Verslawing: Injustice

Die kerk en baie ander organisasies is soos lewensredders wat mense probeer red wat besig is om in 'n rivier te verdrink. Ons gee verbande, doen mond-tot-mond asemhaling, vertroos, bemoedig, vermaan, huil en voel saam. Daar is wonderlike stories van mense wat gehelp word. Daar is ook stories van mense wat verdrink – omdat daar nie hande, voete en genoeg geld is nie. Die nood van die wêreld word groter en sak stadig soos 'n donker moeras oor hierdie brose aarde. Die lig van die wêreld skyn al flouer. Naas die vraag hoe ons ons lig moet laat skyn moet elke kerk en organisasie wat besig is met barmhartigheidswerk 'n tweede belangrike vraag vra: Wie gooi die mense in die rivier? Dis die moeilker vraag - dit is die vraag wat Jesus se lewe gekos het...

Jesus se visie van die koninkryk: Regverdigheid.
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'n Beter vertaling van Matt 6:33 is: ‘’…soek eers die koninkryk van God en sy REGVERDIGHEID…” Waarom is dit dat kerke nie in regverdigheid belangstel nie? Die vertaling …en sy geregtigheid... val sagter op die oor – want ons verstaan dit eerder binne selfbelang. Apartheid is seker die beste voorbeeld van blinde regverdigheid in die kerk. Ek het geen twyfel dat ons soek eerder die kroon sonder die kruis en gemak bo sacrifice.

Die afgelope tyd praat ons oor verslawing – Sondag gesels ons oor instellings, organisasies, bendes en nog meer wat die mens en sy battle met verslawing eksploiteer. Daar is drie InVia’ers waarvan ek weet wat op die oomblik besig is met groot projekte rondom human trafficking. Ons wil luister en saam bid oor wat ons as 'n community moet word om Jesus binne hierdie opdrag te gehoorsaam.

Ons gaan voorgestel word aan Gary Haugen. Hy is die CEO van Internasional Justice Mission. Kyk hom uit op youtube en www.ijm.org Dan gaan Quinton en Floyed iets vertel oor die wettiging van Prostitusie in SA voor die wêreldbeker sokkertoernooi – en waarmee hulle tans besig is.

Lectio Divina

Amos 5:21-24 (The Message)
21-24"I can't stand your religious meetings. I'm fed up with your conferences and conventions. I want nothing to do with your religion projects, your pretentious slogans and goals. I'm sick of your fund-raising schemes, your public relations and image making. I've had all I can take of your noisy ego-music. When was the last time you sang to me? Do you know what I want? I want justice—oceans of it. I want fairness—rivers of it. That's what I want. That's all I want.

Matteus 5

1 Toe Jesus die menigte mense sien, het Hy teen die berg opgegaan. Nadat Hy gaan sit het, het sy dissipels na Hom toe gekom, 2 en Hy het hulle geleer en gesê: 3 "Geseënd is dié wat weet hoe afhanklik hulle van God is, want aan hulle behoort die koninkryk van die hemel. 6 Geseënd is dié wat honger en dors na wat reg is, want hulle sal versadig word. 7 Geseënd is dié wat barmhartig is, want aan hulle sal barmhartigheid bewys word. 8 Geseënd is dié wat rein van hart is, want hulle sal God sien. 9 Geseënd is die vredemakers, want hulle sal kinders van God genoem word. 10 Geseënd is dié wat vervolg word omdat hulle doen wat reg is, want aan hulle behoort die koninkryk van die hemel.

Leesstof

Defining Human Trafficking

Human trafficking is the process of recruitment and transporation of
people by means of deception or force for the purpose of exploitation.
This exploitation most commonly involves forced prostitution, but
victims are also trafficking for bonded labour and domestic servitude.
Victims can be men, women or childen.

The issue of human trafficking is currently the fastest growing
illegal industry in the world and the third largest money making
scheme , with only small –weapons trafficking and drugs smuggling more
lucrative. It is estimated that up to one million people are
trafficking across borders annually, with many more trafficking
internally in their own countries. It is not just something you see in
a movie. It is not over dramatized or over exaggerated…and it is far
from over.

Across Southern Africa today, men, women and children are being
devided. Struggling to survive in situations of destitution, they are
promised jobs that seem to be offer life- lines, but merely mark the
beginning of their exploitation. Not one of the cultures in South
Africa claim to condone the abuse of women and children , yet we’ve
reached such a state of moral depravity that a recent study shows that
one in every four South African men admits to having raped a woman.
Where does SA stand on Trafficking?
We know that South Africa is a human trafficking hotspot: it’s a
source, destination and transit country for trafficking victims. This
is because of our:

1. Porous borders
2. Lack of appropriate legislation; and
3. Corruption at all levels of the law enforcement system.

Warmest Regards,
Judy Botes

A challenge to “do justice”
Brian D McLaren: Everything must change

An African –American friend recently challenged me in this regard. He was referring to efforts of suburban churches like the one I served to help poor people in the inner city.”I hope you don’t mind me saying this,” he began, “but sometimes I have mixed feelings about you folks coming in the suburbs coming down to teach poor urban kids to read.”

