Monthly Archives: May 2017

I may be somewhat out of step with my fellow Reformed Christians in acknowledging a certain affinity for St. Benedict and the way of life he represents. In my youth I made the chance discovery, via the Lutherans, of the ancient Daily Office, associated with the early monasteries and prescribed in St. Benedicts Rule. I grew to love this pattern of daily prayer, and it managed to change my life, immersing me in the Psalms and the rest of Holy Scripture, as well as in the early Christian canticles and hymns. For monks in the Benedictine tradition, daily prayer structures the entire day and the whole of their life in community. I could not help but wonder what would happen if the majority of Christian laity outside the monasteries were to take up this practice. If enough people did so, it might just change the course of history.

When I read some time ago that Rod Dreher was writing a book called The Benedict Option, I looked forward to reading it, suspecting that his vision might closely approximate my own hopes for the church's future. I was not disappointed. Drehers book is a bracing read, reminding us that the life in Christ is a communal life and that it often requires us to live against the grain of the larger culture. However, his tract for the times is not without defects, which I shall get to shortly.

First the positives. An Orthodox Christian, Dreher emphasizes that believers often must stand against the assumptions of the prevailing culture. Given my paternal Orthodox roots, I am pleased to read this because I recognize the perils of Christians ascribing to their ethnic nationalisms near canonical status. Advancing Romiosini or Mother Russia can deflect so many from their primary allegiance to Gods kingdom. Of course, as an American convert to Orthodoxy, Dreher could hardly be expected to identify with Greek or Russian irredentisms. Indeed, he brings to his adopted faith a depth of commitment he had already developed in his former communions.

H. Richard Niebuhrs classic Christ and Culture (1951) may offer a key to grasping Drehers agenda. In Niebuhrs memorable typology, the Christ against culture position is generally associated with the anabaptists, Tolstoyans, and various sects that position themselves as communal alternatives to the larger society, based of course not on ethnic distinctives but on fidelity to the gospel. In my own tradition, I find that many of my fellow Reformed Christians too easily speak of engaging the culture without having a strong sense of why they are doing so or of its associated perils. But Dreher gets this. Any effort to transform culture (Niebuhrs fifth and seemingly favored category) may do nothing of the sort if the Christian community does not first recognize the ways in which it is distinct from the culture it aspires to change.

The author emphasizes in particular the distortions of the sexual revolution and its proponents efforts to score a final victory over dissidents, particularly those who persist in affirming a biblical and covenantal understanding of marriage and sexuality. Sad to say, many churches have permitted the revolution to redirect the faith away from the hard path of obedience to one that simply affirms everyone without seeking to transform their affections and their lives by Gods word. It seems easier for some clergy to declare the love of God without emphasizing the need for the disciplined life as a vessel of this love. Nevertheless, proclaiming a boundlessly permissive love is not the gospel. Jesus did not die to liberate us from norms for living but to save us from the power of sin so that we might live for his glory in his good creation empowered by the Holy Spirit. Those who charge Dreher with fear-mongering and focusing too much on sex should recall that sexual libertinism, once thought a dangerous vice, has now been elevated to the hallowed status of an indefeasible human right, with little consideration for the negative consequences of so doing.

Dreher perceptively recognizes that the great falsehood we are fed by our post-Christian culture is that we belong to ourselves and that ones individual desires [are] the locus of authority and self-definition. Here he comes close to the Heidelberg Catechisms foundational claim that we are indeed not our own but belong to the God who has saved us in Jesus Christ. Small wonder, then, that he finds the Benedictine monasteries so attractive. Here members willingly embrace order, obedience, asceticism, manual labour, geographic stability, and, above all, daily prayer. Where else could one find a community whose very foundational principles contradict our culture of hedonism and egoism?

Where indeed. Of course, the vast majority of Christians cannot embrace celibacy and enter an actual Benedictine monastery. Dreher thus spends much of the remainder of his book visiting Christian communities around the world that have in some fashion exemplified the Benedictine way. These are intentional, multi-generational communities that thrive on liturgical worship, educate their own children, and embody something of a parallel polisthat is, an alternative to the modern political community, living within and alongside it but not investing too much hope in it. They do not eschew politics entirely, but they recognize that [n]o administration in Washington, no matter how ostensibly pro-Christian, is capable of stopping cultural trends toward desacralization and fragmentation that have been building for centuries.

