I pledge to protect and defend vulnerable people in the name of Jesus.

Rescue the weak and the poor; deliver them from the power of the wicked. Psalm 82:4

Jesus taught us, saying: “You have heard how it was said, You will love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say this to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you; so that you may be children of your Father in heaven, for He causes his sun to rise on the bad as well as the good, and sends down rain to fall on the upright and the wicked alike.” Matthew 5:43–45

We do believe that certain basic principles can and should be the standards of order and conduct. Among these principles must be included the equal dignity of all men, acknowledgement of the solidarity for good and evil of all nations and races of the earth,respect for the plighted word,and the recognition that power of any kind, political or economic, must be coexistentive with responsibility. It is true that the proclamation and the acknowledgment of these principles does not as such solve any one single concrete political problem. Nevertheless these principles, if Christians are resolved to make them the basis of their political action, may have much effect and meaning in the present chaotic situation where all such standards are being abandoned. -Emil Bruner, 1941

So I have turned into one of those crazy frizzy-haired white ladies who has plastered her car with political bumper stickers. What's the point? Besides embarrassing friends and families alike? And ticking off the guy tailgating behind you? And maybe it will encourage me to be a hyper-considerate driver, like when I used to have one of those "half of the people who enter an abortion clinic don't come out alive" bumper stickers. I didn't want anyone to associate the pro-life movement with that little Volkswagen that turned without signaling or who cut them off at the light. That bumper sticker got me excused from jury duty. I guess it made the lawyers question my emotional or mental stability

Last Friday night I went to the Community Home Repair Projects of Arizona annual dinner, held at a small Mennonite church tucked away in a Tucson residential backwater, where they celebrated the day in and day out faithfulness of skilled, hardworking folk who send rain down on the just and unjust alike.

And it doesn't matter how those folks that live in tattered broken crunched cracked ​rusty rotted old trailers got there. It is about equal dignity of all men, no matter what. We are Christ followers who follow the One who forgave those spitters and mockers even in the moment when they had not even the slightest inclination towards understanding. 

On my way out of the happiest celebration of the year, I mean how often does one get to see Dustin Schaber do the Julia Child thing, I noticed the stacks of bumper stickers on the same little table by the door with bulletins and announcement flyers. 

Support Sacred Oak Flats. That is where the Apaches are fighting a multinational copper mining industry from destroying their sacred lands. Hmmmm. I betcha my Apache student with the kind respectfulness permeating everything he does would appreciate me voicing my support for his tribe. I reached over to pick it up when I noticed the Black Lives Matter sticker. Yep. And while All Lives Matter, there are some strongholds in our country that just don't live like they believe that in real life. Stop Deportations. I know some of my kids don't know if mom or dad will make it home this evening. Or mom or dad didn't make it home. I love my Muslim neighbor. And mixed in with the blaring headlines these days there have been sweetness, like this morning a Muslim community was raising funds to restore a vandalized Jewish cemetery in St. Louis.

And in my belly I decided I don't want to be unobtrusive. I want to speak up for those without a voice, for those who sometimes live in the quiet shadows, away from the push and shove of political or economic power. 

And maybe it is a little goofy, even if the stickers are nice and straight with balanced whitespace. But maybe it will cheer a voiceless a bit. Make someone feel seen and noticed. Something to do with proclamation and affirmation of these basic principles, that really doesn't solve one single concrete problem. 

Except at least I will be very careful to use my turn signal and wave ahead someone who wants to merge ahead in my lane. 

Which is a good thing. 

To dream of the person you would like to be is to waste the person you are. Sholem Asch

Rescue the weak and the poor; deliver them from the power of the wicked. Psalm 82:4

Campolo spoke to the congregation and he said these words: “I have three things I’d like to say today. First, while you were sleeping last night, 30,000 kids died of starvation or diseases related to malnutrition. Second, most of you don’t give a damn. What’s worse is that you’re more upset with the fact that I said damn than the fact that 30,000 kids died last night.”

