The sad wind down of a sad situation

Last night, friends from the states called saying they had heard that a notorious adoption facility had been raided by the Attorney General of Guatemala. They were calling us for their friends who have been caught in an excruciating process of trying to complete adoptions grandfathered in since January 2008. They wondered if we knew where these children might be taken.

My heart breaks for these parents, even as I wish they hadn't started the process. The State Department, and honest people in the adoption community had warned against initiating adoptions from Guatemala as early as 2006. But the potential parents were hearing different stories. The Adoption agencies as late as the fall of 2007 were still saying these children would die if not adopted. When your heart is inclined to adopt, choosing which of the conflicting reports to believe is a no brainer. Hmmm. Unintended pun there. It is a heart issue, not a brain issue. The only problem is that the conflicting reports on one side were conscientious attempts to protect these hearts. The other, a shameless attempt to profit from the desire of these hearts. And a lie.


The adoption debate is winding down in Guatemala, as agencies reportedly focus on the "next Guatemala" in Nicaragua or Ethiopia. But it still rages in the hoping hearts of these potential parents. And it still lives in the lives of these children...caught in a limbo where their mother cannot be found in some cases, and in which they have no other option than these American parents. Theior legal status is tied up in the adoption started way back when, so they can't even be presented to Guatemalan families.


The debate is winding down, but the residue is all over, staining the lives of women and attorneys, and Chrsitian Agencies and adoptive parents. And especially the children. The children adopted from Guatemala in the past 5 years will grow up to learn of the doubts and even sad facts of adoptions, and wonder.


Parents who love their children need to prepare for that time. They need to do everything they can to determine the veracity of the adoption . But there will also be a portion, who upon further investigation, find that their adoption was a false process. They need to come to terms with the implications. You can't change the past. But ignoring and denying it doesn't work. Truth is the only hope for being free from the residue, for all of the victims of the scam artists.


The parents who care about what their children will face, need to stop listening to the profiteers of adoption, and consider hearing from fellow victims.


Here is an article written by Mirah Riben, who has taken up the cause of honesty in adoptions since she relinquished her child in the 60's. The article's title was provocative, but I don't find her in spirit to be vindictive, and her implication of the Religious Right is not glaring. BUT the idea that false premises have created the fiasco that international adoptions have become here in Guatemala is thought provoking.

Mirah quotes Jae Ran Kim, a South Korea-born/American raised adoptee and social worker in the field of adoption and child welfare laments: “It is ethnocentric and arrogant to think that the United States has any business telling another country how they should manage the problem of orphaned, abandoned or relinquished children. We can’t even solve this problem within our own shores."

I feel like Jae's comments can also be applied to missionaries in general.

Maybe a truth and reconciliation commission is necessary for these children. And their parents.

Let those who have deceived well meaning parents and manipulated and abused poor mothers go swimming with millstones.

Why are we here: to Glorify Jesus or feed and clothe the poor?

Why are we here: to Glorify Jesus or feed and clothe the poor?

It didn't start out as that, but it seems that a lot of Evangelical Christian discussions boil down to this basic question.

I sent out a request for prayer for a Catholic group who was trying to gain hearing in the United Nations regarding the lives of babies at risk of being aborted worldwide.  I guess their acts appeal to my sense of standing against impossible odds.  Sort of like Daniel in the court in Babylon.   A dear friend who I consider a true partner in the kingdom took issue with my request.  He said to me we should not count on the UN for anything, and that the church was the primary agent of real and meaningful change in the world.

I replied politely:  WHEN WILL THE CHURCH START BEING THE PRIMARY AGENT OF REAL AND MEANINGFUL CHANGE IN THE WORLD?  What in [heaven] are we waiting for?!

I appreciate his reply, edited, and stated here: 

What is real and meaningful change?  It's change with a kingdom impact. 

If the UN feeds a village of hungry people that's a wonderful thing.  It's also shameful that the body of Christ was not there feeding them already.  God has given his bride the means to reach the world and she squanders it on primping herself.  But the UN hasn't made a real and meaningful change. 

Consider this encounter with Jesus:

Matthew 26

⁶While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, ⁷a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table.

⁸When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. "Why this waste?" they asked. ⁹"This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor."

¹⁰Aware of this, Jesus said to them, "Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. ¹¹The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me. ¹²When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. ¹³I tell you the truth, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her."

 

My friend concluded:   There's an important principle laid out here.  Bringing glory to Christ is more important than even helping the poor.  We can and should do both, but help to the poor that brings no glory to Christ should not be a priority."

I appreciate my friend's love for Jesus and the poor he meets.  But I disagree with the duality of his summation.  I think it reflects the problem with much modern Evangelical Christian theology.  My friend does not allow this to hinder his incredible work for the poor.  But that just makes him a rarity as a pastor in our churches.  It causes people like him to almost be apologetic about obeying Jesus.  "Kingdom impact", must be the litmus for programs, as if it is separate from Loving our neighbor as our self.

