Jesus for President on CNN June 30, 2008
Posted by Zack in | write a commentSnipped from Emergent Village:
CNN.com posted a feature article and video tonight on Shane Claiborne and the “Jesus for President” tour (click to view):
Claiborne tells CNN, “This is not about going left or right, this is about going deeper and trying to understand together.”
What an idiot… June 29, 2008
Posted by Zack in | 1 comment…I am.
So, in Irresistible Revolution, Shane (via John Perkins) uses the exact example that I used in my last post, that I somehow thought was novel. And I’ve read the book. So THAT’S where I got that idea…. Sheesh.
The relevant excerpt form Irresistible Revolution is below (thanks to Google Books).
OK. So how do we take the pond back then? How do we “repave the whole road to Jericho?”
For Everyone June 28, 2008
Posted by Zack in | 17 comments
Regarding the conversation we were having last month about whether large-scale, long-term social change is necessary… Here’s an example Elizabeth and I thought up while on a hike a few weeks ago:
[Update — we definitely didn’t think this example up. See Jamie’s comment below. Apologies for absent mind!]
We were talking about how that “teach a man to fish” adage is so attractive these days. “Give a man a fish, and he eats for a day; Teach a man to fish and he eats forever.” Teaching people to fish is great. But what if no one has access to the river? What about when the right to fish is controlled by some greedy landowner who, thanks to his ancestors’ violent behavior, was born into ownership of all the river banks?
Then what do you do? You can teach a man to fish, but he has no where to fish. It’s a very good analogy for the economic situation of most of the people alive today, who have no access to any means of making a living.
To make this problem simple and concrete, imagine a small island with only one fresh water creek. Imagine that a small population of farmers live on this island. They need the fresh water to irrigate crops—and access to it to fish.
Now, imagine that one person owns the creek from its source to the sea. There’s a history, of course, to how this guy came to own this resource. And it’s a violent and unjust history.
Imagine further that the island has gone through great political change since the days when the creek owner’s family took control. The island is now a peaceful democracy: it has a government with checks and balances, all ultimately responsible to the people. The owner of the creek is now a political equal with all the other inhabitants of the island in a one-person, one-vote system.
So here’s my question: Would it be so bad for the people on the island to peacefully take the creek back from the guy who thinks he has the right to own it?
Because of their democracy it would not be a violent act. But it would be an act of force—just economic and legal force though, not physical force.
I submit that this is the main question that Americans will have to wrestle with for the next 50 years. “Skeptics” and Theists will approach this question in radically different ways. Theists have religious traditions—such as the Biblical tradition of Jubilee for Christians—that call for the return of the creek to the people. Skeptics have nuthin’. They used to, in the socialist tradition. But that’s gone now.
Now, the skeptics just have various tax and regulation schemes to win back some limited access to the creek over the next thousand years. That’s so lame though, who’s going to spend time working toward that?
Therefore, the Theists, especially the Christians, are our only hope. Unfortunately…they are currently conflating political “force” (taking the creek back through peaceful legislative means) with violence. And so they’re totally opposed to taking back the creek. Instead they want to pray for the owner and reason with him.
Part of this story is that lot of the Claibornagains (An awesome term coined by Thom Stark) have some access to the creek themselves. And so they have this experience of providing access to others…e.g. forming communities in solidarity with the poor who, through connection to middle class people, then get job recommendations, bits of capital through mechanisms like the micro loans or relational tithe, etc… (You can find the same story on the secular left.) It is definitely a very good story, when it actually happens. And from the perspective of an individual participant, it can look pretty good because, in the best-case scenario, you can see a life or two being fixed up. And I’m not diminishing the importance of that work—in fact, person-to-person real work has to form the foundation for bigger policy work.
But meanwhile, five billion people languish with no hope in sight — and no connection to any rich American Christians, or anyone else, to allow access to the creek. Is the proper Rich Christian response really to say to that majority of humanity, “Just wait until one of us comes to befriend you” ? A (peaceful) political movement to grant access to the creek would lift billions out of poverty. Why not do it?
Does any of this make sense? Please tell me what I need to flesh out to make this make sense.
Six Billion People June 28, 2008
Posted by Zack in Uncategorized | 4 commentsThat’s a lot. Every single one of us bigger than the whole rest of the universe combined.
Too bad most of us are chained to some machine just to stay alive.
Must-see event in DC & NY, Friday & Saturday June 26, 2008
Posted by Zack in DC | 1 comment
I’ve written about Shane Clairborne and his latest book with Chris Haw called Jesus for President. The Jesus for President tour has been winding its crazy way across the country for the past couple weeks.
And it’s getting to DC tomorrow! So go visit. If you are curious about this movement I’ve been writing about, go check it out. People will be praying and singing, but they won’t mind at all if you don’t. Just go sit in the back if that makes you feel comfortable and take it all in. I guarantee you will find this event fascinating and massively encouraging.
*** In DC it’s here: ***
Friday, JULY 27 — 7PM.
Calvary Baptist Church
755 8th St. NW
Washington, DC 20001
202-347-8355
*** In NY it’s here: ***
Saturday, JULY 28 — 7PM
Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church
7 West 55th St.
New York, NY 10019
212-247-0490
Armstrong, Jaspers & the Axial Age June 26, 2008
Posted by Zack in | 3 commentsSorry I haven’t posted much lately. Several weeks ago I had some conversations that really humbled me — made me realize how completely ignorant I am about all this stuff. I’ve been trying to read more and listen more.
One thing I’m reading: Karen Armstrong’s The Great Transformation. (Do I sense some evangelicals’ eyes rolling?) Actually, I’m listening to it. I am much better at listening to books than reading them. I like to always have a book on my iPod to occupy me when walking somewhere, washing dishes, etc… But the selection is limited.
