Historic launch of Christian anti-corruption campaign - EXPOSED shining a light on corruption

On Thursday the 1 year launch for EXPOSED - Shining a light on corruption took place.  It was truly an historic event.  

Below you will find a short interview that I did about EXPOSED for UCB radio, our EXPOSED press release and one or two pictures form the event.

Here's what you can do to add your voice!

1.  Book the dates 14-20 October 2013 and either attend, or arrange, an EXPOSED Vigil in your town or city. Details for organising a vigil will be on our website soon.

2.  Consider what one thing you and your circile of influence (family, friends, colleagues, community) could do to change a something or someone that is corrupt.  I would suggest that you A) Call together 5 or so friends B) tell them about EXPOSED and ask them to stand with you to witness God's will on this issue C) Pray about what God may want you to engage with in your community (corruption in Africa is very different from corruption in Europe.  You will know best what is most urgent and important to deal with) D) Decide how you will engage this issue E) Go to http://www.exposed2013.com and share your story!

3.  Visit http://www.exposed2013.com and add your name to the Global Call. We intend to hand tens of millions of names and signatures to the leaders of the world's most economically and politically powerful nations when they meet in Austrailia for the G20 meetings in 2014.  Your voice counts!  Remember this slogan:  Corruption has a name, poverty has a face, you have a voice!  Simply sign up and you will one of the millions who will remind these leaders to govern ethically and manage the earth's resources for the good of every citizen of the planet.

Here is a copy of the UCB interview (MP3) - thank you to UCB media http://www.ucbmedia.co.uk

Here's our press release:

The launch of EXPOSED - Shining a Light on Corruption, is an historic event as it marks the first time in history that leading Christian agencies and organisations have united to take a stand against corruption, one of the major factors contributing to global poverty.

This message set the tone for the launch of EXPOSED2013 in London on Thursday 11 October 2012.

Campaign chairman and International Director of Micah Challenge, Rev Joel Edwards, said: ‘No nation is immune. This current economic crisis means that greed, the excesses of corporate cultures, dishonesty and unaccountable behaviour has touched us where it hurts. EXPOSED is here to join an increasing chorus of concern, which says ‘enough is enough’. It is an opportunity for the church to do what we are called to do: to raise our voice in holy outrage and provide practical offerings of hope.’

The launch, attended by partners, supporters and media, marked the start of a 12-month campaign of awareness-raising and action. In the next year, hundreds of millions of people will be mobilised to commit to and promote practical steps for ethical behaviour in business, government, the Church and society as a whole. The year will culminate in the EXPOSED Global Vigil against Corruption from 14-20 October 2013 and with the signing of a Global Call against corruption which will be handed to the G20 gathering of leading economies in Australia in 2014. Organisers are aiming to gather 10 million signatories.

At the event at Westminster Central Hall, chaired by Lord Paul Boateng, EXPOSED International Co-ordinator Dr Dion Forster said ‘I am convinced that we are responding to God’s call to the Church to take a stand on the issue of corruption across the globe.’

Giving the Biblical grounding for the campaign, Dr Forster continued: ‘Corruption is a sin. It is a sin that is perpetrated against the most vulnerable members of society. It is an affront to God. It is this truth that makes the EXPOSED campaign so important and so urgent.’

Dr Chris Lodewyk representing the Unashamedly Ethical campaign which challenges people to make a public commitment to ‘values, ethics and clean living’, pledged its backing for the EXPOSED campaign.  Corruption, he said, is a particular scourge in Africa but is certainly not confined to that continent.

Global partners include the British and Foreign Bible Society, the American Bible Society, The Salvation Army, Unashamedly Ethical, the World Evangelical Alliance and Micah Challenge International, but the EXPOSED2013 campaign has a much wider and broader support base. EXPOSED has been working with the United Nations Millennium Campaign and Tax Justice Network.

In the next year, the Church will be called to act with integrity and openness. Governments will be urged to act justly and honestly and to implement laws to stop all forms of corruption, so that sustainable growth is possible now and for future generations. Business people will also be asked to promote honest dealings in pricing, procurement, taxes and transparency so that enterprises of all sizes have the opportunity to prosper.

Christians across the world will be asked to take personal action to challenge their own behaviours and stand against corruption in their own communities. Local action is also advocated, with individuals and groups being asked to join and organise a Vigil against Corruption from 14-20 October 2013. At national and international level up to 10 million Christians will be encouraged to add their voices to EXPOSED2013’s Global Call against corruption that will be delivered to leaders of the world’s most powerful nations.

