Bread for the World

By Valerie Hurwitz

“The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.” FDR, second inaugural speech 1937

ESR MDiv student Anna Woofenden spoke at Peace Forum on Thursday, March 29 about the summer she spent interning at Bread for the World in Washington DC. She brought with her Matt Gross, a Bread for the World organizer who is based in the Chicago area. Bread for the World is unique in that it does advocacy for hunger-related issues but not direct food aid.

Matt pointed out that most Christian organizations focus on direct aid; a food pantry, a soup kitchen, etc. 96% of food aid in this country is delivered by the federal government, mostly in the form of SNAP (food stamps), WIC (for pregnant women and mothers with children under 2), and free lunches. What churches and other non-profits do is very small in comparison with these programs, and changes in the federal and state funding of these programs could easily wipe out all the good that NGOs do in this country. Thus, to have a food ministry of direct aid without looking at systemic issues is a losing proposition.

A recent Bread for the World blog post discussed the dangers the Paul Ryan budget poses to these programs. Eligible women and children could be turned away from these programs if indeed their funding is limited.

• In 2011, 45 million Americans received SNAP (14%)
• In 2011, 9 million women and children received WIC

Bread for the World engages churches in letter-writing campaigns and other advocacy. This summer, Anna worked on a resource called “Bread for the Preacher.” This provides information to pastors who want to discuss hunger in their sermons. Selections are available online.

OK, so here’s my dilemma. Obviously the amount of money the US spends on aid programs is a lot (Social Security, Medicaid/Medicare, SNAP, WIC, etc.) although military spending is certainly the bigger elephant  in the room. Social Security, I always point out, is not charity. I pay into social security and have since my first paycheck at 15 (which is something I always point out when Republican presidential candidates say, “Oh, social security won’t change for those over 50. You’ll be able to count on the money you paid into it.” What am I? Chopped liver?)

But, the reality is that SNAP and WIC are welfare. (I would also argue that the government creates the need for SNAP and WIC to a certain extent through its own policies.) Some folks argue that the government should not give aid of this sort. Indeed, they argue that the Christian mandate to care for the poor should be done privately, not through governmental organizations. This seems like a good theory to
me, but bad practice. If the government simply taxed us all less, would we really give all that money to organizations that directly aid the poor? If private organizations are currently responsible for 4% of direct aid, would we really contribute 25 times as much? Additionally, the federal and state governments recognize that they have a stake in the health and welfare of their citizens and that caring for them now means greater
productivity and fewer costs later. Thus, aid ultimately makes sense from an economic standpoint.

Valerie Hurwitz is Director of Recruitment and Admissions at Earlham School of Religion. She lives in Richmond, Indiana and serves as choir director at West Richmond Friends Meeting.

Howard Macy: Friend in Residence

Howard Macy, ESR alumnus from 1970, visited ESR the week of March 26th. As the press release describes him:

Howard Macy is a Friends educator, minister, and author from Northwest Yearly Meeting. He has recently retired as Professor Emeritus at George Fox University and has taught previously at Friends University and Earlham College. Howard has served as a released minister in Northwest, Indiana, and New England Yearly Meetings and has traveled widely among Friends as an itinerant minister. His books include Rhythms of the Inner Life, Laughing Pilgrims, and Stepping in the Light, and he has published regularly in Quaker Life, Quaker Religious Thought, and other periodicals.
Among Howard’s special interests in teaching and writing are the Old Testament (especially the Psalms and the Prophets), spiritual formation, and humor in the Bible and Christian living. Privileged to live in Oregon, Howard particularly enjoys traveling in the wonders of nature, photography, and playing and singing in music ensembles.

The teaching faculty sat down with Howard for lunch on the 28th and immediately delved into questions of the church. Howard had commented at Common Meal the day before that church ministers are sometimes unfairly maligned and Jay’s first question was about the vitality of church institutions. The conversation turned to the “privatized” nature of church, where people go “church-shopping” for something that pleases them. Younger Christians/Quakers vacillate between leaving and living in the midst of the chaos. At the same time the “emergent” church and other movements are in the process of changing the face of Christianity . . . but into what? Nancy pointed out that many older members of the church are not so much afraid of change as they are that the church might change into something that is no longer comforting to them. “I love Jesus, but hate the church.” “I’m spiritual but not religious.” These phrases are common and only the type of the iceberg. Lonnie pointed out that part of the problem might be all the confusing and contradictory things that are going on in the name of Christ in the public arena.

The discussion turned to education within the church. Jay said that if churches are interested in only their own preservation, they will fail. Carole Spencer commented that education can easily become indoctrination, not formation. Nancy Bowen gave her common complaint that so many people in her Old Testament course know only a little about its contents and yet have pre-judged what they will find. “Why do you have to go to seminary to learn this stuff?” I’ve heard her ask more than once. We discussed the preparation of Sunday School teachers and formation among adults. Jim pointed out that most people who go into ministry are “people-pleasers” and are afraid to really delve into tough passages in the Bible or go beyond the lectionary. Howard others noted, however, that when people are given the opportunity to discuss issues like theodicy and suffering and really ask questions, they are glad to have an open forum.

The conversation was rich and Howard did not speak a great deal. He did, however, tell us that he was soaking us all up and his presence encouraged the faculty to deeper discussion. There were no conclusions, but we knocked off a number of sandwiches and a few packages of cookies and had a good time.

• How do you view the church? Does it speak to your condition?
• If you could envision the ideal church, what would that look like?
• What is the balance between maintaining institutions and allowing them to grow and change with their constituencies?
• How do you find a way to encourage formation without indoctrination?

