I leave today for Summer Madness in Ireland. Please come by the sessions I'll be leading if you're there ... I don't expect to be able to post here until the middle or end of next week. But I left a rather meaty Q & R post earlier this morning for those who are interested ... God bless!
This question came in recently ...
I have read your books and I am now writing [thesis] on how your thought relates to the work of Lesslie Newbigin. I would really appreciate your help in answering a few specific questions. Most of these questions regard your use of 'plausibility structures' in Finding Faith and your later pluralistic assumptions in Everything Must Change and Finding Our Way Again.
Continue reading Q & R: Newbigin...
For those of us who believe Everything Must Change ... this state-of-the-art report on Climate Change in the US will be of interest. (Thanks, Gary!)
An important reuters news story after the jump. (Thanks, Dorjee!)
AND LATE NOTE: Today the US House of Representatives passed (219-212) the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES) - AKA cap-and-trade. While many of us feel this is only a first small step ... it's an important step.
ACES aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 83% by 2050. It still has to pass the Senate, but this marks a sea change in the fight against global warming in the US Congress.
Continue reading climate change ......
For some people it's a stained-glass window or a church bell or a Bach fugue that immediately fills their heart with a sense of grace and worship. For me, those are all wonderful ... but few things surpass in grace and beauty the swallow-tailed kite.
Several times in recent days my breath has been taken away by one of these creatures, one of God's millions of masterpieces.
While the world mourns two talented celebrities, two other passings will go largely unnoticed. You can read about one of them here.
And another - an amazing man named Ray Anderson.
Ray taught theology at Fuller Seminary and wrote many books. Often when I meet Fuller students, I ask about their favorite professor. Most often, they name Ray. I met Ray when I taught a short course there. He came out of retirement frequently as a guest lecturer, and he did so for our class. I was quickly won over by his enthusiasm, intelligence, and beautiful mix of piety and scholarship, of reverence and willingness to tip some sacred cows.
You can read a warm tribute here. If I were to recommend one of his books, it would be this one - An Emergent Theology for Emerging Churches.
Thank God for this good and wise professor, author, mentor, and friend!
I'm so enjoying my summer writing and marriage sabbatical (for both, not from both!) in Southwest Florida ... deep into revisions for A New Kind of Christianity (which it looks like will be released in early February 2010 instead of March as previously announced?) and as always, struggling to catch up with a mountainous backlog of unanswered emails. Meanwhile ...
Regina Spector - what a gifted singer/songwriter! - engages in some fascinating theology in this song. (Thanks, Rachel!)
The synchro-blog on sexuality yesterday apparently got a lot of attention and evoked some of the kind of red-faced fury that Regina sings about. For some good religious dialogue on sexuality, check this out from Andrew Marin at theooze.com, and check this out from Jim Wallis (with Stewart and Huckabee) at sojo.net. And don't miss the honest and poignant postings here.
The pre-order page for A New Kind of Christianity is now up at amazon. And here's The Justice Project pre-order page available at amazon and Barnes and Noble.
One of the distracting polarizations under which we've been laboring over recent decades is typically framed like this: big government versus big business. There are a thousand ironies in this. Those against big government are generally for big military, which is government working with taxes and weapons instead of taxes and laws. Those against big business generally depend on it for campaign donations.
But there's a deeper irony: what if big usually means unaccountable, and what if big and unaccountable are inherent to our problems?
I think it was Rick Warren who said, "Bigger isn't better and smaller isn't better. Better is better." Here's an article by Dave Pollard (thanks Bob C!) that makes this point beautifully. Prime quote:
So what we have now is a political system (nations, governments, cities, educational institutions, legal regimes) that is too big to work, and too big to be allowed to fail. We have an economic system (corporate oligopolies, industries, health care institutions, banks) that is too big to work, and too big to be allowed to fail. We have not only crop monoculture, we have human monoculture, what Terry Glavin has called "a dark and gathering sameness" all over the world.These are complicated, mechanistic structures, not the complex resilient ones that nature has evolved. They are fragile and vulnerable, constantly at risk of flying apart.
The latest edition of Orion magazine describes the Transition movement as one that attempts to rediscover community, the natural 'right size' of human relationship and endeavour, between the atomized individual/family and the massive, groaning and ungovernable political and economic institutions and systems we have created that currently hold sway over our lives. We need to reframe the discussion away from big government versus big corporations versus libertarianism versus anarchism. The first two are different flavours of the unsustainably large and hierarchical, and the latter two are different flavours of the unsustainably small, narcissistic and atomized. The only structure of human relationship and human endeavour that has ever sustainably worked was and is community.
As Rob Paterson wrote today, "We have to change the prevailing story from 'its all about me' to 'it's all about us'. The first step is that each of us has to take is to start to live this new story. We cannot lecture. We cannot explain. We have to live it."
One way or another, we need to facilitate the breaking down of the complicated, dysfunctional and unsustainable hierarchies and systems of civilization culture, and the building up from alienated, atomized, narcissistic individuals, into community-based structures, relationships and endeavours. It is naive to believe that we can do just one or the other; we need activists breaking down the too-big and communitarians building up the too-small, until what we have is organizations of the right, natural size. Rob calls these right-size groups 'natural organizations'. I have used the terms 'natural enterprise' and 'natural community'. The right size is, usually, dense clusters of about 5-8, networked into larger communities of about 50. It is the only size that has ever sustainably worked, and it worked for a million years.
In Everything Must Change, I paid a lot of attention to Jesus' references to "the flowers of the field" and "birds of the air" in the Sermon on the Mount. I think Jesus was saying something very similar to Pollard ... that we must turn from the Roman Empire for our models and scales for life and work, and turn to God's creation. Like the old Proverb says, "Learn from the ant ..." The natural world - the sacred, evolving, dynamic, beautiful, and wisdom-packed created world - has much to teach us.
I'm adding my voice to over 70 others connected with Bridging the Gap by posting on the issue of homosexuality today ...
I'm in the editing stage of my March 2010 book, A New Kind of Christianity: Ten Questions that are Transforming the Faith. I knew when I began the book that one of the ten questions would be around the subject of sexuality in general, and homosexuality in particular. What would I say about the subject?
For many years, I was like thousands of Christians: uncomfortable with the conventional approach to homosexuality - namely: it's a chosen lifestyle, and it's a sin. (I was also uncomfortable with the "anything goes" approach that was often - and falsely - presented as the only alternative.)
I knew from my many years as a pastor that sexual orientation was not a choice; I can't count the number of people who "came out" to me over the years, and never once did I have a person say, "This is a choice like any other sin issue. I'm just choosing to rebel, and if I repent, I will be different." They all had gone through months or years or decades of intense struggle and shame before coming to the point of saying, "This isn't a choice. It's a fact of my make-up. It's integral to who I am."
So, I was uncomfortable with the conventional approach, but I was unsure how to construct an alternative that was equally faithful to Scripture and faithful to the reality I saw in human beings who came to me as their pastor, friend, and family member. Over many years, that alternative has become more and more clear, and surprisingly (to some), it was a passage of Scripture that opened the way for me to see it.
While people have vigorously and sometimes viciously debated isolated verses in Leviticus, Romans, and 1 Corinthians (versus which, I explain in the book, may have very little or nothing to do with contemporary understandings of sexual orientation) ... Acts 8 was waiting with a story that is more powerful than many have realized.
It's a story about an African man who because of his race can never fit into the Jewish nation, and because of his sexual identity can never fit into the traditional family. As a eunuch, he can never be "healed" to become heterosexual. So now, through no choice of his own, he finds himself an adult who can never be categorized in traditional sexual roles. He has come to Jerusalem to worship God, but has, no doubt, been turned away - first because of his race and second because of his sexual identity: the Hebrew Scriptures explicitly excluded both Gentiles and people in his nontraditional, not-part-of-the-created-order sexual category.
Returning in his chariot to his home in a distant land, he is reading the prophet Isaiah. One passage seizes his attention. It's about a man who was led like a sheep to slaughter or a lamb to the shearers, despised and rejected, a man who would not have physical descendants, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. A disciple of Jesus named Philip runs alongside the chariot and asks the man if he understands what he is reading. The man invites Philip into the chariot and asks if the writer was writing about himself or someone else - a question that suggests this man feels the prophet is talking about him in his sexual otherness: he too will have no descendants; he too has been rejected, misunderstood, despised, shamed ... he too has been brought like a sheep or lamb before people with cutting instruments.
Philip explains that this passage can be read to describe Jesus, and he shares the good news of Jesus and the kingdom of God. As they pass a body of water, the man then asks if there is anything that could hinder him from being baptized. Anything that could hinder him - his race? His sexual identity?
Imagine what Philip might have said: "I need to contact the authorities in Jerusalem to get a policy statement on this issue. Maybe we should wait a few centuries until the church is more established. Baptizing you could cause real controversy in our fragile religious community. In the interests of not offending people back home, I'll have to say no. Or at least not yet."
But Philip doesn't answer with words; he responds with immediate action. They stop the chariot, and Philip leads him into the water and baptizes him.
Neither race nor sexual identity was an obstacle for the apostles in welcoming a new brother into the community of faith. As early as Acts 8 in the story of Jesus and his apostles, the tough issues of race and sexual identity are being addressed head-on. But as we all know, as the years went on, both issues once again became obstacles. It's only in my lifetime that we have truly begun to put racism behind us - although even there, we still have a long way to go. Now, it's time for us to remove the second obstacle. Not in spite of the Bible, but because of it. We've lost a lot of ground since Acts 8. That's why I am among those who dissent from the conventional approach and attitude, appealing back to Philip's even more ancient church tradition.
Adam sent me this link to Andrew Sullivan's blog ... a powerful i-report from Tehran. Very moving, and well worth your time to watch ... and add your prayers to the Iranians seeking freedom from dictatorship.
There is the Islam of the dictators and their religious allies, used to keep people in their place, used to justify their own power, used to shame and threaten those who question their authority. And there is the Islam of the protestors, calling out to God in hopes of liberation. Whose prayers are heard? Which group has a more true vision of God?
I've been saying for several years that I think there are two kinds of Christianity, along with two kinds of Islam, Judaism, and every other religion and non-religion too: one of social control and one of social transformation ... one to hold people down, one to lift them up ... one an opiate to pacify people into compliance, the other a stimulant to empower people to imagine a better world, a better future, a better life ... giving them the courage to live in peaceful defiance of violent, corrupt, and greedy powers-that-be.
Neither kind is perfect, and both kinds contain good and sincere people. But if those who use God and religion for social control are left to define faith ... the religion they define will be a false one, an ugly one, an idolatrous one. God bless humanity ... and God help us find a way of being faithful that opens the door to a better future.
I contributed to this new resource - Fresh Expressions in the Sacramental Tradition. Jonny Baker offers an excellent review here. He notes:
rowan williams opening chapter identifies these features of catholic spirituality:
non verbal expressions of faith
a central place to sacramental action
seeing christian life as taking time and use of the christian year
faith is a community experience and not just an individual one
This book (along with Jonny's comments) puts "the church that is emerging" in a broader context - a catholic phenomenon that is happening across traditions - Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, traditional protestant, Evangelical, Pentecostal. That insight alone is worth the price of the book.
How important are two recent acts of domestic terrorism ... one at the Holocaust Museum in DC and one at a Lutheran Church in Kansas City? If more of us don't hear them as a wake-up call, they could open the door to many, many more similar acts of terrorism. Before terrorism comes dehumanization, and before dehumanization comes name-calling, and before name-calling comes communication breakdown. That's why I encourage you to be involved with conversations that seek common ground ... like this one. Blessed are the peacemakers ... blessed are those who realize that common ground is higher ground.
If you don't know about this important new organization (for whom I serve on an advisory board), check them out here.
Bob Carlton passed on this link ... a beautiful essay that helps bring the Iranian struggle closer to home.
That's what this new report says. Unethical and irresponsible Wall Street investors (aided by ineffective government policymakers and regulators) have made a short-term profit with the unintended (and unconsidered) consequence of pushing more people than ever into poverty and need. Another reason everything must change.
The Reformed Church in America, with Wes Granberg-Michaelson at the helm, recently made the historic decision to adopt the Belhar Confession. If you don't know why this is so significant, you can read about it here. Denominations often receive a lot of critique, but this decision - to me at least - reflects the best of what historic denominations can be and do.
It's daunting for me to even begin writing about Fathers' Day ... I've often said that fatherhood is probably the most meaningful experience in my life, and my debt to and love for my father goes beyond words so fast that it's hard to know where to begin, and even harder to know where to stop.
So approaching this Fathers' Day, I'd like to mention three simple things that I've experienced both with my dad and as a dad.
First, my dad exemplified "joie de vivre" - and this was one of his greatest gifts to me. He loved to work (he was a gifted and caring doctor until his retirement), he loved to learn (he was always reading medical texts and listening to cassettes of conferences he wasn't able to attend), he loved to sing (i remember lying in bed as a boy hearing him crooning out hymns as he shaved - and you could tell where he was in the shaving process by the way the lyrics were stretched), he loved to play (earning him the title "uncle picnic" from my cousins). Several years ago, in his late seventies, he showed up with a motor-scooter he had rented - something he had never done before - ostensibly because he wanted to take his grandkids for a ride (which they still talk about), but I know the real reason was even in his seventies, his thirst for adventure wasn't near quenched. (A couple years ago, I noticed a bike was missing from the garage where we were vacationing, and sure enough, Dad - now in his 80's - went out for a spin.)
My dad brought the same joie de vivre to his spiritual life - he approached God, the Bible, prayer, and Christian service - not with the dour intensity of a furrow-browed fundamentalist - but with the joyful interest of a lifelong amateur (thinking of the root of "amateur" - amar, to love). Dad loved (and loves) God ... and that love is inextricably integrated with his love for life. That helps explain why even in his 80's, he's still "fully carbonated" when it comes to worship, prayer, fellowship, and witness.
Second, my dad made family his great priority. One way he showed it was by making family vacations a big deal. On vacation, it was just us ... camping, sightseeing, swimming, hiking, canoeing, visiting lighthouses and historic sites (special interests of his). Something about those vacations cemented us as a family and enriched our lives the other 50 weeks of the year. I know that many of my friends can't begin to imagine this, but I have never had even a moment's uncertainty about whether I was loved, whether I was believed in, whether I was supported, whether I belonged ... and that's to the credit of my dad (and mom and brother too). At this moment, I'm vacationing at a place where my dad took our family on vacation, and my enjoyment of this place today is an extension of his enjoyment of his family in this place, and his enjoyment of this place with his family over many years.
Third, my dad learned from his kids. The truth is (speaking as a father) - the influence children have on their parents is widely under-rated. I've watched my dad change in his thinking and beliefs through his sons, and I know that I'm continuing to learn and change through my kids every day. I think parents spend twenty years raising their kids, and about half-way through that process, the kids start raising their parents as well. In the end, everyone is better off - the older generation passes on its wisdom to the young, and the younger generation prevents "hardening of the categories" in the old ... as long as both generations keep listening, something my dad has done.
On my best days as a dad, I approached my father's excellence in these areas. But now, with four kids in their twenties, I keep feeling that although I gave my kids my very, very best ... my kids deserved better. So here I am ... with a better dad than I deserved and better kids than I deserve. I'm surrounded by grace. I'm blessed indeed!
Grace and I will be spending a big chunk of the summer in Southwest Florida ... a great place to unwind and to write after a somewhat over-busy spring ... and a great place to celebrate our 30th anniversary!
I'm still recuperating after a whirlwind trip to Africa. I wish I could have stayed for a special celebration with the Batwa of Burundi. My friend David Shook explains the celebration (after the jump), and will be blogging about it here.
Speaking of Africa ... you can get a taste of the amahoro-africa.org event here. The talks can be downloaded as well.
Continue reading update, links...
Jim Wallis is one of the most talented interviewees I’ve ever known. He knows how to get substance, not just spin, into a sound byte, and he has an amazing ability to think on his feet. His recent interview with Jon Stewart (you can read it here after registering for ree) shows he’s good on the other side of the desk – asking questions instead of answering them – and it shows Stewart can play the interview table from both sides as well.
I read the transcript of the interview while flying over Angola on the way home from South Africa. I had spent a few hours talking with some Congolese friends earlier in the day about the situation in East Africa. My friends told me their shock and disappointment over how the American media cover Africa.
They asked me a lot of questions I couldn’t answer. Why does the media seem to believe everything the Rwandan government says, and why don’t they peer beneath they shiny appearances (for example, see this) to some of the more shady realities? Why don’t they cover the incursions and interferences of Rwanda and Uganda in the Congo? Why don’t they investigate the East African Mafia that coordinates corruption and exploitation among Uganda, Rwanda, and Eastern Congo? Why haven’t any journalists investigated the killing fields in Eastern Congo – where mass graves of Hutu bones serve as icons of retaliation after the genocide of Tutsis in 1994? Is there a U.S. military base in Southern Rwanda – and why do nearly all Rwandans seem to know there is, but almost no Americans do? Why aren’t journalists talking about the “dirty Coltan” extracted by near slave-labor in Congo which is part of all of our cell phones – no less a tragedy than the “dirty diamonds” that grace many fingers and necks?
Those aren’t funny questions, but Jim’s interview with Stewart reminds us that news media have a really important role to fulfill … even when they make us groan and laugh (often and intentionally on Comedy Central, and equally often though unintentionally on some other cable channels).
So when will Jim interview Stephen Colbert?
This is a beautiful - and wise - meditation from my friend Fr. Richard Rohr. You can learn more about the Center for Action and Contemplation which he founded here. You will probably want to subscribe to the daily email meditations they send out, as I do ...
Question of the day:
Why did Jesus give us the Eucharist?
You’ve got to comprehend any Great Mystery in one focused moment. Great Truth must be put on small stages to be able to process and grasp its momentous significance. This is the sacramental principle. Believe it, struggle with it, comprehend it here, and then move beyond it and recognize what’s true here is true everywhere! The concrete is the doorway to the universal. That is probably why Catholics made a great deal of the Eucharistic presence of Jesus in the bread and wine. It was the distilled and focused truth that was to teach us how to see Christ in everything. The pathway to the universal mysteries is almost always through the concrete and specific moment. Poets tend to understand this very well.
The momentous doctrine of the Body of Christ was taught in two different ways by St. Paul. He used it both for the community itself (building on Jesus who said “wherever two or three gather, I am there”) and also for the bread and wine of the Eucharist. In the first thousand years, the community was called the Corpus Verum—the True Body of Christ—and the Eucharist was called the Mystical Body of Christ (Corpus Mysticum), but no one doubted they were both the Presence! In the second thousand years the usage was almost entirely reversed, and we called the people the “mystical body of Christ” and the bread and wine the “real presence” or “Corpus Verum.” I wonder what that reversal of mentality reveals about our understanding of the Gospel?
From The Cosmic Christ (CD #2)
Eladia, a friend in the Dominican Republic, sent me the link to this video ...
The lyrics are after the jump ...
Continue reading back home in the usa ......
It's winter here and buildings aren't heated, so we've all been bundled up ... but the fellowship has been warm and the people at amahoro-africa, as always, have been inspiring.
I just saw this piece at Sojourners - and it certainly fits the reality we see here. There are so many amazing women doing amazing things ...
This morning I listened to Maggie talking about how her Nairobi church has been helping bring health care to the poorest of the poor. Then, after getting grass-roots experience, she tries to educate and challenge government officials to get involved. Just a few minutes ago I talked with Delphine who is building homes for returning refugees in Burundi. In between, I talked with Stephen who, in addition to raising nearly 30 orphans in Rwanda, also helps 150+ widows ... who in turn care for their own children. For every sewing machine he can buy (from $150 to $300 each), he can employ a widow who can support a family. And a white Afrikaans pastor told me about a Ghanan woman in his church who single-handedly started befriending Nigerian prostitutes in their city, and is helping them escape the sex trade and find constructive employment. Yesterday, Robert (visiting Africa from the Dominican Republic) told us of a woman in his church who asked if she could use one space in the church parking lot to feed the homeless one day a week. That small beginning has expanded to a full range of services for homeless people. When you see the light of these women shining so bright and true ... you instinctively want to glorify God.
If you want to get a taste of what's going on here, check out futurechurch.co.za ...
I'll be at the amahoro-africa conference this week near Johannesburg, RSA. During the flight I hope to finish a longish post on the economy that I'll try to put up here while I'm gone. Otherwise, I don't imagine I'll have much opportunity to blog this week. I encourage you to check out the archives ...
I was in an airplane today when President Obama gave his speech in Egypt, but I'm one of many catching it online. Here's a link.
Just a few days ago, I wrote a song which has some strong resonances with the President's words today. Hopefully I can get a scratch recording of it together at some point to share. Here are the lyrics.
Clenching fist and open hand
Sometimes we wonder whether God really does exist,
And if God’s way is of the open hand or clenching fist.
And while some preachers argue over doctrines and demands,
Their followers are making clenching fists of open hands.
Open up your hands.
So is religion killing us? Is it tearing us apart?
Does it open space to reconcile, or shrink the heart?
Two paths lie before us. One constricts and one expands.
One is the way of clenching fists; the other, open hands.
Stretch your open hands.
What we hold in mind and heart flows down through the wrist
And is expressed in open hand or in clenching fist
And so we build on solid rock, or else unstable sand;
And so we live by clenching fist or by the open hand.
Reach out open hands.
If we fight and fear and hate, our conflicts will persist
Until we trust the open hand more than the clenching fist
In church and mosque and synagogue, how many understand
The living God is the loving God of the open hand?
Join your open hands.
There were hands that blessed the children, touched and healed and fed
Hands that poured a cup of wine, hands that broke the bread
Hands that remained open even when the hammer fell
Hands that hold us and that open through our hands as well.
Raise your open hands.
(more after the jump)
Continue reading Open hand, clenched fist ......
I just learned that friends Bruce Epperly and Jonny Baker will be in Lancaster PA this summer (June 22-26) for the summer academy at Lancaster Theological Seminary. Info here.
Just got this from Gabriel Salguero ...
I know many of you have said, “I would love to attend a Rene Padilla lecture .” Well, here’s your chance. Rene Padilla will be at Princeton Theological Seminary hosted by the Hispanic Leadership Program August 4, 2009. He will be lecturing on Integral Mission and Latin American Theological Reflection in the Age of Obama. If you’re interested register on-line. More information is attached. Feel free to forward to your networks.Click here to register:
http://www.peopleware.net/index.cfm?siteCode=1767&eventDisp=PR09HLP202&subeventdisp=PRIN
I'll be in Vancouver, BC, at the NAIITS gathering (North American Institute for IndigenousTheological Studies). I probably shouldn't talk about "favorite" groups to be with ... but this group is one of the very best groups I've been privileged to be connected with. I learn a lot and am enriched by these relationships.
... As I will be this weekend, when I leave for South Africa to be with another of my favorite groups ... amahoro-africa.org. I can't believe how blessed I am to be able to know and learn with such tremendous friends. (If I'm blog-silent for the next week or so ... you'll know why.)
Today I was in DC, meeting with my friends (and fellow member of crcc.org) Tom Austin and Maman Christine ... we were talking about Christine's homeland, Congo, where 5.5 million people have died due to violence since 1996. It's like 6 Rwandan genocides ... yet the international community (political and religious) seems to remain asleep. We talked about the good work of the Enough campaign ... and conspired about ways we can mobilize attention, energy, and of course prayer for this beautiful, fragile, wounded and often-forgotten country.
If you have a cell phone, you are connected to the Congo and the injustice there ... you can learn about your connection here.
Stay tuned, because I'll have more to say on this subject in coming months. In the meantime, check out this video produced by my friends at Discover the Journey.
Tuesday I spent the day walking along the Potomac River with some local friends.
