PEPFAR renewed

President Bush signed an extension of PEPFAR (President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) yesterday, tripling the amount committed to AIDS, Malaria, and Tuberculosis over the next three years. When Bush spoke about this in his State of the Union address during his first term in office, it was a historic moment for the fight against AIDS, being the largest ever monetary commitment by a US President to this cause. By expanding the amount committed and lowering the stipulations applied, Bush is, despite his many flaws in foreign policy, showing the possibility of what a truly compassionate, redemptive, and hopeful foreign policy could look like.

-Read the AP article here.
-Michael Gerson's op-ed piece on the topic in yesterday's Washington Post

Envision the Future: A Declaration for the Common Good

Envision...Part III of ???

Last week I had the opportunity to help out with Envision '08, a gathering diverse Christ followers (racially, geographically, educationally, theologically) for 3 days of dreaming about how to live out the call God has placed on our lives to be his justice-bearers in the world. Here's the document that was settled upon on our final day...

Envision the Future: A Declaration on the Common Good

I still have more thoughts from the time to process, but I'm the midst of a service trip in North Carolina, so it'll have to wait. I might have some time tomorrow...

interesting

you might want to watch this a couple times...

Flobots - No Handlebars

might makes right?

some other good quotes...

Part II of ?? of my thoughts & responses to Envision '08

"our response to temptation should be looking towards God's wooing of us rather than disciplining a resistance of our will alone" - Lisa Sharon Harper

"all temptations are temptations are a temptation to do something good. The greatest temptations are not the temptation toward "the bad" but the temptation toward the almost god" - Shane Claiborne

Shane talking about intentional community ... "everybody wants a revolution, but nobody wants to do the dishes..."

"We are the Good News. We shouldn't be chasing people down the street to force the into the good news. They should be chasing us down the street because we live in such a way that we are the good news." - Brenda Salter-McNeil

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i have a few other bigger ideas i want to blog about in response, but haven't had the time yet...but check back again & i will as soon as possible.

Envision 08

so for 4 days i'm at Princeton University hanging out with 400 some odd folks from an incredibly diverse Christian background that care deeply about social justice and our engagement in the public square. i'm getting to sit in on incredible teaching and conversations like john perkins, ron sider, brian mclaren, shane claiborne, brenda salter-mcneil, jim wallis, vincent bacote, richard cizik, randall balmer and many, many others. (i'm fairly sure you could make an incredible panel of folks who are just here and aren't even speaking).

part of the whole idea of Envision is to bring people together from the whole scope of faith (fundamental conservative evangelicals all the way to universalist unitarians...i've already met both). there's such a diversity of politics, gender, race, denomination, and approaches to envisioning what rich justice looks like in our world.

so...i have some really good friends here (and making new ones) that i'm getting to process all of this with, BUT i really wanted to get all of your thoughts as well. so i hope that you'll check in whenever you can over the next few days and participate and respond. i'm going to try and post ideas & quotes that i hear & leave it open for discussion...

that being said...here's some of my favorite quotes so far...feel free to respond to any or all...

the church should be about the earthing of heaven... (you can google that & find all sorts of interesting articles) - Richard Cizik quoting others

when we partner for God's purposes, we win no matter who we partner with...whether muslim, or homosexual, or a different vein of Christianity, or differing morality, etc. - Richard Cizik

"Jesus didn't go around pimpin' it out that he was the son of God..." - Shane Claiborne

"just as important as "making poverty history" is making poverty personal" - Shane Claiborne

"we (Christians) don't have to agree on everything but we should be known for disagreeing well and respectfully" - Shane Claiborne

teaching Intelligent Design according to a scientific understanding actually diminishes the faith... "I prefer to live in an enchanted universe where mystery reigns rather than denigrate God to the realm of science" - Randall Balmer

"I would suggest that those who care so much about the concept of Intelligent Design should care more about the creation of that Intelligent Designer." - Randall Balmer

evangelical justice

more most of the last few decades, mainstream evangelicalism has not been a public friend of justice. we've been for justice in the lives of the unborn, but haven't said or done nearly enough in most of the rest of the ares of life. this isn't to say there haven't been evangelicals who cared about these issues. they were just the rare minority. thankfully, it seems as if that is slowly changing...

Take a look at this article if you have the chance.

some good thoughts from a wise man

Wendell Berry writes all about justice, though he doesn't always refer to it as such. but caring for the earth, refusing to bow to corporate interest and consumerism, love of people...these are all acts of justice. so here's a manifesto regarding such things:

Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front
by Wendell Berry



Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.
And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.
When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.
So, friends, every day do something
that won't compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.
Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.
Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.

Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.
Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.
Listen to carrion – put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.
Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?
Go with your love to the fields.
Lie easy in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.
As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn't go. Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.