The Gospel and the Government

Again, like my last entry, this is a subject I don't feel entirely comfortable or competent discussing. Please read the first paragraph of 'Compassion vs. Justice' to get a feel for what I mean and why I still am going to write.

I have been fairly lethargic about my polemecy for most of my life. It all just seemed so polarizing and cutthroat that I wasn't seeing issues or movements, I was just seeing arguments and divisions. The first campaign I was ever old enough to vote in was the presidential elections of 2004. This proved to be a less than inspiring first experience with voting and I think I voted just because I believed that you should. Neither candidate seemed like the best of Americans, which really, the president should be.

One thing that I have been serious about for a large chunk of my teen and early adult years has been my faith. This has looked different and the expressions of it have changed over the years. Lately, I have been consumed with the idea of justice. I think that justice can be defined by different groups with different ideas in very different ways; in that way it can be a very relative term. However, the justice I have been seeking to define is that of the gospel story of Jesus. The kind of justice Jesus displayed when he was overturning tables in the temple and when he was rebuking the pharisees and religious know-it-alls of his day, that’s what I’m after. And the justice Jesus showed to lepers, the blind and the crippled. I expanded on some of my ideas about justice in my last post; you can go there if you want more.

I bring this idea back up because during the increasingly heated presidential primary race I have been thinking some about how the ideas of the gospel carry over into government and politics. What I mean is that I have been considering how my vote and my opinions do and don't/can and can't reflect the radical and revolutionary teachings of the gospel.

Well, actually, I guess that was a bit of a misnomer. I probably led you to believe that I was going to talk about how to live the gospel in politics...my bad, not quite ready for that one. I've always thought that a firm structure of theory needs to be developed before it starts getting all gussied up with practice. Well, maybe in theory I don't believe that...I'll stop.

I guess the question that has really been on my mind is whether or not the gospel and politics are compatible. Whether or not a government could be run following the ideas of the gospel—turn the other cheek, placing the needs of others before your own, et cetera.

As I thought about these questions I thought about the gospel and about Jesus. I thought about how He wasn't consumed with being a citizen of Galilee but rather a citizen of the kingdom of God. I thought about how He spent almost no time arguing with the political and religious giants of his day—the Pharisees—while still undermining and changing the structure of both politics and religion for history. I thought about how He declined the devils offer to rule the lands and didn't appease all those who thought he was going to be a political ruler, but instead became a king in a different way...in a way no one suspected.

Of course Jesus was Jesus, and we (or at least certainly I) are/am something far less. But I think we can still be, as followers of Jesus, people who think out of the box. People who defy the standard. People who don’t fit the mold people think we will, but do what is right in a way that is radical. A people who seek justice, compassion and mercy before revenge, defense and policy. The latter mentioned things are still important, but if we were to seek to be citizens of God’s kingdom before citizens of a particular country or political party they seem to be less important.

What does this mean for voting or political activism? Well, I think that it means there is room to wiggle. No candidate, so far as I can tell, completely embraces the ideas of the gospel and certainly if someone had they have long lost out (somehow I don’t think turning the other cheek or tithing or putting others countries interests before the interests of our own would be the most popular platform). I’m going to vote and I’ll vote for the candidate that I feel makes the biggest strides towards compassion and justice; the candidate that will change the most policies which are not in alignment with these things. But I’ll try to remember my place in God’s kingdom, working to reach this world—to be a peace maker and a kingdom bringer—before I get to caught up in a political scene and forget that Jesus redefined justice by thinking outside of the box and that we can continue to try and radically pursue it.

Compassion Vs Justice

The next two blogs I plan to write involve subjects I consider myself fairly ignorant about. In fact, I am ashamed to write about things I know so little about and have suffered for even less. I would much rather expose myself deeply disciplined, passionate and considerably sacrificed for these things. The desire to be exposed at our best is our shame controlling us. I have learned that this is a negative feedback system that I have seen to control myself and others; we don't expose ourselves so we don't enter into important discussions and the transformations which only come from letting our embarrassment go, and thus we are stuck. I'm tired of being stuck and am becoming desperate for more growth and understanding. I expose myself, my inadequacies and my ignorances here hoping to grow and be transformed as a result.

With that said...

