How society has become distorted by the human urge to grab power, and what Christians can do to respond today.
On April 3, the United States banned the export of personal protective gear, stating that our own supply was too important to ship out during the crisis. A few days earlier, India banned exports of essential medications including hydroxychloroquine due to manufacturing shortages. Hydroxychloroquine is used to treat malaria as well as autoimmune disorders. There …
People collapsing unable to breathe. Hospitals stretched past their limits of space and manpower. Life-and-death decisions over who gets a ventilator and who does not. In the worst-hit countries hundreds of people are dying every day. The West has not experienced this in our lifetime. But here it is familiar. In September I shared Alia's …
For several months I have been in the grips of a minor depression. The causes were mostly external and easy to identify. Of course even simple, "external" causes for depression are rooted in the jumbled mess of mind and soul and body and spirit that is engaged with the world and our God. Faith has …
Most folk don't want to hear me talk about slums. I once thought that slum life would make this blog unique. The internet is saturated with almost everything, but there aren't many English-speaking slum bloggers. Maybe people wouldn't want to hear what I had to say about money, power, or nonviolence, but at least they'd …
I was recently reminded that some people read the books I recommend. Peregrine and I are by no means the first Christians to move into a slum community to find solidarity with the poor. In fact, several of the other rich people who moved into slums ended up writing books about the experience. Here are …
Last week Holly mentioned that plastic recycling is in trouble in America too. I found out from an article in the Atlantic that cities across the country have ended their recycling programs. Why? Because China has stopped accepting our soiled trash due to health risks, environmental damage, and increased labor costs. Without tens of thousands of Chinese …
I posted about my friends' loss of their fathers because I was thinking about Danish. He left the slum two weeks ago to work in Saudi Arabia. He will be gone two years. Away from his home, his family, his country. They saw it as the best option for Danish to begin to help the …
I'm quitting Facebook. I'm leaving because we've given up control of part of our lives to a corporation that doesn't work for our benefit. Leaving Facebook will come with a cost. But the cost Facebook extracts from our lives is greater than any benefit it provides. Remember, Facebook makes a lot of money. Yet you …
On May 31, 1912, nineteen-year-old Frank Zebrauskas and his brother Anthony stepped off a ship onto Ellis Island. Though originating from Lithuania they had used the Russian spelling of their name, Zabrowski, on the ship’s manifest. As with all Ellis Island arrivals, that spelling became their official identification. No pre-approval was necessary and 98% of …
First was the war. Nations around them fought for power, soldiers and their destruction spilled over and laid waste to their land. Then there was the famine, after a harsh winter destroyed the crops. Hunger reigned. While they were reeling from war and famine came tales of a better life, a book sent by a …
Stranger in a Slum 