News Muse

New Disciples blogs

2007-01-13T09:28:00.000-05:00

Several new and noteworthy blogs by Disciples have come to our attention in the last month or so. Check them out --

CAPtions - "Curious, considerate conversation about faith and life," conducted by Tim Diebel, pastor of First Christian Church in Des Moines, Iowa. Tim's entry today on baptism is a wonderful reflection on what it all means, and especially appropriate as many churches will celebrate Jesus' own baptism tomorrow.

The Rethinking Youth Ministry blog by Brian, a Disciples pastor in the St. Louis area. Brian has some great video clips including one where he asks college students, "What do you think of the church?" He gets some interesting and honest answers.

Phillips Theolgical Seminary grad Dan Mayes' blog on My Space is where he goes about "Dismantling bad theology one CCM artist at a time..." and he has a cool video about hunger on his My Space site.

Here's your sign!

2007-01-08T09:24:00.000-05:00

We at DisciplesWorld seem to have taken a little sabbatical from our blog...or perhaps that's just a spiritualized way of saying we've neglected it for awhile. In any case, we're back.

And with humor, thanks to John Helme, who emailed us the link to this offbeat story today. We don't have the permissions to post it on our Web site like we do with Associated Press stories, but we can certainly link to it here.

If you've ever wondered about some of the warning signs and labels on products, well, you're not alone. According to this BBC report, a Michigan group tracks them and issues awards for the wackiest.

As comedian Bill Engvall puts it, "Here's your sign!"

"O Holy Night" from "Studio 60 on Sunset Strip"

2006-12-21T09:08:00.000-05:00

Here's another cool Christmas link, sent to us by Dan Paul, pastor of Pacific Grove Christian Church in California. Thanks Dan!

This version of "O Holy Night" is performed by musicians from New Orleans and organized by the Tipitina’s Foundation to rebuild the New Orleans music community.

A cool video link for Christmas

2006-12-21T09:02:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Jon Woods for sending this link to a really cool video.

Shawn Gallaway - I Choose Love

Watkins on the road

2006-11-06T08:41:00.000-05:00

Disciples General Minister and President Sharon Watkins has been on the road quite a bit lately, traveling to regional assemblies and encouraging the church to envision a bright future. While she was in Mesa, Ariz., for the AZ regional assembly, the local paper took the time to interview her and cover her speech.

"I'm spiritual, but not religious...."

2006-10-30T07:43:00.000-05:00

Christian Piatt, contributor to DisciplesWorld and music minister at Milagro Christian Church in Pueblo, Colorado, asks a great question in a recent column in the Pueblo (Colo.) Chieftain:

"If we could meet weekly with a group of people at the coffee shop, but who would never attend our church, would we invest the time?"

Piatt relates the story of Brian, a part-time new church pastor in Texas who works evenings in a coffee shop. Brian often has the opportunity to meet folks who describe themselves as "spiritual, but not religious."

While covering familiar ground in noting the gradual move of religion from the public sphere to the private, Piatt doesn't leave matters in the hands of non-church-goers. Instead, he asks the above question. And why not?

"We need to ask ourselves whether making connections with people is more important than our church membership," Piatt writes.

Read his column here.

Movies! the sequel...

2006-10-13T09:29:00.000-04:00

Now, if you're a stay-in-on-Friday-night kind of person (like I am), rent "Click" (if you haven't already seen it). I'm an Adam Sandler fan but did not see this when it made the rounds in the theaters. If you've ever wished you could just "fast forward" through the tedious parts of your life...or if you've ever gone through life on 'autopilot'...or just wanted to his 'pause' when your boss (played here by David Hasselhof) is getting on your nerves, you'll like this one. If you're a preacher who uses film clips, you ought to be able to find lots to work with here. Plus, Henry Winkler (aka "The Fonz," who played the Coach in "the Waterboy") returns as Sandler's dad.

Movies! Part1

2006-10-13T09:21:00.000-04:00

Anybody out there seen this Jesus Camp movie? I've heard about it and watched the trailer but haven't been able to see it yet. I'd love to hear from someone who has seen it!

The movie has apparently created consternation among conservative evanglical Christians, who accuse the documentary-makers of being a part of some 'liberal' agenda to make them look bad. Whatever. The woman who runs the Jesus Camp is apparently fine with the movie though - felt it was accurate, fair, not 'ambush journalism,' etc.

If you don't know about the movie, the official Web site is a good starting point.

Jim Wallis connects the dots on abortion issue

2006-10-03T14:40:00.000-04:00

Usually, when abortion is discussed in political and religious circles, it is done as if there is no context. More accurately, it's in a false context: "life". No one is anti-life; and all sides know this. Yet we persist in allowing the abortion issue to be debated within this framework. Why can't we talk about ways to make it more viable for more women to have a child and be able to afford to raise the child?

If anyone can reframe the abortion conversation, it's Jim Wallis. Here, on his "God's Politics" blog, Wallis shares the story of a low-income mother who met him at one of his book signing events.

Of course, we will still have stories like this one, about the 10 year old girl in Puerto Rico who was raped by her stepfather and finds herself pregnant. I would argue that in cases like this, we still need safe, legal abortion as an option. Still, that doesn't mean that the 10 year old won't suffer emotional or physical problems if it is decided that the pregnancy can be terminated. There are so many other ways the church can be in ministry in situations like this, besides the roles it typically plays right now - excoriating abortion completely, or just ignoring the no-win situation for women (and unfortunately, girls) while defending the "right" to choose.

A pastor's thoughts on yet another "God Bless America" feud

2006-09-29T10:58:00.000-04:00

When a man in Lompoc, Calif. complained about a "God Bless America" poster in the post office, he incurred the wrath of many Christians. Scenarios like this one seem to be playing out over and over again, all across America, fueling the fires of reactionary emotion and obliterating any chance for civilized discourse.

In his regular column for the Lompoc Record, Disciples pastor Bob Cornwall steps in and calls a time out to ask, what exactly are we doing when we ask God's blessing on America? And if we are blessed, what is required of us, as Christians?

Read it here.

Iraq for Sale

2006-09-18T08:45:00.000-04:00

War is not only a moral issue, or an issue of military might, it's also a money issue. Regardless of where you stand on the war in Iraq, it might be of interest to take a look at who is profiting from it. Robert Greenwald, who made the Wal-Mart movie and several other documentaries, has a new one out - "Iraq For Sale." Greenwald, kind of like Toto in the Wizard of Oz, pulls back the curtain on the Great War Machine to find out who's behind it. And instead of a small-time wizard from Kansas, we see a few of the usual suspects, like Halliburton/KBR, and others like Blackwater, CACI and L3Titan, a provider of interrogators and translators for Abu Ghraib.

Peace is not profitable for companies like this. We ought to ask ourselves, if the continuation of war is what puts bread on the table, then perhaps we've got the wrong kind of bread and the wrong table....

Is a Christian liberal pastor an oxymoron?

2006-09-16T14:41:00.000-04:00

I came across an article about Disciples pastor and author Jan Linn. The article appeared in a weekly newspaper in the Twin Cities and is positive in its portrayal of Linn, but it begins with this curious opening:

"In a religious and political climate such as the one currently in America, Jan G. Linn is a walking oxymoron.

Linn, a Lakeville resident is what you could title as a “liberal Christian pastor.”

Is it really that bad out there? Bad enough that a "liberal Christian pastor" is newsworthy? In some places, it is. But one doesn't have to be a seminarian or Bible scholar to see in the Bible the need for care of creation, peacemaking, love of neighbor, care for the poor, community living, anti-materialism, etc. This is stuff that kids learn in Sunday School.

That doesn't mean the Bible is a blueprint for political liberalism (nor political conservatism). But it ought to give pause to anyone who would open an article with these sentences. In praising Linn, the writer also undergirds the notion that Christians are/should be politically conservative.

Cane River Revival

2006-09-12T14:39:00.000-04:00

Nope, that's not a mistake in the headline. In western North Carolina, northeast of Asheville, a tent revival meeting that was supposed to last 2 weeks has been going on now for six. According to the AP article, attendance has been a high as 4,000 on certain days.

Beijing, 9/10/06

2006-09-10T09:58:00.000-04:00

Another day, another exhausting, exciting experience here in China. We went to church this morning, and it was amazing. Around 2,500 people -- 1,000 in the main sanctuary, another 1,000 in the basement watching on screens, and then another 500 in the courtyard, listening throught he open windows.

But here's the really amazing thing. As soon as the service was over, the doors on one side of the church opened, and as people were leaving through those doors, more people were coming in through the other side for the next service. People actually show up early just to make sure they get seats!

After church, we changed clothes, had lunch, did some shopping, and then went to the Great Wall. It is the most amazing thing I've ever seen. It goes on for 6,000 kilometers and it runs straight up and down mountains. I climbed to the first watch tower -- straight up the mountain. The steps are very uneven and a lot of the "steps" are more than a foot and a half high.

One member of our group, David Shirey, who is 6 feet 4 inches tall with very long legs, climbed to the ninth tower. But it took him almost two hours. I couldn't have done it if I'd had a week! I was just happy to get to the first tower. In fact, I was ecstatic just to be standing on the Great Wall of China!

Tomorrow we meet with government officials in the morning, then go to the Forbidden City in the afternoon. Then an early evening because we have to check out of the hotel at 5 a.m. on Tuesday morning to head for the airport and another LONG flight.

I have learned so much on this trip, and am sorry to be leaving China so soon. But I'm sure I will be back!

Beijing, 9/9/06

2006-09-09T10:21:00.000-04:00

We spent the morning visiting two rural churches about 100 kilometers outside Xi'an. The churches were beautiful. One is built into the side of a hill, with more than 100 steps from bottom to top. We saw many houses built into hillsides in the country. Very cool.

At the second church, it seemed that the entire congregation had turned out to see us. They sang for us. We sang for them. They prayed for us. We prayed for them. Then everyone hugged everyone, and several of the women wept. It was tremendously moving, and something I will never forget. I had the gut-level realization that we are all truly one in Christ Jesus. I've read that and sung that and said that, but I never really GOT that until this trip.

This afternoon we flew to Beijing. We are in Beijing! It is a big, beautiful, bustling, and very busy city full of skyscrapers and cranes building new skyscrapers. And everything is getting a new shine in preparation for the 2008 Olympic Games.

Tomorrow we attend a church service and then visit the Great Wall. We are all exhausted and running on sheer adrenaline at this point, but we keep telling ourselves we can sleep when we get home. In the meantime, we are making every moment of this wonderful trip count.

Xi'an, 9/8/06

2006-09-08T10:38:00.000-04:00

Today we visited a Bible school in Xi'an and had the opportunity to meet with the students and ask and answer questions. We sang together and learned from each other and had a grand time.

I am continually impressed with the dedication of the Christians in China. Many of the students travel a long way from home to attend school, often leaving behind families and jobs. And many are not even training to be pastors, but are simply full-time volunteers.

There is such a severe shortage of trained and ordained pastors and elders here, most groups rely on volunteers to preach, evangelize, and pastor their communities. The volunteers are (obviously) unpaid, but they are so dedicated to spreading the gospel that they bear many hardships to serve their churches.

In the afternoon, we visited the museum of the terra cotta soldiers, which was a highlight of the trip for me.

The museum is build over part of the excavated tomb of Emporer Xin, the first ruler to unite all of China. His tomb covers several hundred square kilometers and includes many underground chambers, called "pits." So far, 60 pits have been discovered, although only a few have been excavated.

Three of the pits contain thousands of life-size terra cotta soldiers -- each with a different face, different clothes, different weapons. There are foot soldiers, officers, generals, bowmen, and chariot drivers. There are life-size horses and chariots. They go on and on, as far as you can see. And they were crafted in 200 BC! The history of China is just stunning -- and seeing the terra cotta army is the fulfillment of a long-time dream for me.

Tomorrow, we head out EARLY to visit a rural church, then catch an afternoon plane to Beijing. I have done more traveling in the last two weeks than I ever have, by bus and by air. But I feel like I haven't even scratched the surface of this place.

I'm already planning my next trip here. I've caught the China bug!

Xi'an, 9/7/06

2006-09-07T13:32:00.000-04:00

What a whirlwind of a trip we are having. On Tuesday we drove from Nanjing to Hefei, where we visited the provincial seminary. They are doing so much with so little, it was inspiring and wonderful to see.

We were also privileged in Hefei to attend the memorial service of Rev. Shaotang Zhu, father of Xiaoling Zhu. Xiaoling is head of the East Asia Office of Global Ministries, and has been our host on this trip. The memorial service was very moving. Rev. Zhu was baptized by Disciples missionaries at the age of 17, in 1931. He paid for his faith dearly during the Cultural Revolution, but survived to become one of the fathers of the new Christian Church in China. We were honored to be witnesses to his life and his work.

From Heife, we flew to Chengdu, in the Szechwan Province -- which is as far west as you can go in China before reaching Tibet. There we visited with Elizabeth and Doug Searles, our Global Ministries mission personnel. The Searles teach English classes for teachers from China's ethnic minority areas. We had the opportunity to visit with some of their students -- a delightful group of young adults who are committed to helping their communities thrive.

Tonight we flew from Chengdu to Xi'an, where we will meet with local church groups. We'll also have a chance to visit the famous tomb of Qin Shi Huang, first Emperor of all China. The tomb is filled with hundreds of life-size terracotta soldiers and horses. I'm looking forward to that trip.

I am learning so much on this trip, and finding that so many of my previous ideas about China were incomplete at best, and sometimes downright wrong. I have definitely been bitten by the China bug, and am already planning my next trip to this land of so much history and so many big cities -- this land of profound contradictions.

Nanjing, 9/2/06

2006-09-03T09:41:00.000-04:00

We worshiped this morning at the oldest Christian church in Nanjing, and it was amazing. More than 1,000 people packed into the sanctuary, and another 1,000 watched the service on screens in the Sunday school building. And this was just one of six services they do every weekend. The people were friendly, the fellowship good, and the music beautiful. I didn't understand a word that was said, but I felt like I had worshiped God today.

Later, we visited the Nanjing Massacre Memorial, a truly haunting place. In just six weeks at the end of 1937, Japanese soldiers killed more than 300,000 Chinese people in Nanjing, in what is often called the Rape of Nanjing. The Memorial offers photos, news clippings, and art depicting the horror. But the most gut-wrenching part of the experience is the excavation of a mass grave. Nearly 300 bodies were unearthed when they began excavating for the Memorial, and the government decided to leave them where they lay, to bear silent witness to the tragedy.

The skeletons are numbered, and the numbers are color-coded -- red for women, blue for young people, and so on. Yellow numbers are for the children. More than 60 small corpses bear those yellow numbers ... 60 small children murdered in a single night in just one location. It's an image I will carry with me for the rest of my life.

But there were moments of hope, even here. Two of our Disciples missionaries were instrumental in setting up a "safe zone" in Nanjing. Working with missionaries from other churches and with foreign newspaper correspondents, these brave souls literally put their lives on the line as a shield between the Japanese soldiers and hundreds of Chinese civilians. After the war, their testimony helped to convict several Japanese officers of war crimes.

It's hard to imagine driving around Nanjing today -- with its shining office buildings and huge shopping malls -- that such horror took place only 70 years ago. It's even harder to imagine that the 1937 massacre is only one of the slaughters that have happened here. So much history in China -- some of it spectacular, some of it gruesome. And yet, through it all, the people survive, rebuild, raise families, and go on.

And the church is here with them, today as in years past. We saw that today in the faces of the thousands of people gathered at the church. We heard from church leaders of the transforming effects of Jesus' love in the lives of new Christians. And we feel so blessed to be witnesses to the faith in this ancient land.

Sherri

Nanjing, 9/1/06

2006-09-02T09:19:00.000-04:00

It's been a very busy couple of days for our group here in China.

Yesterday we met with leaders of the China Christian Counsel (CCC) and the National Committee of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) of Protestant Churches in China. Working together, the two groups represent all of the Protestant churches in China.

Elder Jianhong Ji, chairman of the TSPM, welcomed us warmly as "colleagues and coworkers in Christ," then laid out the work of his organization, which includes research into the church in China, training of church workers, publications (including a magazine with a subscription base of over 100,000), social services, and relations with overseas ministries partners, including the Disciples.

Member churches of the CCC are fairly autonomous and include a wide variety of practices regarding baptism, communion, and worship styles. Elder Ji noted, "The Apostles Creed is the basis of our faith in China."

Later, we visited with the president and faculty members of East China Theological Seminary. The seminary offers a 4-year undergraduate degree plus programs for church musicians, lay church workers, and church volunteers. They are working hard to fill the shortage of trained church workers in China, where just a few thousand ordained pastors are struggling to minister to the country's 16 million Christians.

Today, we toured Shanghai, visiting a huge garden built in the 16th century, two wonderful museums, and the Shanghai Radio Tower (the city's answer to Seattle's Space Needle). Then a 4-hour bus trip to Nanjing.

We are staying in the heart of Nanjing, inside the "old city" which is still surrounded by a city wall built several centuries ago. Tomorrow, we will get our first taste of Protestant worship in China, then tour the Nanjing Massacre Museum. I am thinking it will be quite moving.

