Houston is a Welcoming and Compassionate City

 

 

Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

 

 

Protestors turning back buses in Murrieta

 

 

At the recent TMO press conference dealing with the refugee crisis at our southern border,  Reverend John Ogletree, pastor of First Metropolitan Church said, “Houston is a welcoming city.  It’s a compassionate city.  When Katrina struck the Gulf coast, Houston opened itself to the plight of these displaced persons.  And again after Ike, Houston opened itself to the needs of the displaced. In times of trouble Houston has always reached out to offer aid and comfort to those who have been displaced to start a new life.”

What Reverend Ogletree could have gone on to say was that Alief is a prime example of a community that opened itself to the needs of others.  Catholic Charities, the YMCA and other organizations were responsible for helping refugees from all over the world to resettle in Houston and particularly in Alief.  Houston opened its arms to the boat people from Viet Nam and Cuba.  We opened our arms to political refugees from El Salvador.  We opened our arms to refugees from Africa and the Middle East. And without much fanfare we opened our arms to over 4000 persons from the civil war in Burma.   Alief, even though not terribly affluent,  is now one of the most vibrant communities in the Houston area.  Alief has its challenges but many of those challenges existed before the resettlement efforts occurred.  Progress exists in business, education, community development and participation.  Its citizens, in spite of their diversity have a can do spirit that is amazing to witness.

The press conference that I’m referring too was a plea to congress to keep the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2008 in place. We also advocated that anyone under the age of eighteen should have an attorney and must never be subjected to expedited processing.  Thirdly, that those who would meet the religious needs of the children and families must be allowed access to the U.S. Border Patrol detention facilities and religious, human rights and civic groups must be allowed to the U.S. Refugee Resettlement shelters for unaccompanied minors.  Community leaders can and should provide humanitarian support to the overwhelmed detention centers and shelters.  The letter was signed by 180 pastors, bishops and religious leaders in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California to show the faith community’s concern that these migrant children should be treated with compassion and respect.

Some would say that we have enough people on our shores and we don’t need anyone else except the very affluent or educationally superior.  And those are some of the nicer objections.  But I am reminded by theologian Walter Brugemann that “we must confess that the central problem of our lives is that we are torn apart by the conflict between our attraction to the good news of God’s abundance and the power of our belief in scarcity — a belief that makes us greedy, mean and unneighborly. We spend our lives trying to sort out that ambiguity.”

With thousands of children flooding our Southern border there are many who are afraid, angry or just down right prejudiced about this new horde of refugees.  Seeing the pictures of the train coming from central America can engender deep-seated emotions that many people cannot even admit they have.  Whatever the outcome is with the current border crisis, Houston will step up as it so often has and again demonstrate that we are welcoming and compassionate to the stranger among us.  Pray that a loving and compassionate outcome may occur with this humanitarian crisis.

 

Central American Children hopeful they can stay

 

 

What Kind of World Does God Want?

This is an effort by Abiline, Tx. to develop and bring the community together to live into “loving God, loving neighbor. TMO has as one of its goals to create community where people can not only develop meaningful relationships, but in the process transform their communities.

Alief Early College High School–You’d Think it Was a Secret

 

Just a few of the Alief Early college grads

At the May 20 board meeting those of us in attendance were treated to an extraordinary event–  The recognition of students who would be graduating and had achieved above and beyond.  In particular there were about 60 students who were graduating from the Alief Early College High School.

 

“The Texas Education Agency awarded the Alief Independent School District a grant to help create and sustain an Early College High School. In partnership with Houston Community College (HCC), Alief Early College High School (AECHS) opened with a freshman class in August of 2009. It is a school that combines high school and college in a supportive, yet rigorous educational environment.

Located on the HCC Alief Campus, AECHS gives prospective first-generation college students and others typically underrepresented in higher education the opportunity to earn a high school diploma and an Associate’s Degree or college hours toward an Associate’s Degree.

