2008 March | Revolution in Jesusland

Worlds colliding around Columbus Justice Revival March 31, 2008

Posted by Zack in Ohio | write a comment

Found this in the email inbox this morning from someone who works in Ohio progressive politics and saw me speak on the Revolution in Jesusland in Columbus a few months back:

Zack-

Thought you might find this interesting:
http://www.justicerevival.org
A kid at a recent antiwar event gave me a
flyer for it (megachurch-sponsored, 3-day event)
-- it says "love god? end poverty."  

Flyer printed w/union label, so I was like,
hmmmm...things coming together...fascinating.

Fascinating indeed! I’m really looking forward to this event. I’ve been to the incredible Columbus Vineyard church, have read and listened to a lot of pastor Rich Nathan’s stuff, and can’t wait to see how this event shapes up.

Tags: Justice Revival, Rich Nathan, Vineyard

Battlestar crew goofs off on Letterman March 31, 2008

Posted by Zack in Off Topic | 4 comments

This may seem off topic, but…actually there’s a hook. Battlestar Galactica has a deep theological subplot. The humans (descended from ancient earthlings) are polytheists, the robots (who are kind of more human than humans) are monotheists. There are all kinds of arguments about the true nature of God. In this fourth and final season we may *meet* God!

If you haven’t gotten into Battlestar, there’s still hope for you. Go buy Season One and watch just the first episode. Then, you’ll be hooked. You’ll have one week to catch up before Season Four starts on Sci-Fi channel on Friday April 4.

It’s almost the best show ever (after Firefly): a really deep, complex political & theological thriller. With spaceships!

I just went to the site, and here’s their promo photo for the new season. See: I’m not exaggerating the religious (er…sacrilegious) component…

Tag: battlestar galactica theology tangent

An hysterical answer to Viola & Barna’s critics March 29, 2008

Posted by Zack in | 4 comments

Oh, this is great!

Frank Viola and George Barna have written a fascinating book called Pagan Christianity. It basically goes through and shows how nearly every practice of the modern church has nothing to do with Christianity, and in many cases conflicts with the aims of Jesus and the early Christian movement. We all know how Christmas trees and the Easter Bunny were borrowed from Pagan cultures. But that’s not what concerns Viola and Barna. They’re talking about things like pews and the “order of worship,” things that, in their view pull church away from true worship and community.

So they may have laid it on a little thick. And maybe they could have been a little more gentle. I don’t know. But there have been a ton of angry reviews of the book, many by people who you’d think would agree with most of what Viola and Barna are saying.

I hope the publisher commissioned this excellent video. If they did, they’ve definitely got something wonderful going on in their marketing department.

Another West Hartford kid goes to church March 28, 2008

Posted by Zack in Connecticut | write a comment

A little while ago, I got an email from a guy I went to high school with in West Hartford, CT, named Matt Casper. He told me that, though an atheist, he had just been paid to go to church all over the country as part of a project by evangelical author and instigator Jim Henderson. In the book, Jim uses Matt to make a whole bunch of points about all different kinds of churches. The underlying point seems to be: traditional and non-traditional churches alike are doing little that’s likely to suck in a non-believer like Matt. Here’s an interview with my old high school classmate about his experience:

RIJ: As someone outside of the church, how did you end up getting involved in this book?

MC: It’s all in the intro to the book. I worked for a few months at a Christian marketing company. I had just moved to San Diego (2002) and needed a job w/benefits as I had a wife and a baby girl. The first thing I found was a job as Copywriter for Outreach Marketing (take a look at what they do: www.outreach.com). My job, primarily, was writing postcards that would get people to go to church. My personal favorite was one where I had to renounce evolution… “Sure, monkeys are cute. But are they family? Come to church X and hear the whole story…” shit like that.

While at Outreach, I made a few friends with the less rabid, one of whom is featured prominently in the book, Jason Evans. He’s an excellent drummer, and I had a band in need of a drummer, and so on. So we became friends. Jason later introduced me to Jim Henderson who was in San Diego looking for “lost people” to interview in front of a room full of evangelical pastors (you can read about that stuff here). I gladly signed up and had a great time.

