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The Kingdom of NIMBY and the Kingdom of God

 "One day we will have to stand before the God of history and we will talk in terms of things we have done ... It seems that I can hear the God of history saying, 'That was not enough! But I was hungry, and ye fed me not. I was naked, and ye clothed me not. I was devoid of a decent sanitary house to live in, and ye provided no shelter for me. And consequently, you cannot enter the kingdom of greatness. If ye do it unto the least of these, my brethren, ye do it unto me.' That is  the question facing America today."

--"Remaining Awake through a Great Revolution"

Martin Luther King, Jr.  April 9, 1968

(His last Sunday sermon, delivered at Washington National Cathedral)

 I used this portion of MLK's sermon at our National Cathedral in one of my sermons a few weeks ago.  MLK delivered this sermon to the very heart of White Protestant power, and challenged "People of Good Will" to actually do something for the poor rather than just talk about it and wring their hands. 

Last night,  I attended yet another Waukesha City Plan Commission Meeting.  A well-regarded Minnesota developer was presenting a plan to create 60 units of affordable workforce housing within the City of Waukesha.  They were really nice plans - these would be apartments for people in the 20k-50K income range.  There would be Federal help in the ways of tax breaks to build the units, but there would be no subsidy for the residents.  The proposed housing density was much lower than the surrounding subdivisions and it had a surprising amount of green space.  It would have appealed to starting professionals such as teachers, police, nurses, etc. who have been made homeless by the recession or are not ready yet for home ownership.  It was in a non-zoned parcel surrounded on two sides by commercial land and on the other two sides by single-family residential.  On the city's master plan, it was marked for residential.  An obvious win-win, right?   It might be, outside the Kingdom of NIMBY.

For those of you unaware of the Kingdom of NIMBY, it is an overriding dominion that we are all a part of.  It is always a temptation to value our own individual or small group good over the good of the wider community.  Sometimes, this can be good - a protection of minority rights.  NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) is when a majority acknowledges a need, but those around the project decide that their individual good is more important.  In my experience with NIMBY, it's almost always couched in the form of, "This is a really worthy thing, but I don't want it anywhere near me."

Last night was a typical expression of the power of NIMBY.  People thought the developer had done a good job, and everybody thought that affordable housing was a great thing, but they all wanted it somewhere else, preferably not near them.  Then began the predictable deflections of guilt always present in when NIMBY is in overdrive, "Have them come back with Senior Housing.  We'd be OK with that." In other words, "We'd be OK with Grannies, but we don't want 'poor' people."   Of course, this made no rational sense, as a senior housing project would require HIGHER density population, causing larger traffic problems, etc.  I can't say I'm surprised that the board made the predictable political decision to decline the request rather than evaluate the project using rational means.

But where it turned really wrong, and I saw the Kingdom of NIMBY in direct conflict with the Kingdom of God was an exchange after the meeting.  I was standing with the Director of a a local Non-Profit (let's call her Laurie.)   She had responded passionately at the meeting to the implications that renters were irresponsible, being a renter herself.  One of the residents, who had used the standard NIMBY lines I have heard from everyone at countless meetings at this point, came up to her and tried to take her aside.  Laurie refused, so the resident said, "You know, we've been praying for you."  "What?" replied Laurie, "What do you mean by that?." "We know you've been having health problems."  "Well," said Laurie, "I've been praying that someone will allow us to build affordable housing for the working poor that I have in my shelter, but so far, that hasn't happened.  Maybe you should start praying for them."

This exchange floored me.  Obviously, I was proud of Laurie.  But the bigger question is, what DID the other woman mean?  What was the possible purpose of her statement?  I think it was something like this, "You know, my actions might make you THINK I'm not a Christian, but I do pray, so.."  So what? so ... "I'm a good person" or "don't judge me" or "say something nice so I won't feel so bad?"  I'm proud that Laurie didn't affirm any of this.  Sometimes, guilt over real wrongs done can be a catalyst for change.

