Mixed Thoughts on the DREAM act

The internet is an interesting thing. It is a tool that has great potential for good, and astounding potential for evil. American freedom of speech is an interesting thing too. I think I said in a previous post on here that under American democracy, which claims to be representing the American people in its legislation, every citizen has a right and responsibility to speak out when that government promotes legislation that he/she opposes. The internet is a forum by which individuals can voice their dissent.

Here are some concerns I have with recent legislation. The DREAM act was recently shot down by congress by a close 52-44 vote, a mere 8 votes away from the 60 needed for it pass. (You can read about this and the DREAM act itself here http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/20816.html) The bill has been advertised by many as a bill promoting amnesty to young immigrants. It would provide immigrants who graduate high school to gain citizenship in one of two ways: 1)through completing two years of college and 2) through serving in the US military. The bill, if passed, could hypothetically provide US citizenship for around 1,000,000 currently illegal immigrants. We're talking about a lot of people being affected by this bill.

The Migration Policy Institute, a non-partisan immigration think tank, has estimated the Dream Act would allow about 279,000 currently undocumented residents to attend college or join the military. About 715,000 illegal immigrants between the ages of 5 and 17 who are now in the country would become eligible, according to the research group. ~ The Chicago Tribune

Now, here is where this post gets sketchy. I'm about to share some of my opinions on this matter. Let me preface them by suggesting that this is a highly complex issue. I am also not a US immigrant, and I am coming from y own particular background. I am in complete support of a bill that promotes amnesty. If it were up to me, I would promote unconditional amnesty. God clearly commands that we are to treat the alien with respect, dignity and love. He constantly reminds the Israelites to be kind to aliens because they were aliens in Egypt. I think this ethic continues into the New Testament. When a legislation makes it easier for aliens to enter a country illegally, there is not a problem with immigration, there is a problem with legislation. I agree that immigration policy needs reformation. I do not think, however, that the DREAM act is the great giver of freedom that it claims to be.

The US is in the midst of wars in the Middle East that have our resources and military personnel stretched. In the midst of this, US secretary of defense Robert gates just recently announced a 2.63 Billion dollar military expansion project. The plan is to add an additional 74,000 individuals to the US military by 2010. Where will these recruits come from? Some argue that they will come by increasing incentives for those already in the military. The sad reality is, however, that the military already targets poor minority men. There is no doubt in my mind that his practice will continue. If the DREAM act had been passed, approximately 1,000,000 would have been eligible for CONDITIONAL US citizenship through military service. Many of these immigrents would have been forced to serve in the US military's unjust wars in order to gain citizenship. Many of them would have died serving a country which they were not even citizens of. Sound familiar? Thats because we did this to blacks during the civil war and the revolutionary war...

The shame in all of this is that those immigrants heading to college have been denied citizenship as well. If the DREAM act had been reworked in order to allow unconditional citizenship, I would be in full support. Granting citizenship through college is better than no citizenship at all. Granting citizenship only after military service is modern slavery and demonstrates our hatred toward immigrants.

Musings on Art, Stasis, Determinism and Hope

I've been reading Taking it to the Streets by Dr. Corbitt of Eastern University. The book is an inspiring introduction to arts-based community-development, a subject I've become recently fascinated in for several reasons. Just by way of background, I grew up as an art lover. I remember early childhood gifts of paint brushes and paint; I remember time passed over homemade easels and rolls of butcher paper. Throughout high-school I took as many art classes as I could. For parts of my Sophomore and Junior years I dreamed of studying at art school in the visual arts. Unfortunately, where I grew up there were no real examples of faith-integrated arts programs, or art-based evangelism. I had a hard time reconciling my love for drawing/painting and my desire to share the gospel to the unreached. I saw the two concepts in a false dichotomy, art or evangelism.

Stasis is stagnation. Stasis is things remaining as they are, unchanged. When something is static, it is cemented, fixed in stone. Stasis, in its essence, is a lack of change. When we see the world around us as static, we perceive the world as incapable of change. Seeing the world as static is a hopeless, cynical and desperate (full of despair) way of looking at life. It is also blatantly anti-Christian and anti-hope. Seeing people, churches and communities as static is seeing them as hopeless. We say it all the time in Aliquippa: the Christian faith is not compatible with hopeless people, hopeless churches, or hopeless communities.

