A UM New Service Commentary by Bishop Timothy W. Whitaker: Why should I be a Christian?

Bishop Timothy W. Whitaker.

If someone were to ask you "Why should I be a Christian?" what would you say?

I cannot think of a more challenging question for a Christian. It makes us wonder if we have anything to say to a person who is not a Christian that would at least encourage him or her to consider becoming one. It also makes us think about why we ourselves are Christians.

Whenever we talk with a non-Christian, it is more important to witness than to convince. We should listen to his or her story and, when we hear some question that comes from that person's experience, then we may share how the Gospel of Jesus Christ has enabled us to respond to that question in our own lives. We cannot argue anyone into faith in Jesus Christ.

Nevertheless, there is room in preaching, teaching and conversation for giving some reasons why one should be a Christian.

Jesus is alive
In my view, the first response is to declare that Jesus Christ is alive, and he is calling each of us to be his disciple. We who are Christians believe that the one Jesus called Abba, Father, sent him into history as "the exact imprint of God's very being (Hebrews 1:3)." In his character, pattern of living and teaching we have "seen the Father (John 14:9)." This is a unique claim.

Since it is a claim that, if true, should cause one to change one's whole life, then we owe it to ourselves to test it. The main way to put it to the test is to read the Gospels in the New Testament. They must be read with an open mind and heart. Reading the Gospels defensively is to fail to take seriously the Christian claim about Jesus Christ. If we are willing to read the Gospels with openness, then the person of Jesus Christ impresses himself upon our mind and heart. While there are obvious differences in the Gospels, each portrays the same Christ. That is, the person of Jesus Christ communicates himself to us through the various witnesses to him. His gift of himself to us comes with a call to us personally as if to say, "Because I am who I am, why are you not following me?" This mysterious transaction between Jesus Christ and us occurs because Jesus Christ lives as the crucified and risen Lord and gives himself to us through the church and its book of original witnesses to him.

If someone dares to read the Gospels with openness and begins to sense the call of Christ, then he or she also should meet with Christians for conversation about their own experience of Christ. In the experience of others we begin to understand what is happening to us and how we can respond to this call. Worship with a congregation that celebrates rightly the sacraments of baptism and communion is also essential because these rites articulate in action the call of Christ to accept a new identity in the world and to live in communion with Christ' living presence.

There is no way to declare that Jesus Christ is alive and calling each of us to be his disciple without inviting someone to try a set of practices such as reading the Gospels, conversing with people of faith in small groups and participating in sacramental worship. The only reason someone would accept this invitation is because he or she senses something in our lives that he or she is seeking. Our witness matters more than our arguments, but our arguments offer a rationale for explaining why we are witnesses.

It's the best way to live
Why be a Christian? The second response is that the life of being a disciple of Jesus Christ is the best way to live.

Someone is not likely to find this response compelling unless he or she is dissatisfied with his or her life. Still, nearly everyone feels this dissatisfaction in some way at different moments in life. One may feel anxiety as great as floating on a turbulent sea with no firm ground in sight. This anxiety comes from lacking the buoyancy of faith in a God who cares for us. One may be oppressed by loneliness, which is overcome by being baptized as a member of Christ's church. One may feel rootless in a mobile society, but acquire a home and a heritage in the Christian tradition. Or, one may know guilt over having wasted one's life so far or having done harm that cannot be undone and find freedom in the Good News of Christ's forgiveness.

The Christian life offers not only a way of meeting our spiritual needs, but also a direction for how to live our lives. We are shaped by such daily practices as honesty, hospitality, kindness, charity and courage to confront wrong. Without these kinds of practices, our lives have little meaning or substance except merely trying to enjoy our existence. As we mature in the Christian life, we begin to realize that our daily practices have to be related to our responsibilities as citizens to advocate for social policies that are more just.

Our testimony that the Christian life is the best way to live is not likely to be compelling unless the person with whom we are talking sees in us a pattern of living that is attractive. Once again, we have to remember that convincing cannot be separated from witnessing.

