Mending Wall - James R. Thomas

Troubled Hearts!

2019-08-26T19:58:00.000-07:00

Jesus says, "Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afriad." John 14:27 - This is a good word for such a time as this. Our nation is divided. We have a president who does not inspire confidence in many. What will we do? That is a question on the minds of many. Jesus said, "Do not let your hearts be troubled..." But dear Jesus, our hearts are troubled, and we are afraid.

Whites Will Lose Majority Status in 2044

2018-11-23T11:05:00.002-08:00

According to the Census Bureau the year 2044 is when white Americans are projected to fall below half the population and lose their majority status. Get to that!

Worth noting…Ramadan and Fasting

2018-08-17T07:31:00.001-07:00

Worth noting…Ramadan and Fasting

On Thursday, June 14, 2018, I participated in “Iftar” at Masjid Noor Ul Huda (MNH), Columbia, South Carolina. I, with other community leaders, was invited by Chaudhry Sadiq, President of MNH, and President of Peace Integration Council of North America. I participated in part, to understand more fully why I observed the Ramadan fast. I joined the fast before while serving on the Christian Peacemaker Team in al-Khalil (Hebron). Omar Shaeed, Imam at Mashid As-Salaam, Monticello Road, Columbia reminded us that fasting exists as a practice in nearly all faith traditions. He cited a verse in the Quran that says, "fasting is prescribed for you, as it was prescribed for those before you, so that you may become righteous." He pointed to the fasting practices of Moses and Jesus. He explained that the focus of fasting in on creation. The essential of fasting is empathy. Those who fast during Ramadan attempt to emphasize with others. Fasting allows one to feel the distress of hunger and thirst. There are people struggling with food insecurity not just in remote countries but also in the USA. Fasting connects as human beings.

Imam Shaeed explained that fasting also commemorates the first revelation of the Quran to Muhammad according to Islamic belief. This annual observance is regarded as one of the Five Pillars of Islam. The month lasts 29–30 days based on the visual sightings of the crescent moon, according to numerous biographical accounts compiled in the hadiths.

Harris Zafar writes, Fasting teaches us how to put ourselves in another person's shoes and to gain some level of understanding of their pain. This empathy is meant to foster more care and love for those who are often neglected and forgotten. For this reason, Muslims are advised to be more charitable -- with their time, wealth and general attitude -- while fasting during Ramadan. It is a month in which Muslims aren't allowed to express anger or tell a lie. Instead, they are instructed to focus on strengthening their relationship with God in humility. https://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2018/05/ramadan_reflections_fasting_to.html

The last 10 nights of Ramadan is a time of intense worship, followed by a three-day holiday. Eid al-Fitr, the celebration marking the end of Ramadan, is a time of gifts, food, and festivities.

2018-08-15T09:31:00.002-07:00

Follow your heart, but take your brain with you!

Waiting in Umm al-Khair

2017-07-21T01:31:00.001-07:00

The heartbreaking details of people waiting for their homes to be destroyed by the Israeli authorities is told again and again by the people of the Bedouin village of Umm al-Khair. Umm al-Khair is a Palestinian village located in the Hebron Governorate of the southern West Bank. The people eloquently describe the waiting as something akin to pregnancy. They are waiting for the birth of something, perhaps early one morning, with the realization that it will bring about the cruel destruction of their homes and their way of life. The villagers search the apparently fertile world around them—nearby settlers who enjoy modern life, the new military closed zones, the hum of drones above them near their rural homes, they search for answers. They may wonder why muted responses come from the international community as Israel continues demolitions that contravene explicit provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention. They may wonder how the world goes on, as if unaware of or forgetting real human beings in Umm al-Khair. Who will shelter them from an empire whose army has conquered the land where they live and before whose power they are otherwise powerless? Who will protect them from a power that tramples on their basic human rights and cruelly forces them from their homes? Who will save them from a force that destroys their livelihood? Who will halt the aggression? ‘Id al-Hajalin, a resident of Umm al-Khair ask, “Why do they want to destroy my house? Where can I go? Can I go to America? I have nothing, and they want to take that nothing from me. Can you help me? Where am I supposed to go?^”[1] Demolitions of homes and other structures that compel the people of Umm al-Khair to leave their homes may amount to the forcible transfer of residents of an occupied territory, which is a war crime. It is 5:15 am in Umm al-Khair. I hear the rumble of a large vehicle coming up the road. No, the domolition is not scheduled for today. Umm al-Khair is featured in the 2016 book "The Way to the Spring: Life and Death in Palestine" by Ben Ehrenreich.[2]

