PRISM Robbin’ the ‘Hood Payday lenders prey on the poor, but Christians are fighting back
From Croatia to Haiti— what real help looks like Moms take on the global challenge of AIDS Celebrating the power of advocacy!
March • April 2011
PRISMMagazine.org
PRISM Vol. 18, No. 2 March-April 2011
Editor Art Director Publications Assistant Copy Editor Financial Operations Publisher
Kristyn Komarnicki Rhian Tomassetti Katherine Coulter Leslie Hammond Sandra Prochaska Ronald J. Sider
Contributing Editors Christine Aroney-Sine Clive Calver Rudy Carrasco Andy Crouch J. James DeConto Gloria Gaither Vernon Grounds Ben Hartley Jan Johnson Craig S. Keener Richard Mouw Philip Olson Jenell Williams Paris Christine Pohl James Skillen Al Tizon Jim Wallis
Myron Augsburger Issac Canales M. Daniel Carroll R. Paul Alexander James Edwards Perry Glanzer David P. Gushee Stanley Hauerwas Jo Kadlecek Peter Larson Mary Naber Earl Palmer Derek Perkins Elizabeth D. Rios Lisa Thompson Heidi Rolland Unruh Bruce Wydick
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After Shock In the wake of the historic earthquake in the fragile country of Haiti, Kent Annan considers suffering—from the epic to the everyday—as a problem for faith. Along the way he discovers that he is not alone, that from the psalmists of old to our neighbors today, people have followed life to the edge of meaning and have heard God even there, calling for honest faith. 137 pages, paperback, 978-0-8308-3617-8, $15.00
“This is a credible book for anyone who has ever wondered where God is in a world full of suffering.” —Jim Wallis, president, Sojourners
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Good Stewards Subscription (PDF) Receive the same PRISM as everyone else but in your email box and save big! Only $15 a year. Library Subscription Order PRISM for your library! Only $45 a year. www.PRISMMagazine.org 6 E. Lancaster Ave, Wynnewood PA 19096 484-384-2993/PRISM@eastern.edu Note: Standard A mail is not forwarded; please contact us if your address changes. A Publication of Evangelicals for Social Action The Sider Center on Ministry and Public Policy www.EvangelicalsforSocialAction.org Palmer Theological Seminary of Eastern University All contents © 2011 ESA/PRISM magazine. The body of this magazine is printed on 85% post consumer waste recycled paper.
“If you lend money to my people, to any of the down-and-out among you, don’t come down hard on them and gouge them with interest. If you take your neighbor’s coat as security, give it back before night-fall; it may be your neighbor’s only covering—what else does the person have to sleep in? And if I hear the neighbor crying out from the cold, I’ll step in—I’m compassionate.” Exodus 22:25-27 (The Message)
March/APRIL 2011
Contents 2 Reflections from the Editor Unshakable 3 Talk Back Letters to the Editor 5 Celebrate Rejoicing in the power of advocacy!
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6 Kingdom Ethics
Seeking the Truth about What Our Nation Did
8 Leading Ladies
10 No Such Thing as a Free Loan
Online Drive
Predatory lenders target poor communities and keep them in financial bondage. Take a look at the creative models of financial freedom that a handful of Christians are offering.
9 May I Have a Word? Toward a DemandBased US Drug Policy
39 Faithful Citizenship Speaking Up for Recovery 40 Washington Watch
Corporate Political Giving
41 Art & Soul
Witness to Eternity
42 Book Reviews 46 Music Notes
Songcraft: Savoring Life by the Slice
18 Milk, Sugar & AIDS Activism
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Two mothers, one from suburban America and another from Sub-Saharan Africa, discover their voice as they advocate for AIDS education.
24 Reparing Broken Walls
Meet two Christian communities that are using a biblical blueprint to rebuild their urban neighborhoods.
32 Help That Heals
Partnering with the poor in humility and mutual vulnerability is the healthiest way to make a real difference—for all involved—in the long run.
47 Making a Difference “Woman, Be Free!”
48 Ron Sider Finishing Well
24 Cover photo by Galina Barskaya
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PRISM is now printing all inside pages on 85% post consumer recylced paper.
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C elebrate! We’re launching this new column as a way of recognizing—and rejoicing in—the power of advocacy. Good news, especially when hard won, demands celebration! When we speak out—boldly, respectfully, prayerfully—for justice and truth, things really do change. It might take years, even decades, for us to see a shift, but we are called to continue faithfully—fighting one day at a time, without abandoning hope—to defend the vulnerable, insist on peace, and protect God’s creation, among other things. Want to help us out? Send any good news you want us to celebrate to Kristyn@esa-online.org. New START treaty ratified On December 22, the US Senate ratified the New START treaty, which will re-establish mutual, on-the-ground verification of American and Russian nuclear arsenals and cut the deployed strategic weapons on each side by about a third. Learn more at TwoFuturesProject.org. Craigslist pulls the plug on its “adult section” worldwide Last September, following significant protest by anti-trafficking groups and the suicide of a man who was accused of murdering women he contacted through its adult listings, Craigslist removed the adult section from its US version. In a major triumph for abolitionists, the online advertising site shut down the rest of its adult sections around the world in December. Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said in a statement, “This worldwide shutdown of erotic services sections on Craigslist is a victory in the fight against sexual exploitation of women and children and human trafficking connected to prostitution. This move is another important step in the ongoing fight to more effectively screen and stop pernicious prostitution ads.” Historic victory against mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia In January, the US Environmental Protection Agency announced its decision to protect mountain communities and the health of Appalachian citizens by vetoing the largest single mountaintop removal coal mining permit in West Virginia history, the Spruce No. 1 Mine. In making this decision the EPA reviewed more than 50,000 comments from concerned citizens. Learn more at ILoveMountains.org/Spruce-Mine and at ChristiansForTheMountains.org.
