Environmental Justice and Our Cities

Our guest blogger today is Thomas Wong, a resident of Monterey Park and also on the city's Environmental Commission. He shares how "being green" is not just "saving the planet," but also very much a justice issue for our low-income neighbors.

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE

Recycle. Turn off the faucet. Turn off the lights when you leave the room. Change out your old light bulbs for CFLs. Carpool. We are reminded of many simple steps we can take to ‘green’ our lives, and even save some money, every single day. However, caring for the environment is about more than just wasting less and saving money. Often, many don’t realize that environmental issues are also social justice issues.

This past July, a number of high-level federal environmental officials came to the San Gabriel Valley to hear residents and community leaders share some of their concerns. Among the many thoughts conveyed, one of the most poignant was expressed by EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson. In her remarks, she reminded the audience that environmental protection is really, simply, community protection. When we work to make sure our air is clean, our water is safe, and open space is available, we’re working to make sure that the physical environment does not threaten or diminish the quality of life of our communities. Caring for the environment is really about preserving and enhancing the health and welfare of our families, friends and neighbors.

Sadly, the poor and disadvantaged often suffer disproportionately from environmental hazards and degradation. When an area is polluted, it is the poor who lack the ability to relocate and are left with few resources to mitigate the effects. When decisions about land use and development are made, the needs of the poor are overlooked because they lack the ability to organize and communicate effectively. The poor—commonly ethnic minorities—are set at a disadvantage because they are often unaware of environmental risks due to cultural and language barriers, among other reasons, and are often marginalized because of their lack of economic and political influence.

Looking around at the San Gabriel Valley, landfills and industrial areas that are associated with increased pollution levels and health risks are often located in lower class neighborhoods that lack the resources to fight them. A few years ago, USC came out with a study that linked serious long-term health effects with living next to freeways, especially among children. Because of the general complaints about freeways, those who can afford to stay away or move away from them usually do, leaving the poor to bear the brunt of the harm.

When going down streets in neighborhoods of varying socio-economic backgrounds, streetscapes and sidewalk quality are tell-tale signs of the disparities that exist between the haves and have-nots. Compare posh stretches of Colorado Blvd in Pasadena to some of the harsher stretches of Garvey Ave. in El Monte. In largely ethnic communities like those in the San Gabriel Valley, especially with large working-class foreign-born populations, outreach and education on environmental risks and solutions is challenging but essential.

As we seek God’s Kingdom here on earth, we cannot ignore the role we have to play as Christians to call out and work to root out environmental injustice when we see it. Let us go beyond simply greening our habits. As we walk around our neighborhoods, let us pay closer attention to our physical environment and its serious effects on our community. And let us engage with our leaders to call out injustice that exists and advocate for equitable solutions to the environmental threats that our community faces.

ABCD Training Reflection

Sung Kim, our summer intern, wrote this reflection on the training in ABCD (Asset-Based Communty Development) done on 7/20-21 at Chinese Evangelical Free Church in Monterey Park.

It can be widely agreed upon that each individual or community has needs. Each community lacks something. Whether it’s a local park for children to play in, better roads, or safety, it is not difficult for us to identify what is not right about a community.I was privileged to be introduced to Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) a couple of weeks ago in a training led by Terri Larson and Susan Sngiem. It was a great time of learning, fellowship, and listening to stories of the journeys God had brought each individual that was there. The message was simple, yet a complete shift of thinking. Instead of starting from a needs perspective, the goal was to start from what the community already had or was good at. This shift thus allows each person in the community to directly participate in their community in a way that promotes empowerment and a sense of ownership. As I carefully tilted my ears towards Terri and Susan as they spoke, there was only one thing I could think of. “But what about the needs!”

This phrase stuck with me the next couple of hours after the training. I knew there was nothing really wrong about focusing on the needs, but something led me to believe it wasn’t the best way. How do we really know what we need anyway? Perhaps an analogy to prayer can help us unpack this further. When I usually pray about a petition or request to God, I start with my needs. I ask God for things to help me with ministry, school, and finding parking (which God has answered many times by the way!). The ABCD training really challenged my way of thinking. Perhaps ABCD is so compelling because it teaches us to acknowledge what God has already blessed us or the community with. It tells us that God has already given so much and that there is “hidden treasure” waiting to be discovered by those who are willing to search. Having such a perspective may also allow us to realize that our preconceived needs were never really needs in the first place.

The potential for ABCD is tremendous. It provides an avenue for grant money to be used more effectively and directs us to see the good in our communities, to see God in our communities. I was truly blessed by the ABCD trainings. It has changed the way I think about what it means to be lacking and to search for God’s Kingdom wherever I go. If you ever feel like you can’t see the Kingdom of God in your community, you may only have to search next door to find it. Blessings.

On a Mission from God?

Last week I had a telling interaction with one of my co-teachers at Upward Bound Study Center in Monterey Park, where we teach recent immigrant Chinese students ESL and other subjects.

We were talking about something and she said something along the idea that she'll "be on mission" next week. Meaning she was going overseas. I thought about it for a second and said, "Aren't you already on mission?"
She said, "Well, you can take it up with God." I responded, "I don't have a comeback for that."

Notwithstanding my inability to give an adequate comeback, there's something about our in-house Christian language that has "mission" still placed in foreign, extraordinary, special terms. In some ways, it seems to be a positive elevation of this aspect of what it means to be the Church. But in many ways, it creates the kind of hierarchy that makes it only for those spiritually mature and sacrificial enough to be part of this elite circle--and everyone else either a spectator or financial supporter.