[1] David Dean Shulman, 'On Being Unfree:Fences, Roadblocks and the Iron Cage of Palestine,' Manoa Vol, 20, No. 2, 2008, pp. 13-32

[2] Review: 'The Way to the Spring,' by Ben Ehrenreich, by Steve Weinberg, June 10, 2016, Star Tribune

2017-07-20T12:36:00.000-07:00

NOTES FROM UM AL KHAIR (West Hebron Hills, Palestine)

We traveled to Um Al Khair by taxi from Hebron. We traveled to Yata where we were expecting an awaiting car. My team member had made the arrangements so I trusted that the trip would be routine. Nothing is routine in Palestine. Because neither my team member nor I speak Arabic, we got into a car we thought to be the one waiting for us. The price to our destination was 15 shekels. Two other individuals piled into this small vehicle. In the best Arabic we new, we told the driver we wanted to go to Um Al Khair. The driver had a conversation with the two other passengers about the town of Ar-Tuwani, a place known to us, but a bit further up Route 317. We believed that the two passengers had helped the driver locate out destination, and as they both reached the point where they got out of the taxi, we felt confident that we were on the way. We were wrong. Our driver did not know the way to Um Al Khair, and we could not tell him. We phoned out contact in Um Al Khair who spoke to the driver in Arabic. At this point, the driver was no longer interested in taking us to Um Al Khair. He asked us for 50 shekels. Our contact in Um Al Khair instructed us to pay him the 50 shekels and exit the car. We both reached for 50 shekels at once, and the driver responded that he wanted 50 shekels a piece. We were not going for that! He drove away leaving us on an unfamiliar road. For all intent and purposes, we were lost. Several locals driving by signaled to us, an elderly white woman and a black man. But because we could not speak the language we were distrustful. We finally got another call through to our host in Um Al Khair who sent a car to pick us up. Lesson learned: Learn the language.

Shopping While Black

2016-09-17T09:14:00.002-07:00

Shopping While Black

Today I shopped at the Giant Food Store on Route 611 in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. I was shopping for fresh flat-leaf parsley. I asked a store employee for parsley was and he told me that it was with the spices. He said he did not know where the spices were. I thanked him and found the parsley myself near the vegetables. A few minutes later I observe a white male asking the same store employee for help. The employee left what he was doing and helped the white man find what he was looking for. I am black and I take it that I don’t matter in the economy of this worker. On Sunday, I took a Delta Airline flight from Atlanta to New York. I observed a white women leave the coach section of the aircraft to use the toilet in the first class section. It occurred to me that she was not challenged because of her white skin. When an elderly black man attempted the same thing, his skin told on him “This facility is reserved for first class passengers.” I hope he didn’t pee on himself while waiting for the coffee and snack cart to finish the rounds. The funny thing is that the flight attendant probably did not realize that the white woman was not a first class passenger. But she knew that the black man belonged in the back of the plane. She had her eyes on him. Daily black people endure these little indignities. Daily, while walking, riding a bike, speaking black, shopping while black, flying on planes while black, being in the park, swimming at the pool, being in church, in a police van, black in court, we are treated differently. Just for being black.

Headlines abound with stories of an unarmed blacks being killed by police officers who are not doing something wrong, but for simply being black.The recent killings of unarmed black men, women and children by police in New York, Texas, Maryland, South Carolina, Ohio and Florida, and the failure to prosecute the killers, sends the message to black communities that black lives do not matter. Unarmed black people were killed by police at 5x the rate of unarmed whites in 2015. (Source: Mapping Police Violence.org:) Posters reading “Black Lives Matter,” “Hands Up. Don’t Shoot,” “I Can’t Breathe,” communicate the reality of a specific kind of racial vulnerability that black people experience on a daily basis. How does all this communicate to black people that their lives don’t matter?