- Ends-

About Exposed

EXPOSED is a coalition of Christian Organisations that aims to challenge the global Church, business and governments to highlight the impact of corruption on the poorest of the poor. The EXPOSED coalition partners include the Bible Society of the United Kingdom, the Bible Society of North America, The Salvation Army, Unashamedly Ethical, the World Evangelical Alliance and Micah Challenge International. Others who have indicated their support for the campaign include Tearfund, 24/7 Prayer and the Association for a Just Society (AJS) in Honduras, CANOPI in Malaysia, The Langham Partnership, Global Day of Prayer, Advocates International, Empower21 and Asian Access. There has also been engagement with the Catholic Bishops Conference, Lambeth Palace, The Organisation of Instituted Churches in Africa, Bishop Ben Quashie of Jos, Nigeria, Bishop Zac Niringiye of Uganda, Dr Goodwill Shana from Zimbabwe, Bishop Tendero of Lausanne and the NGO umbrella body Micah Network.

For more information about EXPOSED go to www.exposed2013.com

Footnotes

Footnote 1: December 2011 report from Washington-based Global Financial Integrity

Footnote 2: Interview with Daniel Kaufman, Global Governance Director, The World Bank Institute, “Six Questions about the cost of corruption” April 8th 2004

Holland to England - EXPOSED shining a light on corruption launch

I arrived in Holland on Monday morning and made my way through to Nijmegen where I am doing some work on my 2nd PhD at Radboud University.

Nijmegen is a beautiful city, and it is an immeasurable honour to be working with Professor van der Watt and Professor Hermans. We had dinner together that evening after our first meeting to discuss the progress in my research.

Yesterday I spent the day sorting out administration for my stay, connecting with the University and doing preparation for our EXPOSED launch in London.

You will see two pictures with this post. One is of my rental bike while in Holland. It is a great cruiser with 3 gears (plenty for the flat cycling lanes). Holla d is really geared for cycling! I love it! The other picture was taken in Central Nijmegen. It is a beautiful old city! I will have to write up some of the history when I am back at a computer. Safe to say that there has been a settlement here for over 2000 years.

As I write this post I am on a train from Nijmegen to Schipol airport via Utrecht. I fly to London today for some press interviews and final prep for our EXPOSED launch at Westminster Central Hall at 11am UK time on Thursday the 11th of October 2012. Please could I ask for your prayers for this very important and significant event?

You can see details about EXPOSED on http://www.exposed2013.com - at the time of writing this the site is being updated. So please do check back there if it is not up when you visit.

Please sign up for EXPOSED and shine a light on corruption!

You can read our press release on the launch of EXPOSED here http://gatewaynews.co.za/2012/10/04/exposed-will-shine-light-on-global-corruption/

Thanks to Gateway for supporting the campaign.

I appreciate your prayers for the campaign, our teams, my family and me!

Global Corruption - a meeting in the Houses of Parliament

Today was such an amazing day!  

As I write this I am sitting in the Houses of Parliament in London listening to a presentation on International Corruption by Richard Alderman of the Serious Fraud Office.

The image on the left was taken at the entry hall into the House of Lords. It is such an amazing space! I decided to take it in black and white (the light was not great, and a building of this size and space is best captured in black and white!) 

Back to the presentation; what was clear from the presentation is that corruption, on an international scale, is an extremely serious matter. The costs and repercussions of corruption in the international arena have grave consequences for the poor.  Yet, the reach is also into the middle class and even the wealtheir members of society.  Corruption quite simply erodes the fabric of society making it unstable and leaving us all vulnerable.  If corruption is left unchecked it tends to increase, drawing in more and more persons and leaving more and more victims in its wake.

The presentation gave some insights into the manner in which corruption is hidden from the general public. In short, it is because we all have a sense of moral 'rightness' within us, we know that abuse of power, wealth, and position for personal benefit is unjust. Corruption is not only a matter for governments, it is also very prevalent in businesses, and even in NGO's and the religious sector.  In some instances companies are far more corrupt (and powerfully so!), and the consequences of their corrupt practises are far more severe, than those of governments.

What strikes me as I have listened to this presentation is that many countries in which corruption is rife have an overwhelmingly Christian population.  Why isn’t the Church forming its members to act responsibly in their role in government and business - in society in general?  In many of these instances it is persons who sit in our pews on Sunday, who are robing the poor, stealing form the nation, and breaking the law on a Monday.

Christians, what should we be doing about corruption in our midst?  What do you do if you are aware of corrupt practises in your work environment, or you have been involved in corrupt practises yourself?

What would God want you to do?  What would God want your Church to do?

Our meetings for EXPOSED continue today.  I would appreciate your prayers! Follow EXPOSED on twitter here and please 'like' us on Facebook.

