By Christine WadsworthLet me tell you about your grandmother
(No, not your mother’s mother, living in Houston)
I’m talking about Grandmothers.
The ones who survived the years of
twilight sleep and childbed fever
The ones who endured famine, poverty, war, and witch hunts
The Grandmothers nobody could kill
Jim Perkinson is a long-time activist and educator from inner city Detroit, where he has a history of involvement in various community development initiatives and low-income housing projects. He holds a PhD in theology from the University of Chicago and is in demand as a speaker on a wide variety of topics (especially race, class & colonialism). He is also a recognized artist on the spoken-word poetry scene in the inner city. Many of his works are published. In this interview, we home in on his 2014 work Messianism Against Christology: Resistance Movements, Folk Arts and Empire.
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RD: What’s the difference between “messianism” and “christology?”
J-Perk: Messianism Against Christology: Resistance Movements, Folk Arts and Empire is a work committed to re-thinking the Christian tradition from the point of view of social movements rather than magnified individuals. Jesus was a movement man—as were Moses and Elijah before him, and John the Baptist alongside him. “Messianism” is a word drafted into service as a movement term. Rather than focus on a great individual called “Jesus” comprehended as “the Christ,” the book examines his effort as part of a broader resistance initiative. The social movement launched by John was already in motion when Jesus first opts to begin public action. Continue reading “Breakin’ Down Messianism With Dr. Jim Perkinson”
By Ched Myers, Fourth Sunday in Epiphany (Mk 1:21-28)
This is an ongoing occasional series of Ched’s brief comments on the Markan gospel readings from the Revised Common Lectionary during year B.
The first major narrative section of Mark’s gospel begins (1:16) and ends (4:36) by the shores of the Sea of Galilee. In it Mark paints a portrait of Jesus’ public ministry in and around the Galilean city of Capernaum. This series of episodes exhibits the three essential characteristics of Jesus’ mission: the healing and exorcism of marginalized people, the proclamation of God’s sovereignty and the call to discipleship. These practices result in escalating confrontations with the local authorities, culminating with open conflict in 3:1ff.
Continue reading “Challenging the Status Quo: Jesus Contests Scribal Authority”
By Amy Epp, Associate Pastor for Christian Formation and Worship, Seattle Mennonite Church (you can read more of her writings here)
I have this knot in my shoulder. It’s actually kind of dormant right now. But when my shoulders start getting really tight, I know I’ve been working too much – or at least too much at my desk. It’s the knot that tells me I’ve been carrying around the tension that is worry and stress and anxiety that comes from work. I’m sure I’m not the only one who carries my work around in my body – ulcers have a kind of bad reputation for be the result of work-related stress. Some people experience lower back strain. Our bodies notice when we are working too much.
Continue reading “The Unforced Rhythms of Grace”
By Lydia Wylie-Kellermann (printed in Conspire, Fall 2014)
It was unseasonably warm as I carefully stepped onto the next wrung balancing the extra weight and size. My body called me into those trees as I deliberately and gently trimmed the small, sucker branches. First the apple tree, then the peach, then the plum. Being past my due date, I knew I probably shouldn’t be on a ladder, but I kept climbing higher and higher. Continue reading “Birth: The conspiracy of Soul and Body”
…moving forward on the journey of being organized agents for transformation…from the inside out.
Warren Cooper (photo right)
During a wonderfully painful & hopeful confluence of the #BlackLivesMatter and #ICantBreathe spotlights on systemic racism and the release of the film Selma, Philadelphia joined many other US cities in the effort to reclaim the MLK holiday as a day of disrupting the status quo. Our church, Circle of Hope, has been making some concerted efforts this month to be shaped deeper by the legacy of Dr. King as well as open our sails wide to the winds of the Spirit.
Continue reading “Sacred Jazz As Spiritual Midwifery by Joshua Grace”
From Grace Lee Boggs in The Next American Revolution (2012):
Radical social change had to be viewed as a two-sided transformational process, of ourselves and of our institutions, a process requiring protracted struggle and not just a D-Day replacement of one set of rulers with another. The Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955-56 was the first struggle by an oppressed people in Western society from this new philosophical/political perspective…not only desegregating the buses but creating the beloved community.
“Our strategy should be not only to confront the empire, but to lay siege to it. To deprive it of oxygen. To shame it. To mock it. With our art, our music, our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our brilliance, our sheer relentlessness- and our ability to tell our stories. Stories that are different from the ones we’re being brainwashed to believe.
The corporate revolution will collapse if we refuse to buy what they are selling- their ideas, their version of history, their wars, their weapons, their notion of inevitability. Remember this: We be many and they be few. They need us more than we need them.
Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.”
Arundhati Roy
…this book is about how parents can create lasting and meaningful bulwarks between their kids and the violence endemic in our culture. It posits discipline without spanks or slaps or threats of violence, while considering how to raise thoughtful, compassionate, fearless young people committed to social and political change — without scaring, hectoring or scarring them with all the wrongs in the world.
This week we got a chance to talk with Frida Berrigan, author of It Runs in the Family: On Being Raised by Radicals and Growing into Rebellious Motherhood. Continue reading “It Runs in the Family”
By Ched Myers, Third Sunday in Epiphany (Mk 1:14-20)
This is an ongoing occasional series of Ched’s brief comments on the Markan gospel readings from the Revised Common Lectionary during year B.
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The Sea of Galilee is the ecological and social setting of the first half of the gospel of Mark. A large freshwater lake about seven miles wide and 13 miles long, its shore is dotted with villages connected with the local fishing industry, the most prosperous segment of Galilee’s economy. The lake (also called Sea of Genneseret, Lake Kinneret or Lake Tiberius) is fed by the Jordan River, which flows in from the north and out to the south. Some 209 meters below sea level, it is the lowest freshwater lake on Earth. Due to this low-lying position in a rift valley, the sea is prone to sudden violent storms, as attested in the gospel stories.
Continue reading ““Let’s Catch Some Big Fish!” Jesus’ Call to Discipleship in a World of Injustice”