I was quite drawn in by Drehers personal accounts of these communities and his willingness to learn from their experiences. Because I have just completed thirty years of teaching at a Christian university in Canada, I was most interested in his exploration of educational initiatives undertaken by ordinary Christians against long odds. I enthusiastically agree with Drehers counsel here: For serious Christian parents, education cannot be simply a matter of building their childs transcript to boost her chance of making it into the Ivy League. And: The separation of learning from virtue creates a society that esteems people for their success in manipulating science, law, money, images, words, and so forth. Dreher is right to understand education as formation of the whole person and not simply as the key to a better job.

Despite my general sympathy with what Dreher seeks to do in this book, I am less enthusiastic about other facets of his argument. Chapter 2, on the Roots of the Crisis, surveys Western history and draws unwarranted conclusions concerning the relationship between metaphysical realism and the late medieval nominalism of William of Ockham. Dreher contrasts the realist belief that God declares something good because it is good to the nominalist conviction that something is good because God declares it to be good. For the nominalist, God's will is more important than Gods intellect. But what if the very contrast between Gods will and Gods intellect is a false one? What if God transcends this and other distinctions? For example, following Thomas Aquinas (Summa Theologica, I, q. 9, art. 1), the scholastic philosophers famously observed that God is actus purus, or pure actuality, other beings partaking only of potentiality. But the very distinction between act and potentiality is a created distinction, which God brought into being and thus transcends.

One wonders whether the fourth-century Cappadocian Fathers, with whom Dreher is in communion, might warn him away from this attempt to capture God within created categories. If so, he might have concluded that both realists and nominalists had missed something fundamental, namely, that God does not merely declare things good because they are good. Nor does he declare something good because he wants it to be good. Rather, God himself is the origin of all good things, which have no existence apart from him. Because Drehers account of the historical relationship between realism and nominalism is basic to his subsequent argument, it cannot be dismissed as a side issue. Moreover, it is one example of how his treatment of history dances along the surface of a number of eras, persons, and schools of thought without addressing them in sufficient depth to render them more than caricatures.

The chapter I found most frustrating was chapter 10, on Man and the Machine, in which Dreher treats technology. The challenges he addresses are, of course, genuine. When I find myself wondering nervously, in the drivers seat, whether those pedestrians standing on the corner absorbed in their smart phones will actually walk into the street while Im turning right, I know something is amiss. Not paying attention to their surroundings, they risk getting hit. At the same time, one cannot launch a broadside against technology in general without causing some unintended collateral damage. After all, we human beings are created to shape culture. The very first chapter of Genesis alludes to this in a passage Reformed Christians often call the Cultural Mandate (Genesis 1:26-28). Unique among Gods creatures, we do not simply adapt to our natural environment; we adapt that environment to our own needs and purposes. There has never been a time when we did not do this. One might well argue that this is precisely what makes us human. So how can human beings eschew or escape technology? Even as we rail against technology, we do so through technological means such as the printed page or the internet.

What, then, is the difference between the pencil and the iPad? Both are technological means of communication, distinguished only by their respective abilities to reach smaller or larger audiences over lesser or greater distances. Amish and Old Order Mennonites reject the technology of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, limiting themselves to horses and carriages and nonelectrical lighting in their homes. Yet in so doing they have not rejected technology as such, only the more recent technological advances. What principles do they employ to enable them to discern which means are permissible and which are not? Why animal power and not the electric motor? Readers might similarly wish to know why Dreher judges newer forms of technology to deprive us of agency but not the older forms with which he appears reasonably comfortable.

Yet it seems clear, at least in some passages, that he sees technology not in structural but in what might be called directional terms. In other words, technology refers, not to the machines themselves, but to a worldview tending to instrumentalize the physical environment surrounding us, including our fellow human beingsa technocratic mentality. Here Dreher is closer to the mark. If God gave our first parents a cultural mandate in the first chapter of Genesis, we are painfully aware that by the third chapter that they have messed up, claiming the power to become gods. By the fourth chapter we see men building cities, herding livestock, making music, and fashioning bronze and iron implements. The development of these technologies is inextricably linked with the sin that has already deformed human life in so many ways. By chapter 11, even after God has purged the world with a flood, we see righteous Noahs wayward descendants once again impressed with their own God-given ability to shape culture and seeking to replace him with the work of their own hands.

