Clarion: Journal of Spirituality and Justice

The War of 1812 and Red Toryism: Keepers of the Flame - Ron Dart and Archbishop Lazar

Longing for an Adventure - by Jeff Imbach

I am neither an economist, nor the son of an economist.  However, I am a Jesus follower, and, it so happens, the son of a Jesus follower at that!  And I am more and more moved to try to work with other followers of Jesus to discover a faith-filled way forward in the morass of rhetoric, policy making, and power-brokering that fills our current political and economic experience.  I have been holding this mess in prayer without much sense of how to respond.

Neither of the two predominant ideologies of current politics attract me.  I acknowledge that I have fears that the present Federal government in Canada has made it clear that economics is the fundamental value by which everything is decided – including more priority than the environment or basic human rights. (eg. the recent CBC news item:  http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/11/19/pol-foreign-policy-.html).

In other words, when it comes down to it, the government must ensure a viable and profitable bottom line for business.  In spite of competing values.  The justification is obvious:

é  businesses will close their doors and ordinary people will lose their jobs

é  businesses will go elsewhere if Canada is not a hospitable environment in which to invest capital. 

é  businesses will stay here but outsource their labour to other countries. 

Any of these options raises the fearful spectre of a severe recession or even economic collapse.  The stakes seem huge!  Who can argue with the spectre of a gutted economy? 

Displaced Childhoods by Partners Relief & Development

Dear Clarion readers,

Partners Relief & Development Canada and Cielo Pictures are proud to present the television debut of Displaced Childhoods airing on CTV Calgary on December 25th at 6-7pm and again on January 2nd at 5-6pm.

 

Displaced Childhoods takes a look at life for families who live in the world's longest currently running civil war. Interviews from men, women and children who have had to flee fighting and systemic human rights abuses in three of Burma's ethnic states share their stories with us and we learn how a small agency, Partners Relief & Development is helping them. 

I hope you will join us for this great and for those outside of Southern Alberta check to see if your cable/satellite package carries CTV Calgary and join us for this amazing story.

*Remember to set your PVR to record this amazing documentary, especially if you are unable to view it at those times over the holidays.

I want to thank you for all your support of our work as we show God's love to the people of Burma and I hope that your holidays are full of family, fun and rest.

Merry Christmas,

Greg Toews

National Director

 

Blood Relations -- posted by The Caffeinated Mystic (Deb)

 

Matthew 5:43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

Christ only says what He hears the Father saying. If the letters are in red- we’re hearing the words of the Father.

It appears the people interviewed are not Christians- and they are obeying scripture.

Some christian groups here in the West, say there will be no peace until Christ returns- and argue that to speak about peace is at best- naïve. Others go further and respond harshly to any talk of peace that includes showing compassion to Palestinians. As if to say- loving Palestinians is equal to hating Israel.

That’s ‘Bully’ talk.

There is a chorus being sung against peace that is out of harmony with the ‘song’ being sung by Father. His song expresses His desire for forgiveness and reconciliation between 'enemies'.

dis·so·nant   [dis-uh-nuhnt] adjective

1. disagreeing or harsh in sound; discordant.

2. out of harmony; incongruous; at variance.

3. Music . characterized by dissonance.

Politically- the situation in the ME may appear ‘complicated’, but a strong desire for peace and the willingness to build relationships is evident- if we are willing to see.

The people desire peace. What do we desire?

• Do we believe in reconciliation? If not, why not?
• Have we been 'Bullied'?
• Is our first response to 'peace talk'- repulsion? If so, why is that?
• Are we afraid of appearing to be on the 'wrong side'?
• Are we afraid of disappointing God, by loving those whom we've been told we 'should' hate?

We need a new song. Romans 12:21 "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good"

Open Letter to PM Harper - Omnibus Bill C-10 by Steve Bell

Dear Mr. Harper,

I am deeply concerned about Omnibus Bill C-10.  It is my  wife’s research (as a social-work student at Booth University College in Winnipeg) that has refocused  my attention to the bill. The more I followed her work, the more concerned I have become.

Firstly, I believe there  are some good things in the bill – let me be clear about that. But there are also some alarmingly retrogressive policies that will undoubtably be a black stain on your leadership for decades to come if passed as is. For the love of God and your fellow Canadians, please slow the process of this bill down. Break-up the omnibus to its components and consider each individually and carefully.