Critical improvements for hungry Americans December 2 was a historic day for Bread for the World, the nonpartisan collective Christian voice that fights to end hunger at home and abroad. On that day the House of Representatives passed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, a five-year renewal of child nutrition programs. Already approved by the Senate, the bill was signed into law by President Obama on December 13. Immediately after that, the House passed the Middle Class Tax Relief Act of 2010, which included tax credits for low-income workers. The bill protected the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Child Tax Credit (CTC)—goals of Bread’s 2010 Offering of Letters (learn more at OfferingofLetters.org). The reauthorization of child nutrition programs—at $4.5 billion over 10 years—is the largest such increase for these programs. This victory was possible because Christians have advocated faithfully through Bread for the World to keep children and their needs constantly before Congress MTV’s Skins takes a blow Almost there: Thanks to letters from consumers like you, nearly a dozen sponsors have already dropped advertising support for MTV’s Skins since the show’s premiere in mid-January. Featuring a cast ranging in age from 15 to 19, Skins purports to address “real-world issues confronting teens in a frank way,” but in reality, it depicts teenagers living extremely dangerously—engaging in indiscriminate sex, drinking, using drugs, breaking the law—yet all without any real or lasting consequences. In January, the New York Times reported that executives at the cable channel were concerned that some scenes from the show “may violate federal child pornography statutes.” As we go to print, several companies have yet to respond to pressure to abandon the show: Visit ParentsTV.org to add your voice.
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Photo courtesy of: Connie Rock
The truth about payday lending and what some Christians are doing about It by Amy L. Sherman
In Culture Making, author Andy Crouch reports that his kids don’t like his homemade chili. They want to bring about reform in the household, he explains, but since he and his wife love chili, it’s on the dinner rotation; the kids can either eat it or go to bed hungry. Protest is insufficient. Change is possible, however, says Crouch; all the kids have to do is to prepare an alternative meal on chili night, and he’ll be delighted to eat whatever substitute they offer. Crouch’s “Chili Principle” offers a vital guide for a contemporary struggle of far greater weight than dinner table discontent. Some 12 million Americans, many from the ranks of the working poor, are trapped in debt through payday lending. Around the country important, necessary policy battles are being waged against the $40-billion-plus industry. But shutting down the bad guys is only one step on the path towards justice for the poor. The bigger need is for widespread, viable alternatives to these short-term, high-cost loans. For the past year my research assistant and I have been looking for such models—particularly alternatives offered by churches or Christian nonprofits. We have discovered that while there are currently very few, those few offer promising approaches that are worth imitating. We’ll examine them in the following pages, but first it’s important to understand what payday lending is and who’s engaged in it. READ More... Subscribe to PRISM Good Stewards PDF version only $15 10 PRISM Magazine
Milk, Sugar & AIDS Activism From Sub-Saharan Africa to suburban America, confront a killer. Pass the cupcakes, please. by Shayne Moore
“Do you think anyone will show up?” I ask my friend as I arrange cupcakes and tea cups on the serving table. “What if no one shows up?” We are hosting a tea to honor Princess Kasune Zulu of Zambia. We invited Princess to come and tell her story to our friends. We chose a local community center—the Boathouse in Glen Ellyn, Ill.—with a large open room and a wall of windows looking out over a small lake. I stare apprehensively over the expansive lawn, dotted with huge maple and oak trees, when I notice women starting to trickle down toward the Boathouse. My heart starts to pump a little faster. People are really coming.
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Glimpse into another world I first met Princess Kasune Zulu in 2002 through World Vision. She is a wife and mother from Zambia, and a woman who is HIV-positive. Princess is one of the most beautiful people I have ever met—she simply owns her own skin. She speaks and moves with grace and confidence, and she has an intelligent and playful sense of humor that transcends any cultural barriers. Princess is her given first name, but you’d be forgiven for thinking she is royalty. She wears the traditional Zambian attire: a full fabric skirt, blouse, and scarf all in a bright royal blue and gold matching pattern. She has a beautiful, joyful face, and her ebony skin is perfection. I was immediately comfortable with
Photo by Benjamin C. M. Backhouse, courtesy of The Hummingbird Bakery
two middle-class mothers
“HIV knows no boundaries.” Princess, and our first conversation flowed effortlessly. Princess makes it very clear that she has been released from the shame and stigma of being HIV-positive and that she considers it her calling to educate and share a message of hope to others living with HIV and AIDS. Her confidence in this is something one cannot fake, and I was quickly caught up by her accent, the lilt of her laugh, the engaging fire in her eyes, and the power of her story. “When I found out I had the virus, I was filled with joy. I don’t know why—it was a death sentence,” said Princess. “Growing up in Zambia, I lost my brother and my baby sister to AIDS. Then AIDS claimed my mother, then my father. At 17, I dropped out of school. I got pregnant. At 18, I married my boyfriend, a man 25 years older than me. He had already lost two wives suspected of having AIDS. I am now HIVpositive.” As Princess shared her story, I was reminded that these are the facts of life in Sub-Saharan Africa, where 6,000 people die every day from AIDS. “I only realized that my parents died of AIDS much later on in my life,” Princess continued, “when I started reading books and magazines and watching shows on TV about AIDS.” Long into our conversation, Princess confessed, “When I found out I was HIV-positive and how it is spread, I started going along the highways, pretending to be a prostitute, in hopes a truck driver would pick me up and I could tell him about the disease.” I was stunned. “You would be picked up because they thought you were a prostitute—and then what?” “I would tell them it is not safe to drive the roads and have many sexual partners before returning home to their wives. I would educate them and tell them my status and tell them they need to stop this behavior.” “Princess!” I was both stunned and impressed, but I said, “That is not safe!” Chuckling, she responded, “Well, no one else is talking about it, and it must be talked about. Women need to be protected somehow. In Zambia it is hard for a woman to make her husband wear a condom if he refuses.” The juxtaposition of being so comfortable with Princess, as if we had been lifelong friends, with the incredibly foreign story I was hearing was an emotional, wild ride. Yet what Princess shared next was so confrontational to my suburban life as a wife and mother that I have never been the same since. Princess said, “When I first suspected I contracted the virus from my husband, I wanted to go get tested, but in Zambia a wife cannot get tested without the permission, without a signature from the husband. And so for a long while I could not find out my status or the status of my children, because my husband would not sign.” “How is this possible that women around the world are still treated this way?” I wondered. “This could be me. This could be my life. But it’s not—and only because of where I happened to be born.”
