My Welsh friends Keren and Mark Riley of ReUnite have been living in Uganda the past several years resettling orphans to their families of origin.
I'm very impressed by their work. They are people of faith who are doing an amazing work among "the least of these", orphans. If not for their efforts, many displaced children would end up overseas and never see their families again.
This short film shares one of their success stories which I found very moving. There is definitely Good News coming to--and out of--Uganda!
This week I went to a screening of the documentary God Loves Uganda at the Palm Beach International Film Festival. The film "explores the role of the American Evangelical movement in Uganda, where American missionaries have been credited with both creating schools and hospitals and promoting dangerous religious bigotry. The film follows evangelical leaders in America and Uganda along with politicians and missionaries as they attempt the radical task of eliminating 'sexual sin' and converting Ugandans to fundamentalist Chrisitianity" (synopsis).
It spotlights Lou Engle and the International House of Prayer's efforts to evangelize Uganda and see their view of sexual immorality legislated out of the country. Lou and other prayer missionaries gave open interviews in the documentary.
I first heard some of this rhetoric from Lou over ten years ago when I sat in a closed door meeting with him and several young leaders. It was 2004 in Pasadena, CA, and he was strategizing how to raise up an army of young people to effect his view of social change. Part of that was to pull young people out of the university systems and get them to the stadium Call events and International House of Prayer in Kansas City, then send these young people around the world.
What concerned me was not the evangelistic zeal or even passionate stadium events. These individuals really love God and their hearts are coming from an extremely pure place.
What concerned me was the lack of theological understanding and how it could adversely effect not just their movement but other nations and peoples.
Much of the ideology coming from IHOP and various related groups is based on dominion theology. Put simply, dominionists teach that the insitutions of this world should be taken over by people who represent their Christian viewpoint. Government should be modeled after Biblical laws to the exclusion of secular law. If this happens, the land is blessed. If this does not happen, the land is cursed and various disasters could ensue.
I believe this to be at best, reckless and at worse, a very dangerous ideology as the result is the rejection and even destruction of anyone who does not share their particular Christian worldview.
My friend Tina and I connected with the director of the film and his team. Roger Ross Williams is an Oscar winning director. He spoke about how he has developed a warm friendship with some of the IHOP missionaries in the documentary. He and his team are endeavoring to shine a light on what is happening in Uganda and build a more thoughtful, rational conversation in America and Africa.
He and his team also stated they are not against Evangelicals. In fact, high regard was given to the evangelical heart of reaching the poor and the suffering. What is being exposed at present time is the ideology that can result in the subjugation and deaths of people who believe differently.
I highly recommend viewing this film if it comes to your city.
I just finished watching the movie We Bought a Zoo. It's a lovely little story about a widower who packs up his two kids and moves to the California hills to rebuild, renovate and re-open a zoo that had been abandoned.
The principle character Benjamin is a risk-taker and adventurer but he hadn't ever dreamt of losing his wife. The story revolves around complicated family relationships and our struggles with loss and life and pain and somehow a message of hope breaks through saying that that our strength is just not in our ability to persist but as well in our ability to start over.
So many people are having to deal with loss and death and pain and starting over at the close of this year. I look at the lights of Hanukkah and the Advent of God-made-flesh in the world and I wonder at times if the Darkness is not making another horrendous effort to snuff out what goodness remains.
I mourn for the children and adults of Newtown and mourn for ourselves that our personal rights outweigh our sense of responsibility to community and the resulting suffering from this enormous lack of equanimity.
I wonder if peace is on earth or if it is ever to be found. Is the Kingdom coming or has it passed us by? Did we miss it among us while striving, fighting, debating, complaing, wanting, longing for more?
And yet I know that somehow indeed light shines in the darkness and it can only shine if I allow it to shine in me. So I take on garments of praise and gratitude amidst the sorrow that fills my heart of needless deaths, loss relationships, and unrealized futures.