Honestly… in the last election I was prepared, for the first time in my life, to vote Conservative. I tend to be a bit left leaning myself, but thought that at this particular juncture perhaps a conservative economic approach trumped other concerns. Also, I live in Conservative MP  Joy Smith’s riding and have deeply appreciated her noble fight against human trafficking. But in the end I could not, by extension, sign my name to a  bill that blanketly criminalizes the ill and the desperate when other measures are proven to be cheaper, more effective and more humane.

"Lest we forget what?" - Not So Different - Brad Jersak and PartnersWorld.org

Not So Different from Partners Relief & Development on Vimeo.

"Lest we forget" - Brad Jersak

When I read war memorials or attend Remembrance Day services, I am often struck by the phrase, "Lest we forget." I wonder what I am to remember. I do remember my family members whose lives were sacrificed on the altar of freedom. But I also think we're meant to remember to resist evil (with good) before it comes to that. Unfortunately, while we're remembering the past, we can be prone to missing the connection between past injustices and what is happening now in nations where there is no monetary value in being involved. And we forget there are ways of helping other than through military intervention.

Steve Gumaer - Not So Different

Steve Gumaer and PartnersWorld.org help me remember, and they overcoming evil with good in their small way ... which is usually how it happens. We've posted the above video as an example of true remembering and one group's call to help.

You can read more about what Partners and the Free Burma Rangers are doing to help in many of the Partners publications or in Kissing the Leper, by Brad Jersak.

 

Local gang shooting and intercessory peacemaking -- Chris Hoke

Part 1

I just got a call that--while I was at a meeting with Presbyterian pastors about a "Gang Initiative" helping involve churches in these very neighborhoods--there was a shooting. Some rival Norteños came through the Cannondale Lane projects where we are spending more time, saw some former Sureño boys hanging out, and opened fire on them.

I don't think anyone was hit. But there has been a year long break from shootings, and this could ignite a series of retaliations. I am on my way to be present with the guys. I don't know what I'll say or do.

Please pray for God's presence and peace on Cannondale Lane in Mount Vernon, WA today. Bless the boys who were shot at (as well as the shooters) that they can process the fear and anger and not turn to the weapons I hear they are already gathering as I write this.

Internally Displaced - Partners

On December 6, 2010 in Dooplaya District, Karen State, Burma over 200 people fled from the Burma army with nothing more than what they could carry on their backs. Led to safety, Partners Relief and Development and Free Burma Rangers were able to provide them with supplies, including over 2400 kilos of rice, within 5 days of their arrival.

Internally Displaced: December 6, 2010 from Partners Relief & Development on Vimeo.

Signs of God's Kingdom Now by Bob Ekblad

Signs of God's Kingdom now: witnessing Jesus' work among the Mennonites in Iowa

I recently spent four days ministering at Sugar Creek Mennonite Church in Wayland, Iowa.  There I witnessed varied signs of Jesus’ Kingdom coming together here & now in ways rare & desperately-needed in North America. 

Sugar Creek is a historic peace church in the Anabaptist tradition.  They believe in Jesus’ teaching on love of neighbor and enemy alike—which works itself out in lavish potlucks, barn raisings and other community-oriented good deeds and a commitment to resisting war. 

Over 20 of Sugar Creek’s members were conscientious objectors in WWII-- an unpopular outworking of following Jesus in choosing to love and pray for (rather than kill) national enemies.  Like many peace churches, living out Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7 is a high priority.  Nathan, the pastor, had invited me to share on dimensions of discipleship less known & practiced by his congregation--the gifts of the Holy Spirit & healing prayer.

Refugee Crisis: Thousands Flee Burma

Thousands flee Burma as attacks escalate following sham “Elections” Over the past three days tens of thousands of people have fled from Burma Army clashes and forced conscription. More than ten thousand fled the border town of Myawaddy into Mae Sot, Thailand, alone. There have also been confirmed clashes–including the launching of heavy artillery–in other parts of Karen State, Burma which have resulted in more than 10,000 people fleeing for the Thai border with only their clothes on their backs. The situation is very tense and very fluid. Partners Relief & Development is responding to this crisis. Clothes are being delivered, food supplied and a glimmer of hope restored. But, we need your help. For the past fifteen years, Partners Relief & Development has been on the front lines of practically loving the people of Burma, especially in times like these. We’ve only been able to do this, however, with your help. To give today, please give via our secure online donation page. Please be praying for God to intervene and protect the least of these. Pray that their struggle will result in freedom. Pray believing that history can and will change and children will be able to live Free, Full Lives! Please watch for updates on our Facebook page. Thank you. - Partners Relief & Development Canada

 

The Two Greatest Commandments and Prison Ministry by Wayne Northey

[NOTE: This was Wayne Northey’s first devotional as new Executive Director given at M2/W2’s Annual General Meeting, May 21, 1998.]

