100, specifically to provide these to the world's poor.

These laptops won't be purchased by the poor, they will be purchased by governments, with a minimum order of one million units. I won't get into the program or the laptop itself in detail, you can read about it in several news articles.

Now, if you barely survive on less than $1-2 per day, as is the case for over half of the people in our world today, it's worth asking the question, do you really need a laptop more than you need food, shelter, and clothing?

And maybe still topping the Christmas wishlist might be basic healthcare, education, and a source of daily income, before it's time to fire up a computer for whatever purpose.

While it takes a back seat to basic necessities of life, the "digital divide" is a serious challenge and an important disadvantage among the world's poor. Technology and specifically the internet can offer a huge number of opportunities for people to equip themselves with tools and understanding that break through their class constraints, their lack of options, their rut of poverty.

Now for the downside: wherever it goes, into societies that were formerly "undeveloped" or "developing," (the irony of the words) technology almost always brings with it external cultural values, forms, and expressions, not all of which are positive.

In fact many of these values and expressions, while they may be enticing and attractive, are harmful to the "developing" nations that receive them along with the benefits of the technology. This is true especially of communications technology, and the internet is the prime example.

This is why many societies are struggling with how to become more connected to the global economy and information infrastructure, without opening wide the floodgates to negative cultural influences and "freedom of information" (for example the hate speech, pornography, violence, and material greed that can so easily proliferate).

I applaud this $100 laptop initiative and what it could mean for many of the world's poorest nations if it materializes. But I am also very hesitant, because I've seen and lived in societies that couldn't handle the flood of baggage that arrived along with the technology, especially in such a short amount of time.

So this is one example of what I mean by the first sentence above. We are called to love and serve the poor, no question. When the apparent means to do that includes some things that will expose societies in new ways to powerful negative influences, it gives me pause.

Proverbs, by definition, can be guilty of oversimplification, but they do communicate truth.

Proverbs 28:27 says:
He who gives to the poor will lack nothing, but he who closes his eyes to them receives many curses.

And serving the poor is not just about economics, somehow striving to modernize their lives or inject technology as some saviour. Serving the poor is about sacrificial love of the whole person, the way Jesus modeled and taught us to imitate. We can't fully love the poor if we are not in relationship with them as individuals and communities.

1 Corinthians 13:3 says:
If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

There's a very good article on BBC's website about emergency food aid in Africa, its short-term and long-term impact on individual economies and the complicated hurdles involved.

Here's the article, and a variety of thoughtful reader responses.

This is a catch-22 if there ever was one.

When famine is approaching or has arrived in a place, people need nutrition and clean water, period. In that focused moment their immediate need for mere survival is not better infrastructure, better economies, better government services, water and soil engineering, seeds, farming tools, better leadership or better trade relationships with international markets.

In the medium- and long-term however, these things are absolutely needed to prevent a repeat of the same emergency. Proactive development and systemic change is needed (long-term) as well as reactive relief (emergency, short-term).

And the BBC article makes the point, that in some ways the very deliverance of emergency aid can prolong and even reenforce some of the stubborn obstacles to self sufficiency of the people.

If the root causes of poverty and hunger remain, they will continue to produce poverty and hunger.

If you believe as I do that the root cause of poverty and hunger is sinfulness then the outlook is not very bright. We're not on the cusp of eliminating sinfulness from our world, or any one of us from our own life. And in case we're tempted to think otherwise, remember that this sinfulness is on the part of all people and all nations, not just those experiencing poverty and hunger.

But we're not called to respond to the needs of the poor on the basis of whether or not the outlook is bright. We're called to do so out of compassion, love, mercy, obedience, and joyfulness.

It's a justice issue between us and God. God watches to see what we -- all of us -- are made of. When we rise to the occasion, that is beautiful worship. When we turn inward, seeking our own comfort and well-being over the survival of others, that is sinfulness.

In Philippians 2, Paul instructs:
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus... (read the rest...)

