Women of Means With Change on Their Minds

by Kelly C. Martini

I am married to a Philadelphia lawyer. We live in a suburban neighborhood where lawns are unnaturally green and weed free, children wear designer clothes, and most neighbors have at least one sports utility vehicle. We attend black-tie functions and dinner parties. We receive invitations to political fund raisers.

Because of my husband’s career choice, my family is among the wealthy in the United States.

For me, the result is conflict and ambivalence. I’m a young woman who was raised by a preacher and a teacher in the Appalachian Mountains of Western Pennsylvania, where children on my school bus lived in shacks amidst garbage dumps. I ask myself often how I can live in luxury while advocating on behalf of the poor. Many of the very industries that generate my wealth create unjust conditions.

Robert McAfee Brown’s Creative Dislocation: The Movement of Grace, written 20 years ago, still holds insights for those with wealth who struggle to be faithful. It says:

"‘Liberty and justice for all’ is the American dream at its best. When we turn the dream for all into a nightmare for many, it is an act of love and patriotism to note the distortion, loudly and even raucously if necessary, in order to tilt the balance from nightmare back toward dream, so that dream can become reality."

A colleague also provided insight when she described my situation as ministry waiting to happen. She said I have an opportunity to be in ministry in my neighborhood and with those I met through my husband’s work. For example, if I am served expensive chocolate-covered strawberries at a dinner party, I can find a moment to bring up the plight of the workers who picked the strawberries.

"Before you know it, you’ll have them organizing," she said.

Inserting justice issues into every conversation "loudly and raucously" could close me out of some invitations. So tact is in order. I have begun to understand that ministering with people where they are is part of mission, even if where they are is among the wealthy of the United States.

Talking with other members of United Methodist Women has provided even further insight.

"You have to work in the background to make systemic changes," said Bess Evans, mission coordinator for spiritual growth at Port St. Joe United Methodist Church in Fla. "Do it quietly, behind the scenes, and make them think it was their idea."

Ms. Evans used to be a flag-waving activist, she said. Then she realized she had to combine her activism with more subtle advocacy to reach some people.

"I would love to wave a flag and have people rally behind me, but very often the work of Christ has to be done gently and quietly, and in relationships," Ms. Evans said.

At Port St. Joe’s United Methodist Church, a majority of the families live on the coast in oceanview homes with two cars and a boat. They have moved into the town that was once a blue-collar community in economic depression. The children see their parents giving 100 percent to work but not to church, Ms. Evans said. She believes the way to create an awareness of how one person’s lifestyle affects others is to teach the children.

"I teach junior-high Sunday school," she said. "The kids come from wealthy homes so talking to them about poverty doesn’t compute. I let them know the world is much bigger than Port St. Joe’s."

Ms. Evans places world maps around the classroom. The students have moments of prayer and use The United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries’ Prayer Calendar to find people who are doing Christ’s mission outside their town. They have packed mission kits and studied the work of the Sager Brown Depot in Baldwin, La., from which the United Methodist Committee on Relief ships disaster relief supplies across the United State and around the world.

She has the youth use the Internet to find resources and information on people and projects that are making a difference in society. As the youth see vivid images online, the people and projects listed in The Prayer Calendar come to life.

"I’ve been overwhelmed by their response," Ms. Evans said. "These children make their parents aware of what is going on outside of our town and our situation."

Dee Araujo of , Texas, and United Methodist Women officer in Conference, has found another way to make systemic change working with parents of children in the Head Start program. She and a friend initiated a program that combined reading and quilting for mission.

"A partner and I began the Magic Reading Program with the theme ‘Wrap Up and Read,’" Ms. Araujo said. They asked United Methodist Women members and quilting clubs around the conference to make quilts. They took the quilts to training sessions for parents during which they worked with the parents on how to use rap and rhythm in reading and how to pick age-appropriate books. They gave parents quilts and encouraged them to wrap up in the quilts to read to their children 20 minutes each day.

Dorothy Baker of , Wash., is another example of a woman doing mission education among those with wealth. , which overlooks a lake and the mountains has grown from a small town to a suburb of Seattle as high-tech industries have moved in and more and more people have come seeking a small-town environment. These new residents, many of whom have joined Ms. Baker’s church – United Methodist Church -- have acquired wealth. They are better educated and drive bigger cars than longtime residents. Some even own airplanes, Ms. Baker said. Their arrival has brought tumultuous changes to the church, and in many cases, conflicting ideas of mission.

So Ms. Baker is applying her United Methodist Women experience and her love of mission to the situation. She is helping church members understand their role in mission and is finding ways to channel their interests into working for societal change.

As refugee coordinator for Conference, Ms. Baker has introduced church members to refugees and their plights. She is putting faces with the issues. As people within the congregation see the faces and remember the stories of real people, they are ready to respond when there is a need.

Ms. Baker had New World Outlook magazine sent to each member of the church’s United Methodist Women mission team to expose them to the mission of The United Methodist Church. She gleans mission information from the Women’s Division and the United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries websites to incorporate into meetings and discussions and to post on the church kiosk.

When new members wanted to start a women’s ministry, Ms. Baker served as their keynote speaker. She gave an overview of the history of women working for systemic change within The United Methodist Church and society, and she introduced them to a US-2 – a young-adult mission worker – assigned to Atlantic Street Center, a United Methodist Women-supported mission institution in Seattle. And she talked about the work of the Women’s Division.

A professional women’s circle was organized.

Being people with financial resources and people of faith will lead to struggle. Robert McAfee Brown writes:

"Our location is the journey itself. But we are always being dis-located, moving ourselves, or being moved (sometimes kicking and screaming) to somewhere else along the journey....Grace is the name of the movement that gives that worthwhileness."

As those with wealth listen to the calling of Christ and work for systemic change within their arenas, the journey is not always clear. Elizabeth Morgan addresses this in her book, Global Poverty and Personal Responsibility. She writes:

"Among the various forces which enslave the non-poor, perhaps none is as debilitating as their feeling of personal inefficacy. What we do not choose to confront, we cannot personally damn."

United Methodist Women has found a variety of ways to confront the systems that oppress. By working in coalition with other activists on issues that concern women, children and youth, United Methodist Women members network within their communities and among friends and neighbors to be advocates for systemic change.

Ms. Morgan outlines ways to advocate for justice on the part of our nation from writing letters to voting to joining boycotts to working in legislative campaigns. And she shows how living responsibly, amidst wealth, can change the world.

The American Friends Service Committee contrasts what it means to live poorly and to live responsibly, pointing to ways to be activists and advocates in daily life. For example, living poorly means living amongst garbage-filled streets and lives, while living responsibly means recycling projects that clean up neighborhoods and make money for the community. Living poorly means depending on expensive experts for home repairs, improvements and maintenance, but living responsibly means sharing and bartering skills and expertise with neighbors. Living poorly means purchasing inferior and non-nutritious foods, which many times cost more in poorer areas, while living responsibly means creating food cooperatives, purchasing from farmers markets and participating in community-garden projects.

Amidst wealth, we choose to live poorly or responsibly. We can live with wealth not seeing our poorer neighbors or we can join with them to work for economic justice. We can remain silent at black-tie dinner parties or we can reach out to those present asking them to work with us to use our financial resources to work for change. Our ambivalence and tension in having more than others can be our catalyst to be in mission with others.

Kelly C. Martini is executive secretary for communications for the Women’s Division.

• Response
• Responsively Yours
• United Methodist Women
• Women's Division