Ideas for Action

The various ministries of the Christian Reformed Church in North America strive to care for our vulnerable neighbors well.  During this time of COVID-19 there are many ways in which we, as people of faith, can continue the work of loving our neighbors.  In fact, many of you are likely taking steps to physically distance yourself as a current expression of love!  

I’ve been reflecting on the power and necessity of lament. Too often we as congregations need to be ushered into the hopeful joy and hand-waving praise which is far more comfortable than holding space for the beauty in lament. In my journey through social justice and daily life, I have had to find comfort with this discomfort. Lamenting allows me to safely be in this space and know that God is still near. Lamenting also creates space to keep going even when change seems unreachable.  Psalm 61:1-3 illustrates this. 

Hear my cry, O God,

For the past four months, the Office of Social Justice has published a blog entitled, “The Chipping Away of U.S. Legal Immigration,” an exhaustive list of policy changes and events that happened each month regarding the U.S. immigration system. Though necessary to stay informed, reading these blogs often leaves me feeling tired and hopeless. My job is to equip churches and church members to advocate for just systems that will contribute to human flourishing.

Never again. These are words that I have heard echoed many, many times in my life in reference specifically to the Holocaust and the driving force behind the 1951 Refugee Convention and the 1967 Protocol. Never again will honorable countries and state entities turn away people who have a well-founded fear of persecution based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a social group.

In 2018 National Post columnist Kelly MacPharland wrote an opinion piece criticising Environment Minister Cathernie McKenna and what he called the Liberal party’s “faith in their moral infallibility”. Building on this during the 2019 election campaign, Andrew Scheer took issue with Justin Trudeau’s use of campaign jets and accused him of hypocrisy.

I visited a young and energetic African American church located in south suburban Chicago last year. The church was once a failing white Reformed church who decided to take a gamble to reach a growing middle class African American community. Most of the white former members had left for other churches. With a vibrant African American pastoral couple, the church has transformed into a mostly African American congregation eager to reach others. This kind of church is rare in my circle. Could this be the start of something new in my denomination? I want more churches like this. 

“Whose side are you on? Are you with them or are you with us?” 

This story contains mature content.  

Open Doors International, the organization which produces the annual World Watch List of 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian, assesses that there are 245 million Christians who experience high levels of persecution—one in nine Christians of our world today. That number is climbing in recent years. We often distinguish these brothers and sisters as members of the persecuted church while identifying ourselves as members of the free world church.

In April 2006, I was a teenager at home watching the CBC News as they reported from a land dispute in Caledonia, Ontario. On the screen, a reporter talked about escalating tensions between townspeople and the Indigenous protestors who had taken over a development site that lay between the town and the Six Nations of the Grand River reserve. Behind the reporter a tire fire blazed. I looked through our living room window and I could see the billowing black smoke over the houses and trees. It was surreal to me that my hometown was national news.