Imagination Battle

On April 1, 2020February 25, 2020 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Subverting Empire, UncategorizedLeave a comment

index “We are in an imagination battle.

Trayvon Martin and Mike Brown and Renisha McBride and so many others are dead because, in some white imagination, they were dangerous. And that imagination is so respected that those who kill, based on an imagined, radicalized fear of Black people, are rarely held accountable.

Imagination has people thinking they can go from being poor to a millionaire as part of a shared American dream. Imagination turns Brown bombers into terrorists and white bombers into mentally ill victims. Imagination gives us borders, gives us superiority, gives us race as an indicator of ability. I often feel I am trapped inside someone else’s capability. I often feel I am trapped inside someone’ else’s imagination, and I must engage my own imagination in order to break free.”
― Adrienne Maree Brown, Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds

A National Day of Prayer

On March 30, 2020March 19, 2020 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Theological Animation1 Comment

From Nelson Kraybill (right), president of Mennonite World Conference and former president of Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary

I applaud President Trump for proclaiming a National Day of Prayer, and suggest that he pray thus:

Merciful God, nobody is saying I caused the coronavirus, but I’m having trouble sleeping and have a few things to get off my chest. My decision in 2018 to dismantle the pandemics task force of the National Security Council and my recent attempt to cut funding for the Center for Disease Control were serious mistakes. Give me strength to admit to the nation, at least this once, that I am not always right. Lord, have mercy. Continue reading “A National Day of Prayer” →

Lent Bootcamp: Love in the Time of COVID-19

On March 28, 2020March 27, 2020 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Theological Animation, Uncategorized5 Comments

By Dee Dee Risher

Like each of you, I am spinning and dancing in the flux that is COVID-19.

My city, Philadelphia, is on lockdown, people asked to go out only for necessities or to the doctor. Every day I have gotten news of loved older ones exposed or friends who have COVID-19, schools and colleges closed, information overload. I’ve cancelled retreats and trips I have looked forward to for months, reeled home one college student from across the globe. I’ve been anxious about what the virus will do in Project HOME’s 900-resident community of formally homeless and vulnerable people, concerned and sad about life experiences cancelled, uncertain about how long it may go and how bad everything may get. You probably have a similar list of things falling, failing, the world shifting a bit under fear and responsibility.

Continue reading “Lent Bootcamp: Love in the Time of COVID-19” →

We are not at War

On March 27, 2020March 24, 2020 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Race, Subverting EmpireLeave a comment

From the front porch of Ruby Sales (March 24, 2020).

We are not at war. Rather we are facing a humanitarian crisis. Our lives and futures depend on knowing the difference

My friends this is a long read , but I believe that it is worthy of your time and consideration.

It is important to understand that we are not at war as Trump and others declared. Rather, we are facing a humanitarian crisis. You might wonder what difference does it make how we call it. In my estimation it makes a difference between life and death- who lives and who dies – as well as how we treat and value each other. Our answers to these questions determine our approach and solutions. Continue reading “We are not at War” →

Another Story

On March 25, 2020March 23, 2020 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Subverting Empire, Uncategorized1 Comment

17123251389_bed3c3a1ba_w — Pictures of Money, flickr, cc

By Ken Sehested

We have a lot of competition for our attention these days. I urge you to give a little space for this matter, which is unfolding right now in Congress.

“Any time there is a crisis and Washington is in the middle of it is an opportunity for guys like me.” —industry lobbyist on Capitol Hill

“Take Boeing. The aerospace giant of course wants a $60bn bailout. Financial problems for this corporation predated the crisis, with the mismanagement that led to the 737 Max as well as defense and space products that don’t work (I noted last July a bailout was coming). The corporation paid out $65bn in stock buybacks and dividends over the last 10 years. . . . Continue reading “Another Story” →

COVID-19 is Disproportionately Killing Poor People

On March 24, 2020March 24, 2020 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Subverting EmpireLeave a comment

By Tim Nafziger

The latest analysis of fatalities in Italy caused by is that “more than 75% had high blood pressure, about 35% had diabetes and a third suffered from heart disease.”*

This takes the socio-political implications of COVID-19 to a whole new disturbing level. It means that people who don’t care about poor people (who are disproportionately impacted by diabetes and high blood pressure**) and chronically ill people may well decide that they can take the same attitude as spring breakers in Miami who say “If I get corona, I get corona. At the end of the day, I’m not going to let it stop me from partying.”*** While the reality is that anyone could die from this disease, some of us have much better survival odds than others. Continue reading “COVID-19 is Disproportionately Killing Poor People” →

A Practice of Noticing

On March 23, 2020March 15, 2020 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Subverting EmpireLeave a comment

Alice Walker, from an interview, when asked about the inspiration behind her book of poetry Taking the Arrow Out of the Heart (2015):

The advice from our Tibetan ancestors and teachers is that we learn to take the arrow – of suffering, despair, hopelessness, fear – out of our own heart first, before attempting to bring down the archer who shot it. This involves a practice of noticing, on a deeper level than most people traditionally live, what our actual pain is. Accepting that we are suffering, and resolving to do something about it: first, by simply noticing it. And not letting distractions like eating too much, watching TV or Facebook entries, etc., get in the way of truly listening to, and hearing our deepest self. It is from the deep self that inspiration and instruction comes. We must resist oppression, of course, but we must be mindful of exactly why and how we must proceed. In other words, some form of consistent meditation is in order.

Love in the Time of Corona Virus

On March 20, 2020March 20, 2020 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Subverting Empire, Theological Animation2 Comments

By Tommy Airey

“The only regret I will have in dying is if it is not for love.”—Gabriel García Márquez, Love in the Time of Cholera (1985)

In the rapidly shifting week between last Tuesday night when the NBA announced that rim-protector Rudy Gobert (right) tested positive for Covid-19 and Monday when the current occupier of the White House horrifically changed his language and started calling the pandemic “the Chinese Virus,” the contrast between free-market Capitalism and free-range Christianity was unpixilating in my soul. To clarify, most so-called “Christian” offerings are factory farmed, unquestionably committed to free-market fundamentalist policies—and the rugged individualistic postures they cultivate.

Continue reading “Love in the Time of Corona Virus” →

The Cognitive Dissonance of Southern Hospitality

On March 18, 2020February 25, 2020 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Race, Identity, and History, UncategorizedLeave a comment

By Britney Winn Lee. Originally in Geez 56: Entertaining Angels.

Joe Marlon Lee had the same philosophy for his kitchen table as he did for his onion patch, as he did for his pond and pocketbook – what is it all for if not to be shared?

He passed that worldview down to my mother, and together with my father, she has maintained an open-backdoor, open-pantry policy for all of my life. My friends, throughout college and young adulthood and now parenthood, found a sense of place just as I found a sense of place on that piece of Louisiana acreage. An insult it almost was for someone not to make our home their home throughout my upbringing. This sentiment echoed throughout my childhood town’s pharmacy, and football stadium, and the sanctuary in which I was pruned for a world much different than the one responsible for my raising. Continue reading “The Cognitive Dissonance of Southern Hospitality” →

o, woman

On March 16, 2020March 15, 2020 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Subverting Empire, Theological AnimationLeave a comment

Water Transfer 3 — Re-loading cases of water to deliver to victims of water shut-off.

By Jim Perkinson, on John 4:5-42, for the beloved community that meets at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church (right) at the corner of Trumbull and Michigan in Detroit.

o, the waters, the waters, the waters

o jacob, my father
o leah, my mother
o rachel, crying after the lost ones Continue reading “o, woman” →