Christianity is alive and well and thriving here. Lots to learn from the Chinese churches, and lots of good dialogue between the new church pastors I'm touring with and their Chinese counterparts.

More tomorrow!

Sherri

Shanghai, 8/30/06

2006-08-31T09:54:00.000-04:00

Today, I flew with a group of new church pastors from Chicago to Shanghai -- a 14.5-hour trip. We are in China for two weeks on a trip co-sponsored by New Church Ministries and Global Ministries to learn about Disciples' heritage in China and about the unbelievable growth of the Christian Church in China -- an average of two church starts every three days.

We are staying tonight at a nice little hotel right in the downtown of Shanghai. Shanghai is a mesmerising mix of gleaming new high-rises, miles and miles of apartment buildings (all with laundry lines stretched from the balconies), and then you turn the corner and it's like stepping back in time. Little shops, street venders, and everywhere, EVERYWHERE people on bicycles.

The city is huge -- 17 million people -- and very crowded. And our little group stands out like ... well, like Americans. But we are a great cross-section of Americans -- black, white, Hatian, Hispanic, Korean, Puerto Rican, and even a couple of white-bread folks like me. Also a great representation of the new church movement among Disciples.

Tonight we took a walking tour of downtown Shanghai, heading for Nanjing Road -- which is the place to be if you want to buy watches or roller skates or handbags or just about anything else.

Of course, you don't really walk down Nanjing Road. You are swept along in the ever-flowing current of people. It's like Times Square on steroids. Techno-music blasts from store fronts, smells of sesame and noodles and car exhaust mingle in the air, and the street is as bright as the noonday sun, even at 9 p.m. I've never seen so many neon lights.

And then, of course, there are the beggers. On every street, at every turn, women hold out paper cups. Usually, though, they are swept aside by the hawkers. We practiced a very useful Chinese phrase tonight -- "boya." It means, "No, I don't need it."

I'm exhausted and on overload, but I'm so excited to be here.

In the next two weeks we will travel from Shanhai to Nanjing to Heife to Chengdu to Xi'an to Beijing. We will meet with seminary professors and students, with local pastors, with people from the Amity Foundation, with government officials, and with some of our own Global Ministries personnel.

We hope to come home with a better understanding both of the Christian movement in China and of our own small place in its history.

For tonight and tomorrow, I have Internet. After that, I don't know. But when I do, I'll update you on what we are seeing and learning.

Sherri

New Disciples blogs

2006-08-24T12:15:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago, Rev. Greg Alexander, general minister of the Christian Church in Kentucky, launched a weblog, "Views and News for Those in the Pews." I think this makes him the first blogging regional minister.

We have also added a couple of links to our blogroll from other blogging Disciples pastors. Jeff Gill, supply preacher/camp director extraordinaire, shares "Notes from My Knapsack". Perhaps he's got a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in there too....

Caffeinated writer Linda C. blogs at 2nd Cup of Coffee.

Religion on a Stick is an ecumenical blog-a-rama of young adults in ministry. "This ain't your grandma's quilting circle."

Apocalypso, verses 1 and 2

2006-08-14T20:54:00.000-04:00

In the August 24 issue of Rolling Stone magazine are two articles that, if read back-to-back, may just convince you that the human race (or at least what was euphemistically called 'Western civilization') has at last jumped the shark.

[Note: These articles don't appear on Rolling Stone's Web site, so you'll have to buy the magazine off the newsstand or bum it off someone with a subscription].

The first is an interview with a tired and aging but still pithy Kurt Vonnegut. The article is called "Vonnegut's Apocalypse" and its Vonnegut proclaiming that the earth is too far gone, and the culprit is not Ice-9, but our addiction to petroleum and all the baggage that goes with that.

"I'm Jeremiah, and I'm not talking about God being mad at us...." begins the prophet, pictured with a lit Pall Mall unfiltered in hand.

The second article is "The Unending Torture of Omar Khadr" by Jeff Tietz. Khadr was unlucky enough to be picked up on one of the many roundups in Afghanistan, and his torture began even before he arrived at Guatanamo Bay, his home for the past 4 years. Khadr was also just 15. The article details the torture and repeatedly states that even if he were let out today, he would most likely never recover.

Toward the end of the article, it talks about the recent hunger strike. Guards forced tubes up the strikers' noses to make them eat. Most of these guys were of no use to our government from the time they were rounded up, and if they ever did know anything about Al Qaeda, their minds are so damaged that whatever they might reveal would be suspect at best. But we won't even allow them the respite of death itself.

Is blood of Omar Khadr is on all our hands, as Americans? If Jesus comes today, are we all goats?

War and Disciples - September issue

2006-08-09T21:02:00.000-04:00

"War" is the theme of the September issue of DisciplesWorld. Whether you consider yourself "pro-war" or "anti-war" or neither, you'll find this particular collection of articles insightful and challenging. We think this may be one of, if not THE best issue of the magazine so far. We hope you think so too.

And now, a few timely words from the prophet of reggae, Bob Marley:

Let's get together to fight this Holy Armagiddyon,
So when the Man comes there will be no, no doom.
Have pity on those whose chances grows t'inner;
There ain't no hiding place from the Father of Creation.

- Bob Marley, "One Love"

The Gospel according to Ricky Bobby

2006-08-06T22:05:00.000-04:00

Never let it be said that we at DisciplesWorld are "Christ Against Culture" Christians. On Friday night, I went to see "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby" (click here to see the trailer). Aside from being a hilarious flick (I realize I'm going against most reviewers' opinions here), it has some great 'religious' moments. Like when Ricky and family are gathered around the dinner table and he begins to say grace. Props to the first pastor who uses THIS film clip in a sermon!

Or after a crash, when Ricky jumps out of his car and runs around the track in his underwear convinced he's on fire: "Help me Jesus! Help me Jewish God! Help me Tom Cruise! Tom Cruise use your witchcraft to git the fire off me!"

I was worried, being a fan myself, that the movie would be a snobby put-down of NASCAR. But it's not - it's so over-the-top that it goes beyond stereotyping, and there are some jokes, gags and details that NASCAR fans will probably appreciate while non-fans will miss them.

Just one thing: I don't recommend it for kids younger than 15 or 16 due to some pretty crude humor.

NY Times article on Jackson and Park Ave CC

2006-07-29T08:52:00.000-04:00

Some in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) may already know that the Rev. Alvin Jackson has been called as senior minister at Park Avenue Christian Church in New York City.

We at DisciplesWorld reported on this earlier in the week, and now New York Times reporter Michael Luo has written a piece about Jackson's fresh start with the historic Disciples congregation.

In light of Luo's article, I looked back at our coverage of the story as it unfolded 3 years ago. I think we were fair. There were some who accused us of racism. That still hurts.

In any case, we wish him well.

July 3rd - Haifa

2006-07-10T20:41:00.000-04:00

Note: Our second week of travel took us places where easy internet access was not available and our presense in some locations may have caused our hosts problems. Therefore, I chose to wait to post these entries until I returned to the States.

We arrived in Haifa this morning. Haifa is a community of both Jewish and Palestinian Israelis. For the most part, they live side by side peacefully, if not together in spirit. The first thing we saw was the Bahai Temple. As we drove down a street, the gardens of the temple rose from street level up the side of a hill towards the temple. They were beautiful. Unfortunately, the gardens weren't open for visitors. Later in the day, we took our bus up the hill so we could look down on the grounds of the temple. Again, they were so beautifully landscaped.

After lunch, we met with a representative of Ittijah. Ittijah provides an organizational network for Palestinian NGOs in Israel. It helps to coordinate their activities so the strength of each organization is put to its best use. They put a lot of focus on the unrecognized Palestinian villages in Israel, representing about 70,000 Palestinians. By denying the existence of these villages on their maps, (located primarily in the North and in the Naqab), Israel is not required to provide basic services to their residents such as roads, housing, clean water, electricity, healthcare.

We then met with Ilan Pappe, a professor at Haifa University and Israeli Jew who has worked tirelessly towards an end to the oppression of the Palestinian people. He is an advocate of a boycott of products made in Israel as well as divestiture from companies who are profiting from the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. He believes that although the conflict must be resolved between the Palestinians and Israelis, it will require pressure from the international community to bring the parties to the table. In his opinion, this pressure must include the United States.

Our evening was spent celebrating the 30th wedding anniversary of one of the couples on our trip. Andy made a very beautiful toast to his wife Carol and to the rest of the group. A nice way to end the day!

July 2nd - Tel Aviv

2006-07-03T00:22:00.000-04:00

We arrived in Tel Aviv this morning to tour the Diaspora Museum at Tel Aviv University. It is an exhibit set up to trace the Jewish culture, people and traditions through the centuries. It was very well done with much information. One thing that struck me that as all the various cultures merged into what is now the State of Israel, there appears to be a push towards sameness of culture instead of a celebration of what each culture brings to the table. There are small concessions to this, but overall, this seems to be prevalent.

As I was walking through the part of the exhibit which dealt with the Holocaust, I caught up with one of our group. As we talked, he made the comment - "I was only a child, but there must have been something I could have done".

Our afternoon was spent with Adam Keller of Gush Shalom, a Israeli activist who has been protesting (non violently) since the age of 13. He brought us up-to-date on a protest held outside of the Gaza Strip on Saturday which he attended. They were planning to hold their protest at the place where the Israeli soldier was kidnapped. But as they drew nearer, they saw an Israeli post set up. They realized that this group of soldiers were there getting ready to occupy Gaza. They got out of their vehicles and began to talk to the soldiers through the fence, asking them why they would go into Gaza, what their personal thoughts were about this action, etc.. They were eventually chased away, and began walking towards their protest site. Eventually, the military police stopped them and began to arrest the protesters. When it was pointed out that the MPs are not allowed to arrest civilians, they produced a civilian police officer who proceeded to make the arrests.

In the evening, we met with members of New Profile and with a refusenik. New Profile is a group that is working to create a new military profile or status for people who are either conscientious objectors, or refuseniks - those who do not oppose the army per se, but refuse to serve in the occupied territories. Their stories were personal and varied. One woman was a mother of 6 living on a kibbutz, which by their nature are very militaristic, who had a son tell her and her husband that he is a pacifist and would not serve in the army. She told of the problems trying to get him out of conscription - the months in court, and his months in prison. They were finally successful, but at what cost? Two of her other children were given medical releases - meaning they had to say that they were mentally ill and unable to conscript. This type of designation will follow them for the rest of their lives, affecting the future possibilities for employment, mortgage loans, etc..

Our refusenik guest was in the Army for six years. As he matured into an adult, from the raw 18 year old conscript, he realized that he could no longer participate in actions in the occupied territories. He asked to be reassigned, which he was. He believes in being part of the army to defend Israel, but not in being part of the occupation.

News Muse note: Beth Sullivan is the bookkeeper for DisciplesWorld and has served as board member of the United Christian Missionary Society and the Disciples Divinity House at the University of Chicago. Sullivan is visiting Middle Eastern holy sites on a trip with her alma mater, Earlham College, located in Richmond, Ind.

July 1st - Hebron

2006-07-02T11:10:00.000-04:00

We left Bethlehem this morning for Hebron. On the way there, we stopped at the village of al-Tuwani. There we walked through a small rural village with no running water, electricity for 4 hours a day provided by a generator and a settlement just over the hill from them. A settlement whose occupants will try anything to make life so unpleasant for the villagers in hopes they will leave. There are still about twenty families left. However, al-Tuwani also has the only school in the area, so children from other villages go to school there. There have been many incidents, many confrontations, but the village remains. We met with a representative of the Women's Cooperative, which was formed to supplement the income of the men of the village. They produce needlework and jewelry for sale. The women had to ask for permission from the men in order to form the cooperative. After an initial reluctance, the men agreed. This cooperative has been very empowering for them - a feeling of contribution and partnership for survival.

While in al-Tuwani, a member of our group fell on the uneven terrain and cut his forehead. As a precaution, we stopped by a hospital in Hebron for a doctor to take a look at him. Examination, X-Rays, stitches and a prescription - $20.00!

In Hebron, we took a walking tour of the old city. This is another example (such as old city of Jerusalem), where the settlers are building on top of the Palestinian homes, taking any little inch of land/space they can. There are places where the merchants have had to set up nets across the streets - string them from their shop canopies, to catch the stones, trash and debris the settlers try to throw down upon them.

Part of our walk through the Old City included a tour through the Ibrahimi Mosque. Once inside, all the women had to wear a hooded cloak provided by the mosque, making sure that all of our hair was covered. It was very beautiful - memorials to the tombs of Isaac, Rachel and, of course, Abraham. The room that the Abraham tomb was in had windows on both ends, so that the people of the mosque might see it as well as the people of the synagogue on the other side of the mosque.

From there we toured a Palestinian refugee camp in Jerusalem. When I first read about this stop on our itinerary, I was a bit confused. My perception of a refugee camp is tents, no electricity, etc. This camp, Deheishe Camp, has been in existence since 1948. It was first populated by about 3000 refugees. It now holds over 12,000. The original housing was concrete and cinderblock structures to hold 10 people provided by the UN. Over the years, the inhabitants of the camp have built homes upward over the original structures. They have created a community - but one which is hanging on by a thread. Unemployment runs about 80% - food is scarce and hope is in very short supply. The desperation of these people was hanging in the air.

We returned for an evening at a hotel in Bethlehem. The exhaustion of our group, both mentally and physically was in our body language and in our silence as a group. I feel fortunate that I have this blog as a way of getting some of these feelings out. It allows me to process what I am seeing and begin to understand how I feel about it. Being with a group from Earlham College, my alma mater, gives the concept of a trip through the Holy Land a whole new spin. Being a Quaker school, the focus of this journey is peace, what peace means in this land today, how to achieve peace amidst this conflict and asking the question - will it be possible to ever achieve a lasting peace here. The questions are complex, with many different perspectives to consider, emotions to validate and work to be done.

News Muse note: Beth Sullivan is the bookkeeper for DisciplesWorld and has served as board member of the United Christian Missionary Society and the Disciples Divinity House at the University of Chicago. Sullivan is visiting Middle Eastern holy sites on a trip with her alma mater, Earlham College, located in Richmond, Ind.

June 30th - Bethlehem/Beit Sahour

2006-07-02T10:38:00.000-04:00

This morning we left Jerusalem, where we have been based for the past 5 days, and traveled to Bethlehem. We first met with Jad Isaac, who gave us a recent history of Bethlehem, then went with us as we traveled through the city. Bethlehem and its surrounding cities, Beit Jalla and Beit Sahour are completely surrounded by the wall. You enter through one of two areas - a fully functional checkpoint, built just to the north of the main artery between Bethlehem and Jerusalem, or to the south, where the checkpoint is still under construction. We were told it would be finished within a month.

The effects of this, as well as residual effects of September 11th, 2001, and the current ongoing tensions were amazing. The city was like a ghost town in comparison to images I have seen on TV or heard other people talk about from their trips to Israel. When we arrived at the Church of the Nativity, we were the only tour group there. There were maybe a half dozen other people in there with us. This was also the case with Shepherds Field. For a city whose livelihood depends on tourism, this is devastating.

We visited the Guidance and Training Center, a group who work with tramatized children. The mental health of children is finally being recognized as a serious issue in the occupied territories. In order to deal with the tension, the bombings, children in many cases are developing physical afflictions (blindness as an example), emotional afflictions (almost an autistic state or post-traumatic stress disorder) or a combination of both. At this center, these issues are addressed with trained child psychiatrists and therapists. They also work with the whole family to help overcome the trauma.

In the evening, the group was divided up and we spent the night in the homes of families living in Beit Sahour. My family was delightful. It was a common situation - a two story home - on the ground floor were the parents, one son, his wife and two small children. On the second floor (where I stayed), was the other son, his wife and three children. It made for a very lively household. When I arrived, the Germany/Argentina World Cup match was on. I was immediately asked who I was pulling for (Argentina) - then all eyes were focused on the game. Once it was over, the entire family gathered for a barbeque, with chicken, pork, hamburgers cooked on a grill, along with several fresh salads and lemonade. As the second match started, I slipped away to bed - too much for me!

News Muse note: Beth Sullivan is the bookkeeper for DisciplesWorld and has served as board member of the United Christian Missionary Society and the Disciples Divinity House at the University of Chicago. Sullivan is visiting Middle Eastern holy sites on a trip with her alma mater, Earlham College, located in Richmond, Ind.

June 29th - The Holocaust

2006-06-30T00:05:00.000-04:00

We spent the entire morning at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem It was a very emotional morning. Room after room of personal items, personal stories and history, taking the viewer from the appointment of Hitler as Chancellor, to the liberation, displaced person camps and repatriation of the survivors. The most meaningful exhibit is the Children's Memorial. You enter a dark room, lit by dozens of candles reflecting into hundreds of mirrors. As you stand there, a voice is reading the names, ages, and countries of birth of every child documented to have died in the Holocaust. To say I got chills is putting it mildly.

We then went for a visit ot Sabeel, a liberation theology center. When we arrived, they had just started a communion service, which we were invited to join. After the morning we had just witnessed, it was a welcome event for many of us. Lunch was a traditional Palestinian meal with members of the Christan Peacekeeping Team from Hebron, then two members of the Sabeel board gave us their inspirational stories of how they came to be part of the Center. From there, we visited an NGO, ANERA. We spent time discussing the problems they were encountering as a result of the US crackdown on aid coming into the Palestinian territories.