We're called to align our hearts with God's love for the world, so that we act out of sacrificial compassion in all that we do, not just when it's Christmas time or when there is an emergency crisis.

Oh, I wish I knew better how to do this day in and day out. Have you figured out parts of how to do this, over the long haul, and not just in theory?

The self-centered choices we make have concentric circles of effects on others, including people on the other side of the world. Many decades ago that may not have been so much the case, but in the interdependent world of 2006 it really is the case.

What's not so clear is how to measure those effects, nor how to make consistent choices that result only in the desired positive impacts on others, and no negative impacts. It is virtually impossible under the web of globalization to be 100% consistent in these ways.

How do we measure the sins of our generation, and how they will be visited on future generations?

What can we do to be light and salt instead?

Without implying that most of us should become relief and development experts or begin working for an NGO, the challenges for those who follow Jesus in this day are many. Here are a few ways to meet them:

• educate ourselves enough to support and hold our governments accountable to responsible actions that help, not hurt, the poor -- those nearby and those around the world.
• support agencies who are working with poor communities in need for proactive long-term collaborative development. 
• make personal choices about consumption and giving that align with what the Bible teaches us, not what our culture teaches us.
• intentionally place ourselves in community with other followers of Jesus and provide healthy accountability for one another.
• involve ourselves personally in some way, even a small way, that puts us in relationship with people who are poor, so that we can learn from them and build trust as we serve each other. (The poor have a lot to offer those who are not poor! What is lacking is the relationship.)
• set small, specific, achievable goals, one at a time, and meet them, then set another.
  
• adopt a lifestyle of prayer that depends on and invites God's power into hopeless situations, especially where it has become clear that our human efforts will not cut it
• help people take steps closer to God; warmly invite people to try following Jesus.
  

In our families and friendships, we should talk about our response to poverty and hunger often, because these issues are a part of our local and global realities. We are not islands, even when we choose in our sinfulness to pretend that is the case. What is needed is deep change that fosters the healthy interdependence of every person and community in every part of the world.

We can't pull this off but God could. It's the kind of community that Jesus built around him, and it's the way he interacted with the social outcasts and most needy people of his day.

Jesus taught us to ask of God, "may your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven." This invites us to anticipate from and work with God for all the principles that we understand to be true of God's ideal (heaven), while we live in the real (earth).

It's understandable, in our humanity, that we might be vulnerable to compassion fatigue. If our response to human need is just on a human level rather than out of God's strength, we're much more susceptible. If we repeatedly put this out of our minds in between crises, we are perpetuating rather than solving the problems.

And last but not least, we need to remember as we learn, serve, and give out of the compassion that Jesus gives us for his creation, that the body will die and the physical world will come to an end some day. The sanctity of human life is important but even more important is the spirit of each human being, created in God's image.

While mouths are fed and the sanctity of human life is upheld, we must not lose sight of the need to facilitate the journey of each child of God toward restored relationship with his or her creator. This is not programmatic or formulaic, it is organic. It can't be charted and numbered. It can't be force-fed. It involves building trust and sharing the journey in relationship.

Changed hearts will share rather than hoard; changed hearts will sacrifice for others rather than looking to self interest first; changed hearts will refuse to tolerate injustice; changed hearts will be moved to action out of compassion; changed hearts will risk things that aren't worth much anyway for things that matter more to God.

So is aid good or bad? Yes. Is emergency relief or longterm development more important in empowering the poor? Yes. Is helping the poor lift out of poverty a worthy way to spend our energy and creativity, more so that travelling to outer space or arguing about the origin of our species? Yes. 

Bono gave a very powerful address at the National Prayer Breakfast last Thursday.

It doesn't need much introduction. It doesn't ask for anything absurd or extreme. It's not partisan, and it's not conservative or liberal. It does make a good case, and the underlying rationale is from the gospel.

