Sameness and Differences

Traveling lets you experience different cultures, climates, geographies, and philosophies.  We’ve appreciated different kinds of art, food, and customs across the countries we’ve visited.

But we are also reminded of our commonalities.  It’s not just that we all want the best for our kids, or that we want to treat others as we would want to be treated.  Alas, it is the case that in the most unequal societies – and the US is included in that group – the lowest earners and least powerful have it harder.

Bishop Margaret Vertue in the Diocese of False Bay (east of Cape Town, South Africa), described to us the problems of gender-based violence, bullying, teen-age pregnancies, and substance abuse. And yes, we have those in the US too.  But then she continued to talk about families who are told in the morning that their home (literally, a shack) will be bulldozed today and they need to get all their belongings out before the equipment comes.

So children subject to bullying live in townships where a home may not be there when they return from school.  They have electricity (when there isn’t load shedding), but no running water, communal water taps that leak (and water is precious in still-in-drought South Africa), and port-a-johns that line the townships’ edges. Oh, and 11 official languages!  How do you do your homework under these conditions? As parents, how do you raise your children? 

But Bishop Margaret said the church is THERE to help house the homeless when the bulldozers come, giving them “sheets” (corrugated steel for walls and roofs).  The church is THERE to help growers and workers mediate a harvesting solution .  The church is THERE to help people who have lost everything to fires (it’s fire season in the Western Cape).  The church is THERE to advocate for victims of violence and abuse.

We in the US do this too.  We help people find jobs, pay bills, feed their families (thank you #MetMin in Chattanooga!).  It’s often a matter of scale and scope, but we’re in the same business.  We are loving our neighbors as ourselves. We need to keep doing this at the local, regional, state, national, and international levels as well. We need to be THERE.

Authors: Jeanne and Randy spend some of their time in South Africa helping the Anglican and Methodist churches with their work on ECD centers, youth programs, and other priority projects for church staff.