Had the chance to sit down with Sandra B. from radio 105.9FM in London, Ontario. Sandra, her friend Clay and I got to hang out at their studio and talk on air about all sorts of what nots. I really enjoyed talking with them (we talked just a much off air as we did on air).
OK, time to drive to Ontario. I’m sure there’s a Tim Horton’s somewhere I can snag a cup of coffee. Why don’t we have Tim Horton’s in Philly? Too bad for us.
Well we made our way from Canada back down to Illinois. A home was opened up to us. The Haw parents welcomed us into their house and gave us some long awaited rest and family hospitality. Our stay there went by quickly and we hit the trail again en route for Cornerstone. The festival was full of all sorts of faces and fashions. The music could be heard from onstage to side stage to main stage. I’ve read when two or more gather in His name, He is there — but what happens when 20,000 or more gather? After a day of festivities we, once again, saddled up inside our little vehicle and spent the day with Colorado on our minds. After a few thunder storms and endless corn fields we arrive, in the middle of the night, to another home filled with family and friends. A couple days in the mountains should be refreshing.
Flint, MI, came to the attention of the American public as a result of the
1989 release of the acclaimed film, “Roger & Me”, directed by Michael
Moore. Since then Moore has featured Flint in his other films, “Bowling for
Columbine” and “Fahrenheit 9/11″. Flint is struggling with de-population, a
declining tax base, aging infrastructure, and dissension over public school
policies. The Democratic-nominee, Barrack Obama, visited Flint, MI on his
trail for support during the nomination process. *USA Today* quoted him as
saying, “Here in Flint, it was the private sector that helped turn lumber
into the wagons that sent this country west; that built the tanks that faced
down fascism; and that turned out the automobiles that were the cornerstone
of America’s manufacturing boom.” It was also pointed out that the
metropolitan area had a seasonally unadjusted April unemployment rate of
9.3%. The number of Flint-area automotive workers fell from 79,000 in 1976
to around 12,000 now, said Genesee County Democratic Party Chairman Dan
Kildee. As we drove through town you could see the shells of old businesses
now with boarded windows. Many homes are left empty and crumbling. Even
many of the shops of down town Flint remained closed and unable to support
employees. It appears even now, 19 years since the Michael Moore’s film and
even longer since the downsizing of GM and other large corporations, Flint
has still yet to find the way to recovery.
So, Canada. Toronto to be exact. We crossed the border with minimal difficulty. Although the question was brought up, “Have any of you guys been arrested?” To which we replied, “Um… arrested?” We defaulted to answering questions with questions. After a bit more in depth explanation of our legal histories the Canadian border patrol let us ALL through. We hit Niagara Falls and booked it to our host church/community in downtown Toronto. The city is beautiful. It is perched on the edge of Lake Ontario. The city is very diverse in terms of faces, races, languages, and architecture. They have a law in the city that won’t allow folks to chop down trees over a certain diameter without a permit. Nice! I can’t wait to get back up there and sink in a bit seeing as how we sort of skipped across the surface with our short visit. Thanks Canada. We got back across the US border without a problem… We simply stated our purpose and presented our passports. The border guard waved us through with a smile. Thanks US.
One of my favorite stops so far has been Hartford, CT. Our host venue was a little elementary school outside of downtown Hartford. The Catholic Workers had a house just up the street, equipped with a beautiful garden, fire pit, and a group of friendly faces who welcomed us with a delicious meal. The fingerprints of students on the walls outside and hand-crafted art inside, along with the urban setting, made this stop seem a little more at home for the lot of us who are used to the inner city and it’s signs of life.
And then there was Cincinnati. We met back up with quite a few of our PAPA friends. In particular, Les and our coffee friends who would be hosting us at Rohs St. Cafe (www.rohsstreetcafe.com)– a welcoming location full of familiar faces and bottomless mango Iced tea and homemade sweet potato pie. A side note **JP we still want you to be our official sound guy! ** Les has been creating relationships with coffee farmers in guatemala to assure they are getting paid directly and fairly for their beans. This allows the families to retain their land and sustain their businesses. Purchasing Fair Trade Organic Coffee is one of the ways we can commit to spending our money in a way that directly supports people. We stayed with Brandi and friends at a community house that is working closely with neighbors educating in home maintenance and gardening with the local children after school. It was an honor to see them again and run around in their town for a minute.
At college, I took a course called Social Problems and Change, and it was by far one of the most beloved courses during my college career. It was not, however, an uplifting experience for my soul; quite the opposite actually, it crushed me in the way that only knowledge can wound. Every Tuesday morning and Friday afternoon I would walk into classroom 5, knowing full well that I was about to sit through 75 minutes of brutally looking out at the world around me. A world full of vast problems like globalization, environmental degradation, wars, famine, slavery and injustice. A world with problems so immense that often I found them hard enough of comprehend, let alone rectify.