The way things are
A third response begs time for much conversation but can be summarized by saying there is no vision of reality that is a more adequate interpretation of the way the world is arranged than the Christian view of life. Included within this view are Christian understandings of creation, the interpretation of the drama of human history, the meaning of suffering, the ordering of sexuality, the role of possessions in our life, the hope of life beyond death, and so on.

Anyone with whom we are talking probably has a basically secular view of the world. Since this is still a culture affected by Christianity, he or she probably makes some assumptions about what Christians think, which are probably very wrong. To sort through all the questions takes time.

I am convinced that there is no vision of reality that is as adequate as the Christian view. It has demonstrated its validity over and over for 2,000 years against alternative views, including Greco-Roman paganism and modern scientific materialism. It also will prevail over post-modern skepticism and relativism.

Consider one example. Christianity affirms that God created the world out of nothing. The pagan philosophers scoffed at this claim because they had inherited a worldview that assumed "matter" is eternal. The greatest of their philosophers, such as Aristotle, posited that there is a "prime mover," but the eternity of the material universe was assumed. Today, the majority of physicists agree that evidence shows the universe had a beginning in an instant of a "big bang" of energy. While Christian teaching about the Creator is not bound to any scientific theory in any age, our best scientific evidence today is consonant with Christian teaching that has been based upon revelation for two millennia.

Many secular people assert that there is no need to posit a Creator since science offers explanations for the beginnings of things, but they fail to perceive where the "laws" of the universe, which explain beginnings, come from or why there is something rather than nothing.

In the end, ultimately everything is a mystery. Religions always will exist because their response to the mystery of being is to offer another mystery to explain it. There is no escape from being enveloped in mystery, and we who are Christians have discovered that the mystery that makes the most "sense" out of the mystery of being is the mystery of God who is revealed in Jesus Christ.

To help others begin to perceive the Christian view of the world requires that we try to understand it ourselves. That is why being a Christian witness should involve a lifetime of Christian education. The role of pastors and Christian educators is to guide Christians in studying sound theological literature so that we may be able "to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you (I Peter 3:15)."

There comes a time when each of us must say "yes" to Jesus Christ in order to become his disciple. The British evangelist Bryan Green used to say that you cannot ooze into the kingdom of God; you must choose to enter the kingdom of God. While each of us must choose, every congregation ought to have a way of inviting and nurturing persons to come to faith. And, within every congregation that is effectively making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world, there are members who are giving some kind of answer to the question, "Why should I be a Christian?"

*Whitaker is the bishop of the Florida Annual Conference. This commentary was adapted from e-Review, the online news service of the Florida Annual Conference.

Student federation combines faith, action

A UMNS Report
By Linda Bloom*

When a presidential runoff election was scheduled for the end of June in Zimbabwe, the Student Christian Movement of Zimbabwe was among those informing youth about their voting rights and responsibilities.

On June 10, police raided the movement's offices at the Ecumenical Centre in Harare, confiscating computers, laptops, digital cameras and a minibus. They also arrested five staff people, including a woman who had her 7-month-old baby with her.

The five were soon released without charge, but the movement said it considered the arrests and detentions "part of the broader campaign of intimidation orchestrated against defenseless citizens."

Since then, the Student Christian Movement of Zimbabwe has continued to speak out. And it has been backed by more than 100 similar movements around the globe that together form the World Student Christian Federation. Most participants are 18 to 35 years old.

Federation representatives, meeting Aug. 1-9 in Montreal for their general assembly, squarely aligned themselves with the Student Christian Movement of Zimbabwe and expressed "deep concern" about continuing human rights abuses there, especially as directed against women and youth.

"In this regard, we condemn the closure of the Student Christian Movement offices," they said in an assembly resolution. "We urge the global community (to work) for an end to violence and a return of democracy and restorative justice. We seek to support any student activities that would contribute to the promotion of peace and justice in Zimbabwe."

Bible and newspaper
Ken Guest, a United Methodist from New York who has served as the federation's chairperson for the past four years, noted that such action is part of the group's tradition of holding "the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other."

