The Unheard Voices of Youth: Challenges to the Church Today

Our Year, Our Voice & Our Choice

On the 12^th August 2010, the United Nations launched International Year of Youth, calling the attention of the worldwide youth to raise their voices in all freedom and courage, and also calling the attention of global citizens to rise to the occasion of listening to the voices of the youth, whose voices have been either unheard, or neglected thus far. Approximately about 1.7 billion in the world are young people, and the world has more young people now than ever before. This directs to a phenomenal change in the demography of the world, and necessitates for the upsurge of the voices of youth be it in governance, community building or any other facet of life. The theme for this year proposed by UN is “Dialogue and Mutual Understanding” and the slogan for this year is “Our Year Our Voice”. Thanks to the efforts of NCCI-Commission on Youth for highlighting this year and for joining with other youth movements in raising our voices for a just world.

The youth speak the facts as truth without any adulterations to their voice, for they believe in the strength of truth. They are bold in calling, ‘a spade a spade’; for they don’t mince their words nor doctor their speeches according to their conveniences. Unfortunately, these voices are regarded as cacophonous, worthless and sometimes called immature, and are not heed to.

The Context
The recent suicides of young Dalit men and women due to the unbearable torture of discrimination on the basis of caste continue to be a reality of our times. Institutions of higher learning are not an exception, for such incidences have been happening unabatedly. Mr. Senthil Kumar, a research scholar in Physics at Hyderabad Central University committed suicide and Mr. Bal Mukundh, a final year student of MBBS in All India Institute of Medical Sciences committed suicide, due to caste discriminations highlight the plights of young people today. These young peoples’ voices were unheard, their cries for justice were unheard and their tryst for destiny had to come to an end abruptly. These young men’s road to death started with the day they joined their institutions, for the institutions of higher learning have become fertile crescents for caste perpetrations. The voices of the dominant continue to amplitude their power by suppressing the cries of the oppressed communities. They bring in the argument, as those that have ‘merit’ will be rewarded, and lets do away with the reservation systems. And students, who enter these educational institutions through reservations and quotas, undergo a hell lot of discrimination and humiliations. Where is the space for the voices of our young Dalits to speak out and articulate? Where is the space for dialogue and mutual understanding in situations like that of this? Is the society open enough to listen to the cries of the Dalit communities? Questions concerning this go on and on, but the fact of the matter is, in this year of our youth, are the voices of Dalit youth heard or muted?

Time has now come to listen to the voices of the youth from across our Churches and societies, and more certainly the voices of our Dalit young people, whose voices have been marginalized, for being Dalit and for being young. Jesus Christ as a young man, voiced out against the injustices done in his days, and has given space for those voices that were marginalized in the society to be heard. As a Church, we need to confess that not enough space was given to the voices of young people, for always their voice was sidelined under the guise that these voices are from inexperienced and so on.

Jesus' Silence
In Matthew 15: 21-28, we see a Canaanite woman, who cried to Jesus for healing her daughter who was demon possessed. Here is a voice of a woman, a Canaanite, and more over who had a daughter who was demon possessed. I assume that this woman would have been a young woman, who took all the courage to voice out the need of her daughter. At that very instant verse 23 says, ‘Jesus did not answer her a word’. Did Jesus become deaf at that point to listen to the voice of that woman? Was Jesus closed in making a conversation with a woman, who was from a different community? Was Jesus worried that his Jewish male identity would be maligned if he spoke to a woman in need? Was there not a space at Jesus for the voices that are in deep distress and pain? Jesus’ silence and his reluctance to answer to her voice probably would have pained that woman at that moment. Now enters the disciples, to add fuel to the fire and not just asked or requested Jesus, but were begging Jesus ‘to send her away, for she is crying after us.’(23b)

Disciples Grievance
The cry of that distressed woman was jarring to the ears of the disciples, was a disturbance to their following Jesus and the disciples were even prejudiced, thinking that the woman was crying after them. This act of the disciples is yet again to suppress the voice of that depressed woman. At the behest of the disciples, Jesus gives a political answer with some shades of theology and philosophy, telling that his jurisdiction is within the house of Israel and was destined for the lost sheep within that fold. By this answer, probably Jesus thought that this woman would leave that vicinity, for his intellectual propositions cannot be challenged. The woman did not give up, until her voice was heard, and in all desperation, probably in a louder tone, she knelt and asked Jesus to help her. Jesus now took the occasion to interpret his theological answer from a day-to-day affair and said how just it is to take the bread from the child and throw it to the dogs? Jesus probably again would have thought, with this kind of analogy, this woman would shut up and leave. 

