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The Salvation (Red) Army April 28, 2008

Posted by Zack in Missouri | 1 comment

Is this real? And how did I miss it?

intro/translation for non-Christians before I get to part 2 April 28, 2008

Posted by Zack in Missouri | 4 comments

You know all that “Left Behind” stuff? It’s real. There really are Christians who believe that, in a very specific Armageddon scenario, Jesus will come back, make grape juice out of non-believers, and send everyone else to heaven.

Do you know what Jesus’ criteria will be for who gets to stick around in paradise and who burns forever? Just look, the Bible is perfectly clear. Jesus, after separating all humanity into two groups…

“…will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

“[Jesus] will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

“He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

“Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” (Matthew 25:31-46)

For most of the 20th century, fundamentalist Christians took the hell and heaven part of that and other passages literally; but they they took Jesus’ constant focus on social justice as figurative or ancillary.

Many of the Christians I’ve been writing about on this blog have retained their belief in the heaven and hell stuff. But they’ve taken off the blinders about what what Jesus was actually talking about: i.e. that “the meek shall inherit [a redeemed] world.”

And that has turned millions of Christians into fanatics behind the cause of ending world poverty. What is so exciting is that they have gone beyond charity and are seeking ways to change the fundamental structure of the world economy. They do not believe profit should be the primary organizing principle of the relationships between people and communities, but rather—as corny as it sounds—that love should be.

And they’re serious about this. They’re giving up Christmas to build wells in Africa. They’re selling they’re suburban homes to move to broken neighborhoods of the city. They’re sending teams to buy back land for the landless in Central America.

For me, this “conversion” of millions of Christians, has all been the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.

In Part 1 of this series, I teed up a challenge to these social-justice oriented Christians over the means by which they’ll actually change the world. In Part II, I’m going to try to spell out my critique and suggestions for a way forward.

By the way, I have been having this same conversation (without the brimstone) with the progressive mainstream. Interestingly, they/we have absorbed the same obsessive focus on small-scale, piecemeal changes as the Christians. Hmm…I wonder how that happened. If you ask me, it’s obvious: we’ve absorbed the official ideology of the current economic system so deeply that we’re simply unable to think in terms of any alternative.

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How about “the progressive mainstream”? April 28, 2008

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Maybe I can use that instead of “secular progressives” and avoid getting yelled at by secular progressives.

The Next Step for Christian Big Thinkers: Part 1 April 26, 2008

Posted by Zack in Missouri | 12 comments

As an activist and organizer, I used to have a vision of my role in social change that kept me protected in a certain way from people and their problems. When I was a union organizer and community organizer, I spent countless hours at workers’ kitchen tables listening to their problems. Often they cried. I consoled. By a few months into a campaign, I knew enough about so many interconnected lives in a workplace or neighborhood for 100 John Sayles screenplays.

But my purpose wasn’t to help people, it was to “help them help themselves.” I wasn’t a social worker. In fact, as hard-nosed organizers, we were taught disdain for social workers who ministered directly to people’s short term needs. We were even advised by many of our mentors not to socialize with the people we were organizing, “because it could complicate things.”

When I met her, my wife Elizabeth became a new mentor to me. As a Christian who had always led a “missional” life, there had never been a time in her life when she wasn’t personally intertwined with a whole bunch of troubled lives. When we were first dating, she was visiting several times a week an old disabled man in one of the poorest sections of DC. Though he was confined to a wheelchair, he had no ramp to get in or out of his house. He was also half blind, and yet somehow was (barely) taking care of his two adult mentally retarded children. The man’s house was a disaster of filth and decay. Elizabeth was organizing a group of her coworkers to clean and fix it up. A few times she tried to get me to go visit with her. I resisted, saying things like, “I think we often just mess things up worse when we get involved in lives so different from our own,” and, “I choose to make a different kind of contribution.”

It’s a few years later now and, thanks to Elizabeth, I have finally gotten out side of my own “four walls” and into other people’s lives as a participant, not just an observer/organizer. It’s been a life-altering experience, even though I’ve only just dipped my toe in the water.

I remember, in college, during one building take-over protest (I can’t even remember what the cause was), when we angrily read/barked Franz Fanon’s “Wretched of the Earth” (a great book) at passers by through a mega phone. The Christians I’ve been hanging out with lately, spend their lives trying to live with and directly aid the “wretched” of their neighborhoods and towns. So I’m incredibly grateful to Christians for what they’ve taught me over the last few years.

And now I want to give something back.

Too many Christians these days are rejecting the paradigm of “organizing” (intentional, structural social change) just as dogmatically as I used to reject “service” (individual, sacrificial social change).

These days, Christians are asking really enormous questions. They’re asking, “How can we eliminate poverty completely?” and “How can we stop harming the environment altogether.” What’s so great about them is that their faith in Christ leads them to believe that total redemption is possible. That is the miracle that makes their world irresistible to me.

But they’re attempting to answer these questions almost in complete ignorance of humanity’s long history of tackling problems of that scale and scope at the social level, at the level of whole societies. In other words, they’re approaching big social problems just as cluelessly as I have always approached “little” individual problems.

