Dylann Roof & Our Myth

DylanThe finger points at us. If we actually do want the country to behave differently towards peoples of color here and abroad—it is “we,” who are white and content, who must change and do so radically. Anything less than the equivalent of real reparations and real political confrontation in the streets is simply more of the same.
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By Jim Perkinson, long-time activist and educator from inner city Detroit & the author of White Theology: Outing Supremacy in Modernity (2004)

One of the great fears of white people in the early 19th century was that if slaves were given any quarter at all, whites would rapidly be enslaved by blacks. So much as one moment of unpunished black response to white domination—even as seemingly minor as merely looking the master in the eyes—would mean, in short order, that the tables would be turned. Thus the “necessary” brutality of the peculiar institution (portrayed, for even Hollywood audiences, in the recent filmic depiction, “Twelve Years a Slave”).
Continue reading “Dylann Roof & Our Myth”

The Contemplative

Joan ChittisterFrom Benedictine nun Joan Chittister:

It is not what others think of us; it is what we think of others that singles the contemplative out in a crowd. Our role in life is not to convert others. It’s not even to influence them. It certainly is not to impress them. Our goal in life is to convert ourselves from the pernicious agenda that is the self to an awareness of God’s goodness present in the other.

A Storm Blowing From Paradise…

Pope Francis delivers his speech in St. Peter's square at the Vatican during his weekly general audience Wednesday, June 26, 2013.(AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Pope Francis delivers his speech in St. Peter’s square at the Vatican during his weekly general audience Wednesday, June 26, 2013.(AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

By Ched Myers (4 Pentecost: MK 4:35-41)

Note: This is an ongoing series of Ched’s brief comments on the Markan gospel readings from the Revised Common Lectionary during year B, 2015.

This Sunday’s gospel text is the poignant story of Jesus and his disciples caught in a storm at sea, which threatens to drown them. It is a profound, archetypal scenario that Mark narrates twice (again in 6:45-52). Because today is the day that Pope Francis’ historic encyclical on climate crisis is being published, I will focus on how this appeal addresses the storm that is Climate Catastrophe. A month from now I will return to Mark’s sea stories for Pentecost 8 (on which day the Lectionary inexplicably hops over the second boat journey in its piecemeal gospel selection, which we’ll rectify!). Continue reading “A Storm Blowing From Paradise…”

The Fellowship of Heretics

Mercy JunctionWe are a community of faith, rooted in justice and peacemaking, guided by the Holy Spirit to express God’s unbiased love for all of creation by providing a Christian framework for social righteousness in the Southeast.
The statement of purpose written by the Mercy Junction community

Compelling Christian community is percolating down South in Chattanooga at the Mercy Junction Justice & Peace Center. They are recruiting 100 radical disciples by September 1 for their Fellowship of Heretics. See details below copied from their Facebook Events Page.
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The “Fellowship of Heretics” is a community of good-hearted rabble-rousers, rebels, malcontents, radicals and other cool people supporting the Justice and Peace Center by being card-carrying heretics. This is our first membership drive for the “Fellowship of Heretics” and we’re aiming to grow the Fellowship to 100 members by Sept. 1. Continue reading “The Fellowship of Heretics”

White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack

Peggy MacIntoshBy Peggy McIntosh, associate director of the Wellesley Collage Center for Research on Women

I decided to try to work on myself at least by identifying some of the daily effects of white privilege in my life. I have chosen those conditions that I think in my case attach somewhat more to skin-color privilege than to class, religion, ethnic status, or geographic location, though of course all these other factors are intricately intertwined. As far as I can tell, my African American coworkers, friends, and acquaintances with whom I come into daily or frequent contact in this particular time, place and time of work cannot count on most of these conditions. Continue reading “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack”

Learning from Laughter: Sabbath Economics Support Group for Parents

cherriesBy Lydia Wylie-Kellermann

“But one of the greatest gifts we feel she can receive is a life in this community: we want her to know and feel the love of people who are alive, who don’t give a damn about money and who are willing to do with their lives what they think God is asking”                                             – Jeanie Wylie-Kellermann Continue reading “Learning from Laughter: Sabbath Economics Support Group for Parents”

The Untouchables

From Cuban artist Erik Ravelo: photographs of children crucified by their oppressors. The first image refers to pedophilia in the Vatican. The second to child sexual abuse in tourism in Thailand, and the third to the war in Syria. The fourth image refers to the trafficking of organs on the black market, where most of the victims are children from poor countries; the fifth refers to the widespread access of weapons in the U.S. And finally, the sixth image refers to obesity and the fast food industry.

The Untouchables

Repentance & Resistance

Ched borderChed Myers (right, at La Posada Sin Fronteras in December 2013) on the importance of repentance and resistance in the lives of radical Christian disciples–from Binding The Strong Man: A Political Reading of Mark’s Story of Jesus (1988).

Repentance is not only the conversion of the heart, but a concrete process of turning away from empire, its distractions and seductions, its hubris and iniquity.

Resistance is shaking off the powerful sedation of a society that rewards ignorance and trivializes everything political, in order to discern and take concrete stands in our historical moment, and to find meaningful ways to impede imperial progress.