Christian students are encouraged not only to focus on personal piety and salvation but to learn "to understand the message of Jesus for us in our contemporary world," he said.

After his detention, Prosper Munatsi, who leads the Student Christian Movement of Zimbabwe, urged the international community to intervene in Zimbabwe's crisis. He called for peace monitors when opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai decided to withdraw from the runoff election.

The World Student Christian Federation then issued a June 24 letter with the World Council of Churches, asking the United Nations, the South African Development Community and the African Union to increase efforts to address the "rapidly deteriorating situation in Zimbabwe." It has continued to speak out on the situation as President Robert Mugabe and Tsvangirai try to negotiate a power-sharing agreement.

"One of the fundamental characteristics of the WSCF is supporting students who are exploring the combination of their faith and social action," Guest explained. "It was really wonderful, at the general assembly, for the students from Africa who are concerned about the situation in Zimbabwe to be able to meet with students from Asia-Pacific and, specifically, the Philippines, to discuss their concerns for democracy and human rights."

Delegates at the assembly said they "strongly condemn the killings of members of the clergy, church workers, activists, journalists and ordinary citizens coming from the ranks of the workers, peasants, professionals and youth in the Philippines."

Since 2001, when Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo assumed the presidency, there have been 903 victims of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines, including 20 during the first quarter of 2008, the federation's resolution stated. "We affirm that no person should be subjected to repression because of political beliefs. Those who are active in social, human rights issues and concerns including being critical of the Arroyo government should not be victimized."

Play an active role
The United Methodist Church is among the denominations pursuing the issue of human rights abuses in the Philippines. The federation asked churches around the world to sustain the pressure on the Philippine government and churches within the country "to lead and sustain the investigation of the killings and other human rights violations. We ask you to play an active role in the pursuit for justice to the victims and their families."

Other resolutions adopted by the assembly condemned the Aug. 8 military invasion by Russia into parts of Georgia and touched on human rights issues in Burma (Myanmar), Iraq, Israel and the Palestinian territories, and Lebanon.

The World Student Christian Federation and the allied student movements "have always provided an opportunity for United Methodist students to begin their ecumenical journey and to move beyond their own denomination and their own country in understanding how God is at work in the world," according to Guest.

During the past four years, the federation has stabilized both financially and programmatically, reclaiming its identity as a trainer of ecumenical leaders on an international level, he said.

In a message to the 34th General Assembly, His All Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew noted that nearly a century ago, the 1911 World Student Christian Federation Conference in Constantinople "was an event of major ecumenical significance," enabling leading Protestants to become acquainted with Orthodox leaders of the East.

Despite periods of difficulty over the years, "the federation continued serving Christian youth with coherence and perseverance, by encouraging them to draw from the unfailing source of their faith inspiration and strength, in order to fulfill their tasks as agents for reconciliation and renewal in our world," the patriarch said.

More information about the assembly can be found at http://ga.wscfglobal.org/ online.

*Bloom is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in New York.

Study guide offers steps on Darfur involvement

By Wayne Rhodes*

WASHINGTON (UMNS)-A biblically based study, developed to accompany a best-selling book on the crisis in Darfur, is available to help the Christian community mobilize against atrocities in Sudan.

Not on Our Watch Christian Companion: Biblical Reflections on the Mission to End Genocide in Darfur and Beyond is an eight-week study written by Bill Mefford, director of civil and human rights for the United Methodist Board of Church and Society, and Greg Leffel, president of One Horizon Foundation.

The authors, who are receiving no payment for their work, told an Aug. 7 press briefing conducted at The United Methodist Building across from the U.S. Capitol that they intended to create a resource that crossed all theological lines in the Christian community.

"We wanted to provide biblical reflections that enable people to think through how to respond to genocide," said Leffel. "We hope to raise awareness about why it's right to be involved in this issue in the first place and how to become organized. We tried to link Christian traditions to the wider movement against genocide."

