Tag Archives: justice

June 24, 2013 · 8:26 pm

Nelson Mandela International Day for freedom, justice and democracy

mandelaThis year it seems more important than ever to observe Nelson Mandela International Day on 18 July. Make your plans now!

Started by the Nelson Mandela Foundation and promoted by the United Nations among others, this year marks the fourth celebration of Mandela Day. The day is about individuals around the globe giving 67 minutes of their time to make a change in their community and thus, the world. Mandela Day seeks to inspire individuals to take action to help change the world for better, and in doing so build a global movement for good. Ultimately, it seeks to empower communities everywhere. The theme for this year’s observance is Take Action; Inspire Change; Make Every Day a Mandela Day.

Why 67 minutes? First, remember that you can always give more than 67 minutes. Second, the idea is to make every day a Mandela day by doing some good for others. But again, why 67 minutes? The Mandela Foundation suggests that number because:

Mr Mandela spent more than 67 years serving his community, his country and the world. The number is symbolic of how people can start to do the same – one small step at a time – and so become part of a continuous, global movement for good.

Looking for something to do? Here are some activities already planned for the day. Find 67 ways to mark the day from the Mandela Foundation. Share what you do – post a comment here or use your own social media tools. Use your imagination!

I will post when I know what I will do. Until then, here are a few resources:

Make your plans now. I look forward to observing this day with you.

See you along the Trail.

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March 4, 2013 · 9:00 pm

We marched to remember

The 57th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women has started. Women from around the world gather in New York to witness and advocate for women’s rights. With other men, I seek to support them. This year’s focus is the elimination and prevention of all forms of violence against women and girls. Here’s a reflection I originally posted on my work blog:

In a broken and fearful world
the Spirit gives us courage
to pray without ceasing,
to witness among all peoples to Christ as Lord and Savior,
to unmask idolatries in Church and culture,
to hear the voices of peoples long silenced,
and to work with others for justice, freedom, and peace.

  • A Brief Statement of Faith, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

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Participants in March 3 Ecumenical Women’s orientation for the 57th Commission on the Status of Women remembered our sisters whose voices are and have been silenced.

In worship, we remembered.

In prayer, we remembered.

In art, we remembered.

As we marched in silence from The Salvation Army International Social Justice Commission to the Church Center for the United Nations, we remembered.

Remembering, may we act.

Photo by Andrew Nam Chul Osborne

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January 5, 2013 · 2:28 pm

Unavoidable

A Facebook friend posed the following questions:

Wondering how many people who are seeing the Les Mis movie never saw the show on stage? (How many people over the age of 30 never saw the show on stage?)

I have seen neither. Some in my family and many of my friends have seen both. As a family we saw a couple of movies over Christmas but not this one.

That may change.

Some time back, I viewed the movie version with Liam Neeson and Geoffrey Rush. Since returning to New York, the buzz for the current film has led me to check out other versions starting with the 1935 movie starring Frederic March and Charles Laughton. Can a trip to the theater be far behind?

Victor Hugo’s story remains compelling. It is also contemporary – the themes of the tale remain with us to this day. And it is theological covering grace and forgiveness and redemption and understandings of justice.

Today’s viewing of a 1978 made-for-TV movie with Robert Jordan and Anthony Perkins reminded me of that. It also contained a piece of dialogue I had not heard before and that will stay with me for a while.

The movie concludes with a scene at the wedding of Cosette and Marius. Gillenormand, Marius’ estranged grandfather appears at the end of the service and greets the radiant couple in a tender moment .

The couple leaves the church and Gillenormand and Valjean speak:

Gillenormand: “I’ve been a fool.”
Valjean: “Oh sir. We’re all fools for most of our lives. It’s unavoidable.”

I do not judge anyone else. But Valjean’s words work for me. They truly work for me.

Now I find myself thinking that, not only is it unavoidable that I am a fool much of the time, perhaps a trip to see the film and the stage production and maybe even time to read the book (the full version not the comic book version I remember as a child nor the abridged version from college) have also become unavoidable.

Perhaps I will see you at the barricades.

Certainly I will … see you along the Trail.

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December 25, 2012 · 1:17 am

Silent night, 24-25 December 2012

The familiar words of “Silent Night” filled the sanctuary of Forest Hill Church, Presbyterian as the 11:00 PM service drew to a close.

Outside at least six Cleveland Heights police cars, lights flashing, roared past.

It occurred to me that the world is rarely silent.

Life is messy, chaotic, confusing, and noisy. And much of that noise stems from our violation of one another and God’s creation.
Gun shots.
Drone attacks.
Land mines.
Shouts of anger.
Tears.
Bombs.
Hate-filled rhetoric.
Collisions.
Screams of fear.
Clanging chains.
Machinery ripping at the earth and its resources.
A cacophony of pain and abuse and exploitation fills life’s sound track.

But it is precisely this messy, chaotic, confusing, noisy life to which God comes. In Jesus, God enters this life freely. Experiences this life fully. Embraces this life wholeheartedly. 