Alief Early College High School wants incoming 9th graders who:

–might be the first in their family to attend college.
–maintain high academic and behavioral expectations.
–want to earn college credit during high school.
–prefer attending a small high school.
–are not interested in participating in UIL sponsored activities.
–will thrive in a challenging learning environment.
–live in the Alief School District. ”

 

”  In 2013 Students earned the Distinction Designations for having met Standard on STAAR as well as the three areas required (Top 25 Percent Student Progress, Academic Achievement in Reading/English Language Arts, Academic Achievement in Mathematics)
ü 100% Passing on all Exit Level TAKS tests!
ü 56 Seniors graduated with their Associates Degree with another 22 achieved Core Complete!
ü Over 5 Million dollars in scholarships and financial aid awarded to our seniors!
ü 100% Graduation Rate!”

Part of the 2013 early college group

In 2013-14 the school attendance increased to about 300 with the number of graduates higher than the previous year.  This years graduates received letters of acceptance to schools such as Stanford, Rice, Georgetown, UT, A&M, U of H, and Baylor.  For these students being able to receive their community college degree tuition free as well as receiving additional grants and scholarships will be a blessing for students who might not otherwise be able to attend college.

In Harris county HISD, Aldine and Spring Branch are several schools or where a student can take college courses for dual credit or that have Early College prep schools.  However, as in the case of Spring Branch, students have to pay tuition for the courses and can only receive credits for up to 30 hours of work.

 

Early College HS students working together

 

The Quest for Community →

                                                                                                        In 1952 philosopher/sociologist Robert Nisbet wrote “The Quest for Community”. His thesis was that the human impulse toward community was  fulfilled by a multiplicity of human scale associations including guilds, churches, schools and family.  As these institutions that had been intermediaries in society began to dissolve and lose their influence, centralized government began to have more influence on policy and culture.  The irony seems to be that the more society began to seek individualism that was not bound by church, lodge, family and schools the more people turned to centralized government.  The desire to be a part of something was still there, but this desire was supplanted by centralized government and sometimes in its worst scenario by totalitarianism.

As TMO works to engage families in the process of helping parents become more engaged in their children’s success and in the success of the community in general we need to keep Nisbet’s thesis in mind.  Questions exist as to whether we can reestablish and strengthen existing human associations or whether we need to focus on generating support for more centralized institutions of government.  There is no doubt that government is playing a more pervasive role.  The reasons for this are many, but they can be categorized into several general categories.  They include business interests and special interest groups that benefit directly or indirectly from centralization in the form of contracts, regulations and other beneficial legislation or lack thereof.  TMO states that there are two types of power–organized money and organized people.  Notice I used the word “organized”.  Even big money has the ability to organize itself for its self interest.  Organized people who usually represent voters have less influence unless they organize themselves around certain issues.  From the right we have the example of the “Tea Party”  that in the past election cycle showed its power in being able to influence elections and legislation all over the country.  This group could be labeled as “being sick and tired or being sick and tired.”  They tend to be older, white and more republican and independent.  They tend to be more evangelical and, they vote.  And as we know they have made a real impact on the elections of 2012.  Most believe that our country is on the wrong track and that our impulse toward church, family, lodge and community have been negatively influenced by centralized government.  For many the answer to this diminution is for government to get out of the affairs of citizens and letting the market place be the guiding factor.  Somehow there is also the belief that with fewer restrictions on the individual there will be some miraculous move back to the church, better schools, and intact families.

Love God, Love Neighbor

These positions may be desirable, but how do we as a society make this happen?  How do we as parents “make” our children accept our “religious beliefs”?  How do we “make” our children marry a person of the opposite sex, have children and live a life that we may or may not have had?  How do we control what our children watch on TV or the internet or what’s taught in our schools?   How do we  influence the next generation to get a “good” education, a “good job” and put away for retirement.?  When our neighborhood begins to change, how do we respond?  Do we embrace the differences of our new neighbors, or if our economic  situation allows , do we move to be with others who may look like us even though we hold little in common with them?  And how do we deal with some of the everyday issues involving our quality of life such as the water we drink, the air we breathe and the food we eat?  And when a disaster hits our neighbors community how do we deal with that?  Do we say, that’s not my problem; it’s a budget breaker or say that it’s the role of the church?  And what about unemployment and poverty?  Is it the job of the church which may have a large number of members who are also unemployed and impoverished?

