Since March 29, the start date of Derek Chauvin’s trial, 64 people - approximately 3 people each day - have died at the hands of law enforcement in the United States. One officer being held accountable does not come close to rectifying the loss of Black and Brown lives nor does it erase the fact that the United States has a serious problem with policing. We also can’t view the institution of policing in isolation when the whole system is guilty.
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BPFNA-Bautistas por la Paz celebrates the support given to 15 projects for peace and justice during this year’s Peace Fund-Fondos por la Paz grant cycle. The Peace Fund-Fondos por la Paz was established in 2018 and empowers small, grassroots groups around the world doing the work of peacemaking on a local or regional level.
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Throughout history, women in every part of the world have made great strides, sometimes in spite of a significant lack of equality. With the help of women such as Lucretia Mott, Rosa Parks, and Marsha P. Johnson, the gap in equality in areas such as gender, race, and sexual orientation has become more and more narrow. Currently, we are very fortunate that these women and so many more have made these strides, but we still have a long way to go - and part of it comes from the way we approach feminism even among each other as women.
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Gail here on behalf of your Board of Directors of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America, Bautistas por la Paz, bringing you Advent greetings, a brief year end reflection and an announcement. I don’t know about you but this whole year has felt like the season of Advent. A waiting in the dark for light to be birthed once again. So from this year-long preparation, what do we want to remember from it?
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It was 2006, and that journey took me to “El Jardin” (the Garden) a Tsotsil community in the mountains of Chiapas to share Christmas with Pastor Antonio as a missionary working with International Ministries. Alongside our brothers and sisters, we sang to Jesus. Wrapped up by the unhurried and rhythmic Mayan accent we talked and shared tamales and black coffee. Under the zinc roof and dirt floor of Antonio’s wooden shack house with only a table, several chairs and a hammock for furniture; there were no shopping malls, no “ajoro,” (rush), no gifts, no lights, no Christmas tree. There was only the traditional woodstove to warm us and the light of the Milky Way shining in the sky. That Christmas night was a different one! One where I end up in a different place as a human being.
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The arrival of COVID-19 in La Guajira was a matter of time. It did so on March 25, the date on which the National Institute of Health made the first report of a positive case. In addition to the alarm generated by the spread of the disease in the Colombian territory, there was the fear of its arrival in one of the least prepared areas to face it and where one of the most vulnerable populations in the country lives: the Wayuú.
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The spread of COVID-19 has exposed and exacerbated an already critical reality for many Indigenous peoples: a situation of deep inequalities and discrimination, a condition of systemic vulnerability aggravated not only by the presence of the virus, but also by conflicts and associated violence to scarcity and extreme need for resources, especially drinking water and food.
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In Comitán you do not have to ask for fresh products to be delivered to your home. From time immemorial, "the basket makers" have come to your house offering you products (fruits, vegetables, flowers, seeds, legumes, sweet herbs), which they themselves cut or collect, hours before, in their orchards and cornfields. In times of the pandemic, the basket makers have had some difficulties because the departure times of public transport are further spaced and the number of passengers has been restricted in order to guarantee, as far as possible, a healthy distance. Some communities initially took very strict measures regarding people going in and out, but being unable to make it economically, they have to be lax about mobility bans.
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Amid constant bad news and terrifying figures from the Covid-19 pandemic, reasonably hopeful experiences emerge, where community organizing and food autonomy, amid deprivation and distance, keep away the spread of the virus. This is the case of the Nahua, Otomi and Tenek communities in the northern mountain range (Sierra) of Veracruz and the Huasteca, in an area where the states of Hidalgo and Puebla also meet.
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After losing its properties in 2014 and, therefore, its main source of financing, the Seminario Bautista de México (SBM) in Mexico City focused on redesigning its training program. Its leaders listened to the needs of the Indigenous churches and gathered information from the marginal zones around Mexico City where it has served several decades. At the same time they had to balance these needs in accordance with the school’s financial reality. As a result, they created a comprehensive training program that will bring quality education to sectors of the population who have been socially and economically marginalized by the dominant society and culture. These people have also been marginalized in educational, biblical, theological and pastoral formation by the churches and seminaries that are part of that same dominant culture.
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Embracing a world where peace, equity and justice prevail is to provide a stronghold amidst the tremors and earthquakes that bring death, despair and injustice in our communities. How we face these tremors will define our witness and our legacy for those following in our footprints.
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There are no words in the English language adequate to confess the impacts of white settler colonialism on the Indigenous People of this nation and this world. The first step in the twelve steps of Alcoholics Anonymous is to admit that we have a problem.
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Columbus Day has a controversial history in the US, despite being one of the newer federal holidays. In 1992, Berkley, CA, became the first city in the United States to reject Columbus Day in favor of Indigenous Peoples Day. Twenty-five years later, as of Oct. 9, Time reports a list of 55 cities which have done the same—as well as three universities, three states, two cities which celebrate both, and South Dakota, which replaced Columbus Day with Native American Day in 1990. More communities are considering the same, including Washington, DC itself. As of October 2017, Oberlin, OH, is on the list, and Cindi and Jeriel Byron-Dixon can tell you why.
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Originally from South Dakota, Jodi Spargur lives in Vancouver, BC (a city on the unceded territory of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations). Jodi has an MDiv degree from Regent College in Vancouver and currently runs Healing at the Wounding Place, a movement seeking to catalyze justice and healing between church and Indigenous peoples.
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Lázaro González, Suriana (Sury) González & Noé Trujillo are employed with the Baptist Seminary of Mexico in Mexico City. Lázaro is a retired professor who still works part time. Sury is in charge of the administration for the seminary and also runs the Open Education program that supports adults needing to finish their secondary education. Noé is a current professor with the Seminary, and he is also in charge of its academic programs.
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The Mayan Intercultural Seminary (SIM) is a non-denominational theological school located in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico. The Seminary contributes to the construction of peace from an intercultural perspective and promotes the values of equity, justice, inclusiveness, dialogue, human integrity, reciprocity, and a sense of vocation. SIM focuses on creating solidarity networks through initiatives in particular for women and youth, to build a more inclusive world.
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