Like all idolaters, we have so deified our culture-forming abilities that we believe we can shape our world in ways subject only to our own desires, rather than to the norms God has built into his creation. The key distinction, then, is not between technology and nontechnological life (as if that were possible), but between obedient and disobedient culture-making. This distinction points to what is perhaps the major flaw in Drehers otherwise winsome effort: the lack of emphasis on creation as a normative order to which everyone, irrespective of faith, is subject. Catholics call this natural law. Following Abraham Kuyper, Reformed Christians refer to it as common grace. Still others appeal to common sense. Whatever one calls it, the reality that creation constitutes a shared theatre for our ordinary human activities serves at once to soften the divisions among different faith communities and to offer hope in the midst of what may seem like dark times. Dreher has been castigated, not always fairly, for encouraging a new alarmism and for stoking fear in the hearts of his fellow Christians. While such criticisms are undoubtedly overstated, a recognition that God is faithful to his creation, even in the midst of our unfaithfulness, might go some way in alleviating Drehers own apprehensions.

In its heyday, communism looked set to hang on for the long term, dominating a huge swath of the Eurasian continent and seeking to expand its tentacles elsewhere. One of my graduate school mentors even expressed the opinion that Marxist-Leninist rgimes could rule the globe for two centuries. Yet this is to overestimate the power of an ideological illusion to reshape the world in its own image. Why? Because, no matter how powerful a particular political vision may appear to both supporters and detractors, it cannot indefinitely contradict reality with impunity. People can only live within a lie, as Vclav Havel famously put it, for so long. Truth has a way of making its presence felt, even as some undertake to deny it. Russian communism endured for seven decades before reality finally caught up with it and sent it to the ash heap. In the former Eastern Europe, it lasted only four decades.

Modern liberalism in its various formsincluding those popularly labelled conservativehas had centuries to shape and misshape our societies. Most notably, liberalism has sought to reconfigure as many communities as possible, including the institutional church, as mere voluntary associations. As it seeks to apply this voluntarism to marriage and family, which are not mere social constructs but are firmly anchored in Gods creation, we may see liberalism at last reaching a breaking point. Reality has a way of reasserting itself, even as people seek to deny it. Dreher is not wrong to alert us to the destructive power individualism and unbridled desire exert on the social fabric, but he would do even better to recognize that, by Gods grace, new forms of order manage to emerge out of the apparent chaos of social fragmentation. It has happened repeatedly throughout history and it will likely happen again. Yes, intentional communities may hasten that day, as did the first Benedictines, but creation itself is on their side, pulling even nonbelievers and adherents of other faiths in the right direction over the long term.

In the short term, there is ample reason for hope. Anyone paying attention to the world outside North America will recognize that the Holy Spirit is moving mightily in key regions of the globe. We have recently read that by 2030 China is likely to become the largest Christian country in the world, despite the official atheism that has dominated for the last nearly seven decades. Moreover, in a country that has been ruled by an islamist government since 1979, hundreds of thousands of Iranians are turning to Christ, something outsiders could never have anticipated a short time ago. Brazil, the largest Catholic country in the world, boasts a huge evangelical community that has grown ninefold since 1970, during which time the countrys population has doubled. Seen from a global perspective, the church is steadily growing in ways that may be hidden from us in the West. I would love to hear Drehers thoughts on these developments.

Finally, I cannot resist commenting on Drehers use of the word option. Given that so much of our culture revolves around enabling individuals to choose, full stop, I would have used a different word: perhaps path or way. The book of Acts tells us that the first Christians referred to their own faith as The Way (9:2; 19:9; 22:4; 24:14, 22), indicating thereby that the faith is not merely a collection of dogmas but an active life of obedience to the God who has saved us through his Son. To live according to The Way is not merely one option among many; it is the path that leads to life. With Dreher, I believe that the future of Christs church lies, not with any one denomination or communion, but with Christians across denominational lines who simply undertake to live obediently in gratitude for their salvation. Whether we describe this way as Benedictine is not the most important thing, as Dreher would likely admit. But whatever we label it, it is something to which all Christians everywhere are called.