We enjoyed God's living art gallery (which included a scarlet tanager and Baltimore oriole) and talked about life, God, gospel, theology, church, and mission. Our group included Joel Kurz, a gifted church planter in Baltimore. Their community, the Garden, just had a "trail of tears" service. Here's how Joel described it:
The Garden Worship Gathering took on a new approach this past Sunday as we traveled to five of the most recent murder sites in our area, a journey which we called Trail of Tears. At each site we read the liturgy and dropped a rose while we sang together "Amazing Grace."
As seen in the liturgy we finished our time of prayer at each site with the words, "And may your Kingdom come to Baltimore as it is in Heaven," - a cry for God's peace and way of life to be opened up among us now. This next Sunday we will be focusing on what it now means to be the answer to our own prayer. We realize that as we pray for God's Kingdom to come, God has chosen us to be the agents of the Kingdom, agents of peace and reconciliation in the world around us, making Baltimore a better place for everyone.
Continue reading Tuesday on the trail ......
It's been a great week.
Monday I had the chance to spend the day with some friends who are wildlife biologists. We were searching for the rarest turtle in the United States, the little bog turtle ...
Bog turtles live in emergent wetlands in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and a few other states. They're listed as a threatened species, which means that as their habitat is "developed" into strip malls and housing developments, they are threatened with extinction. For about 18 of the last 19 years, I've had the privilege of volunteering as part of a long-term study of their status. I put on my hip waders and go out into the muck among tussock sedge, jewelweed, and poison ivy ... seeing how many we can find, seeing whether they are marked (having been captured before), taking measurements, etc. This week we found five - a 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6 year old. It's encouraging to see young ones, but strange that no adults were found.
I encourage everyone to choose one of God's creatures that is in trouble in your area, and then to join God in seeking to protect that creature and its habitat. Learn all you can about it. Volunteer. Advocate. It's holy work ... even if you get some poison ivy in the process. (Which I managed to do!)
I've had a rare privilege ... being home for three weekends in a row, and being able to attend my home church (crcc.org) as "just a member," not preaching, etc. I'm very fortunate to be able to attend the church I helped plant back in 1982 and then helped lead for 24 years. (It's amazing the church survived having me as their leader for that long!)
Over these three weeks, I've heard two splendid sermons by Matthew Dyer, and another splendid sermon by Patsy Fratanduono. And the music, beautiful grounds, and even the good fair-trade coffee have also been a joy, not to mention the people. Having been a pastor, I know how hard it is to keep a church going, and I know how challenging it is to weather the thousand little discouragements and to handle the thousand little details required to put together a gathering week after week ... so I guess I appreciate this experience more than many people would.
Today during the eucharist, a new thought hit me. (Isn't it amazing that after well over 1100 experiences of the eucharist in my life - it still is fresh and yields new meaning?)
In Jesus' death, his blood was drained from his body. That is, crudely put, what death meant to most people in Jesus' day - especially violent death: the separation of blood and body. Today it struck me that in instituting the eucharist, Jesus was saying something like this: "My blood is about to be separated from my body, but when you take my body and blood into your body and blood, you will reunite them. I will live again in you. I will be resurrected in you." This is not to minimize Jesus' Easter-morning resurrection, but to suggest a major dimension of its meaning.
This thought also helps me understand Jesus' statement in John: "Greater things than these will you do because I go to the Father ..." Since hearing that statement as a child, I was bothered by it. If we said this, it would quickly be called blasphemy: how could we do greater works than Jesus? But since Jesus said it ... we can't push it off the table. Was Jesus eager to make it clear to his disciples that the story of the gospel was only beginning in him, and that they would continue it ... leading to unimagined possibilities in the future? (This, I suspect, is why Jesus would often say, "Your faith has healed you," rather than "My divine power has healed you," or even "God has healed you" or "I have healed you." By emphasizing their faith, he was empowering them to carry on his work.)
My little meditation this morning then led to this: In Jesus' death, his spirit left his body. That's what death is for many people - the separation of spirit and body. (I'm certainly not arguing for the old dualistic, Platonic-Cartesian ghost-in-a-machine view of humanity in saying this ... I'm just using language the way it's commonly used in colloquial speech, recalling Jesus' words, "Into your hands I commend my spirit" - which could also be understood as "Into your hands I commend my breath," or "... my life," by the way.)
In Pentecost, Jesus' Spirit is reunited with his body, with us. So today, Pentecost and eucharist came together for me in a rich way, so that when I looked around the room, I saw in a fresh way "the embodiment of Christ," the body of the risen Jesus alive and well on the earth. Maybe you'll feel as I do today, that Pentecost is a far more important holiday than we often realize ... its meaning is inherently linked to the resurrection ... and to Jesus' ongoing proclamation of the gospel of the kingdom of God. Just as Jesus came to proclaim the kingdom, and just as he sent us to proclaim and teach what he had proclaimed and taught ... we continue as the ongoing embodiment of Christ, proclaiming and living the good news of God's kingdom, by the power of the Spirit. Thanks be to God!
Regarding the outrage expressed by white Christian leaders and politicians about Judge Sotomayor, and their allegations that she is a racist ... I decided to read the speech from which the supposedly offensive lines were taken. Since I have had spokespeople like these take my words out of context, I suspected they may have done the same to the judge. You can read the whole speech here (I recommend it strongly), but here are three key paragraphs:
(continued after the jump)
Continue reading on racism ... part 2...
Many in the Republican Party and some noteworthy Christian leaders have come together to call Judge Sotomayor a racist. This rhetoric compounds with other recent statements - support for torture, opposition to hate speech legislation (note: not opposition to hate speech, but to legislation restricting hate speech), ongoing denial of environmental crisis and climate change, and so on.
As Dave Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons made clear in their important book UnChristian, this kind of talk - and the viewpoints and theology from which it springs - have created an extremely negative stereotype of the Christian faith over recent decades, especially among young people - who are leaving the church in record numbers. You would think this information would have gotten out to many of these religious leaders - and that, if for no other reason than they don't want to drive the young away from their religious communities, they would at least be more careful and sensitive. But no, they are continuing on the same course ... adding more fuel to the stereotypical fire that Christians are judgmental, insensitive, reactive, more ideological than theological, and so on.
Yes, their rhetoric (which you can read about and find links to here) reflects badly on these Christians themselves. But sadly, it also reflects badly on the rest of us Christians and on the Christian faith in general. If the rest of us are silent, unless more of us speak up to distinguish our position from theirs, nobody can blame others for assuming our silence means tacit agreement.
That's one reason why I continue to be outspoken about these matters. I take no pleasure in criticizing anyone, including my fellow Christians. But I must simply say that these voices don't speak for me, nor do they speak for thousands of people I meet in my travels. Their words and attitudes grieve me and I would be ashamed of myself if I did not speak up and publicly and respectfully differ. I hope other will do the same. More to come on this later ...
one of my favorite bloggers is adam walker cleveland. he asked me to contribute to a series of postings on plurality 2.0. It just went up here. adam explains the series here ...
Plurality 2.0 Blog Series from Adam Walker Cleaveland on Vimeo.
My neighbor and friend Stephanie Beach has been traveling through Asia for several months, creating art along the way - some of her art is on display in Penang, Malaysia, which you can get a taste of here ...
My former colleague and friend Bob Jackson continues to produce amazing work just around the globe from Malaysia (in Delaware), which you can see here.
When I was in the Dominican Republic recently, I was given a beautiful original painting by Pedro Pablo Mendez Garcia, whose work you can see here.
Sometime I'll have to video my walls and share some of the art and memorabilia that surround me when I'm at home in my office.
I'll be spending the day in DC today ... several meetings with interesting people.
I've been doing little breakfast meetings here in Maryland every couple months, but I won't be able to schedule one until the fall. Stay tuned ...
I've had the privilege of being at my home church the last two weeks - a real treat after a spring of almost constant travel. Being there inspired this simple little country song.
Elizabeth's got it right over at sojo.net, reminding us of the under-recognized danger of consensus. There are important theological implications of her economic/political point, don't you think?
And Soong-Chan has it right as well ... As his important new book makes clear ... just as the culture-war generation of white Evangelicalism has been largely discredited (supporting an elective war, failing to oppose torture, not to mention a better-late-than-never lukewarm response to the environmental crisis, etc.), a next generation of Evangelicalism is arising - no longer mono-cultural, no longer docile in relation to the right wing. Thank God, the conventional Evangelical consensus is being challenged and diverse voices are being heard. Good reading on the Memorial Day weekend.
I had the opportunity of working with Troy Bronsink recently, which elicited this question:
Brian did an amazing job at the Festival of Homiletics today. He had a guy named Troy with him. I was wondering if there is a place where I can download some of the music that Troy used!
Thanks for your work – it is so important and you share the message in such a challenging and encouraging way. This is the 3rd time I have heard Brian and he just gets better and better.
You can learn more about Troy here ... You can get Troy's music and learn about his work as consultant and teacher there as well. I wrote some of the songs we did at that event ... you can buy a CD or download songs here. You can also check out some of my songs on my youtube channel here ...
More after the jump ...
Continue reading Some recent emails ... continued...
I receive a surprising number emails like this one ... from pastors and staff in Evangelical churches who are seeking to grapple more maturely with the issue of sexual orientation, either theirs or a close friend's or relative's.
Hi Brian,
I've accepted the fact that you may never get to read this email, but I thought I'd write one anyway.
Over the past three years I have experienced what you would define as 'a crises of faith'. I began and completed bible college at a large evangelical church which led to my current paid staff position. In this time I have come to terms and struggled with a homosexual orientation. I have also experienced alienation and exclusion as I've questioned Christianity, church, justice and all these things. One of the harder things to deal with was growing up and serving [in various areas of ministry], convinced of 'the call' to these things only to feel as if I was booed out of these things ministries because of my thoughts and ideas on certain issues. At times I really struggle to hold the tension of my 'evangelical mega-church job' and what i'm discovering about Christianity but i've found so much comfort reading your books and blog entries - it's great knowing that i'm not the only person thinking along these lines. So thank you for your thoughts. If you're ever in [my area] be sure to let me know ;).
More emails after the jump:
Continue reading Some recent emails ......
My friend Diana Butler Bass gives a needed analysis of recent speeches by our president and former vice president. She hits the nail smack on the head.
Diana is right: last year we weren't just choosing a president: we were choosing between "dueling visions of America." I believe there are dueling visions of Christian faith at play these days as well ... a theme which will be at the heart of my next book, "A New Kind of Christianity: Ten Questions That are Transforming the Faith." I just completed another front-to-back edit on the manuscript (slated to come out in March 2010), and I feel great - and grateful to God - about how the book has taken shape.
With Diana's "dueling visions" in mind, I keep thinking about all the Biblical passages that speak of two choices, two roads, two masters, two ways ... We are all making our individual choices day by day, and those choices compound into the direction of our congregations, denominations, nations, civilizations, and world.
One of the most interesting, intelligent, and enjoyable people I've had the privilege to meet, know, and work with is Ron Martoia. His books deserve to be far more widely read and he is a first-class speaker and consultant. You can learn more about him here and here. I participated in one of his 3text groups, and it was a delightful experience.
His most recent book is Transformational Architecture. I know he has additional important books gestating now ...
You can see what he's up to here ...
and here ...
If you share my admiration for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi - and for the courageous Buddhist monks and nuns who have stood up to a repressive regime, risking - and often losing - their freedom and their lives, please take a minute and sign this petition from Amnesty International, available here.
The letter is copied below the jump. There's more that must be done, but this is a start.
Continue reading Take action for a Burmese peace and justice activist ......
I'm home for a couple days, catching up on a huge pile of unanswered email.
I just got this beautiful quote via Bob Carlton:
Let us remember that in the end we go to poetry for one reason, so that we might more fully inhabit our lives and the world in which we live them, and that if we more fully inhabit these things, we might be less apt to destroy both.
By Christian Wiman, Source: Poetry Magazine
Bob also sent a tremendous link on questions.
Speaking of questions, have you read the new book by David Dark, one of my favorite writers? It's called The Sacredness of Questioning Everything.
Obviously, considering the subtitle of my upcoming book (to be released in March), I'm interested in questions and questioning these days. (A New Kind of Christianity: Ten Questions that are Transforming the Faith)
Also - I just discovered that some videos I did are available on beliefnet.com here.
Alan Bean keeps many of us informed and on alert about the many injustices of our prison system. This recent piece was especially disturbing and enlightening. (You've noticed how those two words often go together.)
A while back, I posted a short piece on the need for an ECRA ... that garnered quite a bit of attention in the blogosphere. I suggested (clearly tongue in cheek, or maybe not) that just as Evangelicals needed to create an "Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability" to counter questionable accounting and fundraising practicies, it might be good to create some standards of rhetorical accountability. I proposed seven such standards.
A few weeks ago, I had the chance to speak with a class of high school students who had been assigned my book Everything Must Change by one of their teachers. One student in particular took umbrage to anyplace in the book where I confronted in a rhetorical muscular way what I saw as injustice. My sense was that this student didn't disagree with me on the issues themselves, but was even more sensitive that I am to rhetoric that pollutes the atmosphere and makes continuing conversation more difficult. I left the encounter even more committed to following the wisdom of Proverbs - seeking "a soft answer" to turn away wrath, and avoiding "grievous words" that "stir up anger."
The President's recent speech at Notre Dame was an example of the kind of respectful discourse we need when grappling with issues over which we disagree. (I've included a transcript below the jump.) I was especially interested by his story about fishermen - not only because I wet a line quite often myself, but also because I think there is something quite wise and profound in the point of the story: we can find, in our common humanity, common ground from which we can join to seek the common good.
I have always been intrigued with the powerful (and textually disputed) story of Jesus and the woman caught in adultery, found in John 8. I frequently ponder the image - saturated in significance - of Jesus stooping to write in the dust. Stooping, getting down-to-earth, returning close to the soil (humus) in humility, moving from a high position of dominance to a low position of service and vulnerability ... Jesus joins the woman in solidarity, and he simultaneously refuses to get into a dominance contest with the men. Touching soil, he reminds both would-be-executioners and about-to-be-executed that they are made of the same earth.
Evoking - and perhaps turning - the ancient story of God writing the ten commandments in tablets of stone, he writes in dust unknown words that can be blown away by the next breeze, perhaps commenting on the value of their sophistry and polemics. When he appeals not to their intellect but to their conscience - "whoever is without sin, go ahead and heave your stone" - he brings them down to earth as well. As their stones thud to the ground, not in condemnation of the woman, but in confession of their own imperfection, Jesus' rhetorical wisdom shines through. As I think about the kind of unhelpful discourse that repulses me - and that I too often descend into myself - I find myself confessing, "Lord, I have a lot to learn and a long way to go."
Continue reading All Fishermen...
Last weekend we celebrated my younger daughter's graduation. May 14 is my older daughter Rachel's birthday. Here's 7/8ths of our clan (Rachel's husband, Jesse, couldn't be with us). Rachel's the one my arm is around.
We've had a tremendous week here in Korea. i've learned a lot, and hope i've been able to pass on something of value as well. I've really enjoyed Seoul, and have been very impressed with all the people I met. And what can I say about Korean barbecue ...
I was checking email this morning, and got emails from two Evangelical Christians. One went like this, as full of passion as it is of inaccuracies:
WARNING!! Brian McLaren is not a REAL Christian! He is making up lies about the Bible and is now attacking Christians for believing in Jesus and his return and denies that The state of Israel and the jewish people are God's chosen as stated in the Bible. Brian Mclaren is also Obama's new assistant on a new bill passed called the hate crime bill and stated he wants to destroy the Christian majority and its belief as Jesus will return. He is a Heretic! Brian Mclaren is a wolf in sheeps clothing
Then I got this one called A Christian's Lament ... which reflects a different heart, a different set of priorities, and a different approach to faith and life, one that I feel and share deeply. Somehow, reading this second piece was intensified by reading the first. The lament is a prayer you may want to pray along with.
It's all right here ... (thanks to Andrew Sullivan for this one)
I'm here in Seoul this week to participate in a Youth Specialties conference ... should be a great time (if I can recover from jet lag!). Had a wonderful weekend with my family gathered for our youngest daughter's graduation in Portland Oregon ... I am blessed indeed.
Just read this excellent article from Arianna Huffington. Key quote:
It's time to stop pretending that the Wall Street economy is the same as the real economy. The Wall Street economy may be showing signs of life -- thanks to the hundreds of billions we have poured into it -- but the real economy isn't."Don't tell me about the stock market," wrote Bob Herbert last week. "Don't tell me about the banks and their perpetual flimflammery. Tell me whether poor and middle-income families can find work. If they can't, the country's in trouble."
Kudos to Richard Land for having the courage to differ from many of his Southern Baptist colleagues on torture ... here.
Diana Butler Bass explores a possible reason why so many white Evangelicals tolerate and support torture by the US government here.
An encouraging story about Rich Cizik, who has shown the courage to differ from many of his Evangelical colleagues on the environment and other issues ... here.
Michael Gerson summarizes some important research analysis that reflects on all of the above ... here.
my youngest daughter, jodi, graduates from university this weekend. i'm really proud of her ... and count myself lucky/blessed/fortunate/well-off just to be related to her. Here's a video of her doing a solo with her acapella group ...
My friend Michael Harden puts together what is to me one of the truly important - and different - annual gatherings in the US. Here's the info - coming up in a few weeks:
Book of Peace, Book of Power: Rediscovering the Authority of the Bible
June 3-4, 2009 Eastern University, Philadelphia
Featuring: Tony Campolo & Walter Wink
Can Christianity afford to make the same mistakes it always has, or is the time here for us to reconsider how to read and interpret scripture the way Jesus did?
Jesus came as the Prince of Peace. Does it bother you that for almost two millennia Christians have interpreted the Bible as justification and warrant for war, pogroms, inquisitions and all manner of personal and corporate violence?
Can’t we do better than this? We believe we can! Join us as we begin forming an overarching hermeneutic for the 21st Century. A way of interpreting scripture that takes seriously the intellect of modern persons and our commitment to follow in the faith and footsteps of our Risen Lord Jesus.
Additional INFO at our site: http://www.preachingpeace.org/peacepower.htm
More after the jump:
Continue reading a worthwhile event coming up soon in Philadelphia ......
This from Jesse Lava on the Pew Survey regarding church dropouts ...
A lot of somewhat wild and crazy misinformation has been circulating about the Hate Crimes legislation. If people send you dire warnings about the loss of religious freedom, you might want to send them to this fact sheet from Third Way, prepared by people I trust.
My friend Sam Lee shares from his heart on poverty during a recent trip to Philippines ...
Joe Phelps passed on this link ... tremendous article on faith, atheism, religion, meaning, theology, etc.
A few years ago I prepared a series of 20 minute podcasts that give an overview of the whole bible. Emergent Village will be re-releasing the podcasts - for listening online or downloading as mp3's. A lot of people have told me this series has been helpful to them - you can get the first two episodes here.
Speaking of the biblical story - I had a tremendous time over the weekend in Portland, Maine with the good people of Immanuel Baptist Church and several other area churches. Sunday, I preached on Luke 4:1-21 ... 4:1-13 address our inner life, confronting our inner demons, seeking the purifying work of the Spirit in our lives. Then beginning in 4:14, we see Jesus begin his public ministry, proclaiming the Spirit's anointing for addressing poverty, oppression, blindness, debt, and so on. I think we were all struck that this passage brings together two things that never should have been "put asunder" - the inner life of devotion, formation, and character development and the outer life of mission, action, and social change. Both are Spirit-guided activities. Both are essential to the spiritual life ... we need to be (to borrow from Richard Rohr) centered in action and contemplation.
in emergent village.
Here's one account from Kelly Bean.
And here's the part that's worth several thousand words ...
You might want to help bring attention and support to the movie that's been made of his book Blue Like Jazz. Info here. What a gifted writer Don is, and what a splendid person .... should be a tremendous movie!
Last night I shared some bad news about Evangelicals supporting torture ... but here's some better news:
From Gabriel Salguero here ...
Torture is morally reprehensible. Christians, who serve a Christ who was tortured and murdered by a brutal Empire should know this to be true. Torture is not just an affront to the human dignity of the person being tortured but also on the one's who are dong the torturing. Any society that sanctions torture has lost its moral compass and threatens the ethical integrity of all its people.
From Robert King
Politically, militarily it seems that people can find ways to justify torture. But for the life of me I can't see why churchgoing folk should support it. And indeed, there is a campaign against torture being lead by religious groups.But it seems to me that a group of people who elevates Jesus as its model, teacher and prophet has gone off the rails when it is ready to attach the electrodes to the private parts of the battlefield enemies of its country.
Too many stand for torture, according to a recent Pew Forum study reported by CNN.com.
White evangelical Protestants were the religious group most likely to say torture is often or sometimes justified -- more than six in 10 supported it. People unaffiliated with any religious organization were least likely to back it. Only four in 10 of them did.
These are disturbing statistics, and I hope they engender some dialogue among White Evangelicals. These figures reminded me of something I wrote last year for Christian Century:
Consider this question: Is it ever justifiable to intentionally target innocent civilians in order to achieve other political or military ends? 86, 81, and 80% of American, Canadian, and British citizens say never. But only 46% of Iranians say never. A striking 24% say attacks on civilians are often or sometimes justified, and 6% say such attacks are completely justified.
The previous sentences are lies, dangerous lies. The fact that these lies nestle so easily into our presumed knowledge suggests why we need to rethink what many of us think we know about Islam – and ourselves. An important new book, Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think (John L. Esposito and Dalia Mogahed, Gallup Press, 2007) would be a great place to begin such a rethinking.
The truth is that the scary figures attributed above to Iranians actually apply to Americans, and the more civilized figures attributed to Americans, Canadians, and British citizens apply to the people of Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Iran (Who Speaks? p. 95). In contrast to the 6% of Americans who say civilian attacks are completely justified, only 2% of Iranians or Lebanese would agree, and only 4% of Saudis.
What do these statistics say about Americans in general and white American Evangelicals in particular? Why would White Evangelicals be most likely to support torture? Could some conventional theological assumptions of Evangelicals have anything to do with it?
In A New Kind of Christianity (from which I'm taking a five-minute break), I'm addressing ten questions that I think are especially catalytic at this time. One of them has to do with eschatology. My hunch is that most of our popular eschatologies do to Jesus exactly what Weird Al Yankovitch does to Gandhi in UHF, in my opinion, one of the great comedic masterpieces since the Big Bang. The so-called "second coming" perfectly invalidates and overturns the first, converting Jesus into a more proper and respectable Caesar-like ruler after all. Enjoy, and then reflect ...
I'm deep into revisions for A New Kind of Christianity, due out next March, and I'm feeling "in the zone." The first draft is done, but I revise first drafts like Chuck Norris unleashes roundhouse kicks, so the really intense work is underway.
Speaking of writing ... Samir Selmanovic has an amazing book coming out this fall with Jossey-Bass. I just finished reading the manuscript. I laughed out loud near the beginning and shed some tears at the end. (When you read the story of his parents coming to church, you'll know why, but it won't be for the reasons you're now guessing it will.) It's a powerful, needed, and brilliantly-written book.
I spent Monday through Wednesday at the Sojourners mobilization in DC. What a great group of people came together there! Jim Wallis never ceases to amaze me with his ability to articulate the biblical call to social justice, and to discern the times. I think you'll appreciate this brief video interview here. There were tremendous lectures and workshops - Rich Stearns of World Vision and Bishop Mark Hanson of the ELCA were sparkling, and of course Rev. Freddy Haynes takes the term "preachin'" to a whole new level.
This weekend I'll be in Portland, Maine, then next week in Dominican Republic, then in Portland, Oregon for my youngest daughter's college graduation. I can't wait to see her and celebrate with her. Then I go to Korea with Youth Specialties and then to Atlanta later in May. But you can bet that every spare minute I'll be writing. If you think of it, say a prayer for me ... to be well-guided, appropriately bold, and appropriately understated.
A quick note from Little Rock, Arkansas, where I've received a warm welcome and gracious southern hospitality ...
