To a man with an empty stomach food is God. ~Gandhi

I've been thinking a lot lately about being Jesus to others.

Sometimes I think of so many things I could do. But I don't know how to start a single one of them. Maybe I'm making them too complicated. Lately I've been reading about feeding the hungry. Food pantries. I would love to be involved in something like this. But I don't know how. And truth be told I'm a better worker than a leader. But it's intriguing. Food. It is so important in the Bible. It's mentioned over and over and over. At every important event. Breaking bread together. Miracles. Gleaning the fields. Hospitality. Food and Christianity is inextricably connected. Jesus ate with sinners. The early church had communal meals. The last supper. The wedding feast. And in none of these instances was this selective, well except maybe the Last Supper. Feeding the hungry. That is love.

And now I am reading about how food pantries work. I'm reading again how poverty contributes to obesity and heart disease. How the poorest of the poor often have no food other than cheap "fast foods" available in their neighborhoods and don't have the transportation or money to go to where the grocery stores are for food. About the way food is subsidized in this country and how often good, healthy food is plowed back into the ground due to US agricultural policy which allows farmers to hold their product off the market to support price. How school lunch programs tend to provide unhealthy food - cheap and fast to make, like bologna sandwiches and instant mashed potatoes. Fat is cheap,comforting and filling. Vegetables are hard to come by and not as quick or easy to prepare. Salty and sugary foods, the fatty foods, foods filled with high fructose corn syrup are the foods of the poor. Foods that make the belly feel full. Cheaply.

I have been reading how one woman wanted to start a food pantry in her church. What is more fundamental to loving others than to see that they are fed? And so she did her research and came up with a plan. The interesting thing was that this church had just purchased a very expensive altar, hand built of polished hardwood, inscribed in gilt letters with two quotations. The first: "This guy welcomes sinners and eats with them" referring to a quote insulting Jesus in Luke, and the second "Did not our Lord share his table with tax collectors and harlots? So do not distinguish between worthy and unworthy. All must be equal for you to love and serve." A quote from Isaac of Ninevah.
So when she suggested setting up the food bank around this altar to put praxis to belief she was met with reactions such as "When Hell freezes over" and "Over my dead body." Obviously there was polarization over the food pantry. So she asked for written objections so she could formulate responses and discuss them at a meeting. The objections were amazing, ranging from why the lazy people didn't haul their butts down to another pantry already in place, to we can't keep the church picked up and the kitchen clean as it is...and now you're talking about food, garbage, boxes everywhere. Not to mention a hundred people leaving their trash all over! One man finally stood up and yelled "What the fuck would Jesus do?" I feel his frustration.

It amazes me that people feel this way. That there is so much resistence. But I know it would happen here too. The old refrain Not in my backyard. There would be objections to the traffic, the rif-raff, the criminal element, the inconvenience to the comfortable people in the neighborhood. To say nothing of the time commitment and burn-out rate. I may feel deeply that this is a needed service, I would love to participate in such a program. But I am not strong enough to fight these people. I am not brave enough to fight city hall.

All she wanted to do was put food in the cupboard for really poor black mothers who used drugs, buy groceries for everyone living in the projects, and give away food without conditions. Not at a charity kitchen or soup pantry, but in a food pantry that didn't take away people's dignity and reinforce dependency. She wanted to provide groceries enabling families to prepare food in their own homes, keeping families together and giving them a dignified and normal life as they worked to escape poverty.

I wonder why a place like my former church (not Via Christus....) didn't ever do something like this? Even in the suburbs of Chicago there is great need. Now more than ever. And it's no longer just among those in poverty. People are losing jobs at a horrific rate. But for some reason I just can't see them opening their doors and their hearts to do this! They (and many other churches to be fair) would rather buy new carpet, or improve their media capabilities, or raise money to send to the "poor children in Africa" (sending money is a quick and easy way to feel absolved of guilt...) than serve these people that God loves here. I'm sure to suggest such a thing would bring the same kind of responses mentioned above.

But how does one go about starting a service like this without a church to help? By the time you rent a space, buy your food (even if greatly subsidized and augmented by donations) and incur other expenses, it is just not feasible to give food away. And just doing it out of your garage would bring the zoning police down on your heads.

Are there other answers? I don't know. How I would love to have a large piece of land where I could share space,time and labor and create a communal garden, a place to grow healthy food together and share with those in need.....

Disturbing new stories....

A couple interesting stories in the news this morning. The first one is regarding "Christian" license plates... you can find the story here.
Hmmm.... this could be a real can of worms if you ask me.