Something that has really been on my mind quite a lot since I took a trip down to Mexico was the idea of justice and compassion. The trip I took was with 21 friends of mine to Juarez, Mexico. We have another friend, Brandon Culp, who has taken a full time position with an organization called Casas Por Cristo building houses in Juarez. I admire greatly the sacrifice that Brandon has made and the work that he is doing in Juarez. Brandon suggested that we get a group together and come down, so we did. I think that the idea of a trip, a huge road trip to another country with 20 friends, was more important and exciting to me than being compassionate. Actually, I think I was more excited to eat burritos than be compassionate as well. So my priorities were set: Friends, roadie, burritos, compassion.

While I was in Juarez I saw things in a way that I hadn’t remembered seeing them the time I had been there before. I saw hurting people. I saw homes that hardly seemed worthy of being called homes and people without even that. I saw people without cars or other means of transportation to get to jobs. I saw people who were sick and couldn’t work and therefore couldn’t afford to pay doctors. People stuck. I also saw massive and extravagant shopping centers that modeled something quite like America's suburbia. I saw huge houses with multiple cars parked outside all surrounded by barbwire and steal—a message that exclaims ‘this isn’t for you.’ I saw large scale poverty and corruption in a system that offered no other alternative than choosing one of these.

So to the jobsite we went. The twenty of us were able to build an entire house, from the foundation up, in 4 days. The three room structure was to be used by a neighboring church for school, Sunday morning classes and visiting pastors among other things. I felt very accomplished about what we had done. Where there had been nothing there was a house. Where there was a need it had been filled. That structure will undoubtedly serve the people in that community for years to come and I feel great about what we accomplished during that week.

The last day of our build Aaron and I went into town to get paint and painting supplies because we figured we’d probably have enough time to paint the inside before we left. On our way back to the jobsite we were discussing the state of the colonial and I mentioned how much it seemed like shooting a spit ball at a freight train. This house, no matter how amazing we made it, did little to slow the beast that kept this community’s members in extreme poverty. Aaron lamented that though our deeds were compassionate but they did little to serve justice and that only half of the gospel had been fulfilled in our efforts. There was compassion without justice.

I sort of shrugged off what he was saying, probably pointing out a funny looking dog on the side of the road or something. As I thought about what he had said throughout the build that day I realized that justice and compassion had sort of become the same thing to me in a lot of ways. Both things just kind of seemed to be entries on a list of qualities I wished to reflect from the gospel. A list that looked something like; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self-control...and compassion and justice. I’d never really thought too hard about it but I guess I just lumped compassion and justice together. Since then I have thought more about what these two things are and how they are the gospel in their own, different way.

I think that compassion is an act of mercy or selflessness usually for those who are in need. Serving at homeless shelters or buying a hamburger for someone who’s hungry come to mind. Jesus was compassionate. He healed and helped pretty well everywhere he went. I think that building that house was an act of compassion and was the gospel in that way.

Justice, by a common definition, is getting people what they deserve. We often think of judges and court buildings when we think of justice. These are institutions that ‘give people what they deserve,’ serving fines, probations and jail sentences to those who have broken the law. This is justice, but justice and ‘getting people what they deserve’ is a lot broader than this. I think Justice is working to dismantle the machines which create injustice. I think it means breaking down the structures and systems which leave, for example, people hungry and homeless in Juarez, Mexico. I think it means working against racism, sexism and heterosexism. I think it means breaking down barriers that prevent understanding. I think it means questioning the roots of our comfort and the roots of other’s discomfort and asking why.

Justice is a hard discipline. ‘Working for justice’ is something that I have had a hard time understanding and an even harder time doing. However, I do think that compassion acts as medium to understanding justice. I did not even realize that unjust systems existed in Juarez before the trip to Mexico. I didn’t realize there was such a large homeless population in Longmont before I served with COrES. I don’t understand the systems of injustice which keep parts of Africa in political turmoil and its people starving and dying of HIV, but I can respond compassionately with the visions of organizations like Blood:Water Mission.

As a response to the gospel I feel like we are brought through different disciplines in refracting and amplifying waves. Through the medium of compassion we discover injustices and are given the opportunity to respond with justice. Jesus says to the Pharisees in Luke, “Woe to you Pharisees because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone.” It’s time that I realize how much I am like the Pharisees with my legalisms and trendy Christian ways and stop neglecting justice.