Nicholas Kristof gives an important update on dialogue within Islam about the Koran that corresponds to important dialogue happening in the Christian community about the Bible ...
Muslim fundamentalists damage Islam far more than any number of Danish cartoonists ever could, for it’s inevitably the extremists who capture the world’s attention. But there is the beginning of an intellectual reform movement in the Islamic world...
If you haven't heard about the Texas-sized island of trash floating in the Pacific, check this out ...
Cathleen Falsani talks about one of my favorite musicians, Bruce Cockburn, at the Sojo blog ...
Speaking of favorite musicians, Dave Wilcox and Nance Petit joined us in North Carolina last week at the sacred activism conference and Kanuga ... Dave was kind enough to play a song from Open Hand, his new CD.
Also at Kanuga was David Korten, brilliant economist/thinker/activist whom I quoted prodigiously in Everything Must Change. I'm reading his new book on the economic crisis ... really worth reading. I hope to post more on it in the weeks ahead.
The phrase (or idea) "crisis of faith" came up in some emails I received this week. Here are a few of them (edited for privacy) - after the jump.
Continue reading a couple more emails ... crises of faith...
One of my favorite organizations is Floresta, or Plant With Purpose. They make the essential connection between three things ... 1. care for the poor, 2. care for the land, and 3. love for God who created all people and the land in which they live.
Here's a 3:30 video that will do your soul good on Earth Day 2009, and teach you some important things about poverty and the land:
OK, now how about doing what I just did:
Go here, and then press donate and then support Plant with Purpose with $50 as a way of planting some trees, caring for the earth, loving your poor neighbors ... and joining in solidarity with the Creator who loves both.
In our final deepshift newsletter (you can read it in full after the jump), you'll find information about my upcoming publishing projects. An excerpt:
"... September 1 of this year, The Justice Project will be released by Baker. I am joined by co-editors Ashley Bunting Seeber and Elisa Padilla to present a book with chapters by Christians engaged with justice issues from around the world. If I could bring together about thirty of my favorite people and give each of them the chance to share with you their insights and experience working for justice, and then condense their stories and messages into a book ... it would be The Justice Project.
"Then, around March 1 of 2010, my next major book will be released by my new publisher, HarperOne. The tentative title is A New Kind of Christianity: Ten Questions that are Transforming the Faith. In all my books to date, I feel that I've been excavating, scraping away layers of debris, trying to get to the core issues that need to be courageously addressed in our lifetimes. This is the book where I feel I've gotten down to ten bedrock issues - which, as the subtitle suggests, I've articulated as ten transformative questions: What is the shape of the biblical narrative? What is the Bible and what is it for? Why does God seem so genocidal in some biblical passages? What does it mean to say Jesus is the way? What is the gospel? What future does the church have? Why are Christians so preoccupied with sexuality? How should we relate to people of other religions? How should we view the future? Where do we go from here?"
Continue reading Big publishing news ......
On Faith posted my response to President Obama's statement about the US not being "a Christian nation" here. A quote:
I agree wholeheartedly with historian Richard Hughes, author of "Myths America Lives By" and of the upcoming "Christian America and the Kingdom of God." When we in the US flatter ourselves with a mythologized national identity -- seeing ourselves as the Chosen Nation, as Nature's Nation, as a Christian Nation, as a Millennial Nation, and as an Innocent Nation -- we make it more likely not only that we will behave unjustly, but that we will be ignorant and un-self-aware as we do so. So I was glad when President Obama simply told the truth.When people tell me that we are or have been a Christian nation, I want to ask, "When?" Was it in the colonial era or during westward expansion, when we began stealing the lands of the Native Americans, making and breaking treaties, killing wantonly, and justifying our actions by the Bible? Was it in the era of slavery or segregation, when again, we used the Bible to justify the unjustifiable? Was it in more recent history, when we dropped the first nuclear bomb and killed hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians, when we overthrew democratically elected governments in the Cold War era, when we plundered the environment without concern for the birds of the air or flowers of the field, or when we sanctioned or turned a blind eye to torture earlier this decade? Was it earlier this week, when I turned on the TV or radio and heard people scapegoating immigrants and gay people and Muslims?
Jonathan Merritt may be the most courageous Southern Baptist in America this week for his USA today editorial on how Evangelicals need to love gay people. Even if we might take a stand that differs from his in some ways. those of us who know the world Jonathan comes from know he is showing remarkable courage to say what he's saying and should be applauded and appreciated. He reports:
According to Public Religion Research, 37% of evangelicals ages 18-34 have a close friend or relative who is gay. Only 16% of evangelicals 35 and older can say the same.
Another hero in this regard is Andrew Marin, whose new book Love is an Orientation gently educates and thoughtfully challenges Evangelicals to rethink some of their assumptions about gay people. I wrote the foreword for Andrew's book.
And last but in no way least there is Wendy Gritter, who helped produce an extremely helpful video called Bridging the Gap. Its purpose is not to take a for-or-against position on homosexuality, but to create space for Christians, whatever their opinion on the issue, to learn to be more loving and Christ-like to their gay and lesbian friends and neighbors. (Video trailer after the jump.)
By the way, Tony Jones continues to foster good dialogue on this and other subjects at his site.
Continue reading Sex and Love...
Twice recently I posted on abolishing nuclear weapons. Right around that time, President Obama said ...
“Just as we stood for freedom in the 20th century, we must stand together for the right of people everywhere to live free from fear in the 21st. And as a nuclear power—as the only nuclear power to have used a nuclear weapon—the United States has a moral responsibility to act. We cannot succeed in this endeavor alone, but we can lead it.”(links after the jump)“So today, I state clearly and with conviction America's commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons. This goal will not be reached quickly—perhaps not in my lifetime. It will take patience and persistence. But now we, too, must ignore the voices who tell us that the world cannot change. First, the United States will take concrete steps toward a world without nuclear weapons.”
To add your voice in support of this important step forward, check in with the Two Futures Project here.
Continue reading Abolition of nuclear weapons...
Sometimes I am just overwhelmed. I can't contain the gratitude I feel for being able to meet, dialogue, and collaborate with such tremendous people. It happened again this weekend at the Sacred Activism conference in North Carolina.
In addition to an amazing gathering of conferees, I had the privilege of working with
... Fred Burnham, priest and historian of science, who organized the event ...
... Bishop Eugene Sutton, my neighbor here in Maryland, and an extraordinarily gifted preacher
... Sister Joan Chittister, someone I have admired for years, and whose presence was even more energetic and alive and brilliant than I expected
... David Korten, a brilliant economist/activist whose work was so important to my work in Everything Must Change
... Courtney Cowart, a new friend who works like a community organizer and writes and speaks like a poet
People often ask how I handle all the negative stuff that gets aimed in my general direction, and I can only say the the kindness and inspiration of the friends I meet far outweighs whatever negativity comes my way from anybody else.
This week I'll be at North Park University in Chicago for Earth Day, then in Little Rock Arkansas over the weekend ... and next week will be the poverty summit here in DC sponsored by sojo.net.
I've written a lot on Palestine and Gaza in recent years ... Not long ago I posted this song about the conflict ...
Any of us who travel (or read) know that peace in the world can't be separated from peace in Israel - peace for Jews, and peace for Muslim and Christian Palestinians. There is probably no single issue more important to helping Muslims and Christians and Jews live in peace world-wide than resolving the crisis of peace in Israel.
In the coming months, I hope that more and more of us - especially those of us from Evangelical backgrounds - will start speaking out on this subject, addressing 4 key issues with courage, passion, and persistence:
1. The equal rights of both Jewish and Palestinian people to security, equity, and prosperity, and the equal responsibilities of both groups to seek, not just good for "their own," but the common good of all.
2. The need to confront (continued after the jump)
Continue reading Three Crises of Peace ... #3...
A few times in the last week or so I've been asked which book is the best introduction to my work for a person who is not already a committed Christian. I just got this encouraging email that makes me think that Secret Message of Jesus is probably the best intro.
I just wanted to say THANK YOU. I picked up your book “The Secret Message of Jesus”. Thank you. I was baptized as Catholic – when I was 3, but I never liked the churches. Your book articulates so beautifully, clearly, honestly what I wanted to believe. I have always admired Jesus but never been a student of the bible. It’s so beautiful and definitely I want to be part of God’s team! Thank you!
And amazon.com has it on sale for $5.49!
I'm a bob d fan. This interview is ... perfect. Quotable exchange:
BF: But you've sold over a hundred million records.BD: Yeah I know. It's a mystery to me too.
This one on how Fr. John Dear spent his Holy Week ...
And this one from Peter Rollins on ways in which he denies the resurrection ... and so do we all:
At one point in the proceedings someone asked if my theoretical position led me to denying the Resurrection of Christ. This question allowed me the opportunity to communicate clearly and concisely my thoughts on the subject, which I repeat here.
Without equivocation or hesitation I fully and completely admit that I deny the resurrection of Christ. This is something that anyone who knows me could tell you, and I am not afraid to say it publicly, no matter what some people may think...
I deny the resurrection of Christ every time I do not serve at the feet of the oppressed, each day that I turn my back on the poor; I deny the resurrection of Christ when I close my ears to the cries of the downtrodden and lend my support to an unjust and corrupt system.
However there are moments when I affirm that resurrection, few and far between as they are. I affirm it when I stand up for those who are forced to live on their knees, when I speak for those who have had their tongues torn out, when I cry for those who have no more tears left to shed.
Sojo.net offers this beautiful interview and song from David Wilcox ... one of our planet's best living songwriters, and someone who (as a friend of mine says) "speaks of faith in a way that doesn't make me want to throw up." The song is "Beyond Belief" - available on his new CD Open Hand.
Also at sojo.net, Randy Woodley offers an important perspective on Afghanistan. I am with Randy, hoping and praying that President Obama won't try to use a military solution to a problem that is not simply military.
One more from Sojourners - Jim Wallis offers important guidance for the Obama administration in dealing with the crisis in Darfur. See my related post from last week here.
Michael Gerson reviews an important book by Newburg and Waldman on the brain's role in faith, including this especially salient quote:
But Newberg's research offers warnings for the religious as well. Contemplating a loving God strengthens portions of our brain -- particularly the frontal lobes and the anterior cingulate -- where empathy and reason reside. Contemplating a wrathful God empowers the limbic system, which is "filled with aggression and fear." It is a sobering concept: The God we choose to love changes us into his image, whether he exists or not.For Newberg, this is not a simple critique of religious fundamentalism -- a phenomenon varied in its beliefs and motivations. It is a criticism of any institution that allies ideology or faith with anger and selfishness. "The enemy is not religion," writes Newberg, "the enemy is anger, hostility, intolerance, separatism, extreme idealism, and prejudicial fear -- be it secular, religious, or political."
One of my favorite storytellers, Bart Campolo, tells a great one here.
The terms Calvinist and Reformed can have wildly different meanings, depending on who uses them. For example, some of the most misogynist and some of the most feminist folks I know would see their views as being inherently Reformed. The same could be said regarding general open-mindedness, openness to science, commitment to learning, commitment to being fair to opponents, political left-right orientation, and so on.
So, when people tell me they're Calvinist or Reformed, I generally ask them what they mean. One line of response goes to TULIP (an acronym for five points of a type of deterministic Calvinism) and the Westminster Confession and a list of things they're against. Folks in this camp seem eager to repeat and redo faithfully in the 21st century exactly what Calvin said and did in the 16th.
The other line of response refers to the Lordship of Christ over all of life, the priesthood of all believers, the absolute importance of God's grace, and the integration of faith with every dimension of human enterprise ... seeming more eager to imitate Calvin's general example, seeking to translate into our times what Calvin generally sought to do in his times, even when that means disagreeing with specific things Calvin - and many Calvinists - have said and done.
The TULIP/WC group tends to include my most passionate, persistent, and grandiloquent critics. I, of course, am not alone in finding myself in the polemical cross-hairs of these energetic folks who have rightly earned the nick-name "Machen's warrior children."
The other kind of Reformed Christians are much more irenic and include many of the wisest and most thoughtful Christians I've ever met. A great example of this tribe's Reformed thinking can be found here. I hope and pray many in the former camp will migrate to the latter camp in the years ahead.
This brief slide show of works by Camilo Jose Vergara can serve as a kind of "stations of the cross" ... I recommend you listen to the narration by the photographer the first time, and then observe the slides in silence the second time ...
I meet a lot of people - including a lot of pastors - who need a safe person to talk to about ... about themselves, their soul, their relationship with God, their doubts, their dreams. Here's a good link for finding a safe person ...
I suscribe to Richard Rohr's daily meditations ... here's one very appropriate for this week:
Question of the day:
How do I stand against hate without becoming hate myself?
We would all agree that evil is to be rejected and overcome; the only question is, how? How can we stand against evil without becoming a mirror—but denied—image of the same? That is often the heart of the matter, and in my experience is resolved successfully by a very small portion of people, even though it is quite clearly resolved in the life, death and teaching of Jesus.
[Jesus gives us] a totally different way of dealing with evil—absorbing it in God (which is the real meaning of the suffering body of Jesus) instead of attacking it outside. It is undoubtedly the most counterintuitive theme of the entire Bible.
from Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality, p. 143-145
I'll include another beautiful Holy Week meditation after the jump ...
Continue reading Thoughts on Holy Week from Fr. Richard Rohr...
For years, many of us have been concerned about and involved with the crisis in Darfur. Many of us came together a few years ago for public demonstrations in Washington DC, in an event we called Worship in the Spirit of Justice.
Since then, we've seen progress made and then lost again and again. The racial, political and military crises have created a terrible humanitarian crisis as well. The Save Darfur Coalition leads the way in helping us never to forget ... an especially important reminder during genocide awareness month (this month). I check their website often to stay up to date on what's happening in and for Darfur.
If you're interested in learning more about reconciliation in general, let me recommend the Summer Reconciliation Institute at Duke, May 31 - June 5. I hear there are still several space available ... and I understand there are scholarships available for people who care about reconciliation but are short on funds. The early tuition discount and application deadline has been extended to May 1.
Registrants include senior leaders from InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and other national ministries … pastors from many denominations … leaders from the Fellowship of Reconciliation, Sojourners, L’Arche, Church of the Savior, CCDA, and urban and community development ministries … a Seattle cohort including folks from Seattle Pacific University … and several grassroots African leaders from Kenya, Uganda, and Burundi
To learn more or to register ... check out http://www.divinity.duke.edu/reconciliation/
If I could mobilize people around the world to care about three crises of peace today, I would prioritize these three:
1. Congo
2. Darfur, Sudan
3. Palestine
Here's a great 3-minute introduction to the crisis in Congo ... and a beautiful first step to get involved making a difference.
For more information, check out discoverthejourney.org
My friend Linnea Nilsen Capshaw had a letter to the editor on Haiti published in the Washington Post recently ... She notes that "U.S. taxpayers have given $180 billion to bail out American International Group (AIG), but AIG will give $1.2 billion in bonuses company-wide this year. The money spent by AIG to pay bonuses would nearly wipe out Haiti's debt." (Haiti's debt is about 1.5 billion). Staggering, isn't it?
I was so looking forward to being in England at Spring Harvest this week, but I wasn't able to get my visa to enter the UK in time. (The UK has really tightened up on people coming in to do any kind of work - religious, business, whatever.) I was especially eager to engage with the theme of the conference, related to Steve Chalke's newest book - The Apprentice. The book is tremendous, and I know everyone at Spring Harvest will have a tremendous time. Wish I could have been there!
Recent weeks have been good and full. After the wonderful gathering in Albuquerque, hosted by the Center for Action and Contemplation, I was treated to warm hospitality at Malone College in Ohio and then Eastern Mennonite University and Seminary in Virginia. Each group facilitated good dialogue and brought together tremendous people. I'll be in North Carolina April 17-19, then Chicago April 22, then Arkansas April 24 ... and then at Sojourners' Mobilization on Poverty April 27-29. Check my calendar (here on the site) for details if you'd like to come to any of these events.
Kathleen Parker assesses the crack-up of the Religious Right here. She seems to present two alternatives - the Religious Right's failed and counterproductive strategies and "shrill and nagging" tone (as someone in the article put it) on the one hand - and a kind of personal-pietist withdrawal on the other, where faith is expressed in the home, not in public. Many of us think there's a better third alternative.
John Meachum seems to make a similar assessment in response to the most recent American Religious Identification Survey. The Survey reports a ten-point drop since 1990 (from 86 to 76%) in people identifying as Christians, and a simultaneous doubling (from 8 to 15%) in "the number of Americans who claim no religious affiliation." Like Parker, Meachum sees more Evangelicals retreating from politics in light of the dismal results of the Bush years ...
Meachum and Parker may be right in their assessment (although again, I think there are better alternatives than bad public engagement and no public engagement), but I am concerned that some conservative Evangelicals and fundamentalists (the two are hard to separate at times) are going to go in another direction in the coming years. Some of us remember that groups of so-called Theonomists back in the 70's and early 80's were training people to use weapons in preparation for an armed revolution (using, of all things, Oliver Cromwell's revolution as their model). Tutored and motivated by secular preachers like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Glenn Beck and their many religious counterparts, some conservative Evangelicals and fundamentalists, I fear, could be too easily whipped into a political frenzy leading to actual violence. A pastor I know recently heard a neighbor of his express the need for armed vigilante resistance to a nation that is going "socialist," obviously echoing certain radio and TV talk show hosts. Other friends have told me of an increase in racist remarks among conservative friends. I hope that leaders among conservative Evangelicals will realize that they have a choice to make among three options - to fuel these extremist sparks into flame, to tacitly approve of them through silence, or to attempt to douse them fast.
On a more positive note, Becky Garrison interviews David Ramos, a leader in the Latino Leadership Circle, here and here. In my opinion, the LLC models the kind of integral mission that we need - not withdrawing into a privatized faith, and not playing political games using the debased tactics of politics either, but instead, bringing Jesus' gospel of the reigning of God to bear on all levels of society.
Read the whole story of his amazing conversion here.
Remember this historic date!
I just returned from two good days at Malone University in Canton, Ohio. I leave early tomorrow for two days at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. So I probably won't do much blogging this week ... but I'm eager to fill everyone in on the tentative title for my next book and my new publisher. Stay tuned. In the meantime, you might want to look through the blog archives here ...
I just left a wonderful small gathering of entrepreneurs, inventors, and engineers who came together through our EMC tour last year ... We've been dreaming about ways to help the world's poorest urban and rural people through a) toilet technology and b) micro-grid solar and wind energy.
I came across these two NYT op-eds ...
This one from Thomas Friedman ... about the environmental bailout
This one from Nicolas Kristoff ... about (among other things) composting toilets in Haiti.
I'm reminded of one of my favorite Bruce Cockburn lines:
like some kind of never-ending easter passion
from every agony a hero's fashioned
around every evil there gathers love
bombs aren't the only things that fall from above
There are some beautiful reflections on last week's gathering in New Mexico at the Emergent Village site here. The lingering impact of the event feels hard to put into words!
This weekend, I'll be at a gathering of entrepreneurs in Ohio, folks looking for ways to leverage their business/inventive skills to live out the kinds of things I talked about in EMC. Then Sunday and Monday I'll be at Mallone College in Canton, OH.
I probably won't be posting until Tuesday or Wednesday. Have a great weekend - enjoy every sign of spring!
Sojourners included on their blog today this short piece of mine on the upcoming mobilization to end poverty ...
This morning I tuned in a cable news show (I use the word "news" very loosely) and felt disgusted. Then I went online and read this piece by one of our best journalists, Nicholas Kristof, and I received an intelligent diagnosis for my disgust.
Kristof talks about the corps of men and women who become famous as "experts" and "pundits" in the media today - and picks up an important distinction Philip Tetlock made about them. Some people, Tetlock said, are foxes: they are thoughtful, cautious about making overstatements, nuanced, pragmatic, centrist, and capable of self-doubt and admitting they have been wrong - characteristics that make them terrible at giving sound bites and limit their fame.
Hedgehogs by contrast see the world in easy us/them and black/white dualisms, work from an unquestioned ideology, love to shout and make bold and even outrageous statements, and as such become "perfect" guests on radio and TV, full of drama and fury, driven by their volume and self-confidence to fame as "experts" and "pundits" and "go-to people."
But, it turns out, the hedgehogs are like the Wizard of Oz behind the curtain. Their bold, confident predictions and assertions are smoke and reverb. Of course, one can immediately see Tetlock's categories at work in the news media. But I can't help but think how they are also at work in the religious media.
Kristof concludes ...
The marketplace of ideas for now doesn’t clear out bad pundits and bad ideas partly because there’s no accountability.... So what about a system to evaluate us prognosticators? Professor Tetlock suggests that various foundations might try to create a “trans-ideological Consumer Reports for punditry,” monitoring and evaluating the records of various experts and pundits as a public service. I agree: Hold us accountable!
This reminds me of a post I wrote a while back, available here ... I think of how much financial wealth has been lost by pundits and experts who missed what was really happening in our economy in recent years: an army of pundits and experts focused on outside dangers to "homeland security" while we were being plundered by greedy insiders ... and almost nobody noticed until the bubble burst. And then I think of other kinds of value that have been similarly squandered in our religious communities - as we have engaged in various adventures in missing the point. "Take heed how you hear," Jesus said (Luke 8:18). He knew what he was talking about!
My friend Jimi Calhoun has told his beautiful (and sometimes painful) story of race and grace and rhythm in a new book here. Jimi was a rock-and-roller back in the 60's and 70's - played with Hendrix, Dr. John, Leon Patillo, and lots of other icons of the era. He compares and mostly contrasts how racial matters worked out in the rock and roll world and in the church world. There's much to learn from this man and this book.
Kevin Roose's amazing and well-written tale of a year at Liberty University goes on sale tomorrow - The Unlikely Disciple. Read about it here.
If you haven't picked up Diana Butler Bass's A People's History of Christianity, do so soon. It's delightful and needed.
Here's the musical response to Everything Must Change performed at Highland Baptist in Louisville a few weeks back ...
JoPa Productions has two amazing events coming up in September - one with Jurgen Moltmann and one with 21 leaders speaking for 21 minutes on faith in the 21st century. Check it out here.
My friend Karen Sloan is helping form Formation House - a community for people interested in exploring intentional Christian community. This looks like a promising and beautiful venture. More info here. If you're possibly interested in joining them for a year of "life together," now is the time to apply.
Jonathan Brink and others have been doing a great job blogging (and tweeting) about the excellent weekend we just shared in Albuquerque - over 900 Catholics, Protestants, Anglicans, Orthodox and "none of the above" gathered to consider what it means to be followers of Jesus in these times. It was a tremendous joy to work with Fr. Richard Rohr, Alexie Torres-Fleming, Shane Claiborne, Phyllis Tickle, Bryan Froehle, and Karen Sloan. And everyone agreed - nobody could have been better hosts than the amazing people at Center for Action and Contemplation, led by Brian Picha and CeCe Shantzek.
I felt especially grateful for the way that the event communicated the emerging priorities of the emergent conversation ...
1. A fresh vision of Jesus, rooted in the canonical gospels rather than in later theological debates. This fresh vision of Jesus and the kingdom of God brings a new perspective on Paul and the whole Bible as well.
2. A profound commitment to spirituality - including what Richard calls "the contemplative way," and what Phyllis celebrates in the "ancient practices."
3. A priority for holistic mission, especially committed to justice and peace-making, and especially concerned for the poor and marginalized, as Alexie so beautifully shared.
4. A celebration of community, as Shane shared, that emphasizes the empowerment of all the people of God - which our closing eucharist conveyed beyond words.
5. A relational partnership among Roman Catholics, Mainline Protestants, Charismatics and Pentecostals, Evangelicals, Orthodox, and all who wish to follow God in the way of Jesus. What hierarchs and institutions have valiantly struggled to do for decades, "common Christians" also did around the tables in Albuquerque: engage in mutual listening, sharing, honoring, and appreciating ... in the Holy Spirit. It was a beautiful thing to experience.
