The Next Step for Christian Big Thinkers: Part 1 April 26, 2008
Posted by Zack in Missouri | 12 commentsAs 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!
Tags: Brian McLaren, capitalism, Consumerism, economics, Tim KeelDeep shift January 10, 2008
Posted by Zack in Missouri | 3 commentsThis is an add-on to my previous post. I want to make sure you read Thom Stark’s latest entry on his blog. It’s an amazing look into how a new generation is struggling with its elders over complex theological issues. If I tried to explain the actual content of this struggle, I would get a lot of it wrong. But it amounts to a deep shift (to use Brian McLaren’s phrase) in the very foundation of Christianity.
In his post, Thom tells the story of attending a funeral of a 16 year old boy who was killed in a car accident. The pastor tried to console people with the “he’s in heaven now, so let’s not grieve” line. And also used the death as an “are you right with God?” evangelistic opportunity. Later, he wound up talking to the pastor and told him what he thought:
I told him his gospel was unbiblical, that it was a neo-gnostic escapist fantasy, and that the life and teachings of Jesus proclaim a gospel in which “life after death,” while significant, is certainly not “what it’s all about.” “It is what it’s all about!” To which I could only respond, “Well, I guess you’ll have to read it all again. Focus on the teachings of Jesus. Oh, and do you remember the shortest verse in the Bible? [John 11:35 - “Jesus wept.”] Read that one again, and then go on and tell these families at these funerals that they don’t have to grieve.”
Proponents of this “new” theology believe that it is actually a return to a very old theology, the original Way of Jesus and the first Christian communities. It’s not “all about the afterlife” but about building a new kind of life on earth. And it’s about feeling, experiencing, joy and suffering here and now in solidarity and celebration with all of humanity.
…at least that seems to me what it’s all about. Check out Brian McLaren’s “Deep Shift” website and tour here. And one last thing to note: the “generations” involved in this shift aren’t necessarily age-defined. Leaders appear from all age groups, and some of the most important recent texts behind the shift were written decades ago.
Those of you in the church: please give me some other examples of this kind of struggle between the “generations.” You can redact all the names and places to protect the innocent! 
If not “secular,” then what? December 5, 2007
Posted by Zack in Missouri | 31 comments
Ok. As I turn 38 (today!) one lesson I can say I have learned is: Don’t comment about a blog comment thread. Yesterday, I wrote about my disappointment with the tone and content of the responses to Brian McLaren’s posts at TPM Cafe. But, of course, a handful of commenters represent nothing, and it’s impossible to make an objective count of how many were negative, rude, etc.. and how many were not. Also, since I wrote, the level of the discussion over there has come way up.
What I saw in so many of those comments were the same stereotypes and misconceptions about Evangelical Christians that I hear coming from so many otherwise smart, open minded and well-intentioned activists on the left who are outside of the church. I hear it in meetings, at dinners, on conference calls, in one on one conversations. I hear it all the time.
At this point, I really can not say that I belong to one or the other culture. But for the purpose of this conversation, I’m putting on my “outside of the church” hat.
My point is NOT that we should change our views for Christians’ sake. Not at all. They don’t care what we think. My point is that they are something like half the country — and as long as we carry this false and negative understanding of their culture, then we are cutting ourselves off from having a productive social and political relationship with HALF THE COUNTRY. We may as well quit politics.
Please understand what I am NOT saying: I am not saying that we should try to find common ground with a group that stands against everything we believe in. I’m saying: “Surprise! This huge group stands for almost everything that we stand for—and they’re on the move, organizing tens of millions of Americans around our own very same values: people over profit, the environment over mindless growth, meaning over consumerism, means of making a living and health care for all, care for the needy, peace and more.” But we are divided from them by stereotypes and misconceptions.
Instead of pointing to some chaotic comment thread, I should just lay out these stereotypes and misconceptions that are in the way.
But wait — before I can get to that, there’s another problem. Last night I had Matt Stoller yelling at me on the phone (ok, I did some yelling too) about my very use of the categories of “secular progressive” and “progressive evangelical.” Others have criticized me for that too, including Pastor Dan at Street Prophets, several people on the TPM thread and friends in the thread to my last post here.