When we returned to the Hotel, we were thrust into the middle of the current events of the day. The Jewish settler, whose body had been found outside of Ramallah early this morning, was being buried in the cemetary just below our hotel. We had to walk the last 1/2 mile to the hotel from our bus - they wouldn't let the bus down there. Military everywhere and settlers were coming in by the busload to pray, attend the funeral. It was an experience I won't soon forget - hundreds of people coming out in support of the family. What an end to a very emotional day.

News Muse note: Beth Sullivan is the bookkeeper for DisciplesWorld and has served as board member of the United Christian Missionary Society and the Disciples Divinity House at the University of Chicago. Sullivan is visiting Middle Eastern holy sites on a trip with her alma mater, Earlham College, located in Richmond, Ind.

June 28th - The Settlements

2006-06-29T23:53:00.000-04:00

Today has been spent learning about the settlements in the West Bank. We started with a gentleman this morning who goes by the nickname Mikado (not explained to us). He gave us a current history of the settlements in and around Jerusalem, then took us on a tour of various locations. What he really wanted to get across to us is how the settlements are currently being structured. He took us to this gas station, really out in the middle of nowhere as an example. There were several hills around us. On top of three of them housing had been built. On a fourth, a commercial complex is being built. And we were in the gas station in the valley below. By building this way, hilltops, then one gas station in the valley, the settlers are laying claim to all the land in between. It is a lot of land - pretty much as far as the eye could see. The settlements are spread out this way to claim as much land as possible.

In the evening, we had a meeting with Gershom Gorenberg, an author and journalist, who has written an extensive history of the settlements, going back to 1947 and 1948. How all of this started and what the motivations were behind those first settlements is amazing. Our second speaker was turned away at the front desk. She is a former deputy speaker of the Israeli Knesset. When she arrived, she was told that there was no group at the hotel from Earlham College - even though we were in a conference room not 50 feet away. So she left - and we missed out on another perspective of the situation here.

News Muse note: Beth Sullivan is the bookkeeper for DisciplesWorld and has served as board member of the United Christian Missionary Society and the Disciples Divinity House at the University of Chicago. Sullivan is visiting Middle Eastern holy sites on a trip with her alma mater, Earlham College, located in Richmond, Ind.

June 27th - Ramallah

2006-06-28T23:40:00.000-04:00

After listening to media reports about Ramallah in the US, you would think that the city was bombed out, with people hiding in their homes amidst the rubble. What a misconception! Ramallah is a vibrant city, crowded with people. The main streets are filled with shops, businesses and restaurants. There was even a "Stars and Bucks Cafe", complete with the green sign and a similar logo! The vibrancy of the city really touched me.

We started our visit at the Friends Schools. We were given a tour and brought up to date on their situation. Since the election of Hamas, they have seen a dramatic reduction in the payment of tuition as more of the parents of students go without receiving their salaries. It is beginning to put a real strain on their cashflow. The director said that by August, they are looking to only pay half salaries to their faculty and staff, unless the embargo on funds being paid into Palestine is lifted. On the plus side, they have some wonderful programs and have been able to do some fund raising to update their facilities, primarily from alumni - something they really haven't done in the past.

Next, we met with representatives of the American Friends Service Committee. They gave us an overview of their programs including two very inspirational success stories of people overcoming the odds of this region to accomplish goals of education, community activism and support of others. We then walked from the Friends School, down through the center of town to the Friends Meeting house for lunch. This is where I became amazed at how "normal" everything seems. We listened to two women tell their story. One is a Palestinian married to an Israeli citizen. She explained how difficult it is for their relationship to survive. She is not legally allowed in Jerusalem nor is her husband legally allowed in Ramallah. They have no idea what they will do once the wall is completed.

In the afternoon, we toured Birzeit University, meeting with professors and students. The university is located on the edges of Ramallah, so we drove past areas we have seen on TV, such as the rubble that was once Yassar Arafat's compound where Israeli tanks surrounded him in a stand off several years ago. The university has a student population of about 7000, 52% of which are women. They have several programs of study - adding more as is feasible. They are the largest Palestinian university and as such have seen their share of problems from being shut down for 4 years in the late 1980's/early 1990's, to checkpoints being set up about a mile away so that students and faculty cannot get to classes, to the Israeli army coming to their gates on the day of their student council elections, firing tear gas and rubber bullets onto the campus to disrupt the elections. The overwhelming message we received there is one of active resistance to the occupation and hope for an end in their lifetimes.

A great day, full of images of people, color, hope.

News Muse note: Beth Sullivan is the bookkeeper for DisciplesWorld and has served as board member of the United Christian Missionary Society and the Disciples Divinity House at the University of Chicago. Sullivan is visiting Middle Eastern holy sites on a trip with her alma mater, Earlham College, located in Richmond, Ind.

June 26th - Jerusalem

2006-06-28T09:44:00.000-04:00

We had a wonderful walking tour of the old city this morning. Our guide is an Armenian who lives in the Armenian quarter of the Old City. He gave us a brief intro, then we walked through all four quarters of the Old City - Armenian, Jewish, Christian and Muslim. What amazed me was how as we wandered through the back streets, it would be so quiet, then come out to the streets leading to one of the gates, and there were vendors and people everywhere. We spent a short time at the Western wall (wailing wall). It was crowded, with several bar mitzvahs occuring on the men's side, with the women watching over a fence. We visited the Garden of Gethsemane, the Church of the Holy Seplechure - but mostly walked around and took in the widely varying atmosphere of the different quarters. For instance, in the Muslim quarter, music is played in the streets all the time, so that the settlers won't be tempted to try to move in. Gave that area a very different atmosphere.

We also spent time in the afternoon at a home that had been demolished four times and rebuilt after each demolition. The family owns the land, but since the Israeli government does not permit Palestinians to build without a permit (and permits are never granted), the government issues a demolition order for each structure built without permits. This man and his family tried three times (taking close to five years and $15,000) to get a permit. They finally went ahead and built. The government has used his house as an example, by demolishing it each time they finish building and move in. The house is now used as a peace center, a place for people to come, learn and discuss. The thing that struck me was the family. No feelings of revenge, just an overwhelming desire to be able to build on their own land, live in their own house and have their rights respected. Just amazing.....

Tomorrow we will be in Ramallah.

News Muse note: Beth Sullivan is the bookkeeper for DisciplesWorld and has served as board member of the United Christian Missionary Society and the Disciples Divinity House at the University of Chicago. Sullivan is visiting Middle Eastern holy sites on a trip with her alma mater, Earlham College, located in Richmond, Ind.

June 25th - Arrival

2006-06-28T09:34:00.000-04:00

After about 24 hours of traveling, we have finally arrived in Jerusalem. Our hotel, The Seven Arches is in East Jerusalem on Mt. Olive. The view is spectacular of the Old City - especially the Dome of the Rock. Just below the hotel is the main Jewish cemetary in Jerusalem. It is the one featured at the end of Schindler's List, where the List survivors place a stone on Schindler's grave. Hopefully someone knows which one it is.

The trip was very uneventful, other than the flight attendant getting on the plane in Indianapolis to ask if Elizabeth Sullivan was a passenger - they wanted to know whether or not to put my luggage on the plane. Makes you a bit nervous...... I can now say that I have been to Europe - if only at the airport in Paris. It was rainy and cold - not conducive to doing anything but staying at the gate. Then, after all the warnings and worries of getting through customs at Ben Gurion airport, everyone breezed right through. No hassles, no questions.

We had dinner at the hotel this evening. I'm not sure of everything I ate, but all was delicious. I've decided not to ask what is in things, just eat and enjoy.

Tomorrow is our first full day - I can hardly wait.

News Muse note: Beth Sullivan is the bookkeeper for DisciplesWorld and has served as board member of the United Christian Missionary Society and the Disciples Divinity House at the University of Chicago. Sullivan is visiting Middle Eastern holy sites on a trip with her alma mater, Earlham College, located in Richmond, Ind.

Hey kids, it’s Yucca Mountain Johnny!!

2006-05-26T09:07:00.000-04:00

When my son was about five years old, someone gave him a stuffed frog. We soon noticed something was strange about this frog – it’s legs were sewn on backward. I joked that maybe he lived near Fernald . “What’s Fernald?” my son asked. And we had what is referred to as a ‘teachable moment’ when I told him about the infamous (around Southwest Ohio anyway) nuclear weapons plant that was shut down in 1989 after it was found to be polluting the environment.

So we named the frog “Fernaldo.” Now that my son’s a teenager, Fernaldo is packed away somewhere in the basement with the Pokemon cards and Beanie Babies. I hadn’t thought about Fernaldo in ages – until I read the recent news stories in the AP and Newsweek about Yucca Mountain Johnny, the cartoon character created by the US Department of Energy to help ‘educate’ schoolkids about the nuclear waste site in Nevada.

Johnny’s got his own Web site – the Yucca Mountain Youth Zone. There, kids can play games and solve puzzles and learn all about the Yucca Mountain radioactive waste dump. How fun! If you put your cursor over the headlamp on his helmet, it even lights up. Drag the cursor over his mouth, and it moves, but no sound comes out. (Insert your own punch line here.)

Apparently Johnny’s nothing new. According to Sourcewatch, he’s just the latest iteration in a decades-long public relations effort by the nuclear industry geared toward the kiddies.

I might just take Fernaldo out of storage today. He, too, may have a bright future ahead as a mascot for the Department of Energy. Especially if he glows in the dark.

The state of the world’s kids

2006-05-17T18:48:00.000-04:00

So here are a few depressing statistics you’ll find in the June issue of DisciplesWorld:
Nearly 18 percent of children in the United States live in poverty. Worldwide, the statistic jumps to 50 percent — 1 billion kids in poverty.

More than 600 million children live without adequate shelter; 8.4 million work in child labor; and 2 million are being used in the commercial sex trade.

Then there are the 1 million kids living in detention, the 11 million who die each year before their fifth birthday, and the 16,000 who die from hunger-related causes every day.

And let’s not forget the 34 million children in sub-Sarahan Africa who have been orphaned by AIDS, a disease that is entirely preventable through education and simple precautions, and that is currently manageable in the U.S.

Now here are some statistics you won’t find in the magazine.

To date, according to the National Priorities Project (www.nationalpriorities.com), the U.S. has spent nearly $300 billion on its war in Iraq. That figure is based solely on Congressional appropriations. The Project further notes that the money spent on the Iraq war could instead have:

Fully funded global anti-hunger efforts for 11 years,

Insured 168,543,437 children for one year,

Ensured that every child in the world was given basic immunizations for 93 years, or

Fully funded worldwide AIDS programs for 28 years.

According to James Morris, executive director of the World Food Programme, with “even a small percentage of the commitment that the world has made to Iraq, you could feed every hungry child in the world.

Now, a new study by Columbia University economist Joseph E. Stiglitz, who won the Nobel Prize in economics in 2001, and Harvard lecturer Linda Bilmes concludes that the total costs of the Iraq war could top the $2 trillion mark. This total, which is far above the government’s pre-war projections, takes into account the long-term healthcare costs for the 16,000 U.S. soldiers injured in Iraq so far.

As a mother, I cringe at the thought of babies dying from the slow, tortuous effects of gnawing hunger; of toddlers languishing from diseases that are entirely preventable; of small children working under conditions we wouldn’t sanction for our pets.

As a Christian, a follower of the Christ who warned, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me,” I am ashamed.

Next month, I will participate in Pentecost 2006: Building a Covenant for a New America. The event, sponsored by Sojourners magazine and hosted by National City Christian Church in Washington, D.C., invites participants to “three days of putting faith into action to build the movement to overcome poverty in the U.S., and throughout the world.”

I hope I’ll return with ideas for how we at the magazine, and you our readers, can work in concrete ways to improve life for our children, at home and around the world.

Olive branch or stick? You decide....

2006-05-11T09:09:00.000-04:00

Several days after the lapdog mainstream media 'reported' what it was told to report about the letter from Iranian President Ahmadinejad's 18-page letter to President Bush, they're now spoon-feeding us bits and pieces of it.

Bush and his people have dismissed it as a bunch of philosophizing that didn't really even address the 'nucular' issue. But more recent stories say it was very much an appeal to Bush's own professed Christian beliefs (including Jesus and the prophets, which Islam acknowledges).

I wanted to see the whole thing so I went looking for it via Google. I found it on the Web site of Le Monde, a French newspaper. The Financial Times also excerpted it and put up a link to the full text of the letter. Maybe others have now as well.

Opus Dei vs. Opie?

2006-05-10T15:16:00.000-04:00

I'm the first to admit that headline writing isn't my thing...but this one (for a Da Vinci Code-related story published in The New Zealand Herald) was obvious! Their headline: "Opus Dei, Ron Howard at odds over Da Vinci Code." Close folks, but no cigar. Interesting article though.

The best take (IMHO) on how to respond - if at all - to the Da Vinci Code comes from an interview with Brian McLaren in the most recent Sojourners weekly e-newletter (also accessible on the Sojo Web site for free, you have to register to read it).

McLaren opens with this: "I think a lot of people have read the book, not just as a popular page-turner but also as an experience in shared frustration with status-quo, male-dominated, power-oriented, cover-up-prone organized Christian religion. We need to ask ourselves why the vision of Jesus hinted at in Dan Brown's book is more interesting, attractive, and intriguing to these people than the standard vision of Jesus they hear about in church."

Amen bro.

The Lost Gospel of Judas

2006-05-03T13:05:00.000-04:00

If you're not freaking out over the upcoming Da Vinci Code movie (and the book, which came out, like, 3 years ago) here is something far more interesting :The Lost Gospel of Judas.

You may have encountered the Gospel of Judas through the very unobjective lens of the early church father Irenaeus of Lyons, who blasted it in Against Heresies. There's a lot more to it than just the widely-reported fact that Jesus asks Judas to betray him in the Gospel of Judas. Here is another glimpse, along the lines of the Gospel of Thomas and other Nag Hammadi texts, into how diverse early Christianities were. You can buy the book at major retailers or online - it's a quick and interesting read and it's worth your time and money.

Tomorrow, I have an interview with Dr. Marvin Meyer, the Chapman University religion professor who co-authored the National Geographic book on the lost gospel and is one of its translators. Meyer was also featured in the National Geographic TV special recently. Look for the article in an upcoming issue of DisciplesWorld.

For more reading here's a Wikipedia link too.

DisciplesWorld blog returns, with a question....

2006-04-29T14:36:00.000-04:00

Does church marketing suck? Or if putting it that bluntly offends you, does church marketing leave something to be desired? Either way, the folks at the blog "Church Marketing Sucks" want to help congregations to do a better job of telling the Gospel story and their own.

I found this site while checking out Squidoo - if you're up on that, here's the link to the Church Marketing Sucks Squidoo Lens.

BTW - DisciplesWorld has no official explanation for our lack of blog content...except to say, we're sorry, and we're back!

One Disciple's view on the 10 Commandments

2006-03-11T12:31:00.000-05:00

Dr. Bob Cornwall of Lompoc, Calif. wrote a great opinion piece in the Lompoc Record on Friday, about how the ongoing debate over public Ten Commandments displays is undermining what the Commandments were all about.

"Treating them as simply a legal code demeans them and rips them from their context as the foundation of a covenant relationship with God. Using them as part of a political platform not only demeans the Commandments, but it demeans God," Cornwall writes.

Click here to read his editorial.

Cornwall writes some great stuff on his blog too....

New blogs by Disciples

2006-02-25T12:07:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to note a couple of recently-launched weblogs by Disciples. Rev. Robert Cornwall of Santa Barbara, Calif. just sent me a link to his new blog, "Ponderings on a Faith Journey." Particulary interesting to me is his second post, about the evolution vs. intelligent design debate and why he and his congregation observed "Evolution Sunday" a couple of weeks ago.

Another Disciples pastor who started blogging last fall is Nathan Day Wilson, pastor of Clintonville Christian Church in Ky. Nathan is a doctoral student and young adult Disciple who is involved in the Lilly-funded First Parish Project. One interesting post on his site is about Martin Luther King's "Christmas Sermon on Peace."

Nathan writes: However, I think that in addition to hearing “I Have a Dream” each January, we should also hear this sermon. I say that because in this sermon King talks about how and when the dream King expressed in his “I Have a Dream” speech turned to a nightmare.

Thanks, Robert and Nathan, for letting us know about your Weblogs. Check them out!

On my way home

2006-02-23T09:04:00.000-05:00

I leave the World Council of Churches (WCC) 9th Assembly today to head home to Indianapolis. I will miss some of the excitement of the last day -- the election of a new moderator, the closing worship service. But I have experienced so much here; I have learned so much. I take home a wealth of information, ideas, and hope for the ecumencial movement.

You'll see a few more stories about the assembly on the DisciplesWorld website, a very brief news wrap-up in the April issue of DisciplesWorld, and then a feature story in the May issue.

I am thankful for the opportunity to have been here at this moment of change in the ecumenical movement, and to witness Disciples right in the midst of it.

