Professor Omid Safi, director of Duke University’s Islamic Studies Center, says the Paris terror attacks were a “harbinger” of more to come. He urges faith communities to build relationships of trust and begin a global conversation about religion so they can be ready to begin the healing process when the next attack occurs.
Author Archives: Fred Yi
Faith-Based Activism on Climate Change; Rebuilding Urban Neighborhoods
Religious activists are trying to help vulnerable communities in south Louisiana already affected by climate change; a community developer challenges common conceptions about modern charitable work
Faith-Based Activism on Climate Change
In the bayous of south Louisiana, faith-based activists are trying to help vulnerable communities already affected by climate change. Most scientists say climate change has led to rising sea levels that are accelerating erosion and land loss, leading in turn to the displacement of local residents. Last summer, Pope Francis released his much anticipated encyclical on climate change, and while many environmental advocates support the pope’s contributions to the current debate, there are also some critics who say political and scientific issues are beyond his purview.
Robert Gorman Extended Interview
“Sea level rises have been measured. They’re verifiable. Climate change is very well documented. The facts are there. You can deny them if you choose to, but we’re seeing the results every day here in south Louisiana, and whether you want to say that’s because of climate change or something else, the effects are very real.” Watch more of our interview with Robert Gorman, executive director of Catholic Charities of the diocese of Houma-Thibodaux in Louisiana.
Kristina Peterson Extended Interview
“As the climate changes, species are diminishing. We are seeing the extinction of so many different things, and they are part of us. They are part of the world. They are part of who we are. Are we going to become the next extinction? We need to care for what God has given us, and that is a moral mandate.” Watch more of our interview about the effects of climate change in southern Louisiana with Rev. Dr. Kristina Peterson, pastor at Bayou Blue Presbyterian Church in Gray, Louisiana. She is also facilitator of the Lowlander Center and coordinator of the Wetlands Theological Project.
Lonnie Ellis Extended Interview
“Pope Francis is creating new kinds of conversations. This moral guidance, this moral obligation to our children and to future generations is really resonating with people, and he’s doing it with such hope.” Watch more of our interview about climate change and Pope Francis’s encyclical on the environment with Lonnie Ellis, associate director for the Catholic Climate Covenant.
Marc Morano Extended Interview
“Carbon-based energy development is the best friend for poor people and would give them the best chance at life.” Watch more of our interview with Marc Morano, publisher of Climate Depot, a website that is skeptical of many warnings about global warming.
Rebuilding Urban Neighborhoods
Urban activist and Christian community developer Bob Lupton challenges common conceptions about modern charitable work by arguing that most charity is ineffective and does more harm than good. He advocates letting the poor learn to help themselves and encouraging the well-off to live alongside the poor. Lupton is the founder and president of FCS (Focused Community Strategies) Urban Ministries and the author, most recently, of “Charity Detox: What Charity Would Look Like If We Cared About Results.” Writes Lupton: “We cannot serve people out of poverty.”
Read an excerpt from Charity Detox: What Charity Would Look Like If We Cared About Results by Robert D. Lupton (HarperOne, 2015):
Do we really want the poor to thrive?
Conducting tours for concerned suburbanites through my inner-city neighborhood is a routine part of my PR and fundraising responsibilities for our nonprofit organization. Visitors expect to see boarded-up houses, trash-strewn vacant lots, dangerous-looking drug dealers hanging out on street corners. So when I drive visitors down attractive streets with nicely landscaped bungalows, past my house with rockers on the wide front porch, I frequently hear comments such as, “Wow, this is pretty nice—not what I expected in a poor community.” To which I reply, “It should look nice after thirty years of community development work.” My temptation, of course, is to show them the roughest blocks so that they will be moved to become involved with our ministry. The streets that are thriving don’t seem to touch hearts in the same way.
We are moved by need. Volunteerism, so huge in our culture, is propelled by meeting need. Does this mean, then, that we have a subliminal motivation to perpetuate poverty so that we always have someone to serve? No, I would never suggest such a thing. It would be unfair, cruel even, to question the motives of caring volunteers who sincerely desire to make a difference in the world. Yet there is some reason that we seem content to invest our billions in aid and millions in volunteer work-hours year after year despite seeing almost no positive change in poverty rates. I choose to believe that the reason is a lack of knowledge rather than a lack of heart.
We have been led to believe that our volunteer service alleviates poverty. We have accepted this as fact. This is wrong. If there is one message that this book attempts to drive home, it is that we cannot serve people out of poverty. And yet our massive service industry is based upon this false premise. If we truly do want to see the poor thrive, our entire way of thinking, of believing, must change.
So again: Do we really want to see the poor thrive? If we can honestly answer yes to that question, if we can affirm that it is God’s desire that all people share in the abundance of our world, that shalom (peace, prosperity, well-being) is the divine design for humanity, then we can embark with confidence on a mission to transform the highly popular yet tragically flawed compassion industry.
Saving the Next Generation in New Orleans
Seventeen people were injured by gunfire last Sunday night (Nov. 22) during a block party in the Upper Ninth Ward of New Orleans. Rev. Troy Lawrence Sr. of Reaping the Harvest, a Full Gospel Baptist Church on Dauphine Street in the Lower Ninth Ward, spoke to R&E about gun violence last summer at a peace festival sponsored by the city:
PASTOR TROY LAWRENCE SR. (Reaping the Harvest): As being a pastor in this day and time you can’t be in the pulpit, you have to be out of the pulpit. Cause the problem isn’t in the church. It’s on the outside of the church. We have to be more active in the community. I do have a message for young men. And, the message is really simple. You know, we have to trust God. When we get to the place where we trust him, we’ll serve him. We just have to not look back but look forward. If we can get the people to think different, they’ll do something different. They will never do nothing different if they never think different. We have to make sure in order for the kids to change, the parents have to change. Because they have to see it in the parents. And the kids wanna follow but if they have nothing to follow, they’re gonna follow what they see in the street. They’ve been trained through friends, they’ve been trained through peer pressure, picking up a knife, picking up a gun, through violence. When we can train them on a spiritual level now we’re bringing them back to the basics. We must know what our kids doing, where they at. We must get involved with the kids because that’s what this is about. I tell you that if we can change the kids, we can have a better world. But it starts with the parents. And, that’s my message to the parents and to the adults. We just gotta come together and let it be about the kids. If we can save the kids, we can save this next generation.
Religion’s Role in the Face of Terrorism; A New Medellin; Ta’Nehisi Coates
Interfaith coalitions are taking a stand against ISIS in the wake of the Paris attacks; a Colombian city ruined by drugs and crime has transformed itself in recent years; and the author of “Between the World and Me” ponders race, religion, and the fear of violence.