David Koyzis is Fellow in Politics at the St. George's Centre for Biblical and Public Theology, Burlington, Ontario, Canada. He is the author of the award-winning Political Visions and Illusions and We Answer to Another: Authority, Office, and the Image of God.

Become a fan ofFirst ThingsonFacebook,subscribe toFirst ThingsviaRSS, and followFirst ThingsonTwitter.

See more here:

Living Communally in God's Good Creation - First Things

May 16, 2017

By Costin Jordache, Director of Communication & News Editor, Adventist Review

A Milestone Moment

Close to 400 delegates from over 60 countries made their way to a historic city to participate in a historic event on May 10-14. Amidst ancient structures perched along Europes iconic Danube River, Seventh-day Adventist ministry leaders from around the globe gathered in Budapest, Hungary for the first-ever International Leadership Conference focused on issues impacting families, women and children.

The gathering was historic as three separate General Conference departmentsFamily, Womens and Childrens Ministriesjoined forces to address critical issues facing the three distinct, yet interconnected groups. The conference was themed, Reach the World, in line with the General Conference strategic plan motto and in an effort to emphasize the unmet needs within communities around the world.

This event is like a magnifying glass that focuses the energies of the church on where to bring the hope of Christ, his grace and soon return, said Doug Venn, General Conference coordinator for Mission to the Cities and Director of the Global Mission Urban Center. Venn coordinates the initiative to reach the fifty-one percent of the worlds population currently living in large cities. Throughout the event, Venns team displayed increasing amounts of postcards brought by delegates on a wall, surrounding a sign that read I Want This City.

Organizers emphasized this community-centered approach in a number of ways, including making intentional time for dialogue and conversation, allowing attendees to better understand how to reach families, women and children within their communities. "We will learn and grow together, said Trans-European Division (TED) president Raafat Kamal, whose regional world church territory hosted the milestone conference. People are hungry for a spiritual diet of substance and hope.

The unique moment was also marked with an introduction from the Hungarian Minister of State for Churches, Minorities and Civil Affairs, Mikls Soltsz. Soltsz emphasized the need for faith communities to address societal challenges by sharing Christian values. It looks like we live in a better age, said Soltsz. In many countries we have many opportunities. But there is a question. Do we recognize all the problems and fears that are all around us?

Tams csai, president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Hungary, recognized the significance of the Ministers address, stating that this means for us that the government would like to help all churches, including the Seventh-day Adventist Church, maintain Christian values, and we appreciative very much that he was willing to come and support our church.

Modern Family Profile

The first keynote of the of the multi-day conference was delivered by Dr. Ella Simmons, general vice president for the world Church. Simmons was clear and direct in her description of the modern family unit, an image characterized by significant dysfunction. She shared her deep interest in in how families live together after the divorce of her own parents at an early age.

Simmons focused most of her thoughts on the biblical story of Jacob and Esau, pointing out the significant dysfunction within that family unit. She concluded that most of the alienation within families occurs due to the lack of forgiveness present in broken relationships and she challenged Church leaders and members to take seriously the ministry of reconciliation entrusted to believers by Christ. Sometimes you cant just build the bridge, explained Simmons, you have to be the bridge to reconciliation.

Driving home the very reason the conference was organized, Simmons reminded attendees that if we want to reach the world we need to remember that the first victories must be won in the home life.

Numbers Speak Volumes

Another notable aspect to the conference was the presence of Dr. George Barna, well-known author, researcher and statistician, whose researched has informed the Christian community around the world for decades. Barna, who delivered two plenary session lectures, informed the crowd that even though his ancestry is Hungarian it was his first time in the Eastern European country.

Barna spared no time unleashing a slew of new US-based statistics, gathered by his current firm, American Culture & Faith Institute. He encouraged those from other countries to understand the principles behind the numbers pointing to trends around the world. He spent most of his time unpacking the concept of worldviewa set of filters by which we perceive the world around usand the impact that society is having on younger generations.