Photos of young adult stewards' protest at WCC Assembly

2006-02-21T09:44:00.000-05:00

Young adult stewards at the WCC 9th Assembly in Porto Alegre, Brazil, tied their bandannas over their mouths in silent protest. One steward held aloft a hand-made sign on one of the voting placards. Blue placards are used to express dissent. Photos: DisciplesWorld.

Young adults launch resistance effort at WCC assembly

2006-02-20T21:15:00.000-05:00

Okay, so this has to be a blog for now because this story is unfolding so quickly. It changes every minute, it seems. And I haven't tracked it all down. But it’s a great story.

So, the last time I wrote about the young adults here at the World Council of Churches 9th Assembly in Brazil, I commended the assembly planners for trying so very hard to include young people in the life of the assembly and in the life of the ecumenical movement itself. But I wondered if it was going to work because, well…there really isn’t any mechanism for the young adults to have concrete input into the assembly.

Today, they revolted. Or I should say, the young adult stewards revolted. The young adult delegates, though upset, were not in on the action.

This is what unfolded: While touting this assembly as the Youth Assembly (a bit insulting to 28 year olds, by the way) leaders of the World Council of Church (WCC) made a bold and broad proclamation that they would like young adults elected to 25 percent of the positions on the central committee (a body of 150 that makes all the decisions of the WCC between assemblies). So that’s what the young adults were expecting, of course.

Also, a formal representative group of young adults brought a recommendation to Sam Kobia, general secretary of the WCC, last night proposing a special commission to study and implement more young adult participation in the leadership of WCC.

Apparently at that meeting last night, Kobia said that everyone who was not a delegate had to leave. All the stewards — those who have been working extremely long hours and not getting much recognition — were, understandably angry.

So, the stewards boycotted this “agreement” made between the young adult delegates and Kobia and staged their own protest today on the floor of the plenary. The protest occured after the nominating committee made a report that they could not fill 25 percent of the positions on central committee because they didn’t get the right number of nominations from all the regions of the WCC (Latin America and the Middle East proposed no young adult delegates at all).

The protest was kind of cool. The stewards came in and sat together with their bandanas tied around their mouths and placards saying that they had been silenced. Tomorrow, if they don’t get 25 percent of the central committee nominations, the stewards say they will go on strike. Believe me, this assembly will come to a screeching halt if the stewards aren’t there to help everyone do everything.

What will happen? Who knows. We’ll have to wait and see. But it exemplifies a couple of things for me: 1) the WCC structure is incapable of being responsive to demands that don’t fit; 2) the talk about a Youth Assembly, though well intentioned, was not well conceived; 3) it may actually be true that the young people are here just for show; and 4) who at the WCC is going to figure out how to work with young people?!!!

So, that’s my unofficial report on what’s happening to the young adult voice at the 9th Assembly of the World Council of Churches. Hopefully, I’ll get you an official report on the DisciplesWorld website soon.

Where the heart is

2006-02-20T07:43:00.000-05:00

Maybe it's the way my brain works, or should I say, the way my heart works. By far, the most moving moments of the 9th Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Brazil have been in music, personal testimony, drama, and dance. Those are places where I am being convicted anew.

Tom Yonker is a young Disciple who has been on an internship with the WCC Faith and Order Commission. I haven't yet met Tom, but I'm told he worked very closely with the worship committee to organize the music and other non-verbal acts of worship. I'm impressed.

The assembly choir fills the front of the worship tent and is equally comfortable with Latin American tunes as they are with Orthodox chants. Worshippers sing throughout the services as well. Worship begins and ends every day, by the way. This morning we sang and prayed that some day we might be able to celebrate the Lord's Supper together.

Music, drama and dance fill the plenary sessions as well. On Saturday, after a particularly moving testimony from Olara Otunnu of Uganda, a dance troupe from New York's Riverside Church performed the most incredible modern dance interpretation of the struggle of African Americans I have ever seen. And the Latin American plenary yesterday featured music from folk to salsa to indigenous to rock, all performed beatifully on the theme of the Assembly -- God, in your grace, transform the world.

The high profile visitors are also leaving a mark on my heart -- Nora de Cortinas who helped found the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo in Argentina spoke yesterday. Desmond Tutu of South Africa speaks today. I was even moved by the deeply theological presentation of Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Cantebury.

The most tears flowed, though when Otunnu testified to the atrocities occuring in his homeland of northern Uganda. 1,000 babies die every day in refugee camps. Soldiers terrorize children and rape women. The two Disciples delegates from Congo weeped. The atrocities in their country are even worse. Stopping poverty and war in Africa must become a priority for the world churches. I hope and pray that the assembly will make such a decision before they leave on Friday.

I've off to see Tutu. But have updates on the youth voice and the recommendation for common date for Easter, so...more later.

Mission is at the heart of WCC

2006-02-18T07:54:00.000-05:00

We are starting to get into the service and mission work of the World Council of Churches (WCC) here at its 9th Assembly in Brazil. Christian identity and religious pluralism was the theme yesterday, a topic that necessarily has to do with peace-making in our world today. Economic justice was the theme on Thursday. One of the Disciples here is writing a story about globalization and poverty, and the WCC initiative known as the the AGAPE Call. That will be posted soon.

Today we review the work of the program initiative known as the Decade to Overcome Violence. In that plenary session, the US Conference for the WCC will issue a statement about the war in Iraq among other things. The Public Issues Committee is preparing reports and the Program Guidelines Committee is preparing the agenda for the Council's work in the next decade.

The culmulation of workshops and plenaries on issues of justice and peace is overwhelming, and exciting. Here on this world stage, Christian churches are coming together to find ways to alleviate suffering, improve human rights, influence global trends and world leaders.

It's not all talk about institutional ecumenism and whether the Council itself is expanding its ecumencial table broadly enough. It's not all talk about consensus models and elections to the Council's highest positions, and whether we call our evening gathering worship or prayer.

It's mostly about what I believe Christianity is all about: the church of Jesus Christ at work in the world on behalf of the world, making the world a better place, a place of peace and human flourishing.

Watch the DisciplesWorld website, www.disciplesworld.com, for stories on the decisions made here about how to address issues like global poverty and war in the Middle East. Also watch for the stories of real people coming together from very different backgrounds to share in mission and love.

Is the young adult voice being heard?

2006-02-17T11:21:00.000-05:00

I have been pleased to witness the presence of so many young people here at the World Council of Churches' (WCC) 9th Assembly in Brazil. The WCC made a concerted effort to turn this into a "youth assembly." Everyone agrees that the future of the ecumencial movement depends on the increased particaption and leadership of young people.

We have young adult delegates, and some from the youth and young adult pre-assembly event will make a presentation to the assembly delegates, I think. Something called Bate-papo (chat in Portuguese) pairs young ecumenists with ecumenical dignitaries to allow the younger ones to "grill" the older ones on the future (and past) of ecumenism. And the young people just seem to be everywhere (no, I don't count as one anymore)!

But I wonder how well the assembly will listen to them, and how well the assembly will integrate their concerns into its agenda for the next decade. It is possible, in this institutional structure of the WCC, to go through this whole assembly and ignore the young people. There is not a plenary on the youth and young adult voice. There are workshops, but those are outside of the work of the delegates. I don't think there are any business items related to youth and young adults directly. I may be wrong about that. The young people are networking tremendously, but it is happening on some other horizon, even as they are physically in the midst of the delegates.

Truth be told, when the young adult representative spoke to the press core, she did not articulate well the particular concerns of the young folks other than the problem of violence against women and children. So the agenda and needs of young people in the ecumenical movement may not be very clear. That makes it hard to hear.

But it is also true that sometimes the way in which the older ecumenists talk to the younger ones is a bit condescending. As if they want the young people around only to learn the ways of their elders and replicate their structures and practices, not change them. They still seem to be miles apart.

So the effort is valiant; probably the best I've seen in a church body for a long time. But I get the sense that the young people might have to pry apart the hands that lead the WCC if they are ever going to have an authentic and genuine role to play in the whole business of ecumenism.

Or, as is happening all over the world, they might just go form their own network and leave this one behind. I hope not.

Disciples are giants

2006-02-16T10:02:00.000-05:00

I've known about the Disciples' passion for Christian unity forever. It's hard to be a Disciple and not have learned this at some point in one's church life. The movement that became the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) was founded on the principles of Christian unity--that the Body of Christ, the church, belongs to God, not to institutions. And God called the church into oneness, unity, "that we all may be one," says Jesus in John's gospel. The fracturing of the Body of Christ is not what God intended, so Disciples have always sought the visible unity of Christians.

I've known this. I've read the books, heard the stories, said the slogans. I also learned in my adulthood about the Disciples' involvement in the World Council of Churches, perhaps the most influential institution in the whole of the ecumencial movement searching for visible Christian unity. I've even known those who do this work -- Robert Welsh, Paul Crow, Jr.

But here at the 9th Assembly of the World Council of Churches, I get to see it in action.

We are big shots here. Little 'ole Disciples of Christ, dwarfed in the United States by the larger and more influential Protestant churches: the Methodists and Presbyterians, the Episcopalians. Here at the assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC), everyone knows about Disciples. We helped found the WCC, helped provide the basis for its work. We have always been involved even as the ecumenical movement and the institutions have changed. We have a reputation for passion, commitment, even theological contribution. It hasn't been lost on me that the Disciples delegates sit at the front of the plenary hall, at the first table behind the moderators. We may not have as many delegates as the United Methodists, but we matter.

Certainly there are problems in the whole movement and I'll get to those later. But for now, wow, is what I want to say.

Somehow, congreations, local church folks, Disciples "at large" have lost pride in our contribution to the ecumencial movement world wide. I'm not sure why. Probably has a lot to do with the overall changes occuring in the movement and in the institutions of the movement.

Peter Heltzel, who teaches religious studies at New York Theological Seminary, said yesterday, part of why he is here is because the ecumencial movement has defined Disciples theology as much as Disciples have shaped ecumenism. He wants to get at the heart of Disciples theology and its relationship to this movement for Christian unity. It's in our DNA, Christian unity is. (That's one of those slogans that is taking on new meaning for me).

There's more to say, but for now, just know that on this world stage, Disciples have a strong voice, something of which we can all be proud.

Worship vs. prayer service

2006-02-15T08:29:00.000-05:00

I'll try to get at this issue more precisely in a news story for www.disciplesworld.com. For now, let me ponder.

I am attending the World Council of Churches (WCC) 9th Assembly in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Last night occured the opening prayer service. Not worship. Prayer service. This is because apparently the word "worship" is too loaded for this amazingly diverse group of churches that come together to form the WCC. For many of the Orthodox churches, "worship" means something particular about THE CHURCH celebrating the eucharist, and since we cannot all share the eucharist together, (much less can we all be THE CHURCH), we must call worship something else -- prayer.

Sound like hair-splitting? Yes, I think so. It is this kind of ultra-subtle theological negotiating that makes it difficult for many to understand (or care about) what the WCC is doing.

BUT I do also think an issue like this is hugely important to understanding our brothers and sisters in Christ from around the world, Christians who have widely divergent histories, ecclesiologies, and understandings and practicies of worship. If we are to be one in Christ, we must find ways to make it possible, including expanding our minds and experiences.

But as one reporter (not me!) asked in press conference this morning, if we experience the prayer service as the worship of the church, why ought not we call that. Perhaps some readers of this blog will help me as a prepare a news story.

DisciplesWorld at WCC, 9th Assembly, Brazil

2006-02-14T08:47:00.000-05:00

by Verity A. Jones

Thousands of people have traveled thousands of miles to Porto Alegre, Brazil to attend the 9th Assembly of the World Council of Churches. It took my little group of four almost 24 hours to get here from Indianapolis. We met up with the rest of the Disciples upon arrival. All in all, we have 30 Disciples here. Only three are delegates, plus one advisor, one press (me!), and one rep from the Disciples in Canada. All the others are visitors, ranging in age from 22 to 80. It's quite a display of Disciples diversity.

Actually, it might be better to say that this group of Disciples represents a hopeful future for the church--half of the group is under the age of 30. Ah, that half of all Disciples in the US and Canada were under the age of 30! In any case, they are great fun to hang out with.

The assembly officially got underway this morning, though the four pre-events--on women, youth, indigenous peoples, and people with disabilies--were quite something, I'm told. I will be send news stories for posting on www.disciplesworld.com beginning this evening. Hopefully, I can keep up. This pastor turned journalist is still learning things like press room etiquette and how to be agressive enough to get an interview with some of the major personalities.

The major issues to watch will be how the WCC is addressing globalization, poverty, interfaith dialogue, and how the WCC is expanding its table to include more Christian communions from around the world. The mutiroa, which is the visitors program of workshops and celebrations, will be very interesting (more so than plenary sessions, I'm sure!). Of course, elections will be exciting... And at this meeting the WCC will set its program agenda for the next seven to eight years.

The city of Porto Alegre is beautiful, the weather is perfect, the music is outstanding. Already the assembly is enjoying the sounds of Brazil and Africa. And you can't beat the slower pace of life in South America. More later....

Help send Bill O'Reilly to Darfur

2006-02-08T06:45:00.000-05:00

The feud between NY Times columnist Nicholas Kristof and Fox's Bill O'Reilly continues. Kristof was among the first mainstream journalists to cover the situation in Darfur - he earned his cred by spending about a week there two years ago, interviewing women who had been raped and seen family members killed by Janjaweed militias, and putting a face on the genocide.
While I'm not sure who started the feud, Kristof raised the stakes by challenging O'Reilly to actually go to Darfur and channel his outrage toward changing the situation there. He even started a fundraising drive to pay the O'Reilly's way. You can write to sponsorbill@gmail.com. Kristof said he'd put up the first $1,000 himself.

Humane Borders' Hoover leaves Tucker Carlson in the dust

2006-02-07T23:24:00.000-05:00

During the recent flap over Humane Borders warning posters, Rev. Robin Hoover, the group's founder and president (and a Disciples pastor) appeared on Tucker Carlson's "Situation Room". Hoover promptly schooled Bow-tie Boy, then spanked him and sent him to bed without any supper. click here to watch.

About the whole map matter, Hoover wrote in his church newsletter: "Mexico is our neighbor, and we are our brother's keeper. As to any questions you might have concerning the data that might help a bad guy [a reference to US Secretary of State Michael Chertoff's characterization of the warning posters], worry about something else. The information that is available from the Tucson Tourist Bureau is better for navigating than what we have."

Reflections on the state of the church

2006-01-19T11:50:00.000-05:00

by Verity A. Jones

Last week, I was invited by the Christian Church Foundation (CCF) of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) to speak to a gathering of development officers (fundraisers) in the church at their annual Disciples Development Conference. The location -- sunny Tampa, Florida --sweetened the pot. It's been very cold and wet in Indianapolis this winter.

I was asked to address the topic: The state of the church and current trends. I figured the good folks at CCF asked me to do this because, as someone both inside and outside of the denomination, they thought I might have more freedom to say some things than others. I don't know, but they gave me freedom to say what I thought, so I did.

Afterward, a number of people asked me for a copy of my remarks, and wondered if I might post it on the DisciplesWorld website or publish it in the magazine. But a speech like this isn't really newsworthy (for online or print news) and it's not really a feature article. So I inquired with the real News Muse, Rebecca Woods, news editor of DisciplesWorld magazine.

Now, Rebecca (and her family members!) have been trying to get me to start blogging for months (something I have been reluctant to do, the reason for which may be the topic of another blog). So when I asked her what I should do, Rebecca said, "Well, Verity! This is perfect for a blog!"

So here I go. My first blog entry is really just a link to a speech I gave about the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) entitled, The state of the church and current trends. But at least I'm getting started.

Global Ministries missionaries' Weblog

2006-01-15T20:03:00.000-05:00

Was poking around on the Global Ministries web site and discovered they have a Weblog where missionaries post their stories, thoughts and observations.

If you've ever wondered what the life of a missionary is like, this blog appears to offer the unvarnished truth - good, bad, boring, exciting. Here is a sample entry from Marla Schrader, Global Ministries missionary in Palestine:

It has been more than three years since our family left Bethlehem during the Spring 2002 series of IDF military incursions into the West Bank and Gaza Strip. I left after a decade of mission service, while Leo, Jonathan and Anna Grace left their homeland. I will never forget that late May morning and how it took three adults to pry Jonathan's grip off the front door. So desperate was my three-year-old son's desire not to be uprooted from his home. We all left with the plan to return in 18 months, for surely the situation could not worsen. And then...it did.

Click here to visit the Global Ministries Weblog.

United Methodist official visits Phillipines, decries killings there

2006-01-11T08:09:00.000-05:00

From the United Methodist News Service:
The Rev. Larry Hollon, top staff executive of United Methodist Communications, was part of a denominational delegation on human rights that visited the Philippines Jan. 3-7 to investigate the killings of clergy, laity and human rights workers. Here is what Hollon wrote about the situation there:

MANILA - After hearing one story and then another of murder and mayhem, the mind shuts down. It can take in no more.

