broken

while reading, one thing that really stood out to me was the story about burnice. only being drug free and out of a shelter for a few years, she was just beginning to pick up her life and put it all together and then this happens to her. neumark describes that as soon as she opened the door, not a single spot of floor space could be seen through all of the disaster. "from the threshold forward, the floor was covered with several feet of debris. to enter, i had to walk over clothing, photos, blankets, bills, books, magazines, food, plates, toys, pots, pillows, knickknacks, towels--everything torn, broken and tossed in chaos." everything that she had worked so hard to achieve was demolished in one destructive hit from the SCU. i admire this woman so much. she is definitely one of the strongest women that i think neumark has introduced us to. burnice has had everything she owns completely destroyed for no reason and then is blamed and put down by her husband, yet still somehow stays strong for herself and her children. she found the strength through God to wake up every morning and thank Him for another day. it's absolutely amazing. i also loved how so many people from the church came to help burnice pick up the damage. "it didn't matter if we spoke the same language, ate the same food, or liked the same hymns. we arrived, a dozen strong, and spread out two or three to a room and began sifting through the ruins." i would only hope that if we were put in the same situation we could react with the same calm, yet powerful strength that burnice did. 

Neumark

so far i really like heidi neumark. her book reminds me a lot of the long loneliness and irresistible revolution. she has the calm and simple kindness of dorothy day, yet the intense passion of shane claiborne. neumark coming to the bronx reminded me of when claiborne goes to the leper colony; they both go to places where the people are neglected and in desperate need of help to care for them and show them that they are loved. but what sets heidi neumark's book apart from day's and claiborne's is how personal it is. she uses stories of people from the bible to tell the stories of these men and women that she meets, which not only helps describe the people but also makes the people in the bible seem more relatable. neumark talks about when they were discussing rahab, who was often perceived as a prostitute, in a bible study one time and a woman who was a prostitute herself, excitedly commented, "I never knew the bible was about us!" one of my favorite stories she tells is that of the widow and burnice. neumark sets the scene with the story of the widow that elijah encounters. her story completely amazed me because of how much trust and strength she had in her faith. "raising the dead required a single act of trust and prayer from elijah. raising a child requires countless acts of trust and constant prayer, especially for a single mother faced with famine." like this widow, burnice inspired me so much. this woman has had a series of men batter her heart and break her bones yet she never loses her faith and remains strong for her children. reading the stories of these people who have suffered so much really makes our lives look pretty good. it really put things in perspective for me. "There are ups and there are downs, but burnice has not closed her hands. she hasn't let go of her children. nor has she let go of her dreams." 

update

specific project topic: i've decided to focus in on poverty in the america.

steps i've taken: i have looked up statistics and some quotes i would like to use for the slideshow.

challenges: since i have narrowed my topic so much i think it's going to be harder to incorporate photography the way i had originally planned.

rough to-do list: do a lot more research, take the pictures, put them into a slideshow, add quotes and music.

podcast

out of all three of the clips, i definitely liked the podcast the best. throughout the interviews they mentioned a lot of stuff about heschel that i already knew from what we have heard in class, but for some reason it just made so much more sense when they were talking about it. one thing they talked about that really stood out to me was the fact that all throughout the Bible we are waiting for God to do huge, miraculous acts and we don't see that the whole time God is actually waiting for us to act. i guess i had never really thought about it like that before. heschel describes that "the God of the Bible is the parent of humanity. God needs his other children to take care of the suffering." i think that many times people think that oh, God will take care of that and it's not really my problem to worry about, but they don't realize that we are the hands and feet of Jesus and it is up to us to help those in need. like heschel says, "the opposite of good is not evil, but indifference," so even by us not doing anything, we're in some way agreeing with the injustice. i think this really helped me to understand heschel's quote that we've mentioned so many times, "some are guilty, but all are responsible." while the majority of us did not exactly cause the suffering in the world today, it is everyone's responsibility to help those that are suffering to the best of our ability. i also never realized that heschel and king were such good friends and how much of an impact heschel made on him. i'll leave you guys with my favorite quote by heschel from the podcast, "the meaning of life is to live life as if it were a work of art."

king

one quote that stood out to me when i read king's letter from birmingham city jail was, "a just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. an unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. ... any law that uplifts human personality is just. any law that degrades human personality is unjust." what a great description of just and unjust. the end of this quote, about lifting or degrading ones personality confused me a little, but i loved his description of how segregation "damages the soul" and gives the false sense of superiority or inferiority. it is just such a powerful illustration. then he goes on to give examples of just and unjust laws, one being about the majority making rules that the minority has to follow, but the majority does not. on the other hand if the majority makes a rule for the minority but is willing to follow it also, then it is just. to me this part sounded a whole lot like something we all learned in elementary school. golden rule anyone? treat others how you want to be treated. call me crazy but i'm pretty sure segregation doesn't really follow this rule. then i came across another quote that really made me think about just and unjust laws. "i submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and willingly accepts the penalty by staying in jail to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the very highest respect for law." this made me realize how much courage it takes to stand up so strongly for what you believe. i only hope that when i am provided the opportunity to support what is right and what i know is wrong, that i have the faith and courage to do so.

war

reading bell's article brought up several points that i had never considered before. i somewhat knew what the term just war meant, but i didn't really understand what it meant for me. this is one of the main things bell discusses. ignorance. "ignorance of the tradition leaves us vulnerable to manipulation, with the result that we support things we should not support, and do not support things we should." one of the biggest examples of this today is the war. thousands of people, ignorant people, supported us going into the war without really knowing what it was they were supporting. i think that part of our responsibility as christians in the whole idea of this just war concept is simply to start by educating the people around us. we can't just wake up one day and decide to save the world. i mean yeah its a great thought, but its not just going to happen one day. you have to start small. another point that bell mentions that i really liked is how afraid we are. our whole lives we are taught about how Christ defeats sin and death. so if God is with us, why should we fear sin and death? he also mentions how people who fear death will have a harder time believing in just war as discipleship. bell then follows with how we should go about changing this. "the opportunity is to recover the courage of faith, the gift of living in holy insecurity. then we will be able to take up the cross, serving our neighbors (including our enemies) fearlessly in pursuit of a just peace." this was probably one of my favorite quotes out of the whole article. and while there were several things that he wrote that i still don't totally agree with, it has really made me think about what i do and don't believe about just war.

homeless

when i was reading the long loneliness, there was a part that stood out to me and just sort of reminded me of everything charlie strobel had talked about. while they were on the streets selling the catholic worker, dorothy mentions how much they liked the camaraderie  of the people that lived there on the streets. "They were attracted to the good; they were hard-working, struggling human beings living for the day, and afraid of the unknown. Once that sense of fear of the unknown was overcome, brotherly love would evoke brother love, and mutual love would overcome fear and hatred," (203). i think that so often when people see a homeless person, they get this feeling that they are so much better than he/she is. but what charlie tries to make people see is that they are people just like you and me who are just a little bit down on their luck maybe. or maybe it was something completely out of their control like being born into a homeless family or having some kind of mental or physical disease that prevents them from getting a job, leaving them jobless, penniless, and homeless. whatever the case, strobel started an amazing phenomenon called room in the inn to give people like this another chance. not only does room in the inn provide homeless people with food and a place to stay for the night, but also offers them a chance to get to know people that actually care for and can help them to change their lives for the better. i think that if we all had even half of the mindset that charlie does and the willingness to put that to action, this world truly would be a better place.