His 2017 survey revealed that while 58-70% of parents see value in their children being exposed to extended family gatherings, church services, art exhibits and the Bible, children on average spend only two hours per week on these activities. In contrast, 33-43% of parents do not see value in their children being exposed to professional sports, television news, online content and current movies, yet children on average spend seven hours per day on these and related activities.

Barna then announced that statistically a very small amount of younger people have what he called a biblical worldviewonly 4% of 18-30 year-olds and 7% of 30-49 year-olds. We are in a crisis, Barna said. If the Church does not wake up and solve it, biblical Christianity in the United States is in jeopardy.

The researcher then turned his attention squarely to parents, offering a statistical call to parental responsibility. He pointed out that while children form their worldview by the age of 13, only 5% of parents with 5-13 year-old children in the US have a biblical worldview. Our children usually make their spiritual choices by default, acquiescing to cultural norms, he concluded.

We want to inspire leaders to see how we can encourage and empower children, women and families to reach out to the world.

Barna ended on a positive note, emphasizing that though not easy, worldviews can be changed through proper asking of questions and meaningful dialogue with children and teens, in an effort to dislodge what culture has placed in their minds.

Barna sees tremendous value in the Seventh-day Adventist Church organizing a global summit to address family-related issues. The world is changing so rapidly and so radically, that traditional approaches and strategies are not enough, Barna told Adventist Review. The Church needs to understand the latest research available, and the meaning behind the data if we are to effectively grow disciples.

Organizers, emphasizing the conferences Reach the World motto, resonated with Barnas conclusion. Parents must be intentional about making sure sound biblical values are passed on to their children on a daily basis through family worship, and by modeling Godly living, said Willie Oliver, director of Family Ministries for the world church and one of several organizers.

You can't get more missional than this. Because, when we have strong families, we will have a strong church, that can share the gospel with power and joy, and help hasten the coming of Jesus Christ.

Attendees also reacted positively to Barnas research. Dr. Barna has done practical research and practical issues, said Samson Nganga a member who traveled from South Africa for the conference. So as a church, we cant remain nave about the things happening around us. Sometimes we preach from the mountaintop and were totally disengaged with the people in the flock. We need good research to give us insights into leadership.

A Generation at Risk

Closely related to Barnas research was content presented by Dr. Kiti Freier Randalla pediatric neurodevelopmental psychologist from Loma Linda University Health. Randall, who works extensively with at-risk childrenemphasized from the beginning the role of the home in childhood development. Although other supportive institutions in society play a role, it is in the family that nurture if effective and meaningful.

Randall contrasted the idyllic statement with the reality that children around the world are at risk from a great number of factors. Lack of access to education, especially for girls, is a significant risk, leading to other risk factor such as poverty, drug use and an increased rate of teen pregnancy and gang violence. Childhood obesity is another risk factor, leading to serious lifelong consequences.

At the same time, malnutrition and starvation continue to present a risk to children around the world, in addition to abuse of various kinds. Randall explained in detail the effects of trauma and abuse, including showing a brain scan that showed a visible difference in the brain of an abuse victim. Trauma, abuse and neglect actually change the architecture of the brain, said Randall, who also informed participants that if a child is born healthy and they die before one year-old, the number one reason they will die is because their parents will kill them.

Randall also spoke to a controversial subject, the risk factor involving technology addiction. Too much, or misused technology can impact a childs physical and mental health, she explained, leading to negative impacts such as sleep disturbances, depression and anxiety. To spontaneous applause from attendees, the pediatric psychologist challenged parents not to expose children under two years of age to technology. It is wrong when technology is raising our children, she said.

In her second presentation, Randall offered a bright spot to the daunting realities she began with. Science is focusing increasingly on the idea of resilience, the capacity to maintain or develop competent functioning in the face of major life stressors. Factors such as social support, connectedness, meaningful activity and exercise all lead to increased resiliency.