Valerie Hurwitz is Director of Recruitment and Admissions at Earlham School of Religion. She lives in Richmond, Indiana and serves as choir director at West Richmond Friends Meeting.

Acupuncture and Peace

By Valerie Hurwitz

Kurt Ritchie, a Bethany Seminary alum, came to Peace Forum on March 22 to speak about acupuncture. After pastoring for a decade, he went to an acupuncture school and spent four years learning that craft before opening up an independent practice. Kurt told us that he does more ministry as an acupuncturist than he did as a pastor.

“Why is everyone so sick?” Kurt asked us. The answers were innumerable and came quickly: diet, industrialization, stress, preservatives in food, etc. Kurt summarized them into three main issues: the automobile, electricity, and the refrigerator. He explained that if we’re always driving we don’t walk, get less exercise, and spend more time sitting. Electricity allows us to stay up late and not get enough sleep. Finally, fridges allow us to eat food that is prepared and preserved and that is not fresh. Kurt is often the last resort of patients who are suffering from cancer, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, or other illnesses. While western doctors specialize, Kurt focuses on treating the whole person, including diet and mental/spiritual state. Oriental medicine believes that everything is medicine.

Much of Kurt’s talk was technical, and I’m not sure I can reproduce it here (even with having taken notes). Kurt explained that eastern thinking is cyclical and that acupuncture works with channels (meridians) of qi (spirit?) flowing through the body and uses needles to adjust that flow. Kurt also explained that Chinese medicine works on the premise of a cycle from wood to fire to earth to metal to water back to wood. The different elements are associated with specific colors and organs, and they control other elements.

“Does it hurt?” was one of the first questions asked. People seemed interested in and open to alternative/holistic medicine and acupuncture specifically, but Oh! The needles! Kurt explained that modern acupuncture needles are rounded at the end and designed to part rather than tear tissue. That seemed only partly comforting to some folks.

I get migraines sometimes, and certainly have been through most of the easy holistic treatments (feverfew, mint essence on the temples, etc., etc.) I am not for or opposed to holistic medicine but believe that everything should be approached with an open mind . . . maybe I’ll be making an appointment to see if there’s something awry with the qi in my head . . .

Thoughts? How does this relate to Peace? How are physical health and ministry related in your mind?

Valerie Hurwitz is Director of Recruitment and Admissions at Earlham School of Religion. She lives in Richmond, Indiana and serves as choir director at West Richmond Friends Meeting.

A Prophetic Voice in Occupy - People of Faith in the Public Sphere

By Valerie Hurwitz

There is something a bit comical in the blog post that I am about to write. Micah Bales, who I worked with on ESR’s outreach and social media strategy and who maintains this blog, spoke at ESR’s Common Meal on Tuesday, March 20th. Micah spoke about his history of activism and dis-illusionment with politics after 9/11. Micah went up to visit the Occupy Wall St. camp in September with the question “what’s your ask?” He realized, however, that this movement has no policy platform. Occupy looks to step outside the binary of Republican-Democrat and talk about the distribution of power in this world.

Seven people gathered to discuss starting Occupy DC soon after Occupy Wall Street began, including Micah. This face-to-face meeting is a key point; people got off the internet and met face-to-face. They gathered in a public space and talked. The group began small, with 6 people picketing a Bank of America. The Bank pulled down their shades and shut out customers, eventually calling police and telling them that protesters were breaking into the bank. The police, happily, found this comical as it was clear when they arrived that no one was breaking into anything. Occupy DC, in its early days, took the form of a camp. Micah explained, however, that while the camps were a wonderful symbol they were not sustainable and quickly became a magnet for those who were mentally ill and homeless. While providing food and shelter for such people is an important goal, the serious activism has moved away from the camps.

Micah talked about his ministry within this seemingly secular movement. “God stands in judgment over our economic arrangements” he told us and quoted Luke 4:18-19. Micah told us that some secular Occupiers were uncomfortable with his particularly Christian outlook, whereas many clergy seem reticent to be too radical. There needs to be a challenge to the Christian dominionist view that the government should be run according to conservative Christian values. There is a space between these three, where Christians can have a prophetic role in the secular sphere.

There was some discussion as to where the demarcation is for the “99%”, and whether that was relevant. The top 1% of tax-payers in the US made $343,927 and up in 2009. We also shouldn’t fool ourselves that the bottom 99% is all the same. Life is very different at $200,000 a year as opposed to $50,000 or $25,000 or less. Additionally, this measure of income does not include assets, and ultimately does not include the most important point: access to power. Thus, it is less important to divide the US into 1% and 99% and more important to discuss access to power and a voice in the public arena. Finally, some within the 99% certainly have more privilege and resources than others, and with that comes greater responsibility.

The involvement of young people in religious and public institutions is not an unusual topic of conversation around here. I remind the teaching faculty at ESR (who are all, shall we say, somewhat older than I) that I was too young to vote in the 2000 election. In 2002 my vote was invalidated (it’s a long story having to do with Senator Wellstone). 2004 was the first election I could vote in, and I lived in the second poorest county in Ohio where there were 7 hour waits at the polls and election challengers abounded in poverty-stricken areas. In 2006, I had just moved and couldn’t establish residency sufficiently well enough to vote. 2008 started out well and provided some hope, but the 2010 was pretty uninspiring (partly because of where I live). With the recession, I am one of the few people I know my age who is fully employed. That’s not a very inspiring introduction to adult civic life. Thus, I was really glad to see the Occupy movement got started and involved so many people speaking out and saying, “You know, this isn’t about political parties. This is about how ridiculously out of whack the distribution of wealth and power are in this country are.”