Woman's Resilience
All the more the woman was more challenged and replied in all boldness to the analogy with yet another analogy, that ‘even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the masters table.’ That day she made it a point to make her voice be heard at any cost with any kind of theology. Her strong voice for healing, her cry for justice and her tongues for liberation challenged a person like Jesus and brought in a change in him. No doubt the disciple would have been dumb at the response of Jesus when he said, ‘ O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.’ The woman’s voice was finally heard.

As Church we have most times been reluctant to listen to the voices of youth and voices for healing, and all the more like Jesus and the disciples, our adults and elders in the Churches have every reason to let down the voices of youth. This woman, challenged Jesus, challenged the disciples and I believe even the Church today for we need a change from within, where we can move from speaking and being a noisy church to a church where we allow the voices of youth and those in distress speak out, where we can move from preaching mode to listening mode, and where our Churches become the platforms for the varied and diverse voices of youth to be heard and attended to. The silence of Jesus, the grievance of disciples was challenged by the resilience of this woman, who spoke in all courage to voice out for her daughter’s need. The voices of youth are always kept in a mute mode, and let us give them a voice. Wake up Church to voice out the voices of young people in this year. Wishing you all an eventful International Year of Youth. Our Year, Our Voice and lets make it our choice.

Churches’as Hills of Help: A Quest for Ortho-praxis

Reflection on “I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?”

Psalm 121: 1

 

Introduction

The recent James Cameroon’s blockbuster movie Avatar takes along the viewers to the hanging mountains and dreamscape of flora and fauna of planet Pandora.  Famous theologian Kwok Pui-lan in her review of the film titled  “Avatar: A Subversive Reading of the Bible?” she writes “in Avatar, planet Pandora is not only a land of milk and honey, but also has a large reserve of a precious metal unobtanium. The avatar of Jake is sent as a messenger to ask the natives to relocate so that the humans can mine the unobtanium. Jake learns the native ways, falls in love with one of them, and becomes so identified with the natives such that he helps them to fight against the colonizers. The movie invites us to look at the world from the point of the indigenous people—to see the beauty of their interconnected way of life and learn about their culture.”

Britain’s Vedanta Resources, the multinational bauxite mining company, has pitched its tent in Orissa, one of the eastern states of India. In August last year, the Supreme Court of India allowed Vedanta Resources to mine bauxite in the Niyamgiri Hills of Orissa. The mined bauxite would feed the company’s proposed $800-million alumina refinery in Kalahandi district and an aluminium smelter project, costing Rs.70 billion, in Jharsuguda districts of Orissa. This project is going to damage the livelihood, their daily bread and environment of more than 8000 Dongria Khond adivasi people. The Na’vi in the film Avatar and the Dongria Khond adivasis in India share several common issues for justice and peace.

The above two situations sets our given text in our context to ponder and delve upon. Psalms 120-134, which are popularly called as ‘songs of ascent’, where used as hymns that were sung by pilgrims as they gathered to Jerusalem during the appointed feasts for the whole of their nations. As the pilgrims journeyed to the elevated Jerusalem, their eyes were continuously upon the hills, for the hills were their solace and destiny to which they were journeying. The pilgrims anticipated for help, calling on the accompaniment of the divine, which the psalmist records in the first verse of the Psalm, and the assurance from the divine was recorded in the succeeding verses.

Taking cognizance of the realities of our adivasi people, our indigenous brothers and sisters and their struggles for daily bread, their ongoing campaigns to affirm self-dignity and their fight for justice, allow me to reflect the given verse from the perspective of the marginalized communities. The Dongria Khond peoples daily prayer is ‘we look up to the hills, from where will our help come?’ In a context, where the hills are broken down for profit, and where the forests are cut down for selfishness, from where will our help come from? 

1. Hills Represent Strength

For the indigenous people in Niyamgiri, Orissa and for several others like them else where in the world, hills are the symbolic representations of their life systems. For generations they have lived on the hills and their livelihood, their sentiments, their religion, their culture, their beliefs, their civilisation and their value systems all are interwoven with the hills. Their strength is their relationship with the hills; their stronghold is in their association with the hills, the fauna and the flora there on.  Life for the Dongria Khond people is their hills in Niyamgiri, and they cannot expect life with out their hills. ‘We look up to the hills, from where will our help come?’ continues to be the echo that’s heard from that hill, and help shall certainly come from the God of the hills. ‘A mighty fortress is our God…’ is the hope against hope with which these our people live and God of justice who cares for the displaced and the indigenous people shall come in rescue of them. Hills do not represent power, rather they are part of God’s creation and their strength lies in being a help to the others, be it in causing rains, be it in protecting the forests and be it in giving a livelihood to the people and nature.