In our desire to return to the past we may pass legislation that results in more restrictions on personal freedom.  These would include the Defense of Marriage act which has been struck down, restrictions on abortions and who one can marry.

The point of this is that society is highly complex and the issues facing us are interwoven in the fabric of community.  And the island of isolation is getting smaller and smaller.  It is for we citizens to recognize our responsibility, and with civility cross the great divides of class, race and economics to hammer solutions for our community.  One common belief of many of our faith traditions call on us to love God and love neighbor and to “do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God.”  This is both difficult and subject to multiple interpretations.  But if we are to survive, this is our call by God.  I believe that community demands personal engagement in the work of the community but it cannot be done by itself and there has to be a reliance on our responsibility to engagement in the political process that we are all a part of and that informs all our lives.

 

MDUMC Justice Charter–Part 2 →

What then will we do?

Having considered the Charter’s declaration of beliefs, we now examine the possibilities of living into our call to do justice.

Therefore, we will:

• Seek ways to do justice through our church programs and ministries, prayerfully asking God’s guidance in helping us to recognize systemic structures of injustice and granting courage to respond;
• Step with love into the gap to speak for those who have no voice;
• Work through our ministries to remove barriers and social conditions that perpetuate injustice, seeking to create an environment where all may live in fullness and wholeness;
• Pledge to continue to be in respectful conversation with those whom we differ, and to explore the sources of our differences with the goal of reconciliation;
• Open our hearts and minds as we seek to love all persons with kindness and agape love;
• Strive to walk humbly with our God, prayerfully asking the Holy Spirit to guide us;
• Honor our sacred worth of all persons as we continue to seek the mind of Christ and to do the will of God in all things.

The call of the Charter  calls us to look at ourselves, our prejudices, our timidity, and our shortcomings.  The Charter calls us to call upon God for strength and guidance, to remove the scales from our eyes and then to have the courage to do justice.  In the context of the Charter doing justice is not a singular action.  We are called to be the community of the faithful, to trust one another to not just to learn and study, but to then take action with other believers to bring about justice.  Justice is not just about finding what is wrong with the world, but is also about finding solutions and then taking action to alleviate those injustices.  It is not about coming up with a liberal or conservative agenda.  It’s about coming up with Christian solutions that are based on our understanding of our Christian principles.  It’s recognizing that solutions to injustice are complex and that there are no easy answers.  At every step we are called to ask, “what is the roll of the Church in this issue and more importantly, what is God’s will.”

How can we solve the issue of poverty if we do not offer the love of Jesus Christ to them, get to know them personally, build relationships and invite them into our congregations.  We know that many in our culture have no spiritual connections and are often lost in the complexities of life. And what does it say to persons when we are not willing to be inclusive and offer full participation in the life of the church through the covenant of marriage and ministerial ordination.  And does the situation ever arise when it is time for brothers and sisters in Christ to decide to divorce one another when the disagreements on justice are too divisive, thereby limiting the body’s ability to effectively address other issues of justice.

Issues of justice have elements of relationally.  It is therefore important to build relationships with those persons in power whether it be elected or appointed officials, business groups, or civic groups.  These persons and organizations are often the groups that hold power over those who are marginalized.  And they often are reluctant to relinquish their power whether it is a result of their own conviction or that they are merely the puppet of others.  Justice cannot always be achieved in an atmosphere of harmony.  Throughout history we have seen that justice has a price for those who advocate for those who are oppressed.  But it can always be done in an atmosphere of love.  Love is power and sometimes can be contentious.

God calls us to do justice and we believe that God’s will towards justice will prevail.  And we must remember that justice will prevail in God’s time, not ours.  But I believe that it will not occur at all until the faithful join in the struggle and are willing to pay the price.