In London for EXPOSED 2013 meetings

I arrived in the beautiful city of London yesterday morning.  I am here to meet with various good people about the EXPOSED 2013 campaign that we are starting up.

This is such wonderful work! There is an increasing awareness of the need to grow our Christian witness on issues of corruption and poverty.  Over US$1 Trillion goes missing each year across the globe due to corrupt practises, maladministration and poor governance across the world.  Can you imagine what this money could be used for - primary health care, nutrition, clean water, education, economic empowerment and development!

So, what we are doing this week is meeting with a number of ministries that are already involved in global poverty or ethics development efforts.  Our aim is not to ask them to do anything new, but simply to say, let's do what we are doing together for a short period of time.  

Forming a coalition of persons who act with one heart and speak with one voice about these issues can be a significant public witness for the Kingdom of God!

Please do pray for us - if you're interested in finding out more about the EXPOSED campaign please follow us on twitter or like our facebook page, or read this press release on the Micah Challenge website.

Here are a few pictures that I took as I was heading to my meeting with Tricia Neil and Ken Kosta at the Alpha International office - the picture on the right is Tricia Neill and I in the Alpha international office.  These are such great people doing such wonderful work across the world! I am constantly amazed at how a small team accomplishes so much.  Joel Edwards and I also had the joy of meeting David Ryal from the Catholic Bishops Conference.

I shall also be sitting in on the Micah Challenge staff meeting.  It was wonderful to meet Joel and Vikki in person!  I had met Amanda in Cape Town last year.  Today I will meet the other link in this chain - Felicity.  What a wonderful group of people!!

An odd Church!

This morning Matthew Charlton, an American Methodist minister from Nashville, delivered his remarkable paper in our working group. His paper is entitled " “That’s Not So Odd: The Spiritless Church in a Post Christian Age.” (simply click on the link to download it).

In this paper Matthew argues that one of the real problems with the Church in a 'post-Christian' era is that it has become tame, ordinary, and so much a part of society. Of course I asked the question whether we do truly live in a post-Christian era (you only need to look at the Church in the two-thirds world that is growing at a rate of knots to realise that perhaps we are not living in a post-Christian era, but merely in a post Western-Christian era!)

However, Matthew's paper (which is incredibly well written and is WELL WORTH READING - hint, hint to all my students!!!) resonated with a feeling that I had whilst in London. On Saturday I visited St Paul's Cathedral (my New Testament students should be familiar with this image, remember this is the Cathedral that the Queen described as "Awful, amusing, and artificial" after Christopher Wren spent most of his life working on it. I use this as an illustration to show how important it is to understand the context locked language of statements - in Wren's time awful meant to be filled with awe, amusing meant amazing, and artificial meant something that is intricately crafted and well engineered - all in all she was giving him a compliment, of course. The point that I try to make is that the language of the Bible (which is much older, and more context locked than the English of 300 years ago) can be similarly misunderstood and abused).

However, I have digressed!

Matthew's paper reminded me how I felt when I visited St Paul's Cathedral. This is a magnificent testimony to the triumphalism of Christianity some 300 years ago! It was erected at the height of the relationship between Christendom and the empire to offer worship and honour to God! I am certain that over its life it has served as a place of refuge, comfort, inspiration, and even discovery of new life and forgiveness, for many people. However, in 2007 it was nothing more than an oddity! It was something to visit and marvel at. However, for most of the persons who visited it it had nothing to do with faith, with Christ, with death, with sacrifice, with real life. Rather, the building was amusing (in the modern sense of the word!) There are 443 steps to climb to the top (I climbed them all! Here's the picture to prove it! This picture shows the view from the top of St Paul's across the Millennium bridge to the Tate Modern art Gallery along the Thames in London). Sadly, St Paul's does not seem to have space to encounter God. Well, very little of it anyway. Mostly it is just a hustle and bustle with tourists coming to be amazed and amused.

I wondered if the 'institutional' Church of our day is not facing a similar challenge? People look at it and can recognise that at some stage it was grand and glorious, but it is so far from what they need, want, and experience in their everyday lives that they simply regard it as "awful, amusing, and artificial" - in the modern understanding of these words. I think that Matthew's paper, which suggests that the Church needs to be odd (in a very different way to that of St Paul's) gives us some real answers! The Church needs to be odd in discipline, in holiness, in vocation, in mission, in true live. The Church needs to be Spirit filled and Christ lead. It needs, not to be in contrast to the world (like a prophet), but lovingly and evangelically presenting the world with a real alternative that may seem odd, but that brings life - a message of Christ that saves, of a world in which no one person has too much, and no one has too little.

Anyway, I was challenged by this!