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Meet Emily Stone

Kirt Lewis

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Armchair Imagineering

The Activist's Prayer of Salvation

Kirt Lewis

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Not too long ago a former colleague of mine at World Relief posted on Facebook that she had not only recently experienced a personal loss but also suffered as a result of a systemic injustice that is being perpetuated at the hands of corrupt and heartless politicians and a majority of our society that is indifferent enough to not effectively demand a change.  What followed in the massive stream of comments below was maddening.  Again and again, Facebook 'friends' shared how sorry they were for her and her family's loss and that they would be 'praying' for God's comfort.  A few briefly noted how unfair her situation was...and that was it.  The vast majority completely ignored the injustice she had lamented in her post!  I can only imagine how she must have felt to be so thoroughly dismissed.  What is more unnerving is to ponder how comfortable so many 'people of faith' have become with mocking the whole concept of prayer by using it as an excuse to not act.  It reveals a dangerously myopic religion that is perfectly satirized in this gem I found on YouTube...    

Houses of Indifference

Church facilities are often referred to as 'houses of worship' but I wonder if 'houses of indifference' might be a more accurate title.  In my forty-two years within evangelical Christianity here in America, I witnessed and sadly participated in these religious gatherings that are basically a corporate expression of the same mentality I witnessed in the Facebook condolences I mentioned earlier.  We would take a few minutes to pray together over the most recent tragedy, but out of fear of becoming 'political' we would steer far away from collectively educating ourselves on the cause of the tragedy and then mobilizing to affect necessary change.  The exception to this would be natural disasters--those are conveniently beyond human responsibility--or whenever our 'religious liberty' was threatened by the godless hordes of liberal teachers, politicians, judges, news media, and celebrities.

time for an alter call

But I want to stop right there.  I am mindful that even right now there is someone who may be reading this blog while they are sitting in church listening to another safely generic message on how to "love God" and "one another" or how to improve one's life by following these few "principles from God's Word".  I'm sensing that there is someone out there that needs a spiritual breakthrough.  Deep in your soul you know that there is something wrong.  I'm here to tell you today that this is your conscience whispering to you.   In view of the unspeakable injustices in our world, you are feeling drawn to come forward and, you know, actually do something.  And you can experience true peace and a new purpose today.  It all begins with a simple prayer.  Just repeat after me...

Dear Lord,

Please help me...

to get off...

my ass.

Amen!

next steps

Congratulations!  An exciting life of actually making a difference awaits you.  You will just need to take a few practical steps.  First, you will have to actually get off your ass.  This will likely include spending many hours educating yourself on social issues and their root causes and potential solutions.  Be forewarned that this might require painful introspection as you consider how you might have knowingly or unknowingly contributed to the wide-scale suffering of entire racial, ethnic or economic groups.  Then, you will need to decide with other activists what political, economic and/or social actions you need to take in order to implement these solutions.  Lastly, this is good news that we can together take action that will help make this world a better place for everyone.  Why would you want to keep it to yourself?  You need to go out into the 'highways and byways' and proclaim the activist gospel.  Fortunately for you, I've developed a simple tool you can use to invite others to join you in this, in some cases, literally life-giving journey.  I would like to conclude by sharing this tool with you.  All you will need is 1) a pen and 2) a piece of paper (a restaurant napkin will suffice).  Then you will need to commit to memory the Three Activist Laws.  That's one less than Christian evangelists require so you should find this to be a breeze!  They are as follows...

1. There is some messed up shit in this world that needs to changed (war, poverty, etc.).

2. The problem is that you are sitting on your ass.

3. You need to get off your ass and do something about it. (Side note: I'm pretty sure the Bible says you are supposed to do this.)

Below is a sample of how you might illustrate these principles as you present the activist gospel to others who attend your church.

 

So schedule that cup of coffee with your pastor, deacon or any other member of your church.  Don't be discouraged if most of them deride you as being judgmental or divisive.  This is unfortunately very common.  Still, there might be a few who see the light and I look forward to hearing the exciting stories of transformation and the actual good that comes from these changed lives.

Rage Against the Machine

If you haven't done so yet, please go back and read or listen to Part 1 and Part 2 of this series.

Operation Iraqi Freedom Journal Part 3

Kirt Lewis

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March 1st: Rested. 

After a busy couple of weeks of orienting to the new team (MET Alpha) and training in preparation for our mission, the next couple weeks were a slow period where, quite frankly, I think I spent more time eating, sleeping, reading and most importantly learning to play hacky-sack than we did on mission prep.  I think our motivation to learn the latter was increased due to a cute Air Force girl from a nearby tent who shared a mutual interest in the “sport”.  Given an atmosphere predominantly starved of female presence, this was a pretty big deal.