Bono, Address to National Prayer Breakfast
Feb. 2, 2006

If you're wondering what I'm doing here, at a prayer breakfast, well, so am I. I'm certainly not here as a man of the cloth, unless that cloth is leather. It's certainly not because I'm a rock star. Which leaves one possible explanation: I'm here because I've got a messianic complex.

Yes, it's true. And for anyone who knows me, it's hardly a revelation.

Well, I'm the first to admit that there's something unnatural...something unseemly...about rock stars mounting the pulpit and preaching at presidents, and then disappearing to their villas in the south of France. Talk about a fish out of water. It was weird enough when Jesse Helms showed up at a U2 concert...but this is really weird, isn't it?

You know, one of the things I love about this country is its separation of church and state. Although I have to say: in inviting me here, both church and state have been separated from something else completely: their mind.

Mr. President, are you sure about this?

It's very humbling and I will try to keep my homily brief. But be warned - I'm Irish.

I'd like to talk about the laws of man, here in this city where those laws are written. And I'd like to talk about higher laws. It would be great to assume that the one serves the other; that the laws of man serve these higher laws...but of course, they don't always. And I presume that, in a sense, is why you're here.

I presume the reason for this gathering is that all of us here - Muslims, Jews, Christians - all are searching our souls for how to better serve our family, our community, our nation, our God.

I know I am. Searching, I mean. And that, I suppose, is what led me here, too.

Yes, it's odd, having a rock star here - but maybe it's odder for me than for you. You see, I avoided religious people most of my life. Maybe it had something to do with having a father who was Protestant and a mother who was Catholic in a country where the line between the two was, quite literally, a battle line. Where the line between church and state was...well, a little blurry, and hard to see.

I remember how my mother would bring us to chapel on Sundays... and my father used to wait outside. One of the things that I picked up from my father and my mother was the sense that religion often gets in the way of God.

For me, at least, it got in the way. Seeing what religious people, in the name of God, did to my native land...and in this country, seeing God's second-hand car salesmen on the cable TV channels, offering indulgences for cash...in fact, all over the world, seeing the self-righteousness roll down like a mighty stream from certain corners of the religious establishment...

I must confess, I changed the channel. I wanted my MTV.

Even though I was a believer.

Perhaps because I was a believer.

I was cynical...not about God, but about God's politics. (There you are, Jim.)

Then, in 1997, a couple of eccentric, septuagenarian British Christians went and ruined my shtick - my reproachfulness. They did it by describing the millennium, the year 2000, as a Jubilee year, as an opportunity to cancel the chronic debts of the world's poorest people. They had the audacity to renew the Lord's call - and were joined by Pope John Paul II, who, from an Irish half-Catholic's point of view, may have had a more direct line to the Almighty.

'Jubilee' - why 'Jubilee'?

What was this year of Jubilee, this year of our Lord's favor?

I'd always read the scriptures, even the obscure stuff. There it was in Leviticus (25:35)...

'If your brother becomes poor,' the scriptures say, 'and cannot maintain himself...you shall maintain him.... You shall not lend him your money at interest, not give him your food for profit.'

It is such an important idea, Jubilee, that Jesus begins his ministry with this. Jesus is a young man, he's met with the rabbis, impressed everyone, people are talking. The elders say, he's a clever guy, this Jesus, but he hasn't done much...yet. He hasn't spoken in public before...

When he does, is first words are from Isaiah: 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,' he says, 'because He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.' And Jesus proclaims the year of the Lord's favour, the year of Jubilee (Luke 4:18).

What he was really talking about was an era of grace - and we're still in it.

So fast-forward 2,000 years. That same thought, grace, was made incarnate - in a movement of all kinds of people. It wasn't a bless-me club... it wasn't a holy huddle. These religious guys were willing to get out in the streets, get their boots dirty, wave the placards, follow their convictions with actions...making it really hard for people like me to keep their distance. It was amazing. I almost started to like these church people.

But then my cynicism got another helping hand.

