Author: vchininin

Don’t Rush to Judgment, But Don’t Rush to Apathy Either

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Angela Chininin Buele

How often are we rightly told not to rush to judgment?  I know I need to be told this a lot.  I need to be told not to assign motive (usually of malice or mockery) to the words or actions of others.  I need to be warned not to assign consequences to the child who is the obvious “usual suspect” in a sibling squabble before I have heard all sides of the story.  I also need to be reminded that giving an internet review that raves in either extreme after just one or two encounters with the service of an establishment might show more emotion than discernment.

There are times when judgment is required to determine if John Doe is a thief.  We must use information to make such a judgment.  In an ideal situation, we would have complete and accurate information for this process.  This side of eternity, however, we don’t always have that much information or time.  If you are looking for a babysitter for your young children, and one candidate seems to be a little too eager to show physical affection, you would be wise to avoid hiring the person on the spot.  There is too much on the line to take such a risk. Now, to call John Doe a sexual molester based on perception alone is a different matter.  More data is needed.

Taking steps to protect your family and yourself against theft or sexual abuse necessarily assume that it has been judged that theft and sexual abuse are not morally good.

We are told quite plainly now, Don’t judge me or anyone else.  I think where this little quip goes most terribly wrong is that it fails to differentiate between determining that John Doe is a thief and judging that theft is not morally good.  This has taken us to a Zero Tolerance Judgment principle for which only some judgments qualify while others don’t.  For example, it is not socially acceptable to state that homosexuality is immoral, but it is acceptable to say that people who don’t affirm homosexuality are immoral.  Both are judgments.  It is also not socially acceptable to pass laws that would require pregnant women to view an ultrasound of their child before aborting, but it is socially acceptable to require elementary school children to be taught how to engage in sexual expression.

Proper judgment requires discernment, applied wisdom, and understanding.  The road of evading such judgment leads to ­­the darkness of apathy.  If the goal is for each person to do whatever feels good to him or her, there is no obvious place to draw moral boundaries. People are forced to eventually check out and not get upset with anything or try to change the way things are because whatever feels right is what is right.  Nobody cares.  You see, what seems to escape most of us is that you have to care about something to judge it.  You have to want to see your loved one safe so you evaluate the situations and surroundings that affect them to help advise and offer assistance.  Apathy is the lack of concern.  When you lack concern, you will not love or care for anyone.  There is no sacrificial rescue option when you are going down the apathetic, just-looking-out-for-yourself path.

Key Question: Why can’t there be a happy middle between absolute truth and total anarchy?

Unshakable Truth:  “But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart’” ( 1 Samuel 16:7).

Time and time again foolish people choose foolish kings.  They choose leaders because of the way they look, the way they talk, the way they dress, the jobs they’ve had, the people they know, the campaign promises they make, or their profound passion to see the competitor NOT get elected.  Samuel’s job was to override the feel good choice for king – the one people would like and want; the easy choice, and trust the Lord’s right discernment of the heart of man.  So it’s God’s place to see and judge the heart, but His people are to carry out appropriate actions to point others away from the peril of darkness and toward Light.

The Real Choice: The stove is hot, the friend is drunk, and the gun is loaded.  Do you give unsolicited advice to see someone dodge disaster or do you keep calm and carry on, figuring that others are in charge of their own matters?

Love Across the Fence

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Angela Chininin Buele

You Can’t Cry Out For The Unborn Without Crying Out For Abortionists

I attended two peaceful prayer vigils last year at a nearby Planned Parenthood facility where abortions are performed.  I wanted to hand our flowers to those gathered to pray because, well, I like purposeful visual demonstrations.  I didn’t want to spend a lot of money so I looked out in my yard and decided that my Black Eyed Susan bush was just the plant to serve as bright spot on a stormy August day.  And they were.  I handed them out to upwards of 100 people throughout the crowd in attendance that day.

Then in October, my mums were in full bloom so they were cut to be handed out at another prayer vigil.  This event, though held on a perfectly sunny fall day, drew a much smaller crowd.  Because the number of flowers I had brought far outnumbered those gathered, I decided to recruit a few friends to insert the flowers between the black metal fence that had always been there and the new vinyl mesh fence that had been attached sometime after the August vigil.  I remembered that when people hold vigils outside of places where somebody has died, they like to leave flowers and other gifts.  So, the right thing to do seemed to use the leftover flowers for that purpose there, at the clinic.  I didn’t actually touch the fence because I pushed the flowers through by holding the stem, and it rested between the two.  You can see my restless heart trying to find a way to not technically trespass their property and still put the flowers there to remember the dead.  I honestly did not expect that flowers in the fence would get any reaction, let alone an angry response.  Well, I learned my lesson.  The volunteer escorts sent over to the fence first silently removed the flowers.  My friends and I replaced the flowers that had been removed.  I wish it had all ended there as a quiet “agree to disagree” sort of matter, but it didn’t.

