The Only Version of Heaven my God Has Given Me

On July 20, 2019July 7, 2019 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Biography as Theology, Feminist/Womanist/Queer Liberation and Theology, Theological AnimationLeave a comment

An excerpt from The Sun Magazine‘s 2018 interview with poet and professor Camille Dungy.

I am a Christian who is sad that it is often difficult for me to say that I am a Christian. I believe in what I understand to be the fundamental teachings of Jesus Christ: Love one another, and do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Justice and care and dangerous, radical kindness — I believe in all that. But I don’t believe that there is just one “right” Church. And I don’t believe in waiting to go to heaven to get my due…I’m going to fight for my due here and now, and for my daughter’s due. This is the only version of heaven that my God has given me, so this is where I am going to do my work. Continue reading “The Only Version of Heaven my God Has Given Me” →

Mothering Behind Bars: A Conversation with Siwatu-Salama Ra

On July 17, 2019July 15, 2019 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Biography as Theology, Feminist/Womanist/Queer Liberation and Theology, Race, Identity, and History, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Mothering_Behind_Bars_800_250_90 — Siwatu-Salama Ra and family, freesiwatu.org.

Re-share from Geez magazine.

Siwatu-Salama Ra is an environmental justice activist in Detroit, Michigan. Two years ago, she was arrested for pulling out a gun when someone violently threatened her two-year-old daughter. She was a licensed gun owner and never fired a shot. She was found guilty of felony firearm and given a two-year mandatory minimum sentence. She gave birth to her son while in prison. After serving eight months, she has been released on bond as she awaits her appeal. Her case raises many questions about self-defense, racial disparities in the justice system, and the treatment of incarcerated women. Her story also highlights the power of organizing and community. Lydia Wylie-Kellermann interviewed Siwatu while she was out on bond awaiting her appeal.

Geez: Could you start by introducing yourself and saying a little bit about who you are and what you do?

Siwatu-Salama Ra: My name is Siwatu-Salama Ra. I’m a daughter of a long-time community organizer and activist, Rhonda Anderson. I was raised by a single mother who raised all four of her children and grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren. I followed a lot of what my mom did, and I started environmental justice work at about 14.

Recently, people have given me another title – a difficult title – of being a political prisoner. I was released from prison almost five months ago. I came home to a baby who was turning six-months-old, who I had given birth to in prison. And a three-year-old who is close to being four now. I left when she was two. Continue reading “Mothering Behind Bars: A Conversation with Siwatu-Salama Ra” →

Co-mingling of mischief

On July 16, 2019July 15, 2019 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Art as Resistance, Biography as Theology, Uncategorized2 Comments

20190813-DSC05253 — Geez staff: Em Jacoby, Lydia Wylie-Kellermann, Lucia Wylie-Eggert, and Kateri Boucher Photo credit: Daniel Wylie-Eggert

Dear Radical Discipleship readers,

These last few months my life has intertwined between daily posts on RadicalDiscipleship and the crafting of word and images for Geez magazine. I love the work. My heart rises to the gathering of stories and the power of word in our work for liberation.

I am struck by the ways that RadicalDiscipleship and Geez co-mingle in their theologies, their work, and the communities of writers and readers. They bless one another and I am blessed by them both. They are different looking limbs in the common struggle. I long to conspire more holy mischief between the two. My mind is percolating and if you have thoughts, send them my way.

In the meantime, I want to make sure the invitation for both readers and writers is explicit. RadicalDiscipleship is a daily online dose of spirit. Geez is a strictly off-line oasis of beauty and story arriving in your mailbox four times a year.

If you don’t believe me, Tom Airey, my fellow co-curator and friend said “Over the past few years, Geez magazine has been like an ice cold IPA for my soul.”

So, we are offering a rare deal to RadicalDiscipleship readers to subscribe to Geez for 20% off. (A one year subscription normally $39 a year would be $31.20 or a three year subscription for $105 is now just $84.) Simply click HERE and put in the code “RD”.

Also, if you want to join Geez’s monthly newsletter or sign up to be in our writers/artist list, click HERE.

Ok, that is as close to an ad as you are going to get on RD.

Love and gratitude for this community,

Lydia Wylie-Kellermann
lydia@geezmagazine.org

This Baptism

On July 15, 2019July 5, 2019 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Biography as Theology, Theological Animation, Watershed DiscipleshipLeave a comment

By Shelby Smith

On June 8th I was baptized by my home church, the Wilderness Way Community in Portland, OR. I was asked to reflect on why I was choosing to be baptized.

“He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.”—Micah 6:8

“I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”—Phil 4:13

The Bible and its legacy is full of contradictions and conflicts and also beauty and strength. In 2014, when I came to Wilderness Way I found myself feeling dry and broken. That feeling was an extended phase that continued for some time. I had a relationship with God but Jesus and Christianity was completely off the table. Except the occasional times when I would pick up the Bible, read some passages—and feel disgusted or bored or confused and walk away again. I wrestled with a lot of shoulds, anger and fears. I struggled to do justice, to love kindness and the walk humbly with God. I struggled acutely with all three of these. Continue reading “This Baptism” →

My Prayer (August, 1980)

On July 8, 2019July 31, 2019 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Art as Resistance, Biography as Theology, Uncategorized2 Comments

By Oz Cole-Arnal, former professor emeritus at Waterloo Lutheran Seminary

In his work on his manuscript-size memoirs, charting a life between the two Poor Peoples Campaigns, Oz Cole-Arnal (photo right) has reached the decade of his early to latter ’40s, the most broken period of his 78 years. He recounts betraying virtually all his values, barely able to sustain his faith & vision toward radical equality, stumbling along in brokenness, hurting all those he loved most. One help in such tumbling was the turning to poetry, which he has rediscovered & re-absorbed. This is the first of two poems to be posted on RadicalDiscipleship.net.

