Media Review - "The Movement of Peoples"

"The Movement of Peoples" by Ruth Padilla DeBorst
http://vimeo.com/8433817

Media Review by Jim Jordan

In the Urbana ’09 general session entitled “The Movement of Peoples,” Ruth Padilla Deborst challenges us to see Jesus in the 200 million displaced people in our world and to love them as God’s children. She asks tough questions about our negative reactions to immigrants and our prejudices against some of the most vulnerable people on the planet. For any missional Christian it is important to ask these questions and to reflect on the Bible’s rich and complex teachings concerning immigrants and displaced people.

Padilla tells several powerful stories from her native Latin America about people on the move. She compares these contemporary stories with the stories of several Bible characters who were also on the move, including Jesus who suffered many displacements during his life on earth. Padilla shows how God dwelled in and used people on the move to accomplish His purposes in the great story of redemption.

Ruth speaks with sincere passion and a gripping sense of urgency. The pace of the lecture is so fast that it’s hard to keep up. Ruth weaves engaging stories with deep theology and sometimes overly technical language, which can make it a difficult lecture for the casual listener. She also touches on the highly debated issue of immigration policy, arguing not from the perspective of a political ideology but from a Biblical and theological basis.

The talk crescendos with some startling statements about love: "Love does not reach from afar—it demands incarnation. Love demands death—death to self—death to the mirage of success that society is built upon.” These difficult words challenge the missional Christian to question the abysmal heights of our Christian love, which is usually characterized by disconnected monetary donations and sterilized short-term service. This valuable message about the pressing social problem of displaced people ultimately speaks to even deeper problems with western missions and is well worth the 25-minute investment needed to hear it.


Jim Jordan lives in Miami, FL in an intentional Christian community and serves as Short Term Coordinator for Latin America Mission (LAM)