I've often expressed to Joel and others that I have hard time believing in determinism of all kinds. In fact, I would go so far as to argue that determinism is evil and wrong. What do I mean by determinism? Determinism is the belief that our actions, lives, feelings, etc. are all somehow determined by something. We live in a society that embraces many forms of determinism. Anthropologists suggest our actions are governed by cultural determinism. Scientists suggest that our thoughts, moods and impulses are governed by biological determinism. Psychologists suggest that our thoughts and actions are governed by chemical determinism. Sociologists believe our reactions are governed by social influences, upbringing and demographics. Reformed theologians suggest our fates are theologically determined (predestination). I am not arguing that these different areas (biological makeup, chemicals, upbringing, etc.) do not have any effect on the way we think and act. What I am suggesting, however, is that when we limit these things to determinism, we are essentially believing in stasis. Determinism inevitably leads to a belief in stasis, a belief that things are determined and fixed. Determinism and stasis stand in direct opposition to hope. When we see the world as static, we see the world as beyond the hope of transformation.

My Life as Delivery Boy

Well, here I am back in Toccoa for my senior, yep SENIOR year of college. The semester is officially on its way as the second week of the semester approaches its midpoint. My classes this semester turned out to be easier than those most recent, and so I've decided to try and work this semester. I applied at Wal-Mart, decided not to follow up, and ended up getting hired as pizza delivery man at Pizza Hut. I've only worked three days, but so far I love it. I make decent money with tips, and I get to drive around listening to music. Aside from that, I've met some interesting people on deliveries and at work.

One of the hardest things about attending school for me the last three years has been the lack of real human interaction. Over the course of my years here at Toccoa, I probably spent on average an hour a week off campus. Its nice to be interacting with people off campus on a regular basis. It helps me keep things in perspective and gosh I'm going to learn a lot.

Take my co-worker Billy (not his real name) for example. Billy is 26-28 years old, a Georgia native, grew up right around here. He's been working at Pizza Hut for a couple weeks now, so next to me he is the newest employee. He is a fellow delivery man. My first day at work he was asking me where I was from and over the course of the conversation I revealed that I am senior at Toccoa, originally from New York. The conversation began as small talk but then Andy asked whether Toccoa Falls College was Christian college. I quickly responded that it was, but not everyone there is a Christian. It was as if I needed to defend the fact that I went there by explaining that not EVERYONE there is a Christian. It was a distancing, defensive response, and I recognized immediately how uncomfortable I felt with him and my other coworkers knowing that I am a believer. I'm a very analytical person, and even to this moment I am not sure whether I was worried about revealing my faith, or just worried about revealing my faith so soon. I think I envisioned my coworkers learning about my faith, but gradually and over time. But this was not the case. The conversation didn't really go to much further that first night, we were both engaged with different tasks and so things were left essentially at that.

After analyzing things a bit more afterward, I realized my need to repent. My faith is a part of my life, a big part of my life, and people like Billy are the people I want to live among, serve and build relationships with. I prayed over the next day or so that I would have the opportunity to expound a bit more, and to be more honest with my beliefs. That prayer was answered today. Billy brought up matters of faith tonight at work and was very open with his beliefs and convictions. He revealed to me that he was baptized as a Pentecostal, had a bizzare, far out (his words), experience that sort of freaked him out and scared him from the church. Since then he goes to church occasionally but not really regularly. He confessed that he doesn't really think that God has one name or that God is exclusively Christian. He mentioned that perhaps sincere Buddhists go to heaven as well. It was an interesting conversation and I felt really comfortable with him. I felt like my role tonight was more as listener, so I didn't give my convictions about things, though I hope to sometime in the near future. I want to make sure I have the right to share my beliefs. Anyway, all that to say...I'm excited about this process, and I admitedly have a lot to learn.

People in this world are seeking something. Billy's story is evidence of that. Why was I so shocked to here someone interested in matters of faith? Billy said something very interesting to me tonight about the church. Since working in Aliquippa, I've had a lot of time to think about the institutional church, and in diologeing with Pastor Joel, Pastor Jim, and Pastor Paul about the subject, I've had a lot of time to think about how distant it has become from society. Tonight Billy told me that he doesn't get church. He doesn't understand it and he doesn't really like it. Some of the things there bother him, make him feel uncomfortable, and seem extra to him. Tonight as we were discussing this he said something profound...he said, "I think this is the church right here, Billy and Dean talking, that is the church." How amazing that this seemingly naive redneck Toccoan who told me tonight it took him ten years to get his GED (I'm being deliberate with this description to prove a point) understands the church better than most "Christians" do! Jesus said wherever two or more are gathered in his name, there he is also, there is the church...This guy GOT it. Anyway, all that to say, I'm excited to begin forming relationships like this. I'll be posting more about work in the coming weeks I am sure. Some might be lighter than this, I've got some great stories about deliveries...