The stories are told with simplicity, and those telling them are disarmingly unassuming. A mother speaks of a son who wanted to make the world a better place; a spouse tells of a hard-working father whose "crime" was seeking better wages; a father recalls a daughter teaching poor women simple, legal rights under law; a sister tells of her brother clergyperson who taught people they are valuable in the embrace of God. Each has been gunned down in circumstances more than merely coincidental.

To read the rest of Hollon's reflection, visit his Weblog.

Some light reading just for the hell of it

2006-01-06T15:49:00.000-05:00

(not blogging about Pat Robertson, not blogging about Pat Robertson, not blogging about that idiot Pat Robertson, not blogging about...)

Hey... on a more interesting note, there's a new book out by Chuck Crisafulli and Kyra Thompson that tells you everything you've always wanted to know about hell but were afraid to ask. For example, 'hell' to the Vikings was called Helheim, and it was ice cold, not hot. Who knew?

Two of three places in the world named Hell (Norway, Michigan) are cold too. The other is on Grand Cayman.

And apparently there's an urban legend about the characters of Gilligan's Island - each is guilty of one of the seven deadly sins.

Just a little diversion on a Friday afternoon when I'm trying not to think about Pat Robertson.

Pastor launches Disciples blogring

2006-01-04T10:26:00.000-05:00

Hurray for California pastor Katherine Willis Pershey for taking the initiative to create a blogring for Disciples bloggers. For more info or to join, click here.

Also, here is a link to a story on our web site about Pershey, who writes the Any Day a Beautiful Change blog, and the blogring. You go girl!

Happy Holidays!!

2006-01-03T09:11:00.000-05:00

So the DisciplesWorld blog took a little Advent sabbatical. Well, I'm not sure what my other compadres at the magazine were up to, but those closest to me got to hear me ranting often about the latest 'christian' cause - pressuring big-box stores to put the words "Merry Christmas" in their advertising and in the mouths of their greeters and cashiers.

This year, I received a special Christmas gift (pictured at left) from relatives who appreciate my particular brand of Christmas crankiness.

We are called to spread the Good News from our doorsteps to the end of the earth. But expecting retailers to do our evangelism for us further cements the unholy link between the Incarnation and the Shopping Cart Nation.

Perhaps if we all purchased one of these to give to our atheist and Muslim and Jewish and Hindu neighbors....

Contempt charges against Disciples minister dropped

2005-12-29T17:15:00.000-05:00

This just in....from the Commercial Appeal, in Memphis, Tenn.

The state Court of Appeals has dismissed contempt charges against Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church's senior pastor Dr. Frank A. Thomas and church leaders, saying Chancery Court lacked jurisdiction in the matter.

"It's the result I expected all along. We were on the right side of the issue," said John Golwen, Thomas' attorney. "No doubt about it, it's been difficult, but this is a big relief."

The decision brought to a close a bitter chapter in the storied congregation's history, one that saw members pitted against church leaders amidst allegations of financial misconduct.

Click here to read the entire story (registration may be required, but it's free.)

U.S. Military Covertly Pays to Run Stories in Iraqi Press

2005-12-01T15:57:00.000-05:00

The LA Times reported on Nov. 30 that the US military has hired consultants who pose as freelance journalists to write favorable stories about US military operations in Iraq, and then pay the Iraqi newspapers to run these stories.

NPR also interviewed Times journalist Mark Mazetti yesterday about it on "Talk of the Nation."

One Pentagon official who disagrees with the practice summed up nicely what's so wrong about it: "Here we are trying to create the principles of democracy in Iraq. Every speech we give in that country is about democracy. And we're breaking all the first principles of democracy when we're doing it."

You'd think the big red shoes would have given him away...

2005-11-30T12:31:00.000-05:00

An employee named Ronald McDonald was charged with stealing from a Wendy's restaurant in New Hampshire.

(Hey, if your parents named you after a clown, you might just turn criminal too!)

What the Bleep Do We Know!?

2005-11-23T08:21:00.000-05:00

Looking for something to watch over the Thanksgiving holiday besides football? Check out this movie.

Already seen it? What did you think?

The Dead Sea, Jordan, November 11, 2005

2005-11-14T12:41:00.000-05:00

NOTE: This blog appears out of sequence, because of Internet problems. Sherri Wood Emmons is now at home in Indianapolis, and will post a final reflection on her experiences in Jordan in the next day or so.

The Dead Sea, Jordan

Tonight's blog will be short, because our hotel here has only one computer with Internet access, and there's a line of people waiting.

This morning we left Petra to visit the great desert of Wadi Rum. This is where Lawrence of Arabia led the first revolt againt the Ottoman Empire. It's also a drop-dead gorgeous spot. We watched a caravan of camels trek across the red sands and climbed rocky cliffs that jut straight up from the earth.

We left Wadi Rum and visited the port city of Aqaba, where terrorists fired rockets at American ships this past summer, only to kill several Jordanians who were working on the docks. The areas is known as the "Red Sea Riviera," a beautiful place of palm trees and families picnicking by the sea. It's also the only port and ocean access in Jordan, and the place where American warships dock.

"The incident" (as we call it here) of two nights ago has changed this country perceptably. Today, on the 100-kilometer or so drive from the Red Sea through the Jordan Valley to our hotel on the Dead Sea, we passed through no fewer than seven military checkpoints. Our driver's credentials from the Jordanian Board of Tourism, which have whisked us through so many security checks in the last week, were of marginal influence today. Simply checking into the hotel was a time-consuming ordeal involving metal detectors, luggage checks, and a whole lot of waiting.

Althought it's been a bit "inconvenient," I am glad of the security, of the armed guards posted in the hotel drive and the cement barriers that were erected just yesterday in front of the hotel. And I am glad there are so many other people from around the world who are staying here (even though many of them are now waiting for this computer!) .

I'm glad to be here, and I'm glad so many others from so many countries are here. Jordan relies on tourism for its life-blood. If the tourists leave now, this country's economy will be in real trouble.

I ask you again tonight to pray for the people of Jordan, thousands of whom took to the streets today in Ammon to protest the violence that has devastated their city. Please pray that the world community will not turn its attention too quickly from this holy land, and that the city of Amman and the peple of Jordan will feel the same warm embrace of care and concenr from the world that we have felt so deeply in the last few days.

The Dead Sea, Jordan, November 12, 2005

2005-11-12T12:41:00.000-05:00

In Islam, the Koran instructs that every Muslim should make pilgrimage to Mecca at least once before they die.

Every Christian should visit this place at least once in their lifetime.

Today, we drove to Bethany Beyond the Jordan. Archaeological and biblical scholars agree that this is where John the Baptist lived and where he baptized Jesus.

Standing directly across the great Jordan Valley from Israel, we could see to the west Jericho and faintly on the hills above the city of Jerusalem. To the east stood Mt. Nebo, where Moses viewed the Promised Land.

Following the wadi (valley) from the mountains to the River Jordan, we saw the waters of the mountain springs, which intersect with the river just a mile or so to the west.

The Jordanian government has taken great care to preserve this place, and to make visiting it both convenient and ecologically sound.

Today, I stood in the Jordan River and received a blessing from Father George, the priest of the Greek Orthodox Church at the site. My godmother was Greek Orthodox, so the significance was holy for me. I stood in the river as Father George poured water over my head and blessed me in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Everett Thomas, editor of The Mennonite, reflected later that this place is the lowest elevation on earth -- several hundred feet below sea level. Yet this is the place where the Holy Trinity manifested to humanity in a way unprecedented and unrepeated in human history. In our darkest places, in the depths of our doubts and sadness, God is with us.

That reflection means so much to me tonight. Just a few days ago, terrorists attacked this holy land. Yet this is the place where God manifested God's self to humankind. In the last few days, our small group of journalists has felt the great weight of human sin, the consequences of humankind's inability to live peacefully together, even in a land such as this.

Today, the waters of the River Jordan poured over me, and over my friends. We were refreshed. We were humbled. We were cleansed anew, to return to our own land and spread as best we can the healing words of the Christ, who traveled in this land and in the land just across the Jordan River. Jesus Christ ministered to the lepers, to the tax-collectors, to the prostitutes ... Jesus Christ ministered to those who were "unclean" in his time.

My prayer for America, for Jordan, for the Middle East, and for the world is that we can remember Christ's message, delivered in a time of occupation, danger, and great uncertainty, and that we will work unceasingly, tirelessly, and bravely to bring about Christ's wishes -- to usher in the Kingdom of Heaven to this hurting, needful world.

Salaam,

Sherri

Petra, Jordan, November 10, 2005

2005-11-10T09:36:00.000-05:00

Today, we visited Jordan's most famous attraction -- the Rose City of Petra. In the deep crevaces of the mountains, the ancient Nebateans carved from the rose-colored stones great monuments, tombs, and temples. Walking among them was one of the most awe-inspiring times of my life.

We got a late start, because we had to wait for an official okay from the Jordanian government and the American embassy to leave the hotel. We are under very tight guard now, and there are soldiers everywhere, automatic weapons at the ready. It's a sad, new reality for this small country -- their own 9/11 experience.

We are a subdued group today, not much of the usual teasing and laughter. We spent time talking a lot with Ali, our guide, who asked the question none of us can answer: "What do they want from us?"

No country in all the world has done more to accommodate Palestinian refugees. And in the last two years, countless Iraqi refugees have arrived, and Jordan has welcomed them, too.

What do the terrorists want from Jordan? What do they want from Spain or London or the U.S.? Probably, there are myriad answers to that question, but one thing is certain. They want to create fear and confusion -- the kind currently reigning in Amman. The kind being held at bay with great effort in Petra.

We are here, we are staying. We will finish this time in this holy place. To do otherwise is to let the terrorists win.

I ask your prayers again for the people of Jordan, who have worked so hard to create a safe, peaceful, tolerant country of refuge. Please pray for Hatim, our driver, whose wife and children live so near to the Hyatt that they felt the blast of the bomb. Pray for Amahl, whose family in Aljoun worry now for her safety as she travels with the Americans. And pray for Ali, whose wife spent the entire night last night in tears as she watched over their two young sons, praying for peace in her country and for her husband's safety.

I am grateful for your prayers and emails. And despite the devastation of last night and the tense situation of today, I am so very grateful to be here.

Petra, Jordan, November 9, 2005

2005-11-09T16:44:00.000-05:00

Dear ones,

I write this in tears from Petra in Jordan. Today, our little group stood on Mt. Nebo, where Moses saw the Promised Land he was never to enter, and at Herod's Palace, where John the Baptist was killed. I prayed in the Franciscan church on Mt. Nebo, and I lit a candle for my children, for the church, and for this land, which has stood for so many centuries at the crossroads of so many peoples and faiths.

Tonight, terrorists have bombed three hotels in Amman, one of them directly across the street from the place we were staying just last night.

I am crying not for myself. I am safe. We are safe. We are blessed to be among the Jordanian people, who have enveloped us in a loving embrace of care and concern.

I cry for Jordan, this land of peace and promise. And for the sacrilege that has been committed on such sacred soil.

Today, our tour guide talked so proudly about the safety of Jordan. About the way this place has embraced different faiths. This is a Muslim country, but there are thriving communities of Christians here. I have walked the streets of Amman with no head covering, and I have been welcomed. Today, over lunch near Herod's palace, we prayed before our common meal, Christians and Muslims together. We prayed for peace in this holy land, and for understanding.

Tonight, a small band of hateful fanatics has struck a blow against that peace. Tonight, people lost their lives, people were maimed, so many lives will never be the same. Tonight, I think about the young men who stood alert outside our hotel, courteous, friendly, eager to help and to speak English and to share their country and their culture. Tonight, I am so afraid that many of the dead and wounded are young men just like them.

Our driver's family lives just behind the Hyatt in Amman. They are safe, thank God. But they will never be the same.

Tonight, I am grieving the shattering of the peace that has blessed this country. I am grieving the betrayal of Muslim and Christian beliefs in the sanctity of life. I am grieving for our Jordanian driver and tour guide, whose livelihoods and whose hopes have been devastated by these attacks. I am grieving for the wedding party caught in the blasts, thinking about the bride and groom we saw just a few days ago.

I am safe. We are safe. And we are staying in Jordan.

Today in Jordan, it was windy. We joked about the wind blowing -- the wind of change, the wind of the spirit. Tonight, I am desperately afraid that the wind blowing is a storm wind that began in Washington. A wind of desperation and hatred. A wind that has hit the Jordanian capital tonight as a tornado.

Please pray. Pray for Jordan. Pray for Hatim and Ali and Amahl, our friends and guides. Pray for the people in this holy land, and the people in the Middle East.

And pray for America. Pray that we will have the strength and the courage to stand up and say to our government, enough of war. Enough of hate. Our president talks about "taking the fight" to the enemy. But the fight has been brought to Spain, to London, and tonight to Amman. Enough of war.

Pray for peace.

Salaam,

Sherri

Um Qais, Tuesday, November 8, 2005

2005-11-08T17:28:00.000-05:00

Today we headed to the far north of Jordan, to Um Qais.

On the way we stopped at the Jabbok River, where the Old Testament says that Jacob, on his return to Canaan to reconcile with his brother Esau, wrestled with the angels of God. The river itself is not much more than a swift-running stream, but in a dry country like Jordan, it’s a blessed, welcome spot of green.

Um Qais is another ancient village with Hellenistic, Roman, and Turkish ruins, these made of the local basalt. The Bible actually records a visit Jesus made to Um Qais, which was called Gadarene in biblical times. This is where the miracle of the Gadarene swine took place. Christ entered the village and encountered several young men possessed of spirits. He drove the evil spirits into the herd of local swine, which promptly ran off the cliffs and destroyed themselves. He was rewarded for his efforts by being run out of town for killing the local livestock.

So while I walked, I was awed by the realization that I was walking the same roads Jesus walked 2000 years ago.

One of the most awe-inspiring aspects of Um Qais is that you can stand in the ruins and look down on the sea of Galilee. You can even see the city of Tiberius, which in Christ's time was the town of Galilee. You can also look directly across the valley at the Golan Heights of Syria. We had coffee at the top of a mountain looking down on Galilee. It was amazing.

After our visit to Um Qais, we drove down into the valley between the Golan Heights and Jordan to visit a very tiny village that sits just a few miles from the border into Golan. We had to pass through military checkpoints to get there; along the roads signs are posted forbidding pictures. We could see Israeli watchtowers and soldiers in jeeps on the hills. Very, very intimidating.

We went to the village with a Roman Catholic fellow who works with the village Benevolent Society on behalf of the Mennonite Central Committee. How's that for ecumenical work? And in the village, we met up with a Habitat for Humanity crew from Denver, Colorado, who had spent the week building a house there. They were putting on the roof when we arrived. There are only 400 houses in the village, and more than 100 of them were built by the Mennonites and Habitat volunteers.

Goats and chickens wandered down the road, and the children of the village crowded around us, clambering to have their pictures taken. I ended up taking a dozen photos of kids, then letting them see themselves on the digital cameral. At one point, I was actually knocked over in their excitement. What fun!

When I say kids, I actually mean little boys. The girls would not be photographed, even the preschoolers. They learn VERY EARLY about Muslim modesty for females.

Then we went to the home of a widow who was the first in the village to receive a Habitat home. We sat on cushions in her sitting room and drank good, strong coffee — the standard Arabic offering, along with tea. She had only three tiny cups, so her brother poured three cups, offered them, we drank; then he re-poured the cups and offered them to the next three. This is the traditional way to share coffee, and a great community-building experience!

The woman of the house was very gracious, and let us tour the house. She even let us meet her daughters — traditionally a no-no in Muslim culture, but she can get away with it because she is a very respected person in her village. One of the daughters — who looked not more than 16 or 17 — was there with her husband and baby. The baby couldn't have been more than about four months old, and she was so incredibly pretty. I tickled her cheeks and she laughed out loud. Afterward, the baby’s mother sidled up beside me, pointed to the infant and then to herself, to let me know she was the baby’s mother. She spoke not a word of English, but she clearly understood when I told her that her child was beautiful. She smiled, nodded, and blushed mightily.

When we left the village, it seemed like every child in the valley was there to wave goodbye to us. I nearly cried.

Finally, we drove back to Amman to the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature, where we had dinner and heard about Jordan's new eco-tourism industry. It was fascinating and inspiring to learn how the country is trying to use this industry both to protect its natural wonders and to help its people to earn a decent living at the same time.

The Society has enlisted the local communities’ input and help from the start, and is trying to build local economies by engaging their citizens in building and running these new facilities. It also provides outlets for local folks to sell their beautiful handicrafts — silver, stonework, leather goods, spices, and intricately embroidered goods.

Thus far, Jordan has five “natural parks,” each with its own ecosystem and attractions. And while tourism fell off sharply after 9/11, Westerners are finally re-discovering this small country’s many historical, natural, and biblical wonders.

Tomorrow we leave Amman for Petra, the country’s most famous draw. I’m not certain about Internet capability in our hotel there, but if I can, I will keep updating this blog daily.

I am having such an emotional and wonderful time. Jordan is a beautiful country, and I really want to come back someday.

