[best practices in architectural co-design and building with First Nations]

"The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) initiated Four Case Studies Exemplifying Best Practices in Architectural Co-design and Building with First Nations as a resource for designers, clients, funders, and policymakers.

As the leading voice for excellence in the built environment in Canada, the RAIC believes that architecture is a public-spirited profession with an important role in reconciliation – addressing injustices by giving agency back to Indigenous people."

You don't have to have a particular interest in architecture to learn from this article which talks about working together respectfully and how to integrate Indigenous culture and traditions into modern buildings in meaningful and authentic ways.

https://www.raic.org/raic/four-case-studies-exemplifying-best-practices-architectural-co-design-and-building-first

[naming ourselves: who defines Indigenous identity? article]

About identity and names and power....

Recent identifiers such as “Native American,” “Aboriginal,” and “Indigenous” are deceptively vague, attempting to contain all of the complexities and differences of each individual tribe under one umbrella term. The problem with such terms, of course, is that the bigger the group they attempt to represent, the more they erase complexities and differences and encourage homogenization. While grouping all Indigenous tribes and nations together can be convenient, the reason these terms became necessary in the first place is colonialism. Settler governments needed a term to differentiate us from the settler population (i.e., not indigenous to or claimed by a tribe indigenous to Turtle Island) to figure out how to exactly describe the problem we posed to their burgeoning nation-states. We could not be “The Hopitu-Oceti-Sakowin-Kanien’kehá:ka-Powhatan-Chahta-Annishnawbe-Beothuk, etc. problem.” We must be, simply, “The Indian problem.” Bearing that in mind, the question of how to define Native identity should always be split in two: how the government defines us and how we define ourselves.

Read the rest of the article at: https://thewalrus.ca/we-didnt-choose-to-be-called-indigenous/

[there's something wrong with the village...]

They say it takes a village to raise a child... but sometimes, there's something wrong with the village:


Watch directly on YouTube

Background info on video

confession, baptism, and the radical, far-reaching rethinking of everything

This quote from Brian McLaren seems very fitting for this time:

John (the Baptist) defines the essential meaning himself: he proclaims not a baptism of conformity but a baptism of repentance, which means a radical, far-reaching rethinking of everything. If one was previously formed by a conventional Temple establishment identity, one rethinks that way of life. If one was previously formed by an Essenic antiestablishment identity, one rethinks that way of life. What might have been acceptable before – hating Gentiles, hating priests, hating the poor, hating the rich—now seems like a sin to be confessed. What might have been considered unacceptable before—reconciling with enemies, showing kindness to outcasts, putting the needs of people above religious rules—now seems like a good thing. That kind of repenting would determine the kinds of sins people would confess as they descended into the Jordan for baptism.

So for John, baptism is hardly a second-rate tribal rite comparable to sitting on Santa’s knee. It is the radical reversal of identities of exclusion and hostility. It is a defection from all exclusive, hostile, and elitist identities—whether they be establishment or antiestablishment in nature. It is a sign that one is repenting of all hostile identities, knowing that those identities can only lead to violent cataclysm. By de-identifying with oppositional identities—by dying to them, one can identify with something new: the kingdom, reign, or commonwealth of God—which is a call not to separation and exclusion, but rather to solidarity and reconciliation, as we have seen again and again.

Brian D. McLaren, pp.183, 185, in Why did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Mohammed Cross the Road? Christian Identity in a Multi-Faith World

What Brian says makes good sense to me. I want such a radical reversal, both in my own life and in the life of the church.

[mc1r photo project challenges how we see race]

Thom Dunn, in a recent Upworthy article, asks:

Despite making up such a small percentage of the population, most of us have the same stereotypical image in our heads when we think of redheads: light-skinned, freckled white people with curls of flaming hair and a fiery temper to match.

Aside from the obvious issue of assigning a temperament to someone based on hair color, there's one other weird conclusion here: Why do we think that all redheads are white?

(source, emphasis added)

Michelle Marshall, a photographer based in London, has been taking portraits of redheaded people who are black or biracial. Dunn's article features some of her portraits interspersed with some of Marshall's thoughts.

Read the whole article -- easy (and beautiful) to read and thought-provoking at the same time.

Visit Michelle Marshall's website for more photos.

[you don't say... campaign by duke university]

"You Don’t Say? is a campaign founded by senior Daniel Kort and juniors Anuj Chhabra, Christie Lawrence and Jay Sullivan that aims to raise student awareness about the offensive nature of phrases and slurs used in everyday conversation through photographs shared using an online campaign." (source)

The latest part of this campaign features 41 student-athletes, who were each asked to choose a phrase that mattered to them.