A reason the chant “Black Lives Matter” is so important is that it states the obvious. It is a statement of outrage and a demand for equality in the face of acts that violates accepted standards of behavior. It is a sound that links the history of slavery, of rape of black women, of poor schools, and a prison system geared toward the warehousing, demoralizing and destruction of black lives, but also a police system that is regularly videoed taking black lives because some officer relies more on a gun rather than training.

Black Lives Matter

2015-11-06T14:08:00.001-08:00

When I moved to South Carolina 8 years ago, one of the things I gave up in leaving New York was my membership in an investment club. I looked around for several years to find a club in South Carolina, and I found one in Aiken, SC. I sent an email to the contact person and was invited to a meeting. I am a professor of Church and Ministry at Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary Lenoir-Rhyne University, Columbia, SC. That is how I introduced myself in my email. I am also black. My sense is that the club members expected a white male. I attended a meeting and learned that according to club rules, I would have to attend at least three meetings before I could be proposed for membership. I missed the next meeting due to the South Carolina flood of 2015. Two weeks after the meeting I missed I received an email which pointed out that the investment club was declining my membership application because I was not nominated by a club member. Translated, it means that I was denied membership in a white investment club because I am black. Black Lives Matter!

My Ethnic Day

2013-09-14T15:09:00.000-07:00

I have wondered for awhile about the identities of persons I make contact with during the day. On a trip to New York last September, I found out how diverse my encounters are. Some are missing.

7:30 am Robert F. Kennedy Tool Booth, NYC - A black woman took my bridge crossing fee
8:00 am - Purchased food at Dunkin Donuts - A Guyanese woman took my money and order.
8:05 am - A black Jamaican woman handed me my food order.
8:30 am - Arrived at St. Peter's Lutheran Church, Springfield Gardens, Queens, NY. Will be with this African Descent Congregation for the next six hours.
9:38 am - Spoke to Jamaican/American man about parking in church parking lot.
10:00 am - Greeted several NYC police officers along congregation parade route, 4 whites, 3 blacks, all males.
4:00 pm - A black woman checked my rental car in at LaGuardia Airport, NYC
4:10pm - A black male drove the rental shuttle
4:12 pm - Had a brief conversation with a white couple in the shuttle. I initiated it.
4:20 pm - Latino woman processed my rental car return
5:59 pm - My bartender was Equdorian (male) at LaGuardia Airport.
6:04 pm - Had brief exchange with a white male at the bar about the Beatles hit, Eight Days A Week, which was background music. I initiated conversation.
6:16 pm - Conversation with Guyanese male at bar. He initiated conversation.
7:00 pm - Indian woman directed me to TSA line
7:05 pm - Interact with black male, white female, and black woman TSA agents
7:30 pm - Boarded flight, greeted by white woman flight attendant
7:35 pm - Greeted Mexican seating partner
9:30 pm - paid parking fee to black woman attendant in Columbia, SC

ELDER BROTHER BILL JONES

2013-09-11T14:32:00.000-07:00

Elder Brother Bill Jones, the Co-founder and Chairman of the First World Alliance Lecture Series made his transition to the ancestral realm while at St. Luke's Hospital in Harlem, NY, December 17, 2010. It has been almost three years, and his presence lingers. Through Bill's leadership (and Sister Keffa's) The First World Alliance introduced millions of people to the works of Dr. Josef ben Jochannan, Dr. John H. Clarke, Dr. Asa Hilliard III, Dr. Leonard Jefferies, Dr. Francis Cress Welsing, Brother James Smalls , Dr, Rosaline Jefferies and many other fine Africana scholars. Bill founded a school for Africana studies at Mt. Zion Lutheran Church, where I served as pastor. I was host and student. In the 80s we spoke almost weekly. I am not sure who was the sounding board. Bill Jones was deeply committed to publishing and publicizing the African origin and roots of a wide variety of thought, achievements, and cultural contributions. Bill wanted his students (peers, strangers) to know the rich history and traditions of Black Africans. He has left a rich legacy.

