Activism Levels
Last week or so Harvey from Living Stones let me know that a couple of gals will put together an information table about Darfur genocide in the Sudan for their evening gatherings. They’ll be taking donations and just keeping people up to date about the situation. I can’t tell you how that encouraged me. I was there in July and didn’t get much response. But then my expectations were they would all rise up and ask something akin to “what shall we do then to be saved?”
Turns out they had this planned for the weekend that the Katrina Hurricane hit and so ended up focusing on that for time being. I guess the time has come to bring it up again (since the networks won’t even spend more than a half hour in total covering it).
I have a more realistic expectation of people’s response now. I just want to move them from one level to another.
- Awareness. Ignorance, while blissful, means you didn’t even know anything was going on in Darfur, let alone where it was. (just in case, it’s the western region in the country of the Sudan).
- Staying informed. You’ve signed up for a newsletter or Google news alerts or maybe occasionally check websites about the genocide.
- Talking about it. You bring it up in conversation because someone was talking about Africa or the holocaust or politics or religion or your Darfur shirt or green wristband.
- Doing something yourself. You give money, buy a t-shirt or wristband, or ship books to humanitarian aid workers or maybe something else
- Getting others to do something too.Hey, pal, I was going to save the world this weekend by having a prayer vigil/fundraiser at my house. Wanna come?
[tags]activism, Darfur, genocide[/tags]
Kaysi says:
November 17th, 2005 at 2:42 pm
So I haven’t been to jackswords in a while and therefore this comment is coming several weeks post-post. (If that makes sense at all…)
I can’t help but think of this issue at every conversation I listen to regarding the Mexico trip. I LOVE that everyone was so moved by their opportunity to serve there, and that everyone wants to use this trip to springboard more involvement with the ministry there. I think it’s awesome that our leadership is wanting to reach out and get their hands and feet dirty by serving.
Yet at the same time, my heart is still turned toward those people across the world who are in crisis. Why has there been such a reluctance to get involved there? True, logistically we can do more for these closer neighbors in Mexico. But that does not excuse our lack of involvement with people across continents who are being raped and murdered every day. It crushes a part of my spirit to think of what I’m inclined to label “complacency” when it comes to our brothers and sisters in Darfur.
I am not a shining example of throwing myself into action for this cause, either, because I could be doing more than I am. But it bothers me deeply knowing you have brought these concerns to at least some of our leaders (raising their level at least to awareness), and thus far no progress has been made to do anything more about it, at least as far as I have seen.
:sad:
jack says:
November 17th, 2005 at 5:41 pm
This is why I like this idea of activism levels. Yeah, our church could be sending teams over there to join with humanitarian organizations, but honestly, I’m just happy people have moved from ignorance to awareness.
You know what? I’m also just happy if people are encouraged to do any kind of good works. I mean, if you’re not organizing prayer vigils for the people of Darfur because you’re helping an orphanage, I’m okay with that.
Kaysi says:
November 18th, 2005 at 9:12 am
true, good point.
I Used to Be an Activist » myopic pilgrim » Blog Archive says:
March 9th, 2007 at 10:34 am
[...] You may have noticed I took the Darfur genocide page down a month or two ago. I’ve become less aware and less involved and every time I’d see the link on my blog it would embarrass me. So I just took it down until I could move up the levels of activism. [...]