What is it that #YouDontSay? pic.twitter.com/hykbOrfc2r
— You Don't Say (@youdontsayduke) January 15, 2015

Check out a lot more photos.
Additional photos of Cornell University students doing a series of similar ads.

Read more background info.

Follow on twitter.

ideological colonization

His Holiness Pope Francis, speaking in the Philippines last week (January 2015), expressed concerns about ideological colonization. The Associated Press reports:

Speaking about the regulation of family size, the pope said:

African bishops, in particular, have long complained about how progressive, Western ideas about birth control and gay rights are increasingly being imposed on the developing world by groups, institutions or individual nations, often as a condition for development aid.

"Every people deserves to conserve its identity without being ideologically colonized," Francis said.

"... When imposed conditions come from imperial colonizers, they search to make people lose their own identity and make a sameness," he said. "This is ideological colonization."

GLAAD also reports:

Pope Francis came out with his strongest comments against marriage equality, calling it, "ideological colonization that we have to be careful about that is trying to destroy the family."

Ironically, the Roman Catholic Church and other denominations has been engaging in ideological colonization for years, ever since they first sent missionaries out.

Oops. Of course, we don't call it ideological colonization, but evangelism, spreading the gospel, reaching the lost. Which reminds me of how easy it is to consider something good when I do it, but bad when others do it.

Take, for example, how the Unites States provides funding, training and weapons to "freedom fighters" in some countries, while at the same time fighting against terrorism in other parts of the world. The difference between freedom fighters and terrorists? Some would say it's only a few letters and a matter of perspective.

"Every people deserves to conserve its identity without being ideologically colonized"

Think about this statement. If we take Pope Francis' words seriously and put aside contradictory actions, what might this mean in our relationships with others, both individually and corporately? How can we interact with others in ways that are full of humility and mutuality?

jesus vermin

The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did to me.’

 (Matt 25:40 NIV/robg)

---

Background, from Reuters:

Gambia's President Yahya Jammeh on Tuesday (Feb. 18, 2014) called homosexuals "vermin" and said his government would tackle them in the same way it fights malaria-causing mosquitoes.

The latest comments from Jammeh, who last year branded gays a threat to humanity, coincide with a renewed crackdown on same-sex relationships in Africa, where homosexuality is taboo and illegal in 37 countries.

In recent months, Nigeria has outlawed same-sex relationships and Uganda has voted for life imprisonment for some homosexual acts.

"We will fight these vermins called homosexuals or gays the same way we are fighting malaria-causing mosquitoes, if not more aggressively," Jammeh said in a speech on state television to mark the 49th anniversary of Gambia's independence from Britain.

....

Can you imagine Jesus saying such things? Or treating another person like that?

I can't. Not for one moment.

HIV=

This weekend is the official launch of HIV Equal, "a national multimedia campaign that aims to end HIV stigma and promote HIV testing by creating a social art movement that changes the way people think about HIV and which reopens the national dialogue about HIV."

After hearing about the campaign, I realized I had never thought about the stigma that accompanies being HIV+. Not that it isn't obvious when mentioned, but sometimes it takes mentioning for people to think about it.

And I asked myself, would Jesus have stigmatized people who are HIV+? With his record as a stigmatoclast, the answer is clear: "not a chance."

Would he have taken part in an HIV= campaign? Who knows. But there's no doubt that he embraced those at the margins, the outsiders, the least of these. He looked past the labels and past all the things we use to reject and exclude, and loved the men and women whom his Father had created.

Find out more about the HIV Equal campaign.


My apologies for not having a more middle eastern jesus. A search of Google images finds very few results of a non-white jesus, and then mostly he is wearing robes and such. To match the photos in the HIV= campaign at least somewhat, I needed to be able to place the "HIV=" sticker on his skin in a way that looked semi-realistic, and this is the best picture I found for that purpose. If anyone has a picture of a non-white jesus with a suitable area of skin showing to place the HIV=, please let me know.

key terms related to exclusion and embrace

This is an ongoing collection of key terms and concepts that people should know and understand, to assist with understanding exclusion and embrace, diversity, and more. Most items are a brief introduction to the concept, with links to more detailed information or discussion.

concept: generous spaciousness*

This is an absolutely key concept, related to the "environment, climate, ethos within expressions of the Christian community as it pertains to engaging with gender and sexual minority persons."