When the Planned Parenthood volunteers saw we were continuing to place the flowers between the two fences, their demeanor changed.  Threats were issued and profanity was slung quite heatedly by the volunteers.  If I could reach back and put a calming hand on the shoulder of the me of that moment, I would have wanted to fall to my knees and beg the Lord to give them eyes to see the seething rage sparked within themselves by the sight of fuchsia mums.  Unfortunately, as it is always true that where words abound so also does sin, I argued, I defied, and I even tried to record a video of the incident to post it on social media.  This was wrong because this showed that I was using people to reveal the ugliness of the abortion industry instead of loving people and begging the Lord to change their hearts.  Let me say again that this was a completely unloving response, and the memory of this event has been used constantly to redirect my heart to see the people on the other side of the fence as neighbors instead of enemies.  This has not always been easy.  Yet it continues to prove to be critical in the way the Lord is emptying my heart of anger and frustration against them and filling me with sadness and compassion for those who fight for the right to end the lives of the unborn.

Key Question:  Pro-Lifer, are you treating those behind the fence with less compassion than you have for the unborn?

Unshakable Truth: “He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: ‘Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.  The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed  thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’  But the tax collector,  standing far off,  would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’  I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 18:9-14).

I have read this passage multiple times in my life, but it wasn’t until I juxtaposed it to my view of passionate pro-choicers that I realized the devastating truth: I have been the self-righteous Pharisee more often than I have been the broken tax collector.  As a follower of Christ, this is a very big problem.  So I am compelled to stand here now and call foul on myself.  I have exalted myself in my ambition to see all unborn children protected from abortion.  And, in exchange, I have stoked fires of anger and disdain against other human beings – human beings who were once unborn children and who have souls that, before God, are equal in value to my own.

All I can possibly say is, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”

The Real Choice:  If the tears aren’t being shed for those we know will perish embracing death, we dare not say we are ambassadors of the love of the One True God – the God of Life.

A Propósito del “Descubrimiento”

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Victor Chininin Buele

Cuando era niño mis libros me enseñaban del “descubrimiento” de “América”.  Ahora vivo en un país en el que aparentemente nos gusta identificarnos como “América” sin pensar en el resto del continente.  Nuestro mural de Simón Bolívar en Loja tiene la frase tan célebre “Para nosotros la patria es América”.  Y como el señor Américo Vespucio no anda por aquí para preguntarle acerca de su opinión respecto a que un continente sea llamado como él, me pregunto si el hecho de que lo dibujó amerita el nombre.

América.

Al pasar de los años, nos hemos dado cuenta que no es correcto celebrar esta ocasión como el descubrimiento de América.  Pues no éramos América y ya existíamos.  Cristóbal Colón en su aventura pensó que le había dado una vuelta completa al mundo.  Si quisiéramos celebrar el Día Continental de la Equivocación, el 12 de octubre de 1492 nos brinda una gran excusa para hacerlo.

Pero no escribo estas letras para hablar del señor Colón y dilucidar si su “hazaña” fue un descubrimiento o un genocidio.

Escribo porque me preocupa que confundamos algo muy importante cuando nos expresamos de un momento que ha afectado tanto a nuestra civilización.  El “evangelio” que nos trajeron los españoles, amarrado fuertemente a sus ansias de riquezas y poder, no fue, ni es, el evangelio de Jesucristo.  Y decir algo como lo que dijo el ilustre Eduardo Galeano no es intelectualmente ni históricamente responsable: “Vinieron. Ellos tenían la Biblia y nosotros teníamos la tierra. Y nos dijeron: «Cierren los ojos y recen». Y cuando abrimos los ojos, ellos tenían la tierra y nosotros teníamos la Biblia”.  No tenemos la Biblia.  Permítanme explicarme.