Christ taught us that if we do not take care of the least of these, all of our prayers are like so much noise in the ears of God.  St. Lawrence taught us that the poor are the treasure of the church.  I am weary of hearing "Good Christian People"  starting sentences with, "I don't want to sound Unchristian, but.."  while watching people of other faiths or none at all stand up for the poor.  I would like to hear people who claim to follow our Lord start to sound Christian instead of making excuses.  I would love to see Christians start to act out of faith and hope in Jesus' words rather than out of irrational fear.  42 Years after Martin Luther King Jr. articulated the truth that rang in our National Cathedral, the challenge still rings all the way to Wisconsin.  Who do you serve when the chips are down?  Which Kingdom are you a subject of, God's or NIMBY?  The question that faced America in 1968 still faces us today.

David+

Crossing the Gaming Rubicon

 Last week the gaming group I GM crossed over from Wizards of the Coast's Dungeons and Dragons to Paizo's Pathfinder system.  My guys are real rule lawyers, and D&D 3.5E had become an exercise in doubling encounter ratings to keep them challenged due to the huge loopholes in the system.  I bought and read the new fourth edition rules from Wizards, but I tend to agree with many that their new rules make D&D much more World of Warcraft-like.  I like World of Warcraft, but not for a tabletop game.  I loved the adventure paths Paizo had done back when they published Dungeon magazine, so I was really interested to see how they would re-tool D&D 3.5.  Many of the revisions, such as making the cleric much more usable at low level and simplifying special combat maneuvers address obvious problems with 3.5.  We have only started down this path, but so far, I really like how Paizo is developing the system.  Not looking back so far....

Chess is not geeky enough....

You gaming geeks will understand.  From Foxtrot.

 

Missionary Imposition: Idaho Baptists Charged With Kidnapping

Had the inexperienced Idaho missionaries read so much as Haiti’s wikipedia page they would have learned that the nation has a history of slavery, colonialism and missions that warns against attempts to remove Haitian children from their home. 

via www.religiondispatches.org

It still astounds me that people attempt to do mission work without first understanding the local culture and history.  While I applaud the motivation of the SBC missionaries, if you really want to do mission, you go and live WITH the people you wish to serve, not take them home as what amounts to an evangelical trophy.  

Butler's critique is right on target when she speaks of the problem in Evangelical Christianity between "Me" and "We."  All too often in Evangelical rhetoric, it is up to "Me" to convert this person, up to "Me" to save the world. And if "I' don't do it, this person will not be saved.  It is a symptom of the sin of hubris, where God's kingdom revolves around my actions, rather than the action of Christ on the cross. Of course, this comes more from American individualism than the Gospel.  Paul tells us that we are all different parts of the same body, each with different gifts and tasks.   SOME are evangelists, SOME are teachers.  Some, I would submit, are missionaries and some are not.  Those who are called by the Holy Spirit to be missionaries are the people with the gift of discerning what is Christ-like in another culture and finding a way to proclaim the Gospel within it, transforming it from the inside rather than acting out of  a neo-colonialist agenda.  The rest of us who are members of the body of Christ should support those who are called to this task as we best can according to the gifts we have been given.

I hope that the missionaries can be released after due process, as they obviously did not understand on some level that they were kidnapping children, but that is for the Haitian government to decide.  Considering Haiti's history, I would not be surprised to see them treated with very little leniency.  Consider - if this group had decided to work WITHIN Haiti, how much further the resources of their church would have gone.  They could have affected the lives of far more than 33 children.  But they wanted the "safe" option, the option that did not require them to give up their jobs or home or church in Idaho, the option that would allow them to impose their cultural values on the Haitian children rather than bring their values into conversation with them.  It would allow them to be in control rather than the Holy Spirit.  And that, friends, is why these people are being treated as kidnappers rather than missionaries.

David+ 

Thinking Anglicans: ACNA and the Episcopal Church

via www.thinkinganglicans.org.uk

Readers may recall this General Synod motion, which is being debated next Wednesday. And there is this amendment.A paper rebutting the claims made about the Episcopal Church, compiled by me, has been issued to General Synod members.That paper can now be read in full here. 

This is an excellent summary of the inaccuracies in the General Synod motion, much of which relies on information from the American Anglican Council.  The AAC 's publications have all the journalistic integrity of the National Enquirer, and usually do about as good a job documenting sources.

David+