One last thought.  When someone says something so outrageous concerning justice issues that it catches you off guard and you know you should say something, but you don’t know what, says this, “I don’t agree.   That goes against my Christian convictions.”

Epilogue

For Courage to Do Justice

Lord open my eyes that I may see the needs of others;

Open my ears that I may hear their cries;

Open my heart so that they need not be without succor;

Let me not be afraid to defend the weak because of the anger of the strong,

Not afraid to defend the poor because of the anger of the rich.

Show me where love and hope and faith are needed,

And use me to bring them to those places.

And so open my eyes and my ears

That I may this coming day be able to do some work of peace for thee.

Amen*

*The United Methodist Hymnal #456

As always I encourage your comments and hope that you will develop conversations and actions in your classes, bible studies and with friends on what God is calling us to do in the area of justice.  In the next few months  our  TMO (The Metropolitan Organization) will be offering “pressures on families” to find leaders interested in issues of justice and the issues affecting families in our community.  We will also be discussing how the Justice Charter informs and impacts “pressures on families”.

MDUMC Justice Charter–Part 1 →

A Short Exposition

In 2011, after over six months of study, prayer and discernment, the board of Stewards at  Memorial Drive United Methodist Church approved the Justice Charter which was our statement of how we would respond as a congregation to Micah 6:8 which states, “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and walk humbly with the Lord.  Here are the affirmations of justice:

Because we believe:

• All persons are created in the image of God, with sacred worth and equal value in the sight of God;  
  
• All are blessed with spiritual gifts that differ according to God’s grace;  
  
• Social conditions exist that prevent some from exercising their gifts and living in wholeness, and where allowed to persist, these conditions perpetuate poverty and create systemic structures of injustice;
• Christ’s call to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves consequently requires us to seek justice;
• As disciples of Christ, we are further called to serve as reconcilers of conflict and disparity;
• Those who have gone before us have provided clear biblical and historical guidance and a rich tradition of advocacy for those who have no voice;
• Wishing for justice is not enough–scripture requires that we do  justice.  We are called to respond–to take action.

We all know that loving mercy and kindness is easier than doing justice.  With mercy we can study about justice issues, write a check or do an hour or so volunteering sorting clothes and feel good about ourselves.  On the other hand, justice kicks us in the gut. Justice tells us that as long as there are hungry people, people who cannot make their own way, or are oppressed we are falling short of what Christ called us to do.  It’s not that we’re bad people or that we don’t care.  And God still shines God’s grace on us.  More often than not it’s that we feel so overwhelmed by the need.  Even with our best intentions,  we know that we can’t change the world or do away with poverty or hatred or all the other afflictions in the world so we placate our conscience with our modest efforts and hope that what we do, will make a difference.  We may even appease our conscience with reasons why justice efforts won’t work.  We can blame governments, the rich, big business or the afflicted themselves.  Our attitude then becomes, I can’t solve the problem so I either do nothing or only the minimum.    I’ve even heard that in the past  that the church took care of hunger and poverty in our communities and that then at some point the government took over that responsibility.  Finding reasons for injustice and the result of our unintentional consequences is easy since it absolves us from responsibility to do justice.  The result of all this is that, if we even think about it, we tell ourselves that the problems are insoluble.  Is that all there is?  Or is that our shadow side speaking?  God gives us the freedom to respond or not to respond with justice.  But, I believe that God weeps when God sees how we treat one another.  So, can we get out of this quagmire?

Here is what our Charter says:   

Justice is the dynamic concept calling God’s people to work toward the opportunity for equality and fairness or all.

Let’s look at Part 2 to see what we can do.

Mercy without Justice is Brutality →

“He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you

but to do justice, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.”  Micah 6:8

Now, before anyone supposes that I am suggesting that we shut all the food pantries in America and stop giving medical aid around the world let me dispel those ideas.  However, it might be helpful to understand what the terms mercy and justice mean.