I returned to my home airport late Sunday night to find my car window smashed from a break-in - but I felt so full and energized by the weekend that I found myself consoling the parking garage attendant who came to help me contact the police. "Most people are totally freaked out when this happens," he said. "Thanks for being so calm and considerate."
The slides from my Friday talk are already available here on the site (drawn from EMC sessions 2 and 5), and we'll put the slides I shared on Sunday up ASAP. For those who missed the gathering, CAC will make CD's and DVD's available. We're tentatively hoping to re-convene again next year - April 9-11. Stay tuned ...
A group of us in the Baltimore-Washington area meets every month or so for breakfast - and we were planning to meet tomorrow, but I need to reschedule. (In part because our meeting place went out of business!) I'll announce another date soon.
I leave in a few hours for a gathering in New Mexico ... but before I go ...
Alan Bean just let me know that I showed up in unlikely company here ...
My friend Todd Hunter has finally written the book many of us have been hoping for him to write for years (Christianity Beyond Belief: Following Jesus for the Sake of Others) ... available here.
Troy Jackson offers a hopeful but realistic assessment of Evangelicalism here.
Zach Exley offers some insightful reflections on capitalism and the economic crisis here.
Got this encouraging note from the daughter of a Southern Baptist preacher (More below the jump ...)
Below the jump I've included the "deepshift" newsletter we recently sent out. (You can subscribe here.) There's also a plug for some upcoming Dialogue Forums being put together by my wonderful friends and colleagues Linnea Nilsen Capshaw and Denise Van Eck - worth checking out for folks who have read Everything Must Change and want help in putting it into practice.
The newsletter talks about the abolition of nuclear weapons, but my friend Tom Austin reminds me that small arms cause 90% of civilian casualties ... and merchants of death like Victor Bout grow wealthy through the small arms trade.
Speaking of small arms trade, Russell sent this link reporting that the US was the only nation to oppose a recent Arms Trade Treaty. Depressing. Hopefully this too will change.
Continue reading A new abolition movement?...
Certain communities of Christians like to lob the "A" word (apostasy, not adultery) and the "H" bomb (heresy) quite a bit. (Their unspoken and unquestioned assumption, of course, is that they are themselves beacons and defenders of the "O" word[orthodoxy], which is a tough job for an elite few, but somebody's got to do it. But that's another story.) There's been a fascinating employment of the "h-bomb" going on over at Associated Baptist Press. In fact, some good PhD's could be earned studying the rhetoric of inquisition in contemporary Evangelical debate in the blogosphere. Miguel de la Torre's response here is insightful and well worth reading.
Speaking of worth reading ... Diana Butler Bass's A People's History of Christianity: The Other Side of the Story is now available. What a tremendous book. Don't miss it.
Yesterday I was warmly hosted by Highland Baptist Church ... morning services and then an overflow crowd for an evening forum on Everything Must Change. Among special surprises of the day ...
- At the evening EMC forum, the band and choir performed a beautiful original song inspired by Everything Must Change. I'm hoping I'll get an mp3 or video to post soon. For me, as you can imagine, it was a "chill up your spine" moment.
- Being just down the street from a leading conservative Southern Baptist seminary, we weren't surprised that a number of students came who were enthusiastic about countering my message with their own during the Q & A session. They did a good job of letting their opinions be known, and proved themselves loyal advocates of their tradition. God bless them. The conversation challenged everyone present to think more deeply about God's love for our world, and our role in God's work.
- After morning services, new friends Joe and Terri Phelps brought me out to Port Royal, where we spent a delightful afternoon with Wendell and Tanya Berry. The ewes were lambing, the birds were feasting at the bird feeder, the Kentucky River was rolling by, the cornbread was delicious (made from locally-grown ingredients and supplied by fellow-guests Eric and Brooke), and the Berry's couldn't have been more hospitable and charming ... It was an unexpected treat and a long-time dream come true for me to meet one of my favorite authors. If you've never read a Wendell Berry book - I recommend you start with his poetry (like The Timbered Choir), his essays (like Sex, Economy, Freedom, and Community) or best - one of his novels (maybe Jayber Crow or The Memory of Old Jack).
Speaking of Everything Must Change,Bob Carlton alerted me to two links that sound like they're taken from the EMC script ...
This one by Thomas Friedman ...
This one by Paul Gilding ...
Today we begin the "New Ways of Being Church" conference at Louisville (Presbyterian) Seminary. Like the Albuquerque gathering later this week, this event is sold out.
Many of my readers aren't aware that I write music as well as prose ... I had the chance a while back to put together a collection of original songs with a number of friends, led by singer-songwriter Tracy Howe. The songs are a kind of musical accompaniment to my books The Secret Message of Jesus and Everything Must Change. Tracy recently re-did the webpage, where you can buy the CD ($14.97) or download it ($8.97).
There's another video after the jump ...
Continue reading Songs for a Revolution of Hope ......
In contrast to Mark Galli's generousview of Evangelicalism ... there are quite a few folks who continually try to constrict the boundaries ... first by attacking those with whom they disagree, and then by critiquing anyone who associates with those with whom they disagree. For example, someone recently went after author Frank Viola simply for calling me a friend ...
"It’s amazing that Frank Viola would write Pagan Christianity and then assert that men like Brian McLaren are his friends. McLaren promotes more pagan practice and doctrine then [sic] the whole of the Church has since Constantine."
Quite a claim! I've never asked Frank how much or little he agrees with me, nor has he asked me how much I agree with him. Instead, we have developed a mutually respectful friendship based on our common humanity within God's beautiful creation, and based on our common desire to love God and neighbor in the way of Jesus Christ. One can imagine a similar blog-comment back in Jesus' day:
It's amazing that Jesus would speak of the kingdom of God and then assert that he is a friend of people like that Syrophonecian woman, that Samaritan woman, that Roman centurion with the sick-but-now-healed servant, that loud-mouthed scoundrel Peter, or any other of the notorious sinners with whom he has eaten meals and shared time.
So, Frank - and others who have been criticized for associating with sinners like myself -- I'm terribly sorry this happens. I hope you know you're in good company.
By the way, Frank's new book From Eternity to Here is an edifying read (and a bargain at parable.com) ... Here are two relevant quotes (after the jump):
Mark Galli offers a magnanimous reflection on the Evangelical/evangelical future here:
What I will do, to my dying day, is work with anyone who knows he was lost but now is found, whose Bible is worn because she repeatedly looks there for God to speak, who finds the Cross the most meaningful of symbols, for whom the Resurrection is not just a doctrine but a power, and who wants nothing more than to find new and creative ways to share the evangel of Jesus in word and deed. I'll work with these people no matter what scholars decide to call them.
I just got this note from Fr. Richard Rohr - about our gathering of 900 Catholic, Protestant, and Eastern Orthodox Christians in Albuquerque in a few weeks:
We are now sold out, but loads of people are begging for entry.... Maybe next year we will need to use the convention center!
Just so you know, next year (2010) we're aiming for April 9 - 11.
Good news - CAC is also offering a webcast of this year's conference for $50 registration fee: http://www.cacradicalgrace.org/conferences/emer/webcast.php.
Baptist theologian David Gushee says ... yes, we need one.
I hear similar calls from many of my friends around the world. Dr. Rene Padilla recently published this open letter to President Obama in the Journal of the Latin American Theological Fellowship. The article is reprinted with permission below the jump ...
Continue reading A truth commission in the USA?...
My Irish friend Gareth Higgins - after a sad setback this week in Northern Ireland - commented on my brief post yesterday about a truth commission here in the US.
He is involved in a group called Healing Through Remembering in Northern Ireland that could provide examples and models for the US. The group offers a number of helpful reports here.
The Center for Action and Contemplation (where I'll be with Richard Rohr, Phyllis Tickle, Shane Claiborne, Alexia Torres-Fleming, and others March 20-22) put up my recent piece on the economy here.
My sagely friend Brad Cecil just drew my attention to this article in USA Today.
More evidence that things must change one way ... or they'll change another.
My friend Dave Andrews, Aussie author and activist, will be in Brooklyn this Thursday 12 March, 7 - 10 pm, meeting with the emergent cohort and radical community folks ... and anyone who'd like to come.
Radical Living NYC (http://radicalliving.wordpress.com/about/), an intentional community in Bed-Sty Brooklyn, will host the evening and house Dave overnight in their hospitality room.
Jason Storbakken, one of the founders of Radical Living, offers these details: "The conversation with Dave will be at the Marcy House (622 Marcy Avenue, corner of Hart Street). Take the G train to Myrtle-Willoughby, cross the street and walk three blocks down Marcy Avenue. Enter through the gate and walk up the stairs. The door should be open. If not, call me at 212-444-2701. People are welcome to bring a dish/refreshments, but the main dish will be provided." For more info, check out:
http://www.facebook.com/n/?event.php&eid=55576698494&mid=1e7a99G25f12805G1b90c0aG7
Martin Wroe of Greenbelt describes Dave like this: "I like to think of Dave Andrews as a... weirdy, beardy, proverbially wise-old, kind-old, be-slippered, fire-sided, snoozy, fearless, story-telling, grand-fatherly, rugged, tribal-leader.'
Last week couldn't have been fuller and more rewarding - first a week with some wonderful pastors at the College of Preachers at the National Cathedral in DC, then the weekend with the Episcopal Diocese of Massachussetts in Boston. This week begins in Austin Texas at Seminary of the Southwest, and in the coming weeks, I'll be in Louisville, New Mexico, and Ohio. Hope to meet many of you here or there.
My friend Tony Jones (whose blog is worth checking daily) has been in a fascinating dialogue with Phillip Clayton about emergence in biology.
I've been doing some thinking and writing about this subject lately. Stay tuned.
A song by Michael Kelly Blanchard, one of our best songwriters alive ...
Often when I speak, there are people in the audience who want or need to do a little inquisition in the Q & A sessions ... I certainly appreciate respectful disagreement and dialogue, but when people feel the need to mock or drop the "H-bomb" (heretic) or create some kind of win-lose scenario, it does get draining. After a recent talk at a Christian college where a bit of this went on, I had several people come up and say, "Please don't let those comments get you down. If it hadn't been for your books, I would have left the faith..." I just received this note along similar lines ...
I was in the audience tonight ..., and just wanted to be one of the ones who sent a thank you your way for your kind, humble, yet firm responses. As faculty here ... [we] often experience isolation because we don't hold views similar to some of the more oppositional ones voiced tonight. I am very grateful your willingness to speak in love in places that aren't always receptive to your message.Being on the ground here, we hear frequently from students who feel they don't fit into the 'accepted system' and, like you said tonight, are on the way out the door. Thanks for speaking to them tonight. They hear you, and breathe sighs of relief to be introduced to your perspectives.
I was especially disappointed by some of the responses, because I was talking about ...
Continue reading Tension and encouragement ......
A few weeks ago there was a lot of talk about old Chuck D, around the time of his birthday. I thought Ken Wilson had one of the most poignant and beautiful commentaries of all ... really worth reading here. As I've said elsewhere, apologizing for the thousands of stupid and harmful things we Christians have done is an important part of apologetics. Why should anyone believe our message if we never admit when we've been ... wrong? (You'll find lots of other great stuff at Ken's site too.)
Spencer Burke and I chatted in San Diego a few weeks back about the upcoming conference in Albuquerque, March 20-22 ...
I heard today that around 600 have registered already. There's still room for some more if you'd like to join us! Information here ..
I'm happy to be back home for a couple days during an intense season of travel.
Just about everyone has probably heard the news about James Dobson here ... I am one of millions who were encouraged to be a better father and husband through Dobson's ministry (although now, looking back, there is some of his advice I sincerely wish I hadn't followed). Although I profoundly differ from him on many matters, I think he's spot on when he says:
"One of the common errors of founder-presidents is to hold to the reins of leadership too long, thereby preventing the next generation from being prepared for executive authority," Dobson said in a statement. "... Though letting go is difficult after three decades of intensive labor, it is the wise thing to do."
Regarding the economic recovery, Chris Martenson talks about the key issues in moving forward. I continue to be impressed by the resonances between his diagnoses and mine in Everything Must Change.
Paul Rauschenbusch addresses an important question for faith-based organizations here.
I'm in Florida, Michigan, and Indiana this week ... but wanted to share this thoughtful reply to my postings on economic recovery ...
Continue reading On the road this week ... thoughts on recovery ......
Sorry - I had a bad link to this earlier. Here's the kind of story that rekindles your faith in what's possible ...
Building on previous posts ...
9. The addiction to short-term gains over long-term ones, whether we're talking about the short-term gain of dollars (in the economic sector), victories (in the military sector), elections (in the government sector), or "butts in seats" (in the religious sector). When we think of how our elected leaders and business leaders were asleep at the wheel, failing to see the current crisis coming and failing to take evasive action if they did ... we know their range of foresight has been pretty small. When we think about how some religious leaders put winning the next short-term battle in their "culture war" over the long-term well-being of larger mission of the church, we see similar patterns. The issue, though, isn't simply to blame others: it's to face our own need for recovery, because we're all caught in this addiction cycle.
bob carlton offers beautiful reflections on the economic crisis here ... he captures what i've been trying to write about lately in my posts on two kinds of recovery he says ...
We are broke, something dawning through the breaks, a path forcing it way through the very cracks, new life breaking free.
I recently completed the "crash course" in economics I mentioned a few days ago. It resonated so strongly with my research for Everything Must Change ... and it also left me feeling pretty overwhelmed by the gravity of the problems we face in the "suicide machine" we've created.
Then my friend Shane Claiborne sent me this link Just under 3 minutes of brilliance and encouragement about what's possible if we avoid being ostriches (with our heads in the sand) or chicken-littles (running around in a panic). It's a contemporary example of turning swords into plowshares ... creating a farm in the inner city.
I have been in several important conversations lately with friends who agree that the time has come to plan and launch a world-wide, interfaith, abolition movement - to abolish nuclear weapons. Obviously, the moral reasons for such an abolition movement make tremendous sense, but now the political realities and economic logic are falling in line as well. Both Presidents Bush and President Clinton have been committed to reducing nuclear weapons, and abolition of nuclear weapons was a dream of Ronald Reagan as well. Henry Kissinger and George Shultz, former secretaries of state, along with William Perry, a former secretary of defense, and Sam Nunn, a former chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee have all come forward in favor of a sane plan to make nuclear weapons history.
This is something I expect to be involved with in any ways I can in the years ahead. Here are some links if you're interested ...
An article from Faith and Public Life...
Faithfulsecurity.org ... people of faith addressing this issue ...
globalzero.org ... political will being mobilized on the issue ...
Psalm 20:7 says ... "Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God. They are brought to their knees and fall, but we rise up and stand firm."
I suggested in a recent posting that whenever you hear the words "economic recovery," you should think of two meanings:
Economic Recovery 1: Getting things back to the way they were before our current economic crisis
Economic Recovery 2: Facing our addictions and seeking to be restored to sanity.
Then I mentioned six specific addictions:
1. Our addiction to fossil fuels. If you want to get a feel for what this means, spend less than 8 minutes watching this:
And then check out the two subsequent videos for more info ...
2. Our addiction to weapons. Many of the people who worry about big government don't seem to worry about "big military," but consider these words from Republican President (and General) Dwight Eisenhower:
3. Our addiction to fear. Fear raises money and votes like nothing else ...
4. Our addiction to consumption (more stuff, never enough) ... living beyond our means. More on this here.
5. Our addiction to a single bottom line. More on this here.
6. Our addiction to easy answers. It's so nice when a complex world can be addressed - without thinking - by a few simple ideological slogans. After all, thinking is hard work and sometimes leads to uncomfortable discoveries.
I'd like to mention two more addictions that have come to mind.
7. Our addiction to debt. More here ...
8. Our addiction to bigger, more, faster ... This was a key theme of my book Everything Must Change
In an upcoming post, I'd like to imagine what a recovery program might look like for some or all of these addictions ...
We had another great time at the daily grind today - we'll do it again at 8:30 a.m. on March 24. "Behold how good and how pleasant it is when Southern Baptists, Lutherans, Jewish-Episcopalians, Eastern Orthodox, and others breakfast together in unity."
If you'd like to meet for a cup of coffee at 8:30 a.m. tomorrow, Wednesday, 18 February - I'd love to connect for 90 minutes or so at the Daily Grind in Fulton.
One of the best and (as yet) most-undervalued Christian leaders in America, in my opinion, is Adam Hamilton. This piece on Gaza is a good introduction to his work, and to his excellent blog.
Also, this recent piece from CBS news tells an important part of the story too seldom heard.
My friend Jodi Mikalachki works among the Batwa people in Burundi - people for whom I have a special affection. She works at the Hope School, part of the "Christian Union for the Education and Development of the Underprivileged" in Burundi. She recently sent this beautiful story ... it has resonances (especially for people who know the politics of the region) with the Good Samaritan story.
More on the Batwa here ...
Continue reading Beautiful story from Burundi ......
This note reflects a lot of the important issues I sense are "out there" - especially relating to the need for integral or holistic understandings of the gospel, church, Christian life, spiritual formation, etc. In this way, my three recent books - Secret Message of Jesus, Everything Must Change, and Finding Our Way Again - together seek to strike an important balance. This is shared (and edited for privacy) with permission:
Brian--
Hey there... just wanted to drop you a quick note of gratitude. I finished reading your book "Finding Our Way Again" last week, and have spent this week going back through it a chapter or two a day and writing out the most provocative, inspiring, and compelling thoughts. I try to read a lot to keep learning and growing, but it has been a long time since i have met God in such a deep way through a book. But that is what has happened through this work.
Continue reading encouraging note from a church planter ......
The current Atlantic Monthly has a characteristically insightful article on Rowan Williams. Reading the article reminded me of a moment at the Lambeth Conference last July.
Archbishop Williams began speaking at the first plenary session in Canterbury (after a private bishops' retreat elsewhere) and began with an apology, something to the effect of, "You've had to listen to me a number of times already on the bishops' retreat. I promise this will be the last time." For a few seconds, there was polite applause, as if to say, "No, you've been a pleasure to listen to so far, and we're glad to listen again." But then the applause didn't stop, and grew louder, and finally became an enthusiastic and sustained standing ovation. I remember thinking, "The center is holding," a sense I heard many affirm in the coming days.
Continue reading Archbishop Rowan Williams...
I visited Floresta last week when I was in San Diego - one of my favorite non-profits. Staffer Doug Satre sent me this link on why food and farming will be key issues in the Obama years. Well-written and well worth reading.
I was just about to add a seventh addiction to the posting I wrote a few days back (Feb 9) ... this one about our addiction to debt ... Then I heard that the posting in question had elicited a response at The American Spectator.
So, I wrote a reply (below the jump) today ... and maybe I'll get to write more on debt-addiction in a few days.
Continue reading Economic Recovery ... continued...
Glad to be home in Maryland, where I saw and heard some signs of spring on my morning walk today ... and where it's been (unseasonably) warmer than (unseasonably cool) San Diego in recent days.
Rick B offers a humorous update on "other-mergents" here ...
which links to a parallel one here ...
Amy Sullivan describes disconcerting signs from the Religious Right here.
My most recent deepshift email (included below the jump) talks about the need for churches to engage with the financial crisis. Mustard Seed Associates is doing exactly this ... (Thanks, Christine!)
Also - check this out from Catalyst.
And Luke passed on this link to a crash course on the economy ... I haven't watched all of this crash course yet, but so far it looks like a worthwhile and needed resource ...
Continue reading back home ... updates...
My friend Sivin Kit offers a wise perspective on Palestine from within the context of a Muslim-majority country. Read the interview here.
I just watched President Obama's Indiana speech and town hall meeting from my hotel room in San Diego. I was watching on MSNBC, with Chris Matthews hosting and Pat Buchanan commenting. Pat (predictably) panned the speech, saying that people in Elkhart make RV's, and Obama's speech failed to explain how we'd get Americans to buy RV's again. His comment, it seems to me, perfectly epitomizes an adventure in missing the point, and perfectly articulates two kinds of economic recovery.
For many people, economic recovery means "getting back to where we were a few months or years ago." That means recovering our consumptive, greedy, unrestrained, undisciplined, irresponsible, and ecologically and socially unsustainable way of life.
I'd like to suggest another kind of recovery ... drawing from the world of addiction. When an addict gets into recovery, he doesn't want to go back and recover the "high" he had before, or even to recover the conditions he had before he began using drugs and alcohol. Instead, he wants to move forward to a new way of life - a wiser way of life that takes into account his experience of addiction. He realizes that his addiction to drugs was a symptom of other deeper issues and diseases in his life ... unresolved pain or anger, the need to anesthetize painful emotions, lack of creativity in finding ways to feel happy and alive, unaddressed relational and spiritual deficits, lack of self-awareness, and so on.
Similarly, I'd like to suggest whenever we hear the word "recovery," we as a nation see it not as a call to get back our old addictive high, but rather as a call to face our corporate and personal addictions, including the following:
1. Our addiction to carbon. Fossil fuels are an addictive substance. They give us speed ... quick energy ... serving as a kind of cultural amphetamine. Meanwhile, they toxify our environment and throw the ecosystem in which we live into dangerous imbalance.
2. Our addiction to weapons. Weapons are one of the most addictive substances possible. They give us a feeling of well-being and security, removing our feeling of fear and anxiety, much like a barbiturate. But like a drug, they make us lazy and slow - lazy and slow in the much more important work of relationship-building, justice, and peace-making, lazy in seeking the common good. And they plunge us into an addictive cycle, because if everyone in the world is getting more and more weapons, we aren't safer ... especially when increasing numbers of those weapons are nuclear, biological, and chemical.
3. Our addiction to fear. Religious leaders, media leaders, and political leaders have all discovered that you can raise quick votes, dollars, and members through the hallucinogenic stimulant of fear. By making straights afraid of gays, conservatives afraid of progressives, Christians and Jews afraid of Muslims, citizens afraid of immigrants, and vice versa, these leaders get a quick organizational high - crack for their unity and morale. But the more fear you pump into your system, the more fear you have, and pretty soon, you go from being stimulated to paranoid, seeing things that aren't there and missing things that are. And soon after that, you move from paranoia to paralysis, leaving you in greater danger than ever.
4. Our addiction to stuff. Jesus said that a person's life doesn't consist in the abundance of her possessions. An economy that measures growth by the number of durable goods (resources) extracted from the environment and turned into non-durable goods that are bought, used, and then thrown away into a landfill ... that economy "succeeds" by turning goods into trash, and calling it success. That's not success. We need to imagine moving beyond an extractive, consumptive economy to a sustainable economy, and beyond a sustainable economy to a regenerative economy. I believe that in God's world, if billions can be made destroying the planet and exploiting people addictively, trillions can be made caring for the planet wisely and caring for people justly.
5. Our addiction to a single bottom line. During the President's town hall meeting, a man from Indiana told how he started a solar-powered attic fan company, and how he chose not to ship manufacturing overseas, but instead, to provide good employment for his neighbors. That meant, he said, that he had a little less cash in his pocket ... but wouldn't you agree that being a good neighbor has a value that can't be measured in dollars? The single bottom line of financial profit is addictive, and like an addiction, it destroys families and communities. We need to rediscover a triple bottom line - financial sustainability, social sustainability, and economic sustainability. So we need a recovery of family values, and we also need a recovery of community values, and neighborly values, and ethical business values.
6. Our addiction to easy answers. "Government is the problem." "Just throw money at the problem." We can't afford our addiction to these kinds of easy ideological slogans and facile reactive fantasies in a complex, real world. Ideology is, in many ways, a drug that substitutes the quick high of unthinking reaction for the hard work of acquiring wisdom.
