Circuit Writer

CWS is helping to meet emergency needs in the aftermath of the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake.  Within 24 hours after the quake, CWS and its partners began providing basic supplies, prepositioned in the Dominican Republic.  It is working with partners to provide water, food, temporary shelter and health assistance.  Having worked in partnership in Haiti since 1954, CWS will also help to support communities in the long struggle to rebuild.

Click here to read the full article or click here to make a donation to Church World Service.

The following is the contents of an email update from Week of Compassion concerning disaster response in the wake of the earthquake in Haiti.  I wanted to post this and pass it along for anyone who does not subscribe to the Week of Compassion newsletter.

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Since Haiti was struck by a massive 7.0 Earthquake on January 12^th, North American Disciples congregations have responded out of faith, hope, and a radical sense of generosity.

Here’s a video update from Amy Gopp, the director of Week of Compassion. You can view the full update from Week of Compasion by clicking here or you can make your online donation here.

Now that the metaphorical dust is settling on the disaster that has befallen Haiti, it is the time to begin remembering what we are already forgetting.  Distracted by the commentary and wrangling surrounding the State of the Union Address, we’ve lost track of the tragedy of an estimated 150,000 dead (the U.N. confirming 111,481 based on bodies recovered as of January 24).  While there is no doubt that we should acknowledge the economic problems here in our country, it would be a failure of nerve and moral courage to shift our focus inward upon ourselves on account of an arbitrary requirement that the President “shall from time to time give to Congress information of the State of the Union.”  (Article II, Section 3, U.S. Constitution)

I’ve previously written concerning the real nature of Haiti’s “curse” and Christian responsibility in the wake of this disaster, but it’s time for us to move beyond talk and take action.  For everyone who has already become involved, sending recovery kits and making financial contributions, I thank you and commend your actions.  However, as Richard Kim points out, our charity simply isn’t good enough: continue reading…

This is my latest column for The Tahlequah Christian for the week of January 24-30.

We’ve all watched and listened in horror to the unbelievable destruction in Haiti. Granting that a 7.0 magnitude earthquake is a devastating force, we should all be asking the question as to why the estimated death toll has skyrocketed to over 100,000 dead with countless other injuries. The greatest tragedy in Haiti has not been the earthquake itself, but the absolute lack of basic government services to support the population and insure safe living conditions for the people. This is a byproduct of rampant political instability in the country, an irony considering that it is one of the oldest republics in the Americas, gaining its independence in 1804 (that’s just 21 years after our recognized independence in 1783), and we seem to believe that democracy is the answer to any country’s political woes. continue reading…

In the midst of the storm surrounding Pat Robertson and his comments about the “curse” upon Haiti, we might have missed the other imposition of the language of “curse” on that country.  In a statement on Thursday afternoon, French President Nicolas Sarkozy called for an international conference on the question of reconstruction aid for Haiti after associating the plight of country with a more ambiguous curse:

From this catastrophe, which follows so many others, we should make sure that it is a chance to get Haiti once and for all out of the curse it seems to have been stuck with for such a long time.

If not Pat Robertson’s absurd theological stretches, then what exactly is this “curse” that haunts Haiti? continue reading…