CPL Gonzales and SGT Burdick passing time playing cards (a popular pastime)

Chief Gonzales was quick to remind us to take advantage of these times as life would get busy soon enough.  So we settled into a routine: wake-up, clean-up, chow hall (breakfast), back to the tent (rest, games, laundry, etc.), chow hall (lunch), more resting/playing, chow hall (dinner), back to the tent then sleep.  Rinse and repeat.

March 2nd: Went to church.  Chow hall burned down. 

Our Task Force Chaplain (I believe his name was Chaplain Jones) held services for a small group of soldiers every Sunday in a small, sandy tent.  Services were simple: singing to a CD (he used a Petra worship CD…kinda dated) and a message and prayer.  Outside of this, my faith was expressed in very simple ways: I regularly read my Bible, prayed and had several conversations with other soldiers that were probably more meaningful than the usual fluff in “civilian” church.  Outside of this, I tried to work hard, be a good friend to others and stay positive (struggled with this a few times).

What was left of the chow hall after the fire.

With re: to the chow hall burning down, the word was that a Kuwaiti worker got upset (poor work conditions?) and took a cigarette to the side of the tent.  It didn’t take long for it to go.  I remember walking out of the tent for chapel to see the plume of smoke.  While at first this development was at least cause for some excitement, it didn’t tale too long before we longed for the good ol’ days.  The MKT (Mobile Kitchen Trailers) were busted out and breakfast and dinner for the next couple of weeks were comprised of boiled hot dogs and rice.

Long lines at the MKT - Like Disneyland, except with luke-warm hot dogs and rice at the end.

March 3rd-4th: No entries.

March 5th-6th: Sand storms! 

The first of a few sand storms that we would experience in Kuwait and then later in Iraq.  In the early days of the war a sand storm rolled in that significantly slowed the advance.  At first it was a novelty and kind of a fun event.  After that, we could do without them (more on this later).

March 7th-8th: No entries.

March 9th: XTF formation; Doha. 

At the Task Force formation, the only thing I can recall is Col. Macfee telling us that, “The only way home is North.”   He liked giving speeches, though from my perspective as one who has made a living, in part, from public speaking, he wasn’t very good at it.  After this, we took a XTF pic (can’t find it unfortunately) and then took a day trip to Doha.  Click on this link to read a little about Camp Doha.  It included a large PX with several fast food restaurants.  Unfortunately the lines were insanely long so that was about all I remember doing along with a little window shopping. 

March 10th-12th: No entries. 

As a side note, there is a fair amount of humorous things that transpire in the military.  And while those who have not served might have a hard time understanding it, this is especially true when deployed oversees.  I might dedicate a future entry to nothing but some of my favorite humorous moments, but for now I will just mention one that most likely transpired around this time. 

There are these “chocolate” bars that come in MRE’s (Meals Ready to Eat).  We called them “Hooah bars”.  Let’s just say that their ultimate purpose probably has something more to do with “plugging you up” than their intrinsic tastiness.  However, they are also an excellent source of practical jokes.  When taken in your hand and rolled they take on an uncanny resemblance to something that happens when you are NOT plugged up.  One night someone on our team (who was it anyways?) decided to place one of these gifts on the pillow of a guy in our tent who worked a grave-yard shift (communications if I recall correctly).  When he got back later that night, all we heard was a string of expletives followed by the rest of us laughing as he actually thought for a moment that one of us had taken a dump on his pillow.

March 13th: Rode in Chinook to Iraq border. 

I think we did this so some of us could get a feel for the Chinook.  Outside of this we got a bird’s eye view of the groud troops stacking up along the border in preparation for the land assault.

Hard to see in the pic, but you could see artillery and tank units in their positions, ready to launch the invasion.

March 14th: No entries. 

March 15th: 3rd phone call, G-ma passed away. 

Before the war started, the ability to communicate back home was mediocre at best.  At Camp Udairi, there was a small tent with a few phones set up. If you had time to kill and didn't mind waiting in line for an hour, and the stars perfectly aligned (i.e. the phones actually worked), you could get a few minutes to talk with family or friends back home.  On this day I was fortunate to get through though unfortunate to hear of the passing of my grandma (Dad’s mom).  I loved her very much and recalled how disappointed I was that I would not be able to attend her memorial service..

Hanging out with grandma. She was as good as they get.

March 16th: Interesting briefing on history of Shiite, Sunnis, Kurds and Christians in Iraq; Saddam’s history; description of Iraq’s 7 Intel Agencies. 

Having been a student of Biblical history, I perhaps knew more about the history of the region than many around me.  However, this was still enlightening though also sadly an eerie foreshadowing of the conflict to come in the years ahead. 

March 17: President’s deadline. 