Matthew 22:35-40

One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question:”Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Frankly, I struggle to understand the picture of God I find in some Scripture. This is especially the case when I read portions of the Old Testament. I am heartened nonetheless by the realization that Jesus is the fullest revelation of God to us who summed up the entire sweep of Hebrew Scriptures ethics with: “All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Whatever is difficult to understand in Scripture must first pass through the sieve of the revelation of God in Christ according to John and Hebrews 1. Jesus is the “key” to unlock the interpretation of all Scripture – something he demonstrated himself, as you remember, after the resurrection with some despondent disciples on the road to Emmaus.

Cambodia Transfigured -- by Bob Ekblad

Last week I spent three unforgettable days with my family in Cambodia.  There we saw signs of Jesus’ Kingdom shining in a land still under the shadow of death.  I now find myself thinking daily what it would look like for the light of Christ to shine even stronger there and here-- so people can really see it.

        Gracie and I were invited by Servants of Asia’s Urban Poor—a team of people from New Zealand, the Philippines, Australia, Japan and Canada called to live and minister in slum communities in Phnom Penh.  The first day I led a short retreat for the staff and Gracie and I prayed for each of them. We visited some of the families in their homes amidst the squalor of the slum communities where they are seeking to live humbly among the poorest of the poor, bringing Jesus’ light.

The Enough-ness of Jesus - a jail Bible study by Amy Muia

 ¹After these things there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  ²Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticoes.  ³In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered, [waiting for the moving of the waters;  ⁴for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water; whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in was made well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted.]  ⁵A man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.  ⁶When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had already been a long time in that condition, He said to him, "Do you wish to get well?"  ⁷The sick man answered Him, "Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I am coming, another steps down before me."  ⁸Jesus said to him, “Get up, pick up your pallet and walk.” ⁹Immediately the man became well, and picked up his pallet and began to walk.

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On Sunday, Sara and I met with the M&M pod (medical and medium security) in one of the little conference rooms in the Skagit County Jail.  Four women came—two trustees in bright orange uniforms, and two women with medical problems.  One had broken her back and neck in a car accident.  The other, a native woman, was six weeks into a high-risk pregnancy—at thirty years old, she has had five miscarriages, all drug-use and domestic violence related.

The Enough-ness of Jesus - a jail Bible study by Amy Muia

 ¹After these things there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  ²Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticoes.  ³In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered, [waiting for the moving of the waters;  ⁴for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water; whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in was made well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted.]  ⁵A man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.  ⁶When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had already been a long time in that condition, He said to him, "Do you wish to get well?"  ⁷The sick man answered Him, "Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I am coming, another steps down before me."  ⁸Jesus said to him, “Get up, pick up your pallet and walk.” ⁹Immediately the man became well, and picked up his pallet and began to walk.

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On Sunday, Sara and I met with the M&M pod (medical and medium security) in one of the little conference rooms in the Skagit County Jail.  Four women came—two trustees in bright orange uniforms, and two women with medical problems.  One had broken her back and neck in a car accident.  The other, a native woman, was six weeks into a high-risk pregnancy—at thirty years old, she has had five miscarriages, all drug-use and domestic violence related.

Forgiving our fathers by Bob Ekblad

On May 2nd I returned home from a week of teaching on the Island of Leyte in the Philippines.  I took the 16 hours of flights (each way) to help out with the Holy Given Mission School, a two-month induction into the ministry of Jesus.  These schools are designed for grass-roots leaders, bringing them into the bigness of Jesus' vision for the Kingdom of God, and into the intimacy of fellowship with the Holy Spirit.

The Filipino leaders-in-training were mostly under 30: hungry, open, ready to give their lives as pastors & teachers, evangelists, prophets, or apostles.  One morning I felt led to speak on the importance of forgiving our human fathers.  I have been struck by the relevance of the last few verses of the Old Testament, where Malachi writes:

“Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord.  and he will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the land with a curse" (Mal 4:5-6).

Elderly Woman "overpowers" would be mugger

Message of Hope for 2008 from Partners Relief and Development

“When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn…Where there is no vision, the people perish”. Proverbs 29:2 &18(KJV)

Dear all,

As I look towards 2008, along with many others I am sure; I cannot help but look back over the past year and reflect.

