So, we’re at the end of the year. Seems everyone is putting together their Top 10 lists, and I’m just late to the game. So, I’m totally stealing an idea from Steve Knight here, and giving my list of top charities to give to on this last day of the year.
Remember, charity giving is a tax deduction, but you only get that deduction for 2009 if you give today…so you might as well cough up some cash right now before it’s too late.
So without further ado, I present to you thejakers’ Top 5 Stupendously Unbelievable Smorgasbord of Year-End Giving Opportunities:
Praxis Church (Really, Any Local Church Will Do)
Chances are that good things are happening at your local church. Believe it or not, year-end giving is a big part of the budgets at most churches. If you’re on the fence for that big year end gift – get off it, and give. Your church is doing good things in the community, and those good things take support from people just like you. If you want to give to Praxis, you can do so here. If you are part of a local church, give to that church. (I’d post a link, but that would get kind of long…)
Vision Abolition
Did you know that over 1 million children are sold into the global sex trade each year? Some of them as young as five years old? Slavery didn’t die with the Civil War; it just slipped off the radar. The global sex trade is alive and well, even here in Phoenix, where we are the #2 city in the nation for the epidemic. Vision Abolition is a non-profit, faith-based organization dedicated to the prevention, rescue, and restoration of victims of sex trafficking and sexual exploitation worldwide. I’m proud to say that in the month of December Praxis Church raised $46,000 to fund a counseling center that Vision Abolition is helping build in Fiji for victims of the sex trade industry, but they could always use more resources. You can give to them by clicking here.
One Day’s Wages
One Day’s Wages was started by Pastor Eugene Cho and is an international grassroots movement dedicated to ending extreme global poverty. According to their website, 25,000 children under the age of 5 die each day due to poverty-related causes, unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation cause 80% of all sickness and disease, and kill more people every year than all forms of violence, including war, and Nearly 900 million people do not have access to clean water. Eugene’s plea is simple. Help stop global poverty by giving one day’s worth of your wages to the cause. You can make a donation here.
Phoenix Rescue Mission
Each year, thousands of homeless people in the Phoenix metropolitan area depend on The Phoenix Rescue Mission for food, clothing, and shelter as well as safety, spiritual support, addiction recovery, and a new start in life. Their work is almost entirely funded by donations from people like you and me. There are a range of opportunities to contribute to on their website here.
TOMS Shoes
Per their website, “TOMS Shoes was founded on a simple premise: With every pair you purchase, TOMS will give a pair of new shoes to a child in need. One for One. Using the purchasing power of individuals to benefit the greater good is what we’re all about.” You probably already know about TOMS, especially if you’re a hipster. Why not buy some new shoes with that Christmas stash, and help provide some shoes for a kid in need too? Have at it here.
Always enjoy the Advent Conspiracy promos. Here’s 2009’s promo. This is a great cause for the holiday season. If you are intrigued, visit adventconspiracy.org, and learn how you can help.
I was shocked when I came across Brian McLaren’s post on the Ugandan anti-gay bill currently proposed in the Ugandan Parliament. According to The Atlantic, the proposed bill would:
▪Reaffirm the lifetime sentence currently provided upon conviction of homosexuality, and extends the definition from sexual activity to merely “touch[ing] another person with the intention of committing the act of homosexuality.”
▪Create a new category of “aggravated homosexuality” which provides for the death penalty for “repeat offenders” and for cases where the individual is HIV-positive.
▪Criminalizes all speech and peaceful assembly for those who advocate on behalf of LGBT citizens in Uganda with fines and imprisonment of between five and seven years.
▪Criminalizes the act of obtaining a same-sex marriage abroad with lifetime imprisonment.
▪Adds a clause which forces friends or family members to report LGBT persons to police within 24-hours of learning about that individual’s homosexuality or face fines or imprisonment of up to three years.
▪Adds an extra-territorial and extradition provisions, allowing Uganda to prosecute LGBT Ugandans living abroad
Reaffirm the lifetime sentence currently provided upon conviction of homosexuality, and extends the definition from sexual activity to merely “touch[ing] another person with the intention of committing the act of homosexuality.”
Create a new category of “aggravated homosexuality” which provides for the death penalty for “repeat offenders” and for cases where the individual is HIV-positive.
Criminalizes all speech and peaceful assembly for those who advocate on behalf of LGBT citizens in Uganda with fines and imprisonment of between five and seven years.
Criminalizes the act of obtaining a same-sex marriage abroad with lifetime imprisonment.
Adds a clause which forces friends or family members to report LGBT persons to police within 24-hours of learning about that individual’s homosexuality or face fines or imprisonment of up to three years.