About a year later, Jim got briefly famous after buying a guy’s soul on ebay (Hemant Mehta; you can read his and Jim’s story here). Jim and Hemant were offered a book deal, but Hemant passed; wanted to his own thing. Jim held auditions for another atheist to write a book with him, invited me to take part, and ta-da!

RIJ: In the book, you were very polite to Jim and all the Christians you met. But, as someone who doesn’t believe in the Bible as history, did you ever want to stand up and blurt out, “You people are crazy—you believe in 2000 year old fairy tales!” ?

MC: Yes, I did. But yelling at people doesn’t change anything. Think of all the Christians who try to “win” people over by telling them they’re going to hell… totally ineffective. So I thought about what it was I wanted to accomplish in a new light. Basically, I realized that I don’t care if people believe in gods of any kind so long as they are constructive in how they live their lives. When that belief drives them to love others, help the poor, etc. (much like Jesus actually asked them to do), then how could anyone be against it? It’s when that belief drives them to spew homophobic vitriol or fly planes into buildings that I have a problem. Think about it: if everyone in America who says they follow Jesus actually did what he asked, we would have no poverty, no homeless, no healthcare crisis, no income disparity. The question I liked asking them over and over was “Do you think Jesus was a capitalist?”

RIJ: Were you moved by seeing the communities in the churches you visited? Growing up in West Hartford, I never encountered community like what I see in these churches. (Maybe your experience was different?) I don’t mean just the gathering for worship, but all the small groups, the youth groups, Bible studies, and other ways that people really become part of each other’s lives.

MC: Yes and no. The “community” at some churches seemed to disappear with the first note of the recessional, if it was ever there at all. I think “community” goes out the window when you have 2,000 (Saddleback), 7,000 (Willow Creek), or 16,000 (Lakewood) people under the same roof. What you’re seeing then is simply mass mentality, no different than a World Cup game, a rock concert, or the Nuremberg rallies. It’s when these mobs would break into smaller groups that the community focus would kick in. And the smaller the church, the larger the sense of community. I attended a house church where the sense of community was so incredible, even a non-believer could feel it. And these house church people were/are committed to working together to make the world a better place and held each other accountable.

It’s a simple fact of human nature: the more people there are, the less individual accountability there is. And the message of Jesus is ALL about individual accountability. The biggest problem facing the entire world may be people saying, “Hey, that’s not my problem.” Johne Donne put it best: ask not for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. Basically, the big churches let people feel like they were doing something to make the world a better place, when they weren’t really participating at all.

In West Hartford, no, I never saw anything like what I saw at the biggest and smallest churches in America, but WH is a WASP town and WASP’s belief systems are not openly discussed. After all, that would be rude. And we mustn’t be rude!

RIJ: Since the publication of the book, have you spoken in churches at all? And what’s been the response to you as an outsider who still has not become a believer?

MC: Yes, I have. And it’s been a blast. Most people really want to hear what I have to say. I get stopped in the lobby or in the elevator at such events by people thanking me for helping them become better Christians. Far out. It’s like thanking Christopher Reeve for helping you become a better swimmer. I think there is growing dis-satisfaction with the “belief comes first” churches, and more young believers appear to be getting more out of life by putting deeds before words, which is always a good idea… provided said deeds are constructive and not destructive. Granted, “constructive” and “destructive” are subjective terms, but less subjective than “right” and “wrong” or “good” and “evil.”

RIJ: THANKS MATT!

Tags: jim henderson, matt casper

A Christian response to the “stimulus” tax rebate March 28, 2008

Posted by Zack in Uncategorized | 1 comment

Recently inspired by Jesus for President:

The Pentecost Project is an experiment towards a more true and loving economy. As we approach the release of rebate checks from the U.S. government as part of its 2008 economic stimulus package, we are wondering if there is a better way to stimulate the economy than to become greater individualistic consumers.

Instead of blowing our rebate checks on new iPods or as down payments on new cars, we propose that we can: invest in others, share possessions, reduce debt.

Learn more…

Visit the site.

More on Huckabee & Wright March 26, 2008

Posted by Zack in | 4 comments

Leonard Pitts says “Thank you, Mike Huckabee.”