So ... maybe we can sabotage our addictive tendencies by letting the word "recovery" have a meaning that wakes us up rather than drugs us into the comfortable, dreamy, half-awareness in which we have lived for too long. That's my hope and prayer. (For more on this, see my book Everything Must Change.)
I'm in San Diego, where it's POURING rain and chilly ... but have had great experiences at Point Loma Nazarene University, the Capps Center in Santa Barbara, and Missiongathering. On my youtube channel, I got this note this morning that I thought was worth passing on:
Hi I was just wondering if you have bean born again? What I mean is, have you ever gotten convicted of your sins, repented forgiven and did the Lord make you a new creacher?
It struck me that this person - who has great creative spelling abilities - was kind enough to phrase his/her concern as a question rather than a damnation. A step in the right direction!
This week I had the privilege of being part of the National Prayer Breakfast in DC. In addition to many valuable conversations with new and old friends, I was so impressed with speeches given by Tony Blair and President Obama. As I listened to them, I kept thinking about that special clarity that comes after a storm. I wondered if, after the storms of "culture wars" in which religion has so often been used as a weapon, we might be able to enter a time where faith motivates us to "justice, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit," as the Apostle Paul described the kingdom of God in Romans 14.
I believe it was Tony Blair who quoted a Muslim Hadith that said, "None of you truly believes until he wishes for others what he wishes for himself." Obviously, these words resonate with Paul's, when he said that knowledge puffs up but love builds up, or John's when he spoke about our inability to love the invisible God when we don't love visible people, or James when he talked about faith without works being dead ... and most of all, with Jesus' life and teaching at every turn.
Last night I flew to San Diego, where I'll be speaking for a number of groups (see my schedule for details) including the National Pastors Conference. This is always a great gathering of people ... Maybe I'll see some of you in the next few days.
After posting on "christian hate mail" the other day, I got a lot of encouraging notes from friends. Several said they have also thought about the pain, insecurity, latent aggression, and inner turmoil that must be quietly seething in people who overflow with this kind of damnation rhetoric. Focusing on that condition of heart, these friends said, helps them feel compassion for critics instead of resentment. I agree.
I especially appreciated this note from a friend named Wayne:
Hey Brian, I hope all is well. I wanted to forward this message to you as an encouragement. It’s from an airline pilot named Roxanne. Since first reading Secret Message, I’ve turned hundreds onto it, and bought many dozens to give away, so you can trust that Roxanne’s message below is just one of many I’ve received just like it over the past few years. So keep on point Brian… and don’t forget how God is using you in exponential fashion. I’m grateful to be in that number....
This was the note he had received from Roxanne, someone with whom he had shared Secret Message of Jesus ...
...I read the Gospels, except Luke, which I haven't gotten to yet, over the last few days. I've read them so many times, studied them in bible study, heard them in church, blah, blah, blah. As I read them this time, the phrase that kept jumping out at me was "kingdom of God". What the heck does that mean? I intended to do some more research, online, you, etc. But the same as every other time I read them, I saw the same thing I had seen before and the words just didn't make sense other than some small insights that I could glean along the way. Last night I got home and "The Secret Message of Jesus" had arrived so I sat down and read it. I read until late last night and then spent the rest of the day today reading it. I have about 5 pages to go. I found myself crying thru much of it because I felt as though the lights had been turned on. FINALLY someone put the numbers on the puzzle so I could connect the dots. I have felt so much passion for God, but also felt like I had no outlet or "place" for it. I feel inspired, though I don't quite know what to do yet. I do know one thing. A few people in my life have expressed to me that the message they've heard just doesn't quite make sense, that the message they're hearing in church somehow doesn't ring true. I have a list of about 25 people so far that I want to read the book. What if we could make God's dream come true?
Then Roxanne emailed me and said ...
Continue reading you just gotta love 'em ... cont'd...
I received this email recently ...
I just finished reading “The Speech Not Given”. It seems that you wrote this piece before Obama came on the political scene. It would be hard to believe that he hasn’t taken large chunks of it to his own heart and articulated it to your nation and to the world.l Let us hope (Yes, we can!) that your words will be accomplished in his actions.
You can read the article he's referring to here ...
If you're an Evangelical Christian concerned about the environment - and especially if you're a Southern Baptist - please check out the upcoming Flourish Conference.
If you'd like to care about evangelism in a postmodern context, consider Beyond Evandalism with Peter Rollins and Ryan Bell ...
Estaba en Costa Rica la semana pasada ... fue un placer y honor estar con amigos y amigas alla. Habian muchos que me dijeron que mis libros estan ayudandoles en sus ministerios. Me gusta mucho oir esto.
Solamente dos de mis libros han sido traducido en espanol todavia ...
El Mensaje Secreto de Jesus (Nelson)
Mas Preparado de lo que Piensas (Kairos)
Tambien, hay unos de mis articulos que son disponibles ...
http://www.desarrollocristiano.com/site.asp?seccion=arti&articulo=1186
http://www.desarrollocristiano.com/site.asp?seccion=arti&articulo=1244
Disculpeme por los errores en la lengua ...
My friend Diana Butler Bass passed on this link ... talking about my generation.
I got this email message today ...
Get away from earth with your godless emergent church, McLaren, perhaps to hell? Could you do it a little bit faster?!! It would help the rightious christians around the world, believing in the blood of Jesus Christ and not in Mystic from east and vatican, the door to hell..
What do you do with this kind of talk in the name of Jesus Christ and "righteous Christians?" Only one thing: don't respond to hate with hate, disdain with disdain, insult with insult, damnation with damnation ... but receive every "hit" with love and respond with love and blessing
When I do so, I realize that this person loves God (as he/she understands God), loves truth (as he/she understands truth), and loves his/her community (to which he/she must perceive me as a threat, even though I'm not). Sadly, his/her love for some things and people turns into something other than love for other things and people. But I can at least celebrate that there's love there, and I can seek to respond with love myself. Jesus said that out of the heart the mouth speaks, so rather than be offended by the words, I want to be compassionate for a heart that is so wounded that it must lash out like this. I don't know why, but I felt I should share these few thoughts today, in hopes they'll be of value to others who are the targets of this kind of religious speech, and maybe even for those for whom this speech is a first or second language. You don't have to live this way.
I just discovered that amazon is having a huge sale on my book Everything Must Change here. It's only $8.99.
This would be a great time to pick up copies for use in small group discussion ... together with the DVD study guide, which is $39.99 and very well produced.
And Secret Message of Jesus is also available for $5.49 here.
And Barnes and Noble carries my books in-store and online.
I've also posted sermon outlines for both books here on my site.
These kinds of studies might be especially useful during Lent. I think each would give Good Friday and Easter some new levels of meaning.
I'll be coming home in a few hours after a full and rich week in Costa Rica. Last weekend I was in San Jose speaking with the good people of Casona and Comunidad Pas and had the chance to catch up with my old friends Anthony and Ruth Chamberlain. It was also a great pleasure to work with another good friend, Junior Zapata, one of the funniest people and best speakers on the planet.
This week I've been with the good people of La Red del Camino in Fraijanes and Poasito, at the base of the Poas Volcano. This was the epicenter of the recent earthquake. It was sobering to see so many homes and farms damaged or destroyed ... and it was beautiful to see and hear the response of our host church here, Comunidad Cristiana Shalom, of which Roy Soto is pastor. They opened their facilities to become a shelter and feeding center. It's going to be a long process of rebuilding.
One theme especially caught my attention as I talked (in my serviceable but highly flawed Spanish) with many local residents. Several people mentioned to me "las vacas" - the cows. This is a farming community, and cows are important to them. In the aftermath of the earthquake, fences came down and farmers were in crisis, so the cows didn't get milked. This of course causes them pain and often leads to infections. Several people mentioned to me the haunting sound of cows in pain ... through the night and day ... until they were milked and given appropriate antibiotics. Several people also mentioned how in the aftermath of the quake, all the birds seemed to disappear for a few days. The people here prayed for the cows and they prayed for the birds to return (which they have now begun to do). Something about this struck me as ... good, and meaningful, and very human in the best sense of the word.
Next week I'll be in North Carolina, then at the National Prayer Breakfast, and then off to San Diego. Check my schedule for details if you want to come to the various events.
Also - if you're interested in being a virtual part of the NPB, you can do so for the first time online ... check here ...
I'm having a tremendous time with the Casona community in San Jose ... So many bright young leaders here. Tomorrow night I'll head to Fraijanes which was near the epicenter of the recent earthquake. Things there are still bad - I might be able to upload some pictures and share stories in a few days. In the meantime, I'm including a letter from my friend Roy who is a pastor there (after the jump).
Continue reading Greetings from Costa Rica...
I'll be in San Jose Costa Rica with Kzona fellowship this weekend, then in a village called Fraijanes next week. I probably won't have much online access.
Here's a song I wrote recently. It's partly a creed, really, and partly a praise song. Let me know if you find it's useful. (You can leave a comment at youtube.) Most of the photos are from Africa.
If you're interested, you can get a CD of my music here (or download), and there are a number of other songs at my youtube channel, which is bmac2056. A friend and I are also working on getting a live recording online ... from the 90's, I think. Back when I had hair?
I think many if not most of us felt it yesterday - that we are entering not just a new administration, but a new generation of leadership.
People are talking about "boomer" and "post-boomer" perspectives, and perhaps some will use the language of "modern" and "postmodern" too. A friend of mine in Europe said we should consider ourselves having moved from the 9/11 era to the 01/20 era. However we define the shift, President Obama embodies it, and today I'm thinking about a parallel shift that is taking place in many of our Christian communities. I'd like to explore the theological shift by making 8 connections with the President's Inaugural Address.
Continue reading generational shift...
I'd highly recommend you consider joining us in Albuquerque in March ... Fr. Richard Rohr, Phyllis Tickle, Alexia Torres-Fleming, Shane Claiborne, and I will be sharing at a historic gathering of Roman Catholics, Protestants, and others. We'll continue and expand the conversation about what is emerging, what God is doing, what we're all helping create at this critical time. Spread the word - we already have 250 registered, but there's still room for more. You can get all the information here ...
It's encouraging to know that my song "with kindness" is being used as a benediction song in a growing number of churches and other gatherings. Here's a video from the closing service at IWS in Florida ...
You can purchase the CD that includes the song here:
http://www.restorationvillage.com/SFRH/index.php
You can hear it free here ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tC8lxryE7iY
The chart can be downloaded here for free ...
http://www.restorationvillage.com/SFRH/resources.html
The recording can be downloaded for .99 at itunes if you search under "songs for a revolution of hope."
I’m 52, and I’ve had a great first half-century of life (and am looking forward to the next). But this inaugural week I feel an extraordinary happiness. Younger people can understand it to a great degree, but I think many folks my age and older – Euro American, African American, Latino American, Native American, Asian American - share a sense of joy that is especially hard to explain. (continued after the jump)
Continue reading Inaugural Week Meditation: So happy...
Q: I am a ... pastor ... and a former RC priest. Your book A Generous Orthodoxy has clarified for me many of the concerns about mission that have jumped around in my head for a long time. A question arises: With a last name beginning with "Mc," how come you don't have a section called "Why I Am Celtic?"
[Question and reply after the jump]
Continue reading Q & A - Why not "Why I am Celtic?"...
Just received this about my friend Sivin Kit in Malaysia ... God bless you, Sivin!
Quotable line: "A lot of people are still ignorant about the Palestine-Israel issue. It is not about religion or race but a humanitarian crisis."
Continue reading pastor raises his voice about gaza ......
Barnes and Noble is selling harcover Secret Message of Jesus for less than $4.00 here.
Amazon has the softcover version of Secret Message for $5.49 here.
I continue to hear from churches that are using the book for classes, small groups, and leadership training ... might be a good idea for Lent? Pastors and other leaders will find sermon outlines and other resources for group use here ...
This is a song I wrote a while back. The crisis in gaza got me singing it this morning during a time of prayer, so I decided to upload it. I think of Jesus' words, "If you only knew what makes for peace ..." (Luke 19) Gaza, Iraq, Darfur, Congo, Afghanistan, Zimbabwe ... or gangs in our own cities, factions in our own churches and denominations, or strife in our own families and circles of friends ... "Lord, make us instruments of your peace."
I'm including another eyewitness account of Gaza from an Irish friend of a friend (below the jump), also available here.
Ben White also contributes an important and strongly-worded article especially for the Christian community here. I urge Christian leaders to take his words seriously.
Key quotes:
The Palestinians are stateless, colonised, dispossessed, exiled, walled-in, and occupied. Israelis often say that they feel walled in by the Arab states around them. Yet it is a relatively wealthy state, enjoying the military, diplomatic, and financial support of the largest power in the world. With this backing, it is able to defy UN resolutions and encroach on Palestinian territory.THERE are often two obstacles to the taking of an appropriate stance towards a just peace in Palestine/Israel by Churches and Christian groups in the West. First, it can be difficult to formulate a meaningful critique of Israeli policies without attracting cries of "excusing terrorism" or "anti-Semitism". The latter accusation is especially levelled against Christians who join the global movement to put pressure on Israel by using boycotts and disinvestment.
Yet it is neither an apologia for the Hamas movement and Palestinian rocket-fire — nor anti-Semitism — to call the destruction in Gaza and the Israeli colonisation of Palestine what it is: illegal, and conducive to continuous war rather than peace....
More than ever, Christian leaders and Churches need to stand up and be counted. This could mean many things: pilgrimages that show solidarity with Palestinians; targeted boycotts of Israeli products; writing to MPs; inviting Palestinian speakers; twinning; film screenings; selling Palestinian-made goods.
See below the jump ...
Continue reading More on Gaza: Please read prayerfully...
I was impressed by David Brooks' NYT piece on the economy today for a couple reasons.
In "An Economy of Faith and Trust," he begins:
Once there was just Newtonian physics and the world seemed neat and mechanical. Then quantum physics came along and revealed that deep down things are much weirder than they seem. Something similar is now happening with public policy.Once, classical economics dominated policy thinking. The classical models presumed a certain sort of orderly human makeup. Inside each person, reason rides the passions the way a rider sits atop a horse. Sometimes people do stupid things, but generally the rider makes deliberative decisions, and the market rewards rational behavior
Those Newtonian/classical economics models have failed us. Reality is more complex, and we now have to face that fact. (One recalls Alan Greenspan's statement a few months ago that there are flaws in his model - admirable honesty!) This wave of second thoughts in economics parallels the kind of theological shifts in thinking many of us are calling for. (This will be a main theme of my 2010 book ... details TBA) What many people call "orthodoxy," we're suggesting, is actually a kind of Newtonian or Smithian model that has a lot to commend it, but can't cope with the complexities of reality.
Brooks concludes,
Mechanistic thinkers on the right and left pose as rigorous empiricists. But empiricism built on an inaccurate view of human nature is just a prison.
I would add that mechanistic thinkers in theology on the right and left would do well to make a similar discovery.
My friend Lynne Hybels offers a beautiful reflection on MLK day here ... And there are links to some excellent sermons by Bill Hybels too.
Nicholas Kristof offers a surprising defense of sweatshops here ... Kristof (who has been a heroic journalist in drawing attention to people in poverty and danger around the world) argues persuasively that as bad as sweatshops are, they're far better than unemployment, which raises important questions for those of us thinking that this economic crisis provides an opportunity to envision a new kind of economy ... how can we move from a single bottom-line economy that seeks to maximize profit to one that seeks to maximize employment? For those of us who have seen first-hand the kinds of dumps and dump-dwellers Kristof describes, this is an especially powerful article.
Readers of Everything Must Change will especially appreciate these two articles.
Here's an update on the work of my friend Roy Soto and company ... I'll be with them in just over a week. There have been some big aftershocks since the original earthquake. If you feel moved to help with a donation, that would be wonderful!
of a couple of interviews I've done over the years, especially one with an LA religious broadcaster.
Man Who Crossed Nation In Balloon Only Wants To Talk About Horse Abuse
The good people at Tikkun have placed a major ad in the New York Times. It begins like this ... (after the jump)
Continue reading A constructive proposal for Gaza ......
I am one of many who has been inspired and guided by the work of Church of the Savior and its founder Gordon Cosby over the years. You can read about Gordon's retirement (at 91!) here.
Everything I've been writing about regarding conversation is beautifully exemplified in this dialogue between my English friend Jonny Baker and a friend of his, Yemi, from Nigeria. The conversation took place at Greenbelt last year.
Really worth listening to - both for the content, and the spirit. Check it out here.
(Thanks Becky Garrison and Andrew Jones for the link.)
Next week I'll be going to Costa Rica. After being in San Jose for a few days, I'll be in a small village which was near the epicenter of the recent earthquake. My friend Roy Soto is a pastor there ... you can get a sense of the damage, and the church's response, through these photos ...
If you'd like to help Roy and his beautiful congregation to serve people, you can make a donation here. I'd really appreciate your help - and you can be sure these are good people making a real difference on the ground.
I continue to be amazed by the great voices speaking up over at the emergent village blog.
See Jeromy Johnson's beautiful post here ...
And Don Heatley's here.
Also, a really interesting dialogue is going on at Andrew Perriman's blog about the Canaanite conquest here ...
There's a lot of craziness on those internets, but some great stuff too!
I plan to clean up a section of a stream and improve a woodland path in my neighborhood ...
It's good when polarized, paralyzed arguments are re-framed so that stalemates and win-lose scenarios open up, making more equitable and mutually satisfying outcomes possible.
It's even better when our attention shifts from secondary to primary issues. In other words, if you're going to have a conversation, it makes sense to choose the subjects that most need attention and engagement.
My sense is that among people of faith in America, we're eager to do both: improve our discourse on stalemated issues, and simultaneously, to reinvest a portion of our energy in other important or higher-level issues that have been largely ignored. I'm especially thinking of five issues that our faith communities have an obligation to consider prayerfully (first) and address carefully.
First, the environment. While the economy, the Middle East, and the latest noisy political scandal may seize the headlines, the ice caps quietly continue shrinking, the atmosphere quietly continues to accumulate CO2, rainforests continue to shrink, soil quietly continues to erode, fresh water quietly continues to be depleted, and precious species continue quietly going extinct. The ecological crisis calls for real lifestyle change, self-discipline, frugality, and rejection of consumerism, and that kind of change in values and behavior requires the commitment of our faith communities.
Second, the economy. As Jim Wallis often says, we need to go - not just left or right - but deeper. And on one level, it's no surprise that politicians must deal with the surface "presenting problem" of recession and possible depression. But shouldn't the community of faith be bringing together - and then bringing forward - its best minds and voices who apply the best of their faith traditions to economics? And shouldn't those best minds be addressing the deeper issues - not just of how to save the economy from depression or shorten the recession short-term - but also longer-term deeper issues of how to transform an unsustainable consumptive economy into a more equitable regenerative economy? Shouldn't we people of faith be asking, not just how to save the economic system as it is, but how to let parts of it die that need to die, and in their place, bring better parts into being - for the benefit of the majority of people on our planet who have been living in extreme poverty for decades and longer?
Third, Palestine. I believe it's time for Christians of good will to speak out more directly against the kind of Christian Zionism that treats the Palestinians with the same disregard that Jesus refused to be part of in his day regarding Samaritans. That kind of theology of divine favoritism needs to be abandoned as a moral embarrassment. It's time for Christians, Jews, and Muslims to come to the back fence and start conspiring together how to bring pressure on all parties, so that neither Israeli nor Palestinian children need to wake up day after day to the sounds of bullets, sirens, broken glass, exploding bombs, falling missiles, and mothers wailing in their grief.
Fourth, nuclear disarmament. What if the only way to keep nuclear weapons from spreading is for the nation who has the most of them to lead the way toward a new day? What if now is the time to imagine a world where nations agree to turn the tide on nuclear weapons? Shouldn't people of faith be at the forefront of a movement like this?
Fifth is our own understanding of our core message. For Christians, this means a far-reaching engagement with Jesus' good news of the kingdom (or reign, dream, dance, mission, or movement) of God. We need to surface the covert framing stories that underlie our various systematic theologies and then subject them to critical scrutiny. In the words of Bob Dylan, we need to "get our message straight now."
Those are new conversations, worthwhile ones, I believe. As I explained in Everything Must Change, there are times when we need to sort through the many issues to find the high-leverage critical few. The right questions, raised and addressed in the right way, can open doors to a better day.
There are two important ways the religious conversation in America is changing and needs to keep changing.
First, we need changes in the way we address our points of controversy and conflict. Two cases in point:
Abortion - thirty-plus years of pro-life versus pro-choice debate have gotten us nowhere. Nothing has changed. Polarization paralyzes, and that's worse than a stalemate, because huge amounts of money, energy, and loyalty have been expended that could have been invested more profitably differently or elsewhere. So now, the conversation is shifting from abortion criminalization to abortion reduction. That, to me, is an encouraging sign. People can be both against abortion and against criminalization, and they can be both for choice and for reduction. The old, hard-bitten categories may soon be identified as part of the problem. Where can this shift in conversation lead?
Homosexuality - the conversation is shifting from how laws can be used to marginalize, shame, disadvantage, and otherwise express disapproval of homosexuality (or the opposite) to how gay and lesbian people - who probably make up about six or seven percent of the population, and always have, and always will (estimates range from three to ten percent)-- should be treated in a civil society, and how people who disagree on the issue of gay marriage can avoid polarizing, paralyzing discourse that goes nowhere constructive. I anticipate (thinking of Melissa Etheridge's beautiful insights on the subject) that the conversation will continue to shift to how the glbt and straight communities can work together for the common good in critical areas of peace, poverty, and care for our planet.
But there's another way the conversation is shifting, and it is probably even more important. (stay tuned)
For those interested in alternative energy (as we all should be!) ... here's a new development in a vertical axis wind turbine, presented by Jay Leno.
Emergent Village just announced a gathering organized by some good friends for whom I have great respect ... Highly recommended!
It's for you if ...
If you are a woman who is drawn to or longs for:
* a way of leading that creates open space for all,
* sisters to journey and quest with,
* friends to stand in solidarity with,
If you are a woman who:
* lives in the tension and the beauty of embracing the ordinary as holy,
* values the redemptive power of story
* values learning from others, listening well, asking questions
Leadership in the Round
More after the jump, and links at emergentvillage.com.
Continue reading women's convergence ......
Here's my posting from Washington Post/On Faith about Gaza ...
Continue reading More on Gaza ......
My friend Eboo Patel offers wise counsel on breaking out of our current solution deadlock in two recent posts at On Faith. The full posts are included with permission below the jump, and are available at the On Faith blog as well ... Continue reading On Gaza ... wisdom for the way forward...
Here ... and here
Sam Pizzigati, author of Greed and Good and editor of the online weekly Too Much, recently alerted me about the Income Equity Act, proposed by Barbara Lee, about which he explains ...
This precedent-setting bill would, if enacted, deny corporations tax deductions on any executive compensation that runs over 25 times the pay of a company’s lowest-paid workers.
This legislation is related to the idea of a maximum wage, which I touched on in Everything Must Change. It turns out, I learned from Sam, that Franklin D. Roosevelt "actually proposed what amounted to a maximum wage in 1942." If you're interested in learning more, Sam's complete book is available for online reading here.
The idea of maximum wage theory might seem strange, but perhaps less so if you read the Apostle Paul's words here ....
Received this recently ...
I have just read three of your books in the past two weeks (The Secret Message of Jesus, A New Kind of Christian, and Everything Must Change) and I want to personally thank you for helping to change my heart.
I am the same age as yourself, and I was raised to be a Christian, but I have sent the past twenty-four years away from church/fellowship of any kind because I felt something was wrong with the way Christians were presenting the 'message.'
When a long-time friend of mine recently expressed his new-found faith to me, I felt myself drawn to the Christian section of my favorite bookstore, and it was The Secret Message of Jesus that jumped off the shelf and into my hands!
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I am a musician/songwriter and I am declaring myself back and ready to spread the message of the dream of God!
Again, thank you!
Here's a question that I receive quite often ...