There has got to be some acceptable way for us to talk about these two different cultures. Yes, they overlap. (More and more, I’m an example of that myself.) I know lots of people who fall into the “progressive evangelical” category working on Democratic presidential campaigns, “secular” progressive orgs, and so on.
Nevertheless, there are two different cultures that we can talk about. And anyone with a foot in each one knows how different they are and how awkward it can be to straddle both.
So I’m asking Matt, Pastor Dan, Mave and others to please help me out here: How would you rather refer to “secular progressives”? First of all, “secular” does not mean atheist. Check out the substantial wikipedia article on Secularism. And here’s a dictionary definition:
Secular: (1) denoting attitudes, activities, or other things that have no religious or spiritual basis : secular buildings | secular moral theory. Contrasted with sacred. (2) Christian Church (of clergy) not subject to or bound by religious rule; not belonging to or living in a monastic or other order.
As with any political label, to say, “Secular Progressive” bends the definition of “Secular” a little bit. But it works well in the sense that a secular progressive, like a “secular priest” is not acting in the world directly in the service of a religious community. In other words, all of us “secular progressives” can have a range of religious and atheist views.
By “Evangelical Christian Progressives,” on the other hand, I mean people who are tightly woven into an intimate Christian church community that pervades all aspects of their life and politics. Likewise, all aspects of their life and politics are guided by a very specific theological belief set — those beliefs vary somewhat from one community to the next, but all Evangelical Christians have a core theology in common.
Equally as important for this discussion, they mostly (but not all) have a lot of cultural practices in common that stand in stark contrast to most (but not all) “secular progressives.” They don’t approve of sex before marriage, think divorce is unacceptable, find common expressions that “take the lord’s name in vain”—and cussing in general—jarring and believe homosexuality displeases God.
Those cultural differences rule out simple social gathering, let alone intimate political collaboration, between “Secular Progressives” (soon to be renamed!) and “Evangelical Progressives.” It is those cultural and ideological/theological differences that need to be bridged—accepted where possible and negotiated where necessary.
And I don’t see how we can do that without at least having words to use for these two different, albeit overlapping and fuzzy, groups. Without words, we can’t talk. Without talking, we can’t work things out.
But, as Matt said last night, “secular” has become derogatory term used by the right wing against progressives. OK. Then what term can I use?
Tags: Brian McLaren, matt stoller, pastor dan, secular progressives, tmp cafeBrian McLaren attempts intelligent dialog with secular left; secular left responds with snarky insults December 4, 2007
Posted by Zack in Missouri | 13 comments
Please check out Brian McLaren’s post at TPM Cafe (an influential progressive politics blog) and the long, mostly hostile and insulting, comment thread that follows.
The comments are a particular rich and diverse example of anti-Christian feelings that are common on the secular left. I’ve been mulling over something like a “way to agree to disagree” that Christian, secular and other faiths’ contingents of the left could use as a basis for friendly and peaceful collaboration. This has spurred me on in that direction—I’ll see what I can come up with.
Tags: Brian McLaren, Secular LeftWhat Would Diggers Do? October 27, 2007
Posted by Zack in Missouri | write a comment
In Brian McLaren’s Everything Must Change (see the last few posts), he builds a case that our current economic system is configured as a “suicide machine,” and lays out an “emerging view of Jesus” that he thinks can help us diffuse the ticking time bomb.
He presents Jesus as an alternate “framing story” to our current suicidal economic framing story. His main goal, I think, is to try to help us absorb and believe in the framing story that Jesus gave humanity—a story of love, selflessness, sacrifice and restoration of all creation.
However, he does spend a few pages suggesting some concrete actions and behavior changes that could flow from a belief in the Jesus story. First he goes through the personal and community changes that have become the standard new alter call in progressive evangelical churches. Downshift, recycle, serve your neighbors, serve your community. Think Heavenly, Act Locally.
