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Reflections on Power for Salvationist.ca

[This article was originally published as ‘Power Hungry’ for the Salvation Army on May 10, 2011.]

The dramatic fall of dictators around the world can cause us to question our own relationship with authority.

Recent events in Northern Africa and the Middle East remind me of the adage originally penned by Lord Acton: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Where power remains unchecked, terrible abuses of human, political and civil rights can occur.

Remarkably, several of these nations are experiencing a rebalance of power as citizens demand political reform and the international community considers coming to their aid.

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Reflections on Capital Punishment for Salvationist.ca

[This article was originally published as ‘An Eye for An Eye’ for the Salvation Army on January 24, 2011.]

Capital punishment strikes me as fundamentally flawed. Killing a person to send the message that killing is wrong seems contradictory at best and hypocritical at worst. The fact that executions are pre-meditated, and corrections officials or private citizens are paid to carry them out, makes them seem all the more heinous. What goes through the mind of an executioner as he or she administers a lethal injection or activates the electric chair? Does he believe the condemned prisoner is a threat to society who deserves to die? Or does she see the humanity of someone who made a terrible mistake, often decades earlier, and who may no longer pose any threat to society?

Capital punishment has been abolished in most of the Western world. According to Wikipedia, only the United States and Belarus continue to practise capital punishment, and Latvia has reserved the death penalty for war time. By contrast, the death penalty is practised in 14 out of 54 African nations as well as 24 of the 55 Middle Eastern and Asian-Pacific states. And although the United Nations has called for a moratorium on the death penalty, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights does not mandate its complete abolition. Rather, it requires states that have not abolished the death penalty to restrict it to the “most serious crimes.”

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Christian Social Action: Is it worth the Effort?

[Originally published as here as part of the Salvation Army’s 2010 ‘Speak Out’ online conference on social justice advocacy.]

Community in mission: A salvationist ecclesiologyimageHE SALVATION ARMY HAS GREAT POTENTIAL TO SPEAK PROPHET-ICALLY WITHIN OUR SOCIETY. Its history of showing practical concern for the needs of suffering humanity and its solid reputation in the countries in which it operates make it particularly well suited to speak publicly on issues of concern. In addition, its continuing focus on mission makes social action a necessary outworking of the faith that undergirds The Salvation Army’s ministry.

Jesus’ public ministry began with a proclamation of good news for the poor, freedom for the prisoners, recovery of sight for the blind and the release of the oppressed. The gospel of Jesus is not just a gospel of spiritual salvation. It is also a gospel of hope and healing, and a gospel that challenges the social, cultural, political and religious practices and power structures that leave people poor, imprisoned, physically suffering and oppressed. As the inheritors of Christ’s mission, it is incumbent on the Church to continue to proclaim the presence of the Kingdom of God.

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How can The Salvation Army combat human sex trafficking?

[This article was originally published as Innocence Lost for the Salvation Army in July 2005.]

    image   I dreamed a dream in time gone by 
    When hope was high and life was worth living.
    I dreamed that love would never die,
    I dreamed that God would be forgiving …
    I had a dream my life would be
    So different from this hell I’m living.
    So different now from what it seemed,
    Now life has killed the dream I dreamed.
    I Dreamed a Dream (Fantine’s Song) – Les Misérables

“So the man took his concubine and sent her outside to them, and they raped her and abused her throughout the night, and at dawn they let her go. At daybreak the woman went back to the house where her master was staying, fell down at the door and lay there until daylight. When her master got up in the morning and opened the door of the house and stepped out to continue on his way, there lay his concubine, fallen in the doorway of the house, with her hands on the threshold. He said to her, ‘Get up; let’s go.’ But there was no answer. Then the man put her on his donkey and set out for home” (Judges 19:25-28).

One of the most haunting stories in the Bible is the story of the Levite and his concubine in Judges 19 and the ensuing battle against the Benjamite tribe, which left a hole in Israelite society. It is a shocking story about the human condition, a story that strikes at the very heart of evil―the desire on the part of some to dominate, abuse and destroy their fellow human beings, and the intentional or unintentional participation of other ostensibly “good” people in such schemes. It is a story about the relative powerlessness of women in certain societies and situations. It is also a story of wanton lawlessness, poignantly captured by the words: “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit” (Judges 21:25).

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