Here is my attempt at answering the title's question: 

Jesus and the woman in these verses showed proper priority of actions.  Jesus was about to CHANGE EVERYTHING.  It was good to treat him in that moment in that special way.  Hardly matched what he was about to accomplish, really.  She might have sold the perfume for money, and given it to the poor in His name, and He would have accepted it too.  But it would have been almost formulaic, and not what really moved Jesus. 

A good teaching emerged:

1) It is good to treat Him at all times in special ways, and

2) our special treatment does not in and of itself mean much in light of who He is and what He has done and is doing. 

But, to make my point by pushing grammar:  which way should we adore him when? 

A good way to gauge the best way to honor him might be by listening to his own words about it.  This precious woman's simple private act of worship delighted him.  And so if I am ever close enough to do something similar, you bet I will sell all, and get that alabaster and perfume!

Today, we are in the time of "always" that Jesus spoke of in verse 11.  We indeed have the poor with us, and now we can honor Jesus in a very special way.  We can treat him as our lord, and give honor and weight to his words and commands. Allow me to boil down the sum total of his commands: 

 

"Be like me, and do what I do." 

 

Yet the church worries that it will not bring glory to Jesus if it chooses to minister to the physical needs of the poor, marginalized and disadvantaged as he did continuously.   Various reasons are given, such as fear to mingle with those like the UN who are doing it already.  One reason given too often resonates with that of the original disciples:   "Our budget won't allow it."

The disciples were right there next to Jesus, but they blew it.  Their hollow argument was exposed in the Gospel of John's version of this scene, as a ruse that used the poor to resist giving glory to Jesus, but had no base of real compassion for the poor.  I wonder if we don't today see an inverse reflection of the disciple's error… a ruse using Jesus to resist showing real compassion to the poor, but with no real desire to give glory to Jesus.  Remember the 5,000 hungry souls and stomachs? (Mt 14:15) 

Remember who Jesus said should feed them? 

Remember who got the glory?

Jesus said the Pharisees used "obedience to God" as an excuse to not do right by their families and neighbors.  Sometimes very good leaders use focus on "the gospel" (e.g. theological preparation, tithing, evangelization) to excuse them from acting like the people who will be welcomed by Jesus in Matt 25:34ff.  The teaching there clearly states something about Jesus, as comes into his ultimate and earned glory, and the method of determining who joins him in that glory. 

The strongest terms are used in describing both happy reception of the obedient sheep, and utter damnation of the disobedient goats.  Jesus was serious.   Shouldn't we also take this passage seriously?

Back to Jesus as our example:  notice how He moved from the Spiritual to the physical part of His presence and work seamlessly.   His preaching was part of and consistent with His ministry to the poor, and His healing and touching, holding and welcoming was part of His preaching. We don't have Him physically to adore, and wash with perfume, and feed, and clothe. But He has chosen surrogates: the least of these, and widows and orphans in their distress.  Why don't we preach AND touch?  Why don't we as a church consider these to be vital?   We sometimes worry that "doing" will hurt our "being"; our relationship to God through grace.   He will not be glorified in that. 

Can we give what we have to the poor and sacrifice all without adoring him?  Apparently.  (I Cor 13) 

But that does not mean that it is not the proper form of worship, and relationship, and even "true religion".  It is true religion, and causes what real religion should.   It creates that relationship with Jesus, and the Father, and the Holy Spirit that is mandated in the First and greatest Commandment. 

It will transform the world.  Starting in the church.

This transformation will not happen under our control or by our power.  That is the difference between true religion and magic.  

Determining to live in obedience of Jesus' teachings and commands will bring about a transformation in us that brings about a transformed society.  The transformation occurs through God's grace and redeeming atoning love FOR us, not FROM us.  It occurs because trying to obey Him leads to being overwhelmed in our inability.  When faced with true discipleship, and true religion, and true love, we are undone, and must cry out "God have mercy on me, a sinner!!   And He does.  You can enter His rest assured, He does!

Unfortunately, we have allowed reason to rule our churches.  Reasonable and prudent men respond to being overwhelmed, by retreating to lesser goals.  They focus on attainable things: things they can achieve without miraculous intervention.   Things like theological consistency.  Doctrinal integrity.  Church growth programs.  Good things, in their way.   For 2000 years, we as a church have succeeded at that level, and probably will continue to succeed.  Many will continue to be content with that.

 

But they will miss Jesus. 