Adds an extra-territorial and extradition provisions, allowing Uganda to prosecute LGBT Ugandans living abroad.
McLaren’s call for a “robust” discussion on this bill is valid and worthy, though in the end I’m not sure what it would accomplish practically. And his baffling calling out of “discernment” websites to stand with him and have a robust discussion on the bill is lost on me (especially since as I’ve pointed out before, he has no comments enabled on his blog). So, instead, I’m asking you to keep this bill in mind when you pray. Pray that not only would such a barbaric bill be defeated, but also that the the Gospel of Jesus would radically transform the lives of the LGBT population in Uganda.
In the end, regardless of our views on homosexuality (and Brian), this is definitely a cause we can all be rallied around as Christians.
UPDATE: Interestingly, I came across this quote from Ekklesia
Meanwhile an Anglican church leader in Uganda, while rejecting proposals that homosexuals should face the death penalty for sexual assault in some cases, says that prison terms should remain as a deterrent.
“We want to state categorically that homosexuality is unacceptable,” Bishop Stanley Ntagali of Masindi-Kitara diocese told Ecumenical News International in a recent interview.
He said he and his church views those involved in homosexuality as sinners who can repent and reform, adding: “We have to be a moral fibre of the society.”
While I sympathize with the bishop’s view on homosexuality (and any sin for that matter) and repentance, I find it unsettling and disturbing that Uganda’s religious leaders are practicing a form Christendom, an experiment that is a proven a failure as a strategy for transforming the world by the power of the Gospel, by inserting themselves into shaping public debates on legislative oppression of personal moral conduct. In the past Christendom has led to oppression, and now it continues to do so today.
I can’t help but wonder what one of my new favorite heros of the faith, Lesslie Newbigin would have to say about such a situation as this. I’m pretty sure this great quote out of his book, Foolishness to the Greeks: The Gospel and Western Culture, gives us a pretty good clue:
Corpus Christianum is no more, and we cannot go back to it. The religious wars of the seventeenth century marked the final destruction of Christendom’s synthesis of church and society. From the eighteenth century onward, Europe turned away from the Christian vision of man and his world, accepted a radically different vision for public life, and relegated the Christian vision to the status of a permitted option for the private sector. But for the modern church to accept this status is to do exactly what the Bible forbids us to do. It is, in effect, to deny the kingship of Christ over all of life–public and private. It is to deny that Christ is, simply and finally, the truth by which all other claims to truth are to be tested. It is to abandon its calling.
The Enlightenment’s vision of the heavenly city has failed. We are in a new situation, and we cannot turn back the clock. It is certain that we cannot go back to the corpus Christianum. It is also certain–and this needs to be said sharply in view of the prevalence among Christians of a kind of anarchistic romanticism–that we cannot go back to a pre-Constantinian innocence…perhaps we can learn how to embody in the life of the church a witness to the kingship of Christ over all life–its politics and economic no less than its personal and domestic morals–yet without falling into the Constantinian trap.
This month I’m participating in MOVEMBER, an awareness event from the LIVESTRONG Foundation that is bringing much needed attention to cancers that affect men. So here’s the deal. I’m sporting this kick butt stache for the month formally known as November.
The funds raised during this Moustache journey go to the Prostate Cancer Foundation and the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LIVESTRONG).
My motivation for this event? A man I’ve never met in person – Robert Feuille.
I heard about Robert’s story from my good friend, Jon Ashcroft, who is good friends with Robert, and you know how things go…I was moved. Rob is fighting testicular cancer. He’s got a beautiful wife and three young kids (including a newborn!) counting on him to beat cancer. I’ve followed his battle on his website, fightforfeuille.com (through which you can help financially by ordering a sweet t-shirt designed by Jon), and through Twitter. The dude is inspirational.
Here’s some interesting facts: 1 in 6 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime and testicular cancer is the most common cancer in men aged 18-35.
That’s a lot of men…and way too much cancer.
Why don’t you help out? Grow a sweet stache…give a few bucks. Think of it as buying Rob a beer. Cheers!
So, we’re at the end of the year. Seems everyone is putting together their Top 10 lists, and I’m just late to the game. So, I’m totally stealing an idea from Steve Knight here, and giving my list of top charities to give to on this last day of the year.
I was shocked when I came across Brian McLaren’s 
This month I’m participating in MOVEMBER, an awareness event from the LIVESTRONG Foundation that is bringing much needed attention to cancers that affect men. So here’s the deal. I’m sporting this kick butt stache for the month formally known as November.