Agonizing over bills, wanting more money, always more.

Always hungry, often empty, craving the offered promises.

Success, manhood, recognition, love,

Happiness in pills, food, the quick win, casual sex.

I deplore it, yet want it all.

Forgive my bourgeois ways!

Continue reading “My Prayer (August, 1980)” →

The Gift of Vulnerability

On July 2, 2019June 19, 2019 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Biography as Theology, Uncategorized1 Comment

By Joyce Hollyday

The jangle of an incoming text woke me from a deep sleep. “We’re in trouble,” it began. It was 5:16 a.m. California time. I was 2,000 miles from home, jet-lagged and groggy. I managed to send a reply to Michael along the lines of “Be there as soon as I can.” Michael and me with Sparky at the beach

Michael Galovic and Tamara Puffer met almost 25 years ago at the Open Door Community in Atlanta, when he was living there as a resident volunteer and she showed up one day to help out in the soup kitchen with the youth group from the suburban Presbyterian church where she served as associate pastor. Tamara kept coming back. Her time at the Open Door reshaped her theology and calling, and she began seeking a position where she could serve marginalized people like the homeless ones and former prisoners who were revealing Jesus to her there in transformative ways. Continue reading “The Gift of Vulnerability” →

Wild Lectionary: Guided by the Spirit

On June 27, 2019June 26, 2019 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Biography as Theology, Subverting Empire, Theological AnimationLeave a comment

Third Sunday After Pentecost
Proper 8(13)

Galatians 5:1, 13-25

By Christy Thomson

I recently returned from a month-long work trip to Europe where I spent some time in Slovenia facilitating a training. My work as a trainer and mentor for ANFT (Association of Nature and Forest Therapy guides and programs) is rewarding, challenging and gives me ample opportunity to face the questions this week’s reading brings to mind; am I living in the Spirit? Do I allow the Spirit to be my guide? What does it look like/feel like to live in the Spirit?

If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit. Galatians 5:25 Continue reading “Wild Lectionary: Guided by the Spirit” →

Jesus and the Nice White Lady

On June 24, 2019June 17, 2019 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Biography as Theology, Theological Animation4 Comments

By Nichola Torbett

*This is part of a series of pieces from contributors all over North America each answering the question, “How would you define radical discipleship?” We will be posting responses regularly on Mondays during 2019.

Then someone from the part of occupied Turtle Island known as the Midwest came to him and said, “Teacher, I want to follow you. I want to access that eternal life I have heard about–that rich, juicy, for-real life, and most of the time I feel like I’m walking around with a film of plastic between me and the world. My therapist says maybe it’s dissociation from when I was a kid…. Continue reading “Jesus and the Nice White Lady” →

Learning from Laughter and the Trees: An Armful of Bones

On June 19, 2019June 17, 2019 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Biography as Theology, Uncategorized, Watershed DiscipleshipLeave a comment

By Lydia Wylie-Kellermann

I had never noticed how the melting snow of spring makes way for bones. One May morning, we wake early to walk the few acres of woods in the thumb of Michigan. Every few minutes, someone calls out “over here!” and we all rush over with our eyes on the composting leaves. A spine bone here. A skull there. Teeth still nestled in a jaw bone. A river otter? Fox? Racoon? Isaac tries to fit the bones back together in place and using his overly abundant 6-year-old animal knowledge attempts to determine the mysterious creatures. Later he will riffle through pages of his animal track books for further guessing. Cedar on the other hand just wants to fill his small arms with bones until he has so many he asks me to carry the extras. It’s not my first instinct to hold skulls in my hand with any delight or ease. Continue reading “Learning from Laughter and the Trees: An Armful of Bones” →

Mothering as Discipleship

On June 12, 2019August 13, 2019 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Biography as Theology, UncategorizedLeave a comment

58373625_10109215327077547_3301167968863387648_n Re-shared from Bartimeaus Cooperative’s newsletter.

At Farm Church on Mother’s Day, Charletta Erb talked with Erin H, mother of Gabriel (5 years) and Lucia (4 months),about mothering as discipleship, as part of our occasional “biography as theology” reflections.

Is motherhood a spiritual act for you?

Since Lucia’s birth my space has been physically grounded, happily reclusive, narrow, and defined by the predictable cycle of a baby’s needs. At times I find myself fighting it, or wanting my own space, but then I release (often with the help of nursing) and can relax into it as I remember this is such a short season. Then I just stare in wonder at my children. Mothering is a discipline, like training for a century or iron man, or like sitting in meditation for hours: painful and repetitive, yet so rewarding, with fleeting moments of nirvana or bliss. Continue reading “Mothering as Discipleship” →