It was the weight of this knowledge that almost defeated me. For with it I found a hopeless feeling creeping in. I mean really, who I am in the eye of the beast that is globalization? How can I even begin to bring about the systemic change that I so desperately craved? And yet I knew that I was responsible for the knowledge that I held. As much as I wanted to walk away from that knowledge, back to the comfort and safety found in ignorance, I simply could not. And around every corner knowledge haunted me, calling me to some sort of action. Finally I came to the conclusion that no matter how small and seemingly insignificant my action was to those around me, I still had to act. For to not act was to allow a deep part of my being to die.
This past week I went down to Wilmington, DE to meet with Terry and Ben and interview them for The Ordinary Radicals Documentary. Ben and Terry do not get much more ordinary as people. They are both married, go to church, and hold big business jobs. They were living their suburban lives as usual when knowledge hit them like a bus out of nowhere. Forcing them, as it did me, out into the world to do small, seemingly insignificant things. Things like taking the homeless and hungry out to share a meal with them. It was this small action that birthed a close friendship with many that our society shuns. One of these beautiful friendships is with a guy named Herman, who I also had the chance to meet.
Herman has struggled through his life to do right and get straight. He is a gentle man who doesn’t like too much attention. He is an amazing chess player and has taught me a lot about the joy of life in the few short hours we spent together.
Ben and Terry are raising money for Herman to try and give him the boost he needs to get his life back on track. They are trying to get him an apartment, a mattress, a radio and some fruit. Doing so by asking for a single dollar from folks.
I must admit that at first I was rather skeptical towards their whole movement. I mean really, how is helping one homeless person going to do anything… right? But through talking with Herman, Ben and Terry, I discovered a piece of myself in them. That piece which must act in any small way just to stay alive. And although helping Herman may seem insignificant to some, to Herman the change Ben and Terry and enacting in his life… well, to say the least, it is changing the world for him. Small things, great love… perhpas it really is the answer. Perhaps within those four small words lie the secret to standing up to the powers that be, to rectifying the injustice… in short, maybe that is how we change the world… or more importantly, maybe that is the secret to how we keep the world from changing us…
Yesterday a Senate Judiciary Committee brought Big Oil execs in to help answer questions about why the price of oil is so high. Their answer to the question outrages me:
The executives pushed the idea that large parts of the U.S. that are currently closed to drilling - like sections of Alaska, the Rocky Mountains and the continental shelf - should be opened.
“The place to start the free market is in our own country,” said one executive. [The drilling ban] sets the stage for OPEC to do what we are doing in our own country, and that is effectively limiting supplies.”
John Lowe, executive vice president of ConocoPhillips, said Congress should enact a balanced energy policy. In addition to lifting the drilling ban, such a policy could include measures to encourage alternative energy sources, remove the ethanol tariff, promote energy conservation, cut regulations around refining. “We must work together to find a real solution,” said Lowe. “U.S. oil companies should be viewed not as scapegoats, but as assets.”
The executives also named several things that Congress should not do, first among them being a hike in taxes or an undoing of the mergers of the late 1990s.
“Americans need companies that can effectively compete for access to new resources,” said Peter Robertson, vice chairman of Chevron. “Punitive measures that weakened us in the face of international competition are the wrong measures.”
The executives also frowned on a recently passed House bill giving the Justice Department the power to sue OPEC, saying it would have little effect in boosting production.
You should read the whole CNN article if you have time. My understanding of the Big Oil’s response though is that they should not be blamed for the higher gas prices. Rather, the fact that we are not drilling in Alaska and the Rocky Mountains is the real cause of the ‘pain at the pump’. Their main solution then: rape and pillage the land. Sucking it dry in the name of saving a buck or two. I mean really why pay any attention to environment stewardship and future generations when the solution to cheaper gas is so simple, right?
I don’t know about you, but I am tired of big business running my life. It bothers me that the rich and powerful have more of a say. Yes, I do not like the high prices of gas. But I am not willing to sacrifice the earth for cheaper prices. Not to mention that drilling is not the only solution to the problem. There are many other solutions that completely take Big Oil out of the equation. For instance run your car on used vegetable oil. It may not be as convenient, but I love the fact that it totally subverts power.
If you want some more information on converting your car, check out the video below of Aaron Weiss explaining how they did just that to their tour bus.
Just wanted to hit you with the PAPA Festival 2008 Promo. Four of us from The Ordinary Radicals movie will be there shooting the event, and we leave from there to follow the Jesus For President tour. What a summer to make a movie!
For those of us a bit skeptical of organized religion (like me) take heart…a least a little bit: The Southern Baptist church has posted a commitment to the environment and climate change. These four statements appear to go farther than any other content the church has announced.
The big points: The SBC is a very large and influential faith organization in the US (second in size to the Roman Catholic Church). If their followers make moves based on these statements, expect a significant shift in environmental politics and policy from the right. More importantly, people of faith from conservative or liberal perspectives will have a commitment to the environment in common, providing opportunity to join together and make an important shift in how Americans live closer to reality.
Humans Must Care for Creation and Take Responsibility for Our Contributions to Environmental Degradation.