This was the official deadline for Iraq to “comply” or face military consequences, though the thought that we would all turn around and go home if there was a political breakthrough at any point prior to this date was quite laughable.  While much controversy still surrounds the question of when exactly a final decision was made to got to war with Iraq, one thing can be safely said.  It was before March 17th, 2003.

March 18th: All quiet. 

While I can’t recall if it was this exact date, I remember that right around this time SFC Veach (NCOIC of MET Alpha) pulled us aside to describe in very broad terms what was going to happen in the near future as far as military strategy.  It wasn’t complicated.  The Army's 3rd ID (Infantry Division) and 1st MEF (Marine Expeditionary Force) were going to basically punch it right up the gut (with 1st ID going left and 1st MEF going right up through An Najaf).  It was almost described like a race towards Baghdad.  82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions would be heavily in the mix as well.  Most of 101’s air support was based at Camp Udari, which accounted for the massive amount of choppers on the airfield.  All those Apache’s would head north and take out an entire Iraqi Division.  It was also around this time that they handed out revised ROE (Rules Of Engagement; see below).  The quiet will not last for much longer.

March 19th: CIA calls fire on convoy (possibly Saddam) late in the evening. 

This would effectively “kick off” the war.

March 20th: SCUD alerts ALL day; reports of 3 launches, 2 landing and 1 shot down via Patriot.  Iraq starts to set southern oil fields on fire (we can see the glow at night); US launches ATACMS and late in the evening 3ID and 1st MEF invade after initial artillery bombardment (we can hear the howitzers and paladins booming away in the distance). 

It was interesting to see others and even myself in retrospect respond for the first time to being potentially attacked in the case of SCUD warnings (if you don’t know what a SCUD is click here).  The first time definitely got my blood pumping.  Our Chief, who prior to becoming a Fire Direction Officer was a Ranger who had seen time in Somalia, and SFC Veach, our NCOIC who parachuted into Iraq in the first Gulf War, were decidedly more calm when we heard an “Incoming” missile.  In contrast was one occasion when all of a sudden we heard a couple of female soldiers screaming, “Incoming! Incoming!”  As we looked out the door of our tent we could see them sprinting to their tent, so frantic that half their gear looked like it was about to fall off.  We all got a good laugh out of that. 

Later on, Bourassa and I were outside when another alert happened and we donned our gas masks and crammed into a SCUD bunker with a bunch of other soldiers to include some Brits.  As we waited for the “all clear” I looked over at the Brits and noticed that they were taking pics with their disposable cameras.  I figured if they weren’t so concerned, why should I?

Bourassa, Peneche and I chilling in a SCUD bunker

If I recall correctly, later that night Chief pulled the team aside and talked to us a bit.  He mentioned that what we were about to experience together would bond us together for the rest of our lives.  Hearing the artillery was memorable to.  Not that I hadn’t heard the sound before!  I was an artilleryman myself and back at Fort Sill we were accustomed to hearing the ‘King of Battle’ at work.  But these shells and missiles weren’t landing on an empty shooting range anymore.  They were taking out people.  Lives were ending.  Even if they are the “enemy”, that’s a sobering thing.  The glow and smoke from the burning oil fields would last for weeks.

March 21st:  We are supposed to “jump” into Iraq on the 24th, but we will probably have a mission sooner.  More SCUD alerts.  Forces progressing quickly.  Only 1-2 casualties so far.  Word that a whole Iraqi Division surrenders, possibly a second. 

Chief or SFC Veach would give us brief reports almost once a day, things they would hear when they went to the daily briefings.  As far as the timing of us going into Iraq, that ended up being way off.

March 22nd: Troops are having to slow down because supply can’t keep up.  Things are going well. 

By the end of the third day there was almost this sense that this was going to be a cake walk.  That changed the next day.

March 23: Early in the morning there are two close-interval explosions (LOUD!).  We don gas masks. Probably 30 minutes later given the “All clear!”.  We hear of a translator tossing 2 grenades in an officer tent at Camp Pennsylvania, but that is too far away for explosions that loud.  At morning formation we are told that 2 SCUD’s were shot down and that there was an incident at Camp Penn.  One officer shot, three frag grenades tossed in tents (15 wounded, 6 critical, 1 eventually died by the end of the day).  Later in the evening find out that one of the loud explosions last night was a Brit plane (Tornado) being accidentally shot down.  It’s believed that its beacon identifying it as friendly was not working and that our Patriot battery mis-identified it as a SCUD.  I don’t know what to say to the Brits in our tent.  Around 9:30pm we hear of a support maintainance convoy ambush behind 3ID’s advance.  Company is decimated.  Quite a few Black Hawks leave from Camp Udairi as part of MASSCAS (Mass Casualty) medivac.  15 are captured or MIA and 6-7 are executed live on Al Jazeera.  We are still waiting for our 1st site.  I want to go north and join the fight.  Today was a bad day.  At minimum 8 US soldiers dead, 2 Brits. 