He paused for a minute, then continued, “Look, we know how to read, and we should be teaching our own kids. What I wish you would do is something we can’t so easily do for ourselves. I wish you would get organized and go down to Congress, and go to the White House, and go to other branches of government, and get them to change laws and policies that keep our people so poor and our schools so ineffective. If e go in there, they don’s listen to us. We have no power, no clout. We don’t wear the right clothes, and we don’t write letters and speak with the kind of English they respect. But you could do all those things, to try to confront systemic injustice. You could use your power and privileges on our behalf. That’s what I wish you would do.”

While neither he nor I want to squelch any generous impulse to tutor children, I think my friend had a point. With the Old Testaments prophet Micah’s words in mind (6:8), we might say that all Christians and churches believe in walking humbly with God. More and more Christian churches , thankfully, are also showing a concern to show kindness or compassion – helping the victims of injustice through mission trips, giving to social needs, and so on. But the number of individuals and churches focused on doing justice remain disproportionately low.

Depending on how you look at it, that could be an indictment or an opportunity.

GROUP DIALOGUE QUESTIONS

1. The author recount several episodes from Jesus’ life. Which episode most struck you, and why?
2. Respond to the terms holiness and social holiness, as used in this chapter.
3. Respond to the idea of collective sin, as presented in this chapter. Look over today’s news headlines and relate them to the idea of collective sin.
4. What forces promote apathy among us? What would it take to overcome apathy in your life?
5. The author speaks of big religion and small gospel. How do you relate to these two terms?
6 Do you see the lack of attention to justice as more of an indictment or opportunity? How can we sieze the opportunity?
7. Is there any issue of social justice or collective sin that you feel special concern about? How could this reading group become an action group around that issue?

An Anti-Injustice Movement
Michael Frost: Exiles: Living Missionally in Post-Christian Culture

Many conservative American Christians, seeing news broadcasts showing thousands of protestors demonstrating outside world-trade meetings, believe the media’s casting of these protestors as anti-capitalists or anti-business or, worse, anti-American. They hear the newscasters referring to them as anti-globalization protestors, and they see the images of them behaving aggressively, even violently. For his reason is’ been easy for the mainstream church to adopt the television network’s portrayal of them as a lunatic fringe of radical leftists. But when you take a closer, more rational look at the agenda of the so-called anti-globalization movement (notwithstanding the admittedly high-handed tactics in some quarters of it), it’s hard to see why Christians have not been a more significant part of this group.

Unfortunately, the popular moniker of the movement isn’t’ helpful. Commentators scoff at the quixotic nature of the the anti-globalization movement., as it naively tilts at windmills, trying to stop the deeply entrenched juggernaut that is globalization. But such criticism is simply patronizing. Most members of the anti-globalization movement are far from naïve, being fully aware that globalization is a very present reality. They are not protesting against social progress, technology development, or global cooperation; rather the focus of their protest is the unethical and dangerously unsustainable way that economic globalization is being accomplished.

In addition the reputation of the movement is not enhanced by the fragmented nature of the various sub movements that compromise its membership. Again, news reporters often depict protestors as a disorganized mob that can’t decide whether they’re promoting AIDS awareness, advocating debt relief for poor nations, boycotting companies that use child labor cleaning up the environment, or saving dolphins from tuna trawlers. This apparent disorganization emerges from the fact that the anti-globalization movement is indeed fractured by the competing agendas of different organizations. There is no hierarchy, no central leadership, no core doctrine. For this reason, some protestors feel at liberty to demonstrate violently, while other cringe at their behavior. What they share, if not agreement on tactics, is common dissatisfaction with the current world order.

Surely this is an agenda that the followers of Jesus also share. We should be dissatisfied with our host empire as we find it. Wracked by greed, selfishness, injustice and violence, this world needs a complete spiritual makeover, and exiles are prepared to abandon the prejudices about anti-globalization protestors and listen carefully to their agenda, even if that means making a very dangerous critique of our host culture. We might well find that a great deal of the critique is in keeping with the concerns of God. If we’re not comfortable with the reputation of the anti-globalization movement , why not at least consider the merits of being part of an anti-injustice movement, acknowledging that the unscrupulous forces currently supporting the globalization agenda are causing unspeakable suffering across this planet? Can we ever be comfortable in a world where there is such starvation? Can we be “at home” in a world where 12 000 women are killed each year in Russia alone as result of domestic violence? Or in a world where there are 300 000 child-soldiers fighting in armed conflicts? Or where some 120 000 women and girls are trafficked across international borders each year? Or where Africa is home to 30 000 000 people who are HIV-positive?

It’s not enough that we simply share bread with the poor. Part of our companionship with the poor requires us to be peacemakers, to address the forces that foster and promote poverty and injustice around the world. We can no longer remain ignorant of the fact that that Western governments are giving away power to large corporations for their own gain, leaving human rights, the environment, public health, the economy, and even democracy at risk.

Ok, sien dan Sondag!
Cheers
Theo