Digital Portfolio 2: The Mustard weed

According to Pliny the Elder, a naturalist during the time of Jesus, the mustard plant was a weed that grew wild, and once it grows it is scarcely possible to get rid of it. Jesus compared the Kingdom of God to a mustard seed. Jesus' audience the peasant farmers hated mustard plants; they ruined their crops and only source of income. Jesus was saying that the Kingdom of God would destroy the farming way of life. It would be dangerous to their way of life, something to be combated. The Kingdom of God was going to takeover the peasants' lives in revolt to the social structure of the time, which was peasant farmers working for a small upper class who took the majority of the wealth.

Executive Summary on Africa

It may seem like we are giving a lot of aide towards Africa, but we are really not doing much at all. Quantitatively, many countries, including the United States, do not meet the quota of .7% set up for the international community. Then, 61% of the international aide given is phantom aide, or aide that does not target the poorest countries due to poor planning and goes to excess administration costs. Our world needs to make reform in our aide policies to ensure that every country is giving what it is required and that the money goes to those who need it most.
Currently the 7 largest economies only give 0.07% of their national income in real aide, the largest offenders being France and the US whose aide is 90% phantom aide. If we want to achieve our goal of relieving world poverty, we must ensure that our net resources flow north (wealthy countries) to south (poor countries). Aide is flowing north to south at $69 billion dollars a year. However, the trade system discriminates against poor countries because the financial flow, trade flow, and ecological debt flow south to north at hundreds of billions of dollars per year. Basically, we are "robbing Peter to pay Peter." This highlights the need for aide reform from the wealthy countries.
The reason for all of this phantom aide is that we are practicing one way accountability. There is a lack of downward accountability, or holding the recipients of the aide responsible to comply. Corrupt officials use the money for salaries or send it to profitable places like the oil-rich Middle East. In order to create a system of mutual accountability, the rich countries need to clear policies in developing countries for accepting aide, make mutual commitments, create national and international forums to review progress, and create new mechanisms to increase volume and predictability of aide. These safeguards would ensure that the countries who are not meeting the quota begin to meet it and that the countries accepting aide use it for the correct things.
As a class, we can help to bring about thee reforms in aide distribution by supporting candidates and organizations that follow mutual accountability. For example, Christian Children's fund is educating children in the APAC district of Uganda how to monitor public funds coming into their school, and they have actually been able to stop corrupt teachers. By supporting organizations such as these that are in it for no monetary gain and who are changing things at the root of the problem, it is very possible for us to eliminate poverty.

Digital Portfolio 2: What Should We Do?

I believe that what we could do as a scriptures class that would be most helpful toward eliminating poverty in Africa is to spread the word and fund raise. We already have 400+ people that we could easily educate about poverty around the world. All it would take is a presentation at one of our school masses. As suggested by "The End of Poverty" article, at one of our masses we could give a multi-media presentation on poverty and the simple things we could do to help. For the sermon, we could use the Good Samaritan Parable and an explanation on it as learned in class. I know that when I go to church I pay more attention when someone other than the priest is giving a sermon because it is always refreshingly different. Then we could follow up the next week with a World Poverty Week, like what we do in October for breast cancer. I've noticed that breast cancer fundraising gets a lot of attention because it hits so close to home here in America, supposedly everyone at some point in their life will either be affected or know someone who is affected. By spreading the word about poverty and Jesus' teaching about helping those who are difficult to identify with, we can help many people.
I like Singer's advice on utilitarianism. By educating our school, the word will naturally spread and our fundraisers will be more successful. It will help more people than simply fundraising or appealing to politicians. Although, being juniors and seniors we will mostly be of voting age in the 2008 elections. It would also be a good idea not to forget what we have learned and keep it in mind when we are voting.

Portfolio 2: Singer on Poverty

1.Is it our duty to help others?
2. What are we after for our world?
3. Should we "give until it hurts?"
4. How much cost should I bear upon myself and my loved ones to help other people?
5. Why should those people be seen as equal to me?
6. Who should get help first?
7. Why should our governments be concerned?
8. Shouldn't we focus on eliminating the damage we've already done in our world economically so the world is free to flourish?
9. Do we want a completely egalitarian society?
10. Should we take a utilitarian view on this issue?

