Do-gooders ; “Saving” the Haitian children

When I first heard about the ten American “missionaries” ,who were arrested (Sat Jan 31st) as they tried to improperly remove 33 Haitian “orphans” from the country. My first reaction was to shake my head, geez the arrogance of these people…

The misplaced missionary impulse to save the heathen children and impart “civilization” by loading a bunch of Haitian kids in a bus and heading for a resort with a swimming pool, to share the “good news” and be adopted, is simply ludicrous. No reputable missions organization works that way.

My second though was ,well perhaps, but… their intentions were  good.  A sentiment ,in all likelihood,shared  by many others.

Still, despite the group’s irresponsible and crude behavior, I suspect that many in America thought that the missionaries would be on a transport home by now.

But upon reflection and further reading etc I believe these people must be held to account,  in Haiti not in America.

Stupidity, well meaning or otherwise is not an excuse…

To let these people off or try them in America would be to add insult to injury,indeed just another slap to the face of the Haitian people. God knows the Haitian people have been slapped down enough by the supposed well-meaning “developed/western” world.

If altruism is an attempt to grab a busload of kids by showing them pictures of a luxury hotel with a pool, I’ve got some swampland to sell the SBC. All I have to say to Mr. Chapman is, 19th-century Baptist missionary Lottie Moon would have known better. She lived among the people she served, and did not offer them hotel and a pool in exchange for Jesus.

The real crux of the issue is this: these ten do-gooders walked into the trap many well-meaning white evangelical Christians fall into: those poor brown/black/yellow/red people need My help. Jesus wants Me to help them. To much of white American Evangelical Christianity, the We often means Me. It’s what God Called Me to do. It’s what God would want Me to do. The problem with the Me mentality of much of conservative Evangelical Christianity is that they often can’t see the We—the people of Haiti—who love their kids so much they’re willing to let some white people who claim to be “Christians” take them away to what they promise will be “a better life.”

The focus on Me takes away from the real ways that people in disasters can be helped without the insertion of well-meaning, clueless interlopers into their story. The New Life group is now finding out what living in an impoverished and earthquake-ravaged country is like. Perhaps now they will begin to understand what it means to live alongside the poor, as opposed to swooping into a disaster for a quick “feel-good Christian moment” designed to make them feel better about themselves. Hopefully, other groups will rally to do the real work that is still so urgently needed, and make a long-term commitment to bring life and stability to Haiti and its children who are in desperate need of it.

Read ;  Missionary Imposition:Idaho Baptists Charged with Kidnapping 33 Haitian Children

A Soul-less “Left” ?

We hunger for communities of meaning that can transcend the individualism and selfishness that we see around us and that will provide an ethical and spiritual framework that gives our lives some higher purpose.” — Michael Lerner, The Politics of MeaningIf progressives, whether in unions, activist groups or political parties, don’t soon begin doing politics differently — radically differently — they will fail to show that “a better world is possible.”

And the price of failure will be catastrophic.

Reads the opening paragraph of Murray Dobbin’s, ‘Left Needs Soul Searching‘ published in The Tyee.

The Lerner quote is not only right , looking back to the history of the Canadian “left”. One can not but notice, that  many of the more inspirational & important leaders/spokespersons were first preachers and or people of faith,e.g… J.S Woodsworth & Tommy Douglas.

From the pulpit to the polls…

Which begs the question why is today’s “left”  so uncomfortable when it comes to people of faith ?  Indeed a kind of secular fundamentalism,as represented by Dawkin’s,Hitchen’s et al, seems to occupy and animate the thinking of many on the left/progressive side of the political spectrum.

Secular fundamentalists find talk of spiritualism intensely uncomfortable, probably because they draw immediate connections to either organized ‘God’ religion and its patriarchal authoritarianism or vaguely to some mushy “self-improvement” sub-culture.  Spiritualism seems to fly in the face of the kind of rationalism that has been at the core of socialist and social democratic theory for nearly two centuries

The following quote sums things up quite nicely…

At its best faith in God is about thanksgiving, shared suffering, loss, pain, generosity, and love. The best religious people and the best secular people learn to ignore our chosen (or inherited) religions’ nastier teachings (be those found in the Bible or in the “science” of eugenics and white racial superiority) in order to preserve the spirit of our faiths, be it a faith in secular humanism, science, God or in all of the above. It’s the tediously consistent fundamentalists, religious or atheist, who become monsters. They are so sure that they have the truth that they dare claim that only those members of “my” religion will be saved. This is the path to madness and, if history is any guide, to violence. Certainty kills.

A step in the right direction ,  NDP’s Faith & Social Justice Caucus blog

The New Democratic Party’s Faith and Social Justice Caucus is an informal group of Party activists who’s vision of political and social justice is, at least in part, rooted in faith. We are people who find congruence between our politics and the values that underpin our faith, as was the case with some of the founders of the NDP, including Tommy Douglas.