Three months after the violent crackdown on peaceful demonstrators the international media attention on Burma has abated. The SPDC has made a claim that “normalcy” has returned. I agree that this is true. For many years the suppression of freedom and the systematic and widespread human rights violations undertaken by the hands of the Burma Army has been normal, everyday behaviour for this wicked and despotic regime.

Why I Said, "YET" by Brad Jersak

Amazing the firestorm that one word creates. Hence, the Apostle James’ exhortation to tame the tongue which, though small, can be the spark that ignites a forest fire. And again his warning that not many should be teachers for the greater judgment they will incur. Take my last outing on the television talk show, “It’s a New Day.” We were just winding down a final segment on exclusion versus embrace within the church.

Atheists and "Echthrosists"

I live in a world of functional atheists and operative “echthrosists.”

What is the latter you ask? In a moment.

The secular world has no functional place for God. Not even a “god of the gaps” is needed any longer in our superabundantly technologized world, though before technology set in with a vengeance the late eighteenth century French Philosophes were already celebrating God’s absence.

The Western secular world however, thankfully, imbibed deeply from the Gospels that every human has an inherent right and dignity, and consequently there must be no more victims. True, there is significant distortion of this profoundly biblically rooted doctrine. As has been pointed out by some, the new Western cogito (metonymy for Descartes’ famous formula) is: “I am a victim, therefore I am,” and political correctness runs at times amok in our culture. All cultural truths have their ineluctable detracting corollaries.

So the Western secular world thinks it can somehow embrace neighbour and victim without reference to God. This is unsustainable philosophically as has been pointed out repeatedly. (In the end, why bother, without God?) And the bank from which otherwise is drawn in the West such wonderful capital of “love thy neighbour” and “do unto others” is of course God-soaked Scripture. (A classic statement of this is The Atlantic Monthly article (December, 1989, Volume 264, Number 6; pages 69-85), “Can We Be Good Without God?”[1])

But Western Christians cannot remotely be smug about secularists’ impossible functional atheism. For we are largely operative echthrosists. What’s that, you say?

An atheist is one who denies [the existence of] God, from the Greek meaning literally “without God.” In my linguistic word play, an echthrosist is one who denies [right of existence to] enemies, from the Greek meaning “without enemy.”

The enemy in the New Testament is extreme test case of neighbour: what assesses the pluck of our vaunted neighbour love, which Jesus said, in turn, assays the mettle of our exalted God-talk. When asked for the Greatest Command, he gave two for the price of one, implying the first is predicated upon, and nonexistent without, the second (Matt. 22:40). And in case we missed the implication of Jesus, the rest of the New Testament telescopes The Two Greatest into One, “Love your neighbour as yourself (Rom. 13:9; Gal. 5:14; James 2:8).” Though Christians for two millennia have hidden behind the “God-of-violence” escape theory of the Old Testament, Jesus says God’s entire revelation to the ancient Hebrews is ethically summed up in two simple dictums: Love God, Love neighbour. Not much room for a God of violence in either!

For Christians, the heat is on. Since not only have Christians for two thousand years endlessly tried to dodge this “two-for-the-price-of-one” deal from Jesus, and the “one-law-for-all” metonymy of the New Testament, they categorically toss out the window any reference to love of enemies. (C.S. Lewis’ essay, “Why I Am Not a Pacifist,” The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses, edited by Walter Hooper, (Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., New York, 1949, pp. 33 – 53), is representative example of excising “love of enemies” from “dominical sayings” to consider.) Like their secular counterparts, functional atheists (whatever their protested belief in God), the vast majority of Christians are operative echthrosists (whatever their protested belief in God, Christ and Scripture) when push comes to shove, as it invariably does, in response to domestic and international enemies. (Lewis wrote his infamous essay in support of Britain at war.)

Put differently, while John 3:16 for two thousand years by Christians has been the most loved and quoted text of the Bible, it has also been the most heavily footnoted with exception clauses. After “world,” “whosoever,” “perish,” and “everlasting life” (in the beloved King James Version), the vast majority of Christians from Augustine (and before!) to Billy Graham, and in turn the huge preponderance of modern-day self-designated “Keepers of the Book” – “Evangelicals,” have inserted “except our enemies,” and even further, “and they must die,” and “and they can go to hell!” after “perish” and “everlasting life.” Additionally, they have tended to relegate this verse and all biblical revelation to an ethereal other-worldly, spiritual, no-earthly-good application that denies legitimacy to politics or universal application to “neighbour/enemy” as surely as it does substance to Incarnation.

