Carrying the Cross towards the Rubble

Every Good Friday, a motley crew of radical disciples walks the streets of Detroit with a large, awkward wooden cross. They stop at “stations” where life is being crucified in the city. This year, these Detroiters are homing in on the image of rubble. Empire is bombing Gaza. Empire is bulldozing ghettos. It’s part of a settler-colonial supremacy story that seizes land for wealthy and powerful elites. Ad agencies and mainstream media and political parties – and, yes, Christian churches – play their part in hiding the collateral damage. As Palestinian pastor Munther Isaac proclaimed in his viral Christmas sermon, the crucified are buried under the rubble. Christians are called to join Jesus in there. To work. To bear witness. To worship. As we wait expectantly for Something Else to resurrect the dead and discarded into newness of life. The post below is the introduction to Detroit’s Good Friday Stations of the Cross Walk. [artwork above: Lucia Wylie-Eggert]

For more than forty years, we have placed a wooden cross against the brick wall on the backside of the Manna Meal soup kitchen. We pass the booklets, ring the gong, raise our voices, and read these words. Then we walk. Together. On this journey of repentance. A word in the ancient context that referred to a soldier switching sides during a battle. 

We walk the streets of Detroit asking:

Where is Christ crucified today – and what does it mean for us to repent, to switch sides and join him in the rubble created by empire?

Each year our route is different and distinct. The faces of victims and executioners rise up to us from a particular time and place. The imperial powers that we recognize today are the same and not the same as before – and they are all threaded together, entangling us in a settler-colonial web of death and domination. We name them again. We name them anew. 

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Debates that are Premised upon my own Dehumanization

A Twitter thread from Iyad el-Baghdadi (above), the founder of Kawaakibi Foundation and the author of The Middle East Crisis Factory

I’m a Palestinian and I do not enter conversations or debates that are premised upon my own dehumanization. Such as:

– Palestine doesn’t/didn’t exist
– Your people aren’t a people
– Go back to Jordan (or Hejaz, or Arabia)

– You are the colonialists
– You don’t belong here (this is our ancestral homeland, not yours)
– Palestinian refugees aren’t refugees

– You left your homes in 1948 and 1967 out of your own accord
– You were squatters in historic Jewish land
– Yes we kicked you out from your land but get over it, it’s ours now, get over it

Continue reading “Debates that are Premised upon my own Dehumanization”

Just 2 Weeks Away: Join the Action in DC!

Christians for a Free Palestine is calling for a mass mobilization to Washington DC, April 8-9, in order to to use our public voice and our collective power to challenge Christian Zionism, advocate for a permanent ceasefire, demand an end to U.S. military aid to Israel, and ensure a long-lasting, just, and sustainable peace for Palestinians and Israelis.

On Tuesday, April 9, hundreds of Christians will hold the largest ecumenical Christian action for Palestine since this genocide began. It will include a public peace service outside the Capitol, praying, singing, and breaking bread together. Some will take direct action while others take action to amplify our demands.

On Monday, April 8, we will host a comprehensive training in Washington DC to prepare all those who plan to take peaceful action.

There are two info sessions coming up this Wednesday at 1 pm ET, and next Wednesday at 8 pm ET. Register by clicking on these links!

From Palestine to the Philippines: Stop US-backed bombings and build a Just Peace

A compelling offering from a coalition of radical disciples.

While Palestine, the Philippines, and the US are geographically distant, the relationships between these governments is characterized by a common thread of military aid and weapons sales, human rights violations, negligence, widespread vilification of activists and civil society institutions, as well as the weaponization of civilian life as a tactic to maintain control.

Learn more during a webinar to be held on Wednesday, March 27, 8 PM Eastern / 5 PM Pacific.

>> Use this link to register.

During this online event, we’ll talk about the human rights violations in both Occupied Palestine and the Philippines, highlight the role of the US in enabling violence, the roots of the conflicts, and opportunities to engage and oppose the harm that is being carried out.

>> Use this link to register.

This event is co-sponsored by Pax Christi USA, Pax Christi International, and the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP-US), plus Christians for a Free Palestine, Mennonite Action, Western Methodist Justice Movement, and other ecumenical partners.

