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I’ve been busy writing again these days, will need to be writing till we leave for Yosemite. So it’s a bit of the usual writing mood but somehow it’s less holy – more mundane and more relaxed. Been working a bit in my favorite cafe this weekend, installed in the armchair opposite the yellow one that you can see. Pergolesi is a good place to hang out and actually get work done. Meanwhile i would so much like to finish my notes about the spiritual activism conference, but i’m a afraid it might not happen before Yosemite. But i still feel like sharing a taste of what i felt was going on at the conference, so i’ve copied some paragraphs from a book i bought there and that i’m reading at the moment. |
The book is called “The Irresistible Revolution” and is written by Shane Claiborne. Shane is a founding member of The Simple Way in Philly, one of these (“intentional”) communities of radical evangelical Christians that are popping up like mushrooms all over the county. Especially on the east coast is my first impression. But then again, the conference was on the east coast, so that impression might be biased. At the same time, there’s a wide range of other kinds of spiritual intentional communities on the west coast, so that there might be less specific evangelical ones. Does it make a difference? For those of you for whom any kind of spirituality (including the witches!) is suspect or profoundly flawed, it probably doesn’t. But the thing is that at the moment evangelical Christianity is married to other conservative and right-wing forces who all together are slowly (although not so very slowly…) ruining this country and this world. Carrying a “revolutionary” radical agenda within evangelical Christianity at this point in time comes very close to a waging a struggle from (within) the belly of the beast.
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The book very much reflects at least one thing that i saw in action at the conference: the articulation (combination) between what we recognise as left-wing positions (very strong on redistribution of wealth, starting from the lives of the poor, very strong on anti-war/peace and anti-torture, strong on hospitality, insisting on community, strong on anti-racism and anti-patriarchy, strong on the environment, insisting on radical love) and religious (in the case of the conference, also non-religious spiritual) beliefs and practices. |
There is much more to say about this tendency, about the conference, but i want to anticipate the stories to come with the affirmation that this articulation is taking place here in the U.S. To what extent – i don’t know. In Shane’s paragraphs below there is a sense that their way of doing church is gaining momentum. During the conference the Washington Post ran a front-page article claiming “The religious left is back!”. Frankly, i don’t know how much this reflects a real social force or movement. Susan tentively ascribes more real force to evangelicals who disagree and dissociate with the current regime out of a more conservative agenda. The nice thing is to be able to do these investigations parallel to hers, so we cover different movements within evangelical Christianity away from the current unholy alliance with the political right-wing. The thing that is becoming more and more clear: a good number of important movements (movements that in fact could end this regime, something the liberal left on its own seems quite unable to do) are happening within the realm of religion in this country. Some of Shane’s words now:
“Meanwhile, many of us find ourselves estranged from the narrow issues that define conservatives and from the shallow spirituality that marks liberals. We are thristy for social justice and peace but have a heard time finding a faith community that is consistently pro-life [note: this is a re-appropriation of the “pro-life” discourse of the christian right] or that recognizes that there are “moral issues” other than homosexuality and abortion, moral issues like war and poverty. So some folks just end up trying to save individual souls from their sins, and others end up trying to save the world from “the system”. But rarely do we see that the sickness of our world has infected each of us, and that the healing of our world not only begins within us but does not end with us. I recently received a letter from a young man that read “I am alone, surrounded by unbelieving activists and inactive believers. Where are the true Christians?” A “silent majority” is developing as a growing number of folks are deliberately distancing themselves from the noise and arrogance that have come to mark both evangelical Christianity and secular activism.”
“I have a confession I’m sure many of you will find refreshing and familiar: I don’t really fit into the old liberal-conservative boxes, so it’s a good things we are moving on to something new. My activist friends call me conservative, and my religious friends call me liberal. What I often get branded is “radical”. I’ve never really minded that, for as my urban-farming friends remind me, the word radical itself means “root”. It’s from the Latin words radix, which, just like a rad-ish, had to do with getting to the root of things. But radical is not something reserved for saints and martyrs, which is why I like to complement it with ordinary. Ordinary does not mean normal, and I lament the dreadful seduction which has resulted in Christians becoming so normal. Thanksfully, there is a movement of ordinary radicals sweeping the land, and ordinary people are choosing to live in radical new ways. So this is a book for ordinary radicals, not for saints who think they have a monopoly on radical and not for normal people who are satisfied with the way things are.
So I am radical in the truest sense of the word: an ordinary radical who wants to get at the root of what it means to love, and to get at the root of what has made such a mess of our world. And many of my heroes were “radicals,” trying to get back to the roots of Christianity. In the past, being labeled radical was nice because it made me feel sassy, and I never had to worry about folks taking me too seriously. It was a word you used ot write someone off, usually folks who exaggerated the truth that the world was neglecting. But something strange has happened. Either I’m no longer radical, or there are a lot of ordinary radicals out there. People are actually paying attention. The question if no longer what to do if nobody listens but what happens when people actually take us seriously.”
“There is a beautiful moment in the Bible when the prophet Elijah feels God’s presence. The Scriptures say that a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart, but God was not in the wind. After the wind, there was an earthquake, but God was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. It was the whisper of God. Today we can hear the whispter where we least expect it: in a baby refugee and in a homeless rabbi, in crack addicts and displaced children, in a groaning creation. In the words that Indian activist and authors Arundhati Roy proclaimed at the World Social Forum in Brazil, “Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.” The whisper cries out for God to save the church from us Christians and breath new life into the aging Body.”
“If by evangelical we mean one who spreads the good news that there is another kingdom or superpower, an economy and a peace other than that of the nations, a saviour other than Caesar, then yes, I am an evangelical.
No doubt, there is much noise in evangelical Christianity. There are many false prophets (and false profits) out there, and all kinds of embarrassing things being done in the name of God. Religious extremists of all faiths have perverted the best of our traditions. But there is another movements stirring, a little revolution of sorts. Many of us are refusing to allow distorted images of our faith to define us. There are those of us who, rather than simply reject pop evangelicalism, want to spread another kind of Christianity, a faith that has as much to say about this world as it does about the next. New prophets are rising up who try to change the future, not just predict it. There is a movement bubbling up that goes beyond cynicism and celebrates a new way of living, a generation that stops complaining about the church it sees and becomes the church it dreams of. And this little revolution is irresistible. It is a contagious revolution that dances, laughs and loves.”