When I consider “secular humanists” (to use the popular vilifying expression of Evangelicals), or “fundamentalist Christians” (to use the popular vilifying expression of secular humanists) I see a mirror-image phenomenon that denies frontally New Testament witness: they assert, together, no God, no enemies; both of which in the end merge into one and the same.

Hence my claim: I live in the secular world amongst functional atheists. I live in the Christian world amongst operative echthrosists.

And I? Too much of the Pharisee in me for my own good! So I will leave my observations at that before I hear again Jesus’ words, “Woe to you! (Matthew 23).”

---

[1] http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/religion/goodgod.htm

The Cancer Conspiracy by Wayne Northey

I received this by e-mail yesterday.

The connections made between cancer and our modern addictions, in particular oil, are very disturbing.

Please read on, and pursue the links at the bottom. One is a very interesting web page by the doctor behind the article posted below.

*************

Cancer: The Price of Progress
Posted by: joan.Russow on http://PEJ.org Wednesday, June 29, 2005 - 10:47 PM

PEJ News - F.H. Knelman, Ph.D.: The above is the title of a book I began
writing some fifty years ago. My thesis was that the majority of cancers
had environmental causes. These were mostly exposure to carcinogens in the
workplace and in the general environment, the latter by far the waste
products of industrial operations. According to the World Health
Organization, some 80% of all cancer is environmentally-induced and is
therefore preventable.

CANCER: THE PRICE OF PROGRESS
F.H. Knelman, Ph.D.

The progressive meaning of Progress is a multidimensional mix of social and
personal development, coupled to peace on Earth and peace with Earth. The
current meaning is unidimensional economic growth blind to all other
considerations. Among these other considerations is a high correlation with
cancer. The medical-pharmaceutical-chemical establishment reduces all the
human environmental and social dimensions to the imperative of the bottom
line. They therefore focus on cure rather than prevention. Cancer, after
all, is a growth industry. Economic growth is the ultimate measure of
progress. During the second half of the twentieth century some 75,000 new
chemical compounds have been introduced to the living environment, among
them several potent carcinogens.

Governments and even regulatory organizations have accommodated progress as
equated with economic growth, with nothing less than worship of the GNP.
And the resource which logically dominates the compulsion to grow is oil.
The automotive, chemical and pharmaceutical industries are all
oil-dependent. The U.S. economy, more than any other, runs on oil. Oil has
become the feed stock of progress. And of all the countries in the world,
the U.S. is the most dependent on oil. The geopolitical consequence is the
war in Iraq, the accommodation of Saudi Arabia and the series of political
moves to gain control of the oil and gas-rich Caspian Sea region and the
former Eastern Republics of the Soviet Union. The relationship with Canada
and, of course, Venezuela, are also determined to a large degree by the
need to access their oil. Alberta is the focus point of interest,
particularly with the huge potential reserves of the tar sands. The U.S.
woos Alberta and Alberta is highly responsive. They share the neoCon
political agenda. The pressure will only increase if the war in Iraq bogs
down and the oil supply system is interrupted by pipeline attacks.

The terrible cost of this extreme use of and dependence on oil is not only
social and military but oil is also the basis of a huge chemical and
pharmaceutical complex. We have now come full circle. Hundreds of
byproducts from these industries are carcinogenic or suspected to be
carcinogens. Petrochemicals include pharmaceuticals, fertilizers, fuels,
plastics, insecticides and synthetics of all kinds, as well as the
automobile industry. Combined, they are a source of a multiplicity of
cancers. At the same time, oil is the major source of economic growth,
narrowly defined as progress. The circle is completed, cancer is the price
of progress. But even beyond this, environmental degradation generally and
its major threat, global warming, are also the price of progress. The
United States is the world leader in economic growth and industrial
degradation. To defend their self-appointed category of Number One, they
have invoked Pax Americana, a program to rule the world.

There are many excellent books on cancer. In terms of cost and value, I
would recommend “The Cancer Conspiracy” by John Moelaert, a superior
booklet on the subject. It can be ordered directly by email at:
http://members.shaw.ca/cancerconspiracy , for $20.00, including postage and
handling for mailing in Canada. For other countries same web site and click
the Order link. For all interested parties, I would strongly recommend you
order it. 

[May also be downloaded on line at: http://cancertruth.org/images/The%20Cancer%20Conspiracy.pdf]

Al Rycroft, Senior Editor
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
PEJ News - Peace, Earth & Justice News

Read the daily news at http://PEJ.org
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info@PEJ.ca
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