Engaging Spirituality

Lisa writes: In an effort to get involved with the local parish, Tom and I signed up to participate in a program called "Engaging Spirituality." I've jokingly come to think of it as "Enduring Spirituality" because it's a 21-week, every-Tuesday for 2 1/2 hours class plus four all-day retreats. (That's 84.5 hours, not that I'm counting BECAUSE I'M NOT, but just, you know, in case you were feeling like maybe it was unfair that Tom goes to 3 hours of LDS services each week while Mass is only 1 hour. If you add it all up, we're even-steven. Not that he's counting either BECAUSE HE'S NOT.)

These classes start off with a prayer and a meditation on a scripture, then we listen to a couple of bearing letters [translation for Mormon-speakers: testimony letters] from people who have dedicated their lives to working for social justice issues. For example, we're heard from a couple in inner-city St. Louis who try to help formerly incarcerated people get jobs, from a man in France who has founded a series of group homes for adults with mental disabilities, from a survivor of government-sponsored torture in Central America, from a local D.C. couple who work with a group that tries to lobby for peaceful resolution in war zones. We read and discuss a letters, break for snacks, read and discuss another letter, pray again, and head home resolved to try to be better people and do what we can for our local communities.

We've also learned about each other's struggles. My brother, Donny, says, "Everybody has a story that can make you cry," and it's true. They do.

All in all, it's been enlightening to hear about the things people are trying to do to make the world a better place, but at the same time it's depressing to hear about everything that's wrong in the world. There are two scales to this: huge, international problems and equally serious local problems. Today, we stayed local on one of our all-day outings. We made four stops, learning about the mission of each location and spending about ten minutes praying at each one. That's our group in the picture.

We visited a homeless hypothermia program that rotates between several local churches in the winter. They provide dinner, a movie, sleeping space, and breakfast. Everybody has to be back out on the street by 6:30 a.m. It's all run and funded by the local congregations. (Note: Fairfax County is one of the richest counties in the U.S. There are still approximately 1700 homeless people here.)

We stopped at a homeless resource center in Fairfax that offers laundry service, breakfast and lunch, a permanent mailing address and local phone number, job counseling, and a warm place to hang out. We talked to the director of the center who thanked us for coming and asked us to keep praying for them because the Mayor really wants to close them down. Homeless people aren't good for property values.

We went to the county jail and learned that sometimes the D.A. will get bail set extremely high in order to get defendants to plea bargain. The defendant's only other option is to either get a loan from one of those sharky bail-bond places at exorbitant interest or sit in jail (and possibly lose their job) while they wait for the case to work its way up to the front of the line, sometimes for weeks. We have one of the best justice systems on earth, but it's not perfectly just.

Then we went to the dump. The idea was to think about our stewardship of the earth. There were an amazing number of couches.

What's the point of all this? Here's my guess: It's harder to be apathetic when you're aware. For example, that homeless resource center is right across the street from a Home Depot that I've driven to 100 times. I never knew it was there, and therefore never once thought about the people being served there. But now I know it's there, I won't be able to NOT think of them again.