Dear Friends in Christ,
I am sure you have seen or heard the distressing news coming out of Afghanistan about the famine threatening the country, exacerbated by a disintegrating economy and prolonged drought. More than half the population is facing extreme food shortages. On the five-level ranking system used to classify food insecurity, with 1 being “minimal” and 5 constituting “famine,” nearly half the population is either experiencing “crisis” (level 3) or “emergency” (level 4) food insecurity. The World Food Program (WFP) said Monday that the number of people living in near-famine conditions in Afghanistan has risen to 8.7 million, up by 3 million from earlier this year. All of this is unfolding in heartbreaking reality at a time we are looking forward to the holiday season, with its excesses of food and indiscriminate purchasing of things we don’t need.
Yesterday I was standing in line at Starbucks in Safeway. From where I stood I could see the store’s efforts to persuade us to buy more food than any one person or family could possibly eat. I could see pizza, and ice cream, and chips, and prepared meals ready to pop in the microwave to feed us at a moment’s notice. I reflected on the fact that I was standing where I was because I had left the house in a rush and hadn’t had time to fix myself breakfast (which I never got because the line moved too slowly, but unlike the children in Afghan hospitals suffering from severe malnutrition, I can afford to skip a meal, or two), and it is sheer accident of both that means I am able to feed my already overfed body wherever and whenever I want, let alone when I actually need, and I wondered how I could indulge in my usual holiday activities and indulgences, knowing that millions of people are facing literal starvation across the world.
I am considering scaling back, or even giving up altogether, the things I spend money on over the holidays - a tree, our annual family brunch at Alice’s Restaurant in the Santa Cruz mountains on the way to pick up that tree, gift giving (and most certainly I will be telling people not to buy me anything but to make a donation instead to humanitarian relief in Afghanistan), food delicacies, fancy dinners etc. Instead I plan to donate the money to helping the people of Afghanistan. When disasters occur, I usually donate through Episcopal Relief and Development, but they are not in Afghanistan for obvious reasons. Instead I am considering the international Rescue Committee, or Unicef.
Jesus told the rich young man that the way to eternal life was to sell all he had and give the money to the poor. We are very good at rationalizing this statement; at telling ourselves Jesus didn’t really mean it, or didn’t mean it for us. And I have posed the question before, what if he did? And I have said that I think it better that we acknowledge that he did mean it and we are unable or unwilling to do it, than to pretend he didn’t mean it. Because admitting that we will not or cannot do what Jesus says at least opens ourselves up to the knowledge we need to change. I may not be willing to sell all I have, but I am pretty sure that not being willing to give up Christmastide as defined by the West, is not only sinful, but puts my soul at risk. Not to earn myself a place in heaven, but because not doing anything about this crisis is crushing the fullness of life out of me right now through feelings of heartbreak, and anger, and frustration, and despair. And so I am impelled to act in the only way I know how. I invite you to join me.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/10/25/afghanistan-food-crisis/