The American Enabling Act

BY STEPHEN F. EISENMAN – SUE COE

 JULY 12, 2024
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Illustration by Sue Coe.

Art by Sue Coe.

A fascist revival

The following lines, from a sermon delivered at Riverside Church in 1938, were resurrected after the election of Trump in 2016: “When and if fascism comes to America, it will not be labelled ‘made in Germany’; it will not be marked with a swastika; it will not even be called fascism; it will be called, of course, ‘Americanism’.” Trump and his minions proclaimed, “America First” and “Make America Great Again.” Charles Lindbergh not Hitler was their avatar, though the former of course admired the latter. Tucker Carlson on Fox News was Trump’s unofficial media spokesman; he didn’t need to employ his own Goebbels.

But recent developments suggests that pre-war Germany may after all turn out to be the ursprung of the emergent American fascism. Instead of Jews and Roma, immigrants from Mexico, Central America, Venezuela, Haiti and the Middle East are the “vermin,” according to candidate Trump, “poisoning the blood” of the American body politic. And in place of the enfeebled, 86-year-old President Paul von Hindenburg clearing the path for Hitler’s elevation, it’s the frail, 82-year old President Joe Biden allowing Trump’s-re-ascension. History doesn’t repeat itself, the saying goes, but sometimes it rhymes.

How Hitler came to power

Hitler’s ultimate rise to power was the result neither of a popular vote nor a coup, but an “Enabling Act,” or more precisely, “The Law to Remedy the Distress of the People and the Reich.” The legislation submitted to the German Reichstag (parliament) on March 23, 1933, enabled Hitler and his cabinet to 1) make laws without participation of the Reichstag; 2) enact measures that violated the German constitution; 3) implement new laws immediately; 4) allow the government to make foreign treaties without input from the Reichstag; and 5) sunset the act after four years.

Hitler and his cabinet took no chances on its passage. They surrounded the Reichstag and filled its galleries with angry and armed stormtroopers (“brownshirts”); arrested or barred members of the opposition German Communist Party; and threatened vacillating legislators from the Center Party. The only remaining voice of opposition belonged to Otto Wels, head of the Social Democrats (SPD), the former governing party of the Weimar Republic. His speech was greeted with jeers and epithets:

“After the persecutions that the Social Democratic Party has suffered recently, no one will reasonably demand or expect that it vote for the Enabling Act proposed here. …Never before, since there has been a German Reichstag, has the control of public affairs by the elected representatives of the people been eliminated to such an extent as is happening now, and is supposed to happen even more through the new Enabling Act….But we stand by the principles enshrined in [our Constitution], the principles of a state based on the rule of law, of equal rights, of social justice…. We greet the persecuted and the oppressed.”

The Enabling Act easily gathered the required 2/3 vote, and Wels quickly fled the country. On July 12, Goebbels gloated: “SPD dissolved. We won’t have long to wait for the total state.” A day later, all non-Nazi political parties were banned, and the stiff armed Hitlergruß and “Heil Hitler” greeting were made mandatory for state employees.

The Enabling Act gave Hitler carte blanche to assume dictatorial powers. He banned opposition parties; forced trade unions to bend to his will; intimidated, jailed or murdered dissidents; established concentration camps; implemented harsh sanction on the nation’s Jews; forged alliances with the other European fascist powers, notably Italy and Spain; and undertook a massive program of rearmament. Six years later, Hitler would use his absolute authority to invade Poland, start the war in Europe, and perpetrate the genocide of Jews, Roma, queers, and others. The Enabling Act was renewed every four years and only expired with the demise of the Reich in 1945.

A majority of the U.S. Supreme Court gives Trump the Hitler salute

The Supreme Court of the United States two weeks ago passed its own enabling act, a virtual “Sieg Heil” to Donald Trump. In a case called United States v. Donald Trump, they agreed with the accused that the U.S. Constitution confers upon presidents near complete immunity from prosecution. Like a Roman emperor, he is legibus solutus, above the law.

The case arose from charges that Trump, following the November 2020 election, engaged in election interference by coercing the U.S. justice Department, supporting the establishment of fake, state electors, and encouraging a mob to storm the U.S. Congress to stop the electoral count. After a panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the ex-president lacked immunity from criminal prosecution, the case was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. The justices heard oral arguments on April 24, 2024, and issued their ruling on July 1, 2024, the final day of the term. Their dilatoriness all but ensured the case would not go to trial before the November election.

