thinking mission

ethics in mission

There isn’t usually a lot of press coverage to missionary stories, but the

Haiti child adoption case is coverage of the kind we can do without! And it will return to screen and internet as and when further court appearances happen. 

 

What began seemingly as an act of compassion soon fell foul of laws designed to protect vulnerable children.  This is a reminder in itself that mission workers are not above the law.  Best practice exists in order to protect vulnerable children and adults from those who would prey upon them.  Whether the American group were just naïve, as I suspect, there comes a point when naiveté becomes culpable. 

 

But matters took a turn for the worse over the weekend when it emerged that one of the leaders of the group, Laura Silsby, is a woman with a chequered past. It appears she has a long history of owing money, has been the subject of as many as eight civil lawsuits and 14 unpaid wage claims. Further, she was due to face a jury trial later this month over £26,000 she allegedly owed to a former employee.  All of a sudden it makes a defence case look trickier than might have been imagined.  And the question must be asked, where’s the oversight? Where are the checks and balances?  Where are the interviews, the references, the personal testimonies that might authenticate the appropriateness of someone leading a mission team?

 

I don’t recount this to state that BMS is immune from the possibility of making mistakes.  But I could quote you chapter and verse that shows how we follow best practice in attempting to eradicate the chances of something like this happening.  And I hope it never does.

 

Over the years many of us within BMS have been in situations following earthquake, famine, flood or cyclone.  Its not uncommon to see parents who were pitifully poor to begin with, and are now in the deepest distress.  And in their utter and complete helplessness they press their children on us and ask us to take them and give them the chance of a better life.  Just a few years ago I remember one of our young action team members in Calcutta distressed that this had happened to her following a cyclone in Orissa.  She had looked into the eyes of a young Mum whose despair was such that she was even willing to hand over her child.  The mother’s action wasn’t evidence of a lack of love – this was sacrificial love of the very highest order! 

 

But I believe we must resist any thought that whisking these children away for life in an orphanage or adoption in another country is the right moral choice. The right thing to do is change the circumstances of the family.  Easier said than done, I know, but nonetheless right. 

 

Behind such moments are issues of power, and power in mission is one of the most important issues to grapple with. 

 

As much as I long for men, women and children to come to faith in Jesus Christ, I can see that sometimes I may have to keep silent.  If my immediate task is handing out bottles of water to people dying of thirst, I have immense power over these people.  And I abuse that power if my offer of water is directly or indirectly linked to a call to conversion.  The ends do not justify the means, even if the ends are people expressing faith in Christ but the means have been manipulative.

 

Sure, some of the Haitian children may have been orphans, but two-thirds of the 33 children had living parents!  Haitian mothers may have asked these people to take their children to a safe place, even to give them a better life, but is it right to allow the post-traumatic powerlessness of those mothers and fathers to become the trigger for taking their children away?  Do we think Haitians love their children less than we do?  Do you think this would be their first choice once the survivors have begun to recover from their trauma? 

 

Reports of thousands of well-meaning parents in Europe and the US offering to adopt these children are understandable and laudable.  But many, the Independent reports, are willing to pay fees as high as US$30,000 to do so, and doesn't that change the picture!

 

With local churches increasingly undertaking mission visits and mission projects themselves, a not unwelcome feature of Baptist church life, a course in mission ethics should be mandatory.

 

David Kerrigan

making sense of Copenhagen

Articles in the media over the last few days abound with phrases like ‘Brokenhagen’, and ‘No Hopenhagen.’ Pundits far wiser than me are struggling to know whether anything useful was actually achieved.  The BBC and the Independent newspaper have useful articles but no-one believes it was anything but a lost opportunity.  One quote captures the bleak judgement: “if the planet was a bank, they would have rescued it!”  So much for the disappointment.  But what now?

 

I have been reading lots of articles over the last few days and trying to see some signs of hope, and sure enough, there are some.  OK, the gains were small compared to what was possible, but there were some gains.  However, what I have begun to realise is that in a curious way, Brokenhagen might just be a blessing in disguise. 

 

I can only speak personally, but if the summit had produced a really ground-breaking set of climate change proposals, or even a plan that was closer to what was needed but not quite the full shilling, I for one might have concluded “that’s it, problem fixed”.  And from then on it might have been business as normal. No lifestyle changes needed... no personal engagement... crisis over.

 

That’s not an option now.  The road ahead will demand a superhuman effort on behalf of millions.  It will involve a mix of lifestyle changes, table-thumping insistence, rational argument, and (I hope) non-violent protest that together make it clear that anyone elected to office in this country or others has to be serious about climate change.

 

And it will demand more of us personally (including me personally) because the easy option (let the leaders sort it out) hasn’t worked.

 

David Kerrigan

changing climate - changing lifestyles

The UN Copenhagen Climate Conference begins tomorrow, coughing and spluttering to the start line like a soot-filled factory chimney .  Who will be there, and who won’t has been the subject of great speculation. So too the underlying science, with leaked e-mails being used and abused to suit the purposes of the thermosceptics.  Whilst every effort has been made to downplay expectations, the summit may yet make significant progress towards a far-reaching replacement for Kyoto, even if the binding agreement only comes next year.  

Politicians get a bad press much of the time.  Sometimes it’s deserved. Sometimes it isn’t. Often they are simply trying to get as much as they can out of an imperfect process, and this is one such example.  In fact its the politics more than the science which has occupied so much time and effort. 

I'm sat in Delhi airport as I write, about to return to the UK.  India is considered to be the third largest polluter in the world as measured by its actual emissions, so here you see the problem writ large.  With one-fifth of the world’s population, hundreds of millions of India’s people live in chronic poverty. 