Breaking out of the bubble When I met Princess in 2002, the global HIV/AIDS pandemic was just beginning to come to the forefront of awareness with governments and churches. It was not prominently discussed on the news, not at the national level or the multinational government level and certainly not in churches. Meeting Princess and getting to know her story did something to me. It knocked the suburban breath right out of me. I’ve always been aware that I live in a bubble—junior high, high school, and college all in the same Midwestern town. So right after college, I moved to South Central Los Angeles to teach at an inner-city school. That experience expanded my understanding of things non-middle-America and gave me time to develop my compassion muscle. In the inner city, I had to come to terms with the messiness of poverty and all the complex issues and causes. I built relationships with people very different from me, and I grew in deep compassion as I journeyed with them and experienced the hard realities of life in the inner city. But it had been years since my time in South Central LA. After getting married, I wanted to live in my hometown and raise my family here. I got a job teaching junior high in a neighboring town, and then I stayed home after the birth of my first son. I settled back into comfortable A billboard at the University of Zambia in Lusaka. (Photo by Philipp Hamedl) suburbia without much conflict. I was a young wife and mother, and I was building a life of security and safety for myself and my family. To be honest, there was no connection to my life in the inner city of Los Angeles in my life as a new stay-at-home mom. LA was on the other side of the country, and my babies, along with my other stay-at-home mom friends, my church, and Bible studies—these were the things in front of me. My days filled up with the concerns of making sure my three children were fed, clean, and well behaved. My stresses were around things like strep throat that won’t go away, or finding those darn inserts for the sippy cups, or digging through the dirty clothes to find the least dirty onesie until I could get some laundry done. I spent non-naptime hours at the parks and tot lots with other stay-at-home moms and their kids. I have a group of friends, some I have known since junior high, and we would meet every Wednesday to pray for one In many societies, women gain freedom from the wishes of their fathers only when power over them is handed to their husbands (see TheElders.org/ womens-initiatives).
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Soccer Mom, Superhero
Shayne Moore unmasks the hidden power of church ladies across the nation. PRISM caught up with her between carpools and G8 summits. PRISM: What is the greatest obstacle you’ve encountered in the fight against AIDS? Shayne Moore: The greatest obstacle as a full-time mom trying to get engaged and mobilize others is lack of education and understanding. We often hear about this in the developing world—about the importance of educating young men and women about the disease. Much stigma and misunderstanding is still rampant, but stigma and misunderstanding around the issues of HIV and AIDS are not limited to the developing world. When I first woke up to the realities of HIV/AIDS and extreme poverty, I found myself talking about it all the time— to whomever would listen. In one conversation I was talking about the need to get ARVs (antiretroviral medication) to women in rural Africa. The woman I was talking with was an educated, everyday mother like me. Her response was, “Why? Aren’t they going to die anyway?” She wasn’t being mean—she simply did not know that the science of ARVs has changed so much that if a mother who is HIVpositive can get on medication she will live a long, productive life. HIV-positive mothers in the developing world need medication so they can be healthy and raise their children and work. She also did not know that today we have the medical ability to have no child born with HIV. An inexpensive pill can enable an entire generation to be born HIV-free. I truly believe people are compassionate, and when educated and informed they will act. PRISM: What is the most effective tool you have personally available to you in the fight against AIDS? SM: My own voice. In my experience as a lifelong churchgoer, women tend to sit in the pews quietly supporting the life of the church.
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Of course, I believe all church members should support this. But how many women, myself guilty, have remained silent about the things that break our hearts? Is style of music important? Perhaps. Is the gay issue and women in leadership important? Probably. But I have come to believe that, if given a choice of what to fuss about in church, most women would choose to raise a ruckus over the fact that a 10-year-old girl is in a cage in Cambodia being used as a sex slave. Our own voices and passions are our greatest tools. That is what I like about ONE (ONE.org). ONE is a nonpartisan, Shayne Moore addresses a crowd at a n o n d e n o m inati o nal ONE Campaign awareness-raising event. advocacy group. They don’t want my money—they want my voice. By being a member of ONE I am immediately in the conversation, and I am informed. PRISM: If you could hang a banner at the front of every church in America, what would it say? SM: Do you know your status? The fight against HIV and AIDS starts right where we are. How can we ask an entire continent of people to know their status when there are HIV-positive, untested people in our pews? PRISM: What have you learned about yourself since stepping out of your comfort zone to address global needs? SM: I have learned that I can make a difference. I have learned that my role as a full-time mother does not limit my influence. I have thrown off the “don’t rock the boat” messages, and I have learned that soccer moms have more power and influence in culture, in church, and in the world than we ever realized.
