Ideology

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BindingWe continue our every-Sunday-celebration of the 30th anniversary of Binding The Strong Man, Ched Myers’ political reading of Mark’s Gospel.

…we should instead be about understanding how myth functions as political discourse–in antiquity and today.

Another term for symbolic discourse about social realities and conflicts is ideology.

…There is consensus among both Marxist and non-Marxist scholars that ideological discourse functions in one of two basic ways. It either legitimates or subverts the dominant social order: Berger calls these the “world maintenance” and “world shaking” functions. The legitimizing function seeks to lend plausibility to social reality, “giving normative dignity to its practical imperatives.”

…Ideology can also function to subvert the dominant order pursuing one of two general discursive strategies. The reformist strategy will usually argue its case from reference points within the dominant order, trying to give new meaning to established symbols. These appeals may be for purposes of retrogressive change, as for example in the New Right’s nostalgic call to return to the “traditions of the founding fathers of the USA.” Or the strategy may be progressive, in the sense that the system has yet to realize its own ideological commitments. An example would be Martin Luther King’s appeals to the Bill of Rights in order to attack racial segregation in the USA. Continue reading “Ideology” →

Liberation

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Feminist/Womanist/Queer Liberation and Theology, Race, Subverting Empire1 Comment

RubyFrom the prophetic front porch of Ruby Sales–a re-post from social media August 11, 2018.

What is liberation for people of color around the globe?

What should be the goals of our movements for liberation?

Should we imagine liberation as the right to exist and live in the world like the guardians of Empire power? Is liberation the right to sit at the Empire’s table and become an envoy for them and their interests? If the answers are no then how should our resistance and movements reflect no? How does no determine how we speak about liberation and how do we speak about our mission and common struggle and destination.

Finally what does liberation mean for White people? Does it mean the right to keep ownership of the table and maintain the power to put a few more seats at it for people of color who meet your requirements and with whom you feel comfortable? Does liberation mean the right to stay in the small and perverse space of Whiteness or does it mean the right to live fully in the world without a shriveled humanity that is constantly poised for battle and wallowing in inferiority and meaningless? If the answers are no then what should be the mission of your liberation struggles and how should it change your discourse, common struggle and destination?

A Mountaintop I Sadly Departed From

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Art as Resistance, Feminist/Womanist/Queer Liberation and TheologyLeave a comment

From photographer Clancy Dunigan, who returned to Whidbey Island last week after accompanying the holy fools of Carnival de Resistance in Philadelphia. See below for some of Clancy’s comments on the artists and the context of this mural.

CdR

The curators/artists of this projects were Pedro Ramirez & Eli Sanchez from Mexico City. As you’d expect, they were more than enjoyable to hang with. The symbols are from Puerto Rican culture. The Neighborhood is noticeably represented by said culture–but paved over, close to the L-train, and drugs aplenty. A depressing place to walk, as i did to get beers. The artist wanted to incorporate the indigenous art here. When asked about why a mural here, why these colors & symbols? Pedro said something like:

This neighborhood seems a colorless, cemented hard urban core type of a wasteland [sic]. The property owner peeped over the wall during the painting (several days) and we feel it a gift we give back to the neighborhood. They offer a space. We offer our gift of labor & beauty, culture to culture. It is also important to integrate the Puerto Rican flavor& symbols for the murals physical context.

The young woman image is from the neighborhood. Eli Sanchez painted a portrait of her. Eli also painted the bird figure.Pedro spray painted the halos. These two exemplary artists were immediately accessible with their openness and embrace of new friends at the Carnival de Resistance. They had little time to themselves as all the carnival folk wanted to sit and hang with them. A wonderful Big Tent our Carnival hosts and staff provided. A mountain top I sadly departed from.

Wild Lectionary: Be Careful How You Live

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imageedit_2_7567561421Thirteenth Sunday After Pentecost
Proper 15(20)B

Ephesians 5:15-20
John 6:51-58

By the Reverend Doctor Victoria Marie

There is a disconnect between my Roman Catholic tradition’s interpretation of today’s gospel and an interpretation that would be more indicative of the inclusive holistic teachings of Jesus. I think the second reading from Ephesians gives us an insight to the gospel, including today’s passage. Continue reading “Wild Lectionary: Be Careful How You Live” →

Holy Light

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Theological Animation, Uncategorized1 Comment
20180812_110523
Photo by Erinn Fahey

By Nancy Sehested

Holy Light,

We stand somewhere in the shadows, in-between the battlefield of our struggles and the sanctuary of our souls.

