I've Got a Fever and the Only Cure is More Farm Bill!

On Wednesday we attended a House Party hosted by our friend Debby and her friend Brendan (with yellow dog). We watched a PBS video about how US farm policy is having a detrimental effect in the developing world.

When I start talking about the Farm Bill and all that is at stake eyes begin to glaze over. I don't really think its that people don't care. They do by and large. Very few people I know are blatantly callous enough simply not to give a rip about people in the developing world going hungry.

But eyes do glaze over nonetheless. I think that is because we have been so trained not to have to pay attention that anything complex that comes along just goes right over our heads. After years of sitting back and taking in easy-to-consume television we just don't know how to pay attention.

And the dark principalities of this world love that because it means that their power can remain hidden.

So, if you care about people not being hungry here is a crash course in how US farm policy is contributing to global insecurity. Pay attention:

1. Our goverment gives lots of money to US farmers to produce crops like wheat and cotton

2. This creates incentives to produce lots. And I mean lots

3. We take what we don't use and sell it at basement prices

4. We sell our crops for less than it costs farmers in the developing world to produce theirs

5. This means they make next to nothing (like a buck or two a day)


So, that wasn't too bad. Now go and pay attention to the video to learn more.

The (Politcally Active) Christian Citizen; Or: "That's right, IceMan, I am dangerous."

The latest issue of the Christian Citizen has just come out. The Christian Citizen is a magazine put out by ABCUSA focusing on issues of justice and faith-informed social action.

In his editorial "The Church and Politics" Curtis Ramsey-Lucas writes, "Simply because politics is dangerous does not mean that Christians have the luxury of opting out of the Process." He points to various political movements in our nation's history - the Civil Rights movement, the struggle to end apartheid in South Africa, etc. - and underscores the fact that the Baptist denomination was intimately involved. (Of course, the Baptist denomination was intimately involved on both sides of the struggle for Civil Rights.)

What I find interesting is the fact that many who would say we ought not to "mix politics and religion" are oftentimes the very same people who will take great pride in the heroes of our faith who did just that. A case in point is the burgeoning interest in William Wilberforce and his role in putting an end to the British slave trade. The truth is that, when pressed, most of us will admit that the distinction between what is political in nature and what is religious is at best arbitrary and oftentimes altogether false.

I think that Ramsey-Lucas' statement about politics being "dangerous" may shed some light on what we as Christians really think. For something to be dangerous means that it may cost us something truly valuable - our job, our reputation and in some cases our very life. When we say something is "political" and therefore choose not to enter into the fray, what we are really saying is that we are not passionate enough about the cause to risk losing anything very meaningful.

Ramsey-Lucas closes his essay by saying that as Christians we have the "opportunity" to let our faith speak by asking those who want our vote in the 2008 election to tell us what they are going to do about poverty, hunger and educational inequality here and abroad. These are indeed the kinds of questions we as people of faith ought to be asking. But in order for these questions to be truly "political" in nature then we as Christian citizens are going to have to learn to ask them in risky or - to borrow a word from Ramsey-Lucas -"dangerous" ways.

I suppose this means that if we are going to ask a question that matters then we are going to have to put our own selves in the hot seat. We are going to have to ask these questions when others are telling us we ought to be asking or doing other things. It means we ought to ask them in a public forum when we could have gone home and watched reruns of "Friends" instead. It means we ought to ask them when it would be a lot nicer not to ask anything at all but just smile and get along and let the market do its thing.

The Power of an Indestructible Life

On Sunday we honored our two graduating high school seniors during church. It was a fun day with lots of smiles and a couple of stories and some very meaningful words spoken by parents to their children.

These girls were of course badgered with the requisite graduating senior question. "Now that you've graduated, what are you going to do with your life?" That is, of course, the wrong question. The question everyone ought to be asking is instead, "Now that you've graduated, who are you going to be?" It is the difference between being a fisher in the world and a fisher of men in the kingdom.

During the sermon I said that being a Christian is going to mean choosing a path which will often diverge from the status quo. As Flannery O'Connor wrote, "You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you odd."

When I graduated from high school someone said pretty much the same thing to me. "Being a Christian means you are different. It means you are going to have to live differently from your friends." I heard that and, whether it was intended or not, pretty much thought everything that was being said was referring to sex. "Being a Christian means not doing it till you're married," which would indeed mean being pretty odd in today's world.

Being a Christian certainly means our sexual practices should look very different from the world's (sadly, they often don't). But a lot more is at stake than just sex.

In Hebrews the writer talks about the "power of [Jesus'] indestructible life." Jesus lived such a profoundly counter-cultural life that he was able in death to transfigure the shame of the cross into the glory of the heavens.

As Christians we are to share in that profound power. Yet the only way to do so is to ourselves join in Christ's suffering.

As I write this I realize how domesticated my Christianity really is. I am richer than ninety-nine percent of all the people who have ever lived on earth. That is a daunting thought when I consider the Scriptures word for the rich.

The power of Jesus' indestructible life has laid a claim to all of me. Not just my sex life, but also my bank account and my free time. That is why being a Christian is so incredibly difficult and so incredibly, well, "odd".

So today, eleven years ahead of these girls, I am doing exactly what I hope they are doing. I'm wondering who it is that I'm going to be.