It was getting to be a bit much, the marathon denunciations of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright by the professional chatterers of FOX News, MSNBC and the like. Their screams of high dudgeon had grown shrill, their show of moral affront was wearing thin. And then Huckabee, invited by MSNBC last week to condemn Wright’s bitter words, invoked instead the era of racial segregation that shaped Barack Obama’s former pastor.

”And you know what?” he said. ‘Sometimes people do have a chip on their shoulder and resentment, and you have to just say, `I probably would, too. In fact, I may have had more of a chip on my shoulder, had it been me.’ ”

It bears repeating: a black Mike Huckabee would be more angry than Jeremiah Wright, not less. It was an admission of startling, unexpected insight and, dare I say, Christian generosity. A conservative white man invited white men and women to project themselves into dark skin, to imagine how bitter they might be, had they come of age in an era where law, religion, media and custom said they were less than truly human beings.

Read the rest.

Hat tip to Faith in Public Life’s awesome Daily News.

Mike Huckabee continues to defy stereotypes March 25, 2008

Posted by Zack in Arkansas | 1 comment

Huckabee on Jeremiah Wright:

“As easy as it is for those of us who are white to look back and say ‘That’s a terrible statement!’ … I grew up in a very segregated South. And I think that you have to cut some slack — and I’m gonna be probably the only conservative in America who’s gonna say something like this, but I’m just tellin’ you — we’ve gotta cut some slack to people who grew up being called names…”

Tag: Mike Huckabee

Jesus for President, a book review for atheists; Part 1, What is Shane Claiborne? March 24, 2008

Posted by Zack in Pennsylvania | 6 comments

Shane Claiborne has an exciting new book out called Jesus for President, this one co-authored with co-conspirator Chris Haw. It’s a beautifully designed, reframing of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation—sort of an activist introduction to a thing called Narrative Theology, which is all the rage among Christian Revolutionaries.

Last year, Shane gave me my single best piece evidence for convincing skeptics that something absolutely incredible is going on inside the church. First, I show them this picture (Shane, the speaker, is one of those specs down on stage). Some kind of right-wing Christian rally, right? It’s looks like they’re all on their feet reading something together off those screens. How fascist.

Then I play the audio. All those people—mostly white, Republican, Southern, born-again Christians—were on their feet reciting a “Litany of Resistance“. It was the end of a long sermon/lecture by Shane at at the Catalyst Conference in Georgia last year. The litany lasted about ten minutes (you can watch the whole thing here). Here’s one very short clip from it:

With governments that kill…
…we will not comply.
With the theology of empire…
…we will not comply.
With the business of militarism…
…we will not comply.
With the hoarding of riches
…we will not comply.
With the dissemination of fear
…we will not comply.
But today we pledge our allegiance to the kingdom of God…
…we pledge allegiance.
To the peace that is not like Rome’s…
…we pledge allegiance.
To the Gospel of enemy love
…we pledge allegiance.
To the poor and the broken…
…we pledge allegiance….

Usually the reaction I get is something like: “Huh… [long pause] How did that happen?”

In this case, it happened because Shane has been fearlessly, creatively and lovingly preaching that gospel of resistance from inside of mainstream Christianity. He doesn’t stand on the outside criticizing and condemning. As a result, people listen. Almost all the speakers at that three-day conference preached on social justice issues, but usually they remained just inside of the audience’s comfort zone. Shane crossed that line and kept on going, and going, and going. But he has a magical ability to keep people with him as he goes. After his talk, I heard kids clustered in the hallways grappling together with all the ideas he had introduced. It was an incredible thing.

But the truth is that same thing is happening all the time, all over the country, every day — at big Christian conferences, in living room Bible studies, in Bible college classrooms, in little churches and in mega churches. Shane has become one of the most famous and effective voices in this continuation and transformation of the church. But this was all happening long before Shane uneasily consented to glamour shots at Christian mega-publisher Zondervan.

Claiborne’s first and best-selling book, Irresistible Revolution, tells the story of his own journey from church youth group jock to radical follower of “the God of the oppressed.” It begins with trembling first outings to the midnight streets of Philadelphia with his Bible college buddies. (They asked “What Would Jesus Do?” and, after studying the Bible, concluded: Hang out with homeless people, drug addicts and prostitutes.) He takes detours to work with Mother Teresa and intern at a “seeker sensitive” mega church in Chicago. Eventually, he returns to Philadelphia to co-found a Christian commune that humbly attempts to live in solidarity with and support of the poor and oppressed of a broken neighborhood.

