Justice Mission : A Video-Enhanced Curriculum Reflecting the Heart of God for the Oppressed of the World

by Jim Hancock and The International Justice Mission

• ISBN13: 9780310243779
• ISBN10: 0310243777
• Edition: Teacher
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-08-01
• Publisher: Zondervan

Summary

". . . learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow." For kids raised in contemporary American churches, these words from Isaiah might ring true but they wouldn't have many ideas about how to do those things. They just haven't heard much in Sunday School about actually creating justice. That's about to change. For 25 years Jim Hancock has been a youth worker and creator of youth ministry resources like The Compassion Project (to help adolescents make a difference for the poor), EdgeTV (to help youth workers create safe places to talk about unsafe things) and Good Sex (to help kids wrestle with sexuality). Now, collaborating with The International Justice Mission, Hancock has created a process to engage youth groups in God's call to seek justice on earth. In the last decade of the 20th century, The International Justice Mission emerged as an effective global instrument for extracting children from forced labor, releasing girls from prostitution, bringing murderous cops and soldiers to justice and restoring stolen land to poor farmers--all in the name of Jesus. Now they're telling the American church what they've learned about the character and methods of oppression, God's passion against injustice and how to join the fight against evil. What a story! There's nothing like The Justice Mission. In four sessions youth workers will engage their group in understanding and embracing four very big ideas: * How injustice works (and how to strike back). * How much God hates injustice (and how to hate what God hates). * How to answer God's call to fight injustice (beginning where they are). * How to trust God's resources (doing God's work, God's way). Beyond summer mission trips, beyond child sponsorship, beyond personal piety, The Justice Mission is the next step in doing what Jesus would do. This curriculum includes a music CD featuring music by top Christian artists, produced by Squint Entertainment (producer of Roaring Lambs), and a video for use with the leader's guide.

Table of Contents

Forward	9	(1)
Introduction: God is Big on Justice	10	(7)
Oppression	17	(16)
What God Hates	33	(20)
Joining the Fight Against Injustice	53	(16)
God's Vision Brings God's Provision	69	(18)
Do it Now	87

