Category: Biography as Theology

Faith in the Life of César Chávez: Part I, “Abuelita Theology”

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Biography as Theology, Subverting EmpireLeave a comment

chavezBy Robert Chao Romero, originally posted on the Jesus 4 Revolutionaries website

César Chávez was the preeminent leader, voice, and public face of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s.  Chávez is to Latinas/os what Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is to the African American community.  Moreover, as the posthumous recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Aztec Eagle,[1] and a U.S. postage stamp in his honor, Chávez has been called the world’s most famous Latino.[2]  Together with Dolores Huerta and Filipino organizers Larry Itliong and Phillip VeraCruz, Chávez founded the United Farmworkers of America (UFW).  The UFW fought for increased wages and better working conditions for exploited California farmworkers and rose to national attention through the famous Delano grape strike and international boycotts of 1965-1970. Continue reading “Faith in the Life of César Chávez: Part I, “Abuelita Theology”” →

Happy Day

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Art as Resistance, Biography as Theology, Theological AnimationLeave a comment

chicagoBy Ric Hudgens

Chicago thirty years ago
Hot August night
Apartments stacked close
No air conditioning
Everyone’s windows up
Taverns close at 3 am
Patrons weave their way home
Sound slides through night air
“O happy day, O happy day”
One voice ascends in a boozy baritone
“When Jesus washed . . . “
A one man marching choir
“ . . . My sins away.”
Heat, sweat, volume keep everyone awake
“O happy day, O happy day.” Continue reading “Happy Day” →

A Call to Action

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Biography as Theology, Cloud of Witnesses, Race3 Comments

bcm-logoBy Tommy Airey

White people: no one is asking you to apologize for your ancestors. We are asking you to dismantle the systems they built and that you maintain. We have no use for your guilt. What we want from you is action.
Sylvia McAdam, co-founder of Idle No More

Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

Snow came early this year to the Canadian prairies, but there were some logs of hope burning in the fireplace of the soul last weekend at St. Andrew’s College in Saskatoon as 100 First Nations and white settler leaders convened for the Fall 2016 Bartimaeus Institute entitled The Truth & Reconciliation Commission Calls Churches to Action: Building Capacity for Restorative Solidarity.  The seven residential school survivors in attendance served as elders, guiding participants with both historical memory and spiritual anticipation. Continue reading “A Call to Action” →

Marry

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Biography as Theology, Uncategorized, Watershed DiscipleshipLeave a comment

t and lReaders may not know, but Tommy and Lindsay Airey are ending their time in Detroit this month. It is a serious loss for those of us in Detroit, but we trust it will mean wonderful things for http://www.radicaldiscipleship.net as Tommy and Lindsay continue to write, reflect, and place their feet in new places. This is a goodbye poem for them written by Bill Wylie-Kellermann.

This old world to that beloved Word
this watershed to discipleship
roots, sweet and thirsty, to the road;
in radical vocation, wed disciple to disciple
as time to time
(What kairos is it on the chronos of Detroit?
the nation, the planet, our hearts?) Continue reading “Marry” →

Migration through a Christian Perspective

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Biography as Theology, Uncategorized2 Comments

migrante-bcBy Hessed Torres., re-posted from Filipino Portal in Canada

Psalm 66:1-7, 16-20
Isaiah 66:10-14
Luke 10:1-12, 17-20

When I read the first few verses of Psalm 66:1-7, my initial reaction was to cringe from the disconnection of what it was telling me and what my reality was. How can a migrant worker like me “shout for joy” in the midst of exploitation, vulnerability, precariousness and pain? Is this some kind of joke? One cannot expect a demoralized worker to be joyful and forget their agony. Continue reading “Migration through a Christian Perspective” →

Freed from Fear to Shelter the Vulnerable

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BCMBy Elaine Enns

Scripture:  “Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear… For God will hide me in a shelter in the day of trouble.”  Psalm 27:3a, 5a

As babies, both Moses and Jesus were hidden away from danger during times of war and oppression by courageous caregivers. This archetypal script is also found in my family story, and perhaps in yours. My grandmother grew up in the Mennonite village of Osterwick, Ukraine. As a result of endemic injustice under the Tsar, the Russian Revolution broke out in 1917, and civil war raged through the country. In Ukraine, a peasant army arose to fight for independence, but their methods were often brutal, including home invasions. In December 1919, my great-grandmother Anna Schulz’s house was commandeered for two weeks. The males of the house had to flee for their lives into the nearby forest, while my fifteen year-old grandmother, along with her sister and girl cousins, were hidden up in the attic. Anna proceeded to feed, clothe, and nurse the rough soldiers. In the face of terror, she committed her life to her Divine protector, and practiced non-violence. Continue reading “Freed from Fear to Shelter the Vulnerable” →

Precious Little Purchase

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Biography as Theology, Subverting EmpireLeave a comment

From Mark Van Steenwyk (right: with son Jonas)Mark, co-founder of the Minneapolis Mennonite Worker, in a Facebook post from July 6:

If I lived in a swing state, I might vote for HRC. Thank God, I don’t. I have the luxury of voting my conscience (or non-voting my conscience) without much risk.

But I wish and pray and beg that folks would put the same energy into organizing or campaigning or protesting for justice that they put into this horrible excuse for democracy we call “presidential politics”. Continue reading “Precious Little Purchase” →