Activism and the Church
We are afraid your theology of social action would create friction within our congregation and wonder if you are a Christian due to your activist activities with the New Democratic Party and Amnesty International.
I have received close to a hundred of statements such as this from churches I have applied to serve in paid ministry with over the last several months. Now given the view people have of the NDP I was expecting to catch flack for that one…but c’mon knocking Amnesty International?? That is a bit low.
Do I hate the church for this? No, all the Grit and Tory followers will someday be redeemed (joke, put down the pitchforks). It does amaze me though that the church celebrates diversity in all but our politics. It seems each denomination has started to create its niche party that members should vote for or belong to, to be declared “Christian” in our eyes.
That is a crock…there is no definitive Christian Party (okay, although it is funny that Canada has The Christian Heritage Party). Now all my Conservative friends take a deep breath, you do not win by default. Each party in Canada has a historical tie to Christianity; my party was founded by a pastor…Go figure. I went back through the founding documents and read about things like equality and everyone being helped, sharing of resources…rather eerie resemblance to another text I read.
Now I am a bit off when it comes to church attendance. I usually glide into the back row pew of the church I attend, help out where I can, but every so often I am not there. Why?? Because I am off, saving the world as my youth once dubbed it. I have marched for Gay Rights (even wrote a column in high school in support of same-sex marriage, not the thing to do in Alberta, and fought the Klein government in another column on pulling the plug on our theatre due to a play the disagreed with). I have tackled the civic government to stop the Neo-Nazi party moving to Calgary, tried to help the underdog, wrote letters petitioning the release of the falsely imprisoned and was one of the voices slamming Calgary’s mayor for white hatting the Chinese leader in response to the atrocities in Quebec. Which interesting Belinda Stronach, Conservative Trade Critic, announced that Conservative Trade Policy in regards to China would be a deeper integration regardless of the genocide and forced sterilizations happening in Tibet?
I have watched friends die of AIDS, Cancer and Emphysema while the Klein Government talks of privatizing health care and taking away a right to medical treatment for those who cannot afford it. I hear great joy in the upcoming generations voice of tax breaks, but at what cost?? Canada has more children going to school hungry than a wealthy nation should allow; working class parents literally have to make the choice between paying the rent, keeping the lights on or feeding the kids. My family is a prime example; we went from Middle Class to working class in the richest province in the country over night due to “user fees”.
The same governments that brought in the ethic of debt reduction politics have removed the rights of people on welfare to work to supplement their incomes, build up self-esteem and reintegrate to the workforce. Stopped building affordable housing because the homeless shelters and church basements are good enough for men, women and children in the winter, and there are always parks in the summer if the shelters are full. We give money to the extremely mentally and physically challenged, just enough to keep them living under the poverty line and close facilities to help those with mental illness cause the streets are a much better place for them to live and die. We turn a blind eye when sex trade workers vanish, and fake tears when they turn up dead forgetting at some point they were someone’s son or daughter, terrible shame they died that way.
The whole time we walk down the street wearing our name brand clothing bought cheap at Wal-Mart or the Gap while children in the two-thirds world slave away in hellish 17-24 hours workday and are fired or killed at 18 years old so that you can be in style. The saddest part is that if they cannot be sold to a factory, most parents in desperation accept the idea of their child in a brothel where they will be tricked out until death.
While corporations continue to rape and pillage the environment to the point cancer is increasing, and more adults and children throughout the day need respirators or inhalers to simply go outside.
I sit in a pew on Sunday morning, look out the stain glass to the world that God created and turned over to our care…I feel like a teenager whose parents went away for the weekend and like a bad sitcom now needs to scramble to clean up before mum and dad come home. My party, NDP, does not have all the answers, and through Amnesty I may not be able to free every prisoner of conscience or stop every atrocity; but I’d rather make the attempt because for me is does not come down to What Would Jesus Do? Rather, it is about WHERE WOULD JESUS BE?
