Member Care and Human Rights--11

Civil Rights--Lessons for Member Care

We recently saw the 1996 American film, Ghosts of Mississippi.
It is about civil rights—which are based on human rights—and justice.

The movie is about a famous court case in the USA involving a prominent black civil rights leader who was assassinated in 1963 (Medgar Evers). The main suspect of this hate-crime was a man known to be a real advocate of white supremacy. He was not convicted since the jury could not come to a conclusion. In fact, there were two trials, but the same conclusion: a “hung” jury and no conviction.

Some 30 years later (1993) the case was reopened (after much opposition) and retried. This time the man was found guilty, and brought to justice.

This story is an outstanding and sobering account of what it takes to see human rights upheld and to see justice done. Whether it involves supporting the welfare of mission/aid staff or publically advocating on behalf of oppressed people groups, justice can in fact be achieved. But it is not easy. Idealism and good will are almost never enough. Some lessons that come out clearly from this movie:

**1. “Ghosts of injustice” will haunt you unless you confrontthem. They will likely huant you even more if you confront them--until justice is done.
**2. Justice does not happen usually unless one actively pursues it.
**3. There are intentional hindrances to uncovering and disseminating “facts”: cover-ups, lost information/evidence, harassment.
**4. It takes time, patience, and professionalism, not to mention key support, for justice to be done.
**5. People are often unwilling to help: to inconvenience themselves, to threaten their livelihood, to be ostracised by others and above all to “change one’s way of life”. This is true of individuals, organisations, communities, and countries.
**6. There are some people however who cannot simply look the other way and ignore gross injustice. These people are resolutely committed to pursue truth and justice, and will not take “no” for an answer. They are willing to face extreme negative consequences, including defamation and sometimes even death, in order to act with integrity and help others.
**7. Perpetrators of injustice and their accomplices often fall into their own traps.
**8. Eventually, society and organisational ethos can change but it usually takes a lot of hard work, over time, crises, confrontation, regime changes, and new leaders to see it come about.
**9. Don’t give up. Note that today, the state of Mississippi in the USA has more elected officials who are black than any other American state.
**10. etc.!

Reflection and Discussion
1. Watch a 12 minute interview from 1996 with the widow of Medgar Evars and the Assistant District Attorney that successfully reopened/prosecuted this case. One interesting addition to the movie based on this interview is the ongoing, pervasive prayer that accompanied the pursuit of justice (watch minutes 22 through 34)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOOpsbFzqc0

2. Listen also to the special report from 2003 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Medgar’s assassination. It is done by on National Public Radio’s “All Thing’s Considered.”
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1294360

Member Care and Human Rights--10

Who was Christ referring to as “the least of My brothers” in Matthew 25? The answer to this question has profound implications for mission, member care, and human rights.

Humanitarianism with a Point
John L. Amstutz
Excerpts, from Doing Member Care Well, chapter 4

“Inasmuch as you have done it to one of these the least of My brothers, you have done it to Me” (Matthew 25:40). Few verses are used more frequently than this verse by Christian humanitarian organizations…But is unconditional humanitarianism the point of the parable of the sheep and goats in Matthew 25?...

Simply stated, the parable of the sheep and goats pinpoints the basis of judgment of the nations. Jesus, when He comes in His glory as the Son of Man, will separate the nations (ethne) of the earth into two groups, sheep and goats. The basis of this division will be their response to “the least of these my brethren.”…

A survey of commentators indicates that the majority hold “the least of these My brethren” to be oppressed and suffering humanity…But again, we ask, is such unconditional humanitarianism the point of the parable?...Who are Jesus’ brothers? Those who are hearers and doers of His word, namely, those who are His disciples who “continue in His word” (John 8:31). Such close identity of Jesus with His disciples is clearly taught in Matthew 10:40-42. "He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives the one who sent me..." Therefore, one’s response to Jesus’ disciples is one’s response to Jesus Himself and to the Father who sent Him. Is not this reality the basis of Jesus’ question to Saul on the Damascus road, “Why do you persecute Me?” (Acts 9:1-5)?. Had not Saul’s persecution of believers in Jerusalem, in fact, been a persecution of Jesus Himself? It seems so.

If this is a proper interpretation of the word “brethren,” then the point of the parable of the sheep and goats is even more pointed...Apparently the universal proclamation of the gospel of the kingdom will be accompanied by a universal positive and negative response to that proclamation in that some will show kindness to persecuted believers/disciples while others will not...Such response to Christ’s messengers indicated their response to their message and to the One who had sent them, Jesus Himself.