And then he takes a step further:
In the tradition of Martin Luther King Jr., Desmond Tutu, and others, individuals and faith communities—whose normal work is done “in secret”—begin to go public, linking together in larger social movements, employing the full range of nonviolent methods of social change—from education to civil disobedience, from rallies and festivals to political organizing, from artistic expression of the new vision to coalition building and public demonstration.
Here’s a question. It’s not loaded! —just an honest question. In our modern society, what kind of civil disobedience, or other action that fits into McLaren’s categories above, can deliver the means of making a living into the hands of the two to five-and-a-half billion people (depending on how you count) who don’t have it?
As I was thinking about this tonight, I went and revisited The Diggers. They were a Christian movement in England in the 1600’s that practiced direct civil disobedience against big landowners. They believed it was God’s will that all people should have means of making a living. Back then, that meant land. Practically, land was the only means of making a living that didn’t involve domination over others. In the Diggers’ day, the big land owners were “enclosing” more and more land that common people had been living off of. (They enclosed the land using hedges — anyone see Over the Hedge?)
Back then, people who were born into families that had no means of making a living could look over the hedge and see some land (means of making a living) sitting unused with their names written all over it. The diggers crossed the hedges and planted. Ultimately they were defeated, but their pressure led to important national reforms and changed the power dynamics in their local communities.
So…what would a Digger do in the present day, when means of making a living doesn’t mean access to land, but rather access to capital?
When I read the Diggers’ manifestos, way back before I knew anything about Christianity or the Bible, they were just gibberish to me. Now that I understand most of the references, they make perfect sense. It was amazing tonight reading Gerrard Winstanley’s original “Standard” (selections below). Most of it maps perfectly onto stuff that Rob Bell has been preaching lately (if you translate the Diggers into modern language).
…Except for the part at the end where the co-signers close with, “And that’s why we’re coming to nationalize your oil company! Amen.” (If you translate the Diggers into modern language!)
Tags: Brian McLaren, Diggers, Gerrard Winstanley, Rob Bell
The True Levellers Standard Advanced:
or,
The State of Community opened, and Presented to the Sons of Men.
1649By William Everard, Iohn Palmer, Iohn South, Iohn Courton. William Taylor, Christopher Clifford, Iohn Barker. Ferrard Winstanley, Richard Goodgroome, Thomas Starre, William Hoggrill, Robert Sawyer, Thomas Eder, Henry Bickerstaffe, Iohn Taylor, &c.
Beginning to Plant and Manure the Waste land upon
George-Hill, in the Parish of Walton, in the
County of Surrey.…And so selfish imaginations taking possession of the Five Sences, and ruling as King in the room of Reason therein, and working with Covetousnesse, did set up one man to teach and rule over another; and thereby the Spirit was killed, and man was brought into bondage, and became a greater Slave to such of his own kind, then the Beasts of the field were to him.
And hereupon, The Earth (which was made to be a Common Treasury of relief for all, both Beasts and Men) was hedged in to In-closures by the teachers and rulers, and the others were made Servants and Slaves: And that Earth that is within this Creation made a Common Store-house for all, is bought and sold, and kept in the hands of a few, whereby the great Creator is mightily dishonored, as if he were a respector of persons, delighting in the comfortable Livelihood of some, and rejoycing in the miserable povertie and straits of others. From the beginning it was not so.
…
But for the present state of the old World that is running up like parchment in the fire, and wearing away, we see proud Imaginary flesh, which is the wise Serpent, rises up in flesh and gets dominion in some to rule over others, and so forces one part of the Creation man, to be a slave to another; and thereby the Spirit is killed in both. The one looks upon himself as a teacher and ruler, and so is lifted up in pride over his fellow Creature:The other looks upon himself as imperfect, and so is dejected in his Spirit, and looks upon his fellow Creature of his own Image, as a Lord above him.
And thus Esau, the man of flesh, which is Covetousness and Pride, hath killed Jacob, the Spirit of meeknesse, and righteous government in the light of Reason, and rules over him: And so the Earth that was made a common Treasury for all to live comfortably upon, is become through mans unrighteous actions one over another, to be a place, wherein one torments another.
