by UrbanFaith Staff | Mar 26, 2014 | Feature, Headline News |
c. 2014 Religion News Service
NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS) The escalating slaughter of elephants and rhinos is drawing the anger of conservationist clerics, who have begun enlisting church members in the battle to save Africa’s wildlife.
The clerics are driven by a view that these animals are God’s gifts to nature and a critical part of Africa’s heritage.
In Kenya, their concerns heightened in mid-March after the conservation group Wildlife Direct said 16 rhinos had been gunned down in the first three months of the year. More than 30 elephants have also been slaughtered since January.
“We must now treat poaching as an emergency,” said the Rev. Charles Odira, a priest who heads the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Commission for Pastoral and Lay Apostolate. “It must be declared a national disaster.”
Odira said priests and lay leaders in wildlife zones were dedicating time each Sunday and during evangelization gatherings to educate communities on the value of wildlife.
“We are targeting attitude change because the poachers pass through the communities’ lands when targeting the animals. We want to change an existing view that animals are dangerous and need to be fought,” said Odira.
International cartels kill the animals to feed a growing illegal ivory market in Asian countries, according to the Kenya Wildlife Service. In Asia, rhino horn powder is wrongly believed to cure cancer and to be an aphrodisiac. A kilogram of ivory is worth approximately $1,500 on the black market, while a rhino horn can fetch $65,000 to $100,000 a kilogram. This is about 2.5 times the value of gold.
Two years ago, National Geographic reported that the ivory was carved into baby Jesus and Catholic saint figurines, Muslim prayer beads, Coptic crosses, amulets for Buddhists and elaborate Buddhist and Taoist carvings.
The Rev. Patrick Maina, a Presbyterian pastor in the Rift Valley of Kenya, which hosts many private wildlife ranches, is also carrying out educational efforts centered on conservation.
“I am engaging pastors’ fellowship on the dangers of charcoal burning. It is destroying local habitat for the wildlife,” said Maina.
Through his efforts, some youths are also manning electric fences in the reserves.
African religious leaders have reached out to Asian religious groups to raise awareness about where their ivory comes from and the toll that poaching takes on African wildlife.
The understanding in Asia is the tusks are plucked to support “evangelization,” said Odira. “We have to change this religious worldview. ”
But for Imam Idi Kasozi, Ugandan Muslim conservationist, corruption and poverty are escalating poaching in Africa.
“Some community members see poaching the ivory as a quick way of escaping poverty,” he said. “This is greed and I believe stronger punishments will deter them and their accomplices.”
Copyright 2014 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be reproduced without written permission.
by UrbanFaith Staff | Mar 20, 2014 | Feature, Headline News |
(RNS) For five years, bombs and bullets from Nigeria’s Islamist group Boko Haram have ripped through churches and their members, raising concerns over the security of Christians in majority Muslim regions of the country.
But as similar attacks ignite violent reprisals by pro-Christian militias in the Central African Republic, Christian leaders in Nigeria continue to insist on a path of dialogue and nonviolence.
The clerics have also pressed President Goodluck Jonathan to use the state security services against the militants.
These Christian leaders want Jonathan to negotiate with Boko Haram leadership and end the campaign of terror.
Recently, militants have slaughtered both Christians and Muslims in the states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe.
“We are living in perpetual fear and tension here in Maiduguri,” said the Rev. John Bakeni, secretary of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Maiduguri in Borno.
On Friday (March 14), gunmen from Fulani, a largely Muslim ethnic community, attacked villages in Kaduna state in central Nigeria, killing more than 100 people.
The Fulani who migrate with their livestock have a long-standing land conflict with farming Christian communities, according to church leaders.
Humanitarian agencies say the attacks have forced hundreds of Christians to flee to the south and neighboring Cameroon, Chad and Niger. Human Rights Watch says more than 300,000 people have been forced out of their homes since 2009.
Boko Haram means “Western education is sinful” in the Hausa ethnic language. It is also known as “Jama’at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-da’aw wal-Jihad” in Arabic, or “Congregation of the People of Proselytism and Jihad.”
A young firebrand Muslim cleric known as Mohammed Yusuf founded the group in Borno around 2002. It gained prominence in 2009, when Yusuf issued a video to Jonathan calling for revenge after 17 of the group’s fighters were killed in a clash with police. Yusuf died the same year, while under police custody.
Since then, attacks by Boko Haram have escalated.
Driven by the view that non-Muslims are infidels, the militants have attacked churches, government security installations and other institutions. By 2013, more than 10,000 civilians had been killed.
“Nigerians are dying like chickens,” said the Rev. Evaristus Bassey, national director of Caritas Nigeria, in a statement last week.