The convoy ambush that I am referring to was the one that involved Jessica Lynch, with her whole rescue story now a source of debate.  The report of live executions ended up being false; actual figures of those killed was worse (11 KIA) but those captured were less (5) and were all eventually rescued.  I remember having a hard time going to sleep that night.  I was experiencing anger like never before.  I remember thinking in my mind that I had 210 rounds on me and that there would be 210 dead Iraqi’s if they would just let us go North.  Of course our mission was not directly combat related so the likelihood of us engaging in that kind of combat was slim, let alone the fact that I'm not that great of a shot.  But I’m just being honest with how I felt at the time.  I’m not a violent man but I obviously had to be willing to kill if absolutely necessary...I joined the Army after all!  There was a quote from The Lord of the Rings that was meaningful to me at the time:

War must be, while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all; but I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend.

But now I was not only a willing to kill in defense of others, but I had in that moment a desire to take human life.  I’m not proud of that moment.

As far as the SCUD missiles, that first actual attack is something I will never forget.  Those explosions were so loud!  In basic you are trained to be able to put your gas ask on in less than 8 or 9 seconds.  I promise you I got that thing on much quicker than that. 

SOmetimes we'd hear a SCUD warning, don our gas masks and just get on with whatever we were up to until the "All clear!".

Then I, like many others I suppose, just laid back down on my cot and prayed that the wreckage not land on our tent.  Later that day when we heard that one of the explosions was a friendly fire, I just remember how despondent the Brits in our tent were.  I don’t recall anyone talking about it with them; maybe we all just felt it was better to give them space.  Earlier that morning at formation I am pretty sure we cheered the report that those explosions were SCUDs that we shot down.  Now I think we were all replaying that moment in our mind, knowing that one of those explosions was the ending of two Brit pilot’s lives as they came back from a combat mission over Iraq.  The incident at Camp Penn was the second time soldiers had died this side of the Iraqi border, the first being the Black Hawk accident I described in an earlier entry. 

March 24th: Early in the AM we hear another explosion.  Patriot intercepts another missile (not  SCUD this time).  We hear a second report of Iraqi’s pretending to surrender and then opening fire.  No fatalities yet today.  Marines running into a pretty descent fight now (50 reportedly injured).  Same with 3ID.  A little before 2pm, 2 loud explosions.  Believed to be 2 missiles intercepted over Camp Udairi.  Later we are told that our ADA (Air Defense Battery) has intercepted 10 SCUDs/missiles, the most of any ADA battery in theater.  Report that downed Apache crew recovered, Apache wreck destroyed by ATACM (fired from an MLRS unit). 

This would be the last time we’d hear a SCUD or missile shot down and for the most part warnings slowed to a trickle.  Only once did we see the actual wreckage of a SCUD.  It had landed maybe 50 yards from the Chow Hall.  I think we were more concerned where the wreckage landed than the projectile itself.  Some might recall from the first Gulf War when 28 members of a Pennsylvania National Guard unit were killed when the debris of a SCUD landed on their barracks in Saudi Arabia.  The battle I make reference to re: the Marines took place at Nasiriyah (click on this link to learn more).

March 25th: 3ID about 80km out of Bagdad.  Marines slightly behind.  Possibility we might go on 1st mission tomorrow.  Not a lot of news.  SCUD alert at Chow Hall.

March 26th: Hear late last night that two US tanks and a Bradley were destroyed in fighting outside Baghdad (about 50 miles out).  We retaliated and killed an estimated 500 Iraqis.  We also hear reports that they are using hospitals, mosques and ambulances to hide and screen their movements (especially of high-ranking officers).  Essentially its guerrilla warfare.  That’s OK as Chief says it’s, “Game on!”  We should go to our first site tomorrow.

It was hard still being in Kuwait and I think this entry reflects the mood of that moment.  Still in retrospect I find it sobering that I glossed over a figure as profound as 500 dead “enemies”.  A great irony of my life is that I would years later spend time working for an organization that, among other services, provides assistance to Iraqi refugees arriving in Sacramento.   Perhaps some of them lost a friend of family member among those 500.  War is always tragic, a reality I did not comprehend until I went through this experience.  Prior to that I had been used to a steady diet of FOX News, and that side of war didn't fit into their narrative.

March 27th: Large Iraqi convoy headed south (vehicles # in the 100’s) is destroyed. Believed to be a part of counter attack on 3rd ID.  Elsewhere, 70+ convoy destroyed by Brits.  101st prepping to invade Baghdad.

From a purely military standpoint, the Iraqi military never stood a chance (as in the first Gulf War).  These counter attacks were pure suicide on the part of the commanders who ordered them.  Thankfully, these were the exception to the norm as large-scale surrendering was more common.