It was what Colin Powell, a five-star general, called the greatest W.M.D. of them all: a tiny little virus called AIDS. And the religious community, in large part, missed it. The ones that didn't miss it could only see it as divine retribution for bad behaviour. Even on children...even [though the] fastest growing group of HIV infections were married, faithful women.

Aha, there they go again! I thought to myself judgmentalism is back!

But in truth, I was wrong again. The church was slow but the church got busy on this the leprosy of our age.

Love was on the move.

Mercy was on the move.

God was on the move.

Moving people of all kinds to work with others they had never met, never would have cared to meet...conservative church groups hanging out with spokesmen for the gay community, all singing off the same hymn sheet on AIDS...soccer moms and quarterbacks...hip-hop stars and country stars. This is what happens when God gets on the move: crazy stuff happens!

Popes were seen wearing sunglasses!

Jesse Helms was seen with a ghetto blaster!

Crazy stuff. Evidence of the spirit.

It was breathtaking. Literally. It stopped the world in its tracks.

When churches started demonstrating on debt, governments listened - and acted. When churches starting organising, petitioning, and even - that most unholy of acts today, God forbid, lobbying...on AIDS and global health, governments listened - and acted.

I'm here today in all humility to say: you changed minds; you changed policy; you changed the world.

Look, whatever thoughts you have about God, who He is or if He exists, most will agree that if there is a God, He has a special place for the poor. In fact, the poor are where God lives.

Check Judaism. Check Islam. Check pretty much anyone.

I mean, God may well be with us in our mansions on the hill. I hope so. He may well be with us as in all manner of controversial stuff. Maybe, maybe not. But the one thing we can all agree, all faiths and ideologies, is that God is with the vulnerable and poor.

God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house. God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives. God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war. God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them. "If you remove the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness, and if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness and your gloom with become like midday and the Lord will continually guide you and satisfy your desire in scorched places."

It's not a coincidence that in the scriptures, poverty is mentioned more than 2,100 times. It's not an accident. That's a lot of air time, 2,100 mentions. (You know, the only time Christ is judgmental is on the subject of the poor.) 'As you have done it unto the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me' (Matthew 25:40). As I say, good news to the poor.

Here's some good news for the president. After 9/11 we were told America would have no time for the world's poor. America would be taken up with its own problems of safety. And it's true these are dangerous times, but America has not drawn the blinds and double-locked the doors.

In fact, you have doubled aid to Africa. You have tripled funding for global health. Mr. President, your emergency plan for AIDS relief and support for the Global Fund - you and Congress - have put 700,000 people onto life-saving anti-retroviral drugs and provided 8 million bed nets to protect children from malaria.

Outstanding human achievements. Counterintuitive. Historic. Be very, very proud.

But here's the bad news. From charity to justice, the good news is yet to come. There is much more to do. There's a gigantic chasm between the scale of the emergency and the scale of the response.

And finally, it's not about charity after all, is it? It's about justice.

Let me repeat that: It's not about charity, it's about justice.

And that's too bad.

Because you're good at charity. Americans, like the Irish, are good at it. We like to give, and we give a lot, even those who can't afford it.

But justice is a higher standard. Africa makes a fool of our idea of justice; it makes a farce of our idea of equality. It mocks our pieties, it doubts our concern, it questions our commitment.

Sixty-five hundred Africans are still dying every day of a preventable, treatable disease, for lack of drugs we can buy at any drug store. This is not about charity, this is about justice and equality.

Because there's no way we can look at what's happening in Africa and, if we're honest, conclude that deep down, we really accept that Africans are equal to us. Anywhere else in the world, we wouldn't accept it. Look at what happened in South East Asia with the tsunami. 150,000 lives lost to that misnomer of all misnomers, "mother nature." In Africa, 150,000 lives are lost every month. A tsunami every month. And it's a completely avoidable catastrophe.

It's annoying but justice and equality are mates. Aren't they? Justice always wants to hang out with equality. And equality is a real pain.