The six, conservative justices – Roberts, Alito, Thomas, Kavanaugh, Barrett, and Gorsuch — concluded that presidents enjoyed absolute immunity from prosecution for official , executive branch acts such as pardons, military command, immigration, and implementation of the laws. They also had “presumptive immunity” for all other, unspecified acts within the “outer perimeter” of presidential responsibilities. Only unofficial actions, also unspecified, were subject to criminal prosecution. Thus, in the case at hand, Trump was immune from prosecution for attempting to force the U.S. Department of Justice to interfere in the election because those communications were official acts. His calls to Mike Pence to fraudulently reject the election results were immune from prosecution since presidents are conducting official work when they discuss with vice presidents their respective responsibilities. Consideration of the president’s motives for an official act were also barred. Thus, it made no difference at all to the conservative justices that the capital rioters, with Trump’s blessing, proposed to lynch Mike Pence.

The king’s two bodies

The Court’s specific arguments, no less than their constitutional bases, are risible. When candidate Trump plots to overturn election results, he can be prosecuted. But when President Trump outlines the plot in an email to his Attorney General, the evidence is inadmissible. When the candidate urges the January 6 mob to storm the capital and halt the electoral count, he can be indicted. But when the president conveys that message in a speech or text message, the evidence is excluded because “most of a president’s public communications are likely to fall within the outer perimeter of his official responsibilities.”

According to medieval, political theology, the king has two bodies, one mortal, the other immortal, thus “The kings is dead. Long live the king!” The Supreme Court has endowed the U.S. presidency with two bodies, one subject to law the other not. The candidate is mortal, the president divine, but the latter they conclude, always supersedes the former.

The U.S. Constitution, the putative basis of Supreme Court rulings, says otherwise. Its authors were a disputatious lot, but they uniformly agreed that the president was not a king and must be subject to the law. Hamilton argued in the Federalist Papers that “the president would be amenable to personal punishment and disgrace.” Article 1, sec. 6, clause 10 of the Constitution grants U.S. Senators and Representatives immunity from prosecution only during their congressional attendance and transportation to and from Congress (a lengthy process in the late 18^th Century). But even that immunity is partial. They can still be prosecuted for “treason, felony, or breach of the peace” – a capacious exception! Nowhere in the Constitution is the president granted even limited immunity.

At the Constitutional Convention, James Madison briefly raised the question of presidential immunity, but his colleagues balked. State ratifying conventions instead endorsed the idea that the U.S. president could, as one delegate wrote: “be proceeded against like any other man in the ordinary course of law.” Indeed, the whole point of the American Revolution was to dispense with the rule of a king. The colonists’ chief grievance against “the present king of Great Britain” was that he demonstrated a “history of repeated injuries and usurpations,” the result of which was “the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States….He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.”

Article 1 (section 3, clause 7 ) of the Constitution specifically mentions the president’s potential, criminal culpability: “Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States: but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law . The six justices agreed that the clause does not mean a president must be impeached and convicted before being charged with a crime. But even if he is convicted, he still may not be charged with a crime for any official act!

Three Supreme Court justices — Sotomayor, Kagan and Jackson — wrote in dissent of the majority opinion. They pulled no punches:

“Looking beyond the fate of this particular prosecution, the long-term consequences of today’s decision are stark. The Court effectively creates a law-free zone around the President, upsetting the status quo that has existed since the Founding. This new official-acts immunity now ‘lies about like a loaded weapon’ for any President that wishes to place his own interests, his own political survival, or his own financial gain, above the interests of the Nation. The President of the United States is the most powerful person in the country and possibly the world. When he uses his official powers in any way, under the majority’s reasoning, he now will be insulated from criminal prosecution. Order the Navy’s Seal Team Six to assassinate a political rival? Immune. Organize a military coup to hold power? Immune. Take a bribe in exchange for a pardon? Immune, immune, immune….In every use of official power, the President is now a king above the law.”

The question now is whether Sotomayor’s dissent will be a rallying cry that helps stop Donald Trump from once more assuming the presidency, or an epitaph for democracy, like the one issued by Otto Wels in 1933. The Supreme Court has issued its Enabling Act, and an avowed dictator is waiting to use it.