Warrior Princess, Woman of God
Princess Kasune Zulu puts a remarkable face on the AIDS crisis—God’s very own face. PRISM was fortunate to catch a healing glimpse. PRISM: Has your HIV status been an obstacle in any way in your fight against AIDS? Princess Zulu: For me, HIV has been more of a blessing than an obstacle. I know that’s unique, since so many people have lost their jobs or marriages or lives due to HIV, but for me, because of my willingness to break the silence, my HIV status has been a blessing. Romans 8:28 tells us that God will use everything— even evil—for his glory. God is using HIV to take me, and other women like me, to places we would never go otherwise, to be advocates for others and for change. It is bigger than all of us; yet when we become obedient to what God is calling us to, we end up being blessed in return.
of our dependence on God. Don’t lose the quest for God and his love for the brokenhearted. PRISM: What have you learned about yourself since stepping out to address global needs? What have you learned about God?
PZ: I have learned that when we use the little that God has given us, he will multiply it beyond anything we could ever ask for. I am from a village in Africa, but I have spoken to a US president, which resulted in him and the people of America— PRISM: What is the most effective tool you have personally through the PEPFAR Fund—giving $15 billion (in April 2003) toward the fight against AIDS! The next time I testified, in available to you in the fight against AIDS? 2007 on Capitol Hill at a committee chaired by the late Senator PZ: Being vulnerable with people, telling my story as vulner- Ted Kennedy, the bill went from just $15 billion for AIDS to $51 ably as I can. This begins to break down the issue of HIV and billion for malaria, TB, and HIV/AIDS. Never in my craziest AIDS from just numbers and statistics and make it real. They dreams could I have imagined this. Our greatest struggles not only mold us into a different see that, Hey this is real, this could happen to my brother, my person than we would wife, my church mate. If we make it have been otherwise, personal we are more likely to make Princess Zulu testifies before the US Congress in 2007. (Photo by Geralbut they make us an headway in the fight against HIV. dine Ryerson-Cruz/World Vision) encouragement to Personalizing the problem is the others, and ministries greatest tool. When something beare born. comes personal we not only act but we act with urgency. And urgency is Princess Kasune Zulu a game changer. (PrincessZulu.com) is the author of WarPRISM: If you could hang a banrior Princess: Fighting ner at the front of every church in for Life with CourAmerica or Africa, what would it age and Hope (IVP, say? 2009). Part of the proceeds of the book PZ: In Africa, my banner would goes to help children say: Hold on. The God we serve is affected by HIV/AIDS more than able to hear your cries and is administered and prayers. He gives hope where through Fountain of there is no hope, life where there is Life (FountainofLife-Africa.org), the nonprofit she founded to death. Great suffering causes us to be desperate for God, but empower children in rural Africa through improved access to when we have much, we tend to lose that desperation for God. education and healthcare. Today Zulu is an internationally recSo in America, my banner would say: You have been spared ognized speaker and AIDS activist. She splits her time between the pain and suffering of people in developing countries who live Chicago, where she lives with her husband and two teenage with extreme poverty, HIV, and preventable diseases. But there daughters, and Zambia, where the family awaits visa processing is another sickness, and that is the sickness of not being aware for the five orphans they have adopted since 2007.
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L eading Ladies Online Drive Many women in need of practical education for ministry are finding exactly what they need online. Internet-based study options have grown in popularity over the past decade, with more and more online educational programs gaining both accreditation and respect. Even Ivy League brickand-mortar colleges are increasing their online presence, offering everything from single courses to full degrees. Given the flexibility of online study options—which allow study at any hour of the day or night and anywhere from waiting rooms to commuter trains to the kitchen table—it’s not surprising that women make up the majority of online students. According to the American Association of University Women (AAUW), over 60 percent of those currently studying online are women, most of them over 25 years old. Education options for women are exploding online, including opportunities for women to prepare for various roles in ministry. Steven Douglas, president of Campus Crusade for Christ International, said that “the future for leadership training is Christian distance education that is not dependent upon location, schedule, or having everyone physically present, but the education is taken to where ministry is taking place.” Without the online option, I highly doubt that I would have been able to achieve my terminal degree. Why? Because I have a husband, two kids (one with special needs), a job, and a ministry—and I wasn’t about to relocate to become a full-time, financially stretched, on-campus student! Seems that women everywhere feel the same: A report by the AAUW Educational Foundation states that women—already recognized
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for their multi-tasking ability—are now adding what is being called a “third shift” to their day. Not content with just being employees, mothers, and churchattenders, women are taking advantage of the current online learning trend to earn degrees that will enhance their personal growth, long-term job security, career, ministry, and even calling. While accessing the classroom via a laptop can pose a variety of challenges—pedagogical, technological, and/ or social, depending on the learning style, experience, and/or temperament of the student—the benefits usually outweigh the difficulties. Online learning is a preferred education option for women because of these factors: Family. Women love the fact that they can eat dinner with the kids, help them with homework, and then bundle them off to bed before sitting down to their own studies. They appreciate not being forced to choose between parenting and being a student. Flexibility/comfort. Not having to cope with the travel and time constraints of the traditional classroom makes online studies highly attractive. Older women also say they feel less out of place learning from home than in a classroom full of 18-year-olds. Finances. While tuition and fees may not be substantially less than traditional classes, online learning means women save on babysitters, parking, gas, tolls, and meals on the run. Fulfillment. Many women set aside their personal goals early on to start a family or to support one by entering a career field that isn’t fulfilling. The number one rea-
Elizabeth Rios son women cite for going back to school is not only to increase their knowledge and expertise but also to walk towards a dream or calling they felt obliged to postpone at one point in their lives. I earned my master’s degree at Regent University (Regent.edu), which is ranked number two in the nation for its online degree programs. They offer more than 30 fully accredited college programs both on campus and online. But it isn’t cheap. Those looking for a more wallet-friendly program might want to check out City Vision College (CityVision.edu), where I serve as the academic dean. This term 31 percent of the students are people of color, and 60 percent of the students are women. An accredited, degree-completion school, it has two major undergraduate programs: Missions (with a choice of concentration in urban ministry or nonprofit management) and the less common Addiction Studies. Students can also pick up an individual course, taught in eight-week terms. What I particularly love about this school is that courses are approximately $500 per class (not per credit) and free for students who qualify for a Pell Grant. The urban ministry practitioner’s dream is located where affordability and accessibility converge! I mention here only those with which I am familiar, but many other online options exist to help clear the hurdles for women wanting to return to school. While it can be challenging and stressful, most women who earn an online degree are proud of their success and recommend it to others. If you’ve been contemplating a return to school but were worried about how you would fit it in, consider learning online. Chances are good that it will lead you in your journey to becoming a leading lady. Rev. Dr. Liz Rios, a mom and wife, serves as academic dean at City Vision College, executive pastor at Save the Nations in Davie, Fla. (SavetheNations.com), and is founder of the Center for Emerging Female Leadership (CEFL.org).