March 28th: Pretty quiet.  Col. MacFee finds 2 lost soldiers.

In his “moment of glory”, our Task Force Commander found 2 US soldiers who had gotten lost from their unit.  Other than a few bumbling speeches and what I perceived to be his inadequate leadership of an eventually floundering mission, this is all I can recall of him.

March 29th: 1 Marine accidentally gets separated from his unit and is killed and dragged through the streets. 4 Army soldiers are killed at CP in suicide explosion.

Here we are starting to get a foreshadowing of the style of warfare that would characterize this war for years to come.  Note: For those who don’t know, CP stands for “Check Point”.

As you can tell, we are still in Kuwait. As frustrating as this was, it was good that someone could find the humor in it.  Leave that to a member of MET Bravo, Cpl. Siefkes, who came up with an alternative version of the lyrics from Jennifer Lopez’s “Jenny from the Block”: “Don’t be fooled by the war in Iraq. I’m still, I’m still sitting on my cot.”  In general he was an endless supply of laughs and a good guy who I’ve reconnected with years later via Facebook.

March 30th: A Kuwaiti worker in a pickup truck runs over a group of soldiers in line at the PX (here at Camp Udairi).  3 soldiers attached to 75th in the line.  One of our guys (who was on our team) runs after the driver and shoots him twice–he is captured.  13 soldiers are wounded, but none critically.  Original report had 2-3 nationals opening fire in or by our PX (from a white van).  Met-Alpha and soldiers from other units help create a perimeter.  A white van is stopped within our sight and 3 nationals surrender and are questioned.  They turned out to be fine.  Must have had the piss scared out of them!  Elsewhere, 4 nationals (workers) are found locked in a conex.  Security tightens.

As is obvious from this and previous entries, just because we weren’t in Iraq didn’t mean there wasn’t any real danger.   Those guys who were taken from the van must have been scared shitless.  There must have been about a hundred weapons (including my own) zeroed in on them.

March 31st: No entries.

In Part 4, we will review April journal entries which finally covers our movement into Iraq.

click here to go to part 4

A Way to Understanding

Kirt Lewis

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I'm really excited to feature on the this website special podcast interviews I have simply called, Help Me Understand.

From the intro to this website, here is the short summary of the purpose and format for the Help Me Understand podcast series...

Ever meet (in person or virtually) someone who is just fascinating to you? I'm like you, especially when those people come from a radically different background than mine which I would describe as American, white, male, suburban, middle-class, conservative Christian. Help Me Understand is like my own home-grown version of Humans of New York or StoryCorps. First, I find someone who fascinates me. It might be someone I have a personal history with but it could be someone you suggest via the Suggestion Box! Then I record a podcast interview with them, seeking to understand what "makes them tick" by asking a series of questions that surfaces their meta-narrative."

So before you listen to your first Help Me Understand interview, I felt it would be good to lay some conceptual groundwork here in a separate blog/podcast.  In other words, it will be helpful for you to understand how I understand the word "understand" and how exactly I hope to achieve greater understanding through the Help Me Understand podcasts.  Confused?  Hopefully you won't be in five minutes.

First, let's clearly distinguish between understanding and agreement.  My goal here, personally and for those who listen to these podcasts, is not agreement on beliefs, values and lifestyles.  With that said, mutual understanding does surface a commonality we might have assumed was not there.  This is the essence of empathy.  Sometimes this leads to greater agreement in terms of shared beliefs, values and lifestyle choices.  But if that appears to be the goal from the beginning, understanding will, in my opinion, be hard to find.  Us humans seem to be open to change so long as we feel that the people we are engaging with are not trying to change us.  So I will try my best to ask the kinds of questions that let the one being interviewed simply tell their story without feeling like they have to convince me somehow of the legitimacy of their perspective.  I will absolutely NEVER express my thoughts on their experiences and perspectives in these podcasts.  "I think" statements or rhetorical questions where the answer fits what I want to hear are banned from these interviews!

So what specifically will be my approach?

I have a theory that in the end most people understand their lives and make decisions on what to do and say based on a story.  Were just missing the narration (see the movie, Stranger Than Fiction).

There is something about a narrative that so profoundly resonates with human experience that we default to it as a guiding force over that of a defined system of belief, philosophy, or creed.  A story is the context by which we interpret our lives.  So the questions I ask are intended to help us slowly construct the personal narrative of those being interviewed--that is, the people or other living creatures in their life (characters), the places and times within which they have lived (setting) and what they have done and experienced (plot).  Each interview might approach these subjects in a different order, but here are the questions we will explore.  (I will likely ask some follow up questions to flesh out some details.)

1. What are the names of some people who have played a big role (both 'good', 'bad' or both) in your life? Try to share 1-2 names for each of the categories: a) family, b) friends, c) fellow students, d) colleagues at work, e) neighbors, f) strangers (can include people you have not personally met but who you feel had a significant impact on your life). Any other non-human creatures (e.g. pets) that have played a significant role in your life? If so, what were their names?

