“The Ordinary Radicals” subject Sr Margaret McKenna and the fine folks of New Jerusalem are featured in a cover story on this week’s Philadelphia City Paper. Great article by Isaiah Thompson. Here’s the link:
A friend of TOR, Mike Morrell, posted this link, and I thought our TOR community would find this interesting. Community… it seems a lot of people are longing for it.
The Christian Post has featured several articles since February about a growing Evangelical effort to push for reform in immigration laws, citing current policies as unjust, inhumane, and responsible for unfairly breaking up families. The effort is underscored by the belief that God calls his followers to welcome the stranger with love, compassion, and respect, and believers should make every effort to shape a society that will accomplish that with justice and mercy for immigrants and their families.
Here are the articles with more information:
Faith Leaders Re-Ignite Immigration Debate
Immigration reform, an issue that has been pushed to the backburner due to the state of the economy, was revived Wednesday when a diverse group of faith leaders launched a large-scale campaign to push U.S. lawmakers to quickly tackle the complex and emotionally charged problem.
Five religious leaders from Christian and Jewish traditions were joined by two U.S. congressmen to launch the “Prayer, Renewal and Action on Immigration” campaign. The campaign seeks to engage and educate congregations and people of faith on the immigration reform debate.
…All the speakers, from religious leaders to the U.S. Congressmen, criticized current U.S. immigration laws for breaking up families and mistreating illegal aliens. They call for new policies that provide a pathway for undocumented immigrants to earn residency.
“Immigrants are not the problem,” said United Methodist Bishop Minerva G. Carcano of the Desert Southwest Conference.
“Immigrants are part of the solution to our national problems,” contended Carcano, the first Hispanic woman to be elected to the episcopacy of The United Methodist Church.
“As people of faith, we cannot stand and will not stand while families are separated, while individual freedoms are ignored and the immigrant community in the United States is mistreated unjustly and inhumanely,” she said.
…“We have, literally, tens of thousands of American citizens whose wives are being deported, whose husbands are being deported,” said U.S. Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-Ill.). “We have millions of American citizen children who when they wake up in the morning to go to school fear all day long whether or not their parents will be there at the end of the day.”
Usually, conservative evangelicals are not known to support immigration reform. But several prominent leaders of the movement made their case Tuesday evening for new immigration laws, joining a growing number of Christians who refer to the Bible for support in “welcoming the stranger.”
The evangelical leaders – including Leith Anderson, president of the National Association of Evangelicals – urged American evangelicals to engage in the immigration debate and call upon the U.S. government to work on new immigration laws this year.
…“I get asked a lot, why this issue? Why as Christians and evangelicals, in particular, do we need to care about immigrants and policies in particular,” said Matthew Soerens, co-author of Welcoming the Stranger, at the book’s launch event on Tuesday. “It is because those people we talk about, those immigrants, those aliens, they are us as part of the church.”
Soerens, who works directly with immigrants as a World Relief staff, says he has met many Hispanic, Asian, and African immigrants in his line of work. What he realized was that the church, which the Bible says is the body of Christ, includes a lot of immigrants in the United States.
“Corinthians tells us if one part of the body suffers then the whole body is suffering,” he said. “As Christians, as part of the church, we don’t have a choice but to engage in this issue. And people are suffering, they are living in fear.”
The leaders also referenced the New Testament story in Luke 10 of the Good Samaritan – “a stranger or alien himself” – who stopped to help the Jewish man.
“This and other parables remind us that ‘we are all aliens sent out to help other aliens find a place of safety in this world,’” says a 2006 statement by World Relief in support of comprehensive immigration reform. The statement references Jonathan Robert Nelson’s 2006 remarks for The American Bar Association’s “Fortress America: The State and Future of U.S. Immigration Law and Policy” event.
…Anderson and other evangelical leaders talked about the inequality in current U.S. immigration laws and criticized how they break up families. He also called on the government to provide adequate finances to implement immigration laws and reduce the “enormous” waiting time for immigrants applying for legal status.
Pastor Derrick Harkins of the historic black Nineteenth Street Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., stated, “We are calling for nothing more than for those persons who are presently immigrants to be able to function and thrive within the context of what is just. We are talking about an earned right to citizenship. We are talking about them operating within the framework of a just set of laws.
“But we also talk about extending mercy. I hope that again – the language of the church thrives in this regards – that we understand that we are called to extend that measure of mercy. And that mercy means that the issue of family reunification act is indeed significant priority.”
