Tiny Hands Intl

I recently spoke at Union College about putting God’s love on display in our beautiful but hurting world. At the beginning of the talk, I asked two questions. One was: What kind of painful experience would make you no longer believe that a good and loving God exists or is listening to your prayers? What is your threshold beyond which you couldn’t believe God is love?

Although the chapel talk didn’t go as planned, my intention was to conclude with this:

And remember that tougher question about what level of horrible experience would make you quit believing in a loving God? Well, whatever it was you thought of, someone somewhere is going through that very thing right now. Peace studies is not all sweetness and light. We actually spend a lot of time looking at the darker corners of human experience, and I can tell you that dark thing you imagined is happening to someone. So what can I do to stop it? What can I do to speak God’s love into that situation? What would it take to get involved or to support people who are directly involved?

And this room is big enough that the odds are someone here has already experienced that dark thing. Maybe you’ve given up on God because of what happened to you. To you I can only say that I have prayed for you this week, that someone will step into your situation and give you the love and support you need, that someone will be with you to walk through this so you know you’re not alone.

The next day my wife and I had the opportunity to meet Paul Yates of Tiny Hands Intl (Facebook | Twitter), an organization that works to prevent trafficking and then also takes care of girls and women who are rescued from trafficking. One of the resources he pointed us to is the film, The Day My God Died, whose title speaks directly to the question I had asked the chapel attendees. It’s a dark question, but it’s an important one that can direct us toward actions that bring hope, healing and justice to someone desperately in need of all three. Watch the short film online, and you’ll see exactly what I mean.

I was excited to hear that the Union College chapter of Amnesty International is expanding to also work with Tiny Hands. How many other SDA schools and churches can support this work? Will you pray for at least one?

Here are three additional resources Paul shared with us:

Books

• The Slave across the Street (Flores)
• Beyond the Soiled Curtain (Grant & Grant)

Films

• Very Young Girls (GEMS)
• Plus 10 more movies and a few more.

BONUS: THI Education Site, THI Videos, Project Soap

AU Summit on Social Consciousness

Andrews University Summit on Social Consciousness: Lessons from Rwanda.

April 11-14, 2012.

A Prayer for Justice

Just and righteous God,

Your will be done on earth as in heaven.

Place me on the side of the oppressed. Where I knowingly or unknowingly oppress, open my eyes to your truth. Where I use my power unjustly or fail to use my power for justice, open my heart and lead me to repentance. Turn me around. Make me an instrument of your peace and your justice. Through the power of your Spirit, place me ever on the side of the oppressed.

Union College — Conflict & Peacemaking Class

Thank you, Union College Agitators, for hosting us this week. Below are resources I told Chris Blake I would share with the Conflict and Peacemaking class.

DISCLAIMER: This list does not mean I endorse every sentiment expressed in the songs, articles, books and films, but they are sources of thought-provoking material. May we ever rely on the Spirit for discerning truth and for embodying God’s love.

Short Videos (5): Old Radicals (Art Gish), Pay Attention to Nonviolence (TED), Ray of Hope (IJM), Marcelo Rivera, Economic Inequality (TED). Bonus: Tribes (TED), Vulnerability (TED), Being Wrong (TED).

Christian* Articles/Posts (5): Christian Nonviolence (Wink), Military Service in the Church Orders (Kreider, EBSCO), Relationship between Peace and Justice (Boyd, PDF), Peace Theology (Boyd), Toward a Definition of Shalom (Boyd). Bonus: Nonviolence in the Ancient Church and Christian Obedience (MacGregor) and Nonviolence. [*Chris Blake has a very legitimate critique of this usage of the word “Christian,” but I use it here as short-hand meaning material produced by self-designating Christians with direct references to Jesus or other biblical passages. I realize this does not entirely sidestep his argument.]

Ordination

Pastor Andrew Clark writes:

Speaking as a male Seventh-day Adventist ordained pastor in good standing and active position, I believe those of us that value equality need to give more credibility to great church leaders like Fagal and Damsteegt. I believe these men, at least on occasion, are used of God… I mean you don’t get called to the estate or to be the voice piece of the GC on a controversial issue unless you have a special blessing from God, right?