Mefford said the authors wanted to stay away from abstract, theological detachment. "We tried to make it as personal as possible," he explained, citing stories of Darfur refugees and aid workers that are in the study guide. "The most powerful part of the Christian Companion are the steps people will take to get engaged."

Weekly study guide
Each chapter of the Christian Companion constitutes a weekly study designed to guide group discussion and reflection about Darfur and the movement to end genocide. Each session includes a biblical passage for reflection, a lesson applying the passage to Darfur, a weekly action step, and vignettes by refugees, activists and Christians who have awakened to the problem of genocide.

Human rights activist John Prendergast, who wrote the book, Not on Our Watch: The Mission to End Genocide in Darfur and Beyond with Academy Award winning actor Don Cheadle, took part in the press briefing. He said the Christian Companion is needed now because no audience is more vital and viable than its faith-based target readers.

"Genocide is a crime with no equal, the ultimate crime against humanity," said Prendergast, co-chairperson of the ENOUGH Project to end genocide and crimes against humanity. During the Clinton administration, he was involved in peace processes in Africa while director of African Affairs at the National Security Council and special adviser at the U.S. Department of State. "Genocide demands response," he said.

For the first time in history, a mass movement is developing against genocide, according to Prendergast. He pointed out that there was no answer by other nations during Nazi Germany's Holocaust in the 1930s and 1940s, Pol Pot's killing fields in Cambodia in the 1970s or the Hutu massacres in Rwanda in the 1990s.

"Despite the mass movement's growth, genocide rages on," Prendergast said. "Our goal is to build a permanent constituency among the faith-based communities to address genocide wherever it happens, to help ensure that the United States will do all it can to prevent genocide."

Step-by-step process
Leffel and Mefford structured the Christian Companion to provide a step-by-step process to get involved through a "reflection/action" format. Leffel said there are steps to follow and resources to connect to others opposing genocide as well.

Both authors are graduates of Asbury Theological Seminary. Leffel is president of One Horizon Foundation and co-founder of Communality, a Christian missional community in Lexington, Ky. He holds a doctorate in intercultural studies from Asbury and is author of Faith Seeking Action: Mission, Social Movements and the Church in Motion.

Mefford earned a doctorate in missiology from Asbury. In his position with Church and Society, he works primarily on the issues of immigration, refugees, criminal justice reform, and abolition of the death penalty and torture.

The Not on Our Watch Christian Companion is available in paperback and sells for $7.50. Copies can be ordered through http://www.darfurchristianaction.org online. The Web site includes activities to accompany the resource.

The Christian Companion was published by The ENOUGH Project in association with the Board of Church and Society and One Horizon Foundation. ENOUGH is a project of the Center for American Progress to end genocide and crimes against humanity. It was founded in 2007 with an initial focus on the crises in Sudan, Chad, eastern Congo, northern Uganda and Somalia.
*Rhodes is director of communications for the Board of Church and Society.

Illegal immigrant’s case shows need for policy changes, say her supporters

Juana Villegas, accompanied by attorney Elliot Ozment (left) and Irving Vidal of the Mexican Consulate in Atlanta, waits for her case to be heard in traffic court in Berry Hill, Tenn. UMNS photos by Mike DuBose.

By Jan Read*
Aug. 18, 2008 NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS)

Jailed on minor traffic violations at nine months pregnant, Juana Villegas had to deliver her baby after being shackled to a hospital bed and without her husband present.

On Aug. 15, as Villegas continued the ordeal that may end with her deportation, United Methodists in Middle Tennessee crowded into a small Nashville-area courtroom to protest her treatment by local authorities. The judge later dismissed one of two misdemeanor charges against her.

"I'm here to show my support for Juana specifically and immigrants overall," said the Rev. Pat Smith, chairperson of the Committee on Church and Society of the United Methodist Tennessee Annual (regional) Conference.

"Social justice is important as a Christian. How does our faith respond to this?"