Blogging From Ghana

2013-09-11T14:07:00.003-07:00

I arrived in Accra, Ghana for a four month stay, September 7, 2013. I am Visiting Professor of Church and Ministry at Good News Theological College and Seminary. Good News is a school founded in the 1970s to serve the educational needs of pastors and lay leaders of African Independent churches.

This morning, while I prepared a cup of coffee I heard the voices of small children. Glancing out the kitchen window I saw four boys and a girl foraging in the bush. I asked the housekeeper (yes the college employees housekeepers) what were they up to. She reported that the children were collecting snails. The children were collecting snails for a meal.

2012-12-23T07:26:00.001-08:00

Sean Bell Remembered

On the sixth anniversary of his death

On graves all across the globe we spot the familiar "RIP." This is a death wish. We wish that the souls of dead persons can rest. If such a wish were ever true, it would be highly unlikely that Sean Bell could be so blessed. Six years ago Justice Arthur Cooperman found credible the versions of police officers who killed an unarmed Sean Bell while he was attempting to escape their deadly gun fire. The New York City Police Department found otherwise. The undercover police detective who fired the first bullets in the 50-shot barrage that killed an unarmed Sean Bell as he left his bachelor party was fired. Three other officers involved in the slaying resigned.The officers fired 50 bullets at three unarmed men who sat defenceless in a car. The defence painted the victims as dangerous drunken thugs. Drunk they may have been, but they were unarmed. No drugs were found in their possession. No opened containers of alcohol. No outstanding court summonses. Three young persons of color were at a rowdy bar celebrating the marriage of Sean. He was to be married later that day. Judge Cooperman believed the officers, just as the jurors believed the officers in the shooting of Amadou Diallo, an African immigrant who was also gunned down in a hail of 41 bullets by police officers who mistook his wallet for a gun.

How can the soul of Sean Bell "rest in peace?" He can't. We can't either. The officers who fired their deadly bullets at Bell did not receive a pass on this one. Justice Cooperman's verdict will be debated as to whether it was just.

GEORGE McGOVERN - THE FIRST PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE I VOTED FOR

2012-10-25T06:23:00.000-07:00

In 1972 I was a student at Concordia Teachers College (Now Concordia University - Nebraska) when George McGovern's bus pulled up to the Seward County Court House. It was the first, and only time I heard a presidential candidate speak at an open rally. I don't remember the speech he gave that day. Perhaps I was caught up in the excitement of being so close to a person who might have been president. Through the years, I have been drawn to McGovern's stand on immigration. Unless you are a native American, and I would add, African American, you are in America due to immigration. That's what made America. McGovern knew that, and he championed the cause of immigration. I voted for McGovern in 1972. It was the first time I voted for anybody. McGovern lost by a landslide. Many of us who heard McGovern that day were energized. We would vote again. We would look for politicians who represented our values. And we would be successful in getting a few elected. I am proud of my vote for McGovern. It was not wasted.

2012-10-25T04:41:00.002-07:00

Christian leaders who questioned US aid to Israel

The Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) reacted to a letter sent last week to congress by several American Christian leaders that called on lawmakers to "make U.S. military aid to Israel contingent upon its government's compliance with applicable US laws and policies" with "thinly-veiled charges" of anti-Semitism. These charges are being used as a club to stifle legitimate critique of Israel. This is short sighted. Anti-Semitism is alive. But the church leaders who signed that letter are not engaged in anti-Semitism. They are on an errand. This is a conversation about, and a call for justice. Given the history of maltreatment, disenfranchisement, displacement, and death, and given the shared experience of genocide itself, where is the grief, the hurt, the repulsion at what is being done to Palestinians by the State of Israel? When will there be recognition of the violence being done by Israel?