But India is changing, and changing fast.  There is a huge emerging middle-class in the urban centres, with considerable wealth to be seen.  The October 2010 Commonwealth Games will be in Delhi and everywhere in the city seems to be under construction.  The stadiums and sports infrastructure are nearing completion, but the centrepiece is the Delhi Metro .  This has gradually begun to expand, spider-like, across the city.  Mass-transport for millions will benefit this clogged city for years to come.

These projects consume enormous amounts of energy, and cement and steel manufacturing are hardly low-carbon processes.  But such projects are essential for a growing economy, and along the way they provide employment for hundreds of thousands of people.  Persuading India to cut emissions, which it is ready to do, cannot be at the expense of reasonable economic progress.  They argue that we have had 200 years of industrial polluting to get to where we are today, so who are we to preach to others.

So how is the circle to be squared?  “The” answer will in fact be several answers. Technology promises much, not least with hydrogen cell technology holding out a possible alternative to oil-based fuels, and maybe even carbon-capture on a large scale. Recycling and low energy consuming products will make a contribution too.  But one of the main answers relates to our lifestyles.  If we fly less, consume less, and become more content with what we have rather than always have an eye for what we don’t have, the world will literally be a better place.  I don’t know about you, but putting that into practice is difficult. 

At BMS, we have started to do what we can.  Seven years ago several of our staff members started persuading everyone to recycle what we could.  They were coined the “Green Police” and the name stuck! (Thanks to Jenny, Gwyn, Doobs and a host of others!) Their dogged perseverance changed hearts and minds and made a huge difference within the mission.  Woe to anyone who doesn’t recycle within BMS today!  Everything has its place – plastic, paper, cardboard, batteries, even the tea-bags go for composting. We’ve sourced our electricity from green suppliers.  We’ve cut out a lot of face to face meetings in the UK especially, using Skype and conference calls.  We’ve offset all our air travel by planting trees in a gold-standard forestry project in Ghana, and along with BUGB and the Baptist Union of Scotland we’re moving as quickly as we can towards carbon-neutral Assemblies.  In all of this we’ve been given invaluable help by our partners  A Rocha.

But, of course, I am not suggesting that we have really cracked this issue.  It’s not just that our contribution is small – every individual, family and organisation can only make a small contribution.  The really big issue is how to adapt to a lifestyle where we consume less.  In one sense it’s easy – just do it!  “Live simply that others might simply live!”  But simple things are often just not simple.  You want to lose weight?  Eat less exercise more!  You want to be free of your addiction to drugs, tobacco or alcohol?  Just stop!  Oh, if only it was that simple.

It’s often said that the real answer is motivation.  And in this, as Christians, surely we have an advantage.  Committed to the Lordship of Christ, he is the one about whom it is said “all things were created by him and for him" (Col 1:16).  To paraphrase Elaine Storkey – the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, and we’d better look after it because he’ll want it back in good shape!

And in addition to this, our concern for humanity, our sisters and brothers with whom we share this world, millions of whom live in poverty, should persuade us to adopt a simplicity agenda. 

So, as Copenhagen comes and goes, can I encourage you to do two things.  Firstly, remember to pray for Gordon Brown and others who will need wisdom, skill and courage to get as much out of this summit as we can.  I wrote to Gordon Brown recently, a letter co-signed by many of our international partners, and I promised him we would pray.  Irrespective of your politics, I don’t think you’ll need persuading to pray.

But check out part of our website too – we have recently developed an area that looks at the whole issue of Simplicity.   There are some great links there that are worth exploring.  Do what you can, however small, and as millions do likewise, maybe Copenhagen 2009 will prove to be more significant than the doommongers predict.

David Kerrigan

courage needed

The Israel Government today approved the construction of a further 900 homes in the settlement of Gilo in East Jerusalem.  This is land occupied during the 1967 conflict, and deemed illegal under international law.  This is another blow to any hopes of Israeli-Palestinian talks any time soon.  Any prospect of a two-State solution in the Middle East

is more distant than ever.  And as for peace in the wider region, dream on!   

 

The BBC reports that the US Government is ‘dismayed’, not least because it had made a personal plea for the construction to be halted.  Others will simply say ‘no surprise there’ and wonder that anyone could have been optimistic after so many false dawns. 

 

But the difference this time is not that the Israeli leadership views things differently – Benjamin Netanyahu is a hawk if ever there was one – but the American leadership certainly does.  President Obama was, and remains, a breath of fresh air when it comes to seeing old problems differently.  So this is a calculated act of defiance that changes the game.

 

Israel will not have taken this step unless it felt Obama was somehow weakened.  Look across the Atlantic for the evidence.  Netanyahu will be buoyed by the dip in the polls back in the States that show Obama has lost the early air of invincibility.  And we can be sure that Netanyahu is in contact with right-wing Republicans who sense Obama's fallibility and believe he can be defeated, even in three years time.

 

What has this to do with mission?  Well, if mission aims to bring about the Kingdom of God on earth, that Kingdom will be a place of justice.  Any by any account, the plight of the Palestinians is the fruit of injustice.  The Palestinians leadership have not been righteous in all their affairs – far from it.  And as a result Israel has legitimate concerns for its safety, not least from Iran and Syria, who sponsor Hamas and Hezbollah, Israel’s sworn enemies. 

 

As always, what is needed is for men and women of courage to break the cycle of hatred and violence.  Leadership is nothing if it is not courageous. 

 

Will Netanyahu find the courage to go for peace?  Will Obama have the courage to call his bluff?

 

David Kerrigan