Today I attended Brian McLaren’s Deep Shift conference. One of the agendas of the conference was to get Christians engaged in social problems such as poverty. Both Brian and local pastor Tim Keel told some horrifying stories about what life was like in the slums of some African cities. And through Bible teaching, they left no doubt that Jesus called us to do something about it.

But when it came to, “HOW?” they could only offer the political economy of the personal: Be a good-hearted business person. And consume less.

Brian said something remarkable (if you’re able to place it in historical context): “Capitalism is our only option. So we have to figure out how to practice good capitalism instead of bad capitalism.”

Tim Keel said something equally remarkable (if you place it in the context of Brian’s statement, and have spent some time thinking through how capitalism actually works): “When we consume less here, we can build up prosperity and security over there.”

Those statements represent the two pillars of today’s pop economic thought. And all alone, they’re really harmful. They are the equivalent in political economy of Joel Osteen’s pop theology. “Think good thoughts, make good choices, and all will be well.”

[I should add here that Brian, Tim and so many other Christians are participating in and seeing with their own eyes a lot of *real* efforts where consuming less to give to development projects is working, and where practicing “socially responsible Capitalism” is working. My point isn’t that Christians should stop participating in those kinds of things, it’s that those kinds of personal efforts will unfortunately never be enough to even scratch the surface of world poverty. That kind of personal/relational work does form the foundation of any sincere big picture transformation…but only if we go beyond the personal to the (yes, I know, it’s horrible) political in a really big way.]

I’m not getting down on Brian, Tim or any other Christians—or, for that matter, non-religious lefties, who share the same economic thinking. In the present day, when it comes to economic thought, we’re all starting at zero. For a couple hundred years up to the early 20th century, there was a long tradition of deep, experiential and theoretical work done in economics by passionate people who had the exact same goals as today’s Christians who are saying, “Everything must change.”

But twists and turns of history have hidden all that experience and knowledge from current generations. In some ways starting from zero is a good thing, because so much baggage had accumulated around those old traditions. But it’s wrong for us to simply repeat those two hundred years of trial and error, making every mistake they made, and ending up inevitably crushed by that same old debilitating baggage in the end.

OK…so in the next installment I’ll get into the economics itself. This post is way too long already!

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Justice Revival! April 18, 2008

Posted by Zack in Ohio | 1 comment

Wednesday night, I caught the first day of the Social Justice Revival at Vineyard Columbus, which continues through tonight. Here are some pictures:

Close to 100 churches participated, led jointly by Jim Wallis’ Sojourners and pastor Rich Nathan’s Columbus Vineyard church. Jim Wallis is an evangelical lefty progressive with a background in radical politics. Rich Nathan is an evangelical conservative who voted for Bush. The event is a tipping point in the decay of 20th century political categories.

As the church was filling up, a Vineyard church member sitting to my right told me: “They’ve been saying on the [Christian] radio that Jim Wallis is a communist.”

“What does that even mean?” I asked?

“I think…that he’s against…well…capitalism,” she said.

Then another Vineyard member sat down to my left. He’s away in grad school at a Christian university in Florida now.

“Why did you come all the way back for this?” I asked.

“The more I learn, the more I believe our economic system just isn’t sustainable,” he said, “I’ve really begun to question capitalism.”

He has been meeting with a group of other Christians to read about economics and environmentalism. They watch a lot of documentary films too—his favorite was The Corporation.

The vast majority of the audience attending this “Social Justice Revival” were conservative Republicans. Especially after the controversy raised in the local Christian media, people must have had some misgivings about participating. Nevertheless, the massive sanctuary was completely full, with the crowd pouring into two giant overflow spaces as well.

Asking these folks to listen to Jim Wallis with an open mind is a little bit like asking the lefty Take Back America conference to do the same for John Hagee.

But with a little help from Jesus, they did exactly that. Listen here how that works:

Rich Nathan would give Jesus all the credit, but he is doing something incredible with his church and this Justice Revival. He is saying (if I might translate): “Enough of these silly divisions. We stand for justice and there’s nothing wrong with that. Our faith calls us to act for justice in ways that we’re just not doing now. We’re doing a great job of helping people 1-on-1 in our city. Jesus calls us to do that, and it’s also what keeps us honest and in touch with reality. But we can only help so many people 1-on-1. Do we want to limit ourselves to be a little oasis in the desert for a few, or do we want to be leaders in our broader community who use our numbers and our love to change all of society?”

Over a year ago, the first time I talked to Jim Wallis, back when I was just starting to learn about all this stuff, he told me about Rich Nathan’s church. He said, “It’s absolutely incredible all the things they are doing for their community.”

And I asked, “But why won’t any of these amazing churches speak on policy when it comes to economic issues?”

He related the conversation he has about policy with many church leaders about that very question of whether the church is called to be an oasis, or force that salvages the whole desert. Apparently, some of those conversations are bearing fruit.