2. Can you share with us the names of two to three significant places where you have lived or traveled to? When did you go to those places? Can you describe what it was like (what it looked like and how it felt to be there)? Outside of your own personal experience, how would you broadly describe what life was like in those places at the time you were there? What would most people living in that place at that time remember (important events, popular leaders, overall mood, etc.)?

3. Can you describe for us a time in your life when things were going really well (could be right now)? What were the reason(s) that this time was so good?

4. When was a time in your life when things were going really badly (again, could be now)? Did it get worse? If so, when and how did it get worse?

5. Has it gotten better? If so, when and how did it get better or when and how did you finally overcome the challenge(s) of that time? What was this moment like?

6. In summary, what would you say is the nature of the main obstacles you have faced in life (so far)?

7. What would you say are the themes of your story (so far)? How do you think the story will end?

What we've done in listening to the answers to these questions is just told a story that identities...

• key characters: both in terms of their roles (protagonists and antagonists) and degree of complexity (flat or round)

• setting: representing the physical places and broad chronological context

• plot: to include exposition, introduction of the conflict, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution as well as the perceived nature of the story (comedy or tragedy)

In closing, why is it important for us to ask these question and listen to someone's answers?  We live in times when understanding is desperately needed but short in supply.  I believe that as we listen to these stories we will come to recognize themes that are common to all of us and that in those discoveries is where understanding begins. 

Meet Cameron Kasky

Kirt Lewis

Remember the moment in The Lord of the Rings, where Gandalf lays on Frodo some vintage Gandalf-ian wisdom?  If you are a J.R.R. Tolkien fan, you are probably following up with, "Which time!  There are so many!"  I'm talking about the time where the Fellowship of the Ring has paused in their journey deep into the mines of Moria.  There Frodo lamented the dark times they lived in, saying, "I wish it need not have happened in my time."  To which Gandalf replies...

"So do I...and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (New Line Cinema, 2001)

It can be shocking how an unexpected event can completely transform one's character and purpose in life.  I have no idea what life was like for Cameron Kasky, a junior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, before 2:21pm on February 14, 2018.  I'm pretty sure that nowhere near his current plans at the time was to in one week become a national spokesman for gun regulation, directly challenging the elite political leaders of his day along with one of the most longstanding and powerful lobbying organization in America, the two billion dollar gun industry's National Rifle Association. But that is precisely what has happened.  Inspired by the time that was stolen from seventeen human beings by a mentally and emotionally deranged young man and a society that has thus far lacked the backbone to make the kinds of changes that could have saved these and other victims of gun violence in the United States, Cameron has chosen to use the time given to him to stand up with his other surviving classmates and challenge politicians and the power brokers of violence who pull their strings.

We close by observing Cameron's amazing moment with once Presidential candidate and now sitting U.S. Senator, Marco Rubio...

Armchair Imagineering

The small Greek island of Patmos where the Apostle John wrote the book of Revelation.

Where is the letter to the Church?

Kirt Lewis

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Most students of the Bible know that the part of the Christian Scriptures called the New Testament is comprised of twenty-seven books.  Out of these, twenty-one are "epistles" or letters.  Now here is a obvious observation with regard to these letters that might be worth reflecting on: They are all written to the Church.  In fact you can expand this to another broader observation.  While the Bible has aroused universal interest, it seems like the human authors of the books of the Bible, and the ultimate Author if you believe in it's Divine inspiration, write but with very few exceptions to specific audiences who have one thing in common: they have all made a choice to believe and self-identify as followers of the God revealed in its pages.  That's right, the Bible was written to people in various historical contexts who in those moments were believers in the things the Bible teaches.  But let's get back to the New Testament letters and a thought I had on how that might relate to today's Evangelical Church.

yet another open letter to President Trump and congress

It really pains me to do this, because I love and admire so many of my former colleagues at World Relief.  They played a central role in crafting a recent open letter to President Trump and Congress in light of the threat to 'Dreamers' and the brutal cuts to the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program.  This letter, which was featured in a full-page ad in the Washington Post, mirrored one they released a year earlier in the immediate aftermath of President's Trumps travel ban, an action which cut off a life-saving opportunity for tens of thousands of refugees while causing significant damage to World Relief and eight other organizations who have faithfully partnered with the State Department in welcoming and supporting over three million refugees since 1980.

First let me say that faith-inspired people of conscience have a moral obligation and biblical mandate to speak up for those who are suffering as a result of cruel and inhumane public policy, such as Queen Esther did to King Xerxes.  Or as is often quoted from the book of Proverbs (31:8-9),

Open your mouth for the mute,
For the rights of all the unfortunate.
Open your mouth, judge righteously,
And defend the rights of the afflicted and needy.