CESARIA EVORA "BAREFOOT DIVA"

2011-12-18T12:30:00.000-08:00

Cesaria Evora, known as the "Barefoot Diva" died in her native island of Sao Vicente in Cape Verde Saturday. I became a fan of Evora in July 2011 while in Palestine. We were sitting on a patio listening to music, when someone downloaded Evora's Cabo Verde.It took me a little while (she sings in her native creole), but before long I was downloading another song. Evora's style of African island music is close to jazz, blues, and Brazilian music (It is hard to classify!). Her music, traditional music of the Cape Verde Islands off the coast of West Africa is soulful, jazzy, and stirring. Evora was 70. Evora is a grand addition to my small collection of international musicians.

ISRAEL'S MEKOROT WATER COMPANY AND THE JABER IRRIGATION PIPES

2011-09-28T16:45:00.000-07:00

Twice this past summer, on July 6 and July 11, I traveled with a Christian Peacemaker Team colleague to the Beqa'a valley to view water irrigation pipes which had been destroyed by Mekorot, the national water company of Israel. Atta Jaber called the Hebron CPT Office to report that Mekorot Water Company was destroying plastic irrigation pipes at family gardens. The Jaber family has a long history in the Beqa’a valley. The Jabers have been on their deeded property for over 400 years. Mekorot employed young Palestinians to cut the water lines. Mekorot accused the Jabers of stealing water by tapping into lines which supply the nearby settler communities of Harsina and Kiryat Arba. According to Jonathan Cook (1), “Israel controls 80 per cent of the West Bank’s water sources, and diverts most of that supply to its own citizens, inside Israel and the settlements.” Three million West Bank Palestinians use only 250 million cubic meters per year (83 cubic meters per Palestinian per year) while six million Israelis use 1,954 million cubic meters (333 cubic meters per Israeli per year). Palestinians are left with a fifth of the West Bank’s water. More than 200,000 rural Palestinians, most living in Area C under Israeli control, have no running water at all and have to buy water from Israeli tanker-trucks. (2) Cook reports that Palestinians consume far less than the 100 liters each “…recommended by the World Health Organization as the daily minimum.” (3) Atta Jaber believes that the water which flows to the Beqa’a valley comes from an aquifer in the West Bank. He said “Palestinians should not have to pay for what is already their own.” Jaber is familiar with the United Nations Covenant which establishes that under international law it is illegal for Israel to expropriate the water of the Occupied Palestinian Territories for use by its own citizens, and doubly illegal to expropriate it for use by illegal Israeli settlers. (4) Jaber believes that if their gardens fail, the empty dunams of land will be declared unused, or abandoned, and settlers will claim them.
Photos of the events
http://cpt.org/index.php?q=gallery&g2_itemId=23678

1 Jonathan Cook. disappearing Palestine: Israel’s Experiments in Human Despair. New York. Zed Books, 2010, p. 122.
2. ‘The lights of Netzarin’, Ha’aretz, 7 November 2003
3. Ibid. Cook, p. 122.
4. Article 1(2) of the 1966 United Nations Human Rights Covenants proclaims: “All peoples may, for their own ends, freely dispose of their natural wealth and resources without prejudice to any obligations arising out of international economic co-operation, based on the principle of mutual benefit and international law. .

The Illogic of Jewish Settlements

2011-09-27T03:38:00.000-07:00

The buzz which accompanies Israel's stance against a Palestinian state underscores it's obession with demographic and security threats. Yet, Israel continues to establish new settlements in the West Bank. This seems illogical and even suicidal. If a single state emerges out of Israel and Palestine, it will not be a Jewish state. Within a few years the population of Palestinians inside the West Bank, Gaza and Israel will outnumber Jews.

CHRISTIAN PEACEMAKER TEAM - A PROTEST MARCH NEAR TUWANI

2011-07-10T06:11:00.000-07:00

By invitation from Palestinians living in the village of Tuwani, we traveled from Hebron to Tuwani on the morning of July 8 for a Walking Action. Palestinians were protesting the extension of a settlement onto land belonging to Palestinians. At Tuwani we joined Palestinians, Israelis and internationals at a school for the march. School children lead the way with banners. One banner read: “We want to live in peace and dignity.” About 100 participated in the Action.