Your perpetual ruins will be rebuilt; you will reestablish the ancient foundations. You will be called,
Repairing Broken Walls A walk through two Christian communities that are transforming their urban neighborhoods with creativity, courage, and commitment.
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PRISM Magazine
, ‘The one who repairs broken walls, the one who makes the streets inhabitable again.’ Isaiah 58:12
From Ramshackle to Shalom
An Indianapolis church turns a vortex of foreclosures into a neighborhood on the mend by Zoe Sandvig Erler
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large board covers the front door of 403 North Gray Street. Chunks of the white brick porch are missing, and brambles from a dead tree swallow up half of the front view. It’s difficult to tell how long the house has been vacant. Just six doors down, Belinda Ellis’ front porch twinkles with icicle lights and a bold Christmas wreath. Inside, her cozy living room is lined with family photos, suede couches, and children’s bicycles. Ellis proudly shows off her home, pointing out pictures of her eight grandchildren. She flings open the back door onto a spacious red deck and even more spacious backyard. That yard is the main reason Ellis lives at 428 North Gray Street. The house was under renovation when Ellis first saw it in 2007, right after she got out of prison. “I just fell in love with it,” she explains, “’cause I knew it had this huge backyard.” The yard has since become a staging ground for her grandkids’ football games. It’s unusual for former felons returning to Indianapolis’ Near Eastside to find quality affordable housing, but Ellis’ home was made possible by Englewood Christian Church, and Englewood isn’t known for following the norm. The fall of Near Eastside The church stands at the corner of Rural and Washington Streets, on the edge of Indianapolis’ Near Eastside and just half a mile from Brenda Ellis’ home. The 200-member congregation continues to work out the kinks in a 15-year project to live out the gospel of Jesus Christ in a community ravaged by crime, unemployment, and an overwhelming number of home foreclosures. Although it hasn’t been officially confirmed, most Near Eastsiders claim that their zip code—46201—led the nation in foreclosures in 2004. It wasn’t always so. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Near Eastside boasted a thriving business district, several prominent schools and churches, and a popular amusement park. Families started, grew, and left legacies. During this time, Englewood Christian Church exploded its population to more than 1,000 regulars, gaining a reputation as a cornerstone congregation in the city and in the nation. But despite its prestige, the church concealed its subtle horrors, including the hushed history that some members held Ku Klux Klan meetings in Englewood’s austere building. These wounds have now turned to scars that the church no longer tries to hide. After all, it has long since acquired a new identity and celebrates God’s desire to redeem our past and turn our scars into character. Englewood persisted in its fashion of abundance and prominence until World War II, when Near Eastside suffered a dras-
Belinda Ellis is the proud owner of her house, which was renovated and financed by ECDC. (Photo by Beverly Saddler)
tic demographic shift as families began moving out to the suburbs to purchase newer homes. The exodus escalated in the 1960s and ’70s as houses were increasingly subdivided into rental duplexes for more transient tenants. Other homes were abandoned and eventually forced into foreclosure. Suburban flight took with it important assets; neighborhood grocery stores and other retail operations closed, forcing the remaining residents to shop outside of the neighborhood. According to the 2000 US Census, the population declined by 19 percent between 1980 and 2000. Crime climbed and schools suffered. As current Englewood pastor Mike Bowling recalls, Near Eastside had disintegrated into a “no man’s land.” Many churches headed to the suburbs, too. But Englewood remained, now one-fifth the size of its original booming congregation. When Bowling arrived at Englewood in 1993, he faced a congregation unsure of its identity and uncertain of its mission. Within just a few years, Bowling, who had previously served in an urban ministry in Pittsburgh, teamed up with several other social-justice-minded members of the congregation to begin a new phase in Englewood’s story: transforming their struggling neighborhood by reversing the housing crisis. It all started in 1995 with a single mother and a little house on the verge of collapse. Translating social justice In 1995 Donna Spurling—a cancer survivor, single mother, and Englewood congregant—was looking for a new place to live, but she couldn’t pay much in rent. Meanwhile Englewood folks noticed that a house across the street from the church looked as if it was about to fall down.