The implications of such an understanding of this parable are significant. First, the parable assumes the universal preaching of the gospel is not optional in the plan of God. “Missions” is not an appendage on the Church’s agenda. It is essential. A worldwide witness is the foundation for the judgment of the nations.

Second, accompanying this universal witness to Jesus Christ will be persecution. Indeed, “all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (II Timothy 3:12). Opposition for one’s faith in Christ is not just for believers in the Middle East and Asia. Christ’s disciples will be “hated by all nations” because they are in all nations.

Third, the place of hospitality and kindness toward followers of Jesus Christ is no small matter, particularly toward those who are being persecuted for their faith in Him. “Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering” (Hebrews 12:3). “By this shall all men know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another” (John 14:35). In the words of the Apostle Paul, “Let us do good to all men, especially to those of the household of faith” (Galatians 6:10).

Summary Thoughts

Is it not time we free this pointed parable of the sheep and the goats to speak clearly and fully of the crucial place of the universal preaching of the gospel to every nation (ethne) and the opposition and persecution that will attend such preaching? And is it not time we free this pointed parable to speak clearly and fully of the essential need of intentional humanitarianism—member care—toward those who have chosen to suffer loss for their witness to Christ in these nations?

Humanitarianism with a point is the point, and the point is “for, inasmuch as you have done it to one of the least of these My brothers, you have done it to Me”! And never has a proper understanding of this pointed parable been more important than it is as we enter the new millennium in which the Church increasingly focuses on the final frontiers, many of which are in risky and resistant areas.

Reflection and Discussion
**Do agree with the author’s understanding of the identity of the “least of these My brethren”? Why or why not?
**What are some of the implications of the author’s understanding of the parable of the sheep and goats, for mission and for member care?
**What has been your response to persecuted followers of Christ?

Member Care and Human Rights--9

Human Rights and Religious Liberty

Proverbs 1:3 and Proverbs 24:11,12

We were really awed by the courage and commitment of several people whom we recently met in Central Asia. These were people whose religous liberties--protected supposedly by both their national constitutions and international laws--had been seriously violated. We listened carefully to each others' stories both formally through debriefing and informally through group discussions. We explored Christian Scripture in light of human rights issues and international law--especially the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Two foundational verses for the discussions were from the book of Proverbs.

*

The purpose of the book of Proverbs:

1:3--To receive instruction in wise behaviour, righteousness, justice, and equity
*
The responsibility to help vulnerable people:
24:11--Deliver those who are being taken away to death, and those who are staggering to death, O hold them back.
24:12--If you say, "See, we did not know this," Does He not consider it who weighs the hearts? And does He not know it who keeps your soul? And will He not render to man according to his work?
*
Russian:
1: 3--усвоить правила благоразумия, правосудия, суда и правоты;
24: 11--Спасай взятых на смерть, и неужели откажешься от обреченных на убиение?
24:12--Скажешь ли: `вот, мы не знали этого'? А Испытующий сердца разве не знает? Наблюдающий над душею твоею знает это, и воздаст человеку по делам его.

*****

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (United Nations, 1948) is a crucial guide for our lives and work. It is a foundational document for international laws/agreements for human rights. It unequivocally recognises the dignity and equal rights of all humans and the devastating consequences to people and societies when human rights are abused. We especially noted Articles 18,19, 20. See: www.unhchr.ch/udhr and www.ohchr.org

18. Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

19. Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

20. (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
(2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association.
*

Статья 18
Каждый человек имеет право на свободу мысли, совести и религии; это право включает свободу менять свою религию или убеждения и свободу исповедовать свою религию или убеждения как единолично, так и сообща с другими, публичным или частным порядком в учении, богослужении и выполнении религиозных и ритуальных обрядов.

Статья 19
Каждый человек имеет право на свободу убеждений и на свободное выражение их; это право включает свободу беспрепятственно придерживаться своих убеждений и свободу искать, получать и распространять информацию и идеи любыми средствами и независимо от государственных границ.

Статья 20
1. Каждый человек имеет право на свободу мирных собраний и ассоциаций.
2. Никто не может быть принуждаем вступать в какую-либо ассоциацию.

Reflection and Disucssion
Read the UDHR document two times in the next week.
Focus especially on the Preamble and Articles 18-20.
What are some ofthe key values, rights, and terms that you find?

Member Care and Human Rights--8

Helping others can be costly--and scary and "inconvenient".

**There are consequences for defending human rights--including our own and those of others.

**There are consequences for providing member care to workers whose human rights have been violated through harrassment, discrimination, forced exile, and imprisonment.