We believe that the neo-conservative right has unfairly seized the religious discourse and have used it toward their own ends. The religious right has been so successful at this, in recent years, that many have come to associate religion with intolerance, conservatism, capitalism and even imperialism. This must stop.

We hold the opposite to be true. Many progressive and social democratic principles can be founded upon, and guided by, religious values. Love, forgiveness, generosity, dignity, liberation, equality, respect, as well as the support and acceptance of the poor and marginalized are but a few of these values. We proclaim it loud and clear: there is a religious left!

Agreed Jonathan Kay is Weird

Colby Cosh gets it right in God or evolution: Which is it ? while also stating what what many people have stated on many an occasion , Jonathan Kay is one strange “journalist”.

Boy, how about us militant secularists, huh? You may not have heard the news (it’s elsewhere on this page), but according to Jonathan Kay, we “want everyone in society to dogmatically subscribe to [our] views.” Apparently we do not merely hold a set of opinions and wish, like anyone, that others would come to uphold them with us:We insist that they must do so “dogmatically.” Yes, that’s really the term he used.

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A quote and a historical anecdote

Both related to the Catholic church ,found in ,”Vexing Virgin” published by NOW magazine.Written in response to a  mass at St. Michael’s Cathedral(Toronto) which culminated  in an anti-abortion march on Dec 5 2008.

First the quote…

The Catholic Church, whose mythology rests on God’s occupation of the Virgin’s womb, is ever ready to take charge of every woman’s body in the name of Christ.

Secondly a historical anecdote  on  the Catholic Church’s usurpation of indigenous cultural & spiritual icons.

Opportunities must be seized,there are souls to be “saved” and shitloads of dough to be made…

The cult of the Virgin was exported from Spain and planted with singular success on the existing shrine of the native goddess Tonantzin near Mexico City. She’s reputedly the Catholic Church’s biggest money-maker, drawing offerings from impoverished penitents.

Read more  NOW here ,read about Tonantzin  here

And I thought Canadian Cynic was a somewhat reasonable blogger

Although I have always been reluctant to link to his blog.

Seems to me he spends to much time attacking people ,on a personal level, but to be fair he does make a few good point ever now and then. But his methods…well that’s another matter.

Seems my latest post ‘In defense of Religion‘ and myself as a person,has come in for some criticism ridiculing.

The sad thing being,that CC in his haste to trash someone or something,totally misses the point.But then again  ridicule & personality attacks seem to be the raison de etre of his blog,so should I really be surprised ?

That said it should be noted,that some say cynicism is the last refuge of the broken-hearted & disillusioned. So I do understand where you are coming from CC, my condolences.

In defense of religion,Amen

There is satire and there is ridicule.

Sarah Dreier,of Faith and Progressive Policy an initiative of the Center for American Progress,reviews Bill Maher’s  film ‘Religulous’. She demonstrates,quite convincingly,that the film is just faith bashing of the most pedestrian kind.

She writes  how Maher cherry picks,using religious fanatics to illustrate how believers are supposedly feeble minded.

In one scene of Bill Maher’s much-discussed new movie, Religulous, Maher talks with a zealot tourist at Florida’s Holy Land Experience Jesus theme park who assured Maher that she will triumphantly return to Earth after the Rapture—adorned in seraphic attire, no less—to help save the souls of non-believers. This is just one of many interviews with a cherry-picked religious fanatic that make up the movie. Maher, the crass and (at times) very funny comedian and HBO talk show host, travels around the world to talk to Christian, Muslim, and Jewish votaries about their faiths. Although Maher makes some good points about the bad effects that proselytizing can have on public policy,

The voices and views of a few fanatics does not a critique of religion make. For example…

A recent poll showed that 92 percent of Americans believe in God, and 70 percent of those who believe in God reject dogmatic approaches to belief. But you wouldn’t know that from watching Religulous. The whacky characters Maher interviews, like the founder of the Kentucky Creation Museum and the former gay man who is now a Christian gay conversion “therapist,” display ignorance of their own faith, extreme and contentious literal interpretations of sacred texts, and an inability to consider theological complexity.

Amen…

Maher’s interviewees disregard basic theological tenets—caring for the poor, refraining from judgement, or working to strengthen the common good. Maher should have talked to Christians volunteering in hurricane disaster sites, students committing nights and weekends to inter-faith dialogue, or congregations supporting the poor during the economic crisis. Faith-based communities and activists have been at the forefront of progressivism, from Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dedication to civil rights to the National Association of Evangelical’s commitment to addressing climate change. They have led the nation to frame its domestic and international policy in terms of our moral commitments to equality, alleviating poverty, and sustainable development. Unfortunately, Maher misses the opportunity to make this important point, because he is too married to his own fanatical pursuit—the case against all religion.

Amen…

For whatever reason there seems to be a trend of late,Dawkins,Hitchens,and now Bill Maher of all people,aimed at ridiculing people of faith.

The question being why ?

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