Now the great Creator, who is the Spirit Reason, suffered himself thus to be rejected, and troden under foot by the covetous proud flesh, for a certain time limited; therefore saith he, The Seed out of whom the Creation did proceed, which is my Self, shall bruise this Serpents head, and restore my Creation again from this curse and bondage; and when I the King of Righteousnesse raigns in every man, I will be the blessing of the Earth, and the joy of all Nations.
And since the coming in of the stoppage, or the A-dam, the Earth hath been inclosed and given to the Elder brother Esau, or man of flesh, and hath been bought and sold from one to another; and Jacob, or the yonger brother, that is to succeed or come forth next, who is the universal spreading power of righteousnesse that gives liberty to the whole Creation, is made a servant.
And this Elder Son, or man of bondage, hath held the Earth in bondage to himself, not by a meek Law of Righteousnesse, But by subtle selfish Councels, and by open and violent force; for wherefore is it that there is such Wars and rumours of Wars in the Nations of the Earth? and wherefore are men so mad to destroy one another? But only to uphold Civil propriety of Honor, Dominion and Riches one over another, which is the curse the Creation groans under, waiting for deliverance.
…
O thou Powers of England, though thou hast promised to make this People a Free People, yet thou hast so handled the matter, through thy self-seeking humour, That thou hast wrapped us up more in bondage, and oppression lies heavier upon us; not only bringing thy fellow Creatures, the Commoners, to a morsel of Bread, but by confounding all sorts of people by thy Government, of doing and undoing.
First, Thou hast made the people to take a Covenant and Oaths to endeavour a Reformation, and to bring in Liberty every man in his place; and yet while a man is in pursuing of that Covenant, he is imprisoned and oppressed by thy Officers, Courts and Justices, so called.
Thou hast made Ordinances to cast down Oppressing, Popish, Episcopal, Self-willed and Prerogative Laws; yet we see, That Self- wil and Prerogative power, is the great standing Law, that rules all in action, and others in words.
Thou hast made many promises and protestations to make the Land a Free Nation: And yet at this very day, the same people, to whom thou hast made such Protestations of Liberty, are oppressed by the Courts, Sizes, Sessions, by thy Justices and Clarks of the Peace, so called, Bayliffs, Committees, are imprisoned, and forced to spend that bread, that should save their lives from Famine.
And all this, Because they stand to maintain an universal Liberty and Freedom, which not only is our Birthright, which our Maker gave us, but which thou hast promised to restore unto us, from under the former oppressing Powers that are gone before, and which likewise we have bought with our Money, in Taxes, Free- quarter, and Bloud-shed; all which Sums thou hast received at our hands, and yet thou hast not given us our bargain.
O thou A-dam, thou Esau, thou Cain, thou Hypocritical man of flesh, when wilt thou cease to kill thy yonger Brother? Surely thou must not do this great Work of advancing the Creation out of Bondage; for thou art lost extremely, and drowned in the Sea of Covetousnesse, Pride and hardness of heart. The blessing shall rise out of the dust which thou treadest under foot, Even the poor despised People, and they shall hold up Salvation to this Land, and to all Lands, and thou shalt be ashamed.
Our bodies as yet are in thy hand, our Spirit waits in quiet and peace, upon our Father for Deliverance; and if he give our Bloud into thy hand, for thee to spill, know this, That he is our Almighty Captain: And if some of you will not dare to shed your bloud, to maintain Tyranny and Oppression upon the Creation, know this, That our Bloud and Life shall not be unwilling to be delivered up in meekness to maintain universal Liberty, that so the Curse on our part may be taken off the Creation.
And we shall not do this through force of Arms, we abhorre it, For that is the work of the Midianites to kill one another; But by obeying the Lord of Hosts, who hath Revealed himself in us, and to us, by labouring the Earth in righteousness together, to eate our bread with the sweat of our brows, neither giving hire, nor taking hire, but working together, and eating together, as one man, or as one house of Israel restored from Bondage; and so by the power of Reason, the Law of righteousness in us, we endeavour to lift up the Creation from that bondage of Civil Propriety, which it groans under.