‘Authentic’ ayahuasca rituals sought by tourists often ignore Indigenous practices and spiritual grounding

The psychotropic allure of the ayahuasca plant for hundreds of thousands of non-Indigenous consciousness seekers is raising many concerns.

A healer conducts an ayahuasca drinking ceremony in Avie village,

 in Ecuador, on Jan.14, 2023. 

Pedro Pardo / AFP via Getty images

June 28, 2024
By Pardis Mahdavi
(The Conversation) 

— Ayahuasca, a sacred drink made from the stem and leaves of a tree vine, has many names: psychedelic brew, hallucinogenic tea, mood medicine and more. It is even known as a teacher or a healer for its reported ability to help a person turn inward and come into alignment with past traumas.

The plant and the rituals associated with it have deep roots in South American shamanic traditions. But in the past few decades, stories about the spiritually enhancing magic of ayahuasca have made their way to Europe and North America.

Lauded for its transcendent healing powers by celebrities such as Lindsay Lohan, athletes such as Aaron Rodgers and successful businessmen such as Elon Musk, the psychotropic allure of the plant now calls to hundreds of thousands of non-Indigenous consciousness-seekers globally. More and more ayahuasca retreats are popping up around the world.

Indigenous peoples in South America – primarily in Peru, Brazil and other parts of what is considered the Upper Amazon – have been using ayahuasca for medicinal and religious purposes since at least 900 B.C.E. Hieroglyphic paintings depict the use of the sacred brew in a ceremony from the period of 900-250 B.C.E. Western interest in ayahuasca, however, has created some challenges for local Indigenous communities.

As a medical anthropologist, I have spent the past quarter century studying the ways in which culture affects how people view and make decisions about their bodies.
Through researching the connections between sexuality, drugs and cultures, I have come to understand the role of plant medicines like ayahuasca for individuals and communities.
Dying to awaken

Anthropologist of shamanism Michael Winkelman describes ayahuasca as a “psychoindicator,” a substance that integrates emotion and thought processes.

According to Western scientific interpretations, the primary function of the substance allows a stripping away of a person’s egocentric, conscious understanding of the world. Seekers “die unto themselves,” is what a shaman told me.

In an altered state of consciousness, it is believed that the person can tap into their true wants and experiences and begin the process of deeper healing, awakening or spiritual cleansing.

Traditionally, anthropologists note that ayahuasca has been used in South America to unlock information coming from unseen realms. Specifically, it was often called upon for divination, artistic inspiration, strategic insights, healing and shamanic journeys.

Plant medicine

While thousands of tourists flock to South America from all over the world each year in search of an “authentic” ayahuasca ritual, the exact tenets of the ritual today are somewhat under debate, though a few common themes do emerge.

Most scholars and Indigenous and non-Indigenous healers agree that the plant should be cared for and treated by a plant expert called an “ayahuascero,” who after a lengthy eight- to 10-hour brewing process prepares a mudlike tea for consumption.

The medicine is brought to the seekers during a ceremony, typically held in the evening around a sacred fire. A healer called a “curandero” calls to the spirit worlds for protection at the start of the ceremony. The healer then faces the four directions of north, east, south and west and uses a branch of the vine along with a rattle made of the ayahuasca tree to sing the “icaros,” or healing songs.

Healers of the Indigenous Siekopai ethnic group take part in an ayahuasca drinking ceremony in Peru.
Pedro Pardo/AFP via Getty Images

Typically, purging begins after 20 minutes to an hour. For some people, this purging takes the form of vomiting or bowel voiding. The purging of energy that some experience physically, others experience emotionally in the form of laughter, crying, shaking or screaming into the wind. This is then sometimes followed by a movement into hallucination or a connection with the inner self where the outer world starts to fall away.

And while each person describes slightly different experiences, recurring themes include ego death – wherein people see themselves without attachment to material things or status – visions of past selves and lives, waves of healing energy, and painful moments of reckoning with past wounds.

Cultural quagmire

In the spring of 2018, a double murder in the Peruvian Amazon rocked the ayahuasca shamanic community and cast a dark shadow on the hallucinogenic brew. Olivia Arevalo, a beloved 95-year-old curandero, was killed by a Canadian ayahuasca tourist named Sebastian Woodroffe. The death of Arevalo, heralded as the grandmother of the Shipibo-Kobibo tribe, caused outrage among the community, and Woodroffe was lynched by a mob.