Portfolio 2: Good Samaritan Interpretation

In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus talks about what it means to be human. Being human is when someone sympathizes with another person in need, and chooses to help that person. The priest and the Levite were the elite in the society of the time, and they chose not to act. Jesus' story criticized how they had lost their humanity because they had not experienced suffering in their lives. Jesus wants us to come back to our humanity. We cannot be afraid to suffer, because through our own suffering we are more able to help those suffering around us.

John the Baptist assesment

Other people have many prophecies about John. When his father, Zecheriah, hears that his wife Elizabeth will conceive a son, the angel Gabriel proclaims that the son, "will turn many of the sons of Israel back to the Lord their God." This foreshadows that Jesus will be teaching a whole new radical message. John's job is to bring people back to the basics of God and to bring back people's faith in God so they will be open to a whole new message. When John becomes a baptist, this is exactly what he does. He tells the people to "produce good fruits as a sign of repentance... and every tree who does not produce good fruit will be thrown into the fire." He wants the people to begin doing God's word by helping others and to seek God's forgiveness for their past sins. This way they can all begin on a new slate for Jesus' radical message.
Based on this part of the Bible, Jesus' teaching will be based on coming back to the basics of God's message. Jesus will teach his message to all those who have open hearts to God. If people have faith in God, then they will listen to God's message although it will be a radical and authority-defying one. John states that Jesus will come and baptize the people, "with the holy spirit and fire." Fire is a strong and rebellious image, showing that Jesus message will be very strong and controversial. John the Baptist baptizes with water, suggesting that he is cleansing the people for these new ideas.

Portfolio 1: Jesus as a refugee

Being a refugee is a life-changing experience. It is certain from our knowledge of refugees today that Jesus would have been a different person had he not had to make that journey.
First, Jesus had to endure the flight to Egypt. It would have been hundreds of miles probably on foot with hardly any resources. He would also be being chased by the king's men. Jesus would have lived for awhile without food, possessions, or even a home by no fault of his own. This would allow him to understand more fully the poor and oppressed in his community. Jesus may have also grown up with more radical ideas about his government in Israel. As we have seen today in places like Iraq and Palestine, many refugees have an extreme hate for the governments responsible for their displacement. Perhaps Jesus and his family gained hate for the government in Israel who made them flee and terrorized those families who were still there with infants, which would explain Jesus' radical methods of defying authority figures in order to get his message across.
Jesus also had to live in Egypt for a few years. Like the boy from Sudan in the video clip we saw, Jesus would have had to adapt to the region. Egypt was not a Jewish country. By living with the Egytians, Jesus would have a greater understanding of the Gentiles and be more open to including them in his message about God. Again, in Egypt he would probably be living amongst the poor and accepting charity in order to survive. Jesus would have a first-hand experience on the importance of giving to others and how meaningful it really is.

Portfolio: Who's Your Momma?

I have always viewed Mary as a very good and understanding person. She is a forgiving and graceful woman according to the "Hail Mary." "Blessed are thou among women" suggests that she is a role model for women and that she never did anything wrong. I have always gotten the impression that Mary was a very quiet person, as shown by the statue in the quad. The statue makes Mary appear serene and her open arms show that she is welcoming.

These stories show that Mary is a woman of great faith. Her proclamation of God's goodness shows how much faith she has in that her pregnancy is God's will and that her child will help all mankind. Mary belongs to a lower class family, because lines 48-49 of her magnificat says that she is of "humble state," but that God has given her a blessing. The story from Matthew show that women were not held in high esteem during Jesus' time. Should a woman have an affair during that time, it was grounds for divorce. With this full knowledge, Mary still allowed the pregnancy since she had so much faith in God.

God chose a woman with a lot of faith in him because she would be doing something highly controversial. Someone who loved God but who was also a quiet and meek person would not have the strength to stand up to the criticisms and controversy that was sure to follow her pregnancy. Mary was a strong woman who recognized that god was giving her a blessing, and she never backed out of her agreement even when Joseph was considering divorce. She kept her faith in God and in the end she was rewarded.