The question we asked Micah on the 20th and I have asked him a few times over the phone is where we go from here. If the camps are not sustainable, how does this movement continue? The US sometimes seems as though it has a very limited attention span. How can a movement looking to mobilize people to talk about power and injustice in this country be sustainable? Micah wants to see General Assemblies and people meeting around the country. He encouraged people to consider practical actions, such as putting your money in a small bank or credit union. He suggests small-scale activism, like the work he has done assisting a woman who was wrongly foreclosed upon in keeping her house. Finally, for those who are spiritual or religious (in a Christ-centered way, or not) there is a great deal of history and a good many bible verses leading to a peculiarly Christian call to economic justice and supporting the poor, orphaned, and widowed. This prophetic voice, as Micah termed it, can and should be a powerful force in the public sphere. Thoughts? What do you think a sustainable Occupy movement looks like?

Valerie Hurwitz is Director of Recruitment and Admissions at Earlham School of Religion. She lives in Richmond, Indiana and serves as choir director at West Richmond Friends Meeting.

The Bible and Domestic Violence

By Valerie Hurwitz

I have been reading the minor prophets of the Old Testament for a class, and part of the reading for this week prophetically fit in with the Peace Forum speaker. From Hosea 2:2-3, 14-15 (New Revised Standard Version):

Plead with your mother, plead — for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband— 
that she put away her whoring from her face, and her adultery from between her breasts, 

or I will strip her naked and expose her as in the day she was born, and make her like a wilderness, and turn her into a parched land, and kill her with thirst.

Therefore, I will now persuade her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak
tenderly to her. From there I will give her her vineyards, and make the Valley of Achor a door of
hope.

There she shall respond as in the days of her youth,   as at the time when she came out
of the land of Egypt.

This metaphor of God as husband punishing faithless Israel as wife has troubled generations of seminary students and confounded readers of all types. Does this teach us something about the way a husband should treat a wife? Yuck!

Vivian Finnell, founder and CEO of the organization Not 2 Believers Like Us came to Peace Forum on March 8th, 2012 to speak about domestic violence in the faith community. There is the tendency, she says, to think that domestic violence doesn’t happen in faith communities, or isn’t an issue that should be addressed in those communities. Unfortunately, one in three women and one in eight men will report domestic violence during their lifetime. We pay for this violence through both financial loss and lost human potential; through hospital visits, bullying in the schools, and a number of other societal issues.

This violence is taught over the pulpit and through scripture. If clergy are not familiar with domestic violence issues, they can mis-advise their parishioners. At best they might not know where to direct someone to for help, at worst they might tell a wife to “go and submit” or tell a man to “stand up and be a man.”

Vivian advised seminary students going into ministry of any type to educate themselves about the signs of domestic violence and local resources (see, for example, the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence). She also suggested that pastors address this issue in sermons, bible studies, and other settings.

We might translate this into unprogrammed Quaker terms by saying that unprogrammed Friends should educate themselves and their meetings about domestic violence.

At the very least, we need to discuss and come to terms with biblical passages such as the one above. Thoughts?

Valerie Hurwitz is Director of Recruitment and Admissions at Earlham School of Religion. She lives in Richmond, Indiana and serves as choir director at West Richmond Friends Meeting.

Peace Doesn’t Have a Culmination

By Valerie Hurwitz

James Taylor came to Peace forum on March 1^st, 2012 to speak with us about the Peace Learning Center in Indianapolis. The PLC started doing conflict resolution/transformation activities with grades 4-6 in the Indianapolis public schools and has expanded from there. The Help Increase the Peace Program (HIPP) is an AFSC program that began in Syracuse, NY in 1991, and now extends to 19 states. HIPP is described as “An Interactive conflict transformation that empowers participants to reduce violence, strengthen cross-cultural understanding and become agents of social change.” The Peace Learning Center began offering HIPP as a program and used Americorps fellows to give the workshops. As Americorps and Title I funding has been cut in the past few years, HIPP and the Peace Learning Center have fewer funds. James, after finishing his Americorps term, continued volunteering for the PLC despite the lack of funds because he believes this is important and essential work.

The most interesting part of James’ time with us was what he told us about his work in the Girl’s School and Boy’s School, the juvenile detention centers. James explained that Indiana is under federal investigation for how it runs its juvenile detention centers. James describes them by saying, “Prisons aren’t set up to do anything positive.” For those who will argue that juvenile detention centers are different than regular prisons, James would point out that the Pendleton Juvenile Correctional Facility (for boys) is in a maximum security facility.

James says that what the children in these facilities want most is continuity. HIPP encourages them to practice critical thinking in every part of their lives. James firmly believes that conflict transformation programs in juvenile corrections facilities and prisons need to encompass both staff and residents. He illustrated the problem for us by saying, “If a kid goes through our program and then says calmly to a guard ‘I feel bad when you call me a b____ because it hurts my feelings.’ there is a good chance that child will be written up for insubordination.”

James is a longtime Quaker and sees this as part of the ongoing Quaker work towards Peace. Perhaps his visit is a reminder that Friends cannot rest on their history but rather must move forward and consider all of the forms their commitment to peace, simplicity, equality, and other testimonies apply to today.

Two other blog posts come to mind that connect here. The first is Noah Baker Merrill’s question about where God is working in the RSOF and where new life is breaking through. The second is Jordan Blevin’s comment at Peace Forum a fewweeks ago about what our budgets tell us about our values. On the other hand, why should we depend on the federal government to fund these kinds of opportunities? (Maybe there’s a little bit of a libertarian in me, which I’m sure Matt Hisrich would be glad to know.) Projects like Quaker Voluntary Service can help fill that gap.