Excerpts

THE JUSTICE MISSION 1
OPPRESSION
STUFF
• List-making setup for brainstorming; video playback; The Justice Mission
video cued to Oppression; Personal Inventory sheets, pencils or pens.
GATHERING
• Brainstorm: Compile and rate a list of sources that give us information about the world.
THE BIG IDEA
• Discussion: Defining oppression.
• Video-driven Discussion: Oppression
OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS
• Bible Study: Isaiah 1:10-17
REFLECTION
• Personal Inventory:What’s most important?
ACTION
• WebSite: visit ijm.org/JusticeMission for more about the nature of injustice
• Dig: mass media survey
• Journal: Personal Journaling
THE JUSTICE MISSION I I 20 I I oppression
THIS SESSION
When C.S. Lewis began explaining Christian faith to his post-Christian culture, he
chose the notion of unfairness because everyone knows how it feels to be treated unfairly.
We’ve all been bullied by someone stronger. We’ve all been lied to, tricked, cheated, and
fleeced. And no one likes it, not a tiny bit. In a surprising twist, unfairness generates such
deep resentment that many people end up doing to others what was done to them. It’s
impossible to find the logic behind hurting people—not because they hurt us but because
someone else hurt us. There is no logic; it’s unfair, but there it is.
Oppressors use lies and force to take what rightly belongs to someone else. That, in a
nutshell, is injustice.
Injustice is woven into the fabric of life. Open a news magazine, turn on your television;
oppressors are there. In fact, most people are numb to it. Joseph Stalin, who ordered the
killing of millions, is credited with the notion that the death of one person is a tragedy, but
the death of thousands is a statistic. That’s numbness.
Who has what it takes to look at global oppression without flinching? Not many. Not me.
It’s too big. I feel too small.
I suspect you feel that way too. And I think the kids we serve have grown up more or less
expecting injustice; more or less accepting injustice as a statistical probability. This is a
problem.
Here’s a solution. We took four American kids to meet individuals who are the victims of
oppressors. Ben, Charissa, Lindsay, and Trever are eyewitnesses to injustice. While we
looked over their shoulders these four looked in the eyes of a girl who was forced into
prostitution when she should have been in seventh grade. They met a boy whose 10th-grade
year was interrupted when he was forced out of school to roll beedi cigarettes for a loan
shark. These are not statistics, they’re tragedies, and there are a lot more like them.
Why India? We took Ben, Charissa, Lindsay, and Trever there because it was convenient timing.
Consequently, you’re seeing only what we saw. We’re not saying this is the only—or even the
worst—oppression in the world. We could have visited dozens of other places in India and
hundreds, if not thousands, of locations around the globe. There’s no political violence in these
videos, no forced relocation, no ethnic cleansing, no crooked cops, dishonest soldiers, corrupt
judges, or paramilitary terrorism. We went to India for 10 days and this is what we found.
Truth be told, it hasn’t been that long since all this oppression and more was common in
North America. Oppression is every place. So, no finger pointing.
Except at oppressors.
Whatever they look like and wherever they live, they’re the bad guys. God, who is enormously
tolerant of failure, mistakes, slips, backslides, and screwups, is pointedly, passionately
intolerant of oppression. That’s what we want your kids to get in this session.
They already know what God loves. We want them to start thinking about what God hates.
GATHERING
Brainstorm: Compile and rate a list of sources that provide information about the world.
[ ASK SOMEONE TO WRITE THE LIST ON A BOARD SO EVERYONE CAN SEE IT. PUSH
YOUR GROUP TO THINK FAST AND SPEAK THEIR MINDS.]
I’ll go first: CNN. MSNBC. FoxNews. OK, fill out the list with other sources of information
about the world. I have another one: The Daily Show.What other sources give us information
about the world?
[WITHOUT HIJACKING THE PROCESS, KEEP PRIMING THE PUMP IF THINGS
MOVE SLOWLY. ]
• How about business travelers?
• What about tourists?
• Missionaries?
• Military travelers?
• Diplomats?
• Artists and storytellers?
Let’s rank this list from most to least reliable? [ ASK YOUR LIST MAKER TO NUMBER
THE LIST AS THE GROUP VOTES. ]
Do some of these sources strike you more as propaganda than reliable
eyewitnesses?
Talk about that:What do you think makes one source more reliable than another?
Let’s make a list of sources that give us information about the world.
THE BIG IDEA
Here’s a working definition of justice:
[ THIS WOULD BE A GOOD PLACE FOR A SLIDE OR POSTER]
Can you improve on that definition?
Here’s a working definition of oppression:
[ THIS WOULD BE A GOOD PLACE FOR A SLIDE OR POSTER]
Can you improve on that definition?
What are some things our most reliable sources tell us about justice and oppression
around the world?
VIDEO: OPPRESSION
I want to show you a short story about some people who have seen what we’re talking
about with their own eyes. It’s called Oppression.
[WHEN THE VIDEO ENDS. ]
On a scale of one to five, how credible do you find these storytellers?
[ IF YOU WISH TO CREATE SOME PHYSICAL MOVEMENT AT THIS POINT, HAVE THE
GROUP RESPOND BY MOVING TO A PLACE IN THE ROOM THAT REPRESENTS A SCALE
OF ONE TO FIVE AND COMPLETE THE SENTENCE TO EACH OTHER. OTHERWISE, ASK
THEM TO RESPOND WITH A SHOW OF HANDS OR SIMPLY SPEAK UP.]
1 2 3 4 5
They’re I’d need more I’m I think I They’re
hard to evidence, torn, believe them, easy to
believe, because … because… because… believe,
because… because…
Were there any surprises for you in their stories?
What’s the most significant thing you heard or saw in the video?
• Why do you think that’s important?
“Oppression is using force and lies to deprive others of what is rightly theirs.”
“Justice is working to see that every person has what is rightly hers.”
Compare what you saw and heard about oppressors with the worst bullies you ever
knew at school or in your neighborhood.
• What differences do you see between ordinary bullies and oppressors?
• Have you ever been at the mercy of a bully? [ IF YES, ASK HOW THAT FELT
AND HOW IT WAS RESOLVED (IF IT WAS RESOLVED).]
Ben says oppressors trap their victims. What do you think about that?
• What evidence did you see that supports or contradicts Ben’s claim?
Charissa thought the rock quarry was the worst thing she saw. Describe the worst
thing you saw.
• Why do you think that struck you?
Lindsay thinks the church focuses on what God loves to the exclusion of what God
hates. What do you think about that?
• How can we make room for both?
Trever says if it weren’

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Excerpted from The Justice Mission: A Video-Enhanced Curriculum Reflecting the Heart of God for the Oppressed of the World by Jim Hancock, International Justice Mission Staff
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