This Sweet Earth
Today we celebrate the recent release of a new book by Lydia Wylie-Kellermann, the co-founder of RadicalDiscipleship.net! You can order This Sweet Earth right here. We were fortunate enough to have the opportunity to ask her a few questions about it. See below for book tour dates!
RD: We are interested in what led you to write this book. Are there specific experiences or situations that you can go back to that told you that this book needed to be written and that you needed to write it?
LWK: I think more than anything I had this ongoing nagging feeling for a few years that there was this book inside of me. I just needed to make space to see what would pour out.
A big part of why I personally needed this book was because I was shocked by the level of immobilizing anxiety I was experiencing. I was reading scientific studies that kept saying how much worse things are than we thought. I was witnessing predictions for human extinction. The doomsday scrolling was making it hard to breathe. There was so much grief and rage stuck in my body all the time. And I don’t think I’m alone in that. I realized that if I held these feelings by myself that they would turn either towards total despair or I would have to pretend it wasn’t happening just to keep going.
Yet I know that this rage and grief and anxiety are holy. They are how we express how much we love this world. And that if we hold these emotions in community, then there is beautiful, transformational power in it all.
When I was overcome with pain around climate crisis, it was my kids that would grab my hand and pull me over to watch the caterpillar devouring the milkweed. Their ability to slow down and intimately rest in this ecosystem changed my posture.
And as I look out into the future and what I want my kids to know and learn, I find myself leaning on the theological imagination and political analysis of my childhood. My parents and the community around me taught me so much about what it means to be human….what we say yes to with our whole bodies and how we also say no by putting our bodies on the line.
This book in many ways is a love letter to the generations before me and the generations after. I am constantly stumbling over gratitude for the lessons they teach me daily.
Continue reading “This Sweet Earth”
A House of Cedar or a Tent of Hide: Why Does It Matter?
By Jim Perkinson, a sermon for St. Peter’s Episcopal Church (pictured above) in Detroit, Michigan (July 21, 2024)
As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things (Mk 6:34).
4 But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, 5 “Go and tell my servant David, Thus says the Lord: “Would you build me a house to dwell in? 6 I have not dwelt in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent for my dwelling (2 Sam 7:4-6).
Thus says the Lord of hosts: I took you from the sheepfold, from following the sheep, to be ruler over my people Israel (2 Sam 7:8b).
So, where are we today—in reality, in the text? In our reality, it is simple, at one level. Apocalypse. An ending of the world as we have known it. Not an absolute end, but a proximate and particular end. “What” is ending? Ah, the big question. I would say: in a word, civilization. Not the earth. Not the universe. But our species’ delusion about who we are on the planet. And already I am deep in it, so let’s back up.
It is interesting in the texts today. Jesus calls the disciples to go away to a desert-place (Mk 6:31). Why? As we read in the lectionary offerings two weeks ago, he has gone home to Nazareth and been threatened with death (Mk 6:1-6; Lk 4:16-30). Sent the twelve out for a first foray into . . . . what? Actually, into gift-economy reciprocity and sabbath-sharing, with the very people—peasant small farmers—they are sent to (Mk 6:7-13). They don’t take a credit card and carry-on luggage with themselves. They depend upon the people they are sent to. Gift economy hospitality. (Which, hint, hint, in this [biblical] tradition is characteristic of animal-herding lifestyle, not city-dwelling self-concern and opportunism. Pastoral nomad Abraham offering a meal inside his tent-flaps to three “wanderers” that show up at his “door” not urban Sodom’s exploitation and abuse of strangers as we read in the archetypal story in Genesis of the lifestyle difference between sheep-herders and city-dwellers.) (Gen 18:1-15 vs Gen 18:16-19:29).
Continue reading “A House of Cedar or a Tent of Hide: Why Does It Matter?”I Am Not Leaving
Last week, Bernice Johnson Reagon became a living ancestor. This is the tribute that her daughter Toshi Reagon posted on Facebook on July 17, 2024.