Proof God uses Fagal and Damsteegt (at least on occasion):

Exhibit A (Fagal): In exhibit A under the section “Women as Pastors to the Flock”, in defense of where White clearly calls both women and men ‘Pastors’ in relation to Gospel Ministry in 6T (“It is the accompaniment of the Holy Spirit of God that prepares workers, both men and women, to become pastors to the flock of God.”), Fagal espouses “First of all, when Ellen White wrote about ordained church pastors, she typically referred to them as ministers rather than pastors . In cases in which she used the term pastor she seems to have done so with a specialized meaning in mind, using the term to refer to a person doing personal labor in the nurture of the flock, rather than a particular church office or position. ” So, Fagal asserts that ‘Pastors’ were not REALLY (ordained) pastors… just workers in supplemental ministries (whatever that means). Therefore, White clearly understands Pastor=Worker and Minister=Ordained Pastor. Fagal worked in the Estate people, we MUST believe him!

Exhibit B (Damsteegt): In Exhibit B under the heading “Ellen White Opposes Ministers as “Settled Pastors”", Damsteegt clearly agrees with Fagal that White sees Ministers as the ordained and does not want them to ‘settle’. In the article he espouses that the church then utilized Elders in the role we now call ‘Pastor’, that ‘Pastor’ as we know it did not exist, and that ‘Ministers’ were the trainer/equippers as well as the EVANGELISTS of larger geographical areas who led and trained the elder/pastors in said area/region (elder and pastor would be interchangeable in this model). Damsteegt was called on by Ted Wilson to explain the GC position on Women’s Ordination, we MUST believe him!

Divesting from Wells Fargo

Fellow active Adventists,

After months of clergy organizing through sfop(.org), two days ago something powerful and beautiful happened in downtown SF:

• http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news%2Flocal%2Fsan_francisco&id=8553886&rss=rss-kgo-article-8553886
• http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2012/02/22/clergy-members-ask-wells-fargo-to-repent-during-sf-foreclosure-protest/#comments
• http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/2012/02/wells-fargo-foreclosures-clergy-protest.html?s=image_gallery
• http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_20019502
• http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fbaycitynews%2Froundup.DTL&ao=all

After a multi-billion dollar taxpayer bailout, Wells Fargo continues to divest from the community–refusing to help families stay in their homes through mortgage principal reductions, supporting for-profit immigrant detention centers, and largely funding the payday loan industry. For this reason, we at SFOP are compiling a list of SF congregations and non-profits who are deciding to move their money out of SF-based Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo has divested from us, now we’re divesting from Wells Fargo.