Valerie Hurwitz is Director of Recruitment and Admissions at Earlham School of Religion. She lives in Richmond, Indiana and serves as choir director at West Richmond Friends Meeting.

Translating between American and African Contexts

By Valerie Hurwitz

Pentecostal Church in Ghana

What does it mean to do ministry in Africa? Are western educational and religious materials appropriate for an African context? How can people of faith in the US empower their denominational brothers and sisters in Africa to be leaders and to re-interpret the Christian stories and the work God is doing in this world in that setting? We have looked at these questions from a Quaker standpoint (see, for example, past blog posts). This is, however, not a question unique among Friends. ESR student Brent Walsh returned in late January from a month spent in South Africa, Kenya, and Ghana, and spoke to us on Tuesday, March 6th about his experience there.

Before I tell you about Brent’s thoughts on Christianity in Africa, I want to mention two organizations he visited. In South Africa he and his wife Julie went to Rehoboth Children’s Village, which cares for children who have HIV/AIDS. The children live in houses, with a house mother, and attend school within the village. Brent sent me a wonderful picture of the cartoon images that the teachers use to educate the children about what HIV medication does in their bodies. In Kenya, Brent and Julie visited a child they have been sponsoring through ChildFund International, Mary Mwende. They visited the school ChildFund runs in the Mukuru slums and saw some of the projects to provide clean water and other necessities to the children there. Brent would want me to mention that both are doing wonderful work and (as with every non-profit) are always looking for donations.

In Kenya and South Africa Brent visited churches that are part of the Metropolitan Community Churches. He defined their greatest needs as leadership training and non-westernized resources. Brent comically described the first issue by saying, “In the US you have to get a Master of Divinity degree and go through this whole process to become a pastor. There they just say, ‘oh, there’s a church that needs a pastor. Anyone want to be the pastor? Anyone? Would you like to be the pastor? Oh, OK! Problem solved!’” Additionally, although there is a push to translate GLBT resources like The Children Are Free (which discusses biblical passage related to same-sex relationships) into Swahili, this plays into the concept of homosexuality as a western problem. Brent explained further in an email to me later:
“Homosexuality is seen in Kenya as a western problem that has bled over into their country. So when a western book defending homosexuality is offered to people there, it means nothing to them. It doesn't change anything in their minds about God's view on homosexuality. ‘Of course people in the west are going to defend their abominable behavior and then try to spread those lies in Kenya.’ But if the book was changed to introduce African characters in African cities/towns, and if the book was reviewed by reputable African allies, it would mean that homosexuality is not just a western concept.”

Brent and Julie bring Mary Mwende a gift

Brent spoke to an organization called Other Sheep, which does transgender education and advocacy in Kenya. They also visited a church that ministers to sex workers in Nairobi, People of Substance MCC, which does not intend to get sex workers out of their industry, but to bring God into it and to encourage these women to find alternate means of making a living. (“Do they talk about Rahab?” was Nancy Bowen’s first question.)

Finally, Brent and Julie spent two weeks in Ghana at a cultural arts program run by the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. There, Brent told us, he discovered that he is “not a dancer.” Instead, he spent his time weaving baskets and speaking with Ghanaians about their religious beliefs. Brent visited a shrine and learned about the five gods in Ewe Brekete, a local religion. Brent also visited a Pentecostal church and learned about how Christians in Ghana view their non-Christian neighbors. Brent told me about this visit:

“ . . . during an interview with an elder in the church, I discovered that their African context makes Christianity look much different than mine. I live in a society where the commandment against worshipping  other gods means things like money, power, work, or sex. To them, other gods take the form of actual fetish idols – gods that are carried around in positions of honor for all to see and bow down to. The Christians in Kopeyia read the Bible much differently than I do.

"I asked the church elder how much interaction they have with people of the Brekete shrine. Does religion come between Christians and non-Christians? His initial response was that people respect each others’ religions, but digging a little deeper in the conversation, it was clear that fear was the foundation upon which their relationships were built. I was warned not to have a meal with anyone who practices the Brekete religion. After all, you don’t know whether the meat they serve you had been first offered to Kunde or Bangle or any other of the fetish gods.

“'What would happen,’ I asked, ‘if I knew that the meat had been offered to the idols, but I was hungry and it smelled good? What if I decided to take the meat anyway? Would there be any repercussions with God or the church?’ The elder looked at me solemnly, hesitating for a moment. I wondered if my question had offended him. Was it too disrespectful to insinuate that I might willingly eat food offered to idols?


“‘You will be on your own then,’ the elder finally said. ‘God will not protect you.’ I was curious at this statement. He explained that when a person is right with God, if they get into a car accident or if a scorpion stings them, God will protect them from harm. But if a person willingly eats meat offered to other gods, God will turn His back on them until that person repents and asks for deliverance from the evil spirits that entered their body with the meat.”

Julie and Mary Mwende in a slum outside Nairobi

Brent is a wonderful writer, and you can read more of his work at his blog and at Be Still and Know, the daily devotional published on the Life Journey MCC website.

I believe that Brent’s experience with MCC congregations can teach Friends something about working with African Quaker meetings. As Nancy Bowen would say, “Context is Everything.”

Valerie Hurwitz is Director of Recruitment and Admissions at Earlham School of Religion. She lives in Richmond, Indiana and serves as choir director at West Richmond Friends Meeting.