I don't imagine ways to be just will just start magically appearing to me. Just like I never would assume I could be infinitely joyful or compassionate. In fact, it has been hard to see injustice and I imagine that it will continue to be harder to react to what I see. Still, I feel that as a response to the gospel and to Jesus, the Jesus who worked to change the ways in which the world saw prostitutes, beggars and the homeless, I need to try.

So, consider this a part of the conversation and please continue it. Let's, as people who desire to be followers of the gospel, talk about what it means to do so and spur each other towards that.

Micah 6:8, "...act justly and love mercy and walk humbly with your God."

Four Quick Slices

It has snowed in Bozeman 9 out of the last 10 days. This weekend I went to West Yellowstone where there was some 4 feet surrounding the cabin we stayed in. The first night there, Matt and I built a snow cave in a 7 foot drift to sleep in. I haven't seen pavement in weeks and don't miss it. There is something about snow which is so refreshing. The blanket of snow which overwhelms all geography erases the impressions of structure, development, urbanization...busyness.

Ryan started recording. His musical talent makes me wonder how I completely missed these genes. Or, more accurately, where he got them from. Ryan, you are a talented and soulful individual with an incredible mind and the gift of expressing it. Thanks for sharing yourself with the world.

Today was the fourth day of my last semester of college.. I really hope I can drag this one out. What the hell am I going to do come May? ...I'm going to miss a lot of things here.

Brianne moved here. For the first time in the entirety of our relationship it's looking like we are going to spend more than a couple of weeks together. It has been great and I am very much so grateful and looking forward to our time here. Also, it is nice to have a piece of home, my past and my future here with me during this transition of graduation.

Love, Love, Love.

There is more often than not a feeling that I am not myself. That there is another me. Moreover, that there is a me that I was supposed to be and that there is some sort of fraud that I am trapped being and left wondering who that other person is. This stems from a myriad of personality disorders: I care too much about what other people think, I am obsessed with the aesthetic, I lack confidence. Those of you who know me pretty well probably understand a lot of what I am saying. For those of you who only kind of know me, this might come as a bit of a shock. You see, these characteristics of mine necessarily lead me to present to you the best me I can conjure up...well, when I'm not too freaked out that you might not like the me I present. I struggle with balancing relationships. I always feel like I am abandoning or letting others down when I move from one place to another, in and out of lives and communities. I can't seem to figure out how show love to my girlfriend, my family, my friends, YoungLife kids, random people...anyone really. And, rereading that sentence I notice that the problem is intrinsic in the question itself. I wrote, I can't figure out how to show love. Was love really what I was desiring, I would have simply asked how I could love. However, all to often I find myself being way more caught up in showing love than actually loving. The difference, however subtle it may seem, is enormous. It is the difference between happiness and joy and between deception and honesty--it was the difference between Judas and John. You see, I understand love to be an amazing and important thing. I certainly give it a lot of lip service and really, I do desire it and to serve others through love. I understand God to be love and I am sure that His ways are worth seeking. Still, somehow I've gotten caught up in the presentation, in the motion and the patterns. As the expressions of my love continue to change and mature I can't seem to kick this hindering veil of image. Surely there is not perfect love outside of that of the Father and I can't expect to ever possess such a thing but I desire deeply to throw off what hinders and I have for a while now known that my quest for the appearance of love is problematic. Because of the freedom I experience by grace, I will work to know what authentic love is. I will take steps to feel, understand and accept perfect love. And I have hope that these steps, repeated endlessly, will give this life and love a passion and purpose.


I share all this to expose myself; to expose this imposter I see too often and rediscover who I was meant to be, and to make some of my old patterns more difficult and to continue to work towards letting these things go moving towards the freedom of grace. I have no misconception--such a lofty goal as authentic love isn't born out of a single blog post or confession. Rather, the things of God are beautifully elusive and it is my hope that this is just a part of the journey or a page of the conversation.

From the Mundane to the Sacred

We watched Rob Bell's Nooma video entitled 'breathe' tonight at Campaigners. For those of you unfamiliar, Rob Bell is pastor of Mars Hill Church in Grandville, Michigan and the Nooma series are a collection of sermonettes delivered by Rob and a first rate crew of cinematographers. They are excellent videos and Rob Bell has an amazing and unique heart for the world and for God. Oh, and Campaigners is a sort of small group for YoungLife.