Villegas, 33, is in the United States illegally, but her supporters said that violation does not justify the treatment she received following her July 3 arrest on misdemeanor traffic charges. Her three U.S.-born children—ages 14, 12 and 2—were with her when she was stopped in the Nashville bedroom community of Berry Hill and charged with careless driving and driving without a license or auto insurance.

Two days after being jailed, Villegas went into labor and was taken to a local hospital where she was shackled to the hospital bed before and after her son's birth. She was not permitted to call her husband, and deputies were on guard in her room. Authorities did not allow her to bring a breast pump when she was returned to jail and separated from her newborn until her release on July 10.

Villegas' case has garnered national attention and prompted a representative from the Atlanta-based Mexican Consulate to attend Villegas' traffic hearing.

The hearing in Berry Hill City Hall was packed, with social advocates from The United Methodist Church and its ministries making up about half of the 75 attendees. The supporters said they came because all people should be treated with respect and dignity.

"Jesus sided with the marginalized. We have to take care of those who can’t speak for themselves," said the Rev. Barbara Garcia of Hillcrest United Methodist Church.

The Rev. Judi Hoffman of Edgehill United Methodist Church, agreed. "This is my city, these are my neighbors. I live here. I don’t want to treat my neighbors this way."

Questioning the system
Villegas’ supporters cited concerns about the federal 287g program, which allows trained deputies to screen foreign-born inmates and pass information along to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall has supported the program for 16 months and, in a recent newspaper editorial, pointed out that more than 3,500 people have been removed from Nashville under the program. However, the program's detractors say that 287g, which is designed to remove criminal elements from the community, has been applied too broadly.

"We want to shine a light on 287g," said Nashville attorney A. Gregory Ramos, an advocate for the Latino community. "The anti-immigrant fervor is so intense that now common sense is left on the doorstep. People have a right to be treated with dignity and respect."

United Methodists are circulating a petition asking Hall and Berry Hill Police Chief Robert Bennett to reform their procedures for handling misdemeanors by writing citations instead of making arrests. The petition also asks the sheriff to review childbirth procedures for women in custody.

"We’re hoping to get several hundred signatures," said Nashville attorney David Esquivel, an organizer with Justice For Our Neighbors. "We want to highlight the injustice of 287g. We believe the focus is wrong."

Justice For Our Neighbors is a program of the United Methodist Committee on Relief which began in 1999 because of increasingly complex U.S. immigration regulations. Several Nashville area United Methodist churches assist JFON's legal clinic in Nashville for immigrants.

'I was treated like a criminal'
Through lawyer Elliot Ozment, Villegas pleaded innocent to charges of careless driving and driving without insurance. Judge Larry Cantrell cited an error on the citation in dismissing the careless driving charge. He found her guilty of the second violation and ordered her to pay a $10 fine. On July 10, at the end of her incarceration, Villegas had pleaded guilty to the driver's license charge and was sentenced to time served.

During the two-hour hearing on Aug. 15, Ozment quizzed Berry Hill Sgt. Timothy Coleman, the arresting officer, about the specifics of the traffic stop.

Advocates for immigrants have said the Villegas case reflects an undercurrent of bias against immigrants and possible racial profiling by authorities. Cantrell would not allow Ozment to pursue that line of questioning, however.

Local officials have maintained that their officers followed protocol in the case and noted that Villegas had been deported from the United States in 1996, only to return. They also have maintained that Villegas was not treated differently from other pregnant women classified as medium-security inmates.

Villegas, who speaks little English, did not testify during the hearing but, in a July 24 interview with United Methodist News Service, said through a translator that she would never wish the experience on anyone. "I was treated like a criminal," she said through her tears, "and I didn't understand why I was being treated like that."

Villegas, who migrated from Mexico in 1994 in search of a job, still faces deportation proceedings under the 287g program. Her legal options include appealing her traffic stop, filing civil lawsuits against the Berry Hill Police Department and the Davidson County Sheriff’s Department and filing a federal human rights lawsuit. Lawyers involved in the case said they are exploring their options.

