CHRISTIAN PEACEMAKER TEAMS - A DELEGATION TO HEBRON

In 2006 I traveled with a delegatation of Christian Peacemaker Teams to Paslestine and Israel. I recently found notes I made while in Hebron.

August 5, 2006 - I visited Hebron as a team member of a delegation of Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT). Tonight, we were alerted to something happening two doors down. Up to six Israeli soldiers entered a house and began a search. By invitation, three CPT members entered the house to accompany the familily living there. When directed to leave by the soldiers the CPT members refused. The soldiers searched the home and left. It seemed to be a routine search, maybe even a training mission for new soilders. The men waived their automatic weapons as if they were expecting a terrorist to sprang on them. I observed some of this from an adjourning terrace.

As we began our trip to Jerusalem the next day, we left behind a town where people live under occupation. In this place some people are largly confined to their apartments as prisoners would be to their prison cells when darkness comes. Freedom of movement is largely a dream. Streets are empty at night with shops locked by 7:00 PM. The sounds of children playing, men talking, women calling from balcony to balcony are missing. Only the sounds of dogs chasing the one is heat breaks the stillness of the night. And from the roof tops one can see several observation posts. There are walls everywhere.

HEALTH CARE DEBATE - THE MISSING VOICES OF CHRISTIANS

The President and some members of Congress took a step in the right direction with health care reform. Some of the loudest objections to that health care step comes from those who have good health care plans, and even from some wealthy people. Health care in America is failing those who are on the margins of society. The health care system fails the poor. According to the US Census Bureau "The number of Americans without health insurance rose to 46.3 million last year as people began losing jobs and coverage in the current recession." The fear of getting sick and needing a doctor or hospitilization is very real. Heath care discrepancies perpetuate themselves from generation to generation and few people are able to break out of their predefined destinies.

Christians have too often thrown their lot in with free market Darwinism. In this system high performers rapidly outcompete low performers, accumulate collective power, use this power to entrench themselves in institutions, and marginalize the rest. This contributes, I think, to the expanding influence of prosperity preachers and even faith healers, who offer affordable, alternative cures. Historically, Christian have been in the public square advocating for justice. Christians gave voice to the Civil Rights Movement, and to ending the Vietnam War. Apartheid and Anti-Semitism were declared by some Christians to be heresies for various reasons. More Christian voices are needed in the health care debate.

This is one of the biggest issues facing the USA today, and Cristian voices are missing. As Christians and citizens, we must call for a more civil tone in this debate and call for a return to the goal of the common good. Christians can give encouragement to elected leaders, calling on them to create structures that serve the needs of some whom Jesus loved best, and once spoke of in these words: "Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” (Matt. 25:40 NRSV).

ALBERTINA WALKER - "QUEEN OF GOSPEL"

Before we had a t.v. in our home in rural Opelousas, Louisiana we listened to Bill "Hossman" Allen on WLAC Nashville, Tennessee. Every Sunday night the 50,000 Watt CBS affiliate signal reached most of the Eastern and Midwestern United States. African American listeners in the Deep South were the intended audience of the program. It was on Bill Allen's Sunday evening broadcast that I first heard the names Thomas A. Dorsey, Mahalia Jackson, Sallie Martin, Kenneth Morris, Rosetta Tharpe, and Albertina Walker. Albertina was singing with the Williams Singers and touring with Willie Webb and The Robert Anderson Singers. In 1951 at age twenty two Albertina organized the CARAVANS. The rest is an amazing part of Gospel Music history.

Of course, we remember Albertina Walker through songs like "Please Be Patient With Me", "Lord Keep Me Day By Day", "Joy Will Come", "Put A Little Love In Your Heart", and "I Can Go To God In Prayer", all recorded in the 1970s.

Albertina Walker’s music ministry inspiried several generations of Americans, and her voice reached a worldwide audience. She loved gospel music and worked for it’s preservation. In 1988 she created The Albertina Walker Scholarship Foundation, a scholarship that provides financial assistance to college students who have completed at least one year of music study.

She is already missed, but her voice and performances are clicks away on YouTube. We can also preserve her legacy by purchasing her music.

CONDEMMING HARMFUL GENDER STEREOTYPES

Tyler Clementi, a Rutgers University freshman committed suicide after his roommate used a webcam to broadcast a sexual encounter involving Clementi with another male student. It is claimed that Dharun Ravi streamed the video live, and broadcast to the 150 followers of his Twitter feed details of his voyeuristic escapade, outing Clementi in the process: "Roommate asked for the room till midnight. I went into molly's room and turned on my webcam. I saw him making out with a dude. Yay." Tyler had no idea he was being streamed live. Dharun Ravi, and Molly Wei, a friend, have been charged with invasion of privacy for spying on Clementi, and could serve five years in prison. Tyler obviously could not handle having people know his sexual orientation.

On September 19, Seth Walsh, a 13-year-old student at Jacobsen Middle School in Tehachapi, Calif. hung himself from a tree in his backyard, after a bullying incident. Two 11-year-old Glenwood Middle School students, outside of Toledo, Ohio have been charged with assault after breaking the arm of an 11 year old male cheerleader who they thought was gay.Tyler Wilson was picked on by classmates. He told a local ABC news channel that students would wait for him after school, teasing him and taunting him. Across the nation bullying has resulted in tragedy, with youth who were picked on because of their perceived sexual orientation driven to suicide.

Picking on youth because of their perceived sexual orientation, or beating kids up because they break gender stereotypes should be condemned not only by school administrators and teachers, but by religious institutions and entire communities. These attacks illustrate why we should ask our congressional representatives to vote in favor of the Safe Schools Improvement Act 2010 (H.R. 2262) , to make sure that students like Tyler Wilson and Seth Walsh don't have to fear for their physical safety just by attending school.