YouTube

Here it is folks. This is the video that my 5th and 6th grade class made this summer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOK_nnZzBY4

Summer 2007

I did not blog this entire summer. I'm now paying the consequences for it. How do you explain an entire summer without being reductionistic or interminable? Thats the dilemna I am facing at present, and my proposed solution is the following eclectic summary of the summer's events in Aliquippa. This is certainly not a holistic picture of my summer, but it is an attempt to cover those things most formitive, or at least of initial significance after this summer. In many ways processing the summer's events.

Now that I am done qualifying...

Responsibility
This summer I was the Assistant Program Coordinator for Aliquippa Impact's summer day camp program. I was the immediate staff supervisor to six full time staff members and six interns throughout the course of this summer. I was also, at times, responsible for the safety and order of day camp (45+ kids grades 1-6). Without going into detail, this was more responsibility than I have ever had in my life. I've never been in a real leadership position before. I liked it, but it was a huge challenge for me. Leadership is taxing. Just the mental burden of having so much responsibility can be a monstrous mental strain. I often found myself mentally asphixiated.

Teaching
Aliquippa Impact exists to help serve at risk youth and their families in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania. One of the ways in which A.I. goes about this is by attempting to supplement the local school district with additional educational opportunities. Aliquippa Impact primarily focuses on acedemic areas in which the school district has been unable to pour money into, namely, arts and cultural literacy. This summer I tought the fifth and sixth grade class during the A.I.'s summer day camp program. Again, the thrust of this summer program was cultural literacy. Each week of camp focused on a specific region of the world. My job was to teach about these specific regions, as well as about some of the various countries and cultures located therein. It was a challenge to creativly educate students without turning summer camp into summer school. THere were times that I feel like I succeeded, and there were certainly times which I failed.

Perhaps the week that I will remember the most was the week that we focused on the continent of Africa. Even the most ethnocentric American is aware of some of the complex and tragic issues surrounding the continent of Africa including genocide, HIV/AIDS, malaria, starvation, etc. Even though many of our kids are from less than desirable economic situations, the students in my class really latched on to the idea of suffering in Africa. It was amazing to see our kids filled with compassion, frustration and anger at the world's problems. They wrote letters to Representative Jason Altmire expressing their concern. They talked about and interacted with complex issues. As a class project we made a video to raise awareness about genocide in Africa. I hope to have it up on YouTube soon, when I do a link will be posted.

Without going to much longer, I thoroughly enjoyed my time as a teacher. I loved researching these issues and teaching them in a way that 10 and 11 year old children could understand them. Making things fun was a huge challenge, but all in all, I think the kids really learned this summer. One thing is for certain. I love teaching and I want to continue when I can. Starting in fall 2008 I'll be co-directing an after school program with A.I. focusing on Global Education. I'm sure I'll be posting more on that as research continues.

Center for Leader Multiplication
The CLM is a new non-profit emerging in Aliquippa Pennsylvania. You can read more about it at the CLM website www.leadermultiplication.org. Starting June 1, 2008 I will be working as a CLM associate in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania. Each CLM associate is responsible to plant an organic, self-replicating church in Aliquippa over the course of their tenure with the organization. I will be working in conjunction with Aliquippa Impact starting art-based community programs while working as a church planter with CLM. I'll be writing about this a lot more as time progresses as well. One of the first things I will be working on is art-based street presence. I'll be defining that in a subsequent blog.

The Holy Spirit
The most misunderstood, and mentally challenging aspect of Christianity might just be the work of the Holy Spirit. Over the course of my time with Aliquippa Impact I've had the great opportunity to dialogue with people about the work of the Holy Spirit. While this is certainly not something I have reached total understanding of, I have become certain of two thing: (1) The Holy Spirit empowers Christians to live everyday and (2) the Holy Spirit manifests in the believer in supernatural and sometimes miraculous ways for the sake of the gospel.

"The age of youth was created for heroic service and not for pleasure."