**There are also consequences for not defending human rights and for not helping others whose rights are violated.

Recently a team of four psychologists was providing member care services to workers in an Asian country. These workers were a mixture of locals and internationals. Their perseverence and love for people were remarkable.

*

We were part of this team of psychologists. In addition to teaching on parenting skills, marriage, stress managemnet, and grief/loss, there was also teaching on surviving hardship and understanding human rights. Most of the workers had limited knowledge of national and international laws that pertained to their rights. For many it seemed that generations of "learned helplessness" had left them with little sense that soomething could be done to change human rights abuses. Many of these rights and laws were said to be interpreted in terms of the "national interests" or at least in terms of the interests of the people with the most power.

*
We listened a lot. And then we taught some. Here is a summary (part one of three) oriented for those in the faith-based community (Christian).

*****

Difficult experiences are every where, at every time, for every one. No one escapes. These expereinces include both: external stressors like persecution, harassment, and relationship conflict; and internal struggles like depression, fear, and frustration.
*
Philippians 1:1,2 and Ephesians 3:1
We are prisoners and bond-servants of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the gentiles.
We are not prisoners of governments nor of our circumstances.

Message to church in Smyrna--Revelation 2:8-11
You may go to prison but do not be afraid. Be faithful. Member care helps us to be faithful in all aspects of life--to do what we know is right—serving God and others. He will reward us.
*
Exercise: Hide a holy book for one week and what will happen to you? You will likely appreciate it more, and memorise it more! What three verses would help sustain you if you were in prison and did not have access to a holy book?

Reflection and Discussion

***What three verses (or principles) sustain you the most in your own life?

***Comment on this assertion: Ultimately followers of Christ are "prisoners" of Jesus Christ, not of anything else.

Member Care and Human Rights--7

Guidelines to Help with Advocacy

*****

There are many types of situations where persecution or discrimination occurs: imprisonment, sectarian violence, harassment, extra-judicial execution, psychiatric detention, and laws restricting religious freedom. Here are seven guidelines about how you can prepare for and respond to human rights-related crises on the mission/aid field. This material is from Wilfred Wong’s article in Doing Member Care Well (2002): "Human Rights Advocacy in Missions". To access the entire article, just contact us at: MCAresources@gmail.com
*
Overview of the Seven Guidelines
***Pray for God's guidance. If possible, get others to pray and fast about the situation and for you while you take action.

***Identify possible sources of information. Verify the information by getting independent corroboration of the facts. When a problem is starting to arise, one should start to gather the relevant facts in case advocacy needs to be used and for the purposes of informing others so they can pray.

***Discuss the issue of authorization for advocacy or whatever course of action needs to be taken, with the appropriate person. The best people to give authorization are first the person/victim, then the closest immediate family of the person, and then the leader of the church/fellowship group to which the person belongs.

***Communicate the information and request for prayer and action (if authorization has been given) to the relevant contacts in as speedy and secure a manner as possible. Follow this up with further updates as more information is obtained and as the situation develops

***Consider contacting a lawyer if a person is being detained; someone who may be already known to the person, sympathetic to the case, and able to help.

***Consider approaching any locally based people (such as sympathetic diplomats in the foreign embassies or local human rights groups) for assistance. But be sure that these people are trustworthy and bear in mind the implications this may have for your own security.

***Consider whether the person has any dependants who may need assistance as a result of the crisis; e.g., the person may be in prison and unable to provide for the families needs. It is usually better for funds to be channeled through the local church/fellowship, via the approval of the leader, unless there are exceptional circumstances,
*
Reflection and Discussion
**Who is your immediate sphere of contacts is the most vulnerable to serious human rights violations?
**What are you able and willing to do to help these people?
**In what ways can human rights violations happen within sending organizations?

Member Care and Human Rights--6

Human Rights Advocacy:

