Mission and Outreach

April 12 Tom Brown, Mary Delamarter, Donna Williams, and I attended the annual Keep Making Peace event at Central UMC, Lansing. The event was organized by the Boards of Church and Society of the Detroit and West Michigan Conferences. The featured speaker was Bob Edgar, the CEO of Common Cause, a national nonpartisan, non-profit “citizens” lobby organization to make government at all levels more honest, open, and accountable. He spent 12 years representing Philadelphia in the U.S. Congress and 7 years as the General Secretary of the National Council of Churches in Christ, following his presidency at Claremont School of Theology, a United Methodist seminary in California. He gave three presentations on “God’s Peacemakers,” “God’s Call to Love the Poor,” and “God’s Good Earth.”   We were also able to attend two of the three break-out sessions on these topics.

In his first talk Bob Edgar said we are the most unique generation in the history of the world because we have the power to destroy all human life. There are great injustices among the people on the earth: 80% live in substandard housing, 70% are illiterate, 50% are hungry, and only 1% own a computer. There has been an exponential increase in the earth’s population. More than half of the people ever alive are alive now. All of this has led to conflicts.

How can we be peacemakers? 

1. Bob had us repeat “We are the leaders we have been waiting for!” 
2. We need to be engaged in the system. Lobby politicians. How do it?
   1. Best is face to face twice a year. If you have trouble getting to see them, give them an award. They will show up for that.
   2. Contact your representative’s staff in Washington. Find out who is working on the issues you are concerned with and call them every quarter.
   3. Contact their district office and e.g. ask for a report on expenditures in Iraq.
   4. Letters, e-mails, and petitions are also helpful, but less effective than the other techniques.
3. Reinvent non-violent protest. Bob has been arrested four times as he participated in protests.

In his second talk Bob had us repeat “Lord, help me notice the stains when people get spilled on.”  He asked us what we were doing for the poor. He pointed out that only two of the more than 20 things mentioned were not just charity but instead went “upstream” to help end poverty. He mentioned tainted money – “tan’t enough.”  He had a number of suggestions for things we could do to end poverty that kills:

• Help the poor apply for all the programs they are eligible for. He said there are $35 billion in unclaimed benefits because people do not apply for them.
• He said there are Sunday School materials that help kids have changing the system as a goal instead of just making money.
• Churches should have fewer meetings. Instead, set an agenda and come back when it is accomplished. Join with other denominations. Set achievable goals that can be marketed. Measure the results.
• Do a 10-year campaign to end poverty in Michigan: provide health care for children, improve schools, have living wages, and elect politicians who serve the public interest not special interests.

For his third talk Bob had us repeat, “I love you and there’s nothing you can do about it.”  Bob said we are 10 years past the tipping point on global warming. We need an energy policy based on renewables. He urged us to use indigenous plants for landscaping. He said the message in Geneses is that we are to be stewards of the earth. We should find out what environmental damage local industries are doing.

John Williams for the Outreach Work Area