Week #1 A Multi-layered Crisis

In last week's Newsweek there was a brief interview with some pirates from Somalia. These modern day pirates had taken over a Ukranian cargo ship (filled with weapons including tanks!) off the west-African coast. They were demanding $3 million before they would set the vessel free. The interview was conducted via satellite phone. When the armed gunmen on board were asked why there was such an increase in Somali piracy, their answer was this: "In Somalia all the young men are desperate. There is wide unemployment in our country... they can arrest us if they find us, but that will never deter us. What we need is money... we know it is evil, but when evil is the only solution, you do evil." Can you imagine what you would do if you felt the ONLY solution you had to a problem was doing harm to others through crime?

This story seems an apt ilustration of the "suicide machine" that Brian McLaren describes in his first chapter (pp. 3-6). He talks about four crises that are bringing about a "perfect storm" in our world that is bringing suffering, violence, fear and despair across our globe. The four crises he names are:

1. A Prosperity Crisis: Great wealth for and high consumtion by a small percentage of the world's population. These wealthy few are consuming the earth's resources at unsustainable rates.

2. An Equity Crisis: The growing gap between the ultra rich and the extremely poor... which prompts the poor majority to envy, resent and hate the rich minority.

3. A Security Crisis: The increasing danger of violence, brought on by the intensifying resentment and fear of the two groups named in #2.

4. The Spirituality Crisis: What he names as "the failure of world's religions to provide a framing story capable of healing or reducing the three previous crises."

We don't have to read Newsweek to see examples of these realities playing themselves out. Over the past few weeks there have been series of local crimes against small businesses, with desperate people robbing convenience stores. We all have seen these kinds of things throughout our lives. Those who are richer buy nice things, and out of fear of losing them they build fences or install security systems to keep their neighbors out, or band together to make laws and hire police to protect them. Nations do the same things. And none of us would argue that we should do away with our police forces or that our nation should do away with our armed forces. For those of us who have much, these things seem perfectly normal and just.

One of the things that Rev. McLaren is doing in this book is inviting us to see all of these things from the perspective of those who are without wealth, without food, and without hope for anything to improve. He is suggesting that as believers in Christ, we must recognize our contributon to the problems, and take up our responsibility of changing the systems that are ratcheting up the multi-faceted crises in our world.

For now, let's focus on these questions:
How do you respond to his descriptions of the crises facing our globe?
Has he named the truth, from your perspective?
What is he missing?
Has his description reminded you of experiences you have had of this sometimes violent intersection between the "haves" and the "have nots"?
Where have you seen these crises living themselves out in your world?

Please write your reflections and responses by clicking on "comments". Be sure to also read what others have to say!