This quote hangs in the living room of our staff house on 829 Franklin Avenue, Aliquippa, PA. Although it has been there all summer, it hasn't always held significant meaning for me. As the summer began, five weeks ago for me, I was excited to be here in Aliquippa doing something familiar. Working with the summer day camp (which currently constitutes Aliquippa Impact, Inc.'s main ministry) last summer was a joy and a challenge. Despite the summer's vast challenges, on the whole I thoroughly enjoyed myself. It was a pleasure to be with the kids most of the time. It was in the anticipation of this joy that I was looking forward to City Camp 07.

Well this summer has been different. I'm working a similar position with a bit more responsibility. Staff has changed, but everyone is totally reliable and competent. There are a lot more kids involved in the program this summer, and that has definitely added to the challenge of day camp.

Challenge. Challenge is probably the best way to describe this summer. Last summer was a challenge for me, but somehow I think if this summer had been just like last summer, it would not have been a challenge for me. It would have been to predictable, to comfortable. Prior to this summer I never knew what it felt like to be tired, exhausted and hopeless. It seems like challenges are at every turn, like there is always something else to remember or to do. It seems like there is never enough time to get everything done, let alone sleep and rest. I'm wiped out most of the time.

But somehow, there is no other place I would rather be. This is the most fulfilling thing I have ever done with my time and life. But, I hate it most of the time. It doesn't make sense at all, but somehow through this hardship there is joy, peace and contentment. But those things are not feelings. Somehow my feelings are the exact opposite of what we often think of as joy and peace and contentment.

Somehow this is what is meant by heroic service. There is no feeling of pleasure associated with it. Granted, sometimes my feelings do seem to be pleasure when I am working at day camp, but those feelings come and go just as quickly. This summer, most of the time my feelings are quite the opposite of pleasure. But, I know I am still serving, and I know somehow God is still using what I am trying to do. Most of the time God is using me even when I don't want to be at day camp. Its as if just by being present at day camp God is using me. Some days I feel like all I can do is show up, I don't have the energy to do anything else.

Is what I am doing heroic service? I don't think so. I don't think we are really doing anything spectacular here. But God is working through us, and in spite of us. And I'm more content here than I have ever been even though I am more tired and more miserable some days than I have ever been...

As I browse the Facebook's of my friends from high school I am reminded of how rare this idea is. Its easy to see that many of the kids who sat with me in class are pursuing pleasure. They may even find it sometimes. But those feelings are so fleeting. Feelings come and go so rapidly that I know there must be more to life than them. Somehow true peace and joy are choices that go beyond our temporal feelings. Somehow heroic service IS what we were made for.

Faith and Service

My junior year of college is over. I made the drive home from Georgia yesterday and arrived at the house that I grew up in around 8:15pm, after leaving at 4:00am. The lengthy drive allowed for some good time to reflect and anticipate the coming summer. Today, as I walked through the forest behind my house, the forest where I played as a child, I pondered my upbringing. Walking those familiar paths, smelling those familiar smells, has a way of making a person reflect.

I was raised, and was privileged to be raised, by Christian parents in a loving, safe environment. Faith came easy to me. I had a loving church gamily, positive Christian role models and a knack for learning. In our blessed American home, freedom of religion and economic affluence (at least compared to the rest of the world) seemed to come hand in hand. All in all, my faith cost me nothing, and I saw no problems with this fact. My limited experiences with service—a pair of short-term, two-week trips to Central America—were positive, and perhaps formative experiences, but they did little in effecting life change in me or those of whom I was allegedly serving.

It wasn’t really until last summer at the age of 20, that I realized the cost of Christian discipleship. In Aliquippa I found myself needed, challenged and overwhelmingly in-over-my-head. Here there were children deprived of safety, education and ultimately childhood itself. Here were people without hope, economic stability, or a future. Here, for the first time in my life, I was confronted with the holistic and tragic effects of sin on human life. It was from this I was spared and saved as a child, and by the grace of God alone.

In addition to this realization, I found that as I stepped out in the faith and Christian service that Christ calls us to, something profound began to happen inside of me. The faith that I’d claimed as a child became real to me, as it manifested itself in action and service. I’d believed what the Bible taught, for sure, but it meant nothing to me until it was acted on. Dietrich Bonhoeffer famously said, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” I’d believed in the call, but it was not until Aliquippa that I began to die.