Cadences of God

Darfur has been embroiled in a deadly conflict for over three years.  At least 400,000 people have been killed; more than 2 million innocent civilians have been forced to flee their homes and now live in displaced-persons camps in Sudan or in refugee camps in neighboring Chad; and more than 3.5 million men, women, and children are completely reliant on international aid for survival. Not since the Rwandan genocide of 1994 has the world seen such a calculated campaign of displacement, starvation, rape, and mass slaughter.

Since early 2003, Sudanese armed forces and Sudanese government-backed militia known as “Janjaweed” have been fighting two rebel groups in Darfur, the Sudanese Liberation Army/Movement (SLA/SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). The stated political aim of the rebels has been to compel the government of Sudan to address underdevelopment and the political marginalization of the region.  In response, the Sudanese government’s regular armed forces and the Janjaweed – largely composed of fighters of nomadic background – have targeted civilian populations and ethnic groups from which the rebels primarily draw their support – the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa.

The Bush Administration has recognized these atrocities – carried out against civilians primarily by the government of Sudan and its allied Janjaweed militias – as “genocide”.  António Guterres, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, has described the situation in Sudan and Chad as “the largest and most complex humanitarian problem on the globe.”  The Sudanese government and the Janjaweed militias are responsible for the burning and destruction of hundreds of rural villages, the killing of tens of thousands of people and rape and assault of thousands of women and girls.

With much international pressure, the Darfur Peace Agreement was brokered in May 2006 between the government of Sudan and one faction of Darfur rebels. However, deadlines have been ignored and the violence has escalated, with in-fighting among the various rebel groups and factions dramatically increasing and adding a new layer of complexity to the conflict. This violence has made it dangerous, if not impossible, for most of the millions of displaced persons to return to their homes. Humanitarian aid agencies face growing obstacles to bringing widespread relief.  In August 2006, the UN’s top humanitarian official Jan Egeland stated that the situation in Darfur is “going from real bad to catastrophic.”  Indeed, the violence in Darfur rages on with government-backed militias still attacking civilian populations with impunity.

On July 30, 2004, the UN Security Council adopted resolution 1556 demanding that the government of Sudan disarm the Janjaweed.  This same demand is also an important part of the Darfur Peace Agreement signed in May of 2006.  On August 31, 2006, the Security Council took the further step of authorizing a strong UN peacekeeping force for Darfur by passing resolution 1706.  Despite these actions, the Janjaweed are still active and free to commit the same genocidal crimes against civilians in Darfur with the aid of the Sudanese government.

International experts agree that the United Nations Security Council must deploy a peacekeeping force with a mandate to protect civilians immediately. Until it arrives, the under-funded and overwhelmed African Union monitoring mission must be bolstered. And governments and international institutions must provide and ensure access to sufficient humanitarian aid for those in need.

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Tags: Peace, Discipleship, News by Administrator
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You probably have never heard of Elvira Arellano. She is lives in a small 25-by-100 foot lot which houses a storefront church, its offices and parsonage. She cannot leave, not even to go out and feel the sun on her face.

 

For the last 8 months, Elvira has been defying a deportation order and she has claimed sanctuary in the Saint Adalberto United Methodist Church.

 

Since Easter, along with her pastor Rev. Walter Coleman, she has been conducting a 25-day hunger strike to protest the injustices which have been laid upon her and fellow immigrants who are seeking a new life in the United States.

 

Like most illegal immigrants, Arellano lived a quiet life and avoided trouble while working with false papers as a cleaning woman at Chicago’s O’Hare airport.

 

She became politicized after she was arrested in a post-September 11, 2001 “terrorist” sweep and ordered deported. Elvira Arellano has a US-born son who, accordingly, is an American citizen. So, the federal government is seeking her deportation and forced separation from her son.

 

To fight this insanity and anti-family government legalism, she organized La Familia Latina Unida to lobby for immigration reform for parents who are in exactly the same situation she is. She held helped to organize massive street demonstrations last year, one of them from the front of the church where she is now living.