Rather than providing a really brief explanation on this page, read more about generous spaciousness on its own post and then follow up by clicking some of the links on that page.

concept: privilege*

Google offers the following definition of privilege:
"A special right, advantage, or immunity granted or available only to one person or group of people."

KJ Ward, writing at Black Girl Dangerous, defines privilege this way:
"unearned access to a bunch of good stuff and an arbitrarily granted protection from a bunch of bad stuff".

Accordingly, one might think of diplomatic immunity or the privileges that come with membership in an exclusive golf club or with first class plane tickets. But privilege as we are talking about it here is a more complex term, and one which is often difficult for those who are in privileged places to grasp. Let's use an example to illustrate it:

A white person goes into the store to get a birthday gift for their niece. Generally speaking, they never have to think about the following:
Will I be able to find a doll of the same race as my niece?
Will the store staff be worried that I'm going to steal things?
Will store security follow me around?

A black person or an aboriginal person goes into a store for the same purpose, and for them, these are often relevant questions!

Privilege is being able to live your life without ever having to think about such questions.

There are many kinds of privilege: white privilege, male privilege, straight privilege, cis privilege, Christian privilege, and others.

Read more about white privilege (including 50 daily effects of white privilege).
Read more about straight privilege (with parallels to the white privilege article).
Watch some amazing videos by Australian performance poet Joel McKerrow, as he says sorry for the white part in him, the rich part in him, the Christian part of him, and the masculine part of him.
Read Christena Cleveland about Killing Me Softly: On Privilege and Voice.
See also white fragility further down on this page.

[the cross in the closet]

"Timothy Kurek, raised within the confines of a strict, conservative Christian denomination in the Bible Belt, Nashville, Tennessee, was taught the gospel of separation from a young age. But it wasn't long before Timothy's path and the outside world converged when a friend came out as a lesbian, and revealed she had been excommunicated by her family. Distraught and overcome with questions and doubts about his religious upbringing, Timothy decided the only way to empathize and understand her pain was to walk in the shoes of very people he had been taught to shun. He decided to come out as a gay man to everyone in his life, and to see for himself how the label of gay would impact his life. In the tradition of Black Like Me, The Cross in the Closet is a story about people, a story about faith, and about one man's "abominable" quest to find Jesus in the margins."

(from the back cover)

This book was a fascinating read, and is enlightening in terms of how a person is able to not only gain a deeper understanding of others and to make a space in his or her heart for them, but to have love where before there was hatred and rejection. Definitely recommended.

Online preview available.
BlueHead Publishing (October 11, 2012)

p.s. Summer has given more opportunities to read, so I've been recommending books lately. In the next months, I plan to share quotes from Thurman's Jesus and the Disinherited along with more new cartoons.

[the story of Le Chambon]

Christine Pohl, in Making Room, tells the story of the village of Chambon:

It is critical to have the freedom to define a Christian identity and Christian community with distinctive beliefs and practices. But, to welcome strangers into a distinctly Christian environment without coercing them into conformity requires that their basic well-being not be dependent on sharing certain commitments. When basic well-being is under attack by larger society, Christians have a responsibility to welcome endangered persons into their lives, churches, and communities.

The story of the village of Le Chambon is a powerful example of the meaning of difference in the practice of hospitality. This small community of French Protestants rescued Jews during World War II. Opening their homes, schools, and church to strangers with quiet, steady hospitality, they made Le Chambon the safest place in Europe for Jews. They acknowledged and valued the Jewish identity of their guests and understood their need for protection. Defining as neighbor anyone who dearly needed help, they saved the lives of thousands of Jews. When the police asked the pastor of the community to turn in the Jews, André Trocmé responded, “We do not know what a Jew is. We know only men.” His response is profoundly illuminating. When, by acknowledging difference, we only endanger, we must only acknowledge our common human identity.

...

Because hospitality is a way of life, it must be cultivated over a lifetime. “Hospitality is one of those things that has to be constantly practiced or it won’t be there for the rare occasion.” We do not become good at hospitality in an instant; we learn it in small increments of daily faithfulness.

a god like us

The idea of looking for a god who looks like us will raise red flags for some christians. It smacks of that saying: "God created us in his image and we returned the favour."

However, there are times when the dominant view of God is too far from an individual's culture and context. At a service this past summer, two Aboriginal women talked about "finding a God who looks like them." They weren't looking to make a convenient god who does what they want and doesn't interfere with how they want to live their lives. They were looking for a God who was not the great white european god.

What do you think?

How has the God you believe in been filtered and painted by your culture or the dominant culture around you?