 Reader Response |
|||||
 |
|||||
January-February
2002 Issue As retired Brazil
missionaries, Mary and I have been in Trinity UMC, Atlanta for 19 years. We
have work among the homeless and other poor and some are members of the
congregation. Even so, Iíve never made much headway in getting New World
Outlook subscriptions. Weíve used stacks of the back issues as samples,
so most of our folks at least know what it is. Now, with this, the finest
issue I can recall, and devoted as it is to mission planning and so on, I want
to try putting a copy in each of 25 key households, handing them out
individually in Church Council and committee meetings. We are in a time of some
crucial decisions in the life of the church and I believe that this issue,
especially with its emphasis on electronic communication, will be seen as most
useful to a number of folks. I was wondering why you
donít have more emphasis on needs in the United States, especially of
the Native Americans in Oklahoma, Arizona, and South Dakota. I have been on
some of the reservations with no electricity or running water, where water is
trucked in. They live in shacks and have land too poor to grow anything. We in
this country have a lot of people who are living below the poverty line and
itís getting worse, especially for children. A suggestion for the church
and UMW mission work areas to share strengths: Make and share mission
statements, identify common aims, and plan at least one event a year that the
two groups can carry out together. I also feel strongly that
there should be an intentional church/UMW Sunday school connection for mission
education. Church and UMW mission teams might work together to bring a
missionary speaker to the church each year. Pay special attention to
opportunities for children to hear mission stories with a planned active
response. Encourage a yearly mission fair event for the whole church family.
Read stories to children about children in other places. Invite prayer for
missionaries in the church service and in Sunday school. Encourage the use of
the Prayer Calendars. I think there is no such
thing as “doing too much” of this kind of cooperative practice and
education for building and strengthening mission involvement. Perhaps we a re
way past the luxury of an “ours and theirs” mentality. In the Marc h ñApril
issue of New World Outlook on page 12 in regards to the article above in the
section “The Way of the Cross” is a statement, “Each person,
even an enemy, is a child of a living, loving God.” I disagree. I believe
each person is born a child of God, but because of bad choices, no longer can
enter His Kingdom. We can and should be missionaries as told to us in the Great
Commandment. However, we must as a nation defend ourselves against terrorists
who do not believe in God and try to punish us by the use of force. Thank you for publishing
the articles describing examples of restorative justice in the March-April
issue. Restorative justice holds the promise of bridging the chasm between the
secular goal of justice (as for example the second objective of the United
States Constitution, “Establish Justice”), and Jesusí goal
of reconciliation of humans with their Creator and with each other. I believe
that Jesus clearly saw the inadequacy of secular justice and the necessity of
forgiveness for achieving reconciliation in both relationships. The reason for
the inadequacy of justice is that humans weigh justice on diff e rent scales
based on personal experience and are in danger of causing harm in the pursuit
of justice. Humans tend to resurrect the idols of terror and war in the pursuit
of justice as described by David Wildman. Thank you for allowing
Farid Esack to explain his concepts of how two great faiths may coexist. You
are probably aware that he was interviewed by the editors of U. S. Catholic in
their January issue.
| |||||