Dear Brian-
We met briefly the other night when you were ... in Glasgow, Scotland. It was great to finally get to hear you in person...Just a quick question that I wanted to ask you but didn't get a chance to at the Q & A session after you spoke:
With the postmodern culture and shift in ideas becoming more and more widespread, we see an increase in popularity of the ideas of moral relativity and relative truth/ relativism. Alongside of this, we can see a growing trend in the belief that words have no meaning in themselves, it is just our cultural upbringing and connotations that give meaning to our words. How do we as followers of Jesus respond to the current cultural trends and yet still communicate the truth of the gospel to people? Is it just in our actions or what can we verbally communicate to people in this day and age?
Thanks so much for your time and I understand that you are busy and may not immediately get back to me.
Continue reading A question on truth ......
Two things - first, I'm speaking at Cedar Ridge Community Church in Maryland this Sunday, 11 January, at 9 and 11 a.m. You're welcome to come!
Second ... As you may know, this time last year we were ramping up for our 2008 Everything Must Change tour, which was a joint venture between some friends and me. The real leader of our team was Linnea Nilsen Capshaw, one of the most enthusiastic human beings God has yet created, and a gifted coach and consultant whose work I greatly respect. Linnea is partnering with Tiffany Montavon from Lumunos (recently changed names from Faith@Work), another indispensable and a-pleasure-to-be-around partner on our tour and Kevin Lum from Sojourners, a young, passionate techy-connected pastor and leader working hard for justice. These three leaders are teaming up to offer a half-day seminar on January 24, 2009 – a follow-up to our tour to help you respond to "The Call to Living Justly."
Whether you were part of the tour or not, you'll get a lot out of this half day with these three leaders. If you're in the DC area, I hope you'll save the date, invite along a carload or two of friends, spread the word through your networks, and start off the new year with an infusion of hope and passion for deep shift in your life and in our world.
"There's a movement of hope and change happening, what can I do to make a difference?"
"I want to live ethically, but I just get overwhelmed! What should I do next?"
"We talk about sustainable living – can I keep my toys?"
Learn more and register! (link is http://www.lumunos.org/Get_Connected/upcoming.htm)
... it doesn't get much better than this. (thanks for the link trev and rachel)
My friend Jim Henderson sent me this link - great article by Matthew Paris, which matches my perceptions as well, both in Africa and elsewhere.
Top quotes:
Those who want Africa to walk tall amid 21st-century global competition must not kid themselves that providing the material means or even the know-how that accompanies what we call development will make the change. A whole belief system must first be supplanted.And I'm afraid it has to be supplanted by another. Removing Christian evangelism from the African equation may leave the continent at the mercy of a malign fusion of Nike, the witch doctor, the mobile phone and the machete.
A commenter added,
"Africa needs Christ to save them from the tribe. The west needs Christ to save them from the individual. "
A friend sent this link to a blog from friends of his who (like the links I've given over recent days) capture something real about the disaster happening in Gaza - while the media seem to present political theater that makes me think "news" is more like a "reality show."
This morning I prayed that our new administration will surprise the world and find a creative and effective new approach to helping stop "the vicious, viral, downward spiral" that's going on in Palestine (a line from my song "Let's Confess It").
Last night I was thinking about some old friends whom I'd like to see in 2009, and I thought of Michael Kelly Blanchard, a wonderful songwriter and good soul from Connecticutt. I went to his site and caught up with the CD's he's released since I last saw him.
"The Other God" is one of those songs all of us need some times ... you can listen here.
(Scroll down to the CD "Good Grief.")
I've had a wonderful last day of 2008, spending most of the day studying the Gospel of John and seeing things I've never seen. My heart is full of love for God, reverence for Jesus, and gratitude for his good news of life, life to the full, life of the ages. All of this will make its way into my next book.
As I look back over this last year, I can't thank you all enough - friends, readers of this blog, readers of my books, people I've met in my travels around the country and around the world. Today I feel so blessed to be able to be a student, writer, speaker, and colleague with all of you in the movement and mission of God in our world. Nobody knows what 2009 will hold, but we know that God will be with us through it all. Thanks be to God!
I wrote this six-minute meditation on "God with us" around Easter 2008. Maybe it will be of some encouragement to you as 2009 begins.
I'm spending the last day of 2008 working on my next book (big news on that coming soon), and in the background, I've got some great music playing ... I'm especially enjoying two brand new musical discoveries:
Esther and the Protesters
and
The Welcome Wagon
Highly recommended!
Another friend, Elrig, who lives in Israel and cares about justice for Jew, Muslim, and Christian alike, offers more important insights here ...
I hope more Americans will crack open the echo-chamber of the US media long enough to hear some voices from outside it. I hope. Here's what Elrig says:
It is not the goodwill or the intelligence of America that is in question, but its ability to get out of the mental prison it has created for itself.
Memorable quote:
Maybe we should start 12 step programs for nations with too much military power.
"Hi. My name is Israel. I am powerless over my own strength and domination of Arabs."
"Hi. My name is America. I am powerless over the rhetoric of my war on terror and my 700 foreign military bases."
"Hi. My name is Hamas. I am powerless over belief that violence can repay violence."Welcome - have a seat. Now, let's start with the serenity prayer.
More after the jump on WHAT TO DO to make a difference - see especially #5 if you're a Christian.
Continue reading Israel, Gaza, truth? Cont'd...
My friend Hannah Mermelstein works for justice and peace. She is a woman of Jewish descent who believes in doing justice and loving kindness for everyone, without distinctions based on religion or nationality. Here is what she is seeing, hearing, and experiencing from her current location in Palestine ...
When it comes to reporting on the mideast, I trust the U.S. media less and less, which is why on-the-ground reports like this one ... from someone I know and whose integrity I trust ... mean so much. You can read 2 of Hannah's email messages below the jump ...
Continue reading Israel, Gaza, truth?...
My wonderful Franciscan friend Richard Rohr shares an important reflection on Christmas here at Tikkun.org, made all the more meaningful in light of the "failure" of the "Christmas economy" this year.
Maybe, through this economic adjustment, we'll actually have a chance to imagine what a true Christmas economy might mean ... recalling Paul's words in 2 Cor. 8:9:
You know the grace that has come through our Lord Jesus, the Liberating King. He set aside His infinite riches and was born into the lowest circumstance so that you may gain great riches through His humble poverty.(the Voice)
From Gregory of Nyssa ...
Once there was a time when the whole creation formed a single dancing chorus looking upward in the harmony of that motion to the one leader of the dance.
Rick Reilly covers the best sports story of the year ... here.
(Non-sports fans ... I'll bet you find this worthwhile too.)
"Help us, O God, to rightly remember the birth of Jesus that we may share in the songs of the angels, the gladness of the shepherds, and the worship of the magi. Close the door of hate and open the door of love around the world. Let kindness come with every gift and good desire with every greeting. Deliver us from evil by the blessing that Christ brings, and teach us to be merry with clear hearts. May the Christmas morning make us happy to be your children, and the Christmas evening bring us to our beds with grateful thoughts, forgiving and forgiven for Jesus' sake. Amen." (Robert Louis Stevenson)
(Thanks, Ward Gasque!)
My favorite Christmas hymn ...
h
Merry Christmas, everyone!
Translation below the jump ...
Continue reading O Great Mystery...
Melissa Etheridge got it right when she decided to reach out to Rick Warren, and Rick Warren got it right when he expressed regret for how he has spoken about gay folks and prop 8:
I told my manager to reach out to Pastor Warren and say "In the spirit of unity I would like to talk to him." They gave him my phone number. On the day of the conference I received a call from Pastor Rick... He explained in very thoughtful words that as a Christian he believed in equal rights for everyone. He believed every loving relationship should have equal protection. He struggled with proposition 8 because he didn't want to see marriage redefined as anything other than between a man and a woman. He said he regretted his choice of words in his video message to his congregation about proposition 8 when he mentioned pedophiles and those who commit incest. He said that in no way, is that how he thought about gays. He invited me to his church, I invited him to my home to meet my wife and kids. He told me of his wife's struggle with breast cancer just a year before mine.When we met later that night, he entered the room with open arms and an open heart. We agreed to build bridges to the future.
Brothers and sisters the choice is ours now. We have the world's attention. We have the capability to create change, awesome change in this world, but before we change minds we must change hearts. Sure, there are plenty of hateful people who will always hold on to their bigotry like a child to a blanket. But there are also good people out there, Christian and otherwise that are beginning to listen. They don't hate us, they fear change. Maybe in our anger, as we consider marches and boycotts, perhaps we can consider stretching out our hands. Maybe instead of marching on his church, we can show up en mass and volunteer for one of the many organizations affiliated with his church that work for HIV/AIDS causes all around the world.
Maybe if they get to know us, they wont fear us.
I know, call me a dreamer, but I feel a new era is upon us.
For her whole response, go here .
When respectful conversation and "generative friendship" happen, as Etheridge suggests, all parties are changed. Etheridge makes clear that once she met Rick, she exchanged her previous stereotype of him for a more charitable view ... And hopefully Rick will continue changing too, the more he gets to know more gay folks through this controversy.
Interestingly, there are signs - maybe cosmetic and temporary, maybe deeper and lasting - that this positive change is happening in the Evangelical community at large. For example ...
Continue reading melissa etheridge and rick warren are getting it right...
What a great year 2008 as been.
In the Spring, Linnea Nilsen Capshaw, Tracy Howe, Eric Haines, Jo Burgess, and others helped present the Everything Must Change tour around the country ...
Continue reading 2008 in pictures...
Anthony Smith is one of the important voices more people should be listening to in the emergent conversation, and he posts his advent reflection here.
Truly important anytime, but especially during this global economic crisis.
Obviously my thinking has been going along lines similar to Anthony's, as this makes clear.
Thanks to Steve Knight for posting these videos of Phyllis Tickle and Peter Rollins in conversation ... here.
If you want to express support for the ongoing work of Rich Cizik (see my earlier blog post today at Progressive Revival), you can do so here ...
Here's a clear and helpful summary of what the term "missional" means from a courageous and gifted seminary president ... someone more people should know about.
Continue reading Dr. David Dunbar gets it right ......
Here we are, celebrating the 2008th anniversary of the birth of Jesus ... and we're still arguing like cats and dogs about who Jesus is and what he's about.
Here's my post over at Progressive Revival on the reent Warren-Obama-Haggard-Cizik kerfuffles ...
The good people over at Mustard Seed Associates have been doing some creative thinking about the role of churches in the economic crisis ... here. Great ideas, friends!
A video response to Everything Must Change ... here.
An EMC sampler ... here.
A fun EMC spoof ... here.
And here's a real rough recording of a song that I was working on the other night ... reflecting on Jesus' birth in a manger ... in poverty.
Craig Blomberg of Denver Seminary puts in a kind word about A Generous Orthodoxy at the Zondervan blog here ...
I'm a huge fan of Andy Goldsworthy ...
... and I just discovered a kindred spirit named Jason Taylor here.
Here's a good window into the emergent conversation in South Africa, hitting themes that come up around the world ...
More interesting dialogue on same-sex marriage here .... The conservative spokesperson articulated what is to me the submerged iceberg hiding beneath the issue's surface - our view of the Bible in relation to Jesus. He expressed his approach to the Bible - and to Jesus - like this:
When one puts the teachings of Paul on the same authoritative ground as the teachings of Jesus, one must conclude that God does not condone homosexual behavior. The Bible does not suggest that there are two levels of spiritual authority in the Bible—the more authoritative teachings of Jesus and the teachings of Paul and the other New Testament writers. They are all equally authoritative. Consequently, I cannot see any biblical justification for condoning homosexual behavior.
Some folks have said I overstated the case in my book A Generous Orthodoxy, when I suggested that many Christians keep Jesus as personal Savior, but promote Paul to equal status as teacher. Here's a pretty clear case in point, I'd say.
We had a really enjoyable breakfast gathering at the Daily Grind in Fulton this morning. Thanks to those in the Balto-DC area who came. Let's plan on Wed. 18 February at 8:30 a.m. for our next one.
My friend Paul Rauschenbusch addresses a common misunderstanding about "the social gospel" here.
Tony Jones links to a recent phone conversation between myself and Peter Rollins here.
At Tony's site, you'll notice there is a lot of important - an unusually constructive - dialogue going on lately about same-sex marriage. Here's a church that has been grappling with the issue and has kept a helpful record of their process.
My Brazilian friend Claudio Oliver links to a beautiful international rendering of the old classic "Stand By Me" here ...
If you'd like to get together for coffee/breakfast, please join me at the Daily Grind in Fulton, MD, tomorrow, Tuesday 16 December at 8:30. Directions here ...
A few more ideas ...
5. Preaching and worship - in times of recession and perhaps depression, what do people most need when they come to church? Will pastors and liturgists adjust and become attentive to the emotional, social, and spiritual needs of people in crisis?
6. How about a local benevolence fund - one especially for people in need in your church's immediate neighborhood?
7. If your congregation is middle-class or above, how about developing a partner relationship with a church in an especially hard-hit or under-served area?
More ideas ...
3. Are there a lot of evictions occurring in your area? How about recruiting some volunteers to match people about to be evicted with people who have been evicted, to explore living in community for a period of time to share expenses? Perhaps a set of ground rules could be drawn up ... along with having "troubleshooters" available to solve problems as they arise.
4. Maximizing employment - those in your church who are not in financial need could hire unemployed people for odd jobs or special projects - things they might normally do themselves. Now they can get the job done while helping someone else make some extra cash.
I travel so many weekends and am usually speaking at churches on Sundays, which I love - but today I had the rare treat of being at my own home church, just as an attender. Patsy Fratanduono, one of our pastors, spoke about the incarnation, the kids presented an amazing video, and the prayers and carols were wonderful.
I was especially struck by one line from each verse of the beautiful carol O Holy Night ...
Continue reading Advent Reflection 1...
I'm just catching up - on sleep and email - after a tremendous trip to Scotland and England. What wonderful people I had the chance to meet and converse with. And what a great job the hosts and organizers did in putting the events together. I'm deeply grateful.
David Gushee is distinguished university professor of Christian ethics at Mercer University. I originally met him through Evangelical Environmental Network, and his anti-torture work, and ever since I always pay attention to what he writes. Here's his recent editorial from the Associated Baptist Press (another great newsletter to subscribe to ... here.)
Opinion: A doomed,
reactionary church?
By David Gushee
(ABP) -- The act of reflecting this week, in class, on the development of Catholic social ethics resonated in an unexpected way with the situation facing Christians today. It became clearer than ever to me that when Christians become cultural reactionaries, they doom the church to irrelevance.
Continue reading Dr. David Gushee gets it right ......
I leave in a few hours for a week in Scotland and England ... I hope to meet many readers and make many new friends there!
If I could be in 2 places at once, I'd also be in Memphis, where The Great Emergence event is underway. The EV blog is carrying updates here.
My book Everything Must Change is available in German - you can order here.
You can also get Secret Message of Jesus in German - here ...
An important shift is taking place among Muslims in the wake of the Mumbai Massacre. You can read more here ...
Key quotes:
The shock of last week's violence has sparked worldwide outcry from the Muslim community, where many have disowned the terrorists and denounced the notion that their actions have anything to do with Islam.This widespread Islamic movement to repudiate the root-claims of many terrorist organizations has fostered unity in India and attracted the attention of the press outside the U.S., although most American commentators appear oblivious to the fact that a significant shift in global Islam is afoot.
It's terrible to think about a race for the most tragic place on earth, but Darfur in Sudan and Eastern Congo are surely among the front runners. Here's a sobering summary of the horror taking place there ... And here is a prayer we all can share:
Almighty God, your eye is on the sparrow who falls, and you care for every girl and woman being victimized by violent men in Eastern Congo. You care for every peace-loving child and adult who have no part in the violence there, but whose lives are dominated by it every day. God of justice, stop those who in a lust for money and power rape the land for coltan and gold and diamonds. And stop those who in a lust for domination and and aggression rape women and girls. And help us who live far from their horrors to know how to collaborate on behalf of our brothers and sisters, and may your kingdom of shalom replace the anarchy and fear that reign there now. Guide the leaders of nations to intervene appropriately so they can bring all appropriate means to bear on behalf of the people of Congo. We ask it in the name of the one who suffered for all. Amen.
Want to get involved? Check out Raise Hope here ...
(This is the first of at least two reflections on the role local churches might play in the economic crisis.)
Nobody knows how bad it will be or how long it will last. Nobody knows if other problems will arise - terrorist attacks, wars, rumors of wars, natural disasters - that will intensify the crisis. But most of my friends who know more about economics than I do tell me that they think the current economic downturn is going to be bad, and long, and we need to prepare for a rough go.
Churches, of course, are already feeling the crunch. Giving is already becoming a problem for many churches, as it is for many nonprofits in general. But I think the economic crisis also provides a lot of opportunities for churches to serve their communities. Here are some ideas that have been arising in my mind ...
1. How about organizing neighborhood care networks? A family from your church could become the hub for creating a network where needy people their neighborhood can get help. What would it mean for people from your faith community to go door to door in their neighborhoods, not to proselytize, but to give out a flyer letting neighbors know that there's a church in the area offering food, counseling, support groups, etc?
2. How about inviting unemployed people to gather at your church at a certain time, and providing a facilitator to help them a) process their grief at losing their job, b) provide mutual support, c) imagine ways to get retrained or create new work opportunities, or d) join together in volunteer service projects to do good to others and avoid sitting at home watching game shows and soap operas every day?
Sojo.net recently included a piece I wrote on President-Elect Obama's "ethic of responsibility" ... here.
And my friend Bob Carlton co-wrote a book aimed at helping teenagers get to know Barack Obama ... learn more here.
Over Thanksgiving, we McLarens will be in Mexico celebrating the wedding of my son Brett to his beautiful bride, Breana. (We've got a "B" thing going here.) It will be a small family wedding. So I'll be avoiding technology for a week or so, and I don't expect to post on the blog. Have a great Thanksgiving! I hope you'll make time for a quiet walk, to savor how blessed you are and express your gratitude to our Creator ... and I hope you'll have some great hours feasting with family and friends, enjoying "the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living."
I love this Thanksgiving hymn ... I'll offer a few thoughts on each verse below:
We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing; he chastens and hastens his will to make known; the wicked oppressing now cease from distressing: sing praise to his Name, he forgets not his own.
God's will is for wicked oppressors to stop distressing their neighbors ... And God doesn't forget those who are oppressed. Thanks be to God!
Beside us to guide us, our God with us joining, ordaining, maintaining his kingdom divine; so from the beginning the fight we were winning: thou, Lord, wast at our side: all glory be thine!
What a beautiful thought, especially on the edge of the Advent season ... God with us joining. Since God has joined with us, since God has inaugurated God's peaceable kingdom, good can't ultimately lose and evil can't ultimately win. God has been with us, whatever we have experienced. Thanks be to God!
We all do extol thee, thou leader triumphant, and pray that thou still our defender wilt be. Let thy congregation escape tribulation: thy Name be ever praised! O Lord, make us free!
"Some trust in horses and some in chariots," the Psalmist said. (Today, he would write, "Some trust in B-1 bombers, and others in landmines and the nuclear option." See Psalm 20 and 1 Samuel 8:11.) "But we will trust in the name of the Lord our God," the Psalmist concluded. This hymn expresses the same sentiment ... trusting God to lead and defend us. On this unique holiday, may we all pause and simply hold thankfulness in our hearts in the presence of God.
... you really should take in this amazing event in Memphis TN, December 5 - 6.
A lot of my best friends and favorite conversation partners will be together, discussing Phyllis Tickle's ground-breaking new book The Great Emergence.
Here's a video where you can get a flavor for the event ...
Another short video ... after the jump --->
Continue reading If you possibly can ......
I had the honor of contributing to a beautiful new book produced by the Sierra Club, called Holy Ground. It brings together an amazing assortment of voices - Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, and more - sharing their commitment to God's creation as an expression of their faith. It would make a great Christmas gift for someone you love.
I also had the honor of contributing to the Green Bible. Another great Christmas gift!
Readers of my books Everything Must Change, The Story We Find Ourselves In, and A Generous Orthodoxy will know about my deep commitment to ecology as a spiritual practice. (Not bad Christmas gifts either ...)
Consider these two disturbing images, the first from The Onion ...
Then take a moment for this prayer:
Eternal God, in whose perfect kingdom no sword is drawn but the sword of righteousness, no strength known but the strength of love: so mightily spread abroad your Spirit, that all peoples may be gathered under the banner of the Prince of Peace, as children of one Father…. Guide the nations of the world into the way of justice and truth, and establish among them that peace which is the fruit of righteousness, that they may become the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ…. Your Son commanded us to love our enemies: Lead them and us from prejudice to truth; deliver them and us from hatred, cruelty, and revenge; and in your good time enable us all to stand reconciled before you; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP)
Yesterday my friend Don Golden recommended a documentary to me called "Why We Fight." Last night I found out it's available on the internet. In fact, you can watch it right here ... It's about 90 minutes long, but well worth it. It's one of those documentaries that you will always remember.
Then today I came across this on "How the Pentagon Bankrupts America."
The current economic crisis will bring a lot of suffering to a lot of people. But it also brings opportunity - to face the frightening and unsustainable growth in our spending on weapons and war, what Eisenhower called "the military-industrial complex." Perhaps on the other side of this conflict, we'll have revised our priorities more in the spirit of Micah 4:1-4.
May the peace of Christ be with us all.
PS: Just saw this related post at the sojo blog by Ryan Beiller. When you only have a hammer, you try to fix everything by banging it, and when your hammer is "the military industrial complex," you can predict what happens. Wise words.
Leading up to Thanksgiving, I'm sure a lot of us are beginning to - or preparing to begin to - count our blessings. I am a blessed man, and one of my biggest problems is having too many blessings to properly appreciate and thank God for. (I'm not complaining! Just warning myself of the danger of complacency and ingratitude.) Just in the last few days ...
Sunday I had the opportunity to worship at an inner-city Pentecostal church in Baltimore - Dynamic Deliverance Cathedral. I was a guest of my friend Doug, who is part of the church's pastoral team. The music was hoppin' and joyful. Bishop Adams' sermon on Jacob wrestling with the angel was true and honest and inspiring. And when people came forward at the end for prayer, I saw in tear-stained faces the meaning of "healing community." The church serves a poor neighborhood - many of the folks there were in serious crisis before the current economic crisis hit. It's a place where you can come clean about your addictions and other problems. As a pale-skinned guy, I felt completely accepted and welcomed ... It did my soul good to be there.
Then yesterday I was with the Baltimore-Washington conference of United Methodists. Hundreds of enthusiastic, committed, hopeful pastors ... a good racial mix, and an encouraging number of younger leaders as well ... another beautiful spirit of welcome.
Then this morning I met with a wonderful young pastor who has just survived one of those nightmare seasons of ministry. The wisdom and character that she has derived from the last couple years are downright humbling and inspiring - she's become better, not bitter, through what she's been through. And now, her church is entering a new chapter with tremendous possibilities.
People have a lot of criticisms of church, and churches do have their share of problems, but this week, I'm grateful for all that's going right. Because week by week, from inner city storefronts to tall-steeple cathedrals and everything in between, there really are a lot of good things happening. Thanks be to God!
There are so many good things to look forward to in 2009 ...
But I wanted to mention a few early in the year that are open to the public and will bring together a fascinating array of people ... one in the West and one in the East.
First is the Emerging Church gathering in New Mexico, March 20-22. You can find information here.
Second is the Sacred Activism gathering in North Carolina, April 17-19. You can find information here ...
Hope to see you in NM or NC!
Only read this if you're in the mood for an elbow in the rib ...
Then read this piece by my friend Lynne ... an uncommon perspective on the Middle East.
If you're looking for some folks to link up with ...
Consider the good folks at Common Root ...
Or the good folks at the Shema Movement ...