Amman, Monday, November 7, 2005

2005-11-07T18:35:00.000-05:00

This morning we visited the Holy Land Institute for the Deaf here in Amman. The place was started and is run by Brother Andrew, an Episcopal priest from Holland who has spent his entire adult life in the Middle East. He is a wonder — a perfect example of the servant minister, lovingly tending to his flock of children, speaking alternately in fluent Arabic and Jordanian signing. He also speaks English and Pakistani, and he has a mischievous wit and an absolutely infectious laugh.

The institute serves Jordan’s poorest population, offering state-of-the-art hearing assessment, hearing aides, and education for infants, children, and adults. The boarding school housed there serves 150 children, from kindergarten through high school. The children learn to sign, to read and write, math, science, and art. They also receive vocational training.

The school also provides translators to universities throughout Jordan, which makes the schools accessible to deaf students.

Several of Brother Andrew’s graduates have gone on to university, and some have returned to teach at the institute.

The grounds were beautiful and cheerful, the children as noisy and full of laughter as children everywhere. We visited a kindergarten class and watched a group of boys and girls learning math and signing, then set the entire class in an uproar when we pulled out our cameras. The kids hammed while we snapped away, then crowded around one of my colleagues — Jim Rice, of Sojourners magazine — to see the photos he had taken of them on his digital camera.

As has happened everywhere we’ve been in Jordan, our hosts pressed us to stay for a meal. But we had to leave much too soon for our next experience — a visit to the Royal Institute for Interfaith Studies and an audience with Prince El Hassan bin Talal, the uncle of Jordan’s King Abdullah.

Prince Hassan is a charming, gracious man, and we had two hours of fascinating discussion with him about how Muslims, Christians, and Jews can work together for peace and the betterment of the Middle East. Really, he is a remarkable man. He’s been everywhere and met everyone from President Carter to President Bush (current) to royalty from everywhere to Audrey Hepburn, but his passion is promoting interfaith dialogue.

Funny, articulate, and vastly knowledgeable, the prince engaged our group in a discussion of the role of the media in promoting such dialogue, then spent time answering our questions and posing for pictures. Later, I promise to write more on the wide-ranging discussion. Tonight, it’s after midnight and I have miles to go before I sleep (figuratively speaking, thankfully).

After our “business” stuff was done, we had lunch in Amman at a restaurant where we sat on low couches around a low table and shared sumptuous fare out of common dishes. Then we toured old Amman — the ancient city of Philadelphia — which looks like it has for centuries. All up the hillsides limestone houses are built one on top of the other, with narrow, winding streets our driver took at what must have been 50 miles an hour, just to hear us wail!

Finally, we visited a huge Roman amphitheater. I climbed to the top and the view was unbelievable. The really remarkable thing was a spot right in the center of the stage hundreds of feet below where you can stand and simply whisper and your voice carries all over the theater. Truly an architectural marvel.

The theater itself is more than 2200 years old, and was updated 1800 years ago. Just unbelievable. Everything here is just so old, with so much history. I stood at the top and imagined what it must have been like to watch the actors down below 2000 years ago.

When I first told people I was coming to Jordan, many of them looked at me as if I’d lost my mind. The Middle East? An Islamic country? Right next door to Iraq … and Syria … and Saudi Arabia … and Israel? Our American perceptions of the Middle East as a monolithic, unyielding, fanatic culture could not be further from the truth. The Hashamite Kingdom of Jordan is the very model of a tolerant, welcoming society. While Muslims constitute the overwhelming majority of the population, the country has a thriving Christian community — much of it far older and far more sophisticated than our Western churches. Everywhere we have been, people have been warm, accepting, and gracious.

I know that after this trip my perceptions will never be the same. I will never be the same.

If you haven’t been to Jordan, it’s someplace you absolutely must visit. For its food, for its hospitality, for its amazing history, and for its significance to three world faiths — including, of course the Christian faith — Jordan is truly a wonder.

Ajloun and Jerash, Sunday, November 2, 2005

2005-11-06T17:04:00.000-05:00

Jordan is a virtual treasure trove of historical sites. Today we visited the city of Ajloun, north of Amman. The region is famed for its olive trees, called Roman olives because many of the trees were planted by the Romans almost 2,000 years ago. Awesome.

On a hill high above Ajloun is the castle of Izz ad-Din Usama, a nephew of Saladin the Great, who defeated the European Crusaders in the twelfth century. The fortress dominated a wide stretch of the north Jordan Valley, and much of it remains intact and has been painstakingly restored by the Jordanian government.

It’s a complete medieval Islamic castle, with false balconies for dropping boiling oil on the heads of your enemies and “arrow windows” for firing at the Crusaders below. The castle protected the communication routes between south Jordan and Syria. It was built on top of an even older Byzantine church, which dates to the sixth century. Parts of the floor reveal mosaic tiles from that era. It towers over the surrounding countryside, but used to be much taller even than it is today. On a clear night, you can see the lights of Jerusalem from the top towers.

The castle houses a small museum, with artifacts dating from the Iron age through the Byzantine era.

In the city of Ajloun, we visited the home of one of our tour guides, a delightful young woman named Amahl. Amahl is half-German, half-Jordanian, but she lives in the U.S. now and works for the Jordanian Board of Tourism. Her father and aunt greeted us and served tea, fruits, and sweets. They are Greek Orthodox Christians and their hospitality was a sight to behold

Amahl’s family owns the entire hill on which their house stands. Everyone on the hill is a relative. They have vineyards and orchards and olive trees. It’s a beautiful place, with narrow, winding streets climbing steep hills and valleys.

Next we drove to the ancient city of Jerash, where we bought good Jordanian coffee so thick and strong you could use it for wallpaper paste. We sipped the hot, delicious brew while we wandered the largest city built by the Romans outside of Rome itself.

Built on the site of an even older Greek city, Jerash was one of the ten cities in Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon that made up the Decapolis under Roman rule. The walled city is huge, encompassing temples to Zeus and Artemus, an oval plaza, ancient fountains, a hippodrome for horse and chariot races, a huge amphitheater, and long, strait stone roads lined with Ionic and Corinthian columns. One can still see the tread marks left in the roads by chariots from the first and second centuries.

In the Byzantine period, the temples were made into Christian churches, with fine frescoes and tile work. Above one is an inscription in Arabic that reads (very roughly translated): “Here you used to enter with your nose closed; now you enter with your ears open.” Closed noses refers, of course, to the stench of sacrificed animals one had to endure upon entering the temple during Roman times. Open ears … well, you get the reference.

The Emperor Hadrian paid a personal visit to Jerash in 129 AD. At the south entrance to the city stands the great Hadrian’s Arch, built to celebrate his arrival.

While we walked the ancient streets of the city, the mosques in the surrounding neighborhoods began broadcasting the Muslim call to prayer. I stood stock-still and simply let the experience wash over me, moved nearly to tears. It’s humbling to be in a place where people stop five times a day, each and every day, to remember God with prayers.

Our dinner this evening was at the exquisite Kan Zeman Restaurant. The names means “once upon a time,” and the place lives up to the name. It’s an ancient caravan stop, lovingly renovated into a complex of artisan workshops, craft and antique stores, and an extremely good, traditional Jordanian buffet. The restaurant itself is housed in what once was the stables of the caravan stop, with high stone ceilings and smooth stone floors. The food was amazing, the hospitality more so.

I found myself transfixed time and again today by the beauty of this ancient place and the mystery, the holiness of it all. I am very grateful to be here.

Amman, Jordan, Saturday, Nov. 5, 2005

2005-11-06T02:00:00.000-05:00

It’s a long flight from New York to Amman, across the Atlantic Ocean, then down over Europe and the Mediterranean. Israel looks brown and wrinkled from 45,000 feet up — it’s hard to believe such a small, barren-looking strip of land has been at the heart of so much conflict and misery for so many centuries.

Our tour guide’s father was a Palestinian. At eight, he escaped on a bus as the Israelis razed his village. He never got to return to Israel before he died five years ago. Nearly 50 percent of the Jordanian population is Palestinian. Some still live in refugee camps along the border, but most have assimilated into the Jordanian culture. Still, they proudly identify themselves as Palestinians.

We got into Amman at 5 p.m. local time — that’s 10 a.m. Indianapolis time. Sleeping on an airplane isn’t easy, and I’m feeling the effects today. They tell on me in how painfully aware I am of how much I stand out in this Arabic country where 96 percent of the population is Muslim. Most of the women are covered from head to toe, in varying stages of black. Still, the people here have welcomed our group of American Christian journalists with open arms.

Amman is a big city — and the traffic makes LA look tame. Jordanian cars all come equipped with loud horns, it seems, and the drivers make ample use of them on a continuous basis.

Driving from the airport, we passed countryside that looked a lot like Southern California — brown and dry, with scrub brush and the occasional palm tree. Amman itself is a curious mix of fruit and vegetable stands and fast food restaurants, traditional white stone-block homes and modern office buildings. One sees mosques with the same regularity as one would Baptist churches in South Carolina.

Tonight at the hotel, a wedding party arrived, the bride looking shy and very beautiful in her flowing, white gown, her veil thrown back from her face. The men in the party sang and clapped around them. Our tour guide translated the song for us — the men were gladly and loudly exhorting the bridegroom to be “strong” tonight and make good sons.

I’m jet-lagged and feeling some culture-shock, but I’m awed to be in a land that holds such a claim on our religious history. Jordan is the land of the Ammorites, the plains of Moab. It’s where Moses got his only look at the Promised Land, where Jacob wrestled with the angels and Elijah ascended to heaven. It’s where John the Baptist lived and was murdered by Heron, and where he baptized Jesus the Christ.

In the next week, our little group will visit some of those places, along with Greek, Roman, Arabic, and Byzantine ruins. We will climb the towers of Petra, wade in the Jordan River, and float in the Dead Sea. And maybe, if we’re lucky — or maybe if we’re ready — we’ll feel the Holy Spirit move among us in this place where cultures, religions, and peoples have collided and coexisted for millenia.

Tomorrow is the big day

2005-11-03T17:24:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow morning, I will fly out of Indianapolis at 6 a.m., arriving in New York via Washington DC at 9:30. I'll spend the day in New York City with a friend from college, then back to JFK for an 11 p.m. nonstop flight to Amman.

I am excited and nervous -- honestly, a little bit scared. I don't fly well or easily. But this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I am tremendously glad of it.

I will be in Amman, Jordan, Saturday night through Wednesday morning. Then in Petra, the Rose City, Wednesday and Thursday nights, and the Dead Sea Friday and Saturday nights. Then back to Amman and New York and Washington and home.

I appreciate your prayers and good wishes. I'll try to give you all a good taste of what I'm seeing, hearing, and feeling.

Salaam!

Sherri

Salon.com Books | Interview with ... Jesus?

2005-11-03T09:02:00.000-05:00

The hype for Anne Rice's new book Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt on the early life of Jesus Christ began months ago. Rice, well known for Interview with the Vampire and other chronicles of the undead, returned to Roman Catholicism in 1998 and decided to take on the ambitious project of penning a fictional novel or series of novels about Jesus.

Now, with the book out, the reviews are coming in. Salon's Laura Miller thought it was surprisingly good, given Rice's departure from her usual subject matter (and some other criticisms Miller offered on the latter Vampire Chronicles). [note: registration required to read Miller's review].

I think this is going to be one of those books, like the DaVinci Code, that folks either love or hate, and again (like DaVinci), it will raise interest in (and questions about) biblical scholarship.

Do you plan on reading it?

Trick or tract

2005-11-01T17:09:00.000-05:00

Hey kids, why waste your money on costumes and haunted houses when your very own neighbors are will to literally scare the hell out of you with Bible tracts like this one! "Here Billy, have a candy bar and a little reading material to let you know you're doomed!"

American "Family" Association is at it again

2005-10-19T08:48:00.000-04:00

Once again, the Mississippi-based American Family Association is up to its so-called "Christian" bullying tactics, targeting (of all things) the company that makes American Girl dolls and books for a possible boycott (full AP story here).

American Girl supports several organizations including Girls Inc., which favors educating and empowering young girls, or as its mission states, "inspiring girls to be strong, smart and bold." Sounds like a refreshing alternative to filling their heads with notions that they should be shaped like Barbie and copy the materialistic, snobbish attitude of "Bratz." Here is a link to Girls Inc's advocacy positions - check it out for yourself. They even have a Girls' Bill of Rights.

But the AFA calls Girls Inc a "pro-abortion, pro-lesbian advocacy group."

Does the AFA speak for your family's values? If the answer is no, here are two things you can do. First, email the American Girl company to let them know you disagree with the AFA's tactics and have no problem with their support of Girls Inc. Second, put the company's products (dolls, books, an upcoming movie and more) on your Christmas shopping list.

Humane Borders blog

2005-10-13T10:57:00.000-04:00

Just found out that Humane Borders now has a blog.... Thanks, border friends, for linking with our recent posts. I have added a link to our right-hand column's bloglist.

Will be back in Tucson later this month. Meanwhile, here are two photos from my trip in Sept. One thing I found out is that the desert is a place of many signs. In fact, another term the Border Patrol and others use for tracking migrants is called "cutting sign" - looking for footprints and other clues.

This cross was in a remote area in the Buenos Aires Wildlife Refuge, I think. At first I was concerned that it was either a gravesite or a marker where someone had died. Later, back in Tucson, someone told it was part of an impromptu 'stations of the cross' that migrants had constructed during the journey. Prof. Jacqueline Hagan at UNC Chapel Hill and Fr. Dan Groody at the University of Notre Dame have studied the spiritual aspects of migrants' journeys.

Here is another sign, found a few miles from the cross. This Christmas Tree car air freshener was hanging from a bush, miles from nowhere. If you have any idea why, please let me know.

Katrina Victims Unwelcome in Some Towns

2005-10-04T10:03:00.000-04:00

This AP story sheds light on what may become our next big problem: a pecking order among those in need. Like Fresno's mayor, Alan Autry, many want to rush out and invite the evacuees to their towns and churches. That's great.

However, many towns and cities and rural areas, like Fresno, already have people who are in need of housing and other services. So what happens to them? Do they get leapfrogged by out-of-town natural disaster survivors?

It may seem like a crude question and one we'd rather avoid discussing. That would be a mistake. G. Todd Williams, pastor of New Covenant Christian Church in Houston, ever-so-gently warned of this problem right after Katrina. His church ministers to the homeless, particularly youth and young adults. He sees the great need ever day. The influx of new homeless to Houston creates more difficulty for the already-homeless; more danger that they will be forgotten or ignored.

So what are we to do? I don't have any answers here. And I continue to be impressed by the response of churches and faith groups and caring individuals.

But like the hurricane itself, the spreading of refugees is exposing poverty that has been long-ignored, by the government and sometimes, by the faith community. Are we hypocrites for falling all over ourselves to help out-of-town folks when we have been overlooking the needy in our own communities?

Your first response might be 'No! The evacuees couldn't help it. A natural disaster caused their situation. It wasn't their fault!'

So they are more deserving? What about the slow-motion hurricane of economic and social forces that contributes to ordinary poverty? Is it invisible just because we can't watch it develop on the Weather Channel?

Make no mistake, there is an implicit pecking order, imposed by well-meaning folks, on the needy. Domestic disaster evacuees come first. Then, political refugees with 'legal' status. Then, the homeless. At the bottom, "illegal aliens" who suffer and die in the desert by the hundreds, and in the trunks of cars or in overheated railcars or packed into semi-trailers.

We have shown how much we CAN care. Before we return to the status quo and pat ourselves on the back, assured our good works will please God, we need to ask some hard questions of ourselves and of our political leaders.

Borderlands dispatch: Scari-vaca

2005-10-03T22:01:00.000-04:00

I posted this a few days ago, but when I hit “publish” it disappeared into the ether. So, I had to start again from scratch and it’s taken me a couple of days to find time….

Anyway, on the same day I went out to the desert with the Samaritans, we stopped for lunch in the town of Arivaca, someplace south of Tucson in the middle of nowhere. Arivaca is a one-street town with the odd mix that you find in Arizona outside of the major metros. One or two bars, a touristy gift shop with southwestern crafts, indications that artists live here, but also a weird place with a huge flagpole flying the American and POW/MIA flag (possible symbol of anti-immigrant groups, if the flag is upside down. I don’t remember) next door to a taco stand run out of a small trailer. Ranchers in noisy pickups drive through, kicking up dust. The post office is by far the fanciest building in town, a stucco study in overkill. As if someone thought a new post office would bring this town back to life!

Virginia runs the taco stand, where we went for lunch. Behind it are four plastic tables inside one of those zip-up tent/gazebo things to keep the flies and bees out. Good burritos and soda in cans out of a cooler behind the trailer.

After lunch we drove out to the No More Deaths group's camp – it’s called the Ark of the Covenant. NMD seems to be an offshoot of the Samaritans, although it’s supposed to be an umbrella organization for all the groups working on the border. The idea behind the “Ark,” according to a young woman named Xylem that I spoke with, is that by camping out in the desert, they can go out and look for migrants in need at any time, day or night.

It makes some sense – migrants are on the move a lot at night, and even leaving Tucson at 6 a.m. it took us a couple hours to get out to the west desert. Earlier this summer, they helped a man named Cesario during his weeks-long search for his daughter, Lucrecia, who died in the desert with her teenage son by her side. Her 7 year old daughter went on with the rest of the group.