More than 400 churches have been attacked and destroyed since the launch of the group, according to the Northern Christian Elders Forum, which advocates for peace in Nigeria. About 20 of those churches are Roman Catholic, said Archbishop Oliver Dashe Doeme of Maiduguri.
The extremists view Christianity as synonymous with Western education and the Western way of life, said Bakeni.
Recently, analysts started questioning the group’s commitment to its earlier stated aim of complete and immediate implementation of Shariah, or Islamic law, in the whole of Nigeria.
“I think they are hiding under religion to gain sympathy and acceptance for their actions,” Bakeni said. “Shariah is no longer the bone of contention. What we are witnessing now is wanton massacre and murder of innocent people, Christians and Muslims alike.”
The group also wants the release of all arrested members from prisons across the country.
“When a brother can stand up and kill a brother, this is not religion,” Archbishop Nemuel Babba, the leader of the Lutheran Church of Christ in Nigeria, told the Lutheran World Information Service in an interview.
“As faith leaders, we will continue to appeal to these groups to come and dialogue about what they want instead of using arms. We will preach and advocate peace, as violence only leads to destruction.”
Babba urged the global church community to demand that governments and the international community intervene to stop the killings.
“We want to hear the Christian voice encouraging us, supporting us and pleading on our behalf,” he said.
Copyright 2014 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be reproduced without written permission.
by UrbanFaith Staff | Mar 17, 2014 | Feature, Headline News |
c. 2014 LaborNotes
It’s been a bumpy road for SuperShuttle drivers attempting to organize at three D.C.-area airports. To win recognition, the drivers must prove they are employees—of a global corporation that’s making more money off workers’ fees than customers’ payments.
Over 200 SuperShuttle drivers, mostly West African immigrants, serve the three airports surrounding Washington, D.C. At all hours of the day and night, they pick up airport-bound passengers, who usually book online ahead of time. Drivers also take passengers from the airport to homes and hotels. Rides are shared among multiple passengers.
SuperShuttle calls its drivers “franchisees” and says they’re independent contractors, which disqualifies them from protections like minimum wage, overtime pay, workers’ compensation, unemployment insurance, and the right to organize a union.
The drivers are working with Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 1994, which represents county government workers in Montgomery County, Maryland.
‘YOU OWE THEM’
Patrick Benhene started driving for SuperShuttle at Baltimore Washington International airport six years ago. He leased a van from the company, signed mountains of paperwork, and began driving.
He did not understand the full extent of the fees SuperShuttle would demand from him in exchange for permission to drive the blue and yellow van.
Benhene had to pay a $35,000 “franchise fee,” spread over years of weekly payments, with interest. He has paid that off, but continues to pay licensing fees, insurance fees, a $500 “system fee,” and a leasing fee to use the van every week.
“Before you start the week, you owe them,” he said.
SuperShuttle also takes 10 percent of Benhene’s revenue for the week (drivers at other airports lose up to 25 percent). He said they even deduct this percentage from tips paid online.
Drivers sleep in their cars, working 18- to 20-hour days to pay back everything they owe in fees—and sometimes make a little money to take home. Many end the week with only $300 or $400 in earnings, which must be used to pay for the next week’s gas.
Claire Evans has driven at Dulles International for a couple of years. There have been busy weeks when she worked every day and still lost money, she said.
Both say the fact that they have already paid so much money into the company keeps them from leaving the job.
“You look for a way out,” said Evans, who is still paying off her franchise fee. “You want to get out, but need your franchise money back… [but SuperShuttle] will have any excuses not to get money back.”
According to the union, SuperShuttle actually makes more money from drivers’ fees than from customer fares.
Read the rest of the story at LaborNotes.org
by UrbanFaith Staff | Feb 21, 2014 | Feature, Headline News |
c. 2014 LaborNotes
“We want every person to bring their ‘whole self’ to work every day,” says a Kellogg’s human resources manager in the company’s latest “diversity and inclusion” report.
A hundred locked-out Kellogg’s workers marched with 1,000 community members in the Martin Luther King Day parade in Memphis. The local NAACP is calling for a boycott. (Photo Credit: Schaeffer Mallory)
But for more than three months now, 220 locked-out cereal workers in Memphis, a majority black, have had to settle for bringing their “whole self” to the frigid picket line at the Kellogg’s factory entrance. Workers maintain a 24/7 picket, with four to 10 workers holding signs.
Production continues uninhibited by the picketers. Scabs brought in by an Ohio company enter through a back gate. Cereal leaves by the trainload, heading east.
At a rally on Martin Luther King Day, the president of the Memphis chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) called for a boycott of Kellogg’s products.