We are made to hold forth this Declaration to you that are the Great Councel, and to you the Great Army of the Land of England, that you may know what we would have, and what you are bound to give us by your Covenants and Promises; and that you may joyn with us in this Work, and so find Peace. Or else, if you do oppose us, we have peace in our Work, and in declaring this Report: And you shall be left without excuse.
The work we are going about is this, To dig up Georges Hill and the waste Ground thereabouts, and to Sow Corn, and to eat our bread together by the sweat of our brows. And the First Reason is this, That we may work in righteousness, and lay the Foundation of making the Earth a Common Treasury for All, both Rich and Poor, That every one that is born in the Land, may be fed by the Earth his Mother that brought him forth, according to the Reason that rules in the Creation. Not Inclosing any part into any particular hand, but all as one man, working together, and feeding together as Sons of one Father, members of one Family; not one Lording over another, but all looking upon each other, as equals in the Creation; so that our Maker may be glorified in the work of his own hands, and that every one may see, he is no respecter of Persons, but equally loves his whole Creation, and hates nothing but the Serpent, which is Covetousness, branching forth into selfish Imagination, Pride, Envie, Hypocrisie, Uncleanness; all seeking the ease and honor of flesh, and fighting against the Spirit Reason that made the Creation; for that is the Corruption, the Curse, the Devil, the Father of Lies; Death and Bondage that Serpent and Dragon that the Creation is to be delivered from.
…
For it is shewed us, That so long as we, or any other, doth own the Earth to be the peculiar Interest of Lords and Landlords, and not common to others as well as them, we own the Curse, and holds the Creation under bondage; and so long as we or any other doth own Landlords and Tennants, for one to call the Land his, or another to hire it of him, or for one to give hire, and for another to work for hire; this is to dishonour the work of Creation; as if the righteous Creator should have respect to persons, and therefore made the Earth for some, and not for all: And so long as we, or any other maintain this Civil Propriety, we consent still to hold the Creation down under that bondage it groans under, and so we should hinder the work of Restoration, and sin against Light, that is given into us, and so through the fear of the flesh man, lose our peace.
And that this Civil Propriety is the Curse, is manifest thus, Those that Buy and Sell Land, and are landlords, have got it either by Oppression, or Murther, or Theft; and all landlords lives in the breach of the Seventh and Eighth Commandments, Thou shalt not steal, or kill.
…
If you look through the Earth, you shall see, That the landlords, Teachers and Rulers, are Oppressors, Murtherers, and Theeves in this manner; But it was not thus from the Beginning. And this is one Reason of our digging and labouring the Earth one with another, That we might work in righteousness and lift up the Creation from bondage: For so long as we own Landlords in this Corrupt Settlement, we cannot work in righteousness; for we should still lift up the Curse, and tread down the Creation, dishonour the Spirit of universal Liberty, and hinder the work of Restauration.
…
It is shewed us, That all the Prophecies, Visions and Revelations of Scriptures, of Prophets, and Apostles, concerning the calling of the Jews, the Restauration of Israel and making of that People, the Inheritors of the whole Earth doth all seat themselves in this Work of making the Earth Common Treasury; as you may read Ezek.24.26,27& Jer.33.7. to 12. Esay. 49.17,18, &c. Zach. 8. from 9 to 12. Dan.2.44,45. Dan. 7.27. Hos.14.5,6,7. Joel 2.26,27. Amos 9. from 8 to the end, Obad.17.18.21. Mic.5. from 7 to the end, Hab. 2.6,7,8.13,14. Gen.18.18. Rom.11.15. Zeph. 3. & Zach.14.9.