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candles, and framed pictures. This room—this house—she calls “her refuge.” About eight years ago, she hit her lowest point: Her husband left her, she was evicted from her apartment, and she ended up homeless on the streets of Indianapolis. Welcomed into the Care Center—in the building where the CommonWealth will be—Maximoff surrendered her life to Christ, got clean, and found community. Three-and-a-half years later she was still living there and afraid to leave, until she learned that Englewood was renovating 207 North Rural. Although Maximoff didn’t attend Englewood at the time, she knew the house well, having attended Saturday morning Bible studies in its living room when it was occupied by an acquaintance from a previous church. And then Englewood offered it to her, and she jumped at the opportunity. “I just thought it was the most darling house I had been in.” These days, she admits that having her church as a landlord creates a closer dynamic than many would prefer to experience. But she appreciates it. “I have no doubt in my mind that if it became apparent to the people at Englewood that I was doing something I shouldn’t be doing, somebody would be calling me on it,” she said. “To me, having that accountability is a safety net. To me, it’s just one more layer of things that would keep me from going back to drinking.” Since moving into her house, Englewood has never raised the rent and lets Maximoff reimburse them for utilities when she can. When the church at large is doing what it was created to do, it will be responding to the great ills and desperations of its day with compassion, creativity, and action. In the 2nd century, Christians sacrificed their lives to tend to the sick during a plague in Rome. For Christians in 18th- and 19th-century England, this meant launching a full-scale attack on the British slave trade. In 21st-century America, where many neighborhoods have fallen into ruin over several decades of neglect, Christians—like those at Englewood—are repairing the walls, rebuilding and repopulating abandoned homes, and restoring shalom. Maximoff concludes, “That’s part of what Christianity looks like today in this neighborhood—helping people find affordable places to live.” Formerly a writer for Chuck Colson’s Prison Fellowship, Zoe Sandvig Erler is currently director of communications for Sagamore Institute, a nonpartisan think tank where she researches and writes about community development and social justice. She lives with her husband in Indianapolis.
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On Earth as It Is in Heaven A ministry’s integrated approach to community building transforms inner-city Albuquerque by Helen Lepp Friesen
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lbuquerque’s International District at one time boasted thriving businesses and safe living conditions for its residents. But that all changed in the 1970s, when the construction of Interstate 40 through the heart of the city rerouted traffic from the neighborhood and when Kirtland Air Force Base housing was relocated. These two events brought with them the evacuation of businesses, a decline in home ownership, and a rise in absentee landlords. Four decades later the International District still consists of highly transient and low-income neighborhoods, with the city’s highest rates of violent crimes, domestic violence, prostitution, and poverty. Although the multiplicity of languages and ethnic groups in the neighborhood can be an asset, it can also make communication difficult, and racial conflict complicates community progress. Into this challenging scenario East Central Ministries (ECM) was born in 1999. ECM’s goal is to be “followers of Christ, committed to living out faith by partnering with vulnerable neighbors to cultivate solutions, development, and transformation in Albuquerque’s southeast International District.” ECM was launched by John Bulten as an outreach of Fellowship Christian Reformed Church in Albuquerque, N. Mex., with the initial goal being to men-
Enjoy the full article... Subscribe Now now operates two days a week, with three doctors from area churches and University of New Mexico medical faculty who volunteer their time and expertise Based on capacity and volunteers, One Hope offers clinics on issues such as depression, asthma, diabetes, and weight loss. Patients are charged a $10 copay for a doctor visit and, if they cannot afford that, are welcome to barter for the service by cleaning the clinic. In the clinic’s backyard, a shaded sitting area with comfortable cushioned deck chairs qualifies as the counseling room. In its first quarter of operation the clinic offered $40,000 worth of services to 80-90 patients per month. Word of mouth has been the sole marketing tool. Food coop, micro businesses, an urban farm business The food coop opened in 2001. Using donations from around the city, 15 volunteer families organize the food, setting up the coop to resemble a farmers’ market where approximately 100 families come to select the food they need for the week, volunteering their time in exchange. Community members manage and operate the entire project. Excess or spoiled food is sent across the street to be composted at Growing Awareness Urban Farm, one of two micro businesses that ECM started to provide employment and much needed income to unemployed community residents. Growing Awareness Urban Farm is run by Matt Wilson, a master gardener, entrepreneur, and community developer with a passion for kids. He and his employees grow 20,000 starter plants to sell to a local nursery or to church youth groups and schools for fundraisers. With a US Department of Agriculture grant, Wilson expanded the farm to include chickens, bees, and composting worms that turn food scraps and “gray water” into
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potassium- and nitrogen-rich gardening soil that is sold to gardening centers; the worms are also sold to fishermen. Urban Farm is considering organic certification next year. A donated greenhouse waits to be installed. Wilson recruits middle and high school students to assist in the projects. Another ECM micro business is based on the ancient method of olla irrigation. At the cutting edge of urban gardening, olla irrigation uses water that passes through terracotta pots that are buried in the ground with just their opening exposed to allow for filling. Employees make the ceramic molds
