Not My India: Social Justice and Responsibility
“To all of you who, after watching Slumdog Millionaire or reading The White Tiger, say “This is not my India”, well I just have to ask whose India is it, then? Because that is the India I see every day from my auto or bicycle rickshaw, or when I go to teach English or visit Doral Putty in the Wazirpur slum, or when I go to KFC and see Punit almost get kicked out.
But don’t worry, after traveling for two hours and watching the India that is “not yours” pass me by, then I arrive in Gurgaon and get to see “your India” too. I walk in your pristine malls and there are no Punits anywhere in sight.” (Punit is a friend who drives a rickshaw).
This is something I wrote a few weeks ago, while trying to process life in India and Amy read it and asked me to write about social justice.
In order to fully understand social justice one must first define what “social justice” is. According to the Wikipedia entry, “social justice” is “a term, generally applied by the left, to describe a society with a greater degree of economic egalitarianism through progressive taxation, income redistribution, or even property redistribution, policies aimed toward achieving that which developmental economists refer to as equality of opportunity and equality of outcome.”
Many people in the United States believe that social justice is for heart-bleeding liberals and not at all in line with traditional capitalist, conservative and thus Christian ideology. For example, who wants to redistribute property or income if they worked hard for it and those who lack wealth only lack it because they have not taken fully taken advantage of their opportunities. And they are right, equality of outcome, while appealing, is unrealistic.
However, according to the American Heritage Dictionary justice is “the upholding of what is just, especially fair treatment and due reward in accordance with honor, standards, or law”. I believe that this definition of justice is also the definition and essence of social justice. To deny humans an equal opportunity and quality of life is, well, inhumane. As one blogger put it “every person deserves a certain fair share of society’s benefits and burdens” and I would argue that social justice is not about equality of outcome but equality of opportunity. The idea that “all men are created equal” is the foundation of our constitution and country and this idea is effused throughout our entire society and educational system. Though India has similar rights and protections written in its constitution, due to a culture and tradition of caste (or ‘jati’), it is still in need of social justice. The opportunities for citizens are not the same. From education, to jobs, to social status in society, discrimination still runs strong. These barriers must be broken down and I would argue that it is Christians, out of all religious and ethnic groups, who have the greatest mandate to achieve this goal.
Some Christians say that they are unwilling to “jump on the social justice” bandwagon, however, I believe that “social justice” can not only be accepted by those of Christian faith but that fundamentally it should be! Social justice is supported by both the Old and New Testament. Proverbs 31:8-9 says, “Open your mouth, judge righteously, and defend the rights of the afflicted and needy.” Social justice is intrinsic to the teachings of Jesus and there are countless verses on loving your neighbor, helping the poor and in general, caring about others and their welfare.
I will leave you with two thought provoking quotes. The first addresses the consequences of ignoring social injustices. The second addresses (once one has chosen to advocate for social justice) how to be effective. Having warm and fuzzy feelings about helping people, will not aid anyone in the end. Real action is required.
“It is no service to the country to turn away from the hard problems–to ignore injustice and human suffering. It is simply not the American way of doing things. Of course, there are always a lot of people whose motto is ‘Don’t rock the boat.’ They are so afraid of rocking the boat, that they stop rowing. We can never get ahead that way. We can only drift with the current and finally go over the falls into oblivion with nothing accomplished.” -Harry Truman
“Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.”
— Martin Luther King Jr.
Above is the first ever guest blog post. It is written by Lynnelle, who is not only married to my brother, but is also my good friend. Recently she spent three months here in Delhi.
Prayer for Calm
My Lord and my God, I do not know what will happen to me today, but what I do know is that nothing will happen to me today that you and I together can not handle. This thought is enough to bring me to face the day in peace. I adore you in your wisdom and love: I commend myself into your hands with complete trust. Amen (Taken from a Jesuit prayer guide)
Each morning for the last few months I have started my day with this prayer for calm. Last week this prayer was followed by an email explaining how one of my students had been attacked by an evil spirit the night, and began beating his wife. On Sunday a visit to the worst slum I have ever seen, followed this prayer. Our very poor friends insisted on serving us Coca-Cola. Yesterday, I prayed for calm and met one student who was so angry with another student she refused to lead the singing. Then another student had a miscarriage. Another student gave away his shoes, though he only owns two pairs now, so that a traveling Sikh God-seeker didn’t have to walk barefoot. I saw my students offer comfort to families with members in the hospitals, praying for all who asked. I saw Christian students say “Eid Mubarak,” and serve a special lunch to Muslim construction workers. That’s how my work here in India is. Everyday I am confronted with the destructiveness of poverty, and yet the joy of being in a community of hope. And each day I have an option, will I try to handle the difficult things myself, or will I trust my life into God’s hands?