So there is nothing wrong with World Relief and those who signed this letter challenging our political representatives in DC, though I have to say that the actual letter was very light on that challenge.  For example, it only gently suggests policies and nowhere directly challenges the lie-ridden rhetoric used to fuel support for them or the racist ideologies that form their foundation.  But that is not the point I wish to focus on.  Rather, my question is this: Where is the letter to the Evangelical Church?

masking the real problem

Going back to the initial observation, it seems to me that when God talks to His people in the Bible, whether they be Israel in the Hebrew Scriptures (what Christians often call the Old Testament) or the Church in the New Testament, there is an overwhelming focus on making sure His people's 'house is in order' before it turns its focus to critiquing the rest of the world.  As Jesus famously asked in the Gospel of Mathew (7:3-4),

Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye?

In keeping with this analogy, the creators and signers of this letter seem to be fixated on gently pointing out the 'speck' in President Trump and Congress' collective 'eye', while ignoring the 'log' in the 'eye' of their own Evangelical Church.  That log is the fact that no other demographic group of people resonated as strongly with first candidate and then President Donald Trump's bigotry and ethnocentric fear-mongering than that of the Evangelical community.  Nine months before the election, a Christianity Today article's title based upon a LifeWay Research poll said it all: 'Churches are Twice as Likely to Fear Refugees than to Help Them'.  Then, as has been widely reported, white evangelicals overwhelming voted for Trump in the election, effectively giving him the White House.  And no, contrary to the argument that some tried to make which posited that these voters represented 'Christmas and Easter only' cultural Christians, Pew Research Center found that they in fact represented those who were "quite religiously observant"--in other words, they regularly sit in, serve at and tithe to evangelical churches.  And we know from other exit polls, whether they were done by FOX News or the New York Times, that the top two issues for Trump supporters were "immigration" and "terrorism", so it is quite reasonable to deduce that this was a dominant concern among American evangelicals.  This assertion gained further support when another Pew poll found that 76% of white evangelicals supported Mr. Trump's de facto Muslim travel ban.  Even after a year of chaotic tweeting and a parade of scandals culminating in alleged hush money being given to a porn star, Trump still held a healthy majority in the approval ratings among this demographic.  And as far as Dreamers are concerned, while some polls find a modest amount of evangelical compassion for children of undocumented immigrants, others contest this and find that their overall sentiments on undocumented immigrants continue to be the most hard-line of any religious group in America. 

These facts aren't just anomalies indicating some kind of temporary state of insanity, but rather are surfacing endemic beliefs and values that I began to address in the previous two-part piece on The Idols of Evangelicalism (Part 1 and Part 2) as well as the earlier article on the The REAL Quadrilateral.

Silence, PR work and Turncoats

Most pastors have danced around these idols, using the old "we're not going to get political" excuse to avoid upsetting their flocks.  Meanwhile, advocates try to do their best PR work to highlight the few evangelical voices that are taking a principled stand, but I have to say they are being border-line dishonest when they release open letters like these that seem to imply that there is broad and passionate support from evangelicals for the more just policies they are hoping to advance.  Lastly, you have ego-driven turncoats who fancy themselves as heroic defenders of undocumented immigrants, like Sammy Rodriguez of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference.  When the Trump administration laid out that it was willing to provide legal status and a pathway to citizenship for an estimated 1.8 million Dreamers at the cost of no legal protection from deportation for approximately 10 million other undocumented immigrants and drastic cuts to future legal immigration, Mr. Rodriguez got on his knees and kissed...I mean, praised it as "a fulfillment of everything this administration has promised us since President Trump's inauguration."  One wonders what else President Trump promised to Sammy and the other band of 'Court Evangelicals' when he lead them up to the top of the White House.

its time for another letter

So evangelicals, it is time for another letter featured in a full page ad in the Washington Post.  You will need to tap into your inner Apostle John sitting on the Island of Patmos (Revelation 2-3) and direct this letter to the Church.  Let it begin with a confession, that the political choices evangelicals have made reflect a pervasive failure by its leaders to disciple their people.  That they chose the path of least resistance and now the most vulnerable--the poor, minorities, immigrants and refugees, etc.--are paying the price for that failure.  Beyond that, Jesus is now outside of the Evangelical Church, knocking and pleading for them to "open up their hearts and accept him as Lord and Savior."  Then let them go on to challenge every local evangelical pastor to actually begin to spiritually lead their congregations, at whatever cost including the possibility of losing their jobs.  And conclude by openly challenging by name the prophets of greed and power like the Apostle Paul did Alexander the metalworker (2 Timothy 4:14-15).