And when the Son of man, was gone from the Apostles, his Spirit descended upon the Apostles and Brethren, as they were waiting at Ierusalem; and the Rich men sold their Possessions and gave part to the Poor; and no man said, That ought that he possessed was his own, for they had all things Common, Act. 4. 32. Now this Community was supprest by covetous proud flesh, which was the powers that ruled the world; and the righteous Father suffered himself thus to be suppressed for a time, times and dividing of time, or for 42 months, or for three dayes and half, which are all but one and the same term of time: And the world is now come to the half day; and the Spirit of Christ, which is the Spirit of universal Community and Freedom is risen, and is rising, and will rise higher and higher, till those pure waters of Shiloe, the Well Springs of Life and Liberty to the whole Creation, do over-run A-dam, and crown those banks of Bondage, Curse, and Slavery.
…
But I do not entreat thee, for thou art not to be intreated, but in the Name of the Lord, that hath drawn me forth to speak to thee; I, yea I say, I Command thee, To let Israel go Free, and quietly to gather together into the place where I shall appoint; and hold them no longer in bondage.
And thou A-dam that holds the Earth in slavery under the Curse: If thou wilt not let Israel go Free; for thou being the Antitype, will be more stout and lusty then the Egyptian Pharoah of old, who was thy Type; Then know, That whereas I brought Ten Plagues upon him, I will Multiply my Plagues upon thee, till I make thee weary, and miserably ashamed: And I will bring out my People with a strong hand, and stretched out arme.
Thus we have discharged our Souls in declaring the Cause of our Digging upon George-Hill in Surrey, that the Great Councel and Army of the Land may take notice of it, That there is no intent of Tumult or Fighting, but only to get Bread to eat, with the sweat of our brows; working together in righteousness, and eating the blessings of the Earth in peace.
And if any of you that are the great Ones of the Earth, that have been bred tenderly, and cannot work, do bring in your Stock into this Common Treasury, as an Offering to the work of Righteousness; we will work for you, and you shall receive as we receive. But if you will not, but Pharoah like, cry, Who is the Lord that we should obey him? and endeavour to Oppose, then know, That he that delivered Israel from Pharoah of old, is the same Power still, in whom we trust, and whom we serve; for this Conquest over thee shall be got, not by Sword or Weapon, but by my Spirit saith the Lord of Hosts.
A Revolution that needs a little more hope October 25, 2007
Posted by Zack in Missouri | 9 comments
Progressives (Christian and secular) have lost faith in humanity’s ability to intentionally manage our economies.
I’m not talking about central planning, but I am talking about collectively guaranteeing that everyone in the world has access to means of making a good living that’s sustainable and doesn’t destroy the earth. That’s just not an acceptable goal anymore for respectable progressives.
We’re comfortable with the idea of society guaranteeing bare essentials like water access, education, healthcare and a few other baseline services. We’re comfortable with the idea of society creating incentives against socially or environmentally harmful economic activities and in favor of desirable activities. But when we think of society, say, providing the resources to completely overhaul a polluting industry and making it happen, we think of Stalin. Or at least we think that such an ambitious project would be doomed to fail spectacularly. Don’t we?
One hundred years ago, and for hundreds of years before that, progressives had complete faith that it was possible for humans to build and maintain a far, far better economy than we have today. They expected that, by the year 2007, there would be no poverty, no preventable illness, no illiteracy and no war. They were divided about how to get there—incrementalism, violent revolution, non-violent/democratic revolution, spontaneous/anarchist revolution, etc—but they all believed it was humanity’s job to make it happen.
Yesterday I got a remarkable reminder of that optimism while spending some time with Walter Rauschenbusch’s Christianity and the Social Crisis. It’s a 100 year old book from one of the leaders of the Social Gospel movement.
In some ways, it’s written with the same purpose as the other book I’ve been reading, Brian McLaren’s Everything Must Change. But the difference in tone caused by the difference between the two worlds in which Rauschenbusch and McLaren worte could not be more stark.
