Igneous Quill

For Jerusalem in the days of Jesus of Nazareth it was the Valley of Hinnom.  In our day a Haitian analog can be found in the hills of Titanyen.  

Countless preachers have thundered, pleaded or merely repeated the line that Jesus spoke more about hell than anyone else in Christian scriptures, when in fact the place he was talking about was physically located outside the gates of Jerusalem.  "Gehenna," rendered "hell" in most English translations of the Bible, was the city dump.  It was a smoldering, fetid place where common household garbage was dumped along with the bodies of animals and criminals.  It was a place that Jesus warned would be the destination of the cadavers of those who rejected his way of peace in favor of armed conflict with the powers that oppressed Israel.  He told the religious leaders of the day that it would be their resting place and reward for going to such great lengths to mislead the people.

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cross sea and land to make a single convert, and you make the new convert twice as much a child of hell as yourselves. 'Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the sanctuary is bound by nothing, but whoever swears by the gold of the sanctuary is bound by the oath.'" Matthew 23:14-16 NRSV

"If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched." Mark 9:42-48 NRSV

When Roman armies came thundering through the breeched walls of Jerusalem in 70 AD, destroying the Temple and killing everyone in sight, as Jesus had warned would happen, where else to dispose of the corpses of the resistance?

Haiti has its own Gehenna, as I have mentioned.  A place of death not yet connected to divine justice.  The following was taken from a New York Times article:

"In the hills of Titanyen, on the outskirts of the capital, there are no young girls wandering. The low-lying swampland here smells of sulfur on a good day, and was once the preferred dumping ground for political opponents of the Duvaliers, Haiti’s brutal rulers from the 1950s to the ’80s. It is considered cursed ground by most Haitians. Only a handful of people live nearby, and on Monday most seemed to be climbing on buses to get out.

Indeed, the name of this place is so notorious that it has been a threat doled out by parents for generations: 'If you’re bad, you’ll go to Titanyen.'"

Enormous injustices have been carried out on the Haitian side of the island of Hispaniola since the time Columbus first viewed it in 1492.  The native Taínos were very nearly wiped out and the subsequent use of slaves was incredibly brutal from most accounts.  When Haiti gained its freedom from France the latter country demanded reparations for war, essentially requiring Haiti to pay for its hard-won freedom.  Banks in the U.S. and elsewhere offered loans to "help" pay the debt, and by 1900 80% of the nation's annual budget went to paying off this debt.

Most of the people crushed under buildings or now dying of otherwise preventable causes are innocent of the great evil that hangs over their land.  Yes, I agree with conservative Christians that Voodoo is superstitious idolatry and not a worthy "cultural aspect" of the nation, but that's one of the jobs of Christian missions.  Christian missionaries, aid workers and activists from numerous traditions have been at work in Haiti for decades bringing material help and spiritual hope.  A believer in Christ does not have cause to view the earthquake itself as anything other than a natural disaster with known causes.

However, severe judgment does need to be laid at the doorstep of every power and authority, whether in Haiti or internationally, that has contributed to or been complicit with the corruption within the country.  Had the Haitian people at some point received the level of freedom, medical aid, spiritual grounding and engineering know-how required for their country to become developed and prosperous, the 7.0 magnitude earthquake of last week could have been far less catastrophic.

What's done is done.  Lives have been lost and intense hardship remains ahead for the people of Haiti.  Bodies are being dumped in the mass graves of Titanyen and elsewhere.  Unless things change, I can't help thinking that when justice is revealed by the hand of God in history, Titanyen will be the abode of those who condemned Haiti.

See Also:
Haiti's Real Deal with the Devil (Boing Boing)
As Haitians Flee, the Dead Go Uncounted (New York Times)
21st Century Third World Gehenna (Igneous Quill)

It has been eye-opening for me to learn over the past few days about how many international aid groups representing a wide range of perspectives and methods were already on the ground in Haiti when the magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck.  There were medical personnel, engineers, social workers, missionaries and a diverse crowd of activists working throughout the country and in myriad ways for the betterment of the nation.  Some of these are now missing, some confirmed dead and many, thankfully, alive and well.  Christian religious groups from Catholic to Pentecostal and everything in between have been present in the country for years preaching good news and bringing a ministry of hope to this struggling country.  The Stone-Cambell communion of churches is one of these groups present in Haiti, so today I'd like to share some sources for news on their current work in Haiti.  Also, I'm providing links to charities associated with Christian Churches, Churches of Christ and Disciples of Christ which are at work in Haiti.

First, the news.  The following websites are offering updates and news from the field in Haiti:

• ICOC HotNews has been posting updates since shortly after the crisis was first reported.  This website is affiliated with the International Church of Christ.
• Living Water Christian Mission works primarily in Gonaives, 85 miles north of Port-au-Prince but has begun organizing relief efforts going into the capital to help church members and family there.  This ministry is particulary close to my heart has Salonique Adolphe, a young man I know who studied at Central Christian College of the Bible, is part of this work which is supported by independent Christian Churches.
• Lifeline Christian Mission, another ministry of independent Christian Churches, actually had American workers on the field when the earthquake struck.  They are struggling but making do.
• Global Ministries, the cooperative mission agency the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) shares with the United Church of Christ, is at work in Haiti and posting updates. The Disciples also had some teams on the ground when the disaster started.
• Hope for Haiti's Children, a Church of Christ outreach, is posting updates from the field.

Second, who to support?  Of course at this point ideology and theology matters far less than saving lives.  If you've given through Unicef or the Red Cross, you've done well.  If you have yet more giving to do, though, why not support a work that shares Christian convictions rooted in the Stone-Campbell tradition?  The following are some options I've found.  Yes, there are repeats from the news sources above.

• International Disaster Relief
• Healing Hands International
• Christian Relief Fund
• White’s Ferry Road Disaster Relief
• Living Water Christian Mission
• Lifeline Christian Mission
• HOPE Worldwide

Neither list above is intended to be exhaustive.  If you know of other news sources from Haiti or ministries working there which are connected to the Stone-Campbell Movement, please share the info and link in the comments on this post.

Above all, let's pray for Haiti.  

The city of New York has a bit of a reputation among Christians as an ungodly place.  While it certainly (and thankfully!) isn't the Bible Belt, I'd say the reputation ascribed to it is somewhat unfair.

If you visit Manhattan sometime you will find historic church buildings around nearly every corner.  Some of these are nearly empty on Sunday mornings, while others are vibrant and alive then and throughout the week.  There are several seminaries in the city and countless faith-based non-profits.  Throughout the various boroughs there is an incredible range of church communities, from Brazilian pentecostal to African initiated faiths, traditional mainline Protestant to conservative evangelical, Roman Catholic to Orthodox to Episcopal.  It's all represented here.

There is faith in the city.  You just have to know how to look.

See Also:

Finding Manhattan (IgneousQuill.net)

I am a closet Christian (Salon.com)

We in the West seem to have gone from the aloof, stained-glass Jesus of centuries past to the comic book superhero Jesus of popular evangelicalism, with several unpleasant pseudo-incarnations in between. 

Some disillusioned souls are turning away (wrongly) in disgust (rightly).  Others will be working up a newer, no doubt equally dreadful, rendition of the man from Nazareth.  A few of us, summoning courage and swallowing hard, are striving instead to focus our eyes on the bewilderingly real Jesus of history.  What we behold is the most unpredictable yet completely trustworthy, thoroughly human and terrifyingly divine image of the invisible God.  He overturns our expectations and then exceeds them, and we are left gasping for breath.