The second news story is also disturbing, but for a different reason. Rice rationing. I first heard about this on the news last night. This is not a good sign. Rice is one of the few relatively healthy foods that poor people can afford. It is also a staple in many cultures and cultural dishes. It's one thing for food prices to rise - that hurts. But to not be able to get the food we can afford is an ominous sign. I hope this is just a knee jerk reaction, a proactive move and the retailers will rethink this.
It is interesting that most rice is eaten within 60 miles of where it is produced - however due to demand,("as populations cross borders, the taste for specialty rice such as the Indian basmati, or Thai jasmine rice, which grow only in their areas of origin, spread")these supplies are in jeopardy. Granted, the poor here are probably not eating basmati or jasmine rice, but that rice is coming from somewhere, and if we are demanding a large supply the country of origin has to be facing shortages there among their poor.
A recent BBC artcle also states:

The institute said several factors were behind the rise in rice prices.

Land for producing rice and irrigation water is being lost to industrialisation and urbanisation.

The growing appetite among Asia's burgeoning urban middle class, especially in India and China, for meat and dairy products is also leading to less land for rice production.

Factors such as the flooding in Indonesia and Bangladesh and recent cold weather in Vietnam and China have also hurt production, it said.

Rice. Food of the rich?

Solidarity or Sanctimony?

WARNING: Rant ahead......


Why do people do those" live on two dollars a day or less for a week" things? It seems they are popping up all over the place these days. What is their motivation? I mean, is it really because they want to feel what it's like? Or is it just that it's trendy and the thing to do? And then tell everyone about it so others will see how concerned they are about hunger in third world countries? Does it make them feel good about themselves - like they are doing something noble? Or, is it just to see if they CAN do it?

I'm sorry - it's beginning to irritate me. Us playing them when they are truly hungry.

That has to seem like a mockery. If you want to enter into this, make real changes, not drastic, splashy," I'm cool cuz I'm doing it for a week" things.

Really cut back. Change the way you look at food, the way you eat. What you eat. Make changes in lifestyle, gas consumption, energy use and consumerism. And mean it. Don't just do it to be cool, or to fool yourself into thinking you get it. Or to alleviate guilt.Or to make some statement.

And why choose this particular project? Why aren't more of them choosing to experience poverty and homelessness in the US? Why don't I see them living / sleeping on a street in Chicago for a week in torn rags, with no coat, in the middle of the winter - and writing about that?

I'm sure this post is gonna make people mad. And I'm equally sure there are some who are doing these things with very good intentions. I'm just not sure this is the way to do it, or that telling everyone about it is the way to go. It's like fasting. Do I run around telling everyone I'm fasting? Or do I just do it - as a thing between God and me? As a way to enter into communion with God. A way for him to show me what I need to hear, see and know.

Yes, we need to understand there are billions or more starving. We need to understand the horrendous poverty that over half the world endures. We need to find ways - like letter writing or phone calls to congressmen, or working on the Jubilee act, or any number of other ways - to help alleviate these conditions, not just pretend to be in their shoes.

Do it if you choose, but keep it between you and God, and maybe a friend or two to talk about what has changed in your life as a result of it. Just don't stand on the street corner enlightening all who walk by.

And when I see you eating cookies made of dirt, salt and vegetable shortening for your five days like they are doing in Haiti right now as their regular meal, I will be more likely to believe you are doing it for the right reasons.....

So, just when did starvation become accepted and beautiful?

And I wonder how it would make people who are truly starving feel to know that people with tons of money to buy what ever they want deliberately starve themselves to be fashionable, so they can make more money than they will ever need?

Currently France is considering banning the promotion of thinness. This includes making it "illegal for anyone - including fashion magazines, advertisers and Web sites - to publicly incite extreme thinness." It has stirred some controversy, especially since the fashionista's don't want to be told what is and isn't beautiful or acceptable. "Leaders in French couture are opposed to the idea of legal boundaries on beauty standards." Hmmm...

"Didier Grumbach, president of the influential French Federation of Couture, said he was not aware how broad the proposed legislation was, and made no secret of his strong disapproval of such a sweeping measure.

"Never will we accept in our profession that a judge decides if a young girl is skinny or not skinny," he said. "That doesn't exist in the world, and it will certainly not exist in France."

Devorah Lauter, AP

You can read the whole article here.

Shorpy's.....

I love photography, and I love history. History meets photography in a wonderful way at Shorpy, a site I found today thanks to a friend. I especially love the pictures by Dorothea Lange, Ben Shahn, Lewis Hine and Russell Lee.
If you like history at all, or if you like photography, visit this site. You can even buy prints of the pictures! Most pictures have explanations, dates and comments. I am offering them with out any of that, altho there is much I could say. Enjoy.
Or perhaps be prodded to think......

more pictures of this family and an interview with the mother in this photograph.

also, the family's story, written by her grandson.

(arriving at Ellis Island)

Alexandria, Virginia. 1865 Slave Pen