I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Heather Plett of the Canadian Food Grains Bank a few months ago. You can hear our conversation here ... We talk about EMC and FOWA and how they are inter-related.
All my google-oriented and high-tech friends - consider joining Steve Knight in this fight against evil ... More info here.
Why not have a Fair Trade Christmas? Trade As One can help you ... I've been a big fan of Trade As One since it was a dream in the heart of Nathan George. It's thrilling to see how the fair trade/ethical buying movement is beginning to grow here in the US. This (after the jump) is from the newest Trade as One email newsletter ...
Continue reading Christmas Shopping ... Idea 1...
I've had Kansas City on my mind lately ...
I've been enjoying Songs from Jacob's Well, by Mike Crawford & Co. ... Two CD's full of creative and textured arrangements and solid lyrics, as sung at one of my favorite churches in the country. The whole project would be worth it just for the last cut, imo - "Words to Build a Life On" is like an anthem. I hope that thousands of churches around the country will start singing this song. You can buy the CDs here ...
http://store.bandwear.com/mikecrawford
Meanwhile, I've been enjoying some other KC musicians ...
Lori Chaffer's 1Beginning is really great. The song "Welcome" is probably my favorite ... bringing lots of 20+-year old "new dad" memories to mind.
And I've also been enjoying Don Chafer's What You Don't Know a lot too. This is a talented couple! Together, they tour and record as Waterdeep.
Also, if you're looking for additional good music ...
Check out the work of my friend Ken Medema at www.KenMedema.com
And my creative colleague Tracy Howe at www.restorationvillage.com - where you can pick up the CD we produced together here.
Also - Bob Carlton just sent me Tracy Chapman's newest - just listening now. (Thanks, Bob!)
For those of you baffled by the global economic meltdown, the following summary of basic economic theory should be helpful. Some of it may seem familiar and you may feel you've heard it all before, but note that fascinating new information has been added, reflecting the latest analysis of recent economic trends ...
Continue reading Economics 101...
Here are a whole bunch of links that I've found interesting lately ...
On the election:
My friend (and neighbor) Dave Anderson offers some pastoral words for conservative Evangelicals here.
The good people at Faith and Public Life, Sojourners, and Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good just released a really important report on what we can learn about the American religious landscape from their post-election survey. Very interesting and important - here.
For a laugh:Here's the famous prayer scene from Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.
Some inspiration:Karen Armstrong is leading an initiative to create a Charter for Compassion. Here's a short video, and links to ways you can get involved and help create it ...
On music:This week I wanted to go to a concert by Bifrost but missed it. You can hear some of their music here.
For my fellow Bruce Cockburn fans - here's a great podcast.
On human sexuality:
Andrew Lang introduces an important paper he wrote on the subject of homosexuality and Christian tradition here ...
My friend Graeme Codrington wrote a courageous article called What the Bible says about Homosexuality. It stirred up a lot of hot controversy, and Graeme graciously invited a more civil dialogue here.
I hope my conservative friends will give a compassionate hearing to Keith Olberman's recent special comment on Proposition 8 in California. Your mind probably won't be changed, but perhaps it will be informed so you can better understand those of us who cannot follow the standard conservative line on the issue.
Are you Catholic?Here's a great article on the Kingdom of God, especially for Catholics, here. My books SMJ and EMC along with SWFOI all deal extensively with the subject as well.
Please spread the word about the first "catholic emergent" event being hosted by Father Richard Rohr ... info here. Richard and I will be joined by Phyllis Tickle, Shane Claiborne, Alexie Torres-Fleming, and I hope by you as well - whether you're Catholic, Protestant, or "other."
Here's an open letter from my friend Sam Lee to the prime minister of the Netherlands. It will give you a feel for how the immigration issue is being addressed by a thoughtful Christian pastor/activist there ...
"Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy." -Proverbs 31:8-9
Here's a video about some good people seeking to live out these words from Proverbs 31.
The poignant prayer of confession was written by my friend Ted Durr ... It was inspired by Psalm 78
Dear God,You, who have done so much, please receive this confession from us, who honor [what you have done] so poorly.
On Monday we breathe air you give us. We remember not to keep it clean.
On Tuesday we fill soil with nitrogen, minerals, and trace of salt. We call this enrichment. We remember not how it poisons earth.
On Wednesday we spew out carbon and refuse. We remember not how You made Earth To Be One living, breathing Whole.
On Thursday we dam up a stream and remember not the creatures who live there.
On Friday we fly away to ‘quaint places’, and remember not the balance of land, people, and ancestors who go back to beginnings.
On Saturday we celebrate consuming ways and call it blessing; we drive over paved acres, and call it progress; we dirt-bike on forest trails, and litter Nature; we watch flickering pixels and think they are real. We remember little, because we care too little.
On Sunday we sing, praise, listen, and pray, and call it ‘worship’. Today we ask: Dear God, having lived the past week with us: What do You call it? What do You remember? Dare we ask?
Please hear us, forgive us, and help us to get it better. Amen.
(A prayer of confession suggested by Psalm 78, written by Rev. Ted Durr)
I had a fascinating dinner with my friend Ziya Meral last night. A human rights activist, he has written a provocative theological reflection on Guantanamo Bay. You can read it here.
A powerful quote:
If Jesus were caught living the vicious subversive Gospel today, he would not be on a wooden cross, since the wooden cross no longer symbolizes what it did then: the dishonouring and dehumanization of the individual in the presence of the entire city as a punishment. He would be wearing an orange jumper, living in a cage, dishonoured and dehumanized, in the presence of the entire world who behold all this on the TV screen.
Another powerful quote:
I believe that the Western church has one final chance to offer an alternative to an increasingly polarizing world. If we miss this opportunity too, I am afraid the modern church will lose all of its moral standing, or whatever is left of it.
Some folks have heard me tell a story about my daughter's runaway cheese-loving Shiba Inu. Here's a live-cam that shows a group of Shiba Inu pups 24/7. They're pretty darn cute.
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/shiba-inu-puppy-cam
Good for a short mental vacation!
I have many good friends in the LATF ... here's their latest press release:
CONSULTATION AND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE FRATERNIDAD TEOLOGICA LATINOAMERICANA (FTL-LATF)
La Paz, Bolivia – October 25-28, 2008Thirty-eight years ago, the LATF (the Fraternidad Teológica Latinoamericana – now known in English as the Latin American Theological Fellowship) was born in Cochabamba, Bolivia. The 1970 gathering included 25 theologians, pastors, seminary professors and evangelists. Today the LATF is spread throughout the Americas and Spain, and it is comprised of evangelical Christians committed to the life and mission of God’s people in Latin America and beyond. The LATF, as a part of the church, facilitates friendly spaces for dialogue and biblical-theological reflection from Latin America. Today, just like back in the 1970s, we continue yearning for a Latin American church that, transformed by the Word and the Spirit into an agent of the Kingdom of God and God’s justice, ministers in every area of society.
Continue reading Latin American update...
This obviously sincere and deeply important question came in the other day:
I recently read "The Shack" and it's theme somewhat describes my ongoing search for a personal relationship with God. I was encouraged today by my small group to ask an intelligent person I know the question that remains unresolved for me. If you are willing to be that intelligent person, here's my question: Assuming God wants a close relationship with me, and I (claim to) want a close relationship with him, why do we not have it?
My wife and I each desire relationship, so we both move toward the other and a deeper relationship ensues, but with God... not so much. It would seem that the failure is mine, yet I do not know how to seek him in a way that is more effective. How have you bridged the chasm? Thank you for your time and for your many contributions to my faith journey.
This question surfaces something so many people feel. The term "personal relationship with God" is thrown around so often - frequently modified with adjectives like "intimate" and "dynamic" - that many people feel disillusioned when it doesn't happen to them. I sometimes wonder if religious leaders do for spirituality what popular music does for romance - celebrate the extraordinary in such a way that it's made to seem normative, leaving "normal" to seem disappointing. Here are a few responses to this important question ...
Continue reading Q & A - relationship with God...
Thankfully I've had a few days home to recuperate from the flu ... today I head to Wilmington, Delaware to speak on EMC with First and Central Presbyterian ... If you're in the area, you can get more information here ... I hope to see you there!
Saturday night I'll come home for my dad's 84th birthday party. Happy Birthday, Dad!
I had the privilege of being involved with The Voice ... the New Testament was just released, available here. Here's a 7 minute video ...
Josh Bottomly sent me his response to the election ... It's beautifully written.
It begins like this:
I am a white-skinned father with a black-skinned son.A little over a year ago, my wife, Amy, and I adopted our son, Silas, from Ethiopia.
Silas turns two in December.
Today our conversations tend to revolve around our favorite snacks - yogurt and lemon pound cake at Starbucks - and favorite TV characters and movies - Elmo and Ratatouille. We also squabble very little these days. Sometimes Silas will take a swing at me when I take away the Wii joystick. And other times he'll treat the cheese sandwich I made him for dinner like a Frisbee.
One day, though, Silas will want to talk about other things.Like the color of his skin. And my skin. And his mother's skin. And pictures and events and people and dates he finds in his history textbook.
There are some historical dates I don't want to explain to Silas then. August 12th, 1955, for example. That's the day Emmett Till, a 14 year old boy, was brutally lynched in Mississippi by white, southern, "Christian" men.
... But then there are days I can't wait to explain to Silas.
Days like December 1st, 1955. The day when Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white man. That small, defiant "no" reverberated out into a large, defiant "no more."
There are other days, too. Like August 28th, 1963. The day Martin Luther King delivered his famous message, "I Have a Dream." It was a day unlike any other day. It was a day of dreaming of another kind of America.
And now there is November 4th, 2008.
This is a day I look forward to telling Silas about - not as a student of history, but as a participator in making history.
And I will tell Silas this: I voted for Obama. For you. For me. For us.
To read the rest - and see a family photo - go here.
Here are a few more excerpts of interest from the dozens of emails I've received about the election ... plus an apology ...
Continue reading a few more responses ... and an apology...
I am part of a fascinating project at the Sojourners blog ... leaders offering encouragement and counsel to our new president.
My piece begins like this:
As you prepare to begin your historic presidency, I offer you these simple words from another senator of Illinois in whose footsteps you are walking. Abraham Lincoln said, "I desire so to conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end I have lost every other friend on earth, I shall at least have one friend left, and that friend shall be down inside of me."Being a friend to yourself will mean at least four things for you:
First and foremost, it will mean keeping your soul open and connected to God — through prayer, through worship, through fellowship, through confession of your sins and mistakes, through constant thanksgiving, and through a sustained humble attitude of dependence on God. If you seek God’s wisdom, will, and guidance first, you will lead with the same serenity and strength that have brought you this far.
For the rest, go here ...
Also, I am part of the On Faith blog, where I posted on "The Maturing of America" - here. My post begins like this ...
Over my lifetime, I've had the recurring feeling that America was an adolescent nation beginning to come of age. Like a lot of adolescents, our national behavior was erratic, moody, reactive, hostile, defiant. We found ourselves popular, got conceited, broke faith with our best family traditions, made excuses for ourselves, blamed others when things went wrong. We flirted with the drug of war, had some bad trips, pulled back, then relapsed several times. We didn't know how to handle our money. We bullied our younger brothers and sisters. We got caught in some orgies of torture and other shameful behavior. Yet we thought we were "all that" and found it nearly impossible to admit our failures.During this election, I felt that our nation was poised between the chance to grow up a little and the chance to prolong its adolescence a little longer. By choosing Barack Obama, I believe, we've chosen to mature into a more responsible and humble young adulthood as a nation.
Enjoy this terrifying piece from the Onion ...
Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are
This one comes from a "post-pentecostal" friend from Europe ...
I want to congratulate you and the world, for the right choice the American people made in choosing Obama as the next president of the United States. Even though many evangelicals, Charismatic/pentecostals are not happy with the election of Obama,
I am very happy! Africa is rejoicing today, because this time Africa has exported a President instead of a Slave!
This is from a friend in a swing state from a few days ago ...
I just wanted to say thank you for your wise and hopeful words throughout this campaign. The spirit of your words was in such stark contrast to the fear-mongering of much of the so-called "right." It truly opened my eyes to an ugly arrogance/ignorance (a dangerous combination) thread that runs through a good deal of evangelicalism. And I resonate with the comments on your blog this a.m.. As an American, I have the right to remain silent about my political choices, but I don't have the ability. :-) As a result, it is quite clear that many of my Republican friends think less of me."
Sojourners has put together a powerful and positive way to respond to the election. Check it out here ... I hope you'll sign on!
I posted my first response to the amazing election results at the On Faith site, here.
Since I was public in my support for President-Elect Obama, I've been flooded with emails this morning. Here are three excerpts from Evangelical Christians who have written me this morning ...
An Evangelical friend from the US wrote ...
... While I didn’t vote for Barack (or McCain for that matter, as I’d like to see our government grow beyond a two party system) I have to say that, for the first time in my life, I’m something other than ambivalent post-election. Barack speech reflected many of the things that you offered as reasons to vote for him and I do think it was a great moment for our country. The end of his speech, where he talked about the 102 year old voter in Georgia, was spot on and hope filled. It was good to see.
Continue reading Responses from friends ......
Thanks to everyone who had the courage to vote for change over entrenchment, hope over fear, diversity over homogeneity, and reconciliation over division. So many people have put their skin in the game and worked hard to make this moment possible. This is good news for our country and a good moment for our world. There is much to be done, but we have begun an important journey. May all Americans celebrate this historic moment. May a new day begin. May God help us make the most of this moment.
The day has arrived ... I just received an email from a South African friend who has been watching news reports of people waiting for hours in voting lines, and he said it reminded him of 1994 in his country - not just an election, but a turning point in the story of a nation.
I've spent a lot of time in Indiana over the last several weeks. I can't tell you how many times people came up to me and said something like this:
I've never voted for a Democrat in all my life, but I'm voting for Obama. If the people at my Evangelical church knew, they would ostracize me and never treat me the same. So I'm not making a lot of noise about it, but when I get behind the curtain to vote, I'm voting for hope over fear.
If you're one of those people, I encourage you to vote all your values, not just one or two.
If you don't know where to vote, you can find out easily here ...
Whoever wins today, I have to say it has been a great honor to be a public supporter of Barack Obama. Here's to the "yes we can!" spirit ...
Here's a prayer I'm praying this morning ... written by Rabbi Michel Lerner (tikkun.org) ...
Continue reading Please Vote Today!...
I just returned from a tremendous weekend in Indianapolis. We had our final EMC event on Saturday at St. Luke's UMC, one of my favorite churches, pastored by one of my favorite pastors, Dr. Kent Millard. I spoke at St. Luke's on Sunday, and then participated in the Spirit and Place public dialogue at Butler University, a delightful experience. Dr. Scott Russell Sanders moderated this conversation with film-maker Julie Dash and author/essayist Richard Rodriguez and me. Monday morning at Butler University, I presented a lecture and led a dialogue on doubt and certainty. I won't forget the weekend for many reasons, but especially because I've never been so physically sick when having to speak ... I came down with the flu on Thursday and am still pretty sick today. With God's help, encouragement from colleagues, and pockets full of throat losenges, I made it through. Now I'll have a few days at home to recuperate.
I'll be in Indianapolis doing our very last EMC tour event ... it's not too late to register. Just sign up here.
I'll also be at the Spirit and Place festival on Sunday and Butler University on Monday. I hope to see many of you in Indiana this weekend!
Jonathan Merritt has some good insight on younger Evangelical voters on Religion and Ethics Newsweekly ... here.
My favorite campaign song so far ...
If you haven't heard about Mark Siljander's new book, A Deadly Misunderstanding, I'd encourage you to check out this website and read this book. I'm heartbroken to watch politicians continue to overtly or covertly fan the flames of anti-Muslim and anti-Arab prejudice. I'm even more heartbroken to see Christian leaders doing the same. Mark Siljander courageously reverses this trend - promoting accurate understanding and intelligent engagement rather than prejudice and bigotry.
Here's an interview I did with Wineskins Magazine ... here. It's largely about my newest book, Finding Our Way Again ... also available here.
Several people have asked about where they can get hi-res versions of some of the youtube pieces on my channel. The answer - here.
Here's a provocative response to James Dobson's recent apocalyptic anti-Obama letter. Jim Wallis also offers a good antidote to fear-mongering here and here. And Ryan Beillor adds his insights here.
It's an exciting time to be alive!
I just received a copy of A Generous Orthodoxy in Chinese ...
It's published by Wave/ Campus Evangelical Fellowship, P O Box 13-144, Taipei 106, Taiwan, ROC.
Feel free to compare this post with my posts on why I'm voting for Barack Obama ...
Reason 1
Reason 2
Reason 3
Reason 4
Reason 5
It's been a full, intense, and rewarding fall season. I just came home from 8 amazing days on the road - at Anderson University in Indiana, Ginghamsburg UMC in Ohio, CCDA in Miami, and Wicker Park Grace, 4th Presbyterian, and McCormick Seminary in Chicago. This great week follows visits to Alabama, Colorado, California, Ontario, Texas, New York, and Tennessee over the last six weeks.
I can't remember experiencing better hospitality and a warmer reception than I've experienced this fall ... I've been deeply impressed by the good spirit and wonderful people at each venue.
It was great to sleep in my own bed last night, and to see the glorious fall colors out my front door today. Today I'm catching my breath and feeling a lot of gratitude and hope. Thanks be to God!
And I'm looking forward to our last presentation of the Everything Must Change tour in Indianapolis this Saturday, along with a visit to St. Luke's UMC Sunday and to the Spirit and Place Festival as well. For information, check out deepshift.org.
Here's a great piece from CNN, featuring David Brody of CBN ... He mentions the Faith Forums that I've had the opportunity to be part of, along with Matthew 25.org, in which I've been enthusiastically involved ... It's about 4.5 minutes long, worth a view:
Conservative blogger Andrew Sullivan offers his ten reasons for voting for Barack Obama here.
James Dobson's organization has sent out a really scary letter about all the terrible things that will happen by 2012 if Barack Obama becomes president. You can download it and respond to it here.
A Jewish group has sent out a similar letter, evoking the holocaust no less, which you can read about here.
Fear is a powerful currency, both in religion and politics. But according to a reputable source, God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control.
Speaking of power, love, and self-control rather than fear, Jim Wallis again gets a home run with this piece on Joe the Pastor ... Great quote:
Joe the plumber is mostly asking what could happen to him, but pastors have the obligation to ask their congregants to go deeper than that. In Faithful Citizenship, a helpful pamphlet published for the 2004 election, the United States Catholic Bishops wrote, “Politics in this election year and beyond should be about an old idea with new power — the common good. The central questions should not be, ‘Are you better off than you were four years ago?’ It should be, ‘How can “we” — all of us, especially the weak and vulnerable — be better off in the years ahead? How can we protect and promote human life and dignity? How can we pursue greater justice and peace?”
Another great post on the side of sanity ... Bob Carlton's here.
European friends - I just learned that my friend Tobias Faix has completed the translation of EMC into German. The title in German is ... Höchste Zeit, umzudenken: Jesus, globale Krisen und die Revolution der Hoffnung
It can be ordered here ...
This John Mayer song captures the tension a lot of people feel ... between hope and cynicism about change happening in our world. I certainly feel cynical at times, but for me, hope wins (along with faith and love).
These two songs by Ben Harper - With My Own Two Hands ... and Picture of Jesus ... express that hope.
As does this video from "Songs from a Revolution of Hope"
By the way, we'll be in Indianapolis for a reprise of the Tour this weekend! Check it out here ...
The lyrics are included after the jump ...
Continue reading Waiting on the World to Change...
Reason 5: The Sacredness of Life
(You can read my earlier posts beginning here ...)
Some of my friends and relatives have been reading my reasons for voting for Barack Obama, but the issue of abortion is a major roadblock for them. They believe that a vote for Obama is a vote for abortion, and a vote for McCain is a vote against abortion. They are surprised to learn that I believe an Obama presidency could actually take us farther in reducing abortion than a McCain presidency, and it could do so through a wiser, less-divisive, more effective strategy. Here’s why.
Again and again over the last 30 years, Republican presidents and other politicians have used the issue of abortion to get elected and raise funds, but then, once in office, they have said little about abortion and done even less. Some say that their silence doesn’t matter, because the only way abortion can be reduced is by electing presidents who will appoint Supreme Court justices who will overturn Roe vs. Wade. This strategy is being quietly pursued, they say, so the plan is working. But there are good reasons to question this logic.
Continue reading Why I'm voting for Barack Obama ... and I hope you will too. Reason 5...
I am so impressed by Jim's articulation of key moral priorities in this election season.
My Personal ‘Faith Priorities’ for this Election by Jim Wallis 10-23-2008In 2004, several conservative Catholic Bishops and a few megachurch pastors like Rick Warren issued their list of “non-negotiables,” which were intended to be a voter guide for their followers. All of them were relatively the same list of issues: abortion, gay marriage, stem cell research, etc. None of them even included the word “poverty,” only one example of the missing issues which are found quite clearly in the Bible. All of them were also relatively the same as official Republican Party Web sites of “non-negotiables.” The political connections and commitments of the religious non-negotiable writers were quite clear.
I want to suggest a different approach this year and share my personal list of “faith priorities” that will guide me in making the imperfect choices that always confront us in any election year — and suggest that each of you come up with your own list of “faith” or “moral” priorities for this election year and take them into the polling place with you.
You can read the whole post here ...
It's well worth reading and passing on!
Amazon has the softcover Secret Message of Jesus on sale for $5.49 ... amazingly cheap! And Barnes and Noble has the hard-cover available even cheaper - for $5.38!
Everything Must Change is $14.95 from amazon and $15.83 from Barnes and Noble ...
And the new DVD study guide for Everything Must Change is also available now. It's $39.99 from Amazon and $31.99 from Barnes and Noble ... It came out really well, and if you're leading a book study group, I think you'll find the 8 video intros and additional discussion questions really helpful.
BTW - Finding Our Way Again is $12.23 from amazon and $14.39 from Barnes and Noble.
Through the amahoro-africa network, I have developed many good friends from the Congo. If you're not aware of the emergency there, this is a disturbing overview.
In our US elections, there's been a lot of mockery of community organizers. But in my travels, I've seen the tremendous courage and sacrifice of community organizers. This morning, I read about community organizers in Honduras who have been killed for their work on behalf of justice for the poor. I also was able to advocate for their colleagues so they will not become victims of community oppressors ... I hope that you'll take a few minutes to learn the truth about the important work of these dedicated Christian community organizers, and that you'll add your voice in their support here ...
I leave in a few minutes for a busy week on the road speaking to college students, Christian community organizers (!), pastors, and seminarians. First, to Indiana, then to Ohio, then to Florida (I know, this sounds like a political tour to contested states in the election, but it's not!), then to Chicago. (Details are available on my schedule page here on the site.)
I've been hoping to put up at least one more post on my reasons for being an enthusiastic supporter of Barack Obama for president, but that may have to wait until next week. In the meantime, I think it's interesting to note that General Colin Powell's endorsement of Obama, based largely on the idea of needing a transformational leader who represents generational change, resonates very much with what I wrote in my first post, available here. If you haven't checked out the Matthew 25 site on the election, take a look now.
Grace and I took a long walk around our neighborhood on Sunday, just enjoying the amazing fall colors ... part of God's annual display of tree-art. If you're stuck indoors, here's a link to some beautiful photos of God's animal-art show ... thanks to Jason Clark for the link. These beautiful October days in God's beautiful world have me humming the old hymn "How Great Thou Art."
Several moving emails have come in recent days that I think are worth sharing because they give a window into the heart of Evangelical Christianity.
Hi Brian, Just wanted to let you know that I'm so excited to have started reading your books - they are proving to be a lifesaver to me. I have been a Christian for 14 years and have belonged to a small, loving, non denominational, fundamental, evangelical (what a mouthful!) Christian church. I am very active in various ministries in the church but have always had many, many questions, differences in traditional views that I have kept to myself, thinking "there must be something wrong with me, etc.". I have reached a crisis point in the past 6 months and your books have been a lifeline to me. It is so amazing to find out there are many others who think/feel the way I do. I don't want to say too much at church as I don't want to cause division or upset or be disrespectful of what has worked for many people for most of their lives.