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Generous Justice by Timothy Keller Dutton Reviewed by Tim Høiland If you have experienced the grace of God, Tim Keller argues convincingly in his latest book, Generous Justice: How God’s Grace Makes Us Just, it is inevitable that your life will be marked by a passion for doing justice among the poor and marginalized. Keller, who for more than two decades has pastored Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, is well known for his bestselling work of apologetics, The Reason for God, and for his leadership of Redeemer City to City, an organization supporting church planters in New York City and elsewhere. While Keller is a preacher and has devoted much of his vocational energy to evangelism and church planting, he considers justice an equally essential calling of the church. “The biblical idea of justice,” Keller writes, “is part and parcel of what God is doing in history. God is reconciling humanity to himself—and as a result of this great transaction, he is reconciling all things to himself.” This argument is rooted in Keller’s well-articulated theology of shalom, which he defines as “complete reconciliation, a state of the fullest flourishing in every dimension—physical, emotional, social, and spiritual—because all relationships are right, perfect, and filled with joy.” He describes shalom as a tapestry in which thousands upon thousands of interwoven threads are perfectly arranged. Doing justice, then, is an essential part of how Christians begin to reweave that shalom in the world as a grateful response to the grace we have freely received from God. It is no secret that the theme of social justice has enjoyed a renaissance among evangelicals in recent years, but it is clear that Generous Justice isn’t a vain attempt by Keller to jump on an already loud and well-crowded bandwagon. Keller points to the genesis of his justice thinking by describing his experience as a conflicted college student 40 years ago, seeing that while his secular friends were active in the civil rights movement, the Christians he knew viewed Martin Luther King, Jr. with suspicion and fear. Through involvement with a small group of Christians intent on exploring the relationship between justice and the Christian faith, however, Keller came to see that the Bible provided the very basis for social justice in general and the civil rights movement in particular. While pursuing a doctoral degree at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, Keller studied the office of deacons and how it had evolved over the years. “Deacons,” Keller discovered, “had historically been designated to work with the poor and needy in the community, but over the years this legacy had been lost, and instead they had evolved into janitors and treasurers.” Shortly after completing these studies, Keller was asked by his denomination to start a church in metro New York, providing him an opportunity to test this newfound understanding in a context where injustice and need were in no short supply. While Keller celebrates the trend of increased concern for the poor and oppressed, especially among young Christians, he notes that all too often it coexists paradoxically with an unquestioned consumerism that “undermines self-denial and delayed gratification.” This is why Keller so passionately points to our need for the gospel: It is the beauty of Christ—
not statistics, not guilt, not even flashy do-gooder social media campaigns—that will compel us joyfully and consistently toward justice and the denial of self for the greater good. For churches, small groups, and individuals in search of a deeper, more generous, more theologically integrated practice of justice, this is a book long overdue. Tim Høiland is an independent writer and international development professional. He blogs about the intersections of faith, justice, and peace in the Americas at TJHoiland.com. Common Prayer by Shane Claiborne, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, and Enuma Okoro Zondervan Reviewed by Amanda Kaminski “Some liturgical types smile when evangelicals discover the ‘miracle’ of liturgy,” write Wilson-Hartgrove, Claiborne, and Okoro in their new book, Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals. Christ followers possess varying levels of familiarity with the liturgical life, and this book purposes to serve people from all walks of the faith—from high church to no church. Common Prayer offers a compilation of morning, midday, and evening liturgies for families, communities, coworkers, dorm mates, and individuals. The liturgies are designed to be prayed in community but allow those outside of physical communion to know that their prayers are part of a canticle of praise being offered to God from around the world. This guidebook leads disciples into a rhythm of daily prayer situated within weekly cycles that make up the larger annual series of biblical seasons: from Advent through Christmas, to Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, Easter, Pentecost, and with “Ordinary Time” in between. Intentional prayer, responsive reading, Scripture meditation, and song are the “heartbeat for the global church,” and the authors invite us to recenter the Christian life around God’s story, over and against schedules and lives dictated by pop culture, busyness, or even national calendars. Participating in these timeless petitions, songs, and observances, the church finds herself swept up in the dance of God’s history and involved in God’s ongoing work. Liturgy interrupts our life and focuses us by reshaping “our perceptions and lives with new rhythms, new holy days, a whole new story.” These disciplined gatherings and exercises join us together with the saints, the persecuted church, and the global body. The authors frame the liturgies with beautiful art, functional tips, reflections, and action ideas to stir the imaginations of participants and inspire faith in deed. Many of the morning prayers offer a glimpse of church history through quotes or vignettes. Each month also proposes a list of further readings, inviting readers to dive deeper and discover practical applications. An additional section offers special prayers for events—such as planting or harvest, healing, commissioning or dedication of the home or workplace—where through intentional liturgical ritual believers can invoke divine blessing or express gratitude for and grow in awareness of God’s active presence in the world. Want even more? A comprehensive database is available at CommonPrayer.net. From Australia to Brazil, from India to Sierra Leone, and in 37 US
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Book Reviews states so far, Christians have hosted about 150 gatherings of ordinary radicals to celebrate the launch of the book through candlelit services and multilingual worship, demonstrating the timely publication of this muchneeded guide into “life with common prayer at its center.” Amanda Kaminski earned her M.Div. from Palmer Seminary and her masters in international economic development from the Campolo College of Graduate Studies, both at Eastern University. The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander New Press Reviewed by Samuel K. Atchison During my youth in the 1970s, it was common among some African Americans to refer knowingly to what was then termed the “master plan.” While the phrase was never clearly defined for the uninitiated, the context within which it was used suggested that “the white man” had a grand scheme to continually subvert, oppress, and ultimately destroy the black race. A typical expression of this mindset can be seen in the 1974 film Three the Hard Way, in which white supremacists release into the nation’s water supply a toxin that is deadly to blacks but has no effect on whites. Notwithstanding the chuckles such apparent silliness engenders, as attorney and scholar Michelle Alexander observes, “[T]he word on the street turned out to be right, at least to a point.”
