Book Review and Social Justice

Another reader's discretion: this get's real.
I can hardly believe that it has been 2 weeks already in Uruguay. The time is flying! Yesterday I finished reading the book "Good News about Injustice" by Gary Haugen, founder of the International Justice Mission. It was truly an excellent book! I respect and find Haugen's views very wise because he is first and foremost a Christian who has sought to know God and whose heart breaks over the same things God's does, and he has also used his God-given gifts and talents to rescue and liberate suffering people around the globe. He is a man of great experience in the business world and has effectively started IJM which networks Christians who are highly experienced in fields of work such as lawyers, criminal investigators, etc to intervene on behalf of victims of injustice. What often happens is that missionaries will notice injustices but are unequipped to fight them or do not have the power or energy to do so alone. They can contact the IJM which will send professionals to investigate and verify the injustice and work to liberate the oppressed…all backed by prayer warriors that stay on US soil. For example, a missionary notices that several girls stop coming to the school she started. She hears rumors that they were abducted into a brothel. She can't just bust in there and free them, nor can she turn to the police who frequent the brothel. So she contacts the IJM who sends an investigator in there to get an undercover video of the police in the brothel and the video is turned over to the police's boss who cannot deny the evidence and the girls are freed.

This book is a heart-wrenching and encouraging read that challenges its readers to boldly step forth to fight injustice in any way they can from supporting missionaries to going to law school to clothing a homeless person. But the only reason it talks about any of this is because it is something that God wants to fight as well, and has chosen to use us in the process.

"Our calling does not stop with sharing the good news. All of us are also called to do something to care for the poor. If we aren't, then, asks the apostle John, how can the love of God be within us? (1 John 3:17). And we are all called to do something to seek justice for the oppressed. Why? Because along with mercy and faith, justice, Jesus said, is one of the 'more important matters,' one that none of us can neglect (Matthew 23:23)." ~p. 175

Haugen also says to claim through words or our lifestyle that proclaiming the gospel, helping the poor, and defending the abused isn't really "our thing," then we are making a "conscious decision to impoverish our spiritual life." (176). BOLDLY PUT.

On that note, my mind has been preoccupied as it runs from one seemingly crazy idea to the next, with interspersed whispers of self-doubt that big dreamers who want real change know too well. Allow me to try to recount what I'm thinking…the topic: what can I do, here, now, in Montevideo? Saturday I was driving with my new missionary friend Matt to this center that educates mothers on basic health topics and young children on avoiding sexual abuse. It was supposed to have opened yesterday…we went to waterproof the roof and worked with the American Women's Club or something…through which I made 2 friends from the US Embassy here. So anyways, on our way there, we picked up Matt's friend Luis who runs the place. We got to talking and I told Luis that I was studying photojournalism (or periodismo de fotografia) at UNC and he asked me if I would take a picture for an article someone in their organization wrote about a young girl who has a baby from when she was raped. Of course I said yes, psyched at how beautifully that fits into my love for God, photography, and the marginalized. I'm in the process of trying to coordinate a time for this photo. If this works out and I get to take this, this will be the most serious of any photography work I've done. I mean, I took pictures for my high school newspaper, but even some of the most serious pictures I took for The Howler pale in comparison to looking a rape survivor and her child in the eye through my lens to try to help them tell their story, a hard, painful memory that hopefully, after voiced to the public and perhaps other rape survivors, will serve some sort of purpose. And I have no doubt that it will, because God has been faithful in answering my prayers and the prayers of so many others on my behalf. A prayer that cries "I am here and willing! Use me!" So all this happened in the car ride before we even got there, and so now I'm thinking, "Well dang, maybe this photojournalism thing is truly what I'm supposed to be doing after all." As we continue the drive, we pass what appears to me to be piles of trash dumped on either sides of the road. I began to see dogs running around, then I noticed young children, and then their parents and "houses" as well. These tiny shacks that were open on one side were pathethic living conditions that one would expect to see in a displacement camp in Uganda, not a 10 minute drive from an upper-middle class neighborhood in Montevideo. Trash, people! They were living on top of and surrounded by trash!! Ok, so first this made me feel very thankful for the small apartment that a family of 3 has so kindly shared with me…for the warm water in the tiny shower and for the dresser I have in my room where I can put all Garnier Fructis shampoo, Neutrogena facial moisturizer, and my little purse that is full of pesos, even though I have to bend over pretty far to look into the mirror. I have 3 blankets on my bed that is scattered with books, my laptop, and a North Face jacket. AND I had more than my fair share of tasty food today and will be running it off tomorrow. OMIGOSH are you freaking kidding me? To think that I ever feel like I don't have enough is ridiculous! Ok, so that wasn't exactly a digression, but getting back to the point, along with tying it back in with what I've learned from Haugen's book is that it is a TRAGEDY for me to look at what I saw and to just feel a bit more warm and fuzzy and thankful when I go to sleep (fairly) warm at night (houses aren't heated here). We're not supposed to look at the suffering Christ hanging on the cross and say "Sucks for him. At least I'll never claim to be a King of the Jews." Instead, I believe that we are supposed to look at Christ's suffering and allow that to change us in a radical way, we're talking life transformation, not just a warm-fuzziness. Please correct me if I'm wrong in making this comparison, but I believe that we are shown suffering for the same reason…so that it will transform us if we let it rather than occupy our thoughts for a few minutes or seconds once every few days or weeks when we watch the news or walk past a homeless person, speeding up and avoiding eye contact. I believe that it is supposed to transform us because that is what it is doing in me. It didn't used to be this way. It used to be easier to write off poor people as lazy and the homeless and druggies, but not so much over the last few years, because as with any stereotype, when you meet someone who you used to classify in a certain group and realize that they don't fit the formula, you start to question a lot…and the scariest part, the part that screws up your emotions, your time, and your wallet, is when you start to have compassion on that person. Compassion has mostly just taken things from me such as those which I just mentioned, but it gives back love, a really strong love.