When asked by the Adventist Review how these insights impact the Adventist Church, Randall said that from her work of 30 years with the highest at-risk children in the world, she realized that what they need, our church has to offer. Our church has all the elements that we need to change trajectory to a positive one. We have the ability to provide meaningfulness and hope in life. We have the ability to provide nurturance and relationship with healthy adults, and access to health activities. If you look at the scientific literature of what we need for resiliency in our children, concluded Randall, those can all be answered as a mission of our church and I believe were called to do that; to give of our ourselves in a positive healthy relationship to spend time with young people and make a difference in their life.

Mental health professionals in the audience agreed. I completely agree with what Dr. Randall said, shared Dr. Gabor Mihalec, a practicing family therapist and the director of Family Ministries for the host Hungarian Union Conference. There has to be somebody who breaks this chain right here and right now. And I think that we as a church; we as pastors, as members; as family life educators have a very special gift and a very special opportunity to have insights into the lives of families where the things are happening.

Once again feedback was positive, even as delegates grappled with the realities presented. Without knowing the risk that our children are going through, we dont have the church of tomorrow, said Zodwa Kunene, Children and Womens Ministries director in the Southern Africa Union Conference. I believe that its up to us as leaders, its up to us as parents to impact our churches; we can win back our communities.

Continued Dialogue About LGBT

Each of the three departments hosted seminars throughout the afternoon focusing on elements specific to their area of ministry. Among other topics, Family Ministries directors Willie and Elaine Oliver facilitated a dialogue surrounding LGBT issues and questions. Dr. Ekkehardt Mueller, associate director of the Biblical Research Institute (BRI), gave an overview of the subject, highlighting research done by BRI in gathering biblical insights into the matter.

Mueller spent significant time in Romans 1, a biblical reference where homosexuality is specifically mentioned. He made it clear that the Seventh-day Adventist Church does not condone the sin of homosexual activity. However, he reminded attendees that we distinguish between homosexual orientation and homosexual activity.

As Adventists we respect all people, whether heterosexuals or homosexuals, Mueller presented. We acknowledge that all human beings are creatures of the heavenly Father and are extremely valuable in Gods sight. Therefore we are opposed to hating, scorning, or abusing homosexuals.

Mueller also reminded delegates of the broader reality of sin, even within Romans 1. Sin is serious business whether sexual sin or other sin, whether heterosexual sin or homosexual sin, he explained. Romans 1 begins a longer discussion on the state of all human beings. A painful diagnosis is provided. We are all sold under sin and have to expect death. But this diagnosis is given in order for us to long for and appreciate the power of the gospel of salvation which is available to everyone who believes (Romans 1:16)

A second presentation was delivered by Virna Santos, a representative of By Beholding His Love, a ministry focused on equipping individuals, families, churches, and schools with biblical-based training, while teaching the methods of Jesus to understand issues related to sexual identity struggles and facilitating healthy, genuine and intentional connection between Church and LGBTQix communities.

Santos, who shared her own journey as a formerly practicing member of the LGBT community, offered insights into the struggle parents of LGBT children initially go through and the significant struggles that young LGBT individuals go through along their journey. Theyre tormented by fear and rejection from the people they love the most, their parents, Santos said. Santos also offered insights into how parents can interact with children who are open about their struggle with sexual identity.

With parenting in general, its amazing what you can learn if you just listen, explained Elaine Oliver, associate director of Family Ministries for the world church. Sometimes we become impatient, forgetting that God is never impatient with us. The same principle applies to the way we should interact with children wrestling with sexual identity questions.

We need to be careful not to cherry-pick when it comes to sins, concluded Willie Oliver at the close of the panel discussion. We need to be like Jesus. We have to genuinely love others. Youre not going to reach anyone for Jesus, unless you genuinely love them.

Woman to Woman

Meanwhile, the Womens Ministries Department hosted seminars centered on women interacting meaningfully and purposefully with women of other faiths. Department director Heather-Dawn Small and associate director Raquel Queiroz de Costa Arrias, invited guest speakers to both teach and inspire women how to reach out into various communities of women.

Weve got to help our women look beyond themselves and the ones they know to the ones they dont know, said Small, to the ones who dont look like them; the ones who dont speak their language and whose culture is different. That was the main focus of our training here.