If all we have a year from now is another open letter written by a few, select evangelical leaders challenging politicians to reject certain unjust policies that are in reality widely supported by evangelicals, then be prepared for more of the same.  You need to go to the base of political support for those policies, which just so happens to be your base.  It's time to write a letter to the church.

Migrant workers harvest corn on Uesugi Farms in Gilroy, CA on Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2013. USDA photo by Bob Nichols

They are ALL 'Dreamers'!

Kirt Lewis

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While the battle rages in D.C. over the future of those who qualify for or have received DACA, all-together minimized or forgotten is the injustice being committed towards their parents.  Somewhere along the line, a pragmatic decision was made that calculated that the best shot at a political victory, for both DACA recipients and those who are qualified but have yet to apply for the program, was to, in part, stir sympathy for them as victims.  They were brought here 'through no fault of their own'.  What does that imply as far as whose fault it was?  Why of course, it was the parents!  They were the 'criminals' who violated our sacred belief in the 'rule of law'.  This is why I have a problem with the current title of 'Dreamers', not because I don't think it is an appropriate description of the amazing young men and women to whom it is currently applied.  I just think it is true of ALL undocumented immigrants.

parents dream all the time

I wonder if President Trump ever had dreams about his children's future.  I'm assuming he did.  And I'm not talking about the overly controlling dreams which all parents are susceptible to, perhaps pinning the hopes of vicariously fulfilling our own unrealized ambitions through the life and accomplishments of our offspring.  But dreams born of love, fueling a drive to make any sacrifice deemed necessary for their children so that they could have every opportunity to succeed in life.  Aren't these dreams worth recognizing?  

Luba Cortez shared the story of one such Dreamer, her mom, in a great Op-Ed piece in the New York times in June of 2016.  This mom left behind a career as a lawyer in Mexico to become a housekeeper in New York City.  I am sure that in many ways she sacrificed her own dreams for the hope of her daughter's.  The same is true of Christian Olvera's mom and dad, who he now has to drive to their work due to their fear that even a minor trafficking offense could trigger deportation.  Yet the extreme right columnist and contributor to The Daily Caller, David Benkof, called this decision that Luba's mom and Christian's parents made, along with millions of other parents, "stunningly callous and cruel" given the risks of future deportation.

historical amnesia

Mr. Benkof and others who take a hard-line on what they call "chain migration", including President Trump and Stephan Miller, are not only displaying a shocking lack of basic human empathy by saying such things, but also a significant amount of amnesia as it relates to their own personal history.  Unless your among the approximately two percent of the total U.S. population who are Native Americans, you have to retrace your genealogical steps back to someone who shared the same dreams as these undocumented parents.  Al Jazeera did a fantastic job pointing this out in a a short video they recently released:

I personally have found it impossible to understand how people can advocate for legislation that, had it been in effect at the time, might have blocked their own ancestors from pursuing their dreams in a new nation.

The Pharaohs blame the slaves...again

Back to today's undocumented Dreamers, young and old, it's as if American history is repeating itself as the Pharaohs again blame those they enslaved.  "We the people" have, through the officials we elected, been complicit in the systemic exploitation of yet another entire ethnic group by creating laws and then selectively enforcing them over decades in order to reap the benefits of cheap labor.  It's ironic that the top two industries where undocumented immigrants make up the largest percentage of the workforce are private housekeeping and agriculture.  It's like we were inconvenienced by the Civil Rights movement and had to switch out black people for brown people.

Meanwhile, the religious people who elected President Trump, specifically the 81 percent of white Evangelicals who are supposed to be the most "pro-family", lend political support to the very policies that will tear good, hardworking families apart.  But that is a demon I will leave them to exorcise.

what you and I can do

So what can you and I do right now? 

1. Call your representatives in Congress in the House of Representatives and the Senate and tell them that you want them to protect ALL Dreamers, including the parents of those who have received or are qualified for DACA. At the very least, provide them with temporary legal status with a reasonable pathway to permanent legal residency, a solution that seems to have some bi-partisan support. Let your representatives know that their record on this issue will greatly impact your vote next time they are up for re-election.

2. At the local level, advocate that your city become a 'sanctuary city'.

3. Consider various forms of civic disobedience. Religious congregations can become sanctuaries because ICE policy still will not allow arrests at houses of worship.

4. Educate your family and friends on undocumented immigrants in contrast to the demagoguery spewing out of the White House and their allies. No, undocumented immigrants are NOT a 'drain on our economy' and in reality are far less prone to criminal activity than the native born population. These are just a few examples.

5. When it is safe and appropriate to do so, introduce skeptics to real dreamers. It won't always work, but in my own extensive experience with refugees I found it to be incredibly effective in helping opponents of immigration reform move past their dehumanizing stereotypes.

Collectively if we persevere in these actions, I believe in the end we will win this fight and advance the opportunity for all of us, without exception, to dream.