Anyways, Armstrong seems to be arguing that selflessness and anti-violence was a novel theological invention that happened simultaneously in four different cultures (India, China, Israel and Greece), all around 800-600 BC. She uses Karl Jaspers‘ term the “Axial Age” for that period.
Here is a question I’d like to ask Armstrong. Even if recorded intellectual religious traditions didn’t stand for selfless non-violence before the Axial Age, the bulk of humanity did live selflessly and non-violently. The theological shift Armstrong covers is significant because it took place within the ranks the minority of violent and exploitative marauders, thugs and rulers. But most people in those societies lived as peaceful (and victimized) farmers or herders. They lived for their families, their neighbors and their villages. Did they not have their own theology that supported that way of life before the Axial Age?
Tags: Axial Age, Karen Armstrong, Karl JapsersSurprised by Stephen Colbert June 25, 2008
Posted by Zack in Uncategorized | 7 commentsThis is too much. This is awesome. Once again, cable takes me by surprise, because I don’t have it.
Colbert had on theologian N.T. Wright! Wright is probably the most influential theologian behind this rising Christian movement who is actively publishing. His new book is called Surprised by Hope. In it, he lays out a very different picture of Heaven and the resurrection (not just Jesus’, but everyones!). And he bases it all in a Biblical argument that even fundamentalists have a hard time disputing. (They still dispute it though.)
Wright is someone who’s cleared the way for a whole lot of churches to start talking about building Heaven here on earth instead of just waiting to die to get there. He also clears the way for a picture of Heaven in which Jesus redeems all of creation. In other words, yes you go to Heaven even if you’re not a believer!
I’m amazed that Colbert would have Wright on — and that he even knows who he is let along know something about the debate Wright is at the center of (which he seems to from his questions).
Tag: N.T. WrightAlternate email signature quote June 17, 2008
Posted by Zack in Uncategorized | 6 commentsYou know this Margaret Mead quote? “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” That quote seems to have been adopted as the standard email signature for a certain element of the progressive left.
Meanwhile, Christian email is fast adopting Mother Teresa’s quote, “There are no great things, only small things with great love.”
I like both of those quotes. But I always have the feeling that both are being used as bludgeons against out-of-fashion ideas like long-term planning, goal setting, big-picture thinking and even just plain organizing.
So, at the bottom of someone’s email today I saw a great quote that I somehow have not come across before. Maybe I will add it to my own email settings:
“Small acts of humanity amid the chaos of inhumanity provide hope. But small acts are insufficient.”
- Paul Rusesabagina
Rusesabagina is the Rwandan hotel manager who saved a whole bunch of people in the genocide and inspired the movie Hotel Rwanda.
Southern Baptist History & Future June 11, 2008
Posted by Zack in | 1 comment
I’m adding this to the list of books I really wish I had time to read. (Hey — if you live in Kansas City, and read books, I will take you out to lunch any time you want to give me the break down of a good non-fiction book you’ve read recently.)
Trevin Wax says:
If you are a Southern Baptist, you need to read David Dockery’s Southern Baptist Consensus and Renewal: A Biblical, Historical, and Theological Proposal (Broadman & Holman, 2008). At first I planned on advising Southern Baptist leaders, pastors, ministers, or missionaries to read this book, but I am now convinced that more and more Southern Baptist laypeople should read this book also. Nowhere else will you find both a concise history of Southern Baptists and a robust theological vision for the future.
Dockery’s book is an important work that lays the groundwork for Southern Baptist cooperation in the 21st century. He begins by renewing markers of Southern Baptist identity. He writes of the Conservative Resurgence and our continued emphasis on the inerrancy of Scripture and cooperation in fulfilling the Great Commission. He defines the gospel of Jesus Christ and shows how Baptists navigate between divine sovereignty and human responsibility. Dockery devotes an entire chapter to Baptist worship, recapping the history of worship in the Baptist churches, while offering many insights for renewing Baptist worship today. Dockery distills the main arguments from his book on higher education in chapter 4, specifically - how education should serve the church and society within a confessional context.
Misquote June 11, 2008
Posted by Zack in Missouri | 3 commentsCheck this out, it’s interesting. Someone who was quoted in that NYTimes article I posted last week says she was misrepresented…and has the power to set the record straight thanks to her own blog:
This particular article ends with a quote from yours truly, so I feel I must comment. It says,
Letitia Wong, 32, who said she favored a fence along the Mexican border to keep out illegal immigrants, added: “As much as our faith informs our political views, we aren’t united in one way of thinking. What unites us at the Journey is the power of Jesus Christ.”
I don’t remember saying specifically anything about a border fence, other than when asked how many people present thought it was too easy to enter the US, I raised my hand. And, if you think my quote sounds a little weird, so do I. In its proper context, I meant to convey that The Journey’s primary emphasis is on faith in Christ and not on political stances. We have thoughtful liberals and thoughtful conservatives in church who derive their political leanings from their interpretation of how the Bible’s precepts apply to public policy, and I think that’s fair enough. We can disagree all day long about who and what to vote for, but at the end of the day, it is important that we recognize that we are Christian siblings who share the love of Christ. And in that context, politics takes a back seat.
I have been misquoted a number of times, so I know how this feels. And I think that too many journalists feel free to be careless with the quotes of “ordinary people” — i.e. people who they don’t mix with in their professional and personal life. “Ordinary people” have no recourse. They’re not going to be on TV saying, “That jerk misquoted me!” They won’t be writing an oped refuting the claim.
But more and more, they have the power to blog about it. And tools like Technorati and Google alerts ensure that people following the conversation will hear about it…like I just did.
