Educator, consultant, chaplain, tennis coach and human rights advocate Dr. Michael J. Adee offered up a lifetime of insight and stories during a webinar Monday exploring the work that’s been done by the church and remains to be done toward the full inclusion of the LGBTQIA+ community, especially transgender and non-binary people.
“The Protestant foreign missionary project expected to make the world look more like the United States. Instead, it made the United States look more like the world.”
It is with those provocative words that David A. Hollinger opens his latest work, “Protestants Abroad: How Missionaries Tried to Change the World but Changed America,” a very interesting book that provided me with new insights into a historical role of missionaries.
On Friday Tucson Borderlands Young Adult Volunteers joined with members of a partner organization, Tucson Mennonite Voluntary Service, to hold a streetside vigil demanding the removal of Title 42, the federal policy that has expelled more than 1.2 million asylum seekers since the beginning of the pandemic.
Presbyterians want abundance of life for all. We want to help those living in poverty. We like to get our hands dirty to make a difference. We run food programs and build houses on mission trips. We partner with other agencies working to address poverty and hunger in our communities and around the world. The Matthew 25 vision embraces all these ways — and many more — in which we use our time, talents and treasure to feed the hungry and walk alongside the vulnerable.
I looked at my Amazon orders last week to gauge the depth of my complicity with economic injustice: 90 orders since January 2020. Do I struggle with this? Yes. Has that struggle led me to disentangle myself from the economic system that allows me to have what I want when I want it, and the cheapest price? No. I do always choose Amazon day — meaning that I choose to wait longer and group my orders to minimize the impact my comfort has on the workers, drivers and the planet. Do I struggle with this? Yes. How about you?
In 2020, the price of bread doubled in Syria and the price of imported goods such as rice and sugar increased by 400%. The Jinishian Memorial Program provided coupons to 871 families to make food more affordable.
“If the Jinishian Memorial Program weren’t here with us, what would we do?” a desperate mother in Syria recently asked a JMP staff member.
Economic partnerships open the door for cooperation between Christians and Muslims through the House of Authentic Sense (HAS), Indonesia’s only fair-trade co-op. Like many countries, Indonesia needs development projects that are designed to empower society, especially women, minorities and disabled communities.
Dr. Michael J. Adee, a global advocate for human rights for LGBTQIA+, is the featured speaker during a storytelling webinar at 5 p.m. Eastern Time on Monday. The event is open to everyone, but registration is required. Register for the free event here.
Members of the Congo Mission Network (CMN), through relationships with Congolese partners, have witnessed the harm caused by corruption in the mining industry and were among those outraged by the reversal of U.S. sanctions on Dan Gertler, an international businessman with ties to former senior Congolese officials. Gertler has amassed hundreds of millions of dollars through opaque and corrupt mining and oil deals in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Even as she’s been working stateside during the pandemic, mission co-corker Cindy Corell continues to walk alongside her Haitian partners. As Monday’s Between Two Pulpits broadcast made clear, Corell’s heart is very much in Haiti, especially following Saturday’s kidnapping of 12 adults and five children connected with a U.S. missionary organization.