La mezcla del catolicismo español con nuestras creencias ancestrales es un fenómeno antropológico muy impresionante.  Obviamente se impusieron creencias a nuestros padres y madres, que francamente, tengo mucha dificultad creyendo que un ladrón pueda decir que las creía.  ¿Cómo puede alguien enceguecido por el hambre del oro repetir las palabras del apóstol Pablo «Porque la raíz de todos los males es el amor al dinero, por el cual, codiciándolo algunos, se extraviaron de la fe y se torturaron con muchos dolores»? ¿Cómo puede alguien que mató a alguien porque no pudo obligarlo a afirmar un credo decir con su boca «Pero Yo les digo que todo aquél que esté enojado con su hermano será culpable ante la corte; y cualquiera que diga: ‘Insensato’ a su hermano, será culpable ante la corte suprema ; y cualquiera que diga: ‘Idiota,’ será merecedor del infierno de fuego»?  Si decir esas palabras es igual a un asesinato ante los ojos de Jesús, ¿qué evangelio se dice que trajeron?  Y de la “santa” inquisición mejor no hablar.

Escribo porque es más claro que el agua que como generalización, quienes trajeron “el evangelio” se aprovecharon del poder que tenía el aparato eclesiástico conocido como la iglesia católica en su relación con la corona española para tomar tierras que no fueron suyas, para robar, para matar, para fornicar, para destruir, para llenarse de “poder”.   Debemos entender que ellos no conocieron el evangelio.  Y debemos entender que todavía nosotros no conocemos el evangelio hoy.  Por tanto, no podemos poner en una ecuación en el lado izquierdo lo que pasó durante la “colonia” y en el lado derecho el evangelio de Jesús y decir que son iguales.

Esta es una conversación intelectual; no soy yo haciendo lo mismo que los españoles hicieron, tratando de imponer una creencia extraña a ustedes.  Simplemente busco honestidad e integridad intelectual.

¿Sabían ustedes que en España habían teólogos que estaban peleando incansablemente para que el aparato eclesiástico deje de permitir estupideces y afirmen el valor de la vida de nuestros antepasados?  La aventura de Martín Lutero no empezó únicamente al mismo tiempo que la aventura de Cristóbal Colón sino que va mucho más atrás a una serie de eventos que tuvieron como efecto la publicación del contenido de la Biblia, traducido al idioma popular, quitando de las garras de algunos el conocimiento más precioso y llevándolo al alcance de todos.  Y cuando esa Palabra habla, el corazón cambia.  Lutero estaba luchando por la pureza de la iglesia, por la proclamación correcta del evangelio de Jesús, por la liberación del conocimiento, al mismo tiempo que el aparato eclesiástico católico español se ocupaba en mezclar los dioses populares de las culturas de nuestro continente con los nombres de sus “santos”.

El poder del evangelio aun no se ha descubierto en América.  Por un momento le pido al lector que se quite sus estereotipos, que se olvide de los locos que cantan durísimo, de los profetas falsos que dicen que el fin del mundo ya viene, de los ladrones que te piden dinero para que te sanes, de los mentirosos que quieren aprovecharse de la pobreza de otro, de los que te paran en la calle para darte panfletos y no quieren ni hablar contigo, de los que supuestamente nunca hacen el amor ni quieren que lo hagas, de los que son más juzgones que nadie.

El evangelio es simple.  Los españoles no inventaron el pecado.  De hecho lo ejemplificaron muy bien. Pues eran pecadores.  Y por eso nuestros antepasados imagino que instintivamente supieron que les estaban engañando.

Debemos empezar admitiendo el hecho que todos somos pecadores.  Nadie de nosotros es un “santo” – todos hemos hecho algo de lo cual tenemos vergüenza, de lo cual nos arrepentimos, algo que tratamos de ocultar o minimizar.  Y no importa cuánto nos sacrifiquemos para eliminar ese sentimiento de culpa, no podemos hacerlo.   Y el chiste es que nos mentimos a nosotros mismos diariamente en esta lucha por lavarnos de nuestra culpabilidad.  La iglesia católica hasta hoy se aprovecha de eso para vender sus promesas de salvación y paz como resultado de nuestros esfuerzos y nuestras obras.  Si eres bueno, vas al cielo.  Si haces esto, debes ir al cura.  Por eso no te verdean los campos…

Pero el evangelio se basa en la obediencia del único que fue obediente, Jesús.  Él no robó ni maltrató, no fue vago ni egoísta, no ultrajó ni buscó su propios intereses sobre los de los demás.  Y esta obediencia puede ser nuestra por la fe.  No requiere que nos volvamos santos de la noche a la mañana, sino que nos cambia día a día para volvernos más y más como Jesús.  Robamos menos y menos y menos y ojalá después ya no.  Insultamos menos.  El Espíritu Santo nos guía a actuar como Cristo lo haría.  Nuestros corazones de piedra reciben vida verdadera.  Hay libertad.  La muerte de Jesús en la cruz efectivamente satisface nuestra necesidad más grande.  Y su resurrección promete con certeza que lo mejor está aun por venir.

