Martin Luther King Jr.

Today, we celebrate an American hero, pastor, and prophet. MLK stood up in the face of oppression with a fierce conviction that all children of God are equal and loved.

Facebook statuses have been booming with quotes from Martin Luther King Jr.'s ministry. It's exciting to see how so many people continue to be touched by the powerful and prophetic words spoken and written by Dr. King, however, it's unfortunate that such words NEED to be said and heard even now, 30 years later.

What words/quotes/ideas of Dr. King have touched you? What messages still need to be heard in our day and time?

PLEASE SHARE! Post your quotes/thoughts in the comments!

Prayers for Haiti in Word and Deed the World Over

Yesterday a horrible earthquake struck Haiti, leaving perhaps hundreds of thousands dead and far more wounded and homeless. In response, the Church is ALIVE team asks for your prayers - regardless of your religious beliefs - of word and deed. Below are two prayers of word offered up during this troubled time - one from the Presbyterian Church USA and one from Father Jean Jadotte, a Catholic priest of Miami's Notre Dame D'Haiti parish.

Below these prayers of Word are ways that you can pray for Haiti through deed and monetary donation. As mentioned yesterday, the PC(USA) has their own system of donation for the cause, but here is an incomplete made-on-the-fly list of different faith-based service organizations. They hail from a variety of religious traditions, and we have included their individual concerns about the disaster and links to their respective relief efforts.

NOTE: We have NOT individually verified all of these service organizations/relief efforts, so donate with caution. If you feel more comfortable, you can always hit up the Red Cross or UNICEF.

Finally, if you have any prayers of your OWN to share, please do so in the comments section below.

The PC(USA) Prayer for Haiti

Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

As the eyes of the world turn to Haiti, let us join our hearts in prayer:

God of compassion


Please watch over the people of Haiti,


And weave out of these terrible happenings


wonders of goodness and grace.


Surround those who have been affected by tragedy


With a sense of your present love,


And hold them in faith.


Though they are lost in grief,


May they find you and be comforted;


Guide us as a church 


To find ways of providing assistance


that heals wounds and provides hope


Help us to remember that when one of your children suffer


We all suffer


Through Jesus Christ who was dead, but lives


and rules this world with you.

Amen. 
(Adapted from Book of Common Worship)

-Bruce Reyes-Chow, Gradye Parsons and Linda Valentine

‘Lord Hear Our Prayers' - a Prayer for Catholic Relief Services by Father Jean Jadotte, associate pastor of Miami's Notre Dame D'Haiti parish.

-We are praying for hope despite this situation, that even as we face darkness, people may see a pinpoint of light.

-Praying for families.

-Pray for a greater conscience among everyone not just in Haiti but all over that we must do something [to help].

-Pray for a spirit of thanksgiving for international agencies for their good heart and good faith.

-Pray for relief workers to have a spirit of patience and perseverance.

-For those who at this time are in search of meaning in their lives and peace.

An Incomplete List (as much as I could find in an hour) of Faith-Based Assistance/Donation Services:

The United Methodist Church is expressing concerns over missing missionaries, and is allowing for relief donations through the United Methodist Committee on Relief.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is allowing for donations through the ELCA International Disaster Response.

Catholic Relief Services has their own system of donation.

The Episcopal Church, which suffered heavy damage to their Diocese, allows for donations through Episcopal Relief and Development.


The Unitarian Universalist Association is joining forces with the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee to set up their own donations site.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Later-Day Saints has their own system of donation for Haiti.

Tzu Chi Foundation (a large service organization of the Chinese Buddhist tradition) doesn’t have an online donation page as of yet, but has set up a relief center that will be updated in the future.

Haiti Response

In response to the catastrophic earthquake that devastated Haiti and especially Haiti’s densely populated capital Port-au-Prince yesterday, we wanted to make a special post to remind everyone that The Church is ALIVE in humanitarian aid in many different forms.

You can donate money on the Presbyterian Disaster Relief website here.

If you are not able to give a monetary donation, or in addition to monetary assistance, Haiti is in great need of all of our prayers and I know the Church is Alive and capable of keeping Haiti in our constant thoughts and prayers. There is no shortage of news sites that can keep you up-to-date on Haiti’s situation. The Lede Blog on NYT.com is being continuously updated and includes several additional sites where you can obtain information.

L'Union Fait La Force!

Montreat College Conference: Interfaith Dialogue

Eboo Patel took the stage like so many before him have done. He spoke words of reconciliation, peace, justice, and interfaith dialogue. Eboo Patel is Muslim, and if there has been another time in Montreat’s history that a Muslim person took the stage for keynote, I am not aware of such time.

Eboo stated that over the next thirty years interfaith dialogue will be one of the most important issues facing this country and the world. The morning after his keynote, the above picture was on the front page of the New York Times. Quite prophetic.

His Keynote address focused greatly on Martin Luther King Jr.’s work as a result of studying Gandhi. Specifically he told Kings story of hearing about an Indian man, and his philosophy of satyagraha “truth force”, a philosophy of nonviolent protest. King heard this and knew he believed in these same ideals: love, justice, peace for all people. How can we as people of faith - who hold the same ideals - learn from one another? Eboo went on to talk about how King became the leader of the Civil Right’s movement, and how interfaith dialogue played directly into the movement.

If we are to be people of faith that hold fast to justice, peace, and love, we have to learn how to be people who can respect others religions. We have to be a people who intentionally learn about other faiths, and that means more than just which book particular faiths consider holy. We have to know what those books say. It struck a deep chord in me as I sat in the pew that morning, knowing that Eboo had studied Christianity and the Bible. He was speaking our "language". He was able to look to our scriptures and then reflect on the the Qur’an and see how our faiths are similar. If we are to be a people who seek to be faithful, “to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with our God”, we are called to love all people, and to seek how to work in partnership. Our doctrines may be different, our understanding of who the Christ to be may be different, but imagine what we could do together.