 

8 months into her sanctuary, her life is more or less normal. She gets her son ready for school, sits down at a computer, she checks her MySpace account, answers the phone for a law firm serving immigrants. She talks to the activists, students, reporters and well-wishers who stop by the church, though only those who are expected get through the padlocked doors and the security cameras. She helps Saulito with his homework and settles down to sleep with him on a single bed in a cramped room she shares with another woman who is taking sanctuary in the church offices. She has no idea how long she will stay there.

 

Homeland Security decided to refuse a stay of deportation last summer, even though there are bills supporting her pending in the United States Congress from House members who support her plight and those who are in her same situation.

 

Now, I do not like to be an alarmist or suggest conspiracy theories, but nothing is ever irrational. For all government actions, it is worth asking who benefits. Who benefits from seeking to remove a woman who have been engaged in regular civil action against our present immigration policy? Why to the minutemen show up to protest her?

 

Let me guess that she is really only ticking off a certain group of people here. The one at the top, President Bush and many other leaders who are predominantly Republican (though not exclusively) have been regularly pressuring to close US borders to illegal immigrants and expell anyone from the country under any pretense, especially if they are “undesirable”.

 

I can appreciate the legal argument here. Someone breaks the law, they deserve to incur the punishment which the law dictates. That is the way of the world. That is the way of the government. I do not for a moment suggest that Ms. Arellano is not guilty of exactly what the U.S. Government says she is guilty of.

 

My stand is religious. We are commanded by God, who last time I checked is of even greater power and authority than the United States government, to remember that we too - as people of faith - are descended from peoples who were once immigrants and strangers in a stange land (Deuteronomy 10:19), and so too we are commanded to forever be hospitable to the alien in our midst (Leviticus 19:34). This is repeated yet again by Paul who orders us to “extend hospitality to strangers” (Romans 12:13). In fact, Hebrews 13 reminds us that when we “remember the stranger” we may at times entertain angels unawares. This was something that Abraham discovered when he inadvertantly entertained the Trinune God to dinner in Genesis 18! (see picture above.)

 

The US or even the people of our nation may be inhospitable to immigrants, but Christians may not without breaking the will and command of the Almighty God.

Tags: Peace, Discipleship, News by Administrator
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     COSROW, The United Methodist Commission on the Status and Role of Women, has recently called for a new initiative within the denomination regarding sexism and racism. I am all for this. On the whole, I like COSROW.

      One comment and one comment alone. Their press release through the United Methodist News Service on march 20th, 2007, began with the following sentence: “A commitment to justice for all and continued efforts to exorcise sexism and racism are needed if The United Methodist Church is to meet new mission goals.”

     Are you kidding?!

     I like the general sentiment, but they say they have this new commitment to justice for all and end to racism are needed BECAUSE of the new mission goals of the UMC. Effectively they are declaring that they like justice now because of the UMC’s mission goals. That’s why the new initiative comes about.

     Let’s read Galations 3:28: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” This has been the Word of God since Paul penned it in the first century.

     When a Church board tells you to worry about justice that is a good idea. When a church board forgets to mention it, it is still a really damn good idea. If a church board tells you to fight against justice, it is still a good idea to work for justice. As the God commands: “Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” Justice is always a good idea, whether or not someone tells you to do it. After all, whether anyone tells you to do it or not, God is always and everywhere tell you to be about the business of justice.

   This is all one more reason to side with God first and your church second. Measure your church by the Word of God, not the other way around. If your church doesn’t get around to commanding justice for 2,007 years maybe you should do it anyway. Deus vult! God wills it!   This is all one more reason to side with God first and your church second. Measure your church by the Word of God, not the other way around. If your church doesn’t get around to commanding justice for 2,007 years maybe you should do it anyway. Deus vult! God wills it!

Tags: Peace, Discipleship, Sovereignty of God, News by Administrator
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