Thursday, April 30, 2015

[see me: picturing new york's homeless youth]

portraits of homeless youth by Alex Fradkin, from See Me book. http://www.seemethebook.com/


"For the Reciprocity Foundation’s 10-year anniversary, Tagore [co-founder of Reciprocity] teamed up with award-winning photographer Alex Fradkin to challenge common perceptions of homeless youth — by giving these young people the power to portray themselves on their own terms."

The result is an exhibition and a full colour book See Me: Picturing New York City’s Homeless Youth.


Check out more portraits at the See Me book website.

Read the buzzfeed article.

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

[stop using the words of MLK as a weapon...]



Austin Channing, responding to people who are using Martin Luther King's words about non-violence, to speak against the rioting in places like Baltimore, and who in the process miss the bigger picture and the reality of the lives of black people:


Austin Channing on folks using the words of Martin Luther King as a weapon. 2015-04-29



Tuesday, April 28, 2015

homeless =

I was looking for alternative words for "homeless person" the other day, and one of the top Google results brought me directly to this:

thesaurus.com - homeless person - negative connotations - snip

How's that for bias and for perpetuating negative views of people who do not have permanent housing?

The Canadian Observatory on Homelessness / the Homeless Hub has a much more helpful typology of homelessness which understands the range of what homelessness can look like.


If you're interested, here's a link to the page at thesaurus.com.

Friday, April 24, 2015

[an example of the eucharist as the great leveler]

Even when people line up for the Eucharist instead of it taking place around a table, the Eucharist can expand our moral circles.

Here's an example where what was happening up front, impacted one of the parishioners still in the pew:




Read Rachel Held Evans' commentary related to the Eucharist and this video.

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

the eucharist as the great leveler

richard beck preaching about the last supper. words paraphrased from Unclean p. 114. cartoon by rob g


When was the last time you heard that from the pulpit? And what kind of response do you think such a statement would get?


In his book Unclean: Meditations on Purity, Hospitality, and Mortality, Richard Beck says:
...the Last Supper is a profoundly deep and powerful psychological intervention.
...
The Last Supper becomes a profoundly subversive political event in the lives of the participants. The sacrament brings real people - divided in the larger world - into a sweaty, intimate, flesh-and-blood embrace where "there shall be no difference between them and the rest."
(p. 114)

Beck also talks about the Eucharist as the great leveler.

Monday, April 20, 2015

subvert the moral circle!

If you have not seen my previous post about moral circles, read this first and then this.

boundary diagrams: backyard, walled city, moral circle. by robg


The concept of the moral circle makes for a great diagram, and can be thought of as "going around me and my family," kind of like a fence around your backyard with you and your family happily inside it, and those who are "not family" (like strangers and stray dogs) kept outside. Kind of like the walls that used to encircle towns and cities in medieval times.

Jesus subverts the boundary-oriented moral circle...


Thursday, April 16, 2015

on the 7,665,716,806th day...


god created you beautiful! cartoon by robg


Do you think that the last time God looked at what he made and said it was "very good" was the sixth day of creation?

Not a chance. When he created you, he said, "Very good!" "Beautiful!" "Wow, will you look at that!"

Thursday, April 09, 2015

[if this is an issue for anyone...]


An aboriginal person and their daughter are looking to rent a room, and this phrase in their kijiji ad caught my eye.

We ARE OF aboriginal descent if this is an issue for anyone...


It suggests that the following scenario has previously taken place, and too many times:
They posted an ad which did not mention that they are aboriginal.
Someone responded positively by telephone.
They went to look at the room.
When the landlord saw them, the room was suddenly no longer available.
And so now, they give a heads up in their ad so that their time isn't wasted.


How many other people do the same? How many others have gotten used to "giving warning", or simply avoiding places where they expect to be rejected?

And what can those of us who follow Jesus, do to make it obvious that everyone truly is welcome and wanted?

Wednesday, April 01, 2015

will there be chocolate in heaven?

And for some, a more important question: will there be sex in heaven?

As always, Jesus has an answer:

Rabbi, will there be sex in heaven?  -- here's why not. cartoon by robg


p.s.
They say there's nothing new under the sun, but if you google the word "acopulyptic", you won't get any results except from this post once Google indexes it. That's my word, folks!