Revolutionary Love

The conclusion of Michelle Alexander’s recent article in The Nation (Only Revolutionary Love Can Save Us Now).

A beautiful mural now adorns the Israeli Separation Wall at the northern end of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank. It was painted by a Palestinian artist who was struck with inspiration after watching the protests in the United States following the killing of George Floyd by a police officer who placed his knee on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes. The artist painted a giant image of Floyd next to the image of Palestinian teen activist Ahed Tamimi and slain medic Razan al-Najajr. When the artist was asked why he added Floyd to the mural, he said, “I want the people in America who see this mural to know that we in Palestine are standing with them [in their struggle for justice], because we know what it is like to be strangled every day.” Photos of that mural went viral and were featured in news outlets around the world, something the artist never dreamed would occur. A wall that once symbolized only apartheid now also symbolizes international and interracial solidarity in the struggle for freedom.

Obviously, tweets and spray paint cannot alone change the world. But they are important reminders that everything that we do or fail to do matters, and that all of us have a role to play.    We can never know if our small acts of love or courage might make a bigger difference than we imagine. The fact that Black activists today are showing up at marches organized by Jewish students, who are raising their voices in solidarity with Palestinians who are suffering occupation and annihilation in Gaza, is due in no small part to thousands of small acts of revolutionary love that have occurred over the course of years, acts that I hope and pray are planting seeds that will eventually bloom into global movements for peace, justice, and liberation for all.

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Recovering the Authentic Jesus of the Gospels

Another compelling offering from The Alternative Seminary.

A SEVEN-WEEK ONLINE COURSE
7:00 – 9:00 pm EST
Tuesday evenings, April 2 – May 14, 2024

In the United States today, we are witnessing the ascendancy of Christian Nationalism – a dangerous heresy in which “American Jesus” is a gun-toting, law-and-order, pro-military, pro-capitalist, and largely racist Messiah of the Domination System.

We urgently need to recover the authentic Jesus of the Gospels. Together we will explore the radical and revolutionary mission and vision of Jesus in the midst of the Empire and false idols of his time. What does Jesus mean in proclaiming “the reign of God”? How does his life embody that new spiritual and social reality? What kind of discipleship community does he call people to? We will reflect on how the Gospel addresses issues of politics, economics, power, healing, community, and suffering. We will struggle with how this Jesus challenges us to be a Beloved Community in these insane and dangerous times.

This course, which begins in Easter Week in the light of the Resurrection, will be led by Will O’Brien, coordinator of the Alternative Seminary.

Continue reading “Recovering the Authentic Jesus of the Gospels”

Lifting Up Our Gaze to Gaza

Young woman in keffiyeh among may others holds sign and appears to chant. Lots of red and green.

By Tommy Airey

Over the next three weeks, the Christian season of Lent will overlap with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which started yesterday at sundown. Yesterday. When a billion Christians read the Gospel text where the radical rabbi Jesus tells the wealthy and powerful Nicodemus that Jesus himself must be lifted up on a cross – just like Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness.

Jesus was giving a little sermon on the story in the Hebrew bible about the post-exodus Israelites getting bit by poisonous snakes. God tells Moses to make a bronze snake, put it on a pole and raise it up whenever someone gets bit – so they can look up at the snake and be healed. Jesus says that he is now playing the role of the bronze snake.

In the Gospel story, Jesus will inevitably be lifted up on a cross. Because he paved a path that threatened those who clung to their privilege, power and wealth. Radical Christian spirituality roots salvation in gazing at Jesus up on that imperial cross.

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Whose Liturgy Is It Anyway?

Another compelling offering from Alternative Seminary.

Whose Liturgy Is It Anyway? Reclaiming Christian Liturgy as the People’s Work

A Three-Part Series Led by Rev. Naomi Washington-Leapheart (above)

Saturdays, March 9, 16, 23. 10:00 am- 12:00 noon EST. $100

Familiar and traditional liturgy in Christian worship can be a source of comfort. But liturgies left unexamined can do harm. In this series, we’ll explore various liturgical forms and ask – whose liturgy is this and what “work” is this liturgy doing? 

Continue reading “Whose Liturgy Is It Anyway?”