Voluntary Service Among Friends

By Valerie Hurwitz

Noah Baker Merrill, a Friend from Putney Monthly Meeting (New England YM), came to ESR last week and spoke with us at Common Meal. Ostensibly here to speak about the Quaker Voluntary Service program starting in Atlanta this fall, Noah shared that he had been invited to give a prepared message at the FWCC gathering in Kenya next month. He asked what he might say to Friends there and shared the outline of his message as it was taking form within him right now.

Noah spoke of “triangulating on God” as he traveled. Whether visiting Cuba YM, a small unprogrammed worship group in Oregon, or in his home meeting in New England, Noah looks for where God is at work. These are the areas where this is growth, new opportunity, and good news. Noah quoted Bill Taber as saying “we have lost a shared vocabulary for the inner landscape.” For unprogrammed Friends, this means talking about what is going on in the silence of unprogrammed worship. There are three “motions” Noah sees in healthy meetings. He terms them “the motion of prophets”, “the motion of midwives”, and “the motion of thieves.”

The first (prophets) is the ability of people in the meeting to point to the newness of God in that moment, to rediscover the law, and to re-interpret stories for today. The second is that of midwives, those who ask themselves “what does the body need to come fully into life?” Rather than getting stuck in the postmodern idea of distinct and individual journeys, the midwives in our midst understand that a religious/spiritual community is mutual responsible for each other’s liberation. Finally, the motion of thieves points to the need for humility and the understanding that we inherit a tradition from those who went before us. While Noah did not phrase it quite like this, I would point to these three motions as needed for a vital and healthy monthly meeting, yearly meeting, or other organization with a spiritual element to its mission. Meetings that lack one of these elements struggle as a result.

A hushed feeling of worship crept over the group as Noah spoke and when he finally asked us where we saw new life in the Religious Society of Friends, I did not hear a direct answer to his question. There was a feeling of blessing and a scattered vocal response. I have been wondering to myself why exactly that is for the past week. It’s been a busy week (we had 10 prospective students here on Friday and spent half an hour in the basement during the tornado warning, and there were 90+ people here for the Spirituality Gathering on Saturday). ESR was created as a place to give Friends training for ministry and to allow space for Friends from different traditions to meet and “triangulate on God” (among other things). Many of our students come here hoping and planning, or already being, a source of new life in the Religious Society of Friends and wider world.

Although I don’t know that folks here would describe it in the same way, the motions of prophets, midwives, and thieves, the actions that Noah described (re-interpreting stories for today, eldering the meeting, and humbly acknowledging our debts to those who came before us) are familiar to Friends here, and to non-Friends. So, here’s Noah’s question passed on to all of you: Where do you see God at work in the Religious Society of Friends and where is there new life breaking through?

P.S. We shouldn’t neglect Quaker Voluntary Service, which is launching its first service house in Atlanta this summer! Noah spoke of this project as a sign of “new life” within Quakerism and part of a process of reclaiming and making current the Quaker tradition of service. The Board also decided to emphasize the importance of the example of Jesus, which was controversial among some Friends.

Valerie Hurwitz is Director of Recruitment and Admissions at Earlham School of Religion. She lives in Richmond, Indiana and serves as choir director at West Richmond Friends Meeting.

The Peace Testimony in the Twenty-First Century

By Valerie Hurwitz

As many of you know, Earlham School of Religion has a Church of the Brethren seminary next door. We share share some parts of the curriculum, a weekly Friday worship, and Common Meal once a month with them, as well as our Academic Services and Computing Services offices. I am often asked what Brethren and Quakers have in common. While the Brethren would not use the term “Testimonies” with as much
specificity as Quakers do, there is a strong emphasis on values very similar to the Quaker testimonies. The Brethren have a longstanding commitment to non-violence and American Brethren required their members to abstain from joining the military in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. Simplicity is another strong value, and I have seen a few “plain” Brethren around Bethany.

This digression will be quite familiar to anyone who has spent time on ESR’s campus since Bethany seminary moved her in the mid-90s, and to the Bethany-affiliated folks who might be reading this. My hope is to provide context for those who aren’t familiar with Brethren.

Jordan Blevins, a Brethren pastor on the staff of the Eco-Justice programs at the National Council of churches, spoke at Peace Forum this past Thursday. He spoke about Just Peace and how Peace Churches can no longer be a “set apart” movement, but must reach out to the larger Christian movement as it struggles with questions of nonviolence and opposition to war. Jordan also told us that it was not sufficient for Peace Churches to rest on their history of opposition to war. There will be no more drafts, he told us, and no more opportunities for conscientious objectors to express their opposition through registering. Contentious objection is now silent. We must articulate what we are for rather than what we are against. Enter “Just Peace”, a concept that is strongly promoted by the World Council of Churches. It seems best to quote directly from their document “An Ecumenical Call to Just Peace”:

[Just Peace is] “a collective and dynamic yet grounded process of freeing human beings from fear and want, of overcoming enmity, discrimination and oppression, and of establishing conditions for just relationships that privilege the experience of the most vulnerable and respect the integrity of creation”

In short, peace and justice are inter-related, and peace must be maintained not through the absence of conflict, but through a holistic approach to creating right relationships among people, governments, companies, the earth, etc. Peace Churches have an opportunity to “put meat on the bones of Just Peace” for other denominations, to “flesh out” the idea of Just Peace. (Weird analogies for a conversation over a
vegetarian meal, I know.)