For some, this track was the most impacting. I am from Mongolia and we, too, have women of other faiths among us, said Oyuntuya Batsukh, Director of Womens Ministries for the Mongolian Mission. Unfortunately, many times, we are afraid and stand far off. Its critical that we learn how to reach women in all communities, creating meaningful relationship with them.

An Unexpected Need

Across the hall, the Childrens Ministries department, led by Linda Koh, director and Saustin Mfune, associate director, was exploring a topicamong otherswith an unexpected twist. Seminars focused on impacting and ministering to children from affluent homes.

Presenters shared several of the leading causes contributing to the possibility of emotional troubles within affluent environments, including excess pressure to excel exerted by parents attempting to stay ahead of the success curve. Another risk factor includes increased isolation typically experienced by children as parents become more affluent and, in general, busier and less connected as a result. Various principles and ideas were shared for effective ways to minister to children in these circumstances.

A New Level of Missional Synergy

While the topics covered and the dialogue facilitated were both practical and critical for mission, it was the unprecedented collaboration of three world church departments that stood out most.

This has been a tremendous collaboration between these three departments, shared Geoffrey Mbwana, general vice president of the General Conference with Adventist Review. In as much as they are dealing with common issues, addressing people that make up families, this has been a very profitable experience where they have brought the experiences of the three departments to a common front. I think this has been a big savings of money, but also weve had an opportunity now to see how we can cross bridges of departments to be effective and impact the community and the church as a whole.

The visible synergy created by the departmental triad inspired leaders from around the world. This is, as far as I know a first, said Audrey Andersson, executive secretary of the Trans European Division, and just the collaboration, to see how these areas intertwine with each other and how each feeds into and can support the other, that has been a real blessing. Musa Mitekaro, Family Ministries director from the East-Central Africa Division agreed. I was impressed by three departments coming together for mission.

Measuring success is many times a moving target, yet organizers of the global conference expressed confidence in the events positive outcome. Wille Oliver summarized this by drawing, in part, from a panel discussion on the last day of the gathering featuring several departmental leaders from various countries. Many shared new convictions established during the conference by listening to compelling truths that were not clear to them before, said Oliver. Especially the fact that areas they once believed had nothing to do with their respective ministries, were obviously also their concern.

Im a convert, shared Carla Baker, Womens Ministries director for the North American Division, at the close of the conference. I do believe that Womens Ministries can do a lot to reach the mothers. I will be doing something about that.

Oliver also pointed to requests for future events as an indicator of success. This level of new synergy, as well as requests by many conference participants to repeat this kind of event in the near future, are indicators of a level of success we expected as an outcome of this shared effort by Children's, Women's, and Family Ministries.

We want to inspire leaders to see how we can encourage and empower children, women and families to reach out to the world, concluded Koh. This is what he hope to accomplish.

More:

Global Conference Focuses on Issues Impacting Families, Women and Children - Adventist Review

Carl Hart, Ph.D., is the first black tenured professor and the first black chair in the sciences at Columbia University. (Courtesy of Carl Hart)

Carl Hart, Ph. D., one of the worlds leading neuroscientists and chair of the psychology department at Columbia University, was forced to cut a trip to the Philippines short last week due to death threats sparked, in part, by propaganda disguised as media.

Hart, the author of High Price: A Neuroscientists Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society, was in the Philippines participating in a forum on the drug war at the University of the Philippines.

The acclaimed scientist shared some of his findings debunking hysterical claims that drug use is inherently pathological and causes users to become violent and otherwise incapable of functioning in their daily lives. Hart also did not shy away from fiercely criticizing Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, known for spearheading a deadly war on drugs in his country.

In response, Duterte became furious when reporters asked him about Harts statements.

In addition to calling Hart a fool, Duterte said that his research is nothing more than American bullshit.

[Hart] said shabu does not damage the brain. Thats why that son of a bitch who has gone crazy came here to make announcements, Duterte told Philstar.com.

Shabu is a slang term used in Hong Kong, Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia to describe methamphetamine.

Agnes Callamard, the Director of Global Freedom of Expression at Columbia University and a United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions, is also an opponent of Dutertes drug war and shared one of Harts tweets.

This caused Duterte to slam her for being in collusion with that Black guy.

She should go [on] a honeymoon with that black guy, the American. I will pay for their travel, Duterte told reporters at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. They should be together and discuss.