I invite in the light to heal the dodgier parts of my soul and remind myself that I yet have family, friends, co-workers and ones I love around me and in addition to them I am never really ever alone. For thou art with me, the shepherd-psalmist scribed.
So I go to the nephews' basketball games and cheer and console them as they lose to a much taller team and tell them there will be another game again and they gave it their best and played and didn't give up.
And I remind myself that that indeed is the challenge for me because I'm still in this game and I must play and never give up because somewhere there is someone who needs a light to shine, a salve to heal, a heart to mend, a zoo to rebuild.
I've received amazing feedback on I Was Bullied over the last 48 hours. The article has had hundreds of reads and is being re-posted and used on different websites and forums.
Many adults who responded have shared with me how telling my story is giving them permission to heal from childhood wounds. I'm deeply touched by the feedback.
I'm going to be sharing some of the comments in an anonymous form and with permission as I think they will encourage people.
An educational specialist and students' advocate in the Philadelphia area sent me this:
I just read your post. It is absolutely beautiful! Do I have your permission to share it with some friends who I work with at the Education Foundation? We are planning to screen the movie, "Bully" sometime next year and have a film discussion and related book discussions as follow up. So many people have expressed an interest in the film already.
You so perfectly articulated the feelings of shame and the sting of those enduring "toxic words." I still carry very real insecurities that are a result of the three years I experienced ridicule and berating in my adolescence.
I absolutely agree with you about the power of forgiveness, but even an understanding of what might cause someone to reproach another human being doesn't erase the damage done to our self-image.
I am astounded by the numbers of young people suffering in silence today, and even more amazed that the bullies are still out there, hammering away at fragile souls. You definitely touched me with your story and I want to thank you for sharing it!
Yes friend, share this post with your school district and thanks for sharing your story with me and for working to prevent the kind of behavior that our country has tolerated for far too long!
I plan on seeing Bully. It's interesting to me the widespread support the movie is receiving from both the right and left in this country. It seems our culture has reached a tipping point when it comes to bullying.
Here's the trailer:
More info from the Bully Project website:
Bullying involves an individual or a group repeatedly harming another person—physically (e.g. punching or pushing), verbally (e.g. teasing or name-calling), or socially (e.g. ostracizing or spreading hurtful rumors).
Bullying often does not happen in an isolated context with a single tormentor and victim. There may be multiple bullies or multiple victims, and there are almost always peers, adults, and other community members who know about the bullying taking place.
Often, the victims of bullying are socially vulnerable because they have some characteristic that makes them different from the majority.
Young people who have physical or learning disabilities are also targeted more frequently, as well as students who are on the autism spectrum. Other times, there are no apparent characteristics that cause the target of bullying to be singled out by the tormentor. Regardless, the person being bullied does not know how or does not have the power to make it stop.
I recently watched the movie Invictus about how Nelson Mandela used rugby as one way to pull South Africans together, regardless of ethnic identity or political persuasion. The movie inspired me to believe for the impossible, especially when there seems to be so much vitriolic division in my own country.
I love these 8 lessons from Nelson Mandela on Leadership. The whole article can be found in Time Magazine here.
1. Courage is not the absence of fear - it's inspiring others to move beyond it.
2. Lead from the front - but don't leave your base behind.
3. Lead from the back - and let others believe they are in front.
4. Know your enemy - and learn about his favorite sport.
5. Keep your friends close - and your rivals even closer.
I enjoy films set in Southern culture and religion, especially when they are well done. I loved Robert Duvall in The Apostle a few years ago. I most recently enjoyed The Help and am told the book is even better.
I think Higher Ground looks worth-seeing as well.
The director Vera Farmiga states on the film's website:
Is it possible for faith and doubt to coexist? What is a healthy soul? What holds us back from inner growth? Christianity is the “location" of the film, not the subject, concern, or issue.
She goes from there to quote Rilke on "living the questions themselves" (one of my favorite quotes).
So with Southern religion, speaking in tongues, and struggles with love, relationships, God and doubt, this one looks like a must-see.
Recent Comments