Sometimes I get worried about where I am going to live and how I will earn money, but then I remember that my Father in heaven knows everything I need. I can trust him. No matter where we live or what we do; we can put our trust in God. Seek First his kingdom and righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well (Matthew 6:34). I encourage you to start each day with a time of silence, and perhaps a prayer for calm.
Spiritual Causality: Superstition or Spiritual in the Ordinary?
In the Western world we think that everything is physical. You get a headache, you take medicine, you feel sad for too long and you take medicine. Here in India, you get a headache in church, and the assumption is that this is spiritual. It doesn’t matter that you haven’t had enough water and it is hot in the building. You act lazy and cross for a week, and it is also a demonic attack, though in America we call it P.M.S. It is very easy to look down on the common views in the East as superstitious.
I have a very good friend named Peter who started dating a girl last year named Pooja. Peter and Pooja go to Delhi University. He is a Christian and she is a Hindu. But they got along well, and she was cute. They would travel by metro and even hold hands as they walked through the station. Peter was swept off his feet. He would talk to her for hours in the evenings and go early to college to meet her. At first he was trying to share his faith with her, and she was interested. At least she was interested since she was interested in him. She agreed to visit church, but only if he would visit the temple. He was not willing to visit the temple. I asked him if he could just go and observe the temple, and he said he would not feel right about it.
Then during a festival time when Pooja and her family were doing special daily worship rituals, Peter mentioned to me that he didn’t feel well and he accredited it to Pooja’s idol worship. Peter was so distracted during midterm exams that he did not do as well as usual. Peter called me on my birthday and I talked to Pooja too, I thought they were getting serious enough that I might get to meet her despite the fact that I was sworn to secrecy regarding her. After a few months, I asked about Pooja, and Peter said they actually weren’t compatible. It wasn’t just the religion thing. Then a few days later Peter called me over to his house, he had been crying. “I told my mom about Pooja,” Peter told me. I was surprised. Why would he tell his mother about Pooja if he was going to break-up with her anyway? His mother made him call his Aunt who is a prophetess. She asked him a lot of personal questions. Then she told him he had to end it the next day. Peter told me that something about going out with Pooja had put him in a spiritual paralysis, and he knew he needed to break-up with her but he didn’t have the strength. Now, he had a reason. His aunt and his mother were demanding that he end the relationship. The next morning his mother drove him to his aunt’s house where she prayed over him for a few hours. That night he called Pooja on the phone and broke up with her. He felt awful about how hurt she felt. But a week later I asked Peter how he was doing, and if he thought he did the right thing. He was still mourning his lose, but he showed me some marks on the bottom of his feet. “They were warts that were getting bigger, and when I broke up with her, they started to heal,” he explained to me.
So, is my college educated friend backwards and superstitious? Or is my American worldview blocking me, from seeing the spiritual in the ordinary? What if the stress of being in a relationship is how Peter was distracted from studying and the warts formed, but this was an outward expression of spiritual warfare? In the West, we are concerned with the question of how something happens, where in the East the concern is over why something happens. Here in India, as in many places in the world there is a consciousness of the impact of the spiritual world on the physical world, a consciousness that westerners could learn from. Not that we should be overly preoccupied with demons, angels, or cures but that we should understand that this spirit world is part of a biblical worldview. It is also a part of much of the historical and present cultural understandings of the world. We should also admit that we are sometimes the blind ones. What if there is not only a “Higher Power,” but many “powers” at work in the world? And, if the God of the Bible is your God, then all of these powers at war affect world events and interpersonal dynamics. However, in the end all the powers ultimately will summit to God. If you are a praying person, I encourage you to pray and ask God to open your eyes to see what is going on beyond the physical things around you, and see what happens.
Can Uneducated People Change the World for Good?
A friend of mine named Francis works as an advocate for the people of a slum in Delhi and he has married into a poor Muslim family. Yesterday he brought two of his young brothers-in-law to join our program: Shamim and Mohammad. These teenage boys have been working most of their lives. Just last week Shamim ironed jeans in a factory and Mohammad worked as a demolition laborer. They have never been to school or learned to read or write. They kept their eyes downcast as I tried to welcome them and explain to them the housing arrangements. I asked Francis if they wanted to be here, he insisted that they did. Francis looked at them and told them that they are good, don’t let anyone tell you that you are bad. In other words, do not let anyone look down on you. Then Francis turned to me and said, “you know Jesus used a small group of uneducated people to change the world once before. It was a miracle; we are just hoping He will do it again. We need a miracle. Let’s see.”
Already this morning they were clapping and laughing with the rest of the group. After we sang and danced a little, I said that our God loves us so much that it makes God happy when we enjoy worship. One of the other students told me that he never knew happiness before he met Jesus and joined this knew family.
According to the United Nations Development Programme Report of 2007/2008, India had a literacy rate of 64.1%. The United States has a 99% literacy rate and Burkina Faso has the lowest literacy rate in the world at 23.6%.