Here are four more short audio clips to give you a sense of the terms in which this is all unfolding:

I did an interview with one of the Vineyard pastors about the incredible service work they’re doing in Columbus. Hopefully I’ll have that edited down early next week for you to listen to.

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You thought I was joking… April 17, 2008

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You thought I was joking about people salivating over new study bibles like geeks waiting for a new Macbook model from Apple.

But here’s proof.

My favorite is #68 (of 109 blog reactions so far):

Bible Geek Gone Wild: “Although I love my current ESV, I may be tempted to upgrade. Well, in as much as you can be tempted to buy a Bible.”

Check out cool Christianity this summer April 16, 2008

Posted by Zack in Missouri | 1 comment

This summer will be filled with plenty of speaking tours, music festivals and conferences all over the country that will be open and friendly opportunities for those outside the church to observe the Revolution in Jesusland for themselves. Maybe I will try to get a wiki page up to list them.

Here’s one example of a tour that would be great for anyone to check out—and they’re going through a ton of cities and towns:

Roadshow

From their site:

The Concept

Three authors/friends/public speakers hit the road for a summer, barnstorming churches around the country in a cross between an old time tent revival and the Blue Collar Comedy Tour. Speaking at churches large and small, Tony, Doug, and Mark will present a 90-minute show (including a 20-minute intermission) that will combine humor and passion, speaking and video, preaching and dialogue. Audiences will be entertained, to be sure, but, more importantly, they will be given a vision of an alternative Christianity, one that it woefully lacking in today’s world—this alternative is a Christianity of adventurous theology, passionate faithfulness, postmodern wit, and unrelenting concern for the justice and peace that God offers.

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Rich Nathan blogs up to the his church’s “Justice Revival” April 15, 2008

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vineyard outside

I’m going to the “Justice Revival” at Vineyard Columbus tomorrow. This is a really exciting development in the ongoing “Revolution in Jesusland.”

The revival could be a fairly controversial event for pastor Rich Nathan to host at his church. It is amazing how radical churches can become without raising their members’ partisan hackles, so long as they don’t use certain words. As it turns out, “conservative” Americans are just fine with beautiful radicalism as long as you just stay away from certain hot-button signifiers. These churches are rejecting the left-right debate by dealing with substance instead of labels and hollow political terms. Nevertheless, by hosting an event that is dedicated primarily to “justice” instead of personal salvation, Nathan risks setting off a trigger.

Leading up to the event, Nathan is writing a series on Jim Wallis’ blog. Here are his first four posts:

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ESV/3.2Ghz/4G DDR/180G HD April 15, 2008

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Among a certain set of intellectual Christians, the release of important new study bibles or reference works is a mirror to the arrival of a piece of sexy technology from Apple in my geek world.

Today, the folks behind the English Standard Version launched the website for their upcoming study bible. 25,000 notes! 80,000 cross references! 100+ articles! But you have to wait until October 2008!!!

Pick your color & binding and place your advance order today!

Josh Harris says:

Our church uses the ESV and we’ve been anxiously anticipating the release of this study Bible. Last fall I got to sit with Justin Taylor and Dr. Lane Dennis at Crossway and hear about the vision for the study Bible and see comp pages. All I can say is, “Amazing.” Look at these features:

25,000-plus notes–focusing especially on understanding the Bible text and providing answers to frequently raised issues. Over 50 articles–including articles on the Bible’s authority, reliability, and interpretation; on biblical archaeology, theology, worship, prayer, and personal application. Over 200 full-color maps–created with the latest digital technology, satellite images, and archaeological research; printed in full color, throughout the Bible. 200-plus charts–offering key insights and in-depth analysis in clear, concise outline form; located throughout the Bible. 80,000 cross-references–to encourage easy location of important words, passages, and biblical themes. More than 40 new full-color illustrations–including historically accurate reconstructions of the Tabernacle, the Ark of the Covenant, Solomon’s temple, Herod’s temple, the city of Jerusalem in Jesus’ time and throughout the history of Israel, and many more!!!!!!!!

[OK, I added the !’s]

Justin Taylor says:

Lord willing, the ESV Study Bible will be published October 2008. We hope the Lord will use it to instruct and edify his Church.

ESV

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London, then RootsCamp April 13, 2008

Posted by Zack in DC | 1 comment

Sorry I haven’t posted much over the last week. I was in London working on an IT project. And then there was RootsCamp DC.

At RootsCamp, I did a presentation on the Revolution in Jesusland. I played audio excerpts from sermons and we talked about them. It went really well. One Democratic campaign staffer in the group outed herself as an evangelical Christian and talked about the urge to keep her sometimes-ridiculed identity secret in Democratic professional circles. The group cracked up at some parts of the audio clips, such as when a preacher spoke against pornography, helping to make her point.

Here are some pictures of RootsCamp:

Sessions

You can see the sign for my session in the picture above. The full subtitle was:

Have all the fundamentalist Christians become anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist revolutionaries?
No, just a few million of them.

PS: if you’re confused about RootsCamp, it’s like Foo Camp or Bar Camp.

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