Reading Rauschenbusch, you can feel how the whole world around him was on fire with change and hope. As bad as things were for the billion or so suffering poverty, a worldwide movement was in full swing to change everything. It was a real, practical movement with mass parties, some in power, and examples of societies all around the world leaping forward in development through various means—some lead by the movement, some desperately trying to stay ahead of it. Despite periodic setbacks, the direction was clear. And the endpoint was just as clear: no, not a Utopia, merely a world without poverty, unnecessary illness, illiteracy, etc…
Where Rauschenbusch wrote with the tone of being one voice in the cacophony of an already-500-year-old revolutionary movement, McLaren has to write—on his economic topic—with the tone of a lone voice in an almost silent wilderness.
Where you can feel Rauschenbusch’s confidence in humanity’s abilities to solve it’s economic problems bursting onto every page, McLaren can only offer beautiful but consciously irrational hope. He advocates resistance because it’s the just thing to do, but can promise nothing. At the start of a critical chapter named “A Revolution of Hope” he offers:
Can the suicide machine [of our economic system] really be stopped?…
The simple answer is that nobody knows. (p. 269)
There’s a new edition of Christianity and the Social Crisis out in print—peppered by (mostly condescending) essays from present-day thinkers. You can also download the full book for free thanks to Google books because it’s now in the public domain.
I clipped some interesting bits for you from Google books and put them here. Please take a look.
Tags: Brian McLaren, Christian Socialism, Everything Must Change, Walter RauschenbuschReading Everything Must Change October 16, 2007
Posted by Zack in Missouri | 4 comments
I’m going to start digging into Brian McLaren’s Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope. He’s known as a “progressive Evangelical”—and there are even websites set up by fundamentalists calling him the son of Satan. But he’s been a huge influence to the broad evangelical movement. Young people especially have named his books as inspirations in all of the evangelical settings we’ve explored over the past couple of months.
One thing I’m hoping to get from this book is a better grip on the subtle (looking in from the outside anyways) theological shift beneath the surface of the revolution in evangelical Christianity.
It’s especially hard for me to grasp this moving target because I never knew the previous theology that they’re now shifting away from. So, what’s new? What’s the difference? What are the difficult parts for people to accept? What is scary about this?
All I can tell so far is that the shift is BIG. It seems to be shaking the very foundation of the faith. You can hear it in the tone of voice of preachers as they cross the line in a sermon…as they drop the bomb that questions people’s deepest assumptions. At Catalyst, you could hear it in the subdued Amens and muffled applause, when the speakers crossed these lines, as the crowd really had to think.
Here’s one way that Brian explains it in Everything Must Change:
As a follower of God in the way of Jesus, I’ve been involved in a profoundly interesting and enjoyable conversation for the last ten years or so. It’s a conversation about what it means to be a “new kind of Christian”—not an angry and reactionary fundamentalist, not a stuffy traditionalist, not a blasé nominalist, not a wishy-washy liberal, not a New Agey religions hipster, not a crusading religions imperialist, and not an overly enthused Bible-waving fanatic—but something fresh and authentic and challenging and adventurous. Around the world, millions of people have gotten involved in this conversation, and more and more are getting involved each day. (One reason we keep calling it a conversation is that we can’t find a short way of describing it yet.)
…the versions of Christianity we inherited are largely flattened, watered down, tamed—offering us a ticket to heaven after death, but not challenging us to address the issues that threaten life on earth. Together we’ve begun to seek a fresh understanding of what Christianity is for, what a church can be and do, and most exciting, we’re finding out that a lot of what we need most is already hidden in a trunk in our attic. Which is good news. (P. 2-3)
The most exciting and uplifting thing about this is the part about people being challenged instead of comforted by this new understanding of Jesus. If you’re looking to replenish your faith in humanity, especially the American people, then this is the jackpot: As these revolutionary Evangelical preachers make their messages and churches more and more challenging, more and more people show up.
Millions of kids are flocking to Christian conferences, music festivals and just plain church not to get their “ticket to Heaven” or learn how to hate gays, but to join an international movement of people ready to give their lives in order to redeem the world—both individual broken lives as well as whole broken social and economic systems.
So I’ll keep working on this book. On days when I don’t have any in-person encounters to report on, I’ll try to report on my progress through the book.
Tags: Brian McLaren, Everything Must Change