I was here before I came and when I die, I am not leaving… – Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon
Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon, a multi-award-winning force and cultural voice for freedom, transitioned on July 16, 2024. As a scholar, singer, composer, organizer and activist, Dr. Reagon spent over half a century speaking out against racism and systemic inequities in the U.S. and globally. Born in Dougherty County outside of Albany, Georgia on the 4th of October 1942, she was field secretary of SNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee) and a founding member of the original SNCC Freedom Singers, formed in 1962. In 1966, she was a founding member of the Atlanta-based Harambee Singers. In 1973, while a graduate student of history at Howard University and vocal director of the D.C. Black Repertory Company, Dr. Reagon founded the internationally renowned African American women’s a cappella ensemble, Sweet Honey In The Rock, leading the group until her retirement in 2003. In 1974, Dr. Reagon began her leadership role at the Smithsonian Institution, which included curating the African Diaspora Program, creating the Program in Black American Culture, and producing and performing on numerous Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. For a decade, beginning in 1993, she served as Distinguished Professor in History at American University (AU) in Washington D.C. Dr. Reagon was named Professor Emerita of History at AU and Curator Emeritus at the Smithsonian. She is the author of numerous publications, compositions and recordings.
Dr. Reagon has received countless awards and honors for her pioneering work as a scholar and artist, including, the Heinz Award for the Arts and Humanities, the Leeway National Award for Women in the Arts, the Presidential Medal for contribution to public understanding of the Humanities, the MacArthur Foundation Genius Award and the Peabody award for the groundbreaking Wade in the Water series (NPR/Smithsonian Folkways).
Born to Reverend Jesse Johnson and Beatrice Wise Johnson, Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon’s family members include her life partner Adisa Douglas, children Toshi Reagon and Kwan Reagon, grandchild, Tashawn Nicole Reagon, numerous family members including siblings, Jordan Warren Johnson, Deloris Johnson Spears, Adetokunbo Tosu Tosasolim, Mamie Johnson Rush, several nieces and nephews, and extended family, J. Bob Alotta, Amy Horowitz, James and Miriam Early and a community of beloved collaborators and fellow artists.
Details regarding a public celebration of life forthcoming.
Genocide: Absent from the Title, Marginalized in the Body
A stunning open letter from Kairos Palestine in response to this letter from the Word Council of Churches last month. This is an invaluable resource for liberal Christians who painfully continue to “both sides” this decades-long oppressive situation. [RD.net bolded portions below for our own emphasis]
Open letter to the Executive Committee of the World Council of Churches
”But based on his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.” (2 Peter 3:13)
Esteemed Members of the Executive Committee,
We at Kairos Palestine extend our appreciation of your statement issued in Bogota, Colombia by your esteemed Committee (6-11 June) titled: ”THE ESCALATING CRISIS IN GAZA”. We trust that the statement was issued with great concern and with the urgent need to terminate the atrocious crimes in Gaza.
However, as Palestinians, as Christians and as your partners, we would like to bring to your attention the following points pertaining to the content and the calls included in the statement:
1- We believe that the title ”Escalating Crisis in Gaza” is neither accurate, nor adequate. The protracted ”crisis” is a result of 8 months of Israel’s incessant large-scale military aggression which mounts to acts of genocide, prior to which, Gaza has been strangled by a 17year blockade that forced 2.3 million people to become aid-dependent and extremely vulnerable to famine and starvation. Especially with WCC being one of the key partners of the Office of the UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide in the drafting of the Plan of Action for Religious Leaders and Actors to Prevent Incitement to Violence that Could Lead to Atrocity Crimes (’the Fez Process’), it holds an elevated responsibility in identifying a genocide, condemning it with the strongest possible terms and acting to end it immediately. Besides our own accounts and meticulous documentation of the genocide as Palestinians, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) did confirm in its provisional measures that Israel’s is plausibly committing genocide. Not only is the term genocide absent from the title, it is marginalized in the body of the statement instead of being the essence of what the statement is condemning and calls for ending immediately. Investigation after investigation concludes that Israel is committing atrocious crimes under international law, including the most recent report[1] by the UN Commission of Inquiry which concluded that Israel is committing the crime of Extermination against the Palestinian people. It cannot be acceptable that crimes of such scale, committed deliberately over 8 months, be narrowed down to a ”crisis”.
