March 2018 Monthly Peace
Monthly Peace
Your monthly peacemaking resource and inspiration from Global ImmersionEach month you can count on this email to bring you resources, tools and inspiration to feed your journey as an Everyday Peacemaker.
Below is a collection of resources from the last 30 days, that we've found helpful in our peacemaking journey.
read, listen, reflect...
One Nation Under Mars
Friday, March 23, 2018
EVERYDAY PEACEMAKING, JER SWIGART
Can you hear the cries of our kids?Listen carefully.
Their voices are no longer contained to education’s hallways.
Now, their chant “Never Again!” echoes throughout the nation.
Wearing bulletproof backpacks, they raise their anthem of lament,
And face indifferent politicians with ageless determination.
Will their adolescent demand for a gun-free future
Drown the deafening silence of the grown-ups?
The silence of the power-hoarding grown-ups.
Their grown-up silence:
A form of violence.
It’s been bought by death’s innovators.
Their willful silence to terrorism by white mass-shooters,
It all but guarantees their job security.
But wait…
They’re not that silent.
Remember.
They offer their “thoughts and prayers.”
Their thoughts and prayers.
Are they empty platitudes that remain unanswered?
Or, could it be that their prayers are answered?
For they pray not to the God we see in Jesus;
They pray to the gods of nationalism, war, and greed.
Their thoughts and prayers are heard indeed
By their preferred deities.
Blood stained classrooms are evidence of their worship.
Blood stained classrooms are their answered prayers.
Blood stained classrooms…
…under the red, white, and blue banner that protects our freedom to bear death machines.
It’s the banner of their religion:
“One nation Under Mars.”
One nation oppressed and intoxicated by violence.
Our nation, profiting from the very tools that kill our kids.
Where is your allegiance?
To a god who wields weapons?
Or to a God who wore one?
Your silence exposes your preference.
Author: Jer Swigart – Cofounding Director of Global Immersion Project.Connect with Jer on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Original post on Jer’s website, jerswigart.com
Last week President Trump made his first visit to California.
"As a proud resident of San Diego — a dynamic and diverse border city — and faith leader who follows Jesus, I’m deeply saddened that the president’s visit to my city wasn’t to spend time with the people, but with prototypes."Read the rest of Jon's reflection in Sojourners »
Commentary
The Wall, the President, and the People by Jon Huckins
People hold signs during a protest while standing in front of the current border fence and near the prototypes of U.S. President Donald Trump's border wall, in Tijuana, Mexico March 13, 2018. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido
Yesterday, President Trump made his first visit to California since his inauguration. In fact, his motorcade was driving to the border as I wrote this. As we know, one of his campaign promises was to build a wall on the southern border, and contractors having been submitting bids for the project ever since. There are now only eight contractors in the runningto win the bid and they have each built a prototype of their wall down here on our border.As a proud resident of San Diego — a dynamic and diverse border city — and faith leader who follows Jesus, I’m deeply saddened that the president’s visit to my city wasn’t to spend time with the people, but with prototypes.
READ: Christians Can Stop Trump’s Wall
I’m not writing to stoke partisan politics. That’s not helpful, inspiring, or reflective of where I put my hope and allegiance. I am writing as one who is more concerned with the well-being of the people in our city than the height of a prototype.
A people who don’t see the border as a burden to bear, but a gift to embrace.
A people reflecting the beautiful diversity of our country and God’s global kingdom.
A people deeply committed to the flourishing of our communities and those within them.
A people who need to be heard and lead the way in discerning what is best of our city and bi-national reality.
We can disagree on policy, but at the very least, we have to understand the implications of our policy on real people. I have found that unless we have looked into the eyes of those impacted, it is impossible to understand.
So, President Trump, I personally invite you to also come down to the borderlands with me in Tijuana and San Diego and meet the people directly impacted by the stroke of your pen. I am a co-founding director of Global Immersion, and one of our primary organizational initiatives involves having cross-sector leaders from around the country come to the border to see the human face of immigration and build a set of tools for how to better care of the “stranger among us,” as my sacred text (the Bible) mandates.
Whether you realize it or not, your rhetoric is dehumanizing, stokes fear, and leads to a misunderstanding that compromises the safety of the people you’ve sworn to protect. Once you’ve looked into the eyes of those caught in the wake of our broken systems, heard their stories, and confronted the facts on the ground, I trust your compassion will grow and your decisions will be shaped by factual reality.
You will see and experience the people and places that rarely make the headlines, but that are intimately impacted by the polarizing rhetoric and misunderstanding infecting the collective soul of our nation.
READ: Trump’s Immigration Policies Are Anti-Family, Anti-American, and Anti-Christ
Real people.
Real stories.
Real pain.
Faith. Hope. Love.
Meet Maria. A 20-year-old DACA recipient with big dreams who is making them come true by walking with the underserved of our city. With the expiration of DACA comes the expiration of her dreams, actions, and presence as an active member of our community.
Meet Ingrid. A widowed mother of three who has been fleeing gang violence in Central America and now sits in a migrant shelter in Tijuana as she pleads for the U.S. government to offer her family asylum.
Meet Hector. A United States military veteran who has since been deported and separated from his family.
Meet Dermot. A Catholic priest from Ireland who regularly crosses the border to serve as the chaplain to communities in San Diego and Tijuana.
As a privileged, white, Christian, straight man, it’s easy for me to be insulated from the pain and uncertainty of my neighbors impacted by your pen. Whether I admit it or not, I have been taught to see certain people and taught not see others. Having done the personal work to confront my inherited biases, opened my heart to new relationships, and leaned into my core Christian convictions, I can say with 100 percent certainty that we are all better with the Maria’s and Hector’s of the world on our streets, in our homes, and leading our businesses, churches, and non-profits.
I’m offering you the opportunity to look behind the veil of hostile rhetoric and into the eyes of women and men created in the image of God. Jesus once said that it’s in the eyes of the stranger that we see God (Matthew 25). Women and men who are, every day, making America great.
In the meantime, we’ll be in the streets, parks, and pulpits telling the story of our beautifully diverse border city.
Join me?
listen »
Jon was a part of the early visioning of the Red Letter Christians Revival in Lynchburg, VA and been a part of its planning and development over the past few months.
He'll be giving two workshops on Saturday:
The first focused on atheology for peacemaking and nonviolent direct action.
The second will focus on thepractices of peacemaking and nonviolent direct action.
In all this, we desire to elevate the life and teachings of Jesus and embrace them as the antidote to a toxic Christianity that has been compromised by nationalism, militarism and partisan politics.
It will be a time of confession, repentance and shared vision of what the Spirit is doing to mend the divides of our conflicted world.
The event is free, but spots are limited. Register here »
May 31-June 3, 2018 - more details and registration here.
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(1) It helps spread the #EverydayPeacemaking movement.
(2) It funds our peacemaking training initiatives.
(3) It's cute and comfy
.Purchase here!
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