A friend posted a Ted Talk by Gary Haugen of International Justice Mission. It's an excellent talk, and can be watched here. It reminded me of this issue, which I was introduced to years ago at church when I first watched him speak. I was inspired to read his book, which was so impactful, addressing the issues of justice worldwide from the Rwandan genocide, sex trafficking, modern day slavery...things that those of us living in our comfortable safe homes give little time to thinking about, let alone doing anything about.
I can admit that, sitting in my own comfortable safe home, I forget about these things too, and do very little to help. And if I do think about it, then I feel overwhelmed...what can I do to make a difference? There is so much bad in the world...what can I do about it other than pray, "Lord Jesus come soon" (honestly that is my prayer frequently when I think of the evil in this world because I feel so overwhelmed and helpless).
Haugen uses the simple fact we have access to something like 911 makes such a difference in our daily life. I know I take it for granted. If I had an emergency, and intruder, etc., first thing I'd do is pick up my phone and dial 911, hoping they'd get here in a few minutes (in the meantime, I rely on Hannah to be my guard dog :) but I don't want anything bad to happen to her either!). In a shocking example, he plays a recorded conversation between 911 and a lady in Oregon who was being threatened by a man trying to get into her home. Apparently due to budget cuts, police officials were not servicing her area on the weekend...there was nothing for the operator to do other than suggest some really asinine things like call the sheriffs department on Monday and report it, or try to ask the man to leave. Yeah...crazy! We are shocked in the US hearing this, but think about if you lived in a country where 911 didn't even exist and the local law enforcement didn't exist...or didn't care because they were corrupt...or the justice system was so corrupt it wouldn't matter if the criminal was caught because nothing would be done to him.
Sadly though, this reminded me of a story, right here in Orange County. I worked for years in Santa Ana, and many times I heard comments about how the police wouldn't respond, or couldn't be trusted, etc. How true each of those comments were or jaded the person was, I don't know, but when you hear enough people say it you have to start to wonder. What really convinced me there must be a lot of truth to this was one day when an 8th grade honors student of mine that I had grown close to shared with me an incident where a man was shot in front, or very nearby, her home. He dad went out and was trying to help the man, and they called 911. No one arrived for a half hour. She couldn't understand this because the fire station was literally just down the street from their house. Was it because the responders didn't care and were corrupt? Probably not...it was probably due to budget cuts and the lack of having enough responders in an city with as dense of a population as Santa Ana.
Whatever the reason, just think about how this can change the lives of the people living where help and justice are slow to respond...or maybe don't respond at all? How does this increase the crime of the area if criminals know they aren't as likely to get caught or prosecuted? How will the relationship and trust of the police or others in law enforcement/governement be by the people that feel they are not being protected? Will people feel safe enough to take healthy and positive risks (financial, educational, philanthropical, etc.) if they know their chances of becoming a victim are higher and justice not likely to protect them? You can see that this could certainly contribute to and perpetuate poverty.
As Christians, in his book The Good New About Injustice, Gary Haugen argues through several scripture references, that it is our job to help advocate for and bring about justice in a fallen world. There are so many organizations out there working on this, be it a local church or a non-profit. I love our PEACE program and centers at Saddleback that help provide free legal advice, immigration help, try to help those caught in sex trafficking. They have ways to volunteer through physically going to take action, but they also have prayer teams. These are some ways to help protect justice in our area.
Our job as citizens is to make sure our representatives know this is an important area they should focus on more. Listen for compassion and plans of action by the politicians. This goes for either side of the political aisle, I've heard a lot of good ideas on how to reform our justice system to help those with drug addictions and mental health issues (yes, even Republican candidates have talked about this very eloquently) and that definitely plays a role in persuading me who I want to vote for or not vote for. When it comes to minorities and/or poverty, listening before jumping to conclusions can go a long way. I'm reminded of the verse in James 1:19, admonishing us to be quick to listen and slow to speak and slow to anger. If we could do that as a society, we would certainly build many more bridges than we burn down. Listening doesn't mean you agree with something, but it gives you a chance to better understand the whole picture instead of holding on ignorantly to your own one-sided biased view. I've found this to be true for myself time and time again, challenging my own preconceived notions and biases. I may not change my mind, or I might, but at least I have a better understanding which leads to more empathy and compassion for those who believe differently than I.
I promised myself this was just going to be a short little post because I felt I needed to respond to this video somehow, and of course it's longer than I intended. So, I am going to end abruptly here, grateful for the reminder I received this morning about this issue.
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