Si se puede demostrar que eso es lo que los españoles trajeron, estaré de acuerdo con el señor Galeano y todos los memes de hoy en Facebook.  Pero eso no es posible.

Entonces, le pido al lector que no confunda la retórica con la historia.  Nuestra conjetura con los hechos.  Y que no piense que porque unos malandrines vagabundos se aprovecharon de un aparato eclesiástico corrupto, la Biblia no tiene verdad adentro.  ¿Por qué no abrir tal libro que ha sido escondido de nosotros por tanto tiempo – escondido en nuestros estantes, en nuestras salas, en nuestros comedores, en aquellos edificios que se jactan de llamarse iglesias, en nuestros insultos a Dios, y ahora hasta en nuestros bolsillos?  ¿Por qué no abrir la carta de Pablo a los Romanos y leerla?  Aunque sea para decirme que estoy equivocado.  Hay libertad, amigos.  Hay libertad.

Les dejo con la gran inquietud que tengo cada vez que veo el mural de Bolívar en mi querida ciudad natal.  ¿Por qué nunca podemos unirnos como América, como la patria de Bolívar? Bueno, un poco más realista quizá, ¿por qué nunca podemos unirnos aunque sea solamente con los cuencanos, lojanos?  ¿Por qué la división entre Guayaquil y Quito? Y si ni dentro de nuestras fronteras nos podemos unificar, ¿no es esto razón suficiente para al menos leer la palabra del evangelio?  ¿No será que es posible buscar juntos una patria mejor? (Y no solamente Ecuador o América sino… bueno, ¿por qué no leer la Carta a los Hebreos y ver por sí mismos a lo que me refiero?)

Divorcing the Truth from the Lies: Speaking Plainly about Pain and Loss

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Victor & Angela Chininin Buele

There is no winner in a divorce.  It does not matter if you walk away feeling victorious or relieved.  It does not matter if you profited from the legal division of assets.  It does not matter if you say it was an amicable arrangement. Something went wrong. The promise of the marriage was broken.  Faithfulness was betrayed.  It does not matter what kind of self-justifying arguments may prop up one’s own banner. There will be regret, disappointment, and/or sadness when what was hoped for on the wedding day is given up as a lost cause. There is much to grieve.  There will be loneliness.  And divorce is ultimately impossibly hard to walk through alone because the union is not really over.  It is shattered.  But it is not over.  Birthday parties, weekend plans, graduation parties, monthly bills will bring back memories and also will necessitate interaction with the former spouse for as long as they both shall live.

You actually don’t even have to divorce someone to know the pain of a broken marriage.  When parents divorce, the children mourn the loss of the bond they once witnessed.  They miss the love between the people who love them most tenderly.  Because the nature of divorce is division, this tends to put great pressure (real or perceived) on children to split their previously fused paternal affections into two separate portions.  This is both exhausting and discouraging for kids.  We personally know this battle as our families have been affected by divorce.  This profound impact still has consequences for us today.

Similar to the power of the bond of marriage, the life of an unborn baby naturally brings about a new course of action for both the child and the parents.  There are very real physical, emotional, and social changes brought about by the tiny individual that is bonded so intimately with his or her mother from the very beginning.  Once a new life has begun, any action taken to end this marvelous bond, would result a separation much like the one caused by divorce.  Rejection and loneliness.  Tears.  You may never talk about it again, and you may use busyness and a thousand things to quiet your conscience, but you will always know.

Key Question: Is it possible to undo a mistake?

Unshakable Truth/The Real Choice: “I will not leave you or forsake you” (Joshua 1:5b).

There is a real choice set before you.  Will you choose to remain lonely?  Whether divorce or abortion have torn you apart, there is one way to be able to say with confidence that you are not alone.  And that choice has its root in this beautiful promise made by the LORD God to Joshua as he was taking over the leadership of the people of God.  “Just as I was with Moses,” said the LORD to Joshua, “so I will be with you.  I will not leave you or forsake you.”  And He commands this man to be strong and courageous because choosing to be with God requires great trust in His power and love, in His faithfulness to keep His promises.  In God there is real forgiveness and restoration.  In Him, you will not be alone.  Will you choose the way that will lead to further loneliness, or will you turn to God?  We mourn for you.  We mourn with you.  We care for you.  We want you to experience restoration, forgiveness, and true peace (Romans 5:1-5).  Come and welcome to Jesus Christ! as one of the puritans once said.