-30-
Hoody in AB
We are afraid your theology of social action would create friction within our congregation and wonder if you are a Christian due to your activist activities with the New Democratic Party and Amnesty International.
I have received close to a hundred of statements such as this from churches I have applied to serve in paid ministry with over the last several months. Now given the view people have of the NDP I was expecting to catch flack for that one…but c’mon knocking Amnesty International?? That is a bit low.
Do I hate the church for this? No, all the Grit and Tory followers will someday be redeemed (joke, put down the pitchforks). It does amaze me though that the church celebrates diversity in all but our politics. It seems each denomination has started to create its niche party that members should vote for or belong to, to be declared “Christian” in our eyes.
That is a crock…there is no definitive Christian Party (okay, although it is funny that Canada has The Christian Heritage Party). Now all my Conservative friends take a deep breath, you do not win by default. Each party in Canada has a historical tie to Christianity; my party was founded by a pastor…Go figure. I went back through the founding documents and read about things like equality and everyone being helped, sharing of resources…rather eerie resemblance to another text I read.
Now I am a bit off when it comes to church attendance. I usually glide into the back row pew of the church I attend, help out where I can, but every so often I am not there. Why?? Because I am off, saving the world as my youth once dubbed it. I have marched for Gay Rights (even wrote a column in high school in support of same-sex marriage, not the thing to do in Alberta, and fought the Klein government in another column on pulling the plug on our theatre due to a play the disagreed with). I have tackled the civic government to stop the Neo-Nazi party moving to Calgary, tried to help the underdog, wrote letters petitioning the release of the falsely imprisoned and was one of the voices slamming Calgary’s mayor for white hatting the Chinese leader in response to the atrocities in Quebec. Which interesting Belinda Stronach, Conservative Trade Critic, announced that Conservative Trade Policy in regards to China would be a deeper integration regardless of the genocide and forced sterilizations happening in Tibet?
I have watched friends die of AIDS, Cancer and Emphysema while the Klein Government talks of privatizing health care and taking away a right to medical treatment for those who cannot afford it. I hear great joy in the upcoming generations voice of tax breaks, but at what cost?? Canada has more children going to school hungry than a wealthy nation should allow; working class parents literally have to make the choice between paying the rent, keeping the lights on or feeding the kids. My family is a prime example; we went from Middle Class to working class in the richest province in the country over night due to “user fees”.
The same governments that brought in the ethic of debt reduction politics have removed the rights of people on welfare to work to supplement their incomes, build up self-esteem and reintegrate to the workforce. Stopped building affordable housing because the homeless shelters and church basements are good enough for men, women and children in the winter, and there are always parks in the summer if the shelters are full. We give money to the extremely mentally and physically challenged, just enough to keep them living under the poverty line and close facilities to help those with mental illness cause the streets are a much better place for them to live and die. We turn a blind eye when sex trade workers vanish, and fake tears when they turn up dead forgetting at some point they were someone’s son or daughter, terrible shame they died that way.
The whole time we walk down the street wearing our name brand clothing bought cheap at Wal-Mart or the Gap while children in the two-thirds world slave away in hellish 17-24 hours workday and are fired or killed at 18 years old so that you can be in style. The saddest part is that if they cannot be sold to a factory, most parents in desperation accept the idea of their child in a brothel where they will be tricked out until death.
While corporations continue to rape and pillage the environment to the point cancer is increasing, and more adults and children throughout the day need respirators or inhalers to simply go outside.
I sit in a pew on Sunday morning, look out the stain glass to the world that God created and turned over to our care…I feel like a teenager whose parents went away for the weekend and like a bad sitcom now needs to scramble to clean up before mum and dad come home. My party, NDP, does not have all the answers, and through Amnesty I may not be able to free every prisoner of conscience or stop every atrocity; but I’d rather make the attempt because for me is does not come down to What Would Jesus Do? Rather, it is about WHERE WOULD JESUS BE?
-30-
Hoody in AB
posted by T @ 12:22 AM
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