There is undeniable evidence that the earth—wildlife, water, land and air—can be damaged by human activity, and that people suffer as a result. When this happens, it is especially egregious because creation serves as revelation of God’s presence, majesty and provision. Though not every person will physically hear God’s revelation found in Scripture, all people have access to God’s cosmic revelation: the heavens, the waters, natural order, the beauty of nature (Psalm 19; Romans 1). We believe that human activity is mixed in its impact on creation—sometimes productive and caring, but often reckless, preventable and sinful.
God’s command to tend and keep the earth (Genesis 2) did not pass away with the fall of man; we are still responsible. Lack of concern and failure to act prudently on the part of Christ-followers reflects poorly to the rest of the world. Therefore, we humbly take responsibility for the damage that we have done to God’s cosmic revelation and pledge to take an unwavering stand to preserve and protect the creation over which we have been given responsibility by Almighty God Himself.
Statement 2
It Is Prudent to Address Global Climate Change.
We recognize that we do not have any special revelation to guide us about whether global warming is occurring and, if it is occurring, whether people are causing it. We are looking at the same evidence unfolding over time that other people are seeing.
We recognize that we do not have special training as scientists to allow us to assess the validity of climate science. We understand that all human enterprises are fraught with pride, bias, ignorance and uncertainty.
We recognize that if consensus means unanimity, there is not a consensus regarding the anthropogenic nature of climate change or the severity of the problem. There is general agreement among those engaged with this issue in the scientific community. A minority of sincere and respected scientists offer alternate causes for global climate change other than deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels.
We recognize that Christians are not united around either the scientific explanations for global warming or policies designed to slow it down. Unlike abortion and respect for the biblical definition of marriage, this is an issue where Christians may find themselves in justified disagreement about both the problem and its solutions.
Yet, even in the absence of perfect knowledge or unanimity, we have to make informed decisions about the future. This will mean we have to take a position of prudence based partly on science that is inevitably changing. We do not believe unanimity is necessary for prudent action. We can make wise decisions even in the absence of infallible evidence.
Though the claims of science are neither infallible nor unanimous, they are substantial and cannot be dismissed out of hand on either scientific or theological grounds. Therefore, in the face of intense concern and guided by the biblical principle of creation stewardship, we resolve to engage this issue without any further lingering over the basic reality of the problem or our responsibility to address it. Humans must be proactive and take responsibility for our contributions to climate change—however great or small.
Statement 3
Christian Moral Convictions and Our Southern Baptist Doctrines Demand Our Environmental Stewardship.
While we cannot here review the full range of relevant Christian convictions and Baptist doctrines related to care of the creation, we emphasize the following points:
We must care about environmental and climate issues because of our love for God—“the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver and Ruler of the Universe” (BFM 2000)—through whom and for whom the creation was made. This is not our world, it is God’s. Therefore, any damage we do to this world is an offense against God Himself (Gen. 1; Ps. 24; Col. 1:16). We share God’s concern for the abuse of His creation.
We must care about environmental issues because of our commitment to God’s Holy and inerrant Word, which is “the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds and religious opinions should be tried” (BFM 2000). Within these Scriptures we are reminded that when God made mankind, He commissioned us to exercise stewardship over the earth and its creatures (Gen. 1:26-28). Therefore, our motivation for facing failures to exercise proper stewardship is not primarily political, social or economic—it is primarily biblical.
We must care about environmental and climate issues because we are called to love our neighbors, to do unto others as we would have them do unto us and to protect and care for the “least of these” (Mt. 22:34-40; Mt. 7:12; Mt. 25:31-46). The consequences of these problems will most likely hit the poor the hardest, in part because those areas likely to be significantly affected are in the world’s poorest regions. Poor nations and individuals have fewer resources available to cope with major challenges and threats. Therefore, “we should work to provide for the orphaned, the needy … [and] the helpless” (BFM 2000) through proper stewardship.
Love of God, love of neighbor and Scripture’s stewardship demands provide enough reason for Southern Baptists and Christians everywhere to respond to these problems with moral passion and concrete action.
Statement 4
It Is Time for Individuals, Churches, Communities and Governments to Act.
We affirm that “every Christian should seek to bring industry, government and society as a whole under the sway of the principles of righteousness, truth and brotherly love” (BFM 2000).
We realize that we cannot support some environmental issues as we offer a distinctively Christian voice in these arenas. For instance, we realize that what some call population control leads to evils like abortion. We now call on these environmentalists to reject these evils and accept the sanctity of every human person, both born and unborn.
We realize that simply affirming our God-given responsibility to care for the earth will likely produce no tangible or effective results. Therefore, we pledge to find ways to curb ecological degradation through promoting biblical stewardship habits and increasing awareness in our homes, businesses where we find influence, relationships with others and in our local churches. Many of our churches do not actively preach, promote or practice biblical creation care. We urge churches to begin doing so.
We realize that the primary impetus for prudent action must come from the will of the people, families and those in the private sector. Held to this standard of common good, action by government is often needed to assure the health and well-being of all people. We pledge, therefore, to give serious consideration to responsible policies that acceptably address the conditions set forth in this declaration.
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