Most of the people staying at the Ark are young – probably in their 20s except for one guy who eyed me suspiciously and looked a bit older. The Ark sits on some property owned by children’s book author Byrd Baylor, about 20 minutes outside Arivaca. If you came upon it by accident, you might mistake it for a sort of communal hippie camp – sleeping bags on cots out in the open, a tent where the cooking is done, a “bathroom” with no privacy, just a shovel and a symbolic log to indicate whether the door is shut or open. Twenty years ago, I would have loved to hang out here, sleep under the stars and fight the good fight.

They made a shrine of items picked up in the desert. Pieces of clothing, memorabilia, a photograph in a broken frame showing a handsome young man, identification, all gathered around a cross and a candle of the Virgin of Guadalupe. The saddest item was a small pair of little girl's shoes - the fancy colored leather ones with the little cut-out shapes of flowers and raindrops, and a buckle on the side.

I wanted to take some photos but the older-looking guy was getting increasingly wary of me and I didn’t want to cause trouble for my Samaritan friends. (Here is a link to some cool photos on their site though). I did get to talk with Shanti Sellz, one of two NMD volunteers arrested in July for transporting migrants. The were recently indicted and Sellz said the trial is set for Dec. 20. she seemed to be doing ok. The point of dispute is not whether they transported the migrants or not, but whether the migrants were in need of medical attention. Border Patrol says the migrants were fine. The NMD volunteers and at least one of the migrants has said that they were in bad shape and that the two were taking them for medical help after following the group’s protocols.

Shanti’s mom grew up in the same Ohio blue-collar town I did. Small world. She gave me her mom’s number (she now lives in Iowa City) and said to give her a call.

The trial will be a big deal. Both sides have a lot at stake.

Meanwhile, I have already started planning a second trip, hoping to talk to some Minutemen (who began patrolling the border down in Cochise County) and also go down to Altar, in Mexico, which is a staging area for the migrants getting ready to cross.

Alabama legislator blames Katrina on "God's wrath" on sinful coast

2005-09-30T09:40:00.000-04:00

It was only a matter of time, wasn't it, before some religious or political leader (or politician who considers himself a religious authority) came out with this. In this case, it was Alabama state senator Hank Erwin.

Even more bothersome than his quasi-prophetic ranting is that people elected this guy!

Will Willimon, also interviewed for the article, said Erwin is "sure no theologian."

If Erwin's theory holds true, Las Vegas is long overdue for an earthquake or tornado. And Washington DC? Well....

Borderlands Dispatch: Nómadas y Samaritanos

2005-09-28T06:48:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I went back out to the desert with another group - Los Samaritanos, or the Samaritans. They drive the roads and trails of the desert searching for migrants who are in need of medical care, water or food. Like Humane Borders, their goal is to keep so many from dying in the desert, but they take a different approach.

We left Southside Presbyterian Church just after 6 a.m. and headed west of Tucson. We parked and headed up and down several washes (dry riverbeds), calling out to any migrants who might be hiding, resting or in need of aid. The two volunteers I was with both have medical training. One is a retired doctor (age 74) and the other (age 62) has run a medical project in Guatemala for 12 years. Both speak Spanish fluently.

We did that for a couple of hours. We saw lots of evidence that migrants had been there - empty water jugs, discarded clothing and old backpacks, a few food wrappers. Often the coyotes make them leave much of what they bring behind, especially when they are near a pick-up point. We picked up some of the trash (basura). The Samaritan woman told me about finding things like a brand new little girl's fancy dress, or eyelash curlers, high-heeled shoes, etc. Some of the migrants do not know how far the trip will be or are told by their paid guides that it is not very far...so they want to look nice when they meet family or friends up north. So it is very sad to see these things in the desert, where they had to leave behind that dream or image of how it would be, in favor of surviving.

We left that area and headed south along a well-traveled paved road. We passed a Border Patrol vehicle parked at a gas station, one of many times we would see la migra during our trip. Generally they wave, and you wave back. Both Humane Borders and Samaritans volunteers seem to have an understanding with most Border Patrol and each respects the other's need to do what they do. Sometimes the Samaritans will stop when they see Border Patrol has apprehended migrants, to offer food packs, water, etc.

A few miles down the road, we spotted two young men - migrants - who flagged us down. They had a little water, no food, and one had huge blisters on the bottom of his feet. The retired doctor examined his feet, helped clean and bandage them and gave both a pair of clean socks. We gave them food packs - gallon-size ziploc bags with vienna sausages, applesauce and other small items - and they began eating quickly. Both looked very young. We asked how old - one was 21, the other, 22. Both were from Oaxaca - in the far south of Mexico. A long way to have come. One was headed to Los Angeles, the other to Santa Rosa, Calif. where his girlfriend and baby daughter were waiting. He pulled a wallet-size photo out of the small plastic bag he was carrying, passed it to us and smiled proudly.

We advised them to rest in the shade during the heat of the day, and they nodded, but I'm guessing they continued on after we left them.

Update from Houston Disciples pastor after Rita

2005-09-27T10:49:00.000-04:00

September 26, 2005

From G. Todd Williams, pastor of New Covenant Christian Church in Houston, Texas.

After a long day, my family arrived safely back in Houston. We evacuated last Thursday morning for San Antonio. Today we were allowed back in our neighborhood as part of a “staggered” return to Houston plan.

It was a strange feeling boarding up my home and packing my car with what I felt I would need in the event that I were to loose my home. Things certainly take on a different value when it comes to the idea that you may never see it again.

I don’t think that I have ever felt such anxiety before in my life. Even while driving away, I took one look back and thought, “Okay God, it’s yours.”

To help matters, my father drove straight from Indiana overnight on Wednesday, as the storage place where he keeps his RV called and said that if he didn’t come and get it, they couldn’t guarantee that it would be safe. This actually worked well for all of us, as there were no rooms available south of Waco, Texas.

Dad arrived, slept for an hour while we finished boarding up the house and loading the car, and then we hit the road.

Wednesday night had been filled with phone calls, and trying to make sure that our members were going to be safe. A late night trip into the inner city had me picking up Tony Head, one of our kids from the University of Houston, at the Greyhound bus stop. He was trying to get out of town, but Greyhound has stopped selling tickets, and there were close to 500 people on the street trying to find a way out of the city. Armed police officers prevented people who did not already have reservations from entering the building.

I wasn’t about to leave Tony on the street, especially with so many angry and frightened people, so I told him that he was going with me to San Antonio. For me, this was the most terrifying experience I have ever had on the streets of Houston. Being among these people, many of them yelling and pushing, made me realize just how desperate people can be.

On Thursday, as our little caravan struck out, we soon realized that there was no fuel to be found, and had we not packed water and some snack items, we wouldn’t have had food either. Luckily, we had filled our gas tanks, and had additional gas tanks on board.

Late that night, we managed to make our way to San Antonio. We went to a restaurant, and we were surrounded by evacuees from Houston. Many shared stories of how it took them close to twenty hours to escape the city.

I don’t think that I have ever watched so much news coverage before in my life. We gathered and prayed for our friends and families, our fellow Disciples’ who were about to face the storm, and for the strength to return and be ready to face whatever we would find.

Today we returned. Most everyone in our congregation has checked in, and everyone seems to be doing well When I pulled into our drive, I breathed a sigh of relief. The front of the house looked fine. The only damage we sustained was about half of our back-yard fence is now in the neighbor’s yard, and we lost shingles off the roof. Praise God … no water leaked in.

On a personal note, today is my 42nd birthday. I am surrounded by my family, I have (most of) a roof over my head, and my health seems to be in check. My friend Alicia Barnett in Port Arthur shared with me this afternoon, “I still have a home! I know that there is a lot ahead of us, but God has a silver lining just waiting to make itself known.”

Remaining in God’s grip!

Rev. G. Todd Williams

Borderlands dispatch: A day in the desert

2005-09-27T00:49:00.000-04:00

We left Tucson at 6 a.m. - eight of us in two Humane Borders trucks, headed west toward Ajo and finally, Organ Pipe National Monument.

Eleven hours later, after making the rounds to several water stations, we returned to Tucson - sweaty, tired, and (for me, at least) with a greater understanding of just how vast, beautiful and unforgiving is the desert backdrop for all the border drama and politics often in the news.

At one water station, we hauled five-gallon jugs
from the truck parked on the dirt road by wheelbarrow and by hand over a rough trail about 1/2 mile up to the water station. We were out there maybe an hour - and that was enough for all of us. Being out there gave me a glimpse of how difficult it is for the migrants. Out here the rhetoric of immigration policy - what it is, what it should be, who benefits - just evaporates in the scorching sun. The desert doesn't give a d---.

We saw Border Patrol all day long - in pickup trucks, in a Humvee at Organ Pipe, in a low-flying chopper over distant wash, with guns drawn at someone or something beside the road, and later, also beside the road, with a group of apprehended migrants.

We ate lunch at a restaurant at the border checkpoint at Lukeville. Here is a view of the 30 mile border fence - chain link, with another row of steel fencing beside it.

Thirty miles may seem like a big fence - but don't be fooled. If you looked at the border on a map, you'd see that there is plenty of room to enter...but the desert gets even harsher out that direction.

Along the way I got to talk to Humane Borders' Robin Hoover. In between jokes - R-rated jokes, Bible jokes, made-up jokes and puns - he told the stories that go along with this place and its recent history. Tragic deaths, rescues, Indian lore, confrontations, wild animals, crazy people who weren't crazy at all...but the main character in most is the desert.

Here is my favorite joke from today, told by Robin: "What happens if you don't pay your exorcist? You get repossessed!"

Borderlands dispatch: Little white crosses

2005-09-25T23:40:00.000-04:00

Four year old Maya Wood holds a cross bearing the name of one of more than 200 migrants who died trying to cross the Arizona desert this year. Maya was with her mom, Cathy Wood, at the March for Migrants in Tucson, Arizona this afternoon. The march is an annual event held by Humane Borders. This year's march was not really a march - the Tucson police had some issues with blocking off a lane of traffic or something like that. Instead, after a service in memory of the migrants at First Christian, everyone drove over - funeral-procession style - to the Pima County coroner's office for a final word of prayer. At the coroner's office is a refrigerated semi-trailer where 60 bodies are awaiting autopsies.

So far, according to Robin Hoover of Humane Borders, 238 migrants have died this year - another sad new record. That statistic is for the fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.

Each year, they have had a march or something to honor and remember the dead. By far the toughest part of the church service is when they read the names. While the names are being read, people come forward and take up the white crosses bearing the names and dates of death.

I took 3 crosses. When I got back to my pew, I read the names. One, Maria Rudy Aguilar Santiz, died on July 13 of this year, which happens to be my mom's birthday. The other, Hector Carbajal Martinez, died on July 2, a Saturday. While I was probably laying on a raft in the backyard pool, he was dying in the desert, dehydrated and over heated.

The third cross says "Desconocido" which means unidentified. About half of the crosses bear only this word. Still, as a woman named Maria reminded us during the service, somewhere there was probably a family waiting - one that had pinned its hopes of a better life on the shirtail of this traveler, now deceased.

National Benevolent calls its bankruptcy a "disaster," sues its own law firm

2005-09-20T11:36:00.000-04:00

Now, millions of dollars and a couple of years later, the lawsuit filed last week by attorneys for the National Benevolent Association (NBA) against law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges makes allegations that if proven, confirm some of the worst fears about what happened to the non-profit.

First we heard that Cain Bros. was allegedly wining, dining, hoteling and limosine-riding away the assets of the 119 year-old charity.

Now, it may turn out the whole bankruptcy was a sham to generate fees for the lawyers and consultants. All financed by money given by good church folks for the purpose of helping children, the elderly, the disabled, and others in need.

Weil Gotshal, meanwhile, brags on its web site that it was recently named "Law Firm of the Year" among bankruptcy firms in 2004 by Chambers and Partners.

Isn't there a special corner of hell, or at least, heck, available for these folks to roast in?

'Get Off The F---ing Freeway': The Sinking State Loots its Own Survivors

2005-09-13T13:26:00.000-04:00

Two paramedics stranded in New Orleans in the wake of hurricane Katrina give their account of self-organisation and abandonment in the disaster zone. Sherri sent this along, and said it matches the accounts she heard from other New Orleans evacuees.

Mother Nature's wrath was only the beginning of what these folks endured. Click here to read it.

Photos of Hurricane Katrina aftermath and response

2005-09-13T13:22:00.000-04:00

These photos were taken by Tom Kinton, a fellow traveler with Sherri, Tina, Barb and others who were in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi last week to offer assistance and survey damage from Hurricane Katrina.

Tom's photos: click here.

Sherri Emmons DisciplesWorld update: Covington, Slidell and headed home

2005-09-09T06:33:00.000-04:00

Cullman, Alabama

September 8, 2005

Day 5

My friend, Tina Burton, is the only person in the world I could have called last Thursday and said, “Hey, you want to take a week off work and drive down into the hurricane zone on Sunday?”

Her response, classic Tina, was, “I’ve got a tent!”

She has worked tirelessly this week, taking orders (with a smile and sometimes with a comeback) from me, from Barb Jones, from anyone who needs help. She has missed a week of work, slept on church floors (for maybe 4 hours a night), lugged supplies, taken photos, organized kitchen supplies — and never complained once.

Yesterday, driving through Covington, Louisiana, Tina hung out the window of the car, snapping photos. She wanted to come, because she wanted to help. She is not the only one who wants to help.

The response to this disaster is almost as overwhelming as the storm itself. This morning, people stopped by the church in Covington to ask what we need. Their houses are in various states of disrepair; they’re dealing with insurance forms and FEMA and flood waters (with no electricity — and no air conditioning); they don’t know what’s happened to friends, neighbors, and sometimes family members — but here they are at the church, asking what they can do to help. I am humbled by their generosity.

We drove to Slidell, Louisiana, this morning. I thought Covington was bad, but Slidell is worse. Thousands of trees are down, many lying across houses and roads. Downed power lines still lie across the highway. Most of the town is without electricity (and I will just mention this one more time, it is hot and it is humid!). We have been told to watch for snakes and rats. Thankfully, we don’t come across any.

The Disciples church in Slidell is in good shape. A tree is down on the fellowship hall, but the structure has held. Shingles litter the lawn. But the church has survived better than most of the surrounding town. Homes have been completely demolished. Traffic lights are still out. Some stores are open, but most aren’t. It’s a cash-only economy.

We left Slidell, Tina and I, to head northeast. Byron, Lois, and Tom will stay behind to direct Disciples’ relief efforts. This afternoon, Byron and Tom were busy with chainsaws. John, who let us shower at his house yesterday, told us — in perhaps the understatement of the year — “We’ll have lots of firewood down here this winter

Driving northeast, we pass dozens of caravans heading south — church vans pulling campers, the Kentucky coroner’s office, military vehicles, police units from half a dozen places, and a line of fire trucks from New York City. I wish we were heading south again. I wish we were going to help.

I’ve been thinking a lot about those drops in the ocean of need. My drop is a small one — hell, it’s miniscule. I want to do more — stay in Covington with Lois and Byron and Tom, cut trees or pound nails, or cook for the people who could do that better than I could. Instead, I’m going home to write. It’s a very small drop, indeed. And I’ve worried about that all day.

Tonight, Tina and I are staying in Cullman, Alabama. We drove to three hotels before we found a room. Finally, we pulled into a Best Western. The parking lot is filled with cars bearing Louisiana license plates.

“We need a room, any room,” I tell the desk clerk.

“We only have one left,” she drawls, checking her computer. “It’s a mini-suite with a Jacuzzi.”

Tina and I look at each other, aghast. I’m on a church magazine budget. We cannot afford a Jacuzzi.

“Are you all coming from down South?” the young woman asks.

We nod.

“It’s $79,” she says.

I stare at her, then say sheepishly, “Oh no. We’re not evacuees. We’ve just been down in Louisiana, writing about the story for our church magazine.”

“It’s $79,” she repeats firmly.

Drops in the ocean. Small drops, inadequate, inconsequential in themselves. Today I am realizing all over again that small drops multiplied by millions can drown a major city — or they can change the world.

Sherri Emmons is managing editor of DisciplesWorld magazine, the journal of news, mission and opinion of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Visit our web site for updates on the church's response to Hurricane Katrina.

Sherri Emmons DisciplesWorld update: Little Rock to Covington, La.

2005-09-08T10:46:00.000-04:00

September 8, 2005

I will never complain about the humidity in Indiana again. The air here is heavy with wet. We sweat, drink water, and sweat some more.

On Tuesday, we pull out of Little Rock in a caravan carrying six generators, gasoline, food, chainsaws, cots, emergency supplies, and bottes and bottles of water.

We are led by Barb Jones, the regional minister of the Great River Region. Her cell phone is permanently attached to her ear. She is fielding between 500 and 800 calls and emails a day from people who want to help, people who need help, people looking for loved ones. She is amazing.

Byron and Lois Lasater drive just behind us. Byron has experience in disaster relief. Lois is a nurse. They have left their home in Ozark, Arkansas, to set up the region's first relief center in Covington. They don't know how long they will be here. They're in it for the long haul.