These incidents sparked widespread debates about non-Indigenous tourists flocking to the Amazon to imbibe the psychedelic tea: Spiritual seekers don’t always respect boundaries and processes set by local healers – the above incident being an extreme example.

Namely, as anthropologist Veronica Davidov points out, as the use of ayahuasca increases among non-Indigenous individuals, the creation of “entheogen tourism” – travel for the purposes of spiritual awakenings – raises questions about the importance of spiritual contexts in these ceremonies.

As Peruvian archaeologist and healer Ruben Orellana argues, ayahuasca rituals were developed within particular cultural contexts for Indigenous peoples. Without context, non-Indigenous seekers can veer into the territory of cultural appropriation at best, while also exposing themselves to the mental and physical health risks of the psychedelic brew.

Spiritual tourism critics also note that many of the lodges are not owned by locals and that the influx of tourists has had a negative effect on the ecosystem. Local economies don’t always benefit from the capital flowing into the area when outsiders become the middle man, even while local resources are being consumed.

Not only are the intricacies of the cultural experience not always respected or appreciated, but the ecosystem suffers from this entheogen tourism when demand for the plant results in overharvesting of the Banisteriopisis caapi vines of the ayahuasca trees.

Harmonizing and healing

While worries about cultural appropriation are not necessarily misplaced, scholars such as Mark Hay note that none of this means that Westerners need to avoid the plant medicine altogether.

Hay and others note that the mental health benefits of the plant are many and can be combined with Western approaches to illnesses such as treatment-resistant depression. Similarly, the healing powers of ayahuasca can be harmonized with Western approaches to mental health treatment and spirituality.

This harmonization is not unlike the many urban Catholic Brazilians who combined Indigenous rituals with Christianity. In the early 20th century, at least three new and distinct ayahuasca religions were born in Brazil: The Santo Daime, the Barquinha and the Uniao do Vegetal came to areas where shamans had been practicing ayahuasca rituals for hundreds of years before Christianity arrived. These religions fused Christianity with earth-based spirituality as they emphasized the role of the Holy Trinity in giving humans healing plants.

Church leaders also emphasized that the plants allowed them to get closer to God, noting that Christ spoke to them through the psychedelic brew. As a result, the practices took root with Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities living in South America.

These adaptations can provide a road map to approach ayahuasca with the appropriate reverence for its cultural and spiritual grounding.

(Pardis Mahdavi, President, University of La Verne. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.)

Carlos Castaneda – All Books In One PDF 

( PDFDrive )by Carlos Castaneda

Publication date 1968-05-06

Topics Shamanism, Shamanic, Shaman

Collection opensource

Language English

Carlos Castaneda was an American author. Starting with The Teachings of Don Juan in 1968, Castaneda wrote a series of books that describe his training in shamanism, particularly with a group whose lineage descended from the Toltecs.

Pdfcoffee.compdfcoffee.com/download/burroughs-william-s-yage-letters-city-lights-1975-pdf-free.html

THE YAGE LETTERS - pdfcoffee.com

Burroughs' 1960 letter was in Floating Bear No. 5. "I am Dying,. Meester?" was in City Lights Journal No. 1. A 1953 letter was in Black Mountain. Review No. 7 .....

Core.ac.ukcore.ac.uk/download/pdf/30695323.pdf

The yagé aesthetic of William Burroughs - CORE

publish The Yage Letters in 1963,49 taking material previously published in Big Table,. 47 'From Burroughs' March 1956 “Yagé Article” manuscript' in The Yage ...

Wordpress.comcolectivotijeras.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/burroughs-william-s-queer.pdf

burroughs-william-s-queer.pdf - Colectivo Tijeras

Not so different from the Lee of the later Yage Letters, except for the phantom presence of Allerton. So I had written Junky, and the motivation for that was ...

Ucl.ac.ukdiscovery.ucl.ac.uk/1571570/1/Lees_William_Burroughs_Sailor.pdf

William Burroughs - UCL Discovery

imported vast quantities of Yage for experiments on slave labor' (Burroughs 2006). On his arrival in the Colombian caital Burroughs took a tram to the.