In the video Rob Bell talks about the name of God in Hebrew. YHWH. These for letters seem to not go together all that well in English, namely because they are missing vowels, and it turns out that they also don't really go together that well in Hebrew either. In fact, the Hebrew pronunciation isn't all that different from the English. Not Ya-way like some would say, but yhwh. Say it to yourself once or twice right now phonetically. yhwh. It sort of sounds like breathing doesn't it? This name was ascribed to God by the Hebrews precisely because it does sound like breathing. That way every muttered breath is like breathing the name of God. This means that the name of God, yhwh, is constantly on our lips—even when we are not aware. Yhwh is on our lips even when we are studying or jogging or cooking. The first thing we do when brought into this world is speak yhwh. And the last thing we do before we die is the same; we speak yhwh.

God isn't so far away. Really, it's about looking, listening, feeling, smelling and tasting for God. We have been gifted with a myriad of senses which make up the human experience and I would argue that we are given these to experience God.

Makes everyday seem a bit more important. A bit more meaningful. A bit more sacred.

Hot off the Press

A group of us are heading to Juarez, Mexico this Christmas break to build a house (see post below). In order to do so we need to cover all the expenses of the trip and building costs—some $8,000—and we are working hard to get there. I’ve made 100 shirts to sell as part of the fund raising effort. They are incredibly comfortable American Apparel t’s printed with Brianne’s amazing design on them.



The shirts say ‘Dale le Mano,’ which translates to ‘lend a hand.’ Our goal really is summed up in that simple phrase. We want to lend a hand and make a difference for a family. The shirts come in the six color combinations seen above and sizes, S, M, L and XL, all men's sizes (but the ladies haven't been forgotten, I'm told men's small and medium American Apparel t's are perfect for you too). If you would like to help support our trip or by some t-shirts please comment on my blog or write me an email at Ehaagenson@msn.com. They are $16 a piece, $6 of which goes towards the cost of the shirt and $10 goes strait towards construction costs in Mexico. Also, if you are going on the trip and you want to help me sell some of these shirts, let me know and I can send them to you. Thank you for your prayers and support.

Cuidad Juarez

I am returning to one of my favorite places in a few weeks: Mexico. Honestly, I can't even wait. This will be my fourth trip to the country and the third to a border town. In fact, this will be my second time building houses in the colonials outside of Juarez. The realness, the humanity, the need displayed in the people make my heart beat a little different. It always blows me away as I drive from one desert town across the border to another. The cultural and economic differences are stark. They may be our neighbors, but a lot of the time it doesn't necessarily feel like it and all too often we revel in the glory of an 'out of sight, out of mind' attitude. Having the veil lifted to see anew a people in desperate need makes sense of the human plight. I find myself thinking, it isn't all about that, because here there's this...there's a lot more to the story.

I am going down over New Years to get more filled in on the story. A group of 15 or so and I are going down to build a house, to see the change, to feel the people.

Aaron wrote this about Juarez and our trip:

Ciudad Juarez sprawls across the desert landscape, a mirror image of El Paso reflected out from the Rio Grande. To say it is an enormous place does not do the city justice. By some estimates, Ciudad Juarez grows by 50,000 to 60,000 people per year. As the population rises, so does its influence. It is, in many ways, at the epicenter of the social, political, and economic changes that are rocking the borderlands, that distinct cultural space riding the line between Mexico and the United States. The drugs used by your college friends pass through Juarez. The blinds hanging from the window of your bedroom were made in Juarez. And the wall separating the United States and Mexico was first conceived of, and built, outside of Juarez. But behind the political is always the personal. Life in Juarez, like in many of the newly industrialized global cities, is very difficult. It is expensive, dangerous, and hard. Minimum wage hovers around 5 dollars a day, but the high price of everything from land to milk would suggest otherwise. For many of the people fleeing rural poverty in southern Mexico, there simply is no way to get ahead. Casas Por Cristo is the chance to provide one of the four basics: food, water, shelter, and medical care. These are the things that make survival possible. We have no illusions. We are not changing the dynamics of poverty and systemic inertia that have trapped people in houses made out of cardboard, crushed tin, and pallets. But we can give one house. We can piece together the money and make ourselves present. Open ourselves to the possibility that hope and renewal always start one person at a time.


I anxiously await seeing God move in the lives of those effected by Casas por Cristo and in our own lives. I anxiously await better understanding the story of how our humanity meets God's divinity.