Bringing up the rear of the caravan is Tom Kinton. He is just back from Iraq and his truck and trailor are loaded with MREs, water, and canned goods. He arrived in Little Rock on Monday, ready to go wherever he's needed. Tom is our go-to guy. He has a song or a joke for every occasion. He also has a gun. We are glad he's with us.

In Mobile we stop for dinner with a group of Disciples pastors. Some are still without electricity and hot water. They share stories of the storm and worries for their colleagues further south. They can't get into Biloxi or Gulfport. The phones work sporadically. There's no Internet access. People in south Mississippi are complete cut off. We can't get to them. We can't talk to them. We don't know who made it out, who rode through it, who didn't make it. The anxiety at the table is high but the fellowship is warm.

The plan is to leave Mobile that night and drive to Covington, Louisiana. Just a three-hour drive, we think. We can make it. But there's a curfew in Covington. The roads must be clear by 9:00. There is no electricity in most of the city. Trees and wires lie across the roads. We rethink our plans, and decide to stay the night in Jackson.

Wednesday morning we head south. In southern Mississippi we begin seeing Katrina's aftermath. Huge oak trees have been snapped in half. Empty houses with no roofs line the roads. Most of the gas stations are still closed. We can tell the few that are open by the long lines of cars. We're glad our tanks are full.

Barb is still our lead car, and she drives fast. Pulling onto the Interstate, our car hits a huge pothole. Thunka, thunka, thunka. We pull over to the side of the highway. The rim is bent. Still, the wheel itself looks okay. Back on the road. A mile later, the tire is flat.

Tom is a good man to have on this trip. He changes the tire without breaking a sweat. One more delay, but we're on our way again.

Covington looks like a war zone. I've seen tornado damage before, but not on this scale. Mile after mile after mile of devastation. Traffic lights are down and cars snake slowly along the road, pulling over from time to time for caravans of buses, military vehicles, ambulances.

Just inside town, the traffic comes to a complete stop. We turn off the air conditioning, open the windows, and wait. We don't know what the hold up is, until we pass the Episcopal church. Hundreds of cars are parked in the lot, in the yard, along the road, down side streets. This is FEMA, and people need help.

We set up camp at Grace Christian Church. Other than a few downed trees, the church is undamaged. The day before we arrived, electricity was restored. Blessed relief --- air conditioning.

We visit the house of a church member. His wife and kids are still further north, but he's come home to assess the damage. He has a tree through his roof, but he has running water. We shower at his house. Byron and Tom go up on the roof to nail plywood over the hole.

Tina, Lois, and I sit outside, gaping uselessly at the chaos that just two weeks ago was a beautiful neighborhood.

The scope of this disaster is almost unfathomable. Try as a might, I can't wrap my mind around it. So many people need so many things, our little convoy seems like a drop in the ocean of need. Still, the drops add up.

Today (Thursday), the first work crew will arrive from Baton Rouge. Byron and Tom will take them to Slidell to start cutting trees, patching holes, taking food and water. All of that is needed. But I think the greatest gift they are bringing is their presence. Everywhere we go, people want to talk, to tell their story, to be heard. They want to know they're not alone. They've been cut off for a week and a half. They need to know help is coming.

I have never in my life felt so useless as I do on this trip. Our efforts are so small, just a drop. But the drops add up. Everywhere we've been, we've met people doing ministry -- a ministry of water, canned foods, chainsaws, cots, and MREs. But mostly, it's a ministry of presence.

Sherri Emmons is managing editor of DisciplesWorld magazine, the journal of news, mission and opinion of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Visit our web site for updates on the church's response to Hurricane Katrina.

Images haunt KY man who drove evacuees from Superdome

2005-09-07T13:33:00.000-04:00

Rick Jouett, a bus driver with Bluegrass Tours and a member of Crestwood Christian Church in Kentucky, volunteered to drive evacuees from the Superdome to Houston. Read about his trip in this story from the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Flat tire in MS

2005-09-07T13:22:00.000-04:00

Posted by R. Woods:

Just got a call from Sherri around 11 a.m. Weds. They had a flat tire and were pulled over by the roadside in Mississippi. They've been traveling in a group and had someone changing it. Headed to Covington, La. and Slidell today.

Hopefully more later today from Sherri once she gets back to an area with internet access. She stayed last night in Jackson, MS and was grateful just to have electricity.

Photo: Barb Jones

Sherri Emmons DisciplesWorld road trip, Day 2 - Pine Bluff, Ark.

2005-09-05T22:46:00.000-04:00

September 5, 2005

We drove today to the convention center in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, home to hundreds of people displaced by Hurricane Katrina. It's a day I won't forgot.

The center itself is amazing. Thousands of people show up every day, wanting to help. In fact, the volunteer registration table is swamped, telling folks they can't be used until Thursday or Friday.

The Red Cross, Salvation Army, city and state officials, and countless churches and civic organizations have set up an efficient, compassionate, humane place to receive people. Hundreds of cots, showers, laundry facilities, meal service, clothing, personal hygiene items, and an amazing assortment of things I would never have thought of are available.

People coming in can bathe, eat, sleep, apply for food stamps and other services, register their kids for school, get their hair cut, choose clothing, use computers to look for relatives, make phone calls to call loved ones, the list goes on and on. The one thing they can't do is go home.

Pine Bluff received the last buses out of the Superdome in New Orleans this morning. People piled off the buses, dirty, dazed, clutching bags and children and pets. The stories are unbelievable, almost unfathomable.

A mother of three told us about spending two days in her attic with her kids, her sisters, and their kids, plus several neighbors. They had no car to leave, no bus fare to get to the shelters. On Tuesday, they tore a hole in the ceiling and climbed onto the roof -- where they stayed for three days, waiting for someone to come. "We kept hearing the helicopters," she said. "But they never came for us."

Finally, they were rescued, not by government workers but by men in fishing boats, who dropped them off on dry ground. Then they walked for hours, guided by neighbors and other New Orleans residents, toward the convention center. At one point, they turned a corner and were faced with soldiers, guns drawn, shouting for them to get down.

"We were just trying to get out," she said. "And they treated us like criminals."

Now she sits outside the Pine Bluff community center, five dollars in her pocket, wondering where she will go next. One thing she knows: She won't return to New Orleans.

An older woman sits nearby in a wheelchair, a small dog in her lap. She appears nearly catatonic, until my friend Tina asks if she can pet the dog. She smiles slightly, tells Tina the dog's name. She says she was at the Superdome, but she can't talk about that. The only thing she can focus on now is her dog. She has nothing else.

I'm walking through the center, clutching my notebook, trying to process what I've heard, when an older man grabs my arm. His English is broken. He is from the Philippines, but he lives now in New Orleans ... or he did.

"I need bag," he says, holding my arm tight. I look to where he is pointing. A trashbag holding everything he has left in the world lies split open on the ground. "I need bag."

"Okay," I say. I know where the bags are. This I can do.

I lead him to the area where people have been dropping off suitcases, duffel bags, grocery bags. I know where it is because Barb Jones, the Great River executive regional minister who brought me here, dropped off several suitcases and duffel bags earlier.

A woman gives the man a duffel bag. It is one of Barb's. He breaks into tears, hugs me, hugs the woman, and walks away with his bag.

I feel completely inadequate.

Bruce Bixler, the pastor of First Christian Church in Pine Bluff, has been listening to stories, too. The stories he's heard are much worse. I'm grateful he heard them instead of me. I'm grateful the church is here, has been here, to help.

And I'm grateful for the opportunity to be here now, to witness and to hear.
------------------------------------

DisciplesWorld is a journal of news, mission and opinion of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Sherri Emmons is managing editor of the magazine. Visit the DisciplesWorld web site for more news coverage of the Disciples' response to Hurricane Katrina.

Sherri Emmons DisciplesWorld road trip - Day 1, Osceola, AR

2005-09-05T13:45:00.000-04:00

Sept. 4, 2005

Heading south on Interstate 57, we begin seeing them. Long convoys of military vehicles, line after line of camoflage green trucks snaking south toward the hurricane zone. Open-windowed, unair-conditioned, moving steadily in the right-hand lane, they are filled with clean-cut young men and women. Every time we come upon one, traffic slows.

In the rear window of one vehicle, we see a cardboard sign, hand-lettered, that reads "Show Love." We honk and wave.

We pull off Interstate 55 in Osceola, Arkansas. There's only one exit to Osceola. In front of the Shell station by the interstate, we see a sign: "Red Cross shelter" with an arrow. The sign went up today.

Jim Roberts, pastor of First Christian Church of Osceola drives us around town. Osceola, Arkansa, whose claim to fame is a mention in the Huck Finn story. Osceola is Mark Twain's Plum Point.

Jim takes us to the Osceola Community Center, which has been transformed, literally overnight, into a Red Cross shelter. The center is bustling with people, sorting clothes, food stuffs, books, medical supplies. Everyone is busy. The local Red Cross person staffing the shelter stops briefly to talk with us. She looks exhausted. It's 3:30 and she hasn't had time for lunch yet. In the last two days she has trained nearly 90 people to be shelter workers.

There are maybe 40 cots in the shelter so far. Jim tells us they had hoped to receive more from the Red Cross, but they've all been sent further south. One of his parishioners is networking in Little Rock, trying to find more cots. They have sheets, blankets, pillows, and towels for hundreds. They need the beds.

More than 100 refugees are camped out in the three local motels. Most have run out of money. These are the folks who had the means to get out of Katrina's path before the hurricane hit. But they packed for two days. Now they are stranded, perhaps for months, perhaps permanently.

First Christian and the other churches in town have mobilized to take care of these folks. The churches are taking turns bringing in potluck suppers to the Baptist church. Next week, sometime, the Red Cross will take over with the meals. The agency offered to take over this week, but the churches had already worked out a schedule for the week. They want to take their turns. The Red Cross meals will wait intil next week.

I am awed and inspired by the passion of these folks. They are working 24 hours a day, trying to anticipate the needs of their uninvited guests, tracking down medications, formula for a lactose-intolerant baby, undergarments, laundry facilities.

Everyone seems to know one another, but Jim says that's a recent occurrence, a result of the situation. Baptists, Methodists, Catholics, Episcopalians, Church of Christ, Assemblies of God, Disciples, and others have worshiped separately here. Now they are all working, praying, and eating together. The town, Jim says, will never be the same.

While we tour the center, a family arrives from Mississippi. A couple with two girls, an older woman in a wheelchair, and an infant wearing only a diaper. While they are being processed, I ask the Red Cross director how they screen newcomers.

"We don't, really," she says, "If they are from the affected areas, we'll take them. We won't deny anyone food and a place to stay."

That welcome may well be put to the test in the coming weeks. Jim expects that soon the town will be receiving busloads of refugees from New Orleans, folks who won't even have cars and a change of clothes. I wonder how long the cheerful determination will hold up. For now, though, it's a positive experience.

We leave Osceola heartened at the good works happening. We feel comfortable, safe. Things here aren't so bad.

Of course, we haven't hit the hurricane zone yet.

Read Sherri's story about her visit to Osceola on the DisciplesWorld web site.

The view from Houston

2005-09-04T15:55:00.000-04:00

Todd Williams is pastor of New Covenant Christian Church in Houston. It's a new church known for its ministry to the city's homeless and in particular, the youth. It's a tough gig. Williams has been at times a relentless advocate for the homeless, like when the city moved them all from under an overpass to various "hotels" (if you could call them that) in outlying areas, away from the programs and services that keep them alive and give them hope.

Since the hurricane, Williams and New Covenant have been front-and-center in the city's organizing of how to serve all these refugees pouring in.

Yesterday, he sent us this reflection, to use however we wanted. It gives you a look at life on Houston's streets, through the eyes of a wise and compassionate pastor who admits that sometimes, we can only take small steps.

Read Williams' reflection here.

DisciplesWorld hits the road...and I get to stay home with the chicken pox

2005-09-03T19:26:00.000-04:00

DisciplesWorld, the magazine of news, mission and opinion of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is gearing up for a road trip to cover some of the stories coming out of the churches and regions following Hurricane Katrina. Our managing editor, Sherri Emmons, will be leaving tomorrow morning, headed for Arkansas, where many refugees are being housed and more are arriving. From there she will head into south and east. Hopefully, Sherri will be able to post from the road to this Weblog, so stay tuned. I'm sure she will also have some great stories for the magazine and the web site.

And as we were working out the logistics over the past few days, I was developing a case of the shingles. Shingles is caused by the chicken pox virus which can lie dormant in your nerves and then come out much later in life. I won't bore you with medical details except to say it's painful and it means resting instead of going on the road and potentially spreading chicken pox to those who have not had it or been vaccinated.

Aside from the road stories, we have some great writers working on coverage. Rev. Jayne Ryan Kuroiwa is working on a story about the Houston interfaith effort to serve the many refugees (up to 250,000) there. Nathan Hill is writing about the response by Disciples colleges and universities.

I'll be holding down the fort - or at least the outpost in Cincinnati, writing a few stories and staying comfortably numb. Tomorrow morning, I will be sitting at my computer at 11:30 Eastern time to participate in a worship service via email, conducted by Rev. Michael Oberlender, of First Christian Church of Greater New Orleans. The congregation started a listserv in 2003 and has been using it now to report on the whereabouts of members and family, the condition of homes and areas of town, etc. The service, in keeping with Disciples' tradition, will include communion - BYOBread and Juice. I'll be writing about that.

Works out well since I can't go to my own church anyway, with the shingles...

US to accept aid from other countries

2005-09-02T07:28:00.000-04:00

A follow-up to my Fox News posting....

Although Condoleeza Rice said we will accept the aid, Bush's comments say to me that he just doesn't get it. "It" being both the gravity of the situation (which he has yet to see except for the fly-over), and the spiritual notion of the humility and grace that comes from accepting the help and gifts of others.

Contrary to any notion that accepting aid equates to an admission of weakness, it would be an acknowledgement of common humanity and a much-needed replacement of paternalism with the egalitarian ideal the US espouses.

http://www.salon.com/wire/ap/archive.html?wire=D8CBN4OO0.html

Disciples' Great River region message board for hurricane

2005-09-01T21:08:00.000-04:00

The Great River region of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is working hard to match up people in need and seeking refuge with those who have space or items to offer or can help in some way.

But their message board is more than that. People have posted stories, prayer requests, amazingly generous offers, etc. Some of these are tough to read. It's almost like a living shrine to the spirit at work among these good people. May God bless us and keep us tonight, as we struggle to make sense of this, to keep hope alive for those in seemingly hopeless situations and to find the best ways to help those who need it.

Church lawsuit alleging oil company fueled Sudan genocide

2005-09-01T09:46:00.000-04:00

I came across this AP story today and wanted to link to it so that it doesn't get lost in the shuffle of news. The US and Canadian governments tried to get it dismissed. The lawsuit alleges that Talisman Energy, a Canadian company, was in cahoots with the Sudanese government to talk about ways to "remove" people who were in the way of where it wanted to drill for oil One of those ways was ethnic cleansing, rape, kidnapping. So far most of the spin on the Sudan genocides has been religious or tribal or involving low-level greed and grasping for power. This is a whole new level.

Hurricane coverage on Fox

2005-08-31T20:57:00.000-04:00

Was flipping through the channels early this a.m. and stopped to watch Fox News for a sec. The blond guy on their morning show was commenting how when there are disasters in the world, the U.S. is always the country that gives millions or billions in aid. I knew what was coming next, the thought making its way from his pea brain to his whiny little mouth and out into the studio...sure enough, he said it. Will those countries help us? I bet they won't, he said.

How arrogant. And how typical. Sure, there aren't many countries that give (or at least, pledge to give) aid like the good old U.S. Then again, maybe if we'd do a few proactive things to address the way we contribute to global warming, deforestation, pollution, etc. we wouldn't be giving so much in aid for natural disasters. Our giving is large, but so is our taking.

Anyway, that smug, smirky Fox News guy is wrong. Other countries will help. We will be surprised, possibly even humbled. Remember, Jesus noticed the poor widow who gave all she had, not the wealthy ones who gave more and made a big show of it.

OK, this is kinda trippy!

2005-08-26T15:30:00.000-04:00

In doing some web searching I came across this virtual reality site produced by the University of Arizona computer science department. Click on any of the views of the link, then use the tools to scan up, zoom in and out, etc. Somehow I got going around in a circle, then ended up looking down at the floor from a ceiling view. It's cool!
San Xavier del Bac Mission, Tucson, AZ

Venezuela slams Robertson over remarks

2005-08-23T17:22:00.000-04:00

Wow, the full irony of Pat Robertson didn't really hit until I read this story. Still a bit slow from the Jimmy Buffett concert on Sunday night, I guess....

Think about it this way. If a prominent religious figure in, say, Iran, or Syria, or Bin Laden, for that matter, called for the assassination of George Bush, we would associate that with terrorism. Yet, at best, Robertson just gets treated like some crazy uncle (one with millions of dollars and his own TV network).

So is the lesson here that there really is a great distance between religious fundamentalists of all stripes and the moderates of their faiths, and so we ought to not get our knickers in a knot when we hear Islamic fundamentalists? Or, is the lesson that terrorism is terrorism, even when advocated by a good ole Virginia boy like Robertson? Either way it ain't a pretty picture.