Category: Subverting Empire

A Fool’s Economics

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Subverting Empire, Theological Animation7 Comments

DollarBy Ched Myers, Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost, July 31, 2016 (Luke 12:13-21)

Note: This is part of a series of weekly comments on the Lukan gospel readings from the Revised Common Lectionary during year C, 2016.

In Luke’s gospel, the deep memory of Sabbath Economics is shown in Jesus’ wilderness feedings of the poor (Lk 9:12-17), and told in the central petition of the Lord’s Prayer:

“Give us today enough bread” (Lk 11:3).

But nowhere is the old vision more clearly asserted than in Jesus’ teaching in Luke 12:13-34. Continue reading “A Fool’s Economics” →

A Prayer of Kingian Nonviolence

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Cloud of Witnesses, Just Peacemaking, Subverting Empire, Theological AnimationLeave a comment

MLKFrom Matt Guynn of On Earth Peace, a prayer based on MLK’s Six Principles of Nonviolence:

Holy One, singing at the center of my very being, resonating and vibrating me toward liberation and life,

Help me to grow in courage, in persistence, in confidence, in boldness in the face of the violence and harm in our world, our neighborhoods, our streets, our own faith communities. Deepen my ability to dwell moment by moment in the reality that I am enough, that I am beloved. As hard as it is, help me to remember that those whom I detest, dislike and disagree with are also your beloved children. Guide me toward a future in which all are cherished in communities of belonging and belovedness. Give me strength and insight to challenge the forces of evil and injustice which oppress and downpress me, other people and entire communities. Guide me to count the cost of waging nonviolent conflict and to accept sacrifice and suffering when necessary, for the sake of the cause and to achieve the goal. Help me to see clearly the violence in my heart, and to see that, unchecked, this violence can grow into expressions of harm towards myself and others. Strengthen me for this long journey as I lend my hands to yours, bending the arc of the universe towards justice. Amen.

‪#‎KingianNonviolence‬ ‪#‎PrayforPeace‬ ‪#‎PraythePrinciples‬

The Sermon on the Mount Unadulterated

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GandhiFrom Gandhi, in an address delivered at the YMCA in Ceylon in 1927:

The message of Jesus as I understand it is contained in the Sermon on the Mount unadulterated and taken as a whole… If then I had to face only the Sermon on the Mount and my own interpretation of it, I should not hesitate to say, ‘Oh, yes, I am a Christian.’ But negatively I can tell you that in my humble opinion, what passes as Christianity is a negation of the Sermon on the Mount… I am speaking of the Christian belief, of Christianity as it is understood in the west.

Trauma and Memory

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Just Peacemaking, Subverting Empire1 Comment

ElaineFrom the conclusion of Elaine Enns’ recent piece “Trauma and Memory: Challenges to Settler Solidarity” in the recent edition of Consensus: A Canadian Journal of Public Theology. Click on to read the full article HERE:

Faith communities among Settlers need to create safe spaces to give testimony about intergenerational trauma, but also provide opportunities for privileged people to face our culpability, and build courage and skill to engage in justice-work. Over the last year I have engaged a variety of groups to do this work. Continue reading “Trauma and Memory” →

How Can You Be Objective?

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HedgesFrom Chris Hedges in The World As It Is: Dispatches on the Myth of Human Progress (2013):

I have never sought to be objective. How can you be objective about death squads in El Salvador, massacres in Iraq, or Serbian sniper fire that gunned down unarmed civilians, including children, in Sarajevo? How can you be neutral about the masters and profiteers of war who lie and dissemble to hide the crimes they commit and the profits they make? How can you be objective about human pain? And finally, how can you be objective about those responsible for this suffering? I am not neutral about rape, torture, or murder. I am not neutral about rapists, torturers, or murderers. I am not neutral about George W. Bush or Barack Obama, who under international law are war criminals. And if you had to see the butchery of war up close, as I did for nearly two decades, you would not be neutral either.

Embracing the Personalist Approach

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Biography as Theology, Subverting Empire, Theological Animation1 Comment

By Wes Howard-Brook and Sue Ferguson JohnsonMartha

“Some people are Marys, and some are Marthas.”

Uh, no.

The little story of Mary and Martha in Luke’s Gospel is one that we regularly hear interpreted as a choice between two lifestyles, the “active” and the “contemplative.” Read in context, though, Luke’s message is not that at all. Let’s try to listen to this familiar story with fresh ears. Continue reading “Embracing the Personalist Approach” →

Standing on Our Own Feet

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Cloud of Witnesses, Subverting Empire1 Comment

MertonBy Tommy Airey

It takes more courage to examine the dark corners of your own soul than to be a soldier on the battlefield.
Cornel West

45 years ago, Jim Douglass wrote a little book called Resistance and Contemplation (1972), urging radical disciples to take seriously both the personal and political–what he called “the yin and the yang of the Movement.” In the second chapter, he recounts the last talk that Thomas Merton (photo right) gave, just hours before his death from electrocution in that Bangkok bathtub in 1968. Merton told the story of Tibetan Buddhist monks being driven out of their homeland by Communist revolutionaries. The elder monk tells the fretting younger protege, “From now on, Brother, everybody stands on his own feet.” Continue reading “Standing on Our Own Feet” →

Never a Doubt

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CamusFrom Albert Camus’ essay “The Unbeliever and the Christian” (1948):

The world expects that Christians will speak out loud and clear, so that never a doubt, never the slightest doubt, could arise in the heart of the simplest man [sic].

The world expects that Christians will get away from abstractions and confront the blood stained face which history has taken on today.

The grouping we need is a grouping of men resolved to speak out clearly and to pay up personally.