Feliz Sabado,

Geoffrey Nelson-Blake

SDA Potpourri

• Faith in the Public Sector? Young Adventist Professionals Speak Out (NARLA)
• Valley View University’s green campus [video] (ANN, 24 Feb 2012)
• Dangerous Redefinition: Candidates Recast Role of Religion in American Life (Jason Hines, Religious Liberty.TV, 24 Feb 2012)
• When Women Break the Bread of Life (Donna J. Haerich, Spectrum, 23 Feb 2012)
• A House Divided (Charles Eaton, Adv Today, 23 Feb 2012)
• No Compromise: The Story of Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani (Michael Peabody, Religious Liberty.TV, 23 Feb 2012)
• Welcoming an ambassador (ANN, 23 Feb 2012)
• Clergy protest foreclosures outside Wells Fargo (ABC7, 22 Feb 2012)
• ADRA Adrift: One Year Later (Alexander Carpenter, Spectrum, 22 Feb 2012)
• William Kamkwamba: How I harnessed the wind (Andy Hanson, Reinventing the Adv Wheel, 22 Feb 2012)
• Adventists in Ghana Focus on Public Service and Visibility (Adv Today, 21 Feb 2012)
• Lord Carey Appeals For Vote For Defining Marriage (Malgwyn, Things I Read, 21 Feb 2012)
• Adventist Prep School Fills Up With Trash–For a Good Cause! (Adv Today, 18 Feb 2012)
• The One Project makes Jesus center of theology (ANN, 17 Feb 2012)
• Women’s Ministries – In Russia, a new spin on outreach [video] (ANN, 17 Feb 2012)
• Sabbath Sermon: Multicultural Worship: Melting Pot or Fruit Salad? by Pedrito Maynard-Reid (Alexander Carpenter, Spectrum, 17 Feb 2012)
• All True Christians are Activists [video, Chris Blake] (Alexander Carpenter, Spectrum, 16 Feb 2012)
• Op-Ed: What is a Christian Nation? (Jason Hines, Religious Liberty.TV, 16 Feb 2012)
• Leaders Respond to the GC/NAD Conflict Over Equality for Adventist Women (Adv Women’s Blog, 15, Feb 2012)
• Leaders Respond to the GC/NAD Conflict Over Equality for Adventist Women (Spectrum, 14 Feb 2012)
• Monday Meditation–Enemies (Jeff Gang, The Suburban Pastor, 13 Feb 2012)
• A Brief Trip to Rwanda (with the required reference to coffee) (Notes from the Fault, 11 Feb 2012)
• Religious Liberty In The US Under Threat From President Obama (Malgwyn, Things I read, 10 Feb 2012)
• Adventists Celebrate Prop 8 Invalidation (Alexander Carpenter, Spectrum, 8 Feb 2012)
• Tea Party Jesus (Alexander Carpenter, Spectrum, 8 Feb, 2012)
• Secular-ism (Stephen Foster, Adv Today, 7 Feb 2012)
• Dan Jackson Letter to NADCOM on Women in Ministry (Alexander Carpenter, Spectrum, 7 Feb 2012)
• Monday Meditation–Community (Jeff Gang, The Suburban Pastor, 6 Feb 2012)
• Jamaica PM commends Adventist contributions to society (Nigel Coke, ANN, 6 Feb 2012)
• Legal Opinion Contests North American Division Vote on Commissioned Ministers (Bonnie Dwyer, Spectrum, 6 Feb 2012)
• Division President to Jamaica: Adventists Oppose Legislating Morals (Alexander Carpenter, Spectrum, 6 Feb 2012)
• Adventists and Ecumenism: The Good and the Bad (Memory, Meaning & Faith, 3 Feb 2012)
• ADRA volunteers in the news (Patricia Marcos, ANN, 3 Feb 2012)
• PARL – Nigerian religious conflict update [video] (ANN, 3 Feb 2012)
• Former Adventist world church President Jan Paulsen receives civilian honor (Tor Tjeransen, ANN, 3 Feb 2012)
• I Support Men’s Commissioning (David Hamstra, Adv Today, 2 Feb 2012)
• Protect and serve (ANN, 2 Feb 2o12)
• Haiti: Nurse Tim Gerke Reporting from Where “a Bag of Rice Brings an 11 Year-old to Tears” (Tim Gerke, Amistad Intl, 2 Feb 2012)
• U.S. Surgeon General commends Adventist focus on holistic well-being (Elizabeth Lechleitner, ANN, 31 Jan 2012)
• ADRA Thailand vocational training lends refugees new future (Christina Zaiback, ANN, 31 Jan 2012)
• Children’s Ger School an “Oasis” (Amistad Intl, 27 Jan 2012)
• Community service (ANN, 25 Jan 2012)
• Dwight Nelson Preaches Support for Women in Ministry and Equal Ordination (Adv Women’s Blog, 23 Jan 2012)
• Eugenics Shame Revealed In US History (Malgwyn, Things I read, 20 Jan 2012)
• Businesses Need to be More Human (Saifur Rahman, Amistad Intl, Gulfnews.com, 20 Jan 2012)

Haiti’s Clean Cook Stove Project and Safety Initiative

Dr. Marciana Popescu (a former professor of mine) will be soon be in Haiti to work on “a number of initiatives in partnership with The Haiti Initiative, Social Tap Inc. A group of 18 students will join [her] on this trip, focusing mostly on women’s issues and women’s rights, ranging from the challenges faced by women living in refugee camps, to economic empowerment as a prevention strategy against violence and trafficking of women.” Learn more here (scroll down the page).

Adventism and Malcolm X

Dr. Benjamin Baker looks at the Adventism influence in the home of young Malcolm X.

I wish there were a line something like “And a local Adventist family offered buckets of Frichik and Nuteena to replace the pork the Little family refused.” Whose story do I need to be writing a better chapter in today?

Here are additional videos I have failed to post previously.

D. Nelson: Love Fits us for Heaven

Dwight Nelson’s sermon this past Sabbath (Feb. 11) had strong words on love — Part 3: The Last Days: “The 11th Commandment”.