Immigration Reform Advocates Renew Calls on Postville Anniversary
To mark the one year anniversary of the Postville raid – the largest immigration raid in U.S. history at the time – proponents of immigration reform renewed their calls for new laws that protect workers and family unity.
Faith leaders joined with labor spokesmen to remind the public of the dire consequences that immigration raids have on communities. They recalled the hundreds of workers who were arrested and their children who had no one to care for them after the massive raid at a meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa, last year.
Speakers during the media call on Monday sponsored by Justice for Immigrants and the Interfaith Immigration Coalition urged lawmakers to quickly move on creating new immigration laws.
“As we commemorate this anniversary we stand in solidarity with the 389 workers who were detained,” said Sister Mary McCauley, BVM, who was the pastoral administrator for St. Bridget’s Parish in Postville at the time of the raid. “We vigorously call for comprehensive immigration reform, just labor practices, family reunification and an end to raids.
…Government officials carried out a massive immigration raid last May on Agriprocessrs Inc. – the nation’s largest kosher slaughterhouse. Dozens of federal agents and two law enforcement helicopters were deployed in the crackdown operation.
In the months that followed, church leaders reported that many families had left Postville to find jobs elsewhere, while a sizable number of illegal immigrants stayed behind taking refuge in churches. Those that lived in churches depended wholly on charity to survive on a daily basis since they could no longer work.
Some Postville pastors after witnessing the devastation caused by the raid urged politicians and Americans to not just look at the immigration issue as political, but to look at people as people and ask why they want to come to the United States and work.
“Although you might not find famine, you will find all kinds of political and economic problems [in their home country],” the Rev. Steve Brackett, senior pastor of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Postville, said in a media call in December.
…Bishop John C. Wester, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Committee on Migration, called the current immigration policies “broken.”
He said that although he understands the “right and responsibility of the government to enforce the law,” the Postville raid did not solve the problem of illegal immigration but further added problems such as family separation and destruction of immigrant communities.
“Our religious and social response to such harm to our God-given human dignity is based on Scriptures, which call believers to welcome the newcomers among us, to treat the alien with respect and charity, and to provide pastoral and humanitarian assistance to individuals and their families,” Wester said.
First off, a quick introduction: I’m Rebekah, the friendly new Promotions Assistant for The Ordinary Radicals. I’ll be helping to keep things updated around here alongside Jamie and Ryan.
Second, I wanted to share some updates with you that were passed on to us from Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove and our other friends at the School for Conversion:
Jonathan and Shane had previously shared a list of “50 Ways to Become the Answer to Our Prayers” in an article in Sojourners Magazine in preparation for the National Day of Prayer on May 7th, hoping to turn the annual event into a day of prayer AND action. Since then, they’ve received beautiful stories from people who have used this list at National Day of Prayer gatherings and in their own churches and families, making the day a success. You can order copies of their book Becoming the Answer to Our Prayers and read an excerpt at InterVarsity Press. You can also read their op-ed in Newsweek/The Wasington Post’s On Faith column.
The new monastic community of communities, a partner of School for Conversion, is hosting weekend visits as a way of “introducing folks to community life in the way of Jesus”. You can go here for more information or to register for a visit. You can also visit the community of communities’ website here.
Shane will be joining Kelly Johnson, Will Samson, and others in a conference on “economic faithfulness in an age of consumerism” at the Englewood Christian Church in Indianapolis on November 13th and 14th to discuss community, contentment, and creativity in the midst of economic crisis. You can visit the conference website for more information.
Lastly, our good friend Jonathan has written a new book entitled God’s Economy: Redefining the Health and Wealth Gospel, that is due for release on October 1st of this year. For more information and to pre-order a copy, visit his website at jonathanwilsonhartgrove.com.
Things continue to be exciting here as we continue to take the film on the road and as it’s the official selection at another film festival. The Hoboken International Film Festival has officially selected “The Ordinary Radicals” for its 2009 festival! And the festivals are starting to pile up on our “splash page”, which is a great thing.