The church and society committee’s Smith, who is also associate pastor at Rehoboth United Methodist Church in nearby Gallatin, wants to see the government develop a "realistic" pathway to citizenship. "(Immigration) is a very complex issue," she said. "We have to do more than listen to the loudest voices on each side. If we don’t talk to each other, we’ll never find the answer."

The committee recently issued a statement in the Villegas’ case, quoting the denomination's Social Principles that "we … work toward societies in which each person’s value is recognized, maintained and strengthened."

The statement continues: "We are outraged and heartbroken for the treatment of Juana at the hands of the officers who were involved. … We urge our communities across the state to grieve with us and respond in prayer and political action to work towards repair and reform of the immigration laws of our state and nation. The laws of our state and nation must have a face of compassion and/or respect of human dignity. The majority of immigrants who come to this country come to prosper, to make good lives for their families."

*Read is a freelance writer based in Nashville, Tenn.

Florida camp instills respect for the environment

Sam Ruev, Megan Bowen and Aaron Lewis help Riverside Retreat camp director Martha Pierce plant a cypress tree at the United Methodist camp near Fort Myers, Fla. UMNS photos by John Gordon.

By John Gordon*

LaBELLE, Fla. (UMNS)-Summer campers at Riverside Retreat get their first lesson in conservation as soon as they sit down to eat.

First, they are issued plastic drinking cups to reuse during the week-long camp, instead of drinking from disposable cups that can clog landfills. Next, the food they put on their plates but do not eat is weighed-a demonstration of how much food is wasted. In all, the 65 campers leave behind 25 pounds of food scraps from their first meal.

"It's kind of insane how much we really just take for granted, we just throw out," says camper Megan Bowen, 16, of Fort Myers, Fla.

"People shouldn't waste food because prices at the store are just getting higher and higher," says Jah'nae Dunlap, 14, of Bradenton.

At the next meal, the amount of wasted food drops to 10 pounds.

"We talk about how recycling affects landfills, how the waste affects landfills and ways they can go home and make changes that are positive, " says Martha Pierce, director of the United Methodist camp in the church's Florida Annual (regional) Conference.

Twice a year, Pierce structures camp activities around the theme of conservation. The sessions are designed for youth in the second grade through high school.

"We've got to teach the kids now not to waste and how to take care of the environment, so that they can raise their children to respect it in the same way," she says.

A master naturalist, Pierce is intimately familiar with every palm-lined path through the 150-acre property along the Caloosahatchee River.

As she leads walks along a nature trail, she points out beauty berries, used for making jams and jellies. Some believe oil from the plant leaves repels insects, and the campers try it to drive away the mosquitoes buzzing the trail.

"I live in the city, so it's not too much you get to see," says Stephen Foster, 14, of Leesburg. "So I'm glad to get out here."

Pierce points out a string fern growing from a large tree. "This plant only grows in areas where the atmosphere is clear and clean and the water is, too," she says. "So it's a sign that the environment in the camp is healthy."

Another camper enjoys the time away from electronic gadgets.

"With the computer and cell phones and everything, definitely, kids my age don't get out and get to enjoy the stuff that goes on out here," says Mary Hucker, 17, of Englewood. "And it's a shame."

Pierce started the conservation camps three years ago after noticing a trend among both adults and children.

"We have removed ourselves from nature," she says. "I just loved being outside and I was blessed by having a family that taught a respect of nature and to work with nature. So I've grown up and gone through life with that attitude."

At Riverside Retreat, campers can kayak along the river or plant cypress trees on the bank.
"I think it's a beautiful place," says Rachel Tennyson, 14, of East Fort Myers. "And it should remain as it is right now. People shouldn't be able to tear it down."

Preserving the natural beauty of Riverside Retreat is a top priority.

"If I make a mess of it now and if we continue not to care because we're too selfish, our grandkids won't have this," says Pierce. "And we will have robbed them of the most precious thing we have, because what are we without fresh air and clean water?"

*Gordon is a freelance producer based in Marshall, Texas