An Injection of Truth

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Angela Chininin Buele

Why Abortion Rights and the Epipen Outrage Don’t Mix

These days with social media at our fingertips if someone makes an off-color joke, gets caught in a lie, or tries to jack up the price of life-saving medicine, a razor-sharp response is released like lightning, complete with public boycotting campaigns.  For example, when the makers of a household epinephrine injector found themselves in the hot seat over their skyrocketing prices, they said the cost of the materials and ingredients had increased.  They pledged to make a product available at a dramatically reduced price, but the level of disdain for this company and its CEO may cause quite a bit of harm to company’s quarterly sales if the current demonization campaign marches on.

It’s horrible to think that someone can make money – and a lot of it- off of such an important product without giving consideration for the well-being of the most vulnerable persons affected.  A perplexing thing is that people from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds gladly shell out hundreds – even thousands – of dollars for the status achievement of wearing a high end designer product.  So should these same people be shocked when the economy of style bleeds into genuine life-and-death situations?  Well, yes, they certainly should be shocked by any calculated appraisal of the saving of a person’s life to seek monetary profit.  But should we not also become defensive when all people in a weakened condition are taken advantage of?  What about the elderly person getting conned out of their fixed income?  Or the girl that’s been drugged at a party?  What of the developing child who comes as a surprise to his or her mother?  Since those with life-threatening allergies rightly deserve our decisive response and protection against what seems to be price-gouging, shouldn’t we all also be quite sensitive to the impending robbery, rape, and dismemberment of the other three targets who are preyed upon in their weakness?  Yes.  The answer is, yes, we most certainly should.  Each and every person was made by our common Creator to bring Him glory, not to be used to bring about a profit.

Key Question: Is it a stretch to compare corporate corruption to private medical decisions?

Unshakable Truth: “But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion”  (Luke 10:33).

In the parable, there was a man who was robbed, stripped, beaten, and left for dead.  It didn’t matter to the Samaritan (or to Jesus) who profited or what events led up to the attack.  A weak man hung in the balance, and the Samaritan took action.  Rescue is the modus operandi of the Savior, and after loving Him, our most important calling is to love other people – of all races, all cultures, all shapes and all sizes.

The Real Choice: Are you willing to love and defend the most fragile of neighbors?

A Deadly Cocktail

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Angela Chininin Buele

How Poverty and Entitlement Went From Oil and Vinegar To Peanut Butter and Jelly

 

Having loved, lived among, and served alongside people in very poor communities, I have seen how little is learned when challenge is removed and standards are lowered.  During the time I taught in a very low-income district, I would repeatedly have teens tell me one minute about how proud they were of their latest purchase (electronics, phone, prom rental, etc.) and then say that they didn’t have the required class materials (pencils, pens, paper) with them because they weren’t able to buy enough school supplies.

When there is no dissatisfaction in poverty, there is no drive to get out of it; but when there is incentive in poverty, there is a kind of fondness for it.  Let me clarify.  What I mean by “incentive” in this case is a need-based benefit that is actually spent on luxuries (entertainment or jewelry) instead of on essentials (food or warm clothing).  If families encourage the use of these resources in this way, young people are taught – as I have seen with my own eyes – to devalue education as the source of lasting income.  If this takes root, what reason would a young person have to aim high and work hard?  They already have a situation that works relatively well for them.

Even more dangerous is the idea I have heard from some of my former students that, if school work is too hard (according to their personal judgment), they are victims of an unjust system.  So the free education given in order to educate them “out” of poverty can be identified as a tool of oppression.  When that happens, resentment builds against authority, and if education is despised, one is left with one apparently effective and certainly satisfying tool for battle – physical resistance – which leads to increased unrest throughout the communities.

When I was a teenager preparing to move to the inner city determined to see racial reconciliation advanced though the gospel of Jesus Christ, I was told by a family member that I just needed to send money to poor people so they could get better education and get out of poverty.  This is the most insulting form of classism there is.  When sending a check allows you to avoid having to interact with someone, that shows nothing but apathy, and apathy is hateful.  And yet this is exactly what our welfare checks do.  And in apathy’s tragic culmination when the cash and new schools don’t entice higher graduation rates, abortion services are featured as a way of blaming unborn children for the cycle of poverty.

Key Question: Is it truly compassionate to give aid to those who are poor without actually helping them to change their situation, to get them out of poverty rather than establishing them further in it?

