Category: Theological Animation

Incomplete Without the Other

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By Rev. Graylan Scott Hagler

Humanity is naturally separated by language, geography, culture, race, existential narratives, and many other cultural accents that make us uniquely different. We are divided ideologically, politically, racially, by class, belief, faith, and theology. Each group and sub-group has its own ways of expressions and customs, but unfortunately, in one way or another, each group and sub-group claims that its ways and thoughts are uniquely more significant than everything and everyone else in creation. This is human nature where the familiar becomes the norm, and our norms becomes the vehicle by which we evaluate everything and everyone else. For example, in Christianity, Jesus is the way and there is no other way. In Islam, there is no god but God, and Muhammad (Peace be upon him) is the Messenger of God. Historically, Judaism believes that there is only one God who has established a covenant, or special agreement with those of the faith (or traditions). Buddhism believes that life is one of suffering, and that meditation, spiritual and physical labor, and good behavior are the ways to achieve enlightenment, or nirvana and to overcome. In general, Hinduism believes that there are four goals in human life – kama, the pursuit of pleasure; artha, the pursuit of material success; dharma, leading a just and good life; and moksha, enlightenment, which frees a person from suffering and unites the individual soul with Brahman. There are many other cultural- religious understandings in the course of human thinking and they all grapple with the meaning of life, how to effectively live life, and how to live righteously in the human community. Each cultural-religious perspective emerges out of geography and context that frames language, perspective, and understandings.

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Stained Glass

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A few excerpts from Ken Sehested’s recent Prayer and Politiks newsletter.

The concurrence of two calendars brings together two significant historical episodes.
 
The Sunday morning terrorist bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, killed four children and injured or maimed many others, on 15 September 1963. Bombs targeting the Black community in that city were common, which gave rise to the nicknaming of the city as “Bombingham.” This one, however, was especially hideous.
 
Though the FBI concluded that known members of Ku Klux Klan were responsible, no one was brought to trial until 1977, when the ringleader, Robert Chambliss, was convicted in the murder of one of those children. Not until 2001 were the other culprits convicted.
 
Can you imagine the whipsaw emotions of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.? Eighteen days before he had been the singular figure in the largest demonstration (to that date) in US history, the 28 August March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. His “I Have A Dream” speech is considered by many to be the most important speech of the 20th century.
 
And then he had to pivot to planning funeral services for these murdered children.
 
Sunset on Friday, 15 September, also happens to be the beginning of Rosh Hashanah, the opening act of the 10-day High Holy Days of Judaism, ending with Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish liturgical cycle.

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Why Would I Persist to Anchor Myself in Christianity?

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Theological Animation4 Comments

By Maki Ashe Van Steenwyk

I don’t think it is accurate to call myself a Christian at this point.

My operative theology and spirituality hasn’t changed suddenly or anything.

My relationship with Jesus is fundamentally unchanged.

But several things have made it clear that my relationship with Christianity has changed in such a way that I cannot see myself “in” it. Both in an abstract “universal church” level as well as in particular expressions and institutions that consider themselves Christian.

1) Such a vast majority of Christian communities excludes me at a core level. There isn’t a single denomination that has a thorough and unreserved inclusion of trans women in a consistent way. And though I can name specific congregations, organizations, and particular folks who embrace Christianity and celebrate my transness, I would have no problem being fully embraced in any of those communities as a non-Christian.

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The Accent on Economics

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Subverting Empire, Theological Animation1 Comment

By Walter Brueggemann, re-posted from Labor Day 2020

Covenantal faith in the Bible refuses all dualisms and holds together matters of spirituality and economics. It is always a both/and, never an either/or. In the practice of the church, however, an accent on things spiritual has largely muted the accent on economics that is so prominent in the Bible. In more affluent churches, it is predictable that at times economics will be muted and spirituality made larger. In less affluent churches there is a temptation at times to disregard the heavy burden of economics in the Bible and present instead an extravagant vision of another world to the neglect of this one.

Given that recurring tilt that distorts the Bible, it is my estimate that church leadership now must redress this distortion by paying acute attention to economics in the Bible and in our society.

For many church leaders this will entail not only close, attentive study, but the learning of new interpretive categories and skills as well. Such a redress of energy and attention is not only evoked by our present social circumstance but required by the biblical testimony itself.

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A Way of Perception

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Race, Theological Animation1 Comment

From Dr. Willie Jennings, professor of theology at Yale. This is from an interview he did with The Christian Century in 2021. He was asked what race has to do with theology (photo above from Mara Lavitt for Yale Divinity School).