The discussion after that ranged widely. There was discussion of the Peace Tax Fund, of economic conscription into the military, and of what Just Peace might look like from the perspective of a prisoner or a Native American. With the election this year, there is a great deal of discussion over the federal budget. What does this document say about our values? What does it mean when no one is turned away from military service, but Americorps and Peace Corps must be very selective? I honestly vacillate on total pacifism (can I say that, working for a Quaker seminary?), but I do appreciate the larger approach that Just Peace takes. Wars and conflicts are the end of the process, not the beginning, and working on peace and justice requires affecting those causes. On an international level, Ron Paul has mentioned the “golden rule” in a few of the Republican primary debates, and been booed for it. If it’s good enough to be taught in every elementary school, why is it not good enough for foreign policy?

• First, Jordan’s big question to us: “What needs to change in our world for Just Peace to occur, and what can we do to make that happen?” 
• What can Quakers learn from considering the commitments of other Peace Church to their version of the Peace Testimony? 
• Are there any Brethren out there who can tell me more about the history of the Brethren commitment to non-violence?

Valerie Hurwitz is Director of Recruitment and Admissions at Earlham School of Religion. She lives in Richmond, Indiana and serves as choir director at West Richmond Friends Meeting.

Peace Forum: What can Hiroshima and Nagasaki teach us about Peace?

By Valerie Hurwitz

How much did the US population know about the aftereffects of Nagasaki and Hiroshima in the 50s and 60s? How much do they know now? The lessons of these two cities were hard-learned in Japan, but have taken longer to filter out to the rest of the world. ESR Master of Divinity students Erin Hougland and Abbey Pratt-Harrington have both spent time in Hiroshima, Erin as an English teaching in a nearby town and Abbey as a summer researcher at the World Friendship Center.

Erin and Abbey explained that the bomb detonated about mile over Hiroshima and immediately killed around 70,000 people. There was no food or water in the area afterwards, and the medical centers were overwhelmed. Some people survived, but so badly burned that they jumped into the river, only to be killed by the boiling-hot water in the river. Radiation poisoning killed many more in the first 6 months and it is difficult to say in the end how many people died later because of various forms of cancer. No one was sure what the long-term effects of the radiation would be on the health of survivors.

The Japanese coined the term “hibakusha” to mean anyone in Hiroshima or Nagasaki when the bombs were dropped, or who were inside the city limits within two weeks afterwards, or who had direct contact with bomb victims. This is not a historical term, but a quite current one as the Japanese government recognizes more than 200,000 living people as hibakusha and some receive a special form of government health insurance.

In Japan, hibakusha were and are marginalized for fear that they could contaminate others or that their children would have genetic abnormalities. Particularly right after the bombs, they had difficulty marrying and often hid their status. Still, many went on to thrive and live long lives. Erin spoke of meeting a Japanese woman in her Tai Chi class in Japan who was 6 months old when Hiroshima was bombed. The next day, her mother took her and her 2-year-old brother into the city to look for her (the mother’s) parents. Her little brother, who had no shoes and so walked barefoot, died 6 months later of radiation poisoning. The woman grew up, married, is healthy herself, and has many healthy children and grandchildren. Erin told us this story in part to demonstrate the lack of knowledge Japanese individuals had in the after mass of the bombings (e.g. jumping into rivers or allowing their children to walk barefoot in the city) and the unevenness of the effects (some hibakusha have/had health problems, while others are quite healthy). American scientists initially told the Japanese that it would take 70 years for vegetation to grow in the area, but seeds sprouted the next spring. Erin describes modern Hiroshima as beautiful and lively.

Abbey’s connection to Hiroshima began when she started volunteering at the Peace Resource Center, located on the campus of Wilmington College in Ohio. Barbara Reynolds, the founder of the center, traveled to Hiroshima in the 50s with her husband. American and Japanese scientists were uncertain of what the long term consequences of the blast and Earle Reynolds traveled to Hiroshima to study radiation
and child development. Barbara brought 2 hibakusha to the US in 1962 to speak about the dangers of nuclear warfare. Returning in 1964 with 25 hibakusha, they traveled to several countries to speak against nuclear weapons. These survivors still travel; when Abbey was there in the summer of 2009 she met two hibakusha who had just returned from speaking in Pakistan.

Abbey and Erin were asked about how people in today’s Japan see the bombings and whether they blame the US. They told us that people take a broad view; the Japanese emperor led the country into war and ignored the US announcement that the A-bomb would be dropped if Japan did not desist. “They told me ‘this is what war does’” Erin explained, saying that Japan sees the bombings as punishment for the crimes committed by the government. This is not to say that everyone in Japan is of one mind on this issue. A small minority continually calls for repeal of Article 9 of the Japanese constitution, which renounces war and nuclear weapons.

Food for thought:

• Perhaps Abbey and Erin can tell us how the reaction to the Fukushima nuclear power plant being damaged in the spring was related to the communal memory of Nagasaki and Hiroshima in Japan. Abbey? Erin?
• What would the US look like if it renounced all nuclear bombs and laid down the entire military?

Valerie Hurwitz is Director of Recruitment and Admissions at Earlham School of Religion. She lives in Richmond, Indiana and serves as choir director at West Richmond Friends Meeting.

The Cycle of Poverty in the Local Richmond Community

Peace Forum February 2, 2012
By Valerie Hurwitz

Laura Arendt, third-year Bethany Seminary student, spoke Thursday, February at Peace Forum about Open Arms Ministry. OAM is a non-profit that we’ve talked about on the blog before. They provide emergency assistance for people in the Richmond area, both from their own funds and through coordinating funds local churches have for charity. I won’t repeat the detail that the earlier post contains, but please read it if you’re curious to learn more.