Unshakable Truth: “If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.” 2 Thessalonians 3:10b

Not to be mistaken for the disabled being incapable of work or the eager unable to find work, this passage addresses the one who engages in unfruitful activity (laziness, meddling, and uninterested in honoring a proper boss).  Also, the reader is cautioned to command and encourage the one who is unwilling to work.  This is not mean-spirited, insulting or divisive.  Giving a friend a warning that they’ve had too much to drink and need to shake the fog with some coffee is just as much for their benefit and protection as it is for the community at large.

Let us not forget that Christ’s teachings tore to heal.

The Real Choice: Are you willing to help guide people out of poverty or do you expect your tax dollars to bring lasting change?

Pain Quarantine

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Angela Chininin Buele

Why You Can’t Ultimately Be Pro-Life If You Are Unwilling To Suffer With People

We all have our limits, the point where you have to tell someone, “Please, stop!  I do not need to know any more about the rat infestation in your neighbor’s garage.” Or maybe, like me, it’s a matter of what you cannot see or hear.  I am unnerved by watching (or even hearing) violence in movies and also by little kids showing me their loose teeth.  I am a mother, so I will clearly have to come to terms with the latter.

There are certain God-honoring limits we can set regarding the way we interact with members of the opposite sex, people outside of our families, and people we don’t know very well.  These offer a degree of protection (spiritual, as well as physical) and demonstrate wisdom and discernment regarding what is necessary and fruitful.  But there are also ways in which people are increasingly disengaging from communication and relationship when certain taboo topics are broached (i.e. religion, politics, and relational conflict).  These, which are no small matter of neglect, have been problematic in the culture at large for generations.  What seems to be a little more recent of a development in the “liberation through ignorance” department is the refusal to hear bad news.  This could be anything from a new cancer diagnosis to projected rain on someone’s wedding day.  When we are unwilling to hear truth because we don’t like it, not only do we discredit God as Sovereign and Good, but we also dull our minds by denying the growth required through each challenging situation.  The most poignant example of closing oneself off from unpleasant news is when we reject people in their pain and suffering because it causes us too much sadness,  whether it is a five-year-old girl who is battered by cancer treatments before she even begins Kindergarten or a woman who conceived because of rape and is contemplating abortion.  They are people who benefit by our walking the road and sharing the load with them.  Maybe it’s just a few steps, a shared prayer, or a hug, but we can’t love people without being with them in their need.

Key Question: Do you set limits in your relationships and communications with others? Are these walls designed to preserve yourself?  Why is it hard to open up to the pursuit of true edification?

Unshakable Truth: Jesus’ disciples fled when he was arrested.  Jesus sought out the woman caught in adultery, who was facing not arrest but stoning.   Preserving oneself is an investment of dust.  Jesus, on the other hand, surrendered reputation, time, safety, etc., to reach out to the lowest of the low because work in the eternal harvest fields produces an unmatched yield.

Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. (Romans 12:15-18 ESV)

The Real Choice: Will you love people by sharing their hurt, or will you love yourself by rejecting a battered brother?

Judge. Or Not?

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Victor Chininin Buele

I was preaching last Sunday about the question of why would one of the ways God chose to reveal Himself would be through a list of laws–do not murder, love your neighbor as yourself, do not cover your neighbor’s wife, do not lie. You get the point.

I mentioned to the congregation that we have been observing the development of an interesting legal framework where approval and celebration are being enacted into popular law.  I said we are all lawyers eager to defend ourselves and to make excuses for our behavior. I should add that we are also professionals at passing the blame to others.

If you call yourself a Christian and dare to not celebrate and give your seal of approval to something with which you may profoundly disagree, then the words of Jesus that were spoken from the mount and recorded in Matthew 7 are thrown at you–“Judge not, lest ye be judged!”

The inference is that the higher moral ground (for it is moral after all) is one of non-judgment on such matters.  The evolved mind is one that never judges.  Thus, the admonishment to you, lawbreaker, is to go and judge no more.  Says who?  Well, we all do.  And Jesus, too.  Get in line!

For a while I’ve been quite saddened by this because everyone judges, and moreover, that section of the gospel of Matthew that gets quoted incompletely is actually about the carpenter of Nazareth teaching us to judge rightly while highlighting our natural bend towards passing judgment on another quickly and without cautiously judging ourselves first.  Take off the gigantic piece of wood out of your eye before you go attempt to remove the piece of sawdust out of your neighbor’s eye.

Your neighbor needs you to judge him.

If I were breaking my promise to my wife to love and care for her, to cherish her and provide for her, I would need you to judge me.

If somebody hits me over the head and takes my keys and drives my van away with my girls inside, I need you to judge this person and help.