Mercy is an immediate response to tragedies such as disastrous weather events like tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes and floods.  The recipients of such help normally, in time, will be able to reconstruct their lives to where they were before the disaster.  Justice on the other hand is about equity.  It not only restores persons but has a role in changing the system to make persons lives better.  For some reason it seems easier to do acts of mercy rather than acts of justice.  The reason for making issues of justice more difficult is that justice may require that we take a position that challenges our place in the social and economic order.  Let’s look at a hypothetical situation where this might happen.

Mrs. Betty O’neal is a loyal member of a Christian church in any town USA.  Every week she volunteers at a local food pantry and helps distribute food to those in the community who are poor and need the extra help over and above their salaries and government assistance.  Mrs. Lorraine Gonzales is a single parent with two children ages 8 and 10.  She works full time in a downtown office building as a janitor and makes $7.50 per hour before deductions.  She also works at McDonalds during the day for $7.50 per hour.  Her two children are home alone much of the time since their mother works sixty hours per week.  Ms Gonzales comes to the food pantry as often as is allowable to supplement her food budget.  The pantry, because of demand, can only provide assistance once a month.  Ms. O’Neal and Ms. Gonzales have a fairly good relationship and frequently talk about their families and their life challenges.

Today, Ms. Gonzales comes to Ms. O’neal with a special problem.  “Ms. O’neal,  you have always been so kind to me and I cannot think how to repay you and your church.  I feel ashamed that I have to take charity.   But you have never made me feel bad.  I have a special request today.  At the office building where I work the workers are ready to go out on strike for better wages.  We just can’t make it on $7.50 an hour.  I come home dead tired from two jobs and my kids have to fend for themselves.  The apartments we live in have some really seedy characters and i’m worried that something bad’s going to happen to them.  I’ve had to move twice in the last year because I couldn’t pay the rent.  If we don’t get a raise, I don’t know what we’ll do.  So, Ms. O’neal, here’s what I want to ask you.  Can you and your church help the workers in my building while they’re on strike?  I don’t know what that would look like but being able to get food from the pantry more than once a month would be a big help.

If you were Ms. O’neal and a good church member, what would you do?  For Ms. O’neal and her congregation Ms. Gonzales’ question presents a confrontation with an issue of justice.  What alternatives might Ms. O’neal and Ms. Gonzales take to address the issue.

But why do I say that this has elements of  brutality to only continue with doing the same thing as in the past?  Certainly, the food bank is important to the people getting the food.  But it is wrong on several levels.  First, scripture says to “do justice”.  So, we are called to do more than just give mercy or charity.  Secondly, it does nothing to get persons out of poverty.  The unfortunate truth about the poor today is that without fundamental changes in education, wages and employment they will remain in poverty and the probability is good that their children will grow up in the same trap that their parents are in.  But the most insidious effect of such merciful work is that we as the those who provide the aid often consider ourselves righteous for providing food which will only last a little while,  and at a different level harbor negative feelings about those who receive the help as being dependent and indolent.

For every mercy strategy there should be a justice strategy attached.  After giving mercy help, how will we as part of the system ensure that persons finally get out of the cycle of poverty.  Because as a nation, going back over 400 years we have developed a system that often helps maintain persons in poverty and isolation.  In the development and implementation of acts of justice, it must include all phases of the system including those who will be directly involved, the poor.  And changes must not just be piecemeal.  As Pope Francis stated in his Christmas homely,  “we must place ourselves at the service of the poor.”  Not only must it not be piecemeal, but it must be sustained for at least a generation.  And lastly, we must learn from our mistakes and refrain from politicizing the process.  If we have been able to put men on  the moon, we certainly should be able to accomplish this.

Even though the probability that Ms. O’neal’s congregation getting out on the picket line is slim to none, the situation may give Ms. O’neal and Ms. Gonzales the opportunity to get others from the congregation and some of the workers in conversations about what it’s like trying to make ends meet on $7.50 and hour as well as having conversations on how to better one’s life.  Conversations are only the beginning and need to result in further action.