(2013) ‘The map is not the territory’: Cartography and Language in William S. Burroughs’ The Yage Letters

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Why the Olympic Games are a ‘civil religious’ ceremony with a global congregation

Sporting events form a vital space where Americans display their ‘civil religious devotion,’ according to a scholar of religion and sports

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The U.S. gymnastics team selected for the 2024 Paris Olympics celebrates in Minneapolis. AP Photo/Abbie Parr

July 8, 2024
By Terry Shoemaker
The Conversation

— Fans are getting ready to watch top athletes from around the globe compete in the 2024 Summer Olympics, which start in Paris on July 26. Accompanying the athletic events will be a display of patriotic symbols such as flags and team uniforms featuring countries’ colors. The host country will mark the Summer Olympics ceremonies with cultural events.

But why are people so drawn to the Olympic Games?

As a scholar who studies connections between religion and sport, I argue that this interest comes from what sociologist Robert Bellah called “civil religion,” or devotion to one’s nation-state as a form of religious allegiance.

Indeed, the entire Summer Olympics can be interpreted as a civil religious ceremony with a global congregation every four years.

What constitutes civil religion?

Focusing attention on civil religion within the United States, Bellah observed in 1967 that there were “certain common elements of religious orientation that the great majority of Americans share.” These elements included, but were not limited to, the moments when Americans belonging to different religious or nonreligious affiliations would gather for shared rituals and customs. The collective lighting of fireworks on the Fourth of July across the country is one such annual civil religious practice.

During these events, Americans often display their civil religious devotion under the guise of mere patriotic duty. Other shared rituals include watching the inauguration of an incoming president, whether in person or around a television. Some Americans may want to ensure that younger generations know the importance of “sacred texts” such as the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. There may be those who undertake “pilgrimages” to Washington, D.C., to view the national buildings and monuments.

Shared histories of the American Revolutionary War, Civil War and World War II are also key to civil religion. The idea that Americans’ ancestors gave their all for the survival of the country’s democratic experiment creates a common bond among citizens today.

Despite different religious beliefs, many Americans tend to unite around the notion that the American democracy is the best governmental option available today.

Traditional religious texts ground the American civil religion in important myths with a transcendent quality. In fact, Bellah argued, “American civil religion borrowed selectively from the religious tradition in such a way that the average American saw no conflict between the two.” In this way, American civil religion incorporated Christian and Jewish religious stories while also adding new sacred symbols and events.

Civil religion and sports

Sports stadiums form a vital space for Americans to express their civil religious affections. Many Americans proudly remove their hats, cover their hearts and honor the country as the national anthem plays at sporting events across the country.

For most Americans, opportunities to pledge their allegiance and perform their patriotism are relegated to civic duties such as voting, jury duty or paying one’s taxes. So sporting events are prime civil religious occasions to strengthen their emotional ties to their country.

Sometimes the civil religious fervor at sporting events is overt: Baseball and football games often include military flyovers and the unfurling of gigantic flags. The fact that kneeling during the national anthem has proven so controversial proves how seriously people treat civil religion.

In my 2024 book, “Religions and Sports,” I discuss the many ways that sports function like traditional forms of religion in providing belonging, bonding and belief. Yet, sporting events play a significant role in supplying people with a sacred arena for civil religious expressions. In other words, sporting spaces operate as sacred civil religious arenas.

The Olympics as civil religion

Athletes walk with their national flags during the closing ceremony of the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Aug. 21, 2016.
AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

At the Summer Olympics every four years, people from across the globe rekindle their national allegiance through cheering for their country’s best athletes. Winning the gold, however, reflects much more than an individual athlete’s remarkable performance – having one’s national anthem played during a medal ceremony acknowledges and praises the collective strength of the entire country.

I believe the cosmopolitanism displayed in the opening ceremonies shows the supreme authority of today’s nation-state and the acceptance of this authority across the globe. In fact, many people tune in only for the festivities of the opening and closing ceremonies, which highlight civil religion.

The ancient Greeks organized the Olympic Games to demonstrate their devotion to Zeus and other deities. However, as Frank Kühn from the University of Mainz states, “The common faith in gods in Greek antiquity is now replaced by widely accepted patriotism.”

(Terry Shoemaker, Associate Teaching Professor in Religious Studies, Arizona State University. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.)