If you have squandered God’s financial gifts to you and buried yourself in debt, your neighbor who is defaulting on 20 past due credit cards needs you to see your own situation rightly, get your act together, and help him to not do that again and to honor his creditors.  You both need to judge each other as you walk through that difficult path together.

I have wanted to write this for quite some time because I don’t like words to get redefined.  What kind of a friend would you be if you walk around whistling while I sin and throw my life away?

And then a decade-old tape makes its way through the media, perfectly timed before a presidential debate.  I still feel filthy for having read the NPR report of it.  So, my first reaction in social media was to try to take the gigantic piece of wood out of my eye.  You think Donald Trump is bad?  I would be terrified if you were to have full access to everything I’ve thought or said.  I am no better.  But God, being rich in mercy, changed it all.  And I have to hope and trust in the BIG God who is the Creator and Sustainer of this now-broken world to actually be so merciful that He can change this man to the core were repentance to be sought by him.  That this heart of stone can be changed, to use the biblical imagery.  And after mourning for my own sin that required Jesus’s death, I am able to start talking about that issue.

While you weren’t watching, you got caught judging.  We all did.  The whole affair is so filthy. So disgusting. So appalling. And I am glad got caught.

And it is right that we judge.  Do we really think that we don’t have a way to push for this man (who everybody has known all along was like this) to get out of the race?  I read a very good article on The Washington Post by Collin Hansen about how this highlights the long overdue need for the death of the Religious Right.  One comment asked a very good question for the person was sick and tired of articles like this not really telling us a solution, an action we can take.  So, we can go there now.  We have judged.  Let’s get past only writing on electronic walls, and let’s make this happen. As my pastor is prone to remind us – when is the last time that we actually had the faith to pray for a miracle?  I understand that we only have a month left. But is our faith and our industriousness so weak and laughable?

But I digress.  My point is an invitation to transparency and honesty.  Please ask, “I would want for you to approve of me and to celebrate my choices.”  Don’t say, “Don’t judge me.”  A faithful friend needs to have access to encourage and lift up your soul.  The kind of friend we all desperately need can’t be closer than a brother to us if we don’t let them in when our ideas need to be challenged, refined, or rebuked.  We need words to mean what they do.  The last thing that everyone would like me to do if I were to tell you I have made the choice to become a thief would be for me to tell you not to judge me.  That closes the door to any further discussion.  I have clicked to close the window on you.  I am done.   Let’s not do that.  Because we must.  Joy is at stake.  Life hangs in the balance.

Words matter.

Dented Cans and Rare Coins – How Do We Value the Life of Special People?

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Angela Chininin Buele

When I was about five years old, my babysitter’s cat had kittens.  One of them had a cleft palate, a hooked tail, two different colored eyes, and a puny frame.  All of the other kittens were “normal.”  When I was asked which one I wanted, I knew right away that I wanted the prettiest one–the one that had the longest, softest, purest white fur.  My babysitter and my mom might have questioned my choice, but I was resolved.  In the end, I took my beautiful white kitten–cleft palate, hooked tail, different colored eyes and all– home with me.  My Maddie was my treasured pet all the way up until Homecoming week of my senior year of high school.  She outlived everyone’s expectations, and she was always a great blessing to me.

I also found throughout my childhood that I was drawn to encourage and stand by the disabled and the downtrodden, appreciating their tenderness and desiring to see their bright smiles.  Some of my most vivid memories are grown from this passion-the time I spent with my mentally impaired uncle, the urge to defend the elementary school classmate who frustrated the teacher (and the ache of loss when he killed himself later that year), and the young boy with Down’s Syndrome I saw being dragged along by his angry brother through a downpour at Walt Disney World.  All of these are forever etched in my mind and on my heart as precious souls, not mistakes of God, products of Chance, genetic abnormalities, or dented cans.

My family was most likely not surprised at all when, as a 10-year-old, I announced I would become a teacher.  Shortly thereafter I decided I should be a special education teacher.  It was through my training and my career that I found that, while I still knew each special person was made by the loving hand of our Creator God, I had become quite impatient and even unkind to one of my most needy students in my class as a first year teacher.  I am so thankful to have had the opportunity to work with her years later and ask her forgiveness for not serving her more generously when I was first given the opportunity to be her teacher.  Even now I am just beginning to enter the deep waters of learning how to give steadfast love to those who have special needs.  Yet it is clear to me that the reason this journey is difficult is because I have been selfish and self-centered.  I have not sought to fully rejoice in the unique gift that people of all physical and intellectual capacities are to this world.