Laura’s talk was part logistical information and part theological reflection. She talked about the cycle of poverty, an institutional web making it unlikely that people in poverty will be able to change their educational and financial position significantly in life. In Wayne County, 40% of the school-age children live below the poverty line, #2 in the state. According to Laura, however, the primary need is not financial but personal. People coming into OAM and want someone to listen and validate the struggles they’ve been through. There is a feeling that the rest of the Richmond community, Earlham College, and local Christians have no idea what people in poverty are going through.

There is the tendency to make the poor fit into stereotypes: lazy, unmotivated, etc. Laura told two stories that exemplify the type of person she sees. One was a grandmother with 6 other people living in her household, including an infant and a toddler. She is the only one with any income coming in. The second was a man who came in with his 17-year-old son. They were homeless, but the man had several job interviews lined up. (If you want to get Laura up on her soapbox, ask her about Richmond not having a family homeless shelter.) OAM helped him find an apartment and pay the security deposit so that he would have an address to list on his job applications.

I have a little personal experience with this on my street in Richmond, which is mostly rentals. I am constantly picking up garbage. The gentlemen down the alleyway have a confederate flag in their garage. One of the neighbor’s cats recently started visiting my house, looking for food. I happened to see and speak to the cat’s owner for a few minutes and found out that she has not had enough money to have the cat spayed and vaccinated and worries about the cat’s health. She also spoke of having to sell or junk her car for lack of money for repairs, leaving her without transportation. My other neighbors moved out without telling the landlord and shooed their (indoors) cat out of the apartment to live on the street. (As you can tell, I am a cat magnet.) Stereotypes are often there for a reason even when they’re not entirely true; I could look at the confederate flag, at the abandoned animals, at the trash, at the broken-down car, etc., and stereotype. Certainly there is a basic assumption (some people on my street live in poverty and have some of the associated limitations in living their lives) that is correct, although not universal and certainly varying greatly.

It’s critical to keep an open mind and heart to the people around you. It’s also important for those of us living in Richmond to be mindful of the incredible work that can be done in our own community. Laura pointed out that it’s easy for the residential students to feel poor living off part-time work and graduate loans, but ultimately important to remember that our educational loans are a “down payment” on skills,
transformational experiences, and future employment. Cyclical poverty is quite different. So, what examples of poverty have you seen in your area (particularly the Richmond area, if you’ve lived here)? What do you think are some solutions to that poverty? What can you do personally?

Valerie Hurwitz is Director of Recruitment and Admissions at Earlham School of Religion. She lives in Richmond, Indiana and serves as choir director at West Richmond Friends Meeting.

Reflections on Cross-Cultural Understanding and Partnership

By Valerie Hurwitz

Last Tuesday at Common Meal, Stephanie Crumley-Effinger spoke about her sabbatical this fall semester. Among many other projects, Stephanie traveled to Kenya for three weeks and focused her common meal presentation on this. Stephanie started her trip in Nairobi and Kijabe. She visited with Aziz, the man from Southern Sudan whom we met at St. Paul’s University this past June. Stephanie brought him a number of bibles, bought with money raised from ESR, for churches in Southern Sudan. The continuing famine and violence in Somalia and central Sudan is a growing issue in Kenya and one we should keep in our thoughts and prayers. FTC students are doing ministry at Kakuma Refugee camp in northwestern Kenya, and there are many other ways that Kenyan Friends can have a direct impact.

The bulk of Stephanie’s time was spent at Friends Theological College. Having been there this summer, it was interesting to hear about the workings of FTC and how it is trying to increase its financial resources/independence. FTC recently received official accreditation (having previously had accreditation through St. Paul’s University) and is now subject to a rule that 50% of their income must come from within Kenya. FTC is traditionally supported heavily by FUM and Friends in the US, so this is a switch. They have, wisely, focused on investing donated funds into money-making projects. FTC has a canteen, a dairy, a bakery, gardens, a tailoring shop, and makes bio-sand water filters and fuel briquettes. Students work 7 hours a week in these projects to earn money to pay their school fees, and 5 hours a week on chores around the campus. (I found this difficult to imagine doing at ESR, but then I realized that our Cooper Scholars do 4 hours a week a volunteering, and many residential students work part-time. Maybe ESR should open up a coffee shop to employ students. Or a farm. Jay, any thoughts?)

FTC has certificate programs (2 years of study), diploma programs (3 years) and a Bachelor’s degree. Stephanie worked with the Year 3 Diploma students on the Incident-Reflection model she uses in Supervised Ministry at ESR. Diploma students do ministry at sites around the region, but do little critical reflection on what they’ve experienced. Ann Riggs, the principal of FTC, hopes to have more theological reflection incorporated into the ministry internships. Stephanie also mentioned that each class has a “class representative” who gathers papers for the class, turns them in, and reminds those who have not yet turned in an assignment. Stephanie seemed very pleased with the idea and joked that each class at ESR should have a representative.

A few other comical notes: Stephanie brought an ipad to FTC, which Friends there found fascinating. Stephanie told us proudly, “I finally did something that horrified my children” by riding on the back of a piki-piki (motorbike). This “mzungu on a piki-piki” apparently provided a great deal of entertainment for the Kenyans who saw her on the road. She also preached at two meetings. At one, Kivagali, FTC professor

Josephat Muchele translated her sermon into Swahili. Stephanie commented jokingly that sometimes Josephat seemed to speak much longer than she did, and the meeting laughed at certain points she hadn’t thought were funny in English. Having met Josephat, I am sure he was translating faithfully, but perhaps adding commentary, explaining things so they were clearer to a Kenyan audience, or adding jokes!

