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Working for Justice & Peace |
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At Ravensworth Baptist Church, we are as concerned about the quality of life for all people in this world as we are about eternal life in the next world. That’s because we meet in the Scriptures a God who has numbered the hairs of our heads and cares about every aspect of our lives. We know a God who wants all God’s children to experience life in abundance, and we don’t believe God wants us to wait until we’re dead to experience abundant life.
We also recognize that there are many forces at work in the world we inhabit that conspire to limit people’s access to abundant life. Hunger, war, extreme poverty, racism, sexism, homophobia, and all kinds of oppression are very real problems that God calls us, as people of faith, to address. We do this because we believe in the kingdom, or reign, of God. We believe God’s reign is present even in this broken world—sometimes only in little pockets, like outposts in enemy territory—but that it is destined to come in its fullness one day, when God will be sovereign and all relationships will be ordered according to God’s desires.
In the meantime, we accept the commission of the Apostle Paul to be ambassadors for Christ and ministers of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5). This entails working for justice and peace in the world, and we do this in a variety of ways:
- We work to end hunger in the United States and around the world, through participation in Bread for the World, the CROP Walk, Watering Malawi, and related organizations;
- We seek to counter the church’s shameful history of homophobia by reaching out to the GLBT community as members of the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists (AWAB);
- We advocate for justice and peace in Israel and Palestine through our Holy Land Peacemaking Initiative, by supporting the work of United Palestinian Appeal, the International Center in Bethlehem, and related organizations, and by traveling to the region to see the situation firsthand and to meet with organizations and individuals working on the ground to bring reconciliation between Palestinians and Israelis;
- We participate in the effort to eliminate substandard housing in the US and internationally by working with Habitat for Humanity, the Fuller Center for Housing, and Rebuilding Together;
- We support efforts around the world to do justice in situations of poverty and oppression, including Fulaa Lifeline International in Southern Sudan, the Ricks Institute in Liberia, and the Lay Theological Institute in Cuba; and
- We engage in dialogue with persons from other faith traditions, by participating in the Interfaith Dialogues for Peace project in the Annandale/Fairfax County area.
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Our Story 