That was my Tony Campolo year. 1979. Yeah, he actually said this, again and again as he traversed the United States and spoke to cozy comfortable Christians. Whose pockets jingled when they walked. And I did the Baptist leap to my feet and run up to the front thing and committed my life to early morning meetings with God and His Word and long days and callouses on my fingers and an aching back from scrubbing and cracked mismatched dishes all for the joy of it. The joy of being His hands and feet.

And I sort of stumbled into a Tony moment Friday with my class. Took a deep breath and said the word.

I was preaching it Friday, again and again, and my second period class picked up on the cadence and started Amening me sistuh. And it all tied into the project proposal assignment of teams wandering Doolen and looking for problems and proposing solutions and researching and interviewing and surveying and counting and graphing and then presenting. And they will do anything for a candy bar.

And presenting is important. I have been a judge at the Southern Arizona Science and Engineering Fair a bunch of times. And we have to know what we are talking about and why and what is the big purpose.

So I stood in front of the class and modeled my ever-popular pet peeve speech. This one led off with I am angry. Militias fighting to control Congo's vast mineral resources are fueling the deadliest war since WWII. And our greed for the next best toy, our lazy lack of compassion, and our toss away mentality are part of the problem. Lead, Thesis, Support, Support, Support, Counterpoint, Rebuttal, Close. You have all heard my song and dance before. And I had a little video from the ENOUGH project talking about systematic murder and rape fueled by our cell phones' need for the three T’s: tin, tungsten, and tantalum.

Except of course in first period when I was reviewing the required speech outline, one of the girls hollered out, Miss, did you say Your Butt Hole? And in second period, when I said, I am angry a boy shouted, We don’t give a fuck.

And so the next period I included his quote in my lead. And all the kids whooted and threatened to call the principal and their grandmother and the scary monitor. And I said, But I do give a fuck. I care about you and your lives and your impact on your world around you.

And our greed and our self-centeredness and laziness fuels pain and suffering all around the world. Our water bottles thrown on the ground pours money into the pockets of ISIS and more than 1.8 million people had to flee their homes this year because of that. (btw out of four classes, 122 sixth graders, only one girl sort of knew where plastic comes from…gas, Miss?) And our drug use and that of our older cousin and our dad and the kids down the street pays mafiosos in Guatemala City who charge city bus drivers “tips” to drive down streets and if they don’t pay, men with guns will step into the bus aisle and randomly shoot a rider. And our chicken legs and pork chops from Costco are produced by Chinese peasants who live in such humiliating and tortuous conditions that companies have to line their housing apartments with nets to catch all of the factory workers trying to commit suicide. Our choices matter.

And these projects are not about just picking up trash and helping find homes for pit bulls and getting after-school basketball clubs and robotics clubs and home-ec classes and dissecting frogs and making goo and getting candy. These projects are opportunities to develop you into people who care, who have a sense of community, who look at the big picture, and are strong and confident and work together as a team, and who think science is meaningful and that the scientific method is a useful tool to really seeing problems and working for change and analyzing results and learning from our mistakes and most of all, making a difference.

And last night Alan and Mary Anne and I watched a movie. And John joined us at the end. And there is a little bit of cussing in it because it is a true story. A true story about some undocumented kids from a messy public high school in Phoenix. And how they end up taking on Duke and Stanford and Cornell and MIT in a robotics competition and winning. And maybe the tired teacher had to be dragged kicking and screaming into their lives. But their lives were changed forever.

So Monday I will try it again. And Tuesday. And the last nine days that remain.

Yet when they are diminished and brought low, through stress of adversity and sorrow, He lifts up the poor out of misery. Psalm 107:40

Because the LORD God Almighty is at work, His work of restoration. And I have the joy of being His hands and feet.

And Sholem Asch is my new favorite author. Thank you Tim and Jenny.