Stephanie hopes that connections between ESR and FTC can be strengthened and that more ESR students and alumni can spend time at FTC. As I mentioned when I wrote this summer, Friends at FTC are eager for visitors and hopeful for connections with the wider Quaker world. Stephanie identified many problems that Kenyan Quakerism and FTC are facing, including low pastor pay, (non-Quaker) TV preachers and the gospel of prosperity, corruption in the government, FTC’s physical plant, and rising food prices. American Friends don’t have all the answers, but I firmly believe that American Friends and African Friends need each other and can contribute a great deal to each other’s development.

Some questions for consideration:

• What are the best ways for American Friends to assist Kenyan Friends?

Books Stephanie brought for the FTC library

• What can Kenyan Friends teach Friends in the US?

• Kenya does not offer federal loans for education, as the US does. What would the US look like without these federal loan programs?

 Valerie Hurwitz is Director of Recruitment and Admissions at Earlham School of Religion. She lives in Richmond, Indiana and serves as choir director at West Richmond Friends Meeting.

Peace Forum and the Beginning of Second Semester

By Valerie Hurwitz

You may have noticed a quietness on the blog lately. First semester ended right after Thanksgiving and students and faculty were in and out for most of December and January. Second semester began this past Tuesday and life here is speeding up.

At Peace Forum on Thursday we had an Oxfam hunger banquet. Each person entering was randomly assigned to sit at a table, at a set of chairs in a circle, or on the floor. The distribution of people in the room, as you might guess, mirrors the distribution of wealth in this world. The people sitting at the table (15%) were served a full meal. The people in the chairs (35%) went to the back table to get rice and beans. Those on the floor (50%) were brought a huge pot of rice and given bowls.

A few comical notes: Pastoral Care professor Jim Higginbotham and I were seated at the table (upper income) with an Earlham student. It was quite lonely sitting at the table, and a little awkward. While the meal organizers were in the kitchen, we (rebels, apparently) snuck over to give our extra food to the people on the floor. As Peace Forum organizer Audrey said, “The problem with doing this in Brethren and Quaker circles is that people don’t know how to act rich.” We tried to offer our food to the middle income group, but they sarcastically told us they didn’t want our charity. Finally, as the low-income group was muttering about rebellion, the middle income group jokingly sent a few people and a pointy umbrella over to defend the last of the beans.

When the meal was over, organizers Audrey and Abbey shared a few observations:

• The low-income group served each other food, passing bowls around the circle.
• We (the high-income group) snuck our food over to the low-income group but then sat with the middle-income group (perhaps we felt more comfortable there?).
• We (the high-income group) ate before sharing the leftovers with others (that’s my observation).

The world produces enough food to feed every man, woman, and child. Starvation and malnutrition doesn’t need a complicated agricultural fix or new technology to raise crop yield. It is a simple matter of wasting less food and distributing it more fairly. (Take a look at this recent article about the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization research.)

This meal called to mind very strongly the meal ESR’s faculty had in Rwanda this summer, two hours off the main road from Gisenyi with a group of widows ESR alum Etienne was assisting. When mealtime came, we were invited up to a buffet of many different dishes. We each took a plate and food. Then, large platters of rice, beans, and cooked greens, were brought out for the women to share; perhaps 8-15 women per platter eating with their hands. It was difficult to sit there and be faced with the luxury we were afforded, even (or especially) in rural Rwanda.

Some questions for reflection:

1) Have you attended an OxFam Banquet? What were your observations?
2) How and where have you encounter poverty in the US?
3) How does a middle-class lifestyle in the US perpetuate an unequal distribution of food?
4) What actions might Americans take to lessen the uneven distribution?

Those of you who know me well know that I am obsessed with feeding people. I cooked in a co-op for four years and from scratch almost every single night. I cooked for a friend’s wedding in 2007 and for the Young Adult Friends Gathering in 2010. In 2008, my friend and I challenged each other to keep our food expenses for the month of January under $80. (I managed $72, and I had been out of the country for two weeks before that and so certainly wasn’t eating much from reserves . . . and yes, I did eat my veggies every day.)

Given that part of my personality, the last two questions above are very much on my mind. I eat primarily organic food as a political statement; I think the industrial food system and US food aid are morally bankrupt (that’s a much longer rant you can ask me about separately). Americans pay a smaller percentage of their income towards food than most other countries because of US subsidies, cheap labor, and because the food system can externalize its costs and push them onto governments or individuals. Organic certainly doesn’t answer all the issues. Additionally, many Americans are food-insecure now, with 1 in 7 on food stamps some people simply don’t have that option.

Where is God in all of this? I have been taking ESR’s online Intro to Old Testament and Literature and am noticing a lot of things in the first five books of the Bible that I hadn’t noticed before. God is quite clear about caring for the poor (e.g. Deuteronomy 24:19 “When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be left for the alien, the orphan, and the widow.”) Later in Isaiah, God makes it clear that worship alone is not sufficient and that we must “cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.” (1:16-17) The world we help create for those with less power and resources is directly relevant to how God sees us.

April Vanlonden, registrar for ESR and Bethany Seminary, gave a sermon in programmed worship Thursday, just before Peace Forum. She emphasized that spirituality could come from action, and that to become wrapped up in our inner reflection is to lose sight of the world around us. She encouraged ESR students and faculty to integrate an action-led spirituality into our lives. I pass her message along to you all as well.

Valerie Hurwitz is Director of Recruitment and Admissions at Earlham School of Religion. She lives in Richmond, Indiana and serves as choir director at West Richmond Friends Meeting.