When the group had traveled to Humra, the children began to water trees which settlers from the Havot Maon Outpost had destroyed two months ago. The Military, using a bullhorn, declared the March Action area a “closed military zone.” The land we were marching on had Palestinian gardens, although some of the land near the settlement was fallow. Some Israeli activists in our group began to go toward the illegal extension of the Havot Maon Outpost. The Palestinians tried to reason with the commanding offer, an Israeli general and the police. An Operation Dove member and a Palestinian were arrested, and the soldiers, Border Police and Blue Police advanced and threw sound bombs followed by tear gas. A number of marchers were affected by the tear gas and smoke. No one was seriously hurt. The Palestinians dispersed, but Amiel, leader of Tay’yush gathered the Israelis and internationals and debriefed with them about what happened. He pointed out that the the Palestinians decided to offer no resistance. All activists followed suit.

CHRISTIAN PEACEMAKER TEAMS - HEBRON

2011-07-05T13:10:00.000-07:00

During the month of July I am participating as a Christian Peacemaker Team member in Hebron, Palestine. Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) is a faith-based organization that supports Palestinian-led, nonviolent, grassroos resistance to the Israeli occupation and the unjust structures that uphold it. CPT has demonstrated that teams of four to six people trained in the skills of documentation, observation, nonviolent intervention, and non-anxious presence can make a difference in explosive situations. Peacemaker teams are present in places like Hebron where the distribution and exercise of power stimies real peace efforts. Hebron typifies conditions in which one party has most of the power and the other has little. Until both parties have hope for a fair relationship at the nogotiating table,the conflict appears to be headed toward an ever vanishing place called Palestine. CPT workers try to emphasize or encourage nonviolent methods for redress and get in the way of violence when they can.

CPT maintains one team at two sites in Palestine. Half of the team is in the city of Hebron/al-Khalil in the southern West Bank. The second half is located 25 kilometers (15) miles further south in the Palestinian village at-Tiwane (near Yatta) very close to the Israel settlement of Ma'on.

VOTER ID CARDS FOR SOUTH CAROLINA A BAD IDEA

2011-02-23T21:53:00.000-08:00

Is there voter fraud in South Carolina? Voter fraud probably exist in the minds of ID Card proponents like Rep. Alan Clemmons, but it seems to be almost non-existent in South Carolina, and Clemmons should be challenged to prove it exists. Democratic state Representative Paul Agnew has said such claims of voter fraud are unfounded. “There have been no prosecuted cases of voter fraud in South Carolina, nothing that we can point to that caused us to have to pass legislation like this…” Voter ID is also expensive. South Carolina has a shrinking tax base. Money to fund vital areas of the state's infrastructure is hard to come by, or we miss opportunities to gain the resources. In 2010 South Carolina failed to qualify for $143 million for public school teachers. Expect to see school teachers and other state employees laid off in the not too distant future. According to S.C. Education Superintendent Jim Rex two years of state budget cuts have cost South Carolina 3,676 public school teachers' jobs, including 2,145 in the last year alone. It is hard to believe that the General Assembly plans to use over a million dollars in state money to fund picture ID cards. The new voter ID law carries a hefty price tag for our cash-strapped state. Given the much larger issues facing South Carolina nowadays, is the drive for voter ID really something the people of South Carolina can afford? You can also expect that South Carolina lawmakers are not adequately budgeting for essential elements of carrying out a voter ID law, including informing voters, administrative costs, hiring and training staff and other necessary expenses.