Shane’s story comes out of an organic and spontaneous movement. When I was telling activist theologian Brian Walsh about all the different places I was seeing this movement sprout up, he said, “So it’s a movement of the spirit.” That means something that God is making happen all over the place at the same time—and that sure is what it feels like.

Irresistible Revolution is still making its way deeper and deeper into the heart of mainstream Christianity. I have seen it discussed in several Bible study groups and Sunday school classes—even in conservative and rural churches. Some say it changed the course of their life. Others say it “challenged” them to think differently about God. Reading the book communally has spurred some churches to reach “outside of the four walls” to get involved more deeply in their community.

And then there are the young Christians who were already living out stories very similar to Shane’s. They’re usually thrilled to realize that they are in fact part of a large movement. But they’re also made uneasy by the possibility that their own radical choices are just part of a passing fad to be commoditized by the very “Christian Industrial Complex” that Shane rants against the first chapter of the book. In Irresistible Revolution, Shane gives voice to a generation of young Christians who aspire to live wildly and dangerously selfless lives. But one of the ethics of that life is that you don’t go seeking credit. Shane himself wrestles with the contradiction in an author’s note at the beginning of the book. Sensing he is about to become one, he argues the last thing the world needs is another Christian subculture superstar.

In that respect, Jesus for President is the perfect companion to Irresistible Revolution. Having unexpectedly captured the attention of mainstream Christianity, Shane and Chris don’t water down their politics or theology one bit. Instead, they deepen and broaden their radicalism. In Irresistible Revolution, it still sounded romantic when Shane said, “Jesus didn’t fix my life, he wrecked it.” It seems to be possible for some to read that book and conclude the Gospel is just about helping others. In Jesus for President, Shane and Chris unambiguously take aim at capitalism and empire; and they are much more explicit that Jesus calls upon his followers to actively resist systems and structures of oppression in ways that will ultimately put you in danger.

Since Irresistible Revolution, Shane has been speaking at tons of Christian conferences and mega churches. The more sharply he delivers his message, the more invitations he seems to get. I imagine he probably gets scolded by his hosts from time to time, but there are many in the audience electrified by what they hear. Christians recognize him as a prophet. And even the crankiest of conservative preachers knows that a prophet’s job is to say things people don’t want to hear. In that way, a certain kind of radicalism is built into Christianity. And Shane is taking it about as far as it goes.

OK, so that’s an introduction to the Shane Claiborne phenomenon. In part two of this review I’ll focus on Jesus for President itself.

Tags: Chris Haw, irresistible revolution, Jesus for President, Shane Claiborne

Communities and their stories March 21, 2008

Posted by Zack in Pennsylvania | 2 comments

I spent part of this week visiting with a community in Joplin, MO. A few different circles of friends, classmates, neighbors, church members & leaders, professors and students there are up to all kinds of amazing things. I’m hoping to write a big story about how all the pieces fit together.

One of the pieces is a neighborhood project that has students and young couples from a church and Bible college moving into a broken neighborhood and helping out. It’s been a story similar to the one told in Shane Claiborne’s Irresistible Revolution about the Simple Way community. Except, the people in Joplin mostly only heard about Shane & his book recently, and most still haven’t read the book. One who read the book remarked it made her realize that she was part of a “movement of the spirit” happening all over the place.

I hope that story telling somehow becomes a new standard part of these Christian communities. Because these Christians are so focused on being humble, and not going for credit, they shy away from telling the world about what they’re doing. Even in the churches that support neighborhood efforts like the one I visited in Joplin, there are usually only brief announcements on occasional Sundays — let alone public blogging and book writing.

Through Shane’s books, as well as blogs, and videos like the ones below (by Jamie Moffett), people have been able to follow the trials and successes of the tiny Simple Way community in Kensington, Philadelphia. Shouldn’t there be a way to follow a whole bunch of similar communities? We need some kind of new RSS feeds that go to whole communities, not just blogs. How would that work?