You know, think of those Jewish sheep-herders going to meet the Pharaoh, mud on their shoes, and the Pharaoh says, "Equal?" A preposterous idea: rich and poor are equal? And they say, "Yeah, 'equal,' that's what it says here in this book. We're all made in the image of God."

And eventually the Pharaoh says, "OK, I can accept that. I can accept the Jews - but not the blacks."

"Not the women. Not the gays. Not the Irish. No way, man."

So on we go with our journey of equality.

On we go in the pursuit of justice.

We hear that call in the ONE Campaign, a growing movement of more than 2 million Americans...Left and Right together... united in the belief that where you live should no longer determine whether you live.

We hear that call even more powerfully today, as we mourn the loss of Coretta Scott King - mother of a movement for equality, one that changed the world but is only just getting started. These issues are as alive as they ever were; they just change shape and cross the seas.

Preventing the poorest of the poor from selling their products while we sing the virtues of the free market...that's a justice issue. Holding children to ransom for the debts of their grandparents...that's a justice issue. Withholding life-saving medicines out of deference to the Office of Patents...that's a justice issue.

And while the law is what we say it is, God is not silent on the subject.

That's why I say there's the law of the land?. And then there is a higher standard. There's the law of the land, and we can hire experts to write them so they benefit us, so the laws say it's OK to protect our agriculture but it's not OK for African farmers to do the same, to earn a living?

As the laws of man are written, that's what they say.

God will not accept that.

Mine won't, at least. Will yours?

[ pause]

I close this morning on...very...thin...ice.

This is a dangerous idea I've put on the table: my God vs. your God, their God vs. our God...vs. no God. It is very easy, in these times, to see religion as a force for division rather than unity.

And this is a town - Washington - that knows something of division.

But the reason I am here, and the reason I keep coming back to Washington, is because this is a town that is proving it can come together on behalf of what the scriptures call the least of these.

This is not a Republican idea. It is not a Democratic idea. It is not even, with all due respect, an American idea. Nor it is unique to any one faith.

'Do to others as you would have them do to you' (Luke 6:30). Jesus says that.

'Righteousness is this: that one should...give away wealth out of love for him to the near of kin and the orphans and the needy and the wayfarer and the beggars and for the emancipation of the captives.' The Koran says that (2.177).

Thus sayeth the Lord: 'Bring the homeless poor into the house, when you see the naked, cover him, then your light will break out like the dawn and your recovery will speedily spring fourth, then your Lord will be your rear guard.' The Jewish scripture says that. Isaiah 58 again.

That is a powerful incentive: 'The Lord will watch your back.' Sounds like a good deal to me, right now.

A number of years ago, I met a wise man who changed my life. In countless ways, large and small, I was always seeking the Lord's blessing. I was saying, you know, I have a new song, look after it?. I have a family, please look after them?. I have this crazy idea...

And this wise man said: stop.

He said, stop asking God to bless what you're doing.

Get involved in what God is doing - because it's already blessed.

Well, God, as I said, is with the poor. That, I believe, is what God is doing.

And that is what he's calling us to do.

I was amazed when I first got to this country and I learned how much some churchgoers tithe. Up to 10% of the family budget. Well, how does that compare with the federal budget, the budget for the entire American family? How much of that goes to the poorest people in the world? Less than 1%.

Mr. President, Congress, people of faith, people of America:

I want to suggest to you today that you see the flow of effective foreign assistance as tithing.... Which, to be truly meaningful, will mean an additional 1% of the federal budget tithed to the poor.

What is 1%?

1% is not merely a number on a balance sheet.

1% is the girl in Africa who gets to go to school, thanks to you. 1% is the AIDS patient who gets her medicine, thanks to you. 1% is the African entrepreneur who can start a small family business thanks to you. 1% is not redecorating presidential palaces or money flowing down a rat hole. This 1% is digging waterholes to provide clean water.