Some of the happiest people I have met are these precious, rare coins.  I don’t find them blaming God for making them different.  Nor do I see them wishing they had never been born because they do not see their lives as unworthy of living.

So beware, my friends, if you find yourselves believing that you are being heroic to say or think that the abortion of a disabled child is compassionate since their lives would be so different compared to your own circumstances.  I assure you that none of the physically or mentally disabled children or adults I have worked with over the years would agree with this.

Key Question: Can joy be found in the middle of a challenge?

Unshakable Truth:  “Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Romans 5:2-5 ESV).

The Real Choice: Will you see disabled people as dented cans to be thrown away or as rare coins to protect, care for, and appreciate?

The Dilemma of Disability and Disease

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Angela Chininin Buele

Viewing Already Fragile Life in Light of New Health Risks

Zika is a new buzz word, but all of its implications boil down to a very common fear.  When a couple attempts to conceive and are blessed to be able to do so, much is assumed about the security of the baby’s development and health.  However, tests designed to indicate level of risk (not diagnose, mind you) of potential genetic abnormality are packaged and performed in order to prepare expectant parents to decide if their baby will be healthy enough or if some condition, or the possibility of such a condition, would prompt them to abort and try again for a healthy baby.

Because those who intentionally conceive presumably have no resistance to their wombs serving as nurturing station for their developing child, the decision to abort upon receiving indication that the baby could have health problems, demonstrates an inaccurate understanding of the value of the child.  A baby is, by nature, in constant need and vulnerable to even mild risks.  The God of Life creates each person, without mistake, to reflect His glory and to give and receive love generously.  When children are denied birth because their parents are told that they will not look a certain way or perform skills at a sufficient level, we treat the bearing and raising of children like an Olympic qualifier instead of the delightful challenge that it is.  When we want to treat people like possessions, we must not be surprised when violence increases.

It is truly heartbreaking.  Microcephaly (caused by Zika), Down’s Syndrome, and Spina Bifida trigger terror in the hearts of many expectant parents.  I would like to suggest that this response offers a more certain diagnosis of a parent’s failure to love than any risk level marker/indicator can diagnose a baby’s failure to be “normal.”  It used to be understood that children come with neither manuals nor receipts for returns.  Nor do they come with warranties.  And parents who are filled with terror at the thought of having a child with special needs are not loving that child.  No baby ever hated or even mourned his/her disability.  Of course there can be physical discomfort – even pain – and that brings empathy and sadness, but not terror.

Babies are not interchangeable.  They are not accessories, nor are they entertainment or a hobby.  A baby is a tiny person that is designed by God, for God, and in God’s image.  There are lovely benefits to parent and child when love is abundant in the home, but they are some else’s treasure, and we have no right to judge them as physically or intellectually insufficient and therefore deny them life.

My youngest daughter was born perfectly healthy after an uneventful pregnancy, but she developed a fever and became dehydrated at five days old.  She was admitted to the hospital where she (and I) stayed for five days while all signs seemed to point to a diagnosis of leukemia.  I’ll pause there and ask: what does the pro-choice community offer to the parents in this situation?  Before exiting the womb, the right to abortion is championed for such “defectiveness,” but what do (read: can/will) they say about the one-week-old who seems to have leukemia?  Does she have Constitutional rights now?  Should they be revoked?

Well, approximately 30 minutes before the bone marrow draw was scheduled to be performed (two years ago today), the culture came back positive for a virus.  Our little girl was the youngest person ever to develop Leukocytopenia as a result of contracting this virus.  Needless to say, we were overjoyed to know that she would not have to suffer through such a difficult condition at such a tender age, but if she had gone through it, we would have been right there with her because that is the joy and the pain of parenting – loving through difficulty.

Key Question: Despite parents’ fear of inadequacy, is it fair to deny a child life based on the possibility of disability?

Unshakable Truth:  “Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.  But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’  Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.  For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.  For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Corinthians 12:8-10

Sometimes we are given a gift like a quilt.  Hours and hours of work were done by some else, and we simply lay the beautiful fabric over ourselves and curl up in its warmth.  There is no work for the recipient to complete in order to enjoy the gift.  Other times, the gift is more like a sewing machine.  There is much work to be done before you will be able to curl up under the quilt you made with your sewing machine, and in the end, there is a quilt either way.  The difference is in the learning and the gain through process.

If the difficulty is relieved, we see His mercy for a moment, but if the challenge persists, we see His mercy each and every moment and we carry on by His grace.  His strength is what overcomes our weakness.

The Real Choice: Do you want God to change your circumstances so you can be yourself, or do you want Him to use your circumstances to change you, making you more like Christ?