reality check

shalom: the bible’s word for salvation, justice and peace is one of texts that the think-tank i mentioned in my last post studied and it’s author, dr. perry b. yoder was one of our special instructors/advisors. this is an excellent book and i highly recommend it. (plus it’s short and inexpensive!)

if you need anymore convincing: a few years ago, we invited dr. dallas willard to come and teach at one of our week-long training events. i gave him a copy of this book and asked him for his feedback because it was helping to shape significant parts of our organization. he graciously read the book that week and said that it was a “great book”.

he elaborated further by saying that dr. yoder’s book filled a vacuum in our evangelical understanding of the life of faith. however, shalom should not be confused as the “goal” of our lives as people of faith. shalom is the “fruit” of the kingdom of god and we are to partner with god in the work of establishing his kingdom’s reign and authority here on earth. shalom in the earth will be the natural state of god’s established kingdom.

a number of years ago, i was privileged to be a part of a think-tank that invested a significant amount of time and money into the study and development of shalom theology. we studied both the biblical/hebrew definition of shalom as well as its practical implications for our world today.

shalom or salaam (arabic) to my great surprise did not simply mean “peace”. biblically, it means much more than that. the word embodies the conecpts of justice, peace, righteousness and prosperity or in other words, holistic well-being. the think-tank discovered that in the english version of the old testament, numerous words such as “well”, “happy”, “friendly”, “welfare”, and “health” have been translated from the hebrew word shalom. most often, shalom is used in a communal sense as well; we in the west tend to think exclusively in individualistic terms.

a beautiful description of shalom that i have seen in the bible is,

love and faithfulness meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each other. (pslam 85:10)

one of the pracitical implications of the brokenness of shalom that we looked at was globalization. globalization has greatly served the developed countries of the world by creating new markets and trade partners for our goods (everything from big macs to hollywood movies) as well as cheap labor (from sweatshops producing trendy clothing and athletic shoes to customer service/technical support for major telecommunications companies). it has done little to truly benefit the majority 2/3 world though. (i confess that this is an overly simplistic assessment because there have been tremendous gains from globalization as well – medicine and technology have greatly benefited many in the world.)

the article from the new york times that i want to highlight below ends with this,

africa has long been a dumping ground for all sorts of things the developed world has no use for. ‘this is the underbelly of globalization’

the excerpt below reminded me of how broken shalom is on the earth. it also caused me to wonder how much of our lives in the developed world come at the expense of the world’s poor. i don’t think there are any easy answers to that question, but the question should definitely be asked and not ignored.

from everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. (luke 12:48b)

October 2, 2006

Global Sludge Ends in Tragedy for Ivory Coast
By LYDIA POLGREEN and MARLISE SIMONS

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast, Sept. 28 — It was his infant son’s cries, gasping and insistent, that first woke Salif Oudrawogol one night last month. The smell hit him moments later, wafting into the family’s hut, a noxious mélange reminiscent of rotten eggs, garlic and petroleum.

Mr. Oudrawogol went outside to investigate. Beside the family’s compound, near his manioc and corn fields, he saw a stinking slick of black sludge.

“The smell was so bad we were afraid,” Mr. Oudrawogol said. “It burned our noses and eyes.”

Over the next few days, the skin of his 6-month-old son, Salam, bloomed with blisters, which burst into weeping sores all over his body. The whole family suffered headaches, nosebleeds and stomach aches.

How that slick, a highly toxic cocktail of petrochemical waste and caustic soda, ended up in Mr. Oudrawogol’s backyard in a suburb north of Abidjan is a dark tale of globalization. It came from a Greek-owned tanker flying a Panamanian flag and leased by the London branch of a Swiss trading corporation whose fiscal headquarters are in the Netherlands. Safe disposal in Europe would have cost about $300,000, or perhaps twice that, counting the cost of delays. But because of decisions and actions made not only here but also in Europe, it was dumped on the doorstep of some of the world’s poorest people.

So far eight people have died, dozens have been hospitalized and 85,000 have sought medical attention, paralyzing the fragile health care system in a country divided and impoverished by civil war… (for more on this article, please go to the New York Times (registration required))