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Thousands who are fleeing the ongoing conflict between government forces and M-23 rebels reach the entrance to the city of Goma, Feb. 7, 2024, in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The decades-old conflict in Congo’s mineral-rich east has “drastically deteriorated” since early 2022 and gotten even worse since last October, with sharp increases in sexual violence, the number of wounded and child recruitment, the top Red Cross official in the country has said. 

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(RNS) — In a world brimming with pressing issues, it is all too easy for certain crises to slip under the radar. We must ask ourselves why some global crises hold the public’s attention, while others quickly fade away. Or worse, some never make it into the worldwide conscience at all.

More than 300 million people worldwide are in need of humanitarian assistance and protection to stay alive. Tragically, an estimated 120 million people have been forcibly displaced due to persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations and events that seriously disturb the public order. 

The global need is great. But as leaders of Christian humanitarian organizations, we too often see incongruence between donor interest and the actual greatest situations of need. It is essential that the church be thoughtful and discerning in how we extend compassion around the world, not merely taking our cues from which crises generate media interest.

Millions of people, bearing God’s very own image, are suffering. As Christians called to love our neighbors as ourselves, it is incumbent upon us to turn our gaze toward these forgotten corners of the world.

A new report from the Integral Alliance — a coalition of 21 Christian humanitarian organizations, including the organizations we lead — explores the reasons why some crises are neglected. The discrepancy in aid is evident as assistance frequently flows toward countries with historical or strategic importance to Western nations, rather than those in greatest need. Yemen, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan and Myanmar are just a few examples of countries grappling with prolonged humanitarian crises, which have displaced millions of individuals amid ongoing conflict and harsh environmental conditions.

The reasons behind the neglect are multifaceted. Instead of the distribution of foreign aid tracking closely with the situations of greatest need, the cultural, political and economic interests of donor countries often have an outsized influence on the distribution of aid. As a result, some countries in crisis become isolated from donor countries, aid agencies and potential support. This isolation leads to neglect that can worsen crises and leave countries without an ongoing basis of partnership.

Environmental changes compound these challenges. The impact of climate change is felt most intensely by the poorest and most vulnerable communities, especially those living in fragile and conflict-affected settings.

We live in an increasingly interconnected world, with access to breaking news and information available in real time. However, this can cause many of us to feel helpless as we witness new crises unfolding before our very own eyes. For both private donors and institutions that support aid and development work, this sense of feeling overwhelmed can eventually lead to a state of “donor fatigue.”

As followers of Christ, we cannot turn a blind eye to this suffering. Christ walked among the marginalized, healing the sick, feeding the hungry and comforting the brokenhearted, showing us a countercultural love that transcends borders, cultures and circumstances. In the parable of the good Samaritan, Jesus vividly illustrates that being a neighbor is not merely about geographical proximity or shared nationality, but about showing mercy and compassion.

Moreover, in Matthew 25:35-40, Jesus identifies himself with the vulnerable, saying whatever we do for the “least of these,” we do for him. This powerful message underscores the intrinsic value of every human being and our responsibility to act with love and compassion.

Scripture warns against favoritism in the church — offering special attention to those with wealth and status while ignoring the poor (James 2:1-7). This reminds us that as Christians, we must resist favoritism in the distribution of humanitarian aid, remembering the suffering parts of the world that others have neglected.

We must recognize the global church and listen to leaders from other countries, who intimately know and love their communities. They are the true experts on the “what” and “how” of humanitarian work.

The unity and complementarity of the church also underscore the importance of collaboration. We’re grateful for the ways our respective organizations and the many other Christian humanitarian organizations that form the Integral Alliance support one another, learn from each other and advocate together. Collectively, we’re able to respond in far more humanitarian crises than any one organization could do unilaterally.

Rather than feeling overwhelmed by the enormity of global suffering or being numbed by the sheer volume of information bombarding us daily, we know from Scripture that “even a cup of cold water” has reward (Matthew 10:42). Whether it is donating to relief efforts, advocating for policy change or simply praying fervently, each of us has a role to play in alleviating human suffering.

Let us not be like those who passed by the wounded man on the road to Jericho. Instead, let us emulate the good Samaritan who stopped, cared and acted with compassion. Let us enlarge our hearts and share our resources with those in need, demonstrating the love of Christ through our actions


(Myal Greene is the president and CEO of World Relief. Carol Bremer-Bennett is the executive director of World Renew. Both organizations are members of the Integral Alliance, of which Bremer-Bennett also serves as board chair. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.)