Culture

Fundamental Questions about the Wall-Street Protests

A few days ago, I posted an exchange of comments on a Fox News article about the Wall-Street Protests. You can read that by clicking here.

The comments on that post are mainly concerned with the protesters and their agenda. Here I would like to post what I see are some fundamental questions that are raised by the protesters and invite your thoughts:

– Is the current situation in which 1% of the population controls 40% of the wealth just or unjust?

– Is the fact that the very wealthy are getting wealthier and the poor poorer just or unjust?

– Is there a problem with the current system (which implies economics, politics and religion)?

– Do you have proposals for reformation or transformation?

An excellent call to urban mission by Tim Keller

Learning to Pray from Abraham Heschel

Global Population Projections

O ierarhie de obscenitati

Elena Parapiru a scris un articol in Viata Libera entitluat ‘Cersetorie si obscenitati‘. As intreba-o pe d-na Parapiru ce este mai “obscen”: comportamentului cersetorilor sau reactia noastra fata de ei? In loc sa afle numele si povestea celor care cersesc, e suficient doar sa-i dezumanizam? In loc sa raspundem cu compasiune omeneasca, doar ii judecam de sus? In relatarea d-nei Parapiru, cersetorii sunt vinovati si ‘cineva’ trebuie sa-i stranga. Dar care este responsabilitatea noastra sociala? Saracia este obscena. Nepasarea fata de oamenii saraci este obscena. Mai obscena este educatia pe care o dam copiilor nostri: in loc sa-i invatam mila, ii invatam dispret. Poate daca am cauta sa vadem umanitatea celor care sufera la semafoare, am descoperi propria noastra umanitate.

A hierarchy of obscenities

The Galati newspaper Viata Libera (Free Life) published an article this week called ‘Begging and Obscenities at the Traffic Light.’ The author, Elena Parapiru, describes the offenses of beggars who irritate drivers with their crutches, their intoxication with paint inhalants, their dirtying rather than cleaning windshields, and their public masturbation. She is especially offended because these terrible images are witnessed by her child in the car. Parapiru asks, “Why the hell doesn’t someone roundup those on the streets? Why does my child have to see these terrible images?”

Parapriu’s article is disturbing. However, it’s not so much the horrors that Parapiru describes that disturb me but rather her reaction to them.

Certainly, there is something obscene in public masturbation and in begging. But I would rank them low on the hierarchy of obscenities. How can we complain about public masturbation when every newsstand displays the pornography it sales or when our banks and hypermarkets use sex to sell their services and products? Isn’t the objectification of women more obscene than the public masturbation of an intoxicated beggar?

Perhaps the reality of beggars offends us. But is it their begging us that is an obscenity or is it our complacency and indifference? Shouldn’t we call hunger obscene? Shouldn’t we be offended by the lack of shelter, the lack of education, and the lack of healthy families?

I find Parapiru’s reaction to beggars obscene. I am offended by Parapiru’s disregard, lack of compassion and blaming of the beggars. More than that, I find it high on the hierarchy of obscenities that Parapiru is educating her child in the school of disdain. Parapiru’s child should be offended more by the actions of her mother than by the actions of the beggar.

Rather than expecting ‘someone’ or some government institution to respond to the beggars, I would call on each citizen to respond. At the very least, we can stop and learn the names of the beggars and listen to their stories rather than standing in judgment from afar. Maybe together we can evaluate the complexities of poverty, the history of the impoverished, and practices that can alleviate poverty. But blaming the poor and blaming society’s lack of reaction to the impoverished without taking personal responsibility is cheap and non-constructive.

I would invite Mrs. Parapiru to respond humanely, if not Christianly, by finding ways to truly help beggars find alternative means to survive and work. Perhaps by discovering the humanity in the poor beggars, we can discover humanity in ourselves.

Negotiating Citizenship: Nonviolent Resistance

In pre-modern times, empires would give citizenship rights to vassal countries that paid the empire its dues. This practice continues today, albeit in different forms. Yesterday, the Romanian President visited Washington D.C. to sign a missile defense treaty. The U.S. military will build an anti-missile system in Romania and will station 500 U.S. troops in Romania. In exchange for this agreement and for Romania’s participation in the war in Afghanistan, Romania is asking for a visa waiver for its citizens to travel to the U.S. For military alignment, Romania wants some of the benefits of citizenship in the empire.

To counter and critique this militaristic basis for citizenship, those with citizenship in heaven commit to loving those on the other side of the missile ‘defense’ so that we may share together in the citizenship of heaven. Although we may lose the benefits of the empire by not participating in its claims to protect through violence, we know that the empire ultimately cannot deliver on those claims.

Those with heavenly citizenship resist battling with flesh and blood and name, unmask and engage the powers and principalities that dehumanize, oppress and kill those created after the image of God.

Negotiating Citizenship: Matriotism

There is something in me that commits to place. I feel it when I visit my native state or the city where I was born. It’s as if the land of our fathers and mothers taps on our inner compass needle, calling us home to our Fatherland.

The Fatherland is a place not only for citizens but for friends. One of my favorite philosophers of ethics, Alasdair MacIntyre, criticized E.M. Forser for saying that if it came to a choice between dying for his country and dying for his friend, he hoped that he would have the courage to deny his country. MacIntyre said that if anyone can formulate such a contrast, they have no country, and they are a citizen of nowhere.

Of course, there are problems with patriotism, not least of which is the violence that underlies the competing claims to land, resources and ideology. Patriots usually define themselves by who is in and who is out. Those on the inside, our compatriots, are called on to protect the homeland and to guard against those who are on the outside.  If I am committed to my fatherland and you are committed to your fatherland, we may eventually become entrenched in our tribe and enter into conflict.

Because of the violence associated with patriotism and because of the demands by our society to be a ‘patriot’ that I find incompatible with Christian convictions, I prefer to describe my commitment to place as matriotism. Rather than a commitment to the fatherland (patriotism), it is a commitment to the motherland (matriotism). By emphasizing ‘feminine’ traits of birth, nurture and cooperation and de-emphasizing ‘masculine’ features of violence, competition and machoism, I can celebrate a commitment to place that includes rather than excludes others and a place for hospitality rather than competition.

Negotiating Citizenship: Immigrants

What if citizenship in heaven translated to immigrants being made to feel at home and as fellow citizens because we too are strangers and aliens made to feel welcome and offered citizenship in a kingdom in which we are completely unworthy to visit, let alone call home?

What if citizenship in heaven meant that immigrants were viewed by the church as a gift rather than a threat?

Yoga as Christian Spiritual Formation? by Phileena Heuertz

Yoga as Christian Spiritual Formation? by Phileena Heuertz.