We want to help Shamim and Mohommad learn to read and write—but even more than that we want the love of God to transform them and to use them to change their world for good.
The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World
One night in May my parents and I, camped out in my brother and sister-in-law’s motel-room-sized apartment in D.C. My mom just wanted us to be together. My parents had a futon to sleep on; I slept on a papasan chair cushion on the floor. It looked like a doggie bed.
The next day I looked at their book-shelf and realized I needed a book to read. Mire Bobbi (Hindi for my sister-in-law) recommended The Blue Sweater. My Dad said he wanted to read it, and took it out of my hand. My brother said, “Wait I haven’t read that yet, you can’t take it.” Mire Bobbi insisted I should take it, because he had plenty of other books to read first. Then we sat outside and I “read,” while she “studied.” Within a few pages my mind was going wild with ideas and we just kept talking about what I was reading. Here are some of the first words of Jacqueline Novogratz that stirred me up as I sat in my home nation’s capital:
In America, my grandparents raised 6 children, who then brought another 25 individuals into the world. My cousins and I stand on the shoulders of our grandparents and people like them who never asked for handouts, but supported one another and shared suffering and, through hard work and determination, gave their children better futures in a country that assured them hope and opportunity, if nothing else.
Today poor people the world over are seeking opportunity and choice to have greater dignity in their lives—and they want to do it themselves, even if they need a little help. Today we have the tools and the technologies to bring real opportunities to people all across the world.
The time has come to extend to every person on the planet the fundamental principle that we hold so dear: that all human beings are created equal.
Novogratz tells the readers that in this world that is getting smaller, markets, public policy, and philanthropy all play a vital role in offering this opportunity of equality all of humanity. But if you are afraid that this idealistic book of methods is not for you, you are wrong. This book is written much like a memoir with fascinating stories of adventures around the world, yet it challenges the reader to action.
I am under no illusions that we can make equality for all humanity happen. I am not an Enlightenment child. And as I read Novogratz story, the cycle of evil that grips our world is made clear. She spent years working in Rwanda before the war/genocide, making what seemed like progress. And yet two of the founding members of her organization that gave small loans to poor women and helped charities turn to profitable business, ended up in prison for their involvement in the genocide. Yet like Novogratz, I believe that we must do what we can.
I believe that our service to the poor is worship to the one who created all humanity equal. We can be the people who do not refuse the thirsty person a drink of water—and not only that but we can be the people who show people where to get the clean water and how they can sell the water to the people who need it and in doing so, improve the lives of an entire village.
Poverty Profanes the Gospel
He raises the poor from the dust
And lifts the needy from the ash heap;
He seats them with the princes,
With the princes of His people.
-Psalm 113:7-8
Last week my grandparents, whom I am staying with, had a houseguest from Uganda. His name is Hamlet. He is a priest in the Church of Uganda, a former parliamentarian, current chaplain for the Parliament of Uganda, an entrepreneur, and more than everything else an activist. Being a person with a vision for the economic and spiritual development of his people, he had so many words of wisdom for me since I have a heart for the economic and spiritual development of the people I work with in India.
He was surprised to discover that I do not have a car in India. He asked me if it was because I was afraid to drive there. I said, “yes, that’s a big part of it, but we also want to live a simple life as the people we work with for the most part do not have cars.” He said that while there is value in “living like the people,” there is also an importance to modeling social upliftment. He said that, glorifying poverty was one of the mistakes of the missionaries that went to countries in Africa. They pointed towards heaven and encouraged the locals to be content instead of working hard and trying to make their situation better in this life.
In another conversation, Hamlet lamented that so much of Europe regrets having ever sent missionaries to Africa. But, “they don’t realize that the gospel corrects itself. They don’t realize the value of the gospel,” Hamlet said to me. He went on to explain that after a generation of people grow up with the gospel, if the gospel is internalized the people start to realize the inconsistencies they were fed along with the gospel and they reject the mistakes. It is like John Wimber used to say; they “chew up the meat, and spit out the bones.” (Yes, yes, I realize that saying only makes sense in cultures where people do not chew up the bones).
In this case, one of the mistakes to be rejected in Africa is the glorification of poverty. While Jesus did come to earth, and live among us as a lowly human—he did not just stay that way and encourage us to stay that way. Instead, Jesus transformed himself through the resurrection—and encourages us to follow. So, perhaps we are not just called to live among the poor and handle our finances like the poor but we are called to model how to live a better life where we do not have to live in fear of how we will feed our children or pay our rent because we run sustainable businesses and we budget our money wisely.
I have seen the “poverty mentality” eat away at beautiful, intelligent, and gifted people. They run from crisis to crisis, never looking ahead and therefore they are unable to live to their potential. I want to be a part of helping people out of that destructive cycle. Because good news is not good news unless it is good news to the poor, and as Hamlet said to me, “poverty profanes the gospel.”