Rev. Dwight Montgomery said he had spoken with an organization of 300 ministers in the Memphis area, and that they had decided to ask “our congregation members to go talk to their friends, family neighbors… We are not going to buy any Kellogg’s products.”
He said the Memphis SCLC had written two letters and made several phone calls to Kellogg’s CEO John Bryant—but had not heard back.
“I want to make it clear,” Montgomery said. “We first communicated, tried to move this in the direction of resolution, before calling a boycott. We have been fair. We’re calling it nonviolent direct action for social change.”
‘Diversity and Inclusion in Our Plants’
More than 60 percent of the locked-out workers are black, reflecting the demographics of Memphis.
In 2012 Memphis was the setting for a meeting of Kellogg’s African-American Resource Group, discussing how to create an “inclusive environment.” Apparently, according to the report, “recruiting and retaining diverse employees in the Memphis area was proving to be a challenge.”
But Rev. Montgomery said the company could easily fix its retention problem: “[Kellogg’s] locked out people who are diverse, so bring them back!”
Kevin Bradshaw is president of BCTGM Local 252G, which represents the workers. He said that “without us being at work they don’t have any diversity. All their K Values don’t mean anything. Everything they mean, they did the opposite of by locking us out.”
Kellogg’s K Values include “involving others in decisions and plans that affect them.” Another Resource Group, K-Pride and Allies, was created to “Stomp Out Bullying.”
Locked-out workers take these messages with a grain of salt.
When asked about the Employee Resource Groups and Kellogg’s attempts at diversity and inclusion, Bradshaw said, “They’ve never approached us about them on a local level. They’ve got a whole team, but they’ve never put forth the effort in Memphis.
“These are not honorable people. They’ll say anything to look good. It’s all a bunch of corporate lies.”
Vice President Earl Earlie said he had never heard of the Employee Resource Groups.
‘Just a Marketing Ploy
Kellogg’s boasts in its report of the “ongoing work we are doing on our diversity and inclusion journey.”
A more cynical view of this “journey” is revealed in a section of the report titled “Kellogg Connects with Latino Customers through Targeted Marketing and Product Development.”
Kellogg’s claims its efforts at branding and marketing to Latino customers demonstrate its commitment to diversity. “Christopher R., associate director of multicultural brand marketing” is quoted as saying “my focus right now is ‘all Hispanic, all the time.’”
In Hispanic markets, Tony the Tiger is now El Tigre Toño, selling Choco Zucaritas instead of Frosted Flakes Chocolate.
Locked-out Memphis workers appear to agree that Kellogg’s diversity programs amount to little more than marketing. Trence Jackson, a Local 252G officer, said, Kellogg’s also puts “African Americans, like Gabby [Douglas] on their cereal boxes each February.”
‘Memphis Boycott Again
Civil rights organizations have rallied to the Kellogg’s workers’ cause. The A. Philip Randolph Institute organized a January 12 rally including speakers from the SCLC and NAACP. Many recalled facing violence in the 1950s and ’60s, and called for a return to the militant tactics of the civil rights movement, including civil disobedience to stop scabs from continuing production.
In his famous “Mountaintop” speech in 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. also called for a boycott in Memphis. What began as a labor dispute—a strike by sanitation workers—had quickly escalated into a fight between Memphis’s black majority and its white economic and political elite. King called on the black community to boycott white businesses until the strike was settled.
Almost a half-century later, Bradshaw said, “The community in general is tired of being used. The whole Memphis area is tired of being used. Big companies come to Memphis just because they have a cheap labor rate.
“The rich are getting rich and the poor are getting poorer, and the people of Memphis are getting tired of it. Employers need to change their tactics and treat us fairer than what they’ve been doing.”
For more news on the labor movement visit LaborNotes.org.
by UrbanFaith Staff | Feb 21, 2014 | Feature, Headline News |
Dr. Cheryl Sanders
“If we’re going to take Martin Luther King Jr. seriously in theological education as someone worthy of being studied, we can’t just do a service, celebration or lecture on his anniversary,” said Dr. Cheryl J. Sanders, senior pastor of the Third Street Church of God in Washington, D.C. and this year’s guest speaker at the 2014 MLK Jr. Lecture Series at Fuller Seminary.
Instead, Sanders, who is also a professor of Christian Ethics at Howard University School of Divinity, told the audience that she would be speaking on the leadership legacy of the historic figure.
“I’d like to suggest particular roles King played that we can use as a guide to our pedagogy in the academy as we are preparing people for leadership and professional formation for ministry,” she said, noting that these roles can then be adopted by people who cherish King’s legacy, ministry, and are willing to take up his “prophetic mantle.”