But we decided we wanted to try something for all of you who’ve helped to support this project. We are declaring May 29, 2009 “The Ordinary Radicals” House Party Day! I know, you’re wondering what this means… we’re encouraging everyone to throw a screening party in their house, local coffee shop, their friend’s house, etc, and to invite friends, family, neighbors, people you might not even like to come to your party and to watch the film together. We are also offering a special package in case you don’t already have a DVD of the film. If you order a DVD & soundtrack and mention the words “House Party”, we’ll throw in some stickers, and a disc with the trailer for our upcoming film, and the first 50 orders will have their DVD autographed by the director, Jamie Moffett. The only condition for throwing a house party, is that you have to send an email over to events@theordinaryradicals.com an let us know where you are, how many folks you’re inviting, what time the screening is, and if you’d like… why Jamie should attend your party. You see, things are really busy around here with some upcoming projects, and while Jamie really wants to throw a party, he’s busy working on a bunch the next film, and as a result, I told him that I would find a really happening house party and send him to it. So, all you have to do is send an email with that info by May 20, 2009 and you are entered into the contest!* Once we receive your email, we’ll also send you a .pdf for a special poster that you can print and use to promote your party. We think this will be a great event and I can’t wait to pick where Jamie goes! (And if it’s a really happening party, maybe I’ll even come!) I’ll also be having Jamie call in to a few house parties to do a sort of Q & A, so even if Jamie doesn’t make it to your party, he might still be able to call or video chat it. So start sending those party emails!
Also, if you’re interested in a larger screening for May 29 (for an organization, church, local theater, etc), send an email to events@theordinaryradicals.com and we’ll make it happen with a special reduced screening cost for that day.
Have a marvelous May!~
Ryan
*Disclaimer: The winner of the contest will be selected by Ryan, who will pick a winner based on whatever criteria he picks (which could be anything from the funniest idea for a party, to the party that will have the most unusual food item).
“Polls show that the ranks of atheists are growing. The American Religious Identification Survey, a major study released last month, found that those who claimed “no religion” were the only demographic group that grew in all 50 states in the last 18 years.
Nationally, the “nones” in the population nearly doubled, to 15 percent in 2008 from 8 percent in 1990. In South Carolina, they more than tripled, to 10 percent from 3 percent. Not all the “nones” are necessarily committed atheists or agnostics, but they make up a pool of potential supporters”
Hey all! I have some good news for you. At long last, I’m happy to say that Another World is Possible Volume 1 – War REDUX is available for order. I’m expecting it to ship as early as next month! Here’s the Introduction to the DVD by Shane Claiborne:
Six years after the first installation of the “Another World Is Possible” series, Shane Claiborne, Jamie Moffett and friends return with a much more developed new exploration of the meaning of war and violence in our world.
Retained from the original Volume 1 is Dave Manzo’s jarring Iraq War photo montage as well as Shane’s “Extremists For Love” talk at the annual CCDA conference and a video of the press conference that was held when Shane, Jonathan, Leah and the rest of their Christian Peacemaker Team delegation returned from Iraq.
Volume 1 -War REDUX adds a new introduction with Shane, as well as four new in-depth interviews with a few of his friends who have recently spent time in the various war zones of the Middle East, featuring:
Amber shares stories from her time with the Circus 2 Iraq troupe
Farah bears witness to the devastation of Lebanon during the 2006 Israeli offensive • Jonathan and Leah share their attempts to apply their dramatic experience in Iraq back home in Durham, North Carolina
Logan recounts struggles with his Christian identity during his time in the Army
Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry’s makes an animated appearance (cookies in hand) to demonstrate the economic and social costs of warmaking.
DVD
-New introduction and conclusion by Shane Claiborne
-5 minute Iraq clip
-“Extremists For Love” talk by Shane Claiborne
-Return from Iraq presentation and press conference
-Extensive Interviews with Amber Christis, Logan Laituri, Farah Mokhtareizadeh, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove and Leah Wilson-Hartgrove
-Dessert with Ben Cohen
CD
-Introduction by Shane Claiborne and music by Psalters
-Sounds from Iraq
-Tony Campolo interviews Shane Claiborne
-”Home For Refugees” and “All Who Are Weary” by Psalters
I want to apologize for the hokey title to the post, but let me explain…
“The Ordinary Radicals” is an official selection for the Ion International Film Festival, and each year ION holds their festival in a new location. This year the festival will be held in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates! We are very excited to be part of this unique festival. From the festival’s website:
“ION FIlm Festival strives to bring awareness to individuals and organizations who are creating socially relevant films to positively impact our worlds.”
So, if you happen to be near Dubai, stay tuned as more info will be coming very, very soon.
ALSO, we’re very excited to receive an “Award of Merit” from the Acolade Film Awards!!! We’re off to an exciting new year!!!
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