I am I in Baby Land USA?
For me Baby Land USA is a region stretching from Eastern Tennessee down to Florida with it’s major hub in the Atlanta area. I realized last night that all five of my friends who have had me stand with them as bridesmaids, have 2-3 children. We used to talk about God, traveling, and relationships. Then we talked about God, traveling, relationships and weddings. Then we talked about God, weddings and houses. Then they just started talking about houses and babies and God. When I come around they ask me about traveling and ca
tch up on the drama of singleton vagabond’s life.
I’ve held the babies. I’ve kissed the babies. I’ve brought them outfits from India. I’ve been glad not to have babies. I buckled in the babies. I’ve carried the babies. And, I’ve cried because all of them have babies, I don’t have a baby, and I like babies (and I had PMS at the time).
I like trying to figure out who the babies look like. One of my friends has two darling babies who look nothing like her…I mean if she didn’t go into detail about the awfulness of having her baby boy vacuumed out of her I would have thought her husband gave birth to the baby. The friend I am about to go have coffee with is a 6ft. beauty queen and her husband is at least 4 in. taller than her, so their baby boy is looks like a 3 year old with a baby head (but of course he’s adorable).
A few years ago one of my closest friends made a comment about how she couldn’t wait until I settled down to a normal life. But, I can’t really imagine having a “normal” Baby Land USA life. If I have children someday I picture my kids looking more like Brad & Angelina’s. But the weird thing is that the “most stylish mom ever,” another good friend, that I hung out with yesterday always thought her kids would be from around the world, and they are blue-eyed nearly bald children. Maybe the others will come later. She never thought she would be Stylish Susie Homemaker. Maybe it’s just a season.Will I have a season like that?
I am starting to get eager to travel a few states north where it does not seem as odd for someone in their mid-late twenties to be unmarried and unbabied.
On Being a Foreigner
I am a foreigner. To call someone a foreigner in the U.S., might be rude. It is at least politically incorrect. We call people from other countries, “internationals” or we call them by various labels such as “Latino,” “Asian,” “European,” “Middle Eastern” or “African.” Sometimes the descriptor is correct and sometimes it is not. We don’t seem to notice. But in many places in the world if you do not look like the dominant population, you are deemed a “foreigner.”
As I have lived in India, I have become comfortable with that title because every day I am aware that my surroundings are foreign to me. The feeling of people pushing me each other to get to the front of what I used to thingk should be a line (or Q) to get on a metro train, the smell of masala, onions, and garlic being heating in mustard oil, and the sound of the language I have to strain and guess to understand remind me that I am the foreigner.
When I am in the U.S. there is a sense in which I am still a foreigner. I look an American, I sound like an American, I smell like an American, but I don’t always feel like I fit in. Some things in the U.S. seem foreign to me. Everyone seems to have a car, technological gadgets namely GPS and phones that go online, white babies, houses, and green grass yards. I don’t have any of those things (and I’m not sure I want all of them).
But, the truth is that I have always been a foreigner. I guess that is why, when a little girl who had just moved from Hungary and didn’t know any English joined my third grade class, the teacher sat her next to me and asked me to help her. At that age I had heard the stories about my country, I knew that we were different. I knew I would never fit in.
The country that I heard about was not Korea or Italy or even the “good ‘ol days” of America, that so many evangelical kids are raised hearing about. The country that my parents talked about as the homeland was a far away place. Though I couldn’t remember being there, we were from a place were every child was loved and lived and danced and played—and taught the adults to do the same. In our country we didn’t need a president or congress or anything like that, because Jesus was the King and that met that everything went right. It is a place where everyone was healed and every tear was dried.
And the secret that my parents reminded me of everyday was that that country–that Kingdom that was so different from America was coming–coming to here. In fact that country actually existed in us. And, as we lived that dream of the Kingdom to come–praying for the sick, loving the poor, writing to people in jail we were a part of that invasion.
All these people (the ancient people of the Bible) were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers of earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. –Hebrews 11:13-17.
My Mother Dear
The following is poem in tribute to my mother—for mother’s day. I could never repay how wonderful she has been to me. Raising me and putting up with me still might be the hardest thing she’s ever had to do (though moving to India at age 49 might be a rival). I want to say that I got any goodness I have and most of the craziness from her—but I guess both my parents are both good and crazy in different ways. But my mom has always been a model of practical wisdom along with full on out devotion to Jesus. She has shown me what it means to let my faith impact all areas of my life.
My Mother Dear
My mother wears no pearls
Instead a string of stories
A collection of neighbors turned friends
On her neck, twirls
My mother plants no flowers
Instead gardens of compassion
A row of believers serving the poor
Around her a new forest, towers