--
Stephen Osborn
Love the Child
1-985-221-5221
Amor del Niño
011-502-58658577
www.lovethechild.org

Some Call it a Hunger Strike

Literally in the Shadow of the Supreme Court of Guatemala, a small group of women are hoping to have an impact. Their hope is very focused: the return of their stolen children. They know where the children are, but a business transaction, although dubious in every way, has been finalized, and so the people who have the children of these women feel they have a right to the children.

The sign above argues the point that "Trafficking in people, and illegal adoptions are grave crimes. [therefore] We request the anulment of the adoptions of Arlene, Anyeli and Heidy"

The bottom asks for transparent elections of the high court judges. The process has been one of the ways that Judges hold their posts with impunity, and complete immunity from scrutiny. It has been presented by a number of activists, that this is one of the areas that aided and abetted the corruption of many adoptions in the last few years



In the middle of the massive buildings where well dressed lawyers are herded through high tech security systems, this hand made sign stands out in its simplicity. It says" Mothers request our children to be returned"


Isa 59:14 Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands afar off; for truth has fallen in the public squares, and uprightness cannot enter.
15 Truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. The LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice.
16 ¶ He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no one to intervene;


So some are calling it a hunger strike. But these women do not have much hope that they will be heard by human ears. So they are calling it a time of praying and fasting.

Shameless Endorsement

I really want all my friends to get this new book, just out from NavPress.

selfish motives.

I think they will become better friends if they read it.

Actually, I have prayed that they will get it.

I have prayed more regularly and consistently since starting to read “A Praying Life”
I am not even finished with the book, but already see that very real result. And not only that. I feel a new delight in Jesus, and the love the Father has for me. I have a new freedom and delight in loving my wife and kids. Joy in all my relationships. And I didn’t even try to be better in any of these areas. It all sort of snuck up on me as I read. The author wasn’t being sneaky. He pretty much lays it out from the first page that he wants to help us learn to pray. And that Prayer really changes things.

It wasn’t sneakiness. It’s that I did not expect it to work. After all, you can’t teach an old dog new tricks…or worse: you can’t teach an old fool new tricks.
The area I have always felt maybe the most foolish is prayer. I am not good at it. I don’t get it. I don’t feel comfortable discussing it. I have often wondered whether I fear unanswered or answered prayer more. I have forced myself, by desperation, to ask people to pray for me. But I am more personally comfortable with a discussion that tends towards cynicism, as we ask theologically, “Why pray?” and try to dissect God’s machinations of providence, grace and redemption. Discussion of prayer, rather than praying, is my spiritual comfort zone. Satan likes that. I don’t. But I have to admit to paralysis, as I don’t know what to do about it.

Cato the Elder said that a wise man can learn from a fool, but a fool can’t learn from anyone. We like that quote, but in our deepest parts, worry that there is then no hope for us in the areas where we are…well…fools. It takes wisdom to gain wisdom. A fool is stuck being a fool. And so we give up hoping to fix the areas where we know, but cannot admit, that we are fools.

Cato would agree that it takes more than wisdom alone to teach anything to a fool. That may be the brilliance of the book.

Paul Miller, in this new book about prayer, has a lot of wisdom and excellent research on the subject. But more than that, he allowed me to see (and relate to) his foolishness, disarming my defense mechanisms in a truly Christ-like way. That’s Jesus’ way, isn’t it? The power of becoming weak. Paul’s humility in sharing his failures and fears gives him boldness to then call me to task about similar things in my life. His openness is hard to resist, and smoothes the way to my heart, allowing the truth to be well planted. He then helps me see how it is in my relationships, and in the moment by moment parts of those relationships, that the fruit of my life is revealed. That revelation leads to prayer.

Being honest about my behavior in light of the important relationships ( Shyrel) and less important ( other drivers, for instance) makes me come to the point where I can’t help but cry out, “God have mercy on me, a sinner”. And all of a sudden, I am praying.

The negative motive is my sin. The positive is God’s love. Paul boldly reminds me that God loves me in an intimate, mystical, joyful way. God loves the people around me. God went to great lengths to be a part of our lives. That revelation leads to prayer! I want to be a part of this incredibly good work that God is about in my world. And all of a sudden, I am praying.

Praying is a natural outcome of spending time in this book, but the book is about LIFE.

But don't take my my word for it!!!! Buy it now!!!!

The rythms of history

The basis of doing good has to be hope, or it is, well, hopeless. I don't know how people who don't believe in the resurrection of our Lord keep charged, but I for one, enjoy the Easter season to reflect, and recharge. I also enjoy U2's music, and many times, Bono's reflections. I guess if a movie star can become a president, maybe a Rock star can become pope?

Here's a piece from the NYT

By BONO
Published: April 18, 2009

I AM in Midtown Manhattan, where drivers still play their car horns as if they were musical instruments and shouting in restaurants is sport.


I am a long way from the warm breeze of voices I heard a week ago on Easter Sunday.