1% is a new partnership with Africa, not paternalism toward Africa, where increased assistance flows toward improved governance and initiatives with proven track records and away from boondoggles and white elephants of every description.

America gives less than 1% now. We're asking for an extra 1% to change the world. to transform millions of lives - but not just that and I say this to the military men now - to transform the way that they see us.

1% is national security, enlightened economic self-interest, and a better, safer world rolled into one. Sounds to me that in this town of deals and compromises, 1% is the best bargain around.

These goals - clean water for all; school for every child; medicine for the afflicted, an end to extreme and senseless poverty - these are not just any goals; they are the Millennium Development goals, which this country supports. And they are more than that. They are the Beatitudes for a globalised world.

Now, I'm very lucky. I don't have to sit on any budget committees. And I certainly don't have to sit where you do, Mr. President. I don't have to make the tough choices.

But I can tell you this:

To give 1% more is right. It's smart. And it's blessed.

There is a continent - Africa - being consumed by flames.

I truly believe that when the history books are written, our age will be remembered for three things: the war on terror, the digital revolution, and what we did - or did not to - to put the fire out in Africa.

History, like God, is watching what we do.

Thank you. Thank you, America, and God bless you all.

 

 

I wish the extreme makeover of Hamas were more real than the plastic so-called "extreme makeover" of TV fiction, but this particular makeover has not yet been scripted.

It has, however, been given a primetime slot on the world stage, even if prematurely, by the elections a couple weeks ago that surprisingly gave Hamas the majority of seats in parliament.

As we've seen with our own (U.S.) government's support for chosen "allies" in various parts of the world who later (who'da thunkit?) morphed into some of our staunchest enemies, Israel actually used to give financial support to Hamas as a counterbalance to the PLO.

My main memory of Hamas is the group that repeatedly claimed responsibility for suicide bomb attacks against Israeli civilians.

Note to self: be careful when wishing for democracy in the Middle East, you might get more than you bargained for.

It has yet to be seen whether Hamas will "stick to their guns" so to speak, with the sworn eradication of the state of Israel, or reinvent themselves to become a political party that could realistically lead and serve the Palestinian people responsibly, and interact with other governments around the world.

This win of the parliamentary election looks like Hamas may have bitten off more than they intended to chew. Like a kid that itches to be independent but the day comes sooner than expected, bringing with it uncomfortable feelings of inadequacy and ill preparation.

By winning a majority of parliament, Hamas has been put in a position where it needs to actually run a government and serve the people.

Hamas' roots are terrorism. Governing the people was not on their CV, not even on page two.

I wonder what the average Palestinian Christian is thinking about what this change will mean. I don't know if he's average but here's one Palestinian Lutheran pastor's thoughts about what this means.

It's hard to imagine how Christian Palestinians would be represented by a government controlled by a militant Islamic group. They (Palestinians and Arab Christians among them) are basically refugees to begin with, but now under the leadership of a group that has no history of responsible political leadership.

Christians around the world should prayerfully keep a close eye on how the PA treats Palestinian Christians, just as much as we need to hold Palestinians and Israelis (citizens and governments) accountable, in my opinion, to continue toward the formal existence of two peaceful states.

Justice is not all about how Christians are treated, of course. It's about how all human beings are treated with sanctity and dignity of life created by God. It's about how governments serve their people rather than themselves, choosing peaceful paths rather than violence.

Hamas has a long row to hoe, and if it's going to hoe it had better beat some swords into plowshares.

Pray for the hearts of Muslim leaders in Hamas who have decisions to make about their priorities and allegiance! They have foolish paths and decisions of the past to reconsider and redirect. I've faced this, have you?

Pray for God's spirit to break their hatred and replace it with compassion and a thirst for truth.

Do you think God would answer our diligent prayers for this to happen among Hamas leadership? Do we still pray for miracles? Could WE persuade GOD to do what GOD already wants to do, from what we know about this God from our history?