Easter Issue Easter Monthly AReformed PM# 40009999 R9375 MAIL TO: THE DISRUPTION ISSUE 76th Year of Publication | March 8, 2021 | No. 3123 8,2021|No. |March ofPublication Year 76th 12 “Jesus carries the cross” by James B. Janknegt (bcartfarm.com). | Church reimagined reimagined | Church A Via Dolorosa for a pandemic. The streets are empty. A COVID VIA DOLOROSA How lonely sits the city that was once full of people. Canadian. Creative. Christ-centred. This year, our loneliness deeply resonates with the forsaken Christ. But take Under an ominous sky, heart! Resurrection is coming. | Brian Walsh perhaps a portent of what is to come, when the sun would refuse to shine, the lonely Jesus is walking out of the frame. It is the forsakenness of it all. No one shaking their heads in horror. The longer I look, the deeper the disquiet, Long before that piercing cry, The streets are empty in James B. Janknegt’s and an anxious foreboding takes hold of my soul. Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani, portrayal of Jesus carrying his cross. 15 long before that God-forsakenness on the cross, All of creation is about to grieve in darkness, | The scent ofsalvation scent The | Jesus is forsaken on the Via Dolorosa. Where are the daughters of Jerusalem, the very earth is about to be shaken to its core, wailing and beating their breasts? but there is no one there. Here on that road of sorrow, Where is his mother, or Magdalene, or the other he is devastatingly alone. women? Apart from this desolate man on a death march, Not even his most beloved disciple is in the there is nothing animate in this cityscape. No one leading him out. picture. No jeering crowds. Not a tree to be found, No virus-carrying spittle. A black Christ carries his own lynching tree, nor so much as a blade of grass No bloodthirsty mobs. but this is no white supremacist rally, No animals, No mocking soldiers. neither the Proud Boys nor the QAnon devotees not even a rat. No politicians inciting a riot. have shown up. No birds of the air, No one washing their hands of any responsibility. even the starlings have disappeared. $5.00 Alone. No one to bear witness. Forsaken. Continued on page 2 News VIA DOLOROSA CONTINUED no assistance to extend, with eyes opened anew to the forces of death, to this forsaken man carrying a cross. we can join the procession. Jesus walks down a city street, devoid of even a few stones on the side of the road. Is that a church that we see just behind Jesus? Maybe for the first time our own loneliness There will be no crying out on this lonely parade. But it too is empty. can deeply resonate with the forsakenness of this Christ. Neither loud “hosannas” nor screams of “crucify him!” There is no one to come outside to see their saviour, no one to offer him a drink of water, And maybe beyond that ominous sky At this moment of utter abandonment, no one to weep for him. we can catch a glimpse shattering betrayal, and heart-breaking denial, The church is as empty and as lonely as the city. of the shell-pink dawn of resurrection. Jesus walks to the cross without witnesses. The city bears mute witness, Maybe beyond that city of death Save two. but there is no one there. we can imagine a new city, Nor is there even anywhere for people to live. with streets for living in, The city itself, This is a cityscape of institutions of commerce, a treed city with living waters, and us. government and religion, a city of renewed joy. but it is not a place of human habitation. The city bears witness. No houses or condo buildings, Maybe beyond the loneliness of this city, not even a tent encampment for the homeless. the breathlessness of this pandemic, From the neo-classical dome with echoes the forsakenness of this man, of the Capitol in Washington, No one is there . except us. we can breathe again the breath of new creation, to the corporate skyscrapers, gathering together at the resurrection party. the city bears witness. Standing outside of the frame, holding this Easter issue of Christian Courier, Brian Walsh Jesus didn’t grab a slurpy at 7-Eleven, meditating on this evocative painting, Brian is a retired campus pastor nor a Big Mac at McDonald’s. we are called to bear witness and the founder of the Wine Carrying his cross, he had no need to get a fill up at Shell, to this forsakenness. Before Breakfast communi- and it is too late in the game to drop into ty in Toronto. His most recent book, with Sylvia Keesmaat, is Target or Walmart for some retail therapy. Maybe after a year of such isolation, Romans Disarmed: Resisting in the wake of so much death, Empire, Demanding Justice And the World Bank has nothing to offer, with grief-filled tears still flowing, (Brazos). largely peaceful until January 26, when protesters took over the