Continue reading “Genocide: Absent from the Title, Marginalized in the Body”Unconscionable and Unconstitutional
An excerpt from the dissenting opinion of Grants Pass v. Johnson (2024), the Supreme Court Ruling that singles out unhoused people for punishment. For the full dissenting opinion, click here and scroll down to page 45.
Part of the Great Body
By Joanna Lawrence Shenk, a pastor at First Mennonite Church of San Francisco
A sermon on Psalm 85:8-13
Thank you, Sarah, for that reading which offers us a compelling vision of the kindom of God. The writer of this psalm is reflecting on who they know the Divine to be – one who brings peace and thriving to a community – to the land and the people. There is so much beautiful imagery: love and faithfulness meeting, justice and peace embracing (or kissing!). Fidelity sprouting from the earth and justice leaning down from heaven. It’s an ecosystem of care and connection. The writer has a trust in something greater that is holding the world. They were part of a community that they knew was held in the care of the Creator.
Given the national and global happenings of recent days, weeks and months, some of us may say “well that sounds like a nice little image for a children’s bible, but how does it relate to the mess of a world we’re living in?! Where exactly are justice and peace kissing each other right now?”
Without a doubt, many of us have heavy hearts this morning (and what a balm to celebrate the life of little Joaquin as he was dedicated in this congregation today). We see and feel the way that capitalism is crumbling down on top of the most vulnerable. We grieve and we rage at the ongoing environmental polycrisis. We’ve said no over and over again to the bombardment of Gaza and yet the missiles paid for by our tax dollars keep raining down on Palestinians, destroying life.
Continue reading “Part of the Great Body”We Are Taught By Them
An open letter from faith leaders to the administration of Wayne State University in Detroit, MI.
June 26, 2024
President Espy, Provost Clabo, and the WSU Board of Governors,
We, the undersigned faith leaders from varied traditions and denominations, write to express our profound concern and condemnation regarding the police brutality against students and community members that occurred on May 30. A number of us have been present to the Wayne State encampment and others similar. They strike us as embodying beloved community, listening and learning gatherings of conscience. Indeed we are taught by them.
We understand the demands of the students – the divestment from war and weapons manufacturing – to be a good and just pursuit for which you should take pride as university leadership. Instead, you authorized the deployment of riot police and the use of brutal force against members of our communities, including the violent removal of a woman’s hijab, a grave violation within the Islamic faith.
Continue reading “We Are Taught By Them”Interfaith Action for Palestine
At the end of this month, RadicalDiscipleship.net will be joining an interfaith coalition in D.C. to take on Christians United for Israel (CUFI), the largest Zionist organization in the country. For those unfamiliar, Christian Zionism is a far-right fascist ideology that is not only antisemitic and a majority force responsible for the ongoing U.S.-sponsored Israeli genocide being waged on Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, it is aggressively white-and-Christian supremacist in a way that is actively working within the highest places of power in our nation to strip us all of our rights, safety and freedoms here domestically as well. In the face of the full court press these far-right Christian extremists are waging, we will be participating in the largest interreligious protest for Palestine. Please consider joining us July 28-30 if you can! Both in-person and online options are available.
For more details, join this mass informational call hosted by Christians for a Free Palestine tonight (9amPT/12pmET): https://christiansforafreepalestine.com/events/iapinfo2
To register to join in this action in some capacity, click here: interfaithforpalestine.com/takeaction
Radical Discipleship 