The Voter ID bill is a bad idea for another reason. There are people in South Carolina such as senior citizens, non-drivers, people with disabilities, people who depend solely on mass transit or those living in assisted living and nursing facilities, who just don’t have photo IDs and in some cases not even birth certificates. You can be sure that these people are not impersonating anybody at the polls. Requiring a voter ID card will effectively disenfranchise many of them. It will turn back the clock on expanding the franchise. Contact your representatives and tell them that voter ID is not what is needed in South Carolina. Click on scstatehouse.gov/html-pages/house2.html

SOLIDARITY WITH THE PEOPLE OF EGYPT

2011-02-04T05:35:00.000-08:00

Feb 4, 2011

President Barack Obama
The White House, 1st Floor, West Wing
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Obama,

As a person of faith, I believe we are all called to be peacemakers. I
am inspired by the courage of the Egyptian people and have been praying
for the protests to remain nonviolent. Now that armed thugs are
attacking civilians, I must speak up.

Now is the time for you to call for the immediate resignation of
President Hosni Mubarak, and to support all efforts to keep the
protesters safe.

If he does not step down immediately, we should immediately cease all
forms of military aid to his country.

You and our nation's leaders are in my prayers as we stand in
solidarity with the people of Egypt. Please demonstrate courage and
true moral leadership as you respond to people mobilizing for their
rights and freedoms.

Sincerely,

Dr. James Thomas
Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary
4201 Main St
Columbia, SC 29203-5863

HELPING HAITIAN RAPE VICTIMS

2011-01-08T08:20:00.000-08:00

Amnesty International is one of several humanitarian and human rights organizations which have issued reports addressesing the plight of woman who are being brutally attacked - raped by men preying on survivors in quake-damaged Haiti. Grassroots organizations are the only source of information on cases of sexual violence according to Amnesty International.The grassroots Commission of Women Victims for Victims, a women's group run by survivors of sexual violence, registered more than 250 cases of rape in several camps in the five months after the quake, but Amnesty believes that number is just the tip of the iceberg.

A new report by Amnesty International says Haitian women are the targets of armed rapists roaming camps that were set up to shelter more than 1 million quake survivors. The report identifies a trend of rape in some 1,200 camps set up to shelter more than 1 million quake survivors. Another 270,000 people died in the quake.

In the Amnesty's report, "Aftershocks: Women Speak Out Against Sexual Violence in Haiti's Camps," more than 50 survivors of sexual violence in post-earthquake Haiti share their stories.

Machou, a 14 year old girl said she was raped in a public toilet last March at the quake survivors' camp where she lives in Carrefour Feuilles, southwest of the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince.

"A boy came in after me and opened the door. He gagged me with his hand and did what he wanted to do," she said.

"He hit me. He punched me. I didn't go to the police because I don't know the boy, it wouldn't help," she said. "I feel really sad all the time. ... I'm afraid it will happen again."

Such stories show that the Haitian government is not doing enough to protect women and girls, Amnesty International's Haiti researcher, Gerardo Ducos, said in a statement on the group's website.

"For the prevalence of sexual violence to end, the incoming government must ensure that the protection of women and girls in the camps is a priority," he said. "This has so far been largely ignored in the response to the wider humanitarian crisis."

Police presence has not been adequate in the quake survivors' camps, Ducos said, and there are reports that even the few officers who are on patrol have told rape victims they can't help them.

"There is no security for the women and girls in the camps. They feel abandoned and vulnerable to being attacked," he said. "Armed gangs attack at will, safe in the knowledge that there is still little prospect that they will be brought to justice."

Today's Amnesty International report is not the first word that rape and sexual violence are rampant in Haiti. Such attacks were even common before last January's earthquake, but they are believed to have grown exponentially after it.

Amnesty International is documenting a real time tragedy. Support for the work of Amnesty International can be made online.Contributions will make a real difference and help Amnesty International demand justice and end impunity wherever human rights violations occur.

MIS AMIGOS JUAN Y FELIPE

2010-12-30T14:44:00.000-08:00

Juan and Felipe are two Mexican boys who live in Chicago. For nearly a month this summer, while I attended Christian Peacemaker School, I spent a few minutes in daily conversation with them. The boys, ages 8 and 6 responded to a question and answer routine I developed with them. I asked questions which included geography, history, numbers, and famous people. When I stepped out of the classroom for scheduled breaks they were most often standing at the fence with their own question: "Ask us some more questions mister? While I was in Chicago, their father was arrested and was held in jail for a short while. He was deported to Mexico because he was undocumented. Juan and Felipe live with their mother.