Member Care for The Persecuted Church

“Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.”
UDHR, Article 18

*****

Excerpts below from: “Human Rights Advocacy in Missions”
Doing Member Care Well (2002) by Wilfred Wong
*
"I just returned from Sulawesi yesterday where I met with leaders who oversee about 2000 church-planters, pastors, and evangelists in the Maluku islands, Indonesia. They have lost about 100 workers in the last several months. Some were burnt alive and others cut to pieces. One evangelist had his head cut off and placed in a public place...One pastor lost his children and grand children. Another pastor was forcibly circumcised along with his children, including his five-year year old girl. I am just so overwhelmed with pain in my heart. As I sat with them I couldn't bear to listen. But even more painful, is what one pastor asked me: "Why doesn't anyone care for us?" (Report from Beram Kumar, Member Care Network-Malaysia; February, 2001)
*
To engage in human rights advocacy is basically to raise concerns about human rights violations and to call on the responsible government to rectify this injustice. It also involves getting Parliamentarians, governments and members of the public in other countries to put pressure on the responsible government to end the human rights violations. Human rights advocacy can be done at different levels, ranging from very public and strong pressure to quiet negotiations to persuade a government to stop the human rights abuses. Some examples of human rights advocacy organizations are Jubilee Campaign, Christian Solidarity Worldwide, and Amnesty International.
*
One reason why there is persecution in so many different countries today is because the church is expanding its frontiers throughout the world. More than at any other time in the history of Christianity we can truly regard the Church as a global community. It is because the Church is growing in places traditionally hostile to the Gospel that in many of these locations the backlash of persecution occurs. Governments or religious extremists feel threatened by the spread of Christianity and try all sorts of methods to stop its growth, ranging from murder and genocide as in Sudan to more subtle measures such as the introduction of restrictive laws on church registration, which is common in a number of Central Asian countries.
*
As Christians, I believe we must show solidarity with other believers who are facing persecution. Failing to do what we can to try and help them in their time of need is akin to failure to help the wounded stranger on the road. I desire to behave like the Good Samaritan rather than the "religious" people who simply walked by and ignored the stranger's—their neighbor’s-- plight. If in God's eyes we owe a fraternal duty of care to strangers who do not even share our faith, we owe an even stronger duty to fellow members of the Body of Christ. 1 Corinthians 12:25 to 27 reads: "so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it."
*

Human rights advocacy is not just about human rights but is also a key form of mission support. It involves speaking out against injustices and trying to have such situations rectified. We believe in a God of Justice (Isaiah 30:18) whose prophets, like Amos, uncompromisingly called for justice (Amos 5:24). It thus amazes me when Christians think that closing one's eyes to injustice is somehow the more "spiritual" thing to do. Human rights advocacy is not about seeking political power, it is about seeking justice. It should not be considered as any more political than the prophetic utterances of Amos, Elijah, Isaiah, or any of the other prophets of the Bible.
*
Mission workers have a key role to play in human rights advocacy by carefully and accurately communicating relevant information about anti-Christian persecution and discrimination to the outside world. Groups like Jubilee Campaign will do the overt advocacy work, communicating with Parliamentarians and Governments. The mission worker must usually stay in the background, quietly supplying information about religious persecution or discrimination to human rights advocacy groups, so as not to jeopardise his/her own safety or permission to stay in the country. There is no need for mission workers to take on an overt advocacy role, their main and very crucial contribution to the process of securing justice is to supply the relevant information.
*
Reflection and Discussion
**1. A follower of Christ is imprisoned for his faith and held without any contact with outsiders. His wife wants human rights advocacy on his behalf but his local church leader is opposed to it because he's very frightened of any actions that may potentially cause problems for his church. Whose view should have priority in deciding whether to authorize human rights advocacy?
*

**2. In general, what do you think God expects Christians who are not facing persecution to do for those who are facing persecution?
*

**3. Imagine you are working in a country where Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is not honoured (freedom of religion/conscience and freedom to change one’s religion). Anti-Christian persecution by certain people in the government has not yet started but with the growing number of citizens who are freely choosing to become followers of Christ, it's likely to happen in the near future. What sort of preparations for such persecution can you, other colleagues, and the local believers make now, in advance?

Member Care and Human Rights--5

Religious Peacebuilding

Rights and Resonsibilities

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"Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice, and peace in the world..." Preamble of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

"An arresting aspect of the growing fascination with the role of religion in global politics is the effort to show that however much religion may contribute to violence, intolerance and discrimination, that is not its only function. Alongside the expanding number of studies purporting to demonstatrate the perverse influence of religon on civil war, terrorism, illiberal nationalism, and the like, there emereges a contrasting set of studies endeavoring to exhibit a more constructive, irenic, and tolerant side to the political and diplomatic contributions of religious individuals and groups. Such accounts are commonly described as examples of "religious peacebuilding."

Foreword by David Little, Harvard University,

For all Peoples and All Nations: Christian Churches and Human Rights

(2002, p. ix) by John Nurser.
*****

Reflection and Discusion
**Can there ever be true peace without recognising human rights?
**How are our faith-based member care practitioners, mission/aid workers, and sending groups contributing to "religious peacebuilding"?
**How do faith-based groups build peace in a way that fits with both their values and the values of the people who receive their services?
**Respond to these assertions:
Good practice in member care promotes both truth and peace.
Truth and peace are foundational for authentic relationships and for real love.