In his closing, Eboo posed the question: “What if as people of faith, Christians, Muslims, Buddhist, Jainist, Jews, made it a point to end malaria? We know that in order for people not to contract Malaria they need a mosquito net over their bed at night. If they do contract it, they need a shot. What if as a people of faith we made it our point to end the injustices of this world, instead of fighting against one another? What if we did that?”

His words resonated within me, inspired me, and frankly led me to a place that I felt I could take on the world. With tears in her eyes, the person next to me in the pew embraced me after the eruption of applause subsided. We could speak few words, but in the embrace we knew no words were needed. We wanted to take on the world.

I leave you with this quote, “We need to get busy building the world we want to live in.” - Eboo Patel

Thoughts?

Check below for a little bit about Eboo Patel.

Grace and Peace- Matthew Ruffner

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About Dr. Eboo Patel (the SUBJECT of this post, not the author): Named by US News & World Report as one of America’s Best Leaders of 2009, Eboo Patel is the founder and Executive Director of Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC), a Chicago-based institution building the global interfaith youth movement. Author of the award-winning book Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation, Eboo is also a regular contributor to the Washington Post, National Public Radio and CNN. He is a member of President Obama’s Advisory Council of the White House Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, and holds a doctorate in the sociology of religion from Oxford University, where he studied on a Rhodes scholarship.

Montreat College Conference: 'God Without Borders'

Part of the Church is Alive team is in Montreat for the 2010 College Conference. We will be bringing you articles from all the happenings of the conference. Be sure to check back this week for the articles and maybe even a bit of video! Also, if you attended the conference we would love to hear from you!

We hope you all had a great Christmas season!

Grace and Peace!

Merry Christmas/A Conspiracy...

The members of the Church is ALIVE team are taking a little time off to celebrate with our families for the holidays...

BUT, we wanted to leave you with a little video about a really cool project called "The Advent Conspiracy." It's about making gift-giving a little less about "buying" and a little more about "giving." They also have a goal of providing clean water to those without, and that's always a good thing.

But that description doesn't really do the clips justice. Watch the original 2008 video below, and then watch the 2009 follow-up video below THAT and find out how you can help.

Christmas is about giving, after all:

And this year's version:

Merry Christmas all!

I'm Really Very Fond...

Here’s part of a poem from Alice Walker, which, if nothing else, should be a good reminder about the dangers of dating, or, more precisely, breaking up with, poets.

I'm Really Very Fond

I'm really very fond of you,
he said.

I don't like fond.
It sounds like something
you would tell a dog.
Give me love
or nothing.

Throw your fond in a pond,
I said...
I love that line, “Throw your fond in a pond!” Now that’s poetry!

“Tolerant” is a word like “fond”. They’re lukewarm words, and anyone who’s read Revelations 3 knows that things didn’t turn out so well for the lukewarm church in Laodicea.

“Tolerant” is one of those words that make gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender members of the church a little squirmy. We say that we’re looking for acceptance not tolerance. Tolerance makes us feel as if we were some rash on the ecclesial body which the church is pondering whether to treat or simply endure. But lately I’ve been reconsidering …

To me, the newest generation of church leadership – those born after 1980, say – have redeemed the word “tolerant.” It’s a generation that’s comfortable with difference – that grew up with diversity, not as an ideal, but as a way of life. It’s a generation that has by dint of circumstance, come to understand the world as a complex place, and where disagreement doesn’t equal separation.

Several recent studies, for instance, show that even among Christians who identify as evangelical, there has been a significant shift toward greater support among those under 30 for marriage equality and for expansion of employment nondiscrimination and hate crimes protections to cover sexual orientation and gender identity. I think what’s going on here is more about a change of values than a change of beliefs. It’s not so much that beliefs about “homosexuality” have changed for these younger evangelicals, as it is that they value a healthy respect for difference. What’s more, they are more interested in the kind of advocacy that can unite people –tackling the environmental crisis, facing racism, ending poverty; in a certain sense, the next generation of Evangelical Christians is less interested in ideological positions, and more interested in practical transformation.

I could live with that kind of tolerance. I can imagine a healthy church that isn’t susceptible to constant fracture along ideological fault lines. I can imagine a church that gives fair consideration to all who are called to serve as officers regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity, and still allows for the full range of ideological perspectives. I can imagine a church that has moved on from the debate about the place of glbt persons in its life and ministry – a debate that keeps our attention focused inward; I can imagine a church where people who hold vastly divergent theological views come together to get stuff done; I can imagine a church that can not only come together to talk deeply and wisely about racism, poverty and the environment, but that can also head out the door and make a constructive difference.

In our red-state/blue-state nation where it’s nearly impossible for a member of one party to cross-over and vote with the other party, and legislation with bi-partisan sponsorship is almost unheard of, maybe the example of a thriving, vital, creative, engaged Church made up of members from disparate, even opposing theological points of view could point the way to a new way of confronting big and serious issues that affect all of us.

“Forbearance” might be the dressed up theological word for tolerance. Even so, right now, I’m rather fond of “tolerance”.

* * * *

Lisa Larges is the coordinator for That All May Freely Serve, a grassroots organization advocating on behalf of all who are disenfranchised in the Presbyterian Church, especially lgbt members. She's a 1989 grad of San Francisco Theological Seminary, a member of Noe Valley Ministry, a Presbyterian More Light Congregation in San Francisco, and likes cheese!