LIVE OUT LOUD!

2010-12-29T15:54:00.000-08:00

Emile Zola has written,"If you ask me what I can do in this world, as an artist I will answer you, I can live out loud."

I like that! What does it mean for Christians to live out loud? To “live out loud” as a Christian allows one to enter various arenas of life with concern and voice for life. Loud voices of faith are useful ones when they rally human beings around issues such as the green-house effect, depletion of scarce resources, global concentration of financial capital, population explosion, marginalization of unskilled workers, internet-pornography and issues of peace and justice. Loud voices of faith are useful voices when they announce God's passion for the world and God's desires to bring salvation to it.

In the Celtic tradition the Holy Spirit is represented as a bird, but not the peaceful and serene dove landing on Jesus at his baptism. For their symbol of the Holy Spirit, the Celtic Christians chose the Wild Goose. Doves are docile and delicate, but the wild goose is intractable, and unpredictable. Instead of a soft coo, the wild goose is noisy and raucous. The goose is also a messy bird! And it seemed always to be on a pilgrimage. Jesus said that those Christians who were led by the Spirit were like the wind — you don't know where it comes from and you don't know where it's going. Perhaps Christians who take their clue from the wild goose are loose and free themselves. They live lives that are less than predictable. They live life to the fullest (John 10:10). They are wild and free, loud, untamable either by a world that would bind them with lies or by some denominations that would chain them with duty and obligation.

But what does it mean to live our lives out loud? It often means that we have to step out of familiar roles of institutional church membership. Church membership alone is not enough to establish God’s truth; we need ongoing theological reflection and faith in action. Scriptures, creeds, doctrines, offices, sacraments, and liturgies are all “means of salvation”. They are instruments of the Word of God which arouse and sustain faith in the power of the Spirit. But, as Zola writes, we need to “live out loud.” If Christians are not “loud” about faith, the church and her message will be condemned to irrelevance. People are attracted today to the voices and actions of Christians where they find credible responses to felt needs – whether material, communal or spiritual. The question is whether the response offered empowers such people to face their problems, or whether they provide escape routes into fantasy and compensation.

As a Christian I don't want my faith to be reduced to handing out religious tracks, preaching sermons, or entering buildings where I am not supposed to be to “evangelize”. I don’t want my religious life to get stuck in a place like that. For me, living life out loud has meant embracing the view that salvation is about everything, and sharing this message with everyone everywhere. Living life out loud has meant finding a way to create a place or presence for life in my everyday world--with family, with friends, and with strangers. I haven't been completely successful in figuring out how to do this. It is a process that changes as I change. It is a process that engages the world beyond my own everyday world.

The church is also struggling with living its life out loud. In a historic change, non-celibate gays and lesbians can now lead parishes of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Everyone doesn't like the decision. But you know what I think? I think the 549 delegates to the ELCA Assembly last August who voted for this change were actually trying to live their lives, and their faith out loud in the model of Jesus Christ. That's what I think. In a manner that is loving, supportive, and open-minded, but definitely out loud.

OBAMA WATCH

2010-12-26T06:39:00.000-08:00

Is President Barack Obama's presidency saving capitalism? Timothy Egan in the New York Times, claims that President Obama has indeed saved capitalism. Egan argues that under the Bush watch, America experienced the worst stock market decline in history. As Bush flew home to Texas, the net worth of American households had shrunk. If you needed to finance a house or stay in business, private sector borrowing was dead. In a recent appearance on The Ed Show on MSNBC, Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter credited President Obama with preventing another Great Depression. Host Ed Schultz pointed out that Obama is not receiving credit for recent gains in the stock market. Alter said: "He saved them. He saved their fortunes. We were headed for a depression. We were losing 750,000 jobs a month when he took over. If we'd stayed on pace, we would have had another Great Depression in late 2009. He saved them." History will, no doubt, regard the Obama administration as a presidency that saved America at a crucial point.