On the way to yesterday’s “Songs of Hope” benefit for Japan, I was engaged in conversation about Invisible Children’s “Kony 2012” viral video. Many have asked me to repost it on my Facebook and Twitter pages, but before I even had a chance to view the video, I read write-ups criticizing Invisible Children’s efforts.
While everyone seems to share outrage at warlord Joseph Kony’s atrocities, some people in Uganda and Africa are seeking more local solutions, while here we are learning that Invisible Children seems to have links to the anti-gay, creationist Christian Right.
It’s important to look under the hood.
There’s a similar lesson to be learned from yesterday’s “Songs of Hope” benefit, which marked the one-year anniversary since the earthquake and tsunami devastated Japan. While there’s been remarkable progress in clean-up and the start of some development, there are still 325,000 Japanese people living in temporary shelters. Jobs, businesses, and perhaps industries have been lost. Morale is low in many areas, with too many reports of depression and suicide. It’s estimated that complete redevelopment will take 23 years.
Benefits like “Songs of Hope” are important in helping us remember situations that have slid off the news, serving as reminders that we need to continue to give support. I have no problem with that. But as I sat in the University Congregational United Church of Christ for yesterday’s charity event, I started to feel uncomfortable as I realized all that I would be supporting.
“Songs of Hope” was raising money for the Japan Disaster Relief Center. That sounds straightforward enough. But when I learned that checks were to be made out to “Westminster Chapel,” I had to look under the hood.
At the event, attendees learned that the JapanDRC provides “relief, recovery, and renewal to communities affected by the March 11, 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear radiation in Tohoku, Japan.” But click on the JapanDRC website’s link to Andy and Lorna Gilbert (the partners working in the disaster areas) and you’ll see the underlying agenda in the January 6 entry:
The earthquake and tsunami of March 11th has brought a new opportunity to reach Japan. Some have likened the current openness with the atmosphere after WWII. Although there is once again an open door to reach Japan, the goal is not just the salvation of people and planting of individual churches, but the transformation of a community through a church planting movement.
Disaster relief as church planting?
I can’t help but believe that many of the Japanese in attendance would be appalled to know this. Especially since so many of them were angry at Americans who said that the earthquake and tsunami were revenge for Pearl Harbor, or were “acts of God” against a “godless” country.
Further frightening is to dig deep into the “Pray for Japan” motto. I’m not sure who picked it up post-disaster, but if you go to prayforjapan.org (which has been registered since well before the earthquake/tsunami), you’ll see that the site belongs to the Rutherford family. They are missionaries in Japan who work with Mission to Unreached Peoples—which has Seattle contact information.
Rutherford’s language is similar to Westminster Chapel’s, stating that “the spiritual needs in Japan are great” and that the “Japanese are the 2nd largest unreached people group in the world.” With emphasis on Nagano prefecture, their stated goal is “to pursue planting cell churches in the 43 unreached towns & villages.”
What I love about Japan, a country I enjoy visiting frequently, is that it’s not a Judeo-Christian culture. I fear that due to devastation, the Japanese are susceptible to “support” that comes with strings attached. I hope the Japanese—all of us—will look under the hood first. Pray for Japan if you wish, but remember that no religion has an exclusive claim on hope.
Great post! THANK YOU.