Shed a little light on our way. Keep your lighted sanctuary within us portable, able to see clearly, to walk courageously, to withstand the forces that corrupt the truth of our belonging to your one world-wide family.  Continue reading “Holy Light” →

Of Deserts, Drunks and Too Much Doing

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Subverting Empire, Theological Animation2 Comments

Kim RedBy Kim Redigan, a reflection on Exodus 16 for the St. Peter’s Episcopal community in Detroit

Today’s reading from Exodus is one to I turn to often. Not because it brings me comfort or consolation but because it so often mirrors my own spiritual condition. I am so like the disgruntled Israelites cursing Moses and Aaron for leading them away from the known, the familiar, the place of their oppression and into the desert where they would have to confront their own personal and communal demons. They are my people – I know them and their circuitous journey well.

For the past several months, I have been wandering in the desert of depression and grief related to some tough inner work that is part of my recovery. Although, I have been sober for 28 years, I reached a point last year where it was either grow or go. It was either stand up to the pharaohs of the past and say good riddance to Egypt or sit around a campfire ringed with barbed wire and eat to my heart’s content. All of us come to these turning points in our lives when we have to make the choice: Will it be bring on the Egyptian dessert or bring on the desert? Will we opt for fleshpots or what feels like famine? Oppression or liberation? Continue reading “Of Deserts, Drunks and Too Much Doing” →

Mark as Manifesto

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BindingWe continue our every-Sunday-celebration of the 30th anniversary of Binding The Strong Man, Ched Myers’ political reading of Mark’s Gospel.

Mark’s Gospel originally was written to help imperial subjects learn the hard truth about their world and themselves. He does not pretend to represent the word of God dispassionately or impartially, as if that word were innocuously universal in its appeal to rich and poor alike.  His is a story by, about, and for those committed to God’s work of justice, compassion, and liberation in the world. To modern theologians, like the Pharisees, Mark offers no “signs from heaven” (Mark 8:11f). To scholars who, like the chief priests, refuse to ideologically commit themselves, he offers no answer (Mk 11:30-33). But to those willing to raise the wrath of the empire, Mark offers a way of discipleship (8:34ff). Continue reading “Mark as Manifesto” →

A Prayer for Sacred and Wondrous Child Warriors of Mother Earth

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LylaBy Lyla June Johnston (right), a Diné singer, writer, and activist specializing in intergenerational and inter-ethnic healing, as well as Indigenous philosophy. This is a prayer she posted to social media on July 27, 2018.

Dear creator, may you help me and may you help the people of the world to release their fear and replace it with faith and compassion. May you help us to seek and find joy in this life. May we find bravery in the midst of so many shadows dancing in the mind. May you give us the strength to cry, and the courage to bear our hearts to the river and to the sky that we may bring all of those fears and worries we buried deep inside and lay them down on the bosom of the earth where they may heal. Let us not be afraid to feel and not be afraid of being afraid for a time. Let us come with our truth and come with our beauty. Help us to remember that we are beautiful sacred and wondrous child Warriors of Mother Earth. Give us the opportunities and the skills we need to give life and to protect life. And most of all give us peace when others present us with war. Give us love when others present us with hate. Give us smiles and laughter when others present us with petty lies. Give us the strength to pray for those that we respect the least. And give us the opportunity to plant seeds in the dirt that some day might grow into beautiful gifts for the next generation. Let us live our lives in such a way that our great-grandchildren look back and see that in the face of so much hardship we were brave and we were kind and we were loving.

Holy Work

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Cloud of Witnesses, Feminist/Womanist/Queer Liberation and TheologyLeave a comment

Katie CannonA compelling charge from  the late-and-still-very-present Rev. Dr. Katie Geneva Cannon (January 3, 1950 to August 8, 2018):

…it’s an abomination for those of us that hear, to be as smart as we are, trained as we are and to not know how to make it clear and gettable for anybody who wants know what we know. Theology is holy work, it’s a sacred vocation. It is our job to make it available to the masses of the congregation. To anybody who wants to be able to read what I know, I should be able to write so they can get it.