The seven leadership roles that King possessed and exemplified, and “are worthy of emulation by religious leaders of our time,” are that of orator; organizer; opportunist; optimist; operative; organic intellectual; and oracle, Sanders explained. She emphasized that embedded in each role are corresponding gifts of virtue such as “hunger and thirst for righteousness, purity of heart, right motivation, and equanimity under pressure.”
Firstly, the role of orator is to communicate ideas to motivate diverse audiences, Sanders said.
“It’s not the communication, it’s the motivation,” she said. King would often use proverbial expressions, scriptures, and quotes as part of his oratory presentation to add imagery and expressiveness to his speech. Sanders explained that people today can study him as an orator and watch his effectiveness in communicating motivation even in this age of social media.
King also played the role of an organizer to develop and sustain a following to achieve goals and ends. Sanders noted that King grew up in the African American church as a preacher’s son. Because he belonged to middle-class society and was very bright, he was able to attend college at the age of 16. There, King, was involved in fraternities and societies. As a result, Sanders said, by the time King was through seminary and hitting the public sphere, he understood how organizations, clubs, and networks operate. He was also able to speak to both white America and the Black poor. This allowed him to be successful as an organizer, and to speak with “unflinching honesty and undeniable authenticity.”
Opportunity is also an important part of leadership, Sanders said. Opportunists can harness media and technology to seize the moment. Pointing to an image of King’s cover photo in Time Magazine, Sanders explained that King would often present himself as a Black leader familiar with European intellectual trends.
“Opportunist isn’t a bad word,” Sanders said. “It’s recognizing that having a PhD from Boston University meant King is conversant in broader audiences than just the traditional Black church audience.”
King acquired respectability in a broader audience, and took advantage of opportunities to be in the media.
King was also an optimist, able to inspire hope in resistance to dread and despair. Sanders noted optimism doesn’t just mean dreaming and hoping. Not every protest King led was successful, she said, which made it all the more important for him to be an optimist “so in the face of failure he can speak a word of hope that is meaningful.”
Sanders also explained that optimism means having the ability to see what change looks like.
“Protest of injustice is a good and necessary thing, but you need to have an alternative in mind,” she said. “You can’t just tear stuff down. You need to have an inkling of what is possible.”
Leaders can also learn to be an operative – a person who achieves objectives of a larger interest. Pointing to a photo of King standing behind President Lyndon B. Johnson as he signed the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Sanders noted that the photo communicated “politics of compromise.”
“As an operative, you know when to hold ’em, and you know when to fold ’em,” she said. The photo showed King being a successful operative, because he was able to diminish his role, and allow the person with power to achieve what was the best interest of his people.
King also played the role of organic intellectual, able to fuel activism with academic agility.
“Martin Luther King Jr. was the most successful organic intellectual in American history,” Sanders said. “Never before has a figure outside of elected public office linked the life of the mind with social change with such moral persuasion and political effectiveness.”
Sanders explained that King became an organic intellectual by being shaped through his prophetic Black church tradition, the liberal Christianity he encountered in his scholarly training, prophetic Ghandian method of non-violence, and the prophetic American civil religion that fuses secular and sacred history and combines Christian themes of deliverance and salvation with political ideals of democracy. King exemplified “the best of the life of the mind involved in public affairs.”
In addition, King had the ability to talk to people who were not his intellectual peers – to make himself available to even young children.
“As intellectuals, we can’t afford to shelter ourselves in our ivory towers,” Sanders said. “And we have to be not just available, but willing. The American way is to relate up and not relate down, because people on the up will help you to advance.” However, Sanders reminded the audience of the scripture passage in Matthew, when Jesus told the disciples to let the children come to him.
Lastly, Dr. King was an oracle. Sanders pointed to his last sermon, in which he accurately predicted his death, as evidence of King’s ability to discern vision and voice in the realm of the Spirit.
“An orator crafts a speech or sermon,” Sanders said. “An oracle speaks what is heard in the ear or the heart. When King spoke the night before his assassination, he spoke of things not from a book. He was hearing from another realm.”
Sanders concluded by echoing that the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. is not just a holiday or an occasion, but to mind the lessons that will serve us going forward.
“The role of the public pastorate can be elevated and enhanced by individuals who have been schooled in the various leadership roles exemplified by King and we can teach and equip our theological students to pursue leadership development and professional formation beyond the traditional roles of pastor, priest, and preacher to equip them to care more effectively for the soul of a nation,” she said.
Click here to watch Dr. Sanders’ MLK Celebration sermon at Fuller’s All-Seminary Chapel titled “Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: Dream, Vision, March.”
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