Lydia Neufeld Harder's 'Singing A Subversive Song Of Hope'

The article “Singing a Subversive Song of Hope” by Lydia Neufeld Harder focuses on the different definitions of service and draws on how service that is inclusive has strong connections with a feminist reading of the Bible. The ideal definition of service is “something a person does for someone else, thus at least temporarily preferring the other’s good to one’s own (Harder, 14). For Harder, service strays away from this ideal model when there becomes ambiguity where love for oneself and love for others overlaps. The three different kinds of service that Harder mentions are: service arising from inequality, service from “above,” and service as solidarity and friendship. By using the term service to describe numerous diverse actions, there is a blurring of lines between
On the other hand, service that arises because of the need for the other is subtler in the ways in which it does harm. This service does harm when the one who is assisting others seeks their own good by doing service. Service such as this is evident to me in some evangelical Christian circles. “Operation Christmas Child” and certain types of mission trips clearly have an upper-class benefactor who is gracing those in need. There is an obvious giver and a needy receiver. This service always has made me feel uncomfortable. In school when it was highly suggested that each student bring at least one shoebox for Operation Christmas Child, I couldn’t understand why we were buying toys for these children that most likely were made in factories in their countries, when instead organizations like MCC do Christmas Giving that facilitates friendship. The worst of this was that youth groups would travel to a warehouse in Calgary, sort the shoeboxes full of cheap, Walmart and Dollarama items, and afterward go shopping at the malls where they would spend way more on clothes then they did on the items in their