2. Hills Replenishes Succor

The people will be forced to leave and will be displaced from their original inhabitations, they continuously look towards the hills, for they know out of the hills they see the sunshine and out of the hills their help will come from. The modern technology may blast the hill into pieces to dig out the mine, but the will of those on that hill is so strong, that no force on earth can disunite nor shatter them, for they affirm that their hills are their strength. Hills serve as healers for these our people; they give succor and comfort to the wounded and tired. The natural eco systems give them fresh air of healing, for there is interdependence of humans and creation, in its perfect balance. The LXX has the Greek work boetheia for ‘help’ in Ps 121: 1 and is used in Acts 27:17 as ‘supporting cables’, therefore the supporting help to hold together in all harmony comes from the hills, which is the belief and comfort to the people there. God of comfort, who succors God’s people through the presence of Holy Spirit, is the driving force for the people who are fighting against the mining industry.

3. Hills Reassures Solidarity

When the rights of the indigenous people are violated and violence against them is rampant, the hills unite people to stand for justice at any cost. The indigenous peoples’ lives are at risk, and they are in need of support and voice from across the globe for justice. Hills, which sees that the nature is in solidarity with the people there, and the people in solidarity with the nature for they both live in mutual harmony, establishes a strong bond of kith and kin among them. Therefore when one is in trouble the other comes in solidarity with the other. Thanks to all the social activists fighting for justice and thanks to the Church of England, who have withdrawn their investment support in this particular firm, for they are violating the human rights of the indigenous people in Orissa. God of justice, who has created the heavens and the earth, builds communities of peace and solidarity for the good of the creation. God holds together the creation and human who work hand in hand with each other. Solidarity comes from God, for God is the local inhabitant with the people on the hills, and we need to accompany the victims of injustice towards liberation and justice.

Conclusion

At a time, when huge structures of Churches are being built across the country competing with each other to build expensive structures, at a time when the orthodoxy of the Churches limits us to perform certain rituals within the four walls of the so called sanctuaries, at a time when Churches criticize among themselves on the basis of doctrines and dogmas, at a time, when we as Churches are struck with our orthodoxy, it is certainly a challenge to turn towards an ortho-praxis understanding of the Church. How practical are we as Churches? Does our existence as Churches have any meaning and relevance to the society in which we live? 

The Churches today needs to be like that of the hills, where the human beings, the flora and fauna and the entire creation live in mutual harmony with each other. The Church needs to give strength to those indigenous people for they look up to the hills of the Churches, which objectively needs to be the homes of justice. The Church is the place where succor and comfort is granted to those victims of human rights violations, and it is time that we as Church needs to rise up to the occasion of replenishing succor and tranquility to the communities around. When people look to the hills of the Churches, are we able to come in help to them? The Church is the place that reassures solidarity, for we need to journey with the marginalized and the oppressed towards their destined liberation. No matter what the identity of the people is, no matter what religious affirmations the people practice, if the struggle is for justice, Church needs to be in solidarity with them, even at the expense of their lives. People look up to the hills of the Churches for solidarity, from where will the help come?

These days, when the Lutheran World Federation in its General Assembly in July 2010 is discussing upon the theme, ‘give us today our daily bread’; if our Churches can be Bethlehems, the houses of breads, we can make our Churches more relevant for our times. As we join in the breaking of the bread, let us forget our orthodoxical Church traditions and affirmations and cling towards ortho-praxis, where we will be willing to be broken for the cause of our communities around, for only by being broken we can quench the hunger of many around. It is not the hill top Churches, that we are in need of, but the Churches, which serve, as hills of strength, succor and solidarity are the need of the hour. The will of the Churches should be the hills of help. Let us as Church wake up to see the grim realities around and lets commit ourselves to be in solidarity with the people of Dongria Khond in saving the hills of Niyamgiri in Orissa, and be a channel of liberation and justice. We may be distanced by space and time from Niyamgiri, but our sensitivity towards the indigenous people and their struggles needs to be taken into the cognizance of our Churches lives, for we need to garner support in favour of the people by expressing our total support to this cause of life and justice.

May God grant us God’s strength, succor and solidarity as we pledge to make our Churches the hills of help for people around who are fighting for their daily bread. Amen.