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Tuesday, July 31, 2007
A Shift Toward the Center
We're back from
Rochester, NY. Safe trip, though fast and furious.
It has been a full
generation since I wrote Bring Forth Justice and finally, I note that Evangelicals are beginning to interact with
some of the issues I raised in that book. Reporter Laurie Goodsein writes that last Friday a coalition of 34 prominent
evangelical leaders sent a letter to President Bush supporting the creation of a Palestinian state that would include
the vast majority of the West Bank. They added that being a friend to Jews and to Israel does not mean withholding criticism
when it is warranted.
Last year a similar
group of leading evangelicals camp parted company with their conservative brethren to campaign against climate change and
global warming. Earlier this year another group of evangelical spokespersons denounced the use of torture in the fight
against terrorism.
*
* *
Some of you know
Bob Van Zante who, served as a Navigators missionary to Japan when I was Pacific Areas Director. Bob was single at the
time, but since then he and his wife, Barbara, have influenced many of the Navigators worldwide staff. Bob underwent
surgery recently to remove a malignant egg-sized turmor from his brain. He will now be undergoing chemotherapy.
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Unintended Consequences
I often reflect
on the fact that within the course of my single lifetime the population of the world has tripled from 2 billion people
to 6 billion. The primary reason, of course, is science and technology. Advances in the past century have revolutionized
agriculture and medical advances have both prolongued and saved lives, particularly the lives of infants who now routinely
grow into adulthood. Two centuries ago it was not uncommon, even here in America, for families to lose children to childhood
diseases. In Western countries in our day people are urged and even regulated to stop smoking, refrain from unprotected
sex, and buckle up. All this increases life expectancy.
The downside to
is that the population explosion the has magnified social tensions the world over. Macro-agriculture has forced
millions upon millions to migrate from rural areas to cities where, unfortunately, globalization has yet to provide employment.
The end result is wars, major and minor, as increasing numbers of people fight for dwindling resources -- oil being one such.
Since the world's population
is increasing exponentially now, unceasing war apparently is necessary to hold the population in check. Yet war is fueled
by science and technology. In today's newspaper I read that the United States is about to offer Saudi Arabia $20 billion
of war goods and -- to keep things balanced -- $30 billion to Israel for the same. While in Iraq, the American occupation
has spent $6 billion for 2,800 recontruction projects of which the Iraqi govenment has accepted only 435. The remaining
projects are being turned over to local businessmen who have neither the know-how nor the huge sums of money needed to keep
them operating.
It does seem like
the human race has a hard time figuring things out. The only thing we can be assured is functioning is the law of unintended
consequences.
Friday, July 27, 2007
ANNOUNCMENT
As
you can see from the Blog immediately below this one, I have lost a whole year's archive of my Blogs. In fact,
I lost this entire web site -- it was permanently deleted by mistake yesterday -- so I am having to revert
to a copy I saved a year ago.
I am going to try
to reconstruct the site you are familiar with, but this will take some time. I hope you will be patient.
This weekend Georgia and I will be driving up to Rochester, New York to attend a banquet occasioned by the retirement of Dr.
Wayne Hill, long-time pastor of the Perinton Community Church, a suburb of Rochester. Georgia and I have known Wayne
and his wife, Fran, ever since they arrived at Perinton. (That's me on the left in the photo.) They have led groups
of their young people down to Paterson on several occasions to give them a taste of inner city life and ministry. And
Fran and Wayne have supported Holistic Ministries generously from their own pocket all these years. We are blessed with
their friendship.
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