Dang this is long :). Please keep reading though. I am away from home and have to tell my story, tell their story.

So now I'm thinking, "What can I do for the people who live in trash?" As we had driven past, Matt mentioned "Now this would be a great spot to take pictures." Really? Go in there? But it'll probably smell….oh shoot, there goes my self-righteous attitude again. Yeah I'd really love to take pictures there. I want to talk to them in my limited Spanish, want to see what the kids do during the day, heck, I want to see what the parents do. I want to take the pictures to the government of Montevideo or to the upper class and say "Are you going to let your brothers and sisters live like this?" If they don't listen, I'll take it back to my home church. It's like my role as a photographer, if I am to do this, is similar to that of the missionary I mentioned at the very beginning. It isn't to give them money or build them houses, because there isn't much in that department that I can do on my own. What I can do is retell what could possibly be a compelling story to the public, and get people much more equipped and skilled to act than I am. Wouldn't that be nice and entirely ideal? Well why can't it happen? That's what I asked Ana. She told me that although it is the government's fault that some people don't live in real houses, a lot of people choose that lifestyle. Why? There are supposedly plenty of centers open that will take people in, give them showers and food, and help equip them with what they need to get a basic house built to start a new life away from the trash. But there is a schedule at those places. Often times, people there have to wake up at 7am to start their days…not entirely unreasonable, but when you live amongst the trash and don't have a job or obligations, you can sleep as late as you want. So for some people, it's laziness that keeps them from going. But I'm sure some of them have to guard their "houses" and possessions. Yes, that could surely be true. That's one reason. At this point in our conversation over dinner, I felt helpless. What am I, what is the world supposed to do if some people don't want to change. "That's where God is truly the only one who has the power to act. We can do all we want to help out, but we can't change people's mentalities. But we can pray that God will change them." Dang, that girl is wise. But the world isn't gonna buy it…that ancient systems and commonly held beliefs will change by prayer. Well little voice in my head that may be playing Devil's Advocate but is stifling my newfound voice, you can just be quiet because I have an idea, let's prove the world wrong. (Now addressing my readers rather than myself, I apologize for the schizophrenia…) Some study was done that looked at people who were ill who received prayer and prayed themselves for healing as well verses those who did neither. Results showed that one group did not heal more quickly than the other…so basically, that prayer is a bunch of bull. Well that was a study on faith, which defines itself as being certain of what is unseen (Hebrews 11:1), and I'm pretty sure that a study doesn't accept things that are unseen as evidence, so I think that study is bull.

So where to from here…."We want to be good Christians, but deep down we trust that only the power of the state and its militaries and markets can really make a difference in the world…..Amid all the buzz, we are ready to turn off our TVs, pick up our Bibles, and reimagine the world"-Shane Claiborne in "Jesus for President" p. 20. Vamos! Adonde? Let's begin by opening our eyes to suffering, letting ourselves have compassion on the oppressed, know that they are our brothers and sisters under God, let that move us, respond in practical ways in the vocation, location, or calling that God has placed on our hearts, and, above all, let us fix our eyes upon God, seek to know Him and His mysterious ways, and be bold in our prayers! Perhaps a summary of our response to suffering in the world in one sentence is too simple. Or perhaps it is what we need to go back to. The simple, the basic, the bottom, the radical.