Mission flows from the heart of the Triune God. If that is a fundamental part of God's nature, then mission is not something we simply "do" as one thing amongst many in The Church. It is central to her being.

You all are "on a mission from God"!

My Neighborhood Is My Youth Group

I started teaching ESL and being the "youth worker" at Upward Bound Study Center in Monterey Park this week (a program reaching out to low immigrant Chinese high school youth), had a discussion with a local church about their desire to restart their youth group with an emphasis on reaching community kids, and had my recently graduated mentee from our Believe mentoring program randomly stop by Friday night with his friends to chill out while they were running (to exercise).

All my previous times with youth was in a church culture with church kids (I was reminded of this Saturday when I saw my old church's youth go off to their annual camp retreat). But now I'm in a completely different situation where most of these kids aren't believers. And I'm loving this opportunity because I feel like this is the missional edge we are called to as the Church.

I've often said that youth pastors in our cities should view these neighborhood kids as their youth group, instead of just those who go to their church programs. It's a practical way of working out that old idea that the neighborhood your church is in is your parish. A parish mentality begins with the belief that all those located around your church meeting place is of concern, whether or not they attend your church, whether or not they are believers. But typically, a youth worker is hired to take care of the kids who come to church first and then maybe try and attract more kids to go to their group (like the picture implies).

This attractional model of youth ministry ("build something great and they will come") won't die out anytime soon. And I know firsthand that most churches won't sign on to a completely "missional" model if it doesn't benefit the church kids and the youth group program. I also know that many church kids are nominal at best, and that we can't assume they are all followers of Jesus. We all know the tensions and perils of youth ministry.

But if Jesus came to "seek and save the lost," couldn't we write in the job description of each youth pastor or worker something that reflects that same heart Jesus had for the lost? Volunteer at the Boys and Girls club? Mentor an at-risk student? Teach ESL to the low-income immigrant students at Mark Keppel? Let's not leave outreach and mission to some summer trip or camp or think that it's up to the kids in the youth group. Leadership has to.....well, lead the way!

Branding Hope

This past week we had a discussion about what Kingdom Causes' "brand" is and filling out all those attributes that make up what we're about. A brand is different from our mission, because it's the specific ways we accomplish the mission. It's the adjectives you would use to describe what we are and do.

One of the brand attributes our facilitator reflected back to us was that we were "hopeful:" for and not against, forward thinking, optimistic. I totally agree. And interestingly enough, I started reading N.T. Wright's Surprised By Hope last week too.

Wright's thesis is that if we reorient ourselves again to the radical implications of Jesus' bodily resurrection, we have both an ultimate hope AND hope for the present world. Too often, Christians don't see the connection between an ultimate hope (summarized as "eternal life") and how if at all there's a connection to what we do on earth--why bother with trying to make things better if the only thing that's important is to save my individual soul? For those more concerned about working for a better world today, resurrection discussion can seem like a theological diversion that has nothing to do with the hard work to be done in the here and now.

Wright talks about "collaborative eschatology" as one way early Christians combined both pieces:

Because the early Christians believed that resurrection had begun with Jesus and would be completed in the great final resurrection on the last day, they believed that God had called them to work with him, in the power of the Spirit, to implement the achievement of Jesus and thereby to anticipate the final resurrection, in personal and political life, in mission and holiness.


To me, Wright's book is reminding me of this: We can not brand hope in a generic way at Kingdom Causes. Christ-centered hope is radical, revolutionary, relational, and surprising!

Credit or Change?

I had someone tell me last week that there was an interaction where she realized I wasn't given credit for something I'm doing. As a catalyst, part of our job is not necessarily to be up front and be the one in the limelight, but I'm sure we're all human and can feel a little bit indignant when credit isn't given when credit is due. WE certainly wouldn't want those we work with to not get credit.

But I remembered later a line quoted earlier this year at a conference that I wrote down to remember: "Credit doesn't matter. Change is." We can all nod our heads in the non-profit world to that maxim. But if someone else gets the credit? That's the real test on whether we really believe that the bigger picture of change and transformation is worth more than personal credit, personal or organizational.

Paul talks about that too, that some preach Christ out of selfish ambition but Paul, he was a big picture even when that meant personal attack: "The important thing is that in every way, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice" (Philippians 1:18). Praying that I will not forget to be a "big picture" guy.

Block Parties Galore

One of the best ideas to come out from our strategic planning meeting last month was the neighborhood block party. We planned on having four for the year, and we already had two last weekend and one planned for July 4th weekend. And now our local churches want to do the same, and some asking KCAMP to help them reach their neighbors.

I had a conversation with one of the host neighbors last week about how counter cultural it is to much of our LA culture to have neighbors hanging out with each other, knowing, trusting, and helping one another. I know it's a larger symptom of the shadow side of our independent American spirit, where loneliness and isolation is the norm. But the irony is deeper in a dense city like our own.

And as I experienced our own block party, I got a vision of a pretty good end result for these block parties: my block which is usually empty of residents being outside had people walking back and forth in their front yards, laughing with one another, talking out on the street, and making plans together for future interactions.

The Kingdom is like, as Tony Campolo famously said, "a party." An apt metaphor. I think our parties are a foretaste of that Kingdom life.