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In The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Alexander suggests, for example, that the CIA’s admission that it effectively permitted Nicaraguan rebels to smuggle drugs into the US during the Reagan years and distribute them in inner-city neighborhoods lends credence to urban conspiracy theorists who see a Nazi-like “final solution” in such actions. “Conspiracy theorists,” Alexander writes, “must surely be forgiven for their bold accusation of genocide, in light of the devastation wrought by crack cocaine and the drug war, and the odd coincidence that an illegal drug crisis suddenly appeared in the black community after—not before—a drug war had been declared.” Thus does Alexander lay the foundation for her central thesis vis-àvis the nation’s criminal justice system: Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. In point of fact, The New Jim Crow is but the latest in a series of books and papers attempting to grapple with the conundrum that is mass incarceration. In the main, these studies review the same basic research, cite many of the same sources, and reach the same broad conclusions: To wit, mass incarceration dehumanizes those labeled as felons (and, by extension, their families) by denying them basic citizenship rights such as the right to vote, the right to serve on juries, and access to employment, public assistance, subsidized housing, and the like. Moreover, though some come close, such studies tend to frame their conclusions in terms that fall short of accusing Uncle Sam of having a “master plan.” In other words, however harmful they deem the nation’s crime policies to be, the authors’ focus is chiefly on the policies’ effect, not on malicious intent. Alexander, however, is different. In summarizing the impact of her experiences as an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union on her
R on Sider
Finishing Well Pete Hammond was a friend with a special word of wise counsel. We did not see each other often, and he went to be with the Lord about a year ago, but several times when we were together, Pete said to me, “Finish well, Ron.” Coming from Pete, it was an exhortation that I took seriously. He was a friend of many evangelical leaders. For decades, he was a top executive with InterVarsity. He was a board member of Christianity Today. And he spearheaded several innovative, influential projects that helped Christians take Christ into the workplace. So when Pete Hammond urged me to finish well, I listened. We both knew so many Christian leaders—often after decades of fruitful ministry—who fell into blatant sin, disgraced their families, devastated their ministries, and grieved their Lord. It is so easy to fall into the devil’s trap. After years of very successful ministry, leaders sometimes come to feel that the normal rules do not apply to them. Under intense pressure, they rationalize disobedience. They betray spouse, family, congregation—all the people who trusted them. And the scandals undermine the gospel. Many turn away in disgust and scorn. We all need someone to ask us, “Are you finishing well? Are you on track to finish the course and keep
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faith with Christ and his people?” Nor is it just those who are in their 50s, 60s, or 70s who need to ponder this question. My worst time of struggle and temptation came before I was 40. The devil’s temptation to adultery was strongest just a couple years after my Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger came out. Thank God, I knew my Lord hated adultery. God’s holy commands protected me from destroying my family and a lifetime of ministry, almost before it got started. We need friends to ask us whether we are remaining faithful on the journey in every period of our life. But at my age, the counsel feels especially relevant: “Finish well, Ron.” One line in my prayer diary that I use regularly urges me to ask for divine strength to do just that. I beg God to help me avoid disgracing the Lord I adore. I ask for strength to bring joy to my God. God has no need for tiny little me. But I do believe the awesome Creator of the galaxies is filled with joy when one infinitesimal, insignificant person on a tiny planet in a small solar system in a modest galaxy loves and obeys him. I know I cannot do that in my own strength, so I pray for divine help. Recently that has taken the form of a homespun trinitarian prayer ritual. For years, I have ended my prayer confession and request for forgiveness with a petition to Christ. I look into the face of Christ and ask him to transform
me daily more and more into his very image (2 Corinthians 3:18). Somewhat later I added a second step. I have long been amazed by St. Paul’s teaching that the Holy Spirit prays for us with groans too deep for utterance (Romans 8:26). In our weakness, we do not always know how to pray. But the Spirit intercedes for us according to the will of God. What a wonderful promise. So right after asking the Risen Lord to make me more like him, I ask the Holy Spirit to pray for me—this day and always—with groans too deep for human understanding. Only quite recently did I add a third part to this section of my private devotions. I now conclude with a prayer to the Father. My friend and New Testament scholar Craig Keener says that “leave me not in temptation”—rather than “lead me not into temptation”— is a proper translation of that part of the prayer Jesus taught us to address to the Father. I know I regularly face temptation, so I ask fervently that my Heavenly Father will not leave me in the midst of temptation but rather will deliver me from the evil one’s snares. Regularly, I use that trinitarian ritual. I look into the face of my Lord Jesus and ask him to make me more like him. I plead with the Holy Spirit to speak with the Father and the Son on my behalf. And I beg the Father to stay with me and deliver me from temptation. In the power of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, it is possible to finish well. Please God, grant me that grace—today and every day until I see you face to face.
Ron Sider is the founder and president of Evangelicals for Social Action, author of dozens of books, and professor of theology/holistic ministry/public policy at Palmer Seminary of Eastern University.
PRISM Vol. 18, No. 2 March-April 2011
Editorial Board
Miriam Adeney Tony Campolo Luis Cortés Richard Foster G. Gaebelein Hull Karen Mains Vinay Samuel Tom Sine Harold DeanTrulear
George Barna Rodney Clapp Samuel Escobar William Frey Roberta Hestenes John Perkins Amy Sherman Vinson Synan Eldin Villafane
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A Publication of Evangelicals for Social Action The Sider Center on Ministry and Public Policy www.EvangelicalsforSocialAction.org Palmer Theological Seminary of Eastern University All contents © 2011 ESA/PRISM magazine. The body of this magazine is printed on 85% post consumer waste recycled paper.
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