In addition to his decadeslong research on drug addiction, Hart has openly discussed his experimentation with methamphetamine. He has also been unrelenting in cutting through stigmatizing rhetoric that has, in large part, fueled the war on drugs. He never wavers in pointing out the similarities between ADHD drug Adderall and meth, as well as presenting evidence that cocaine and tobacco have similar results on the fetus.

Two of the above substances are legal: Adderall, which is beloved by Big Pharma, and tobacco, which has been legally pushed in black and brown communities (PDF) for decades while discriminatory drug policiesspecifically around crack and marijuanahave been used to terrorize and occupy those same communities.

Hart fearlessly pushes back against respectability politics and shame in black communities, demanding a shift in dialogue that includes: human beings having autonomy over what they put into own their bodies; following the data on what is dangerous to consume and in what quantities; realizing that all drug use is not problematic; zeroing in on the drug war as an intentional and institutional war on the most vulnerable, oppressed, and marginalized communities both domestic and abroad; and calling out state violence, specifically hyper-militarized policing as more dangerous than drugs for black people.

The most important conversation that I have with [my sons], in terms of drugs, is they are more likely to be arrested for drugs than their white friends, Hart said in conversation with asha bandele, senior director of Drug Policy Alliance during an FB Live chat on The Root.

The most potential negative impact or consequence is the police, not the drugs themselves, Hart continued.

During Drug Policy Alliances 2016 partner gathering at Columbia University, Hart also urged attendees not to be distracted by the simplistic, media-driven narrative of a gentler war on drugs.

They may be gentler on the [white] user, but black people are disproportionately arrested for the selling of opiates, Hart said.

In the U.S., its comfortable to arrest black and brown bodies, he continued. Always pay attention to whos getting arrested.

If there is one thing that Hart always does is make it plain; being in the Philippines, of course, didnt change that.

According to Reuters, Duterte signed an executive order in February authorizing the creation of the Inter-agency Committee on Anti-illegal Drugs (ICAD).

ICAD is comprised of at least 21 state agencies, from police, military and coastguard to health, education and social welfare. Though the government claims the purpose of the multi-pronged agency is to rehabilitate users and suppress dealers large and small, it has disproportionately targeted impoverished communities.

More than 8,000 people have been killed since the drugs crackdown started eight months ago [in 2006], 2,555 of them in what police say were shootouts during raids. [ICAD] says that 48,000 drugs suspects were arrested, Reuters reports. Dutertes has reportedly threatened to kill more.

Sound familiar?

Be clear: From the U.S., to Mexico, to Honduras, to Ghana, to Thailand, to the Philippines, the war on drugs is global.

In a Democracy Now interview, Hart talked about the death threats he received for unpacking the misleading rhetoric around shabu and for speaking out against Dutertes drug war in the Philippines.

From Democracy Now:

When I was in the Philippines, the thing that I discovered is that its a lot worse than I originally thought it was. Duterte operates in intimidation. And so, not only is he the problem, but there are other political officials who are afraid to speak out. They are the problem. And Duterte has taken a page out of the 1980s U.S. drug war, in that hes using drugs to separate people, the issue of drugs to separate the poor people from the people who have means. And he is allowing or providing the environment so people could kill, as you pointed out, kill people who are engaged in drug use and in drug trafficking. And people are afraid to speak out against this wrong, because Duterte has no qualms about having peoples lives be threatened. In fact, I discovered that people are being killed for as little as $100. It ranges from about $100 to $500 to have someone killed. And so, actually, I left the Philippines early because my life was threatened, because of me speaking out against what Duterte was saying about drugs and what hes doing. And so, we have it bad in the United States, but the Philippines, I have never seen anything like the Philippines.

See the entire interview below:

Truth-tellers such as Dr. Hart continue to put their lives on the line to end this inhumane war that has cost so many so much. History tells us that threats again black leaders deemed dangerous by those in power are rarely idle.

We should all be thankful for Dr. Harts life and his continued revolutionary work.

See original here:

Philippines President Attacks Neuroscientist Carl Hart for Speaking Against Drug War: 'That Black Guy'...'Son of a ... - The Root