The modern vision of race would not be possible without Christianity. This is a complicated statement, but I want people to think about this.

Inside the modern racial consciousness there is a Christian architecture, and also there is a racial architecture inside of modern Christian existence. There are three things we have to put on the table in order to understand how deeply race is tied to Chris­tianity. The first brings us back to the very heart of Christianity, the very heart of the story that makes Christian life intelligible.

That story is simply this: through a particular people called Israel, God brought the redemption of the world. That people’s story becomes the means through which we understand who God is and what God has done. Christianity is inside Israel’s story. At a certain point in time, the people who began to believe that story were more than just the people of Israel, more than just Jews. And at some point in time, those new believers, the gentiles, got tired of being told that they were strangers brought into someone else’s story—that this was not their story. They began—very early and very clearly—to push Israel out from its own story. They narrated their Christian existence as if Israel were not crucial to it.

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A Reading List for Repentance

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Subverting Empire, Theological Animation1 Comment

By Tommy Airey

I’ve been working on a book project over the past few years. It has evolved into a series of shorter reflections focused on reconstructing a biblical spirituality committed to collective liberation for those of us who have been in a process of deconstructing fundamentalist, evangelical, conservative Catholic or denominational expressions of Christian Supremacy. This reconstruction project pivots on the Power of love, the only force that can fuel us to live for Something Else. 

I believe that this Something Else is rooted in the radical act of repenting from the American Dream, the corporate-sponsored conventional wisdom that comes at the awful expense of this agonizing statistic: the US and Canada comprise 5% of the world’s population – and consume over 30% of the world’s resources. I am calling the North American context the 5/30 Window, a play on what my white Evangelical pastors referred to as “the 10/40 Window,” the African, Asian and Middle Eastern regions of “unreached” people who live between ten and forty degrees north latitude. I am flipping the script and saying that the souls of dark-skinned Buddhists, Hindus and Muslims who live on the other side of the world do not need to get saved. We do. 

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Gospel Healing in a World of Suffering

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A new offering from the Alternative Seminary.

A FIVE-WEEK ONLINE COURSE
September 13 – October 11, 2023
Wednesday evenings, 7:00 – 9:00 pm

We have come through a global virus, but our world is still in desperate need of healing.

Severe poverty and deepening divides of income, war and violence, racism and other forms of hatred and systemic discrimination, a ravaged creation: All of these cry out for healing – but what is the healing we need? As we emerge from the global pandemic, how does this moment of deep societal vulnerability force us to ask deeper questions about who we are and what kind of world we need? And how do we engage in self-healing practices?

For five weeks, we will explore together several Gospel accounts of Jesus’ healings, reflecting on how these stories speak to our society and world. We will reflect on ways we are all in need of healing and how we can be empowered to be faithful disciples and healers in this time of manifold crises.

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This Fall at Kirkridge

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A message from our comrades at Kirkridge Retreat and Study Center.

Do you know about Kirkridge Retreat and Study Center? 

With a long, storied activist history (Dan and Phillip Berrigan had a favorite room and frequently led retreats and organized actions there) and an 80-year history of supporting LGBTQI Christians, it’s the kind of place radical disciples should know about. And there are a number of retreats coming up that you might be interested in attending:

Laurel Dykstra on Wilderness Prophets and the Climate Crisis

September 29-October 1

Come explore how the wilderness prophets are relevant to spiritual care and action in a time of climate crisis and discern your own prophetic call for this time. We’ll read scripture, engage scripture  and spend time in contemplation in the more-than-human world

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Enobling, Prophetic Faith

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By Ric Hudgens, a pastor and author rooted in Northern Illinois

*Note: Three years ago as the covid pandemic was just picking up speed we observed the funeral of John Lewis. I wrote this essay that week. The lessons abide.

The funeral of John Lewis at Ebenezer Baptist Church last week was like an event from another world. Lewis was literally on the frontlines of some of the most remarkable years in our nation’s history. He not only lived a long life (“longevity has its place” said Dr. King, who was killed at 39), but remained engaged, relevant, and prophetic to the end. Case in point perhaps, the editorial Lewis wrote for publication on the day of his funeral (“Together We Can Redeem the Soul of America,” New York Times, July 30, 2020).

Everyone gathered in that historic church where King, Jr, and King, Sr were once ministers (and Rev. Raphael Warnock so ably serves today). I watched the entire service remotely, yet savoring the familiar contours of Black Baptist funerals. Despite the pandemic, everyone was masked, and microphones were switched after each speaker. It was a funeral, much like many others I’ve attended—unique perhaps only by the guests’ notoriety and the length of the service.

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