Category: Subverting Empire

Contemplation Turned Outward

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Subverting Empire, Theological Animation1 Comment

CPTBy Mark Van Steenwyk, the executive director of the Center for Prophetic Imagination

Part of what makes contemplation important, both as a a regular practice and an overall posture of life is noticing inner thoughts, images, ideas, and stories that lead us away from deep connection to the Spirit, each other, and the rest of creation.

However, in a society where we have learned to disconnect mind from body and spirit from politics, there is a danger in contemplative practice. I’ve begun to increasingly suspect that many engage in spiritual practice in a way that is disassociative—they use spirituality to disconnect from anxiety and pain, rather than to allow them to give attention to suffering. Continue reading “Contemplation Turned Outward” →

Where Does It Hurt?

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Council on the WayBy Nathan Holst, a sermon 

O Spirit guide us now, O Spirit guide us now, O Spirit guide us now, in your way, guide us; Spirit guide all of us today as we listen for where you are moving. Amen.

That song by Sara Thomsen is one I used quite a bit at a gathering in Washington DC just last month where 20 white Christian men came together with Ruby Sales, a Black civil rights and freedom movement leader, to talk about a theology of redemption for white men in this time. My friend and colleague, Tommy Airey, invited me to come and be a part of the group that he and Ruby Sales had put together, and partly because Mother Ruby is one of my heroes and because I was drawn to the work, I said yes. When I shared about it with Pastor Kathy, she asked me to preach and share about my experience, so that’s what I intend to do this morning. And as I share, I want to put up a picture of Mother Ruby to honor her and bring her into this space because she was our spiritual guide in this work. Continue reading “Where Does It Hurt?” →

#climatefuture

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Screen Shot 2019-11-09 at 2.58.42 PMFrom Michelle Martinez, a Latinx-Mestiza environmental justice activist, writer, and mother, who is working on a 30-day challenge to reframe our #climatefuture positively. 

I want to breathe a cold Nov moment, quiet rustling of leaves, not smog sirens, so I can hear our ancestors’ cantor.

I want human sun houses to warm, drink tea and get VitD all winter, replacing warm car naps and drivethrus.

I want grapevines and cucumbers and other edible climbers to replace chain link fences.

I want Black Friday to mark the day we make per pupil allotments equal across all zip codes. Continue reading “#climatefuture” →

A Word to White Men

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Subverting Empire, Theological Animation2 Comments

BWKBy Rev. Bill Wylie-Kellermann, presented at the inaugural Council on the Way convened by Ruby Sales in Washington D.C. on October 19, 2019

You, White men, Christian and not, sit in darkness, unseeing how you are advantaged by aggression against others. Your humanity suffers a gaping wound you have been taught not to feel. You are justified by a faith that is an idol and a lie. You are in bondage to a system and a spirit, white supremacy, which is nothing less than a form of death itself. Continue reading “A Word to White Men” →

Deep Love

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Biography as Theology, Subverting Empire, Theological Animation5 Comments

Kings BayBy Tommy Airey

Lindsay shot me a text last Friday afternoon. KingsBay7 all found guilty of all the charges. She concluded with crying emojis. The Kings Bay Plowshares 7 is a motley crew of older white Christians who, on the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s assassination, broke into a Naval base in Georgia with hammers, crime scene tape, baby bottles containing their own blood, and an indictment charging the U.S. government with crimes against peace. ¡Personas peligrosos!

The Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base is home to at least six nuclear ballistic missile submarines, each of which carries 20 Trident thermonuclear weapons—possessed with 3,800 times more destructive power as the weapons that were used on Hiroshima. Hammers? They were literally following the prophet Isaiah’s command to “beat swords into plowshares.” They discerned the action after two years of prayer and practice. This was a deep symbolic action designed to penetrate souls. Continue reading “Deep Love” →

The Evidence Will Show

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Kingsbay 7From Ellen Grady, reporting from Georgia on behalf of the Kingsbay Plowshares 7:

Verdict in. In this Federal court in Georgia all 7 were found guilty of all your charges. In this Federal court in Georgia the trident submarine and all weapons of mass distraction are legal. In this federal court in Georgia the planning for the destruction of the world is legal. Continue reading “The Evidence Will Show” →

Geez Call for Pitches: G56 Breaking the Law

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Praise the Lord and Break the Law. As seen at the Sugar Creek Midwest Catholic Worker Gathering, fall 2019. Credit: Kateri Boucher

Deadline November 10, 2019

“We need to engage in whatever nonviolent actions appeal to us. There is no act too small, no act too bold. The history of social change is the history of millions of actions, small and large, coming together at critical points to create a power that governments cannot suppress. We find ourselves today at one of those critical points.” – Howard Zinn

“The decision to engage in civil disobedience is challenging not just what the symbol represents, but also the laws that are set up to protect it.” – Bree Newsome, after pulling down the South Carolina Confederate flag in 2015

In countries founded on the legality of slavery and Indigenous massacres, we begin naming the complex relationships between law, violence, and power. Historically, engaging with laws through breaking them has been part of the arc that moves us towards justice. In this issue we hope to unpack the nuances of breaking the law, and the choices we do (or don’t) make in the process. Continue reading “Geez Call for Pitches: G56 Breaking the Law” →

May We

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Michael Raymond Smith
PC: Michael Raymond Smith

By Tommy Airey

A translation of the Jesus Prayer for this time.

May we celebrate Steadfast Love.
May we pledge to end exploitation and extraction.
May we live simply so it will be simple to love.
May we be released from our shame and supremacy.
May we share the debt load of others.
May our tests and trials transform us.
Amen.

Tommy Airey was born and raised on stolen, unceded Acjachemen territory (“Orange County, California”), was transformed by the thin place the Ojibwe, Huron and Odawa call Wawiiatanong (“Detroit River”) and has entered the sacred “hidden waters” the Molalla and Paiute named Towarnehiooks (“Deschutes River, Oregon”). He is the co-curator of RadicalDiscipleship.Net and author of Descending Like a Dove: Adventures in Decolonizing Evangelical Christianity (2018).