his- GLOBAL PROTESTS toric Red Fort in Delhi. Across political parties and provincial borders, Canadians are Support grows in the West for Indian farmers protesting agricultural reforms. caught up in solidarity with the farmers. Prime Minister Trudeau, Erin O’Toole (Conservative) and Jagmeet Singh (NDP) have all publicly Maaike VanderMeer responded as have premiers like John Horgan (B.C.). MAYBE YOU’VE SEEN THE “I stand THE THREE REFORM BILLS with farmers” bumper stickers or In the 1960s, then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi introduced the the tweets from celebrities like “Green Revolution” to address famine in India. She dramatically in- Rihanna. Maybe you drove past creased the growth of rice and wheat, implemented state-regulated the hundreds of people protesting agricultural markets (called “mandis”) and a way for farmers to sell in Vancouver last December or surplus harvest at the “minimum support prices” (MSP). Gandhi out- the thousands in Toronto. Maybe lawed stockpiling of essential foods. These laws were meant to make more recently the protests in India self-sufficient agriculturally, to protect farmers and to prevent Brampton or Edmonton have food shortages. And since the 70s, India has been self-sufficient agri- stopped traffic for you. Or, like culturally. Therefore Prime Minister Narendra Modi feels validated in me, you came across a handful of removing Gandhi’s constraints. people holding cardboard signs The first reform bill is the “Farmer’s Produce and Trade and Com- at an intersection in small town merce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill.” It releases farmers to sell to Mission, B.C. privatized buyers, but farmers lose their protection in the form of MSP. On September 27, 2020, Indi- The second reform bill is the “Farmers (Empowerment and Protec- an President Ram Nath Kovind tion) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill,” releas- approved three bills reforming ing farmers from state law to centralized government for the purpose Randeep Wikimedia Maddoke, existing farm laws. His party Farmers fear losing land that belonged to their families for generations. of making contracts with private businesses. The flip-side is that farm- claimed the bills would liberalize ers do not have legal recourse in their state courts. Over 80 percent the farm market in India, but the 26, 250 million people went on strike throughout India, completely of India’s farmers own small farms (less than a hectare). They have proposed changes were met with shutting down some states. little economic margin to negotiate contracts. And while the state-run immediate and stiff opposition “These controversial agricultural laws open up a gateway for private mandis will stay open, any farmer bound into a contract with the pri- from farmers. After two months companies to exploit the market,” said Sukhraj Grewal, a student in vate sector is not allowed to sell his produce at the mandi even if the of localized protests an estimated Thunder Bay, Ontario. mandi price is higher. Farmers are concerned that individual contracts 300,000 farmers marched to New The farmers are still camped outside of New Delhi, demanding that will drive them further into debt and the loss of land. Delhi in tractors, on horses and by the government repeal all three bills. Eleven rounds of talks remain The third bill is the “Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill,” foot. Police resisted them along inconclusive. Farmers’ organizations, religious groups and NGOs set which allows for stockpiling goods, a move that is good for traders the way, keeping them from en- up langars, kitchens, which feed everyone regardless of caste, class, but not for small farmers. tering Delhi itself. On November or religion. There’s a makeshift school for children. Protests remained It’s not to say that everything was perfect under the old laws. Sui- 2 MARCH 8, 2021 | CHRISTIAN COURIER News Randeep Wikimedia Maddoke, The November protests in India have been called the single largest protest in human history. cide levels among farmers are high, often caused by debt and carried out by drinking pesticides. Randeep Wikimedia Maddoke, People’s Archive of Rural India Three hundred thousand farmers marched to New Delhi. added up the suicides from 1995 to 2019: 296,438. Let that sink in. Members of Parliament on issues India is headed to a repeat of the This struggle is as serious as life relating to Indian farmers consti- 1984 Sikh massacre, “When you and death for the farmers. In fact, tute an unacceptable interference are asking for your constitutional to support the protests several in our internal affairs,” things right and you are being portrayed individuals have made Indian were not looking well.