“Glorify your name,” the island women sang, as they swayed in a cut sandstone church. I was overwhelmed by a riot of color, an emotional swell that carried me to sea.

Christianity, it turns out, has a rhythm — and it crescendos this time of year. The rumba of Carnival gives way to the slow march of Lent, then to the staccato hymnals of the Easter parade. From revelry to reverie. After 40 days in the desert, sort of ...

Carnival — rock stars are good at that.

“Carne” is flesh; “Carne-val,” its goodbye party. I’ve been to many. Brazilians say they’ve done it longest; they certainly do it best. You can’t help but contract the fever. You’ve got no choice but to join the ravers as they swell up the streets bursting like the banks of a river in a flood of fun set to rhythm. This is a Joy that cannot be conjured. This is life force. This is the heart full and spilling over with gratitude. The choice is yours ...

It’s Lent I’ve always had issues with. I gave it up ... self-denial is where I come a cropper. My idea of discipline is simple — hard work — but of course that’s another indulgence.

Then comes the dying and the living that is Easter.

It’s a transcendent moment for me — a rebirth I always seem to need. Never more so than a few years ago, when my father died. I recall the embarrassment and relief of hot tears as I knelt in a chapel in a village in France and repented my prodigal nature — repented for fighting my father for so many years and wasting so many opportunities to know him better. I remember the feeling of “a peace that passes understanding” as a load lifted. Of all the Christian festivals, it is the Easter parade that demands the most faith — pushing you past reverence for creation, through bewilderment at the idea of a virgin birth, and into the far-fetched and far-reaching idea that death is not the end. The cross as crossroads. Whatever your religious or nonreligious views, the chance to begin again is a compelling idea.

•

Last Sunday, the choirmaster was jumping out of his skin ... stormy then still, playful then tender, on the most upright of pianos and melodies. He sang his invocations in a beautiful oaken tenor with a freckle-faced boy at his side playing conga and tambourine as if it was a full drum kit. The parish sang to the rafters songs of praise to a God that apparently surrendered His voice to ours.

I come to lowly church halls and lofty cathedrals for what purpose? I search the Scriptures to what end? To check my head? My heart? No, my soul. For me these meditations are like a plumb line dropped by a master builder — to see if the walls are straight or crooked. I check my emotional life with music, my intellectual life with writing, but religion is where I soul-search.

The preacher said, “What good does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?” Hearing this, every one of the pilgrims gathered in the room asked, “Is it me, Lord?” In America, in Europe, people are asking, “Is it us?”

Well, yes. It is us.

Carnival is over. Commerce has been overheating markets and climates ... the sooty skies of the industrial revolution have changed scale and location, but now melt ice caps and make the seas boil in the time of technological revolution. Capitalism is on trial; globalization is, once again, in the dock. We used to say that all we wanted for the rest of the world was what we had for ourselves. Then we found out that if every living soul on the planet had a fridge and a house and an S.U.V., we would choke on our own exhaust.

Lent is upon us whether we asked for it or not. And with it, we hope, comes a chance at redemption. But redemption is not just a spiritual term, it’s an economic concept. At the turn of the millennium, the debt cancellation campaign, inspired by the Jewish concept of Jubilee, aimed to give the poorest countries a fresh start. Thirty-four million more children in Africa are now in school in large part because their governments used money freed up by debt relief. This redemption was not an end to economic slavery, but it was a more hopeful beginning for many. And to the many, not the lucky few, is surely where any soul-searching must lead us.

A few weeks ago I was in Washington when news arrived of proposed cuts to the president’s aid budget. People said that it was going to be hard to fulfill promises to those who live in dire circumstances such a long way away when there is so much hardship in the United States. And there is.

But I read recently that Americans are taking up public service in greater numbers because they are short on money to give. And, following a successful bipartisan Senate vote, word is that Congress will restore the money that had been cut from the aid budget — a refusal to abandon those who would pay such a high price for a crisis not of their making. In the roughest of times, people show who they are.

Your soul.

So much of the discussion today is about value, not values. Aid well spent can be an example of both, values and value for money. Providing AIDS medication to just under four million people, putting in place modest measures to improve maternal health, eradicating killer pests like malaria and rotoviruses — all these provide a leg up on the climb to self-sufficiency, all these can help us make friends in a world quick to enmity. It’s not alms, it’s investment. It’s not charity, it’s justice.

•

Strangely, as we file out of the small stone church into the cruel sun, I think of Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, whose now combined fortune is dedicated to the fight against extreme poverty. Agnostics both, I believe. I think of Nelson Mandela, who has spent his life upholding the rights of others. A spiritual man — no doubt. Religious? I’m told he would not describe himself that way.

Not all soul music comes from the church.

Bono, the lead singer of the band U2 and a co-founder of the advocacy group ONE, is a contributing columnist for The Times.