This un-silent life, filled with deafening days and noisy nights, matters to God. Matters so deeply that God gives us Jesus to offer another way, inviting us anew to:
accept new beginnings,
offer forgiveness,
pursue peace,
seek justice,
love kindness,
live into hope,
and walk with God.

May we do so
on silent nights
on noisy nights
on this night
on all nights.

See you along the Trail.

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March 26, 2012 · 5:52 pm

Not the answer

Vigilante justice is not the answer.

The Boston-Herald reports that, “Members of the New Black Panther Party are offering a $10,000 reward for the ‘capture’ of George Zimmerman, the Neighborhood Watch volunteer who shot Trayvon Martin … The bounty announcement came moments after members of the group called for the mobilization of 10,000 black men to capture Zimmerman, who shot Trayvon in a gated Sanford community on Feb. 26.”

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

Vigilante justice is not the answer.

This way of vengeance fails to honor Trayvon Martin. It further tears at a wounded community. It fuels the cycle of violence.

A fair, full, transparent investigation of the events that led to Trayvon’s death is needed. Such an investigation can determine what steps should be taken to seek justice for all. Justice is the answer.

On the Southern Poverty Law Center‘s website the New Black Panther Party is identified as a black-separatist group founded in 1989, that is “virulently racist and anti-Semitic” and whose leaders have “encouraged violence against whites, Jews and law officers.”

Vigilante justice is not the answer.

 

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February 5, 2012 · 8:56 pm

Humble folk

St. James Presbyterian Church extended to me the privilege of preaching today. The congregation began their observance of Black History Month.

As I worked on the sermon, I thought of a prayer that I had remembered and included in the worship service for the Presbytery of New York City’s worship service celebrating the life, ministry, and witness of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The Rev. Dr. Otis Turner, one of my mentors, wrote the prayer. It reads in part:

We thank you for apostles, martyrs, leaders, and saints
And for humble folk whose names were never in the news.
But are recorded in your book of life.

God has blessed me. I have known many humble folk who have tirelessly pursued justice for all God’s children, loved courageously, and witnessed boldly. I know many who do so today. I give thanks to God.

See you along the trail.

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January 19, 2012 · 10:37 am

Giving thanks for song

Originally written for my work blog:

I give thanks today for those who cannot keep from singing.

Song sustains us, guides us.
Song expresses our deepest fears and our most profound hopes.
Song challenges the powers and proclaims an alternative vision.
Song leads us into living that alternative.

The January Term Doctor of Ministry class meeting at the Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations attended chapel at the Church Center for the United Nations today. Chaplain Kathleen Stone reminded us of the power and roles of song. And I thought of:

Victor Jara
Odetta
Pete Seeger
Paul Robeson
Sweet Honey in the Rock
Vedran Smailović
Tommy Sands
and musicians through the age whose names I cannot remember, whose names I do not know, will never know,
but whose songs touch and inspire and bless people,
cause tyrants to tremble,
shape and support struggles for justice.
For each, for all I give thanks.

And it seems to me that since I believe Love is Lord of heaven and earth, it might be time to get out my guitar.

See you along the Trail.

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December 25, 2011 · 1:15 am

Nights silent and otherwise

On nights
when silence resounds with
a deafening roar;
and
on nights
when the thunderous cacophony
of violence and hatred,
prejudice and discrimination,
inflicts suffering and sorrow
beyond measure and imagination;
on such nights,
on all nights,
Christ comes,
inviting us anew to
pursue peace,
seek justice,
love kindness,
live into hope,
and walk with God.

24-25 December 2011
Cleveland Heights, OH

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October 12, 2011 · 10:47 pm

Who wants to be humane, anyhow?

A Florida state representative wants to eliminate the use of lethal injections as the means of state-sponsored executions. He doesn’t want to do so because he is opposed to the death penalty. Quite the contrary.

His argument seems to be that lethal injections are too sensitive – too humane. He wants to replace lethal injections with the electric chair. And he proposes providing the option of a firing squad.

He only moves in that direction because his preferred method of execution does not appear feasible: “If it were up to me we would just throw them off the Sunshine Skyway bridge and be done with it,” Drake said in an article posted by the Florida Current.

“I am so tired of being humane to inhumane people,” he is quoted as saying.

By all means! Who wants to be humane, anyhow?

Of course, if we stop acting in a humane fashion, what does that make us?

See you along the Trail.

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July 4, 2011 · 3:16 pm

Oops

In all the chaos of disengaging from Big Tent Two, I forgot that today is not a vacation day – it is a holiday. I have to revise my entire plan for approaching the day.

While I do that, let me say:

  •  Happy Birthday to my sister, to Vince, and all those who share this day!
  • Thanks to all those who have served and sacrificed in so many different ways to help my country do justice, seek peace, and be the best in can be.
  • Thanks to all who serve today – in whatever ways.
  • Thanks to all who love my country enough to remember its misdeeds and sins – and to help us make restitution and reparation so we can move into the future.

See you along the Trail.

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