This is what I'm hearing more and more, not just from young people, but from 40 and 50 and 60 and 70-somethings too.
A truly thoughtful essay from James Skillen here ...
This caught my eye because I'm at Lipscomb University speaking with Walter Brueggemann and others on Exodus as a paradigmatic text.
Reason 4: The Environment
(This article is adapted from a piece originally published in Creation Care Magazine.)
I care about the environment. To me, it's not just stuff. It is God’s sacred creation. I love it. I cherish it. And because of that passion for creation, I am enthusiastically voting for Senator Barack Obama.
A while back I read a book about mountaintop removal in Appalachia. Then I saw a Sierra Club video that put the problem in color and in motion. I saw the devastation unleashed by insufficiently-regulated corporations, denuding and flattening once-majestic mountains, poisoning springs and creeks, sickening people, laying off workers, and making a few executives rich. Then a few months later I went fly fishing in Yellowstone, awed by the powerful presence of bison and elk, the fresh scent of grassy meadows in summer green, the shine of snowy peaks in the distance. Those two landscapes linger in my memory – one sold short for a fast profit, one conserved for posterity.
The good news is that either candidate in this November’s presidential election is likely to make the environment a higher priority than the Bush-Cheney administration has. The bad news is that this isn’t saying much.
The better news is that Barack Obama names global climate change “one of the greatest moral challenges of our generation.” The word “moral” takes on new significance when you stand in Yellowstone … or near what was once Lost Mountain in Appalachia.
Continue reading Why I'm Voting for Barack Obama ... and I hope you will too: Reason 4...
Here's a window into the soul of thousands of Evangelical Christians in America:
I recently tried to send this to a different e-mail address that I came across for you, so if you get double please ignore this. Anyway, I wanted to first of all take the time to thank you for your words that my wife and I have recently come across. We have both been at a place of searching in our lives for something of more substance and value than we are used to. I had been a youth/worship pastor for [several] years in an evangelical church and we have both been attending a church of this nature for a while now.
Continue reading An email that just came in ......
We're doing a final stop on the Everything Must Change tour in Indianapolis, November 1 ... It would be fantastic to have you be part of it! Information here ...
I'd love to see you ...
I'll be in Anderson at noon ... info here.
Then in Marion at 2:15 ... Clarence Faulkner Community Center, 1221 W 12th Street.
I'll be leading discussions about faith and values in the presidential campaign, in support of Senator Obama.
A lot of us have been disturbed recently to see xenophobia and bigotry passing off for patriotism and piety.
That's why you should read these books ...
New out this week, Mark Siljander's groundbreaking Deadly Misunderstanding ...
Then there's Who Speaks for Islam? - also by friends for whom I have great respect.
And don't miss this beautiful biography of my new friend Mazhar Mallouhi ...
I'll be part of the Matthew 25 gathering with Former Senate Majority leader Tom Daschle this Tuesday. We'll also be previewing a new video with Martin Sheen talking about his Catholic faith and why people of faith should support Senator Obama. You're invited! Here's the information:
Tuesday, October 14th - 7pm (plan to arrive a little early) Hosted in the home of Julian Epstein, The Lofts at Adams Morgan, 2328 Champlain Street NW, #401, Washington, DC 20009 Minimum Gift: $100 * VIP Supporter: $500 Please RSVP to mara@matthew25.org
If you haven't seen Matthew 25's surprising data on abortion, be sure to check this out.
Continue reading In the DC area? Join me Tuesday night, October 14 ......
A new friend, Frank Schaeffer, wrote this strong and needed letter to Senator McCain in the Baltimore Sun.
It looks like Senator McCain is, on occasion at least, becoming aware of the dangerous emotions that can be unleashed when he and Gov. Palin suggest that Senator Obama is a terrorist sympathizer, dishonorable, and so on.
It's frightening to me to watch anti-Arab and anti-Muslim sentiment be tolerated as it has been on all sides in this election; prejudice of any kind is simply unChristian and wrong.
So ... congratulations to Senator McCain for trying to put the hissing cat of fear and hatred back into the bag. Let's all work together against bigoted, dangerous, inflammatory speech, so that in these remaining weeks of the election, we don't hurt and divide our country more than it already is. What would it profit to win an election and destroy the nation in the process?
I'll be leading a discussion on faith, values and politics - this Monday, October 13th, at 12 p.m. at the Anderson City Hall Auditorium, 120 East 8th Street – Anderson, IN. The event is in support of the Barack Obama campaign ... If you know folks in the area who might want to come, would you spread the word? Thanks!
Jonny Baker offers very insightful and helpful reflections on emergent-emerging-emergence-etc. ... Thanks, Jonny.
Why is another important Pro-Lifer coming out for Obama ... find out here. I think you'll find his reasons fascinating.
As more mud is being slung in the presidential campaign, it's nice to come across a positive story like this one ...
If you're a Pro-Life person who supports McCain/Palin because they're Pro-Life, I hope you'll check out the Matthew 25 Network's new information on Obama and abortion here. See especially this page.
If you're concerned about both candidates being truthful, check out this . This piece takes up a challenge from Senator McCain regarding truthfulness.
My friend David Bodanis offers a thoughtful theological reflection on the financial crisis here in the Financial Times. David is writing a book on the Ten Commandments ... which should be excellent.
Another wise friend, economist Bob Goudzwaard, forwarded these reflections he had written for some friends in the UK ... Bob's co-authored book Hope in Troubled Times is a brilliant engagement with the same questions I grapple with in Everything Must Change.
Continue reading more on financial crisis...
I am a passionate participant in the growing anti-torture movement, led by David Gushee and others. I recently blogged about a disturbing report, indicating that Southern White Evangelicals are more likely to support torture than Americans in general. So a number of us are making this request for your expression of support. I hope you'll take a moment and respond ... and I hope you'll ask the religious leaders in your life if they have take a stand yet. This tide must be turned.
+++++
Our nation, our allies, and our enemies now know that the United States has committed torture against foreign detainees. And regardless of the motivation for doing so, torture is a nonnegotiable moral issue that we need to end once and for all.
That's why, last June, I was one of more than 200 military, security, and faith leaders who signed a nonpartisan Declaration of Principles calling on the President to issue an Executive Order to ban torture. Since then, thousands of citizens have joined us, and I hope that you'll consider doing so, too.
You can read a *summary of the effort* in this recent God's Politics blog post:
And you can *sign the Declaration* here.
I hope that you'll sign on, and that you'll in turn send this message to your friends and colleagues. Thank you for taking this stand with me.
Sign the Declaration!
*TORTURE IS UN-AMERICAN, IMMORAL, AND BAD FOR SECURITY.
*
I just received this email from a chaplain ...
I am a chaplain in a minimum security prison for women, and I am looking for good Bible study materials that would support the "New Kind of Christian." I have one inmate in particular who was reared by parents who were atheists, and Brian McLaren's books are having a tremendous influence on her life as she is coming to a new-found faith. Most Bible study material, particularly anything that is free to inmates, is definitely not of a "generous orthodoxy!"
Two things struck me as I thought about this question. First, I've been noticing more than ever how many chaplains are "ahead of the curve" in dealing with the "great emergence" we're part of. Many (not all!) pastors, professors, and denominational officials can stay in their comfortable echo chambers in a way that chaplains can't - whether they're serving in hospitals, prisons, universities, retirement centers, or elsewhere.
Second, whether it's for adult Bible study or kids and youth curriculum, we need some creative people to generate "a new kind of curriculum" to help folks.
Maybe this thread should be picked up elsewhere - maybe at the emergentvillage.com blog, which, if you haven't checked it out lately, is better-than-ever. A number of questions come to mind - what's unhelpful about existing curricula, what heuristic changes are needed, and what content innovations are needed so the Bible can be liberated from the modernist, colonialist, chauvinist, individualist, etc. etc. biases under which it is often held captive?
As I watch tonight's debate, I'm going to keep this pledge in mind ...
I hereby pledge: 1) To take into account a candidate's civility when voting. I understand that electoral politics requires offense, defense, and sharp elbows, but I will consider personal attacks made by candidates and their surrogates to be marks of dishonor and warning signs of a divisive leader to come.2) To model civil politics in my own life. I will argue for what I believe in and against those with whom I disagree, but I will show respect for my opponents by assuming that they are as sincere in their beliefs as I am in mine. Knowing how moralistic and self-righteous we all are, I will refrain from assuming the worst about the motives and character of those I disagree with. I will criticize their ideas instead.
You can learn more about this pledge here ...
Also - Jonathan Haidt's TED video on the underlying differences between liberals and conservatives is well worth the 18 minutes to watch it. (Thanks, Paul Harder!)
The first image portrays war casualties in the latter half of the twentieth century, and the second projects wealth distribution by nation for 2015. Note especially the relative sizes of Africa.
Source: Andrew Sullivan.
Here's an email I received today ...
I guess this is a comment, although it may be more accurate to entitle it as a report. I am part of a home group ... As a group, the members chose to read and discuss Everything Must Change. Prior to finishing the book and our discussion of it we received a letter from the lead pastor which forbade us to finish the book ...
Continue reading So much for open inquiry ......
John Murdock responds passionately and articulately to a post on campaign integrity here.
Why don't you join Little Lights for a fundraising banquet this Saturday night? Little Lights does street-level work in DC to help under-served kids. The Little Lights folks are "the real deal" - I'm honored to be the banquet speaker. For more info on Little Lights, go here. If you can't make the dinner, but would like to donate, go here.
Jonathan Merritt's new blog is off to a great start. He reports on a startling move of Religious Right pastors to endorse John McCain this Sunday from their pulpits, calling the move "stupid" - a case of highly accurate diction, in my opinion. And he reports on the SBC-Lifeway decision to pull a magazine from their shelves that features women pastors. These are sobering reminders that the Religious Right is far from over, and their worst days may be ahead of us.
[Thanks for all the positive responses to this series of posts. You can find Part 1 here ... and Part 2 here. Reminder - I'm speaking here for myself as a private US citizen, and not on behalf of any group. ]
Reason 3: The Least of These
I’m a Matthew 25 guy. That means that I take very seriously Jesus’ words about caring for “the least of these.” I don’t believe a nation’s moral greatness is measured by how many tax breaks it gives its richest individuals and corporations, or by it's kill-power in terms of weapons and readiness to use them, but rather by how it cares for its most vulnerable people – its children, its sick, its disabled, its unemployed, its minorities.
So when I come to an election, I don’t just ask, “Which candidate will do the most for me and my nuclear family?” I extend my concern.
I extend it to my extended family, which includes people with special needs and disabilities, people with chronic illnesses, gay people, poor people, people of advanced age, people with histories of addiction and crime and mental illness. How will they be treated in a McCain administration? How will they be treated in an Obama administration?
I extend my concern even farther. How about people who live less than an hour from my front door – in inner-city Washington DC, in impoverished sections of Baltimore – how will they fare? Which president will be most concerned about them? Or how about people in states like Ohio and Michigan … where hundreds of thousands of people are unemployed because too many American corporations shipped jobs overseas? Or people in Katrina-devastated areas of Mississippi and Louisiana? Or people in the coal country of Kentucky or East Tennessee and West Virginia, whose lives are being devastated by the “externalized costs” of “cheap coal?”
I don’t stop there either. I go beyond the US. I think about slums where I have walked, people I have met, shacks I have sat in and shanties I have eaten meals in … from Mexico to Chile to South Africa to Burundi. Which candidate will do the most for the least of the least of these?
And when I ask these questions, it’s not just a matter of foreign aid, as important as that may be. It’s a matter of trade as well: which candidate is most interested in trade policies that avoid exploitation abroad as well as at home? And it’s also a matter of war, because a nation at war has fewer resources to be generous.
The gap between rich and poor is growing greater and greater, in this country and around the world. So I ask myself, which candidate is concerned about strengthening the economy in robust ways that will not simply help oil companies, coal companies, and job exporters make higher profits, but will instead support the development of new “green” businesses that have the most promising future and can provide meaningful jobs here and abroad that workers can take true pride in?
Which candidate best understands poverty and economic vulnerability through the closest experience of it? Which one promises to bring the most resources – energy, intelligence, creativity, and commitment – to helping the least of these?
I don’t doubt that Senator McCain would make national defense his top priority as president, and I don’t doubt that he would be most ready to sustain or expand our war-making activities around the world. But I’m ashamed of our nation being known for rushing to war. I would like to be known for helping the poor.
In the end, I truly believe that a nation that helps the poor will have fewer enemies – and therefore more national security – than one that pursues its own national interest through war. As the Apostle Paul said, “Do not look out only for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Your attitude should be that of Christ Jesus.” That other-oriented mindset is, to me, a powerful reason to support Barack Obama for president.
(You may be wondering, “What about the unborn? Aren't they among the least of these? And what about other living creatures - endangered species and the threatened ecosystems on which they depend? Aren’t they among the least of these?” I plan to address these issues in upcoming posts. Stay tuned. For more on Matthew 25, check out the Matthew 25 Network.)
In an earlier post, I explained my impression that Senator McCain is a "fight first" guy. He certainly reinforced that image tonight - contemptuous, combative, fault-finding, angry.
In contrast, Senator Obama reflected a calm, reasonable, irenic, strong, and wise demeanor. I think Andrew Sullivan's comments are spot on ... it was graceful of Obama to affirm McCain, although sadly, McCain showed none of that grace. I also agree with Sullivan that it is indeed significant that McCain seemed to acknowledge that the current president has indeed been engaged in torture of prisoners.
I thought it was quite ironic that Senator McCain attacked Obama's experience, when Sarah Palin is the person he chose to be one 72-year-old-heartbeat away from the presidency, whose readiness was evidenced here.
Like a lot of people, I'm disturbed - actually, infuriated - by dishonest political ads. I find it strange that a toothpaste company can't lie about its competitors nor can it misrepresent its own product without being liable to lawsuit, but there are no laws against lying among political candidates. So, I'm disappointed when either campaign spins, stretches, or breaks faith with the truth.
As an enthusiastic supporter of Barack Obama, I was saddened to read this ...
And I was disturbed when an Obama supporter said things like this ...
Sadly, Senator McCain's campaign has repeatedly stooped to deeply disturbing levels, as explained here and here.
As has his vice presidential candidate, as explained here and here ...
So, my hope is that Democrats will complain when Democratic candidates are less than honest and honorable, and Republicans will do the same. If we let our candidates get away with sleaze, if they win the election but lose their integrity, we'll get what we deserve after the elections.
See the Put Away Falsehood Campaign for accurate responses to falsehoods being spread about Barack Obama, and see Fact Check's "whopper roundup" for both campaigns here.
The words of the Apostle Paul are certainly relevant:
"Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are all of the same body" (Ephesians 4:25).
This important letter is from our brothers and sisters in the global south ... I hope you'll spread the word.
(Thanks to Mike Todd for passing on this link.)
Two really helpful responses ... make that three ... no four:
First, from Chuck Collins ... author of The Moral Measure of the Economy (one of the best books on a Christian view of economics I've ever seen - highly recommended).
Second, from Sojourners ... where you can send a message telling our government not to bail out Wall Street without caring for "Main Street."
Third, from Economic Pundit Jon Stewart
And Bob Carlton gets it right here. He says ...
Devinder Sarma frames the contrast in priorities in STWR (Share The World's Resources):The one trillion dollar bailout package that President Bush is promising could have wiped out the last traces of poverty, hunger, malnutrition and squalor from the face of the Earth - if only our global leadership prioritised the poor with the same level of urgency as the financial crisis
It is shocking to me how silent American churchianity has been in the midst of this collapse. America's Pastor has not said one word in the last 20 days about what is happening to people's homes & their retirement, as well as the $1 trillion plan for financial PEACE. Mainline leaders have been silent as well, ironic given how much of their funding comes from the very investment bankers who drove this collapse. Those who tout themselves as traditionalist or orthodox have been fairly silent, despite their emphasis on free markets as an idea that is almost Biblical.
Be sure to watch the beautiful music video at the bottom of the page.
One wouldn't expect George Will to be an Obama supporter ... but here is how he ends an important editorial in the Washington Post:
Conservatives who insist that electing McCain is crucial usually start, and increasingly end, by saying he would make excellent judicial selections. But the more one sees of his impulsive, intensely personal reactions to people and events, the less confidence one has that he would select judges by calm reflection and clear principles, having neither patience nor aptitude for either.It is arguable that, because of his inexperience, Obama is not ready for the presidency. It is arguable that McCain, because of his boiling moralism and bottomless reservoir of certitudes, is not suited to the presidency. Unreadiness can be corrected, although perhaps at great cost, by experience. Can a dismaying temperament be fixed?
Will speaks of McCain's "fact-free slander," of his substituting "vehemence for coherence," and the "depths of McCain's shallowness." I hope many of my conservative friends will take Will's editorial seriously. I think he's right - a smart, teachable person like Obama will inevitably learn and gain experience, just as he's been doing through the campaign. But while Senator Obama has been growing more and more presidential, Senator McCain has, it appears, been deteriorating in judgment, temperament, honesty, and other needed presidential qualities.
With so much going on in the US, and in the world, it's easy to overlook what four major hurricanes have done to Haiti, the Western Hemisphere's poorest country. Here are some brief reports from the good people of Floresta.
If you, like me, want to go public with your support for Barack Obama's presidency, I encourage you to check out clergyforobama.org. The site makes clear you're not speaking for anyone else ... but are making your personal support public. Doing so takes courage, I know, because many Christians still believe that they only have permission to support Republicans. I decided this year I was willing to make public what I had long believed in private - that no party has a lock on people of faith who vote all their values. Of course, I respect those who see things differently, and I trust they will do the same for me.
And be sure to check out matthew25.org too, especially the "Put Away Falsehood" pages.
There are 3 remaining opportunities in 2008 to catch my presentations on "Everything Must Change."
This weekend in Ontario, not far from Toronto ... hosted by The Meeting Place.
And November 1 in Indianapolis ... you can download the flyer here ...
Download file
And November 7-8 in Wilmington Delaware ... info here.
[This is part of an ongoing series. I am speaking as a private citizen and not as a representative of any group.]
Reason 2: Leadership Integrity
I am voting for Barack Obama because I value personal integrity in leaders. Personal integrity requires a leader to repudiate falsehood, hate hypocrisy, and pursue fidelity to justice and truth, in private and in public. A person shows a pattern of integrity through fidelity to his or her spouse, through his or her refusal to employ falsehood for personal advantage, and through his or her willingness to admit mistakes and forgo excuses or blame-shifting whenever lapses occur. It seems clear to me that Senator Obama surpasses his counterpart on all counts.
Sadly, tragically even, Senator McCain has not repudiated the proven dishonesty and deceit of the Bush-Rove-Cheney years. In fact, his campaign has been outstripping even Bush-Cheney-Rove in misleading the public with a straight face while claiming straight talk. Even fellow Republicans are finding McCain's tactics indefensible. Recalling the old saying about all being fair in love and war, McCain seems to see the world through a consummate warrior narrative (see EMC, Part 5), which leads him to love winning at all costs – including the expense of integrity, which in turn makes fidelity to “the reality-based community” quaint and only advisable when it is advantageous. Yes, all of us have lapses in integrity at times; all of us need grace. As a deeply flawed yet committed Christian, I am the first to affirm this. But when you look at personal and public patterns of integrity over many years, Barack Obama shines and John McCain stumbles badly.
But my concern is not only John McCain. I’m also terribly concerned about the party that nominated him. I don’t believe that a party that rushes to war based on a false pretenses deserves to be re-elected, no matter how loudly it claims to be for "family values" or "small-town values." Do you? Is there an integrity lapse more serious than this?
Continue reading Why I'm Voting for Barack Obama - and Why I Hope You Will Too ... Reason 2...
My friend Paul Rauschenbusch gets it right here ...
As I said in my previous posting, this election is about two very different narratives, a negative, combative one of fear, and a positive, creative one of hope. I'm voting for hope.
Reason 1: Framing Story
[Note: over the next few weeks, I'll be posting a number of personal reflections on the political campaign. I am only speaking as a private citizen, not as the representative of any group.]
My top reason for supporting Barack Obama for president centers in the narrative I believe he frames his life and work by, in contrast to the narrative John McCain frames his life and work by. To me, this issue of narrative (or framing story, for readers of my book Everything Must Change) means far more in a president than whether he claims to be liberal or conservative, religious or nonreligious, Christian or otherwise, Democrat or Republican.
Does anyone doubt that Senator McCain lives by a warrior narrative? This is the most consistent theme in his campaign. For him the world is clearly divided into us and them.
We are good; they are evil. We are right; they are wrong. We are about safety; they are about danger.
This dualistic and fearful narrative is deeply rooted in McCain’s generation. They were formed in the simple, binary context of Axis and Allies, and then Communists and Free World. When Communism collapsed, a new antagonist conveniently presented itself (pre-empting the expected "peace dividend" and keeping the famed "military-industrial complex" well funded). This new war became what McCain calls “the transcendent challenge of the 21st century,” the clash of the West with fundamentalist Islam. McCain’s word “transcendent” is significant. It suggests a kind of holy war mentality, because for McCain, these us-them dualisms are absolute and therefore of a cosmic, metaphysical, even spiritual nature.
Continue reading Why I'm Voting for Obama, and Why I Hope You Will Too: Reason 1...
The good people of Associated Baptist Press released a disturbing story today ...
600 Southern white evangelicals were recently polled on their views of torture. White Southern Evangelicals are more likely than the general populace to believe torture is sometimes or often justified. The article explains ...
A new survey suggests the very Americans who claim to follow the Bible most assiduously don’t consult it when forming their views about torture and government policy.
On a more encouraging note ...
Continue reading Please Forward this link to White Evangelicals you know...
Bloggingheads.tv has some short clips of a recent diavlog I had with Dr. Richard Land, well-known Southern Baptist leader.
I felt pretty boring, wordy, and inarticulate for most of this conversation, but perhaps it will be of interest to some folks.
http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/14162?in=01:29&out=48:20
Entire discussion URL
http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/14162?in=04:12&out=07:59
Why some progressive religious people are chary of Sarah Palin
http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/14162?in=42:25&out=46:30
The necessity of speaking the truth out of one's faith, rather than hewing to party politics
http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/14162?in=33:56&out=37:49
Are affirmative action premises obsolete?
--
Last year, I participated in this amazing experience ...
If you're in or near the DC area, you could experience some "good neighborliness" at the 9/11 Unity Walk ...
You can see two beautiful short videos about the Batwa in East Africa here
This one is about the Batwa education project ...
This one is about a recent mass Batwa wedding and the fascinating story behind it.
The village where these videos were shot by David Shook is the one I visited in June ... here.
If you want to learn more about the people behind Community For Burundi, check out amahoro-africa.org.
Journalist Sarah Posner offers a round-up on Evangelical religion and the Republican party.
I am among the many who feels we are watching a kind of tragic meltdown of John McCain from seasoned Senator and war hero to typical Rovian swiftboat politician. He said he was willing to lose the election to win the Iraq war, but sadly, it appears his character has deteriorated to the point where he is willing to lose his integrity to win the election. He is doing so by degenerating into Rovian "slash and burn" swiftboat politics. For example, check out this. Even youtube has higher standards in what they'll show than the McCain camp has in what they'll produce.
Speaking of Rove, you can read about how he trashed McCain in 2000 here ... and how he's now working for McCain here.
I was reading Andrew Sullivan's in-depth political bio of Rove in the Atlantic Monthly, and this paragraph - about Rove's role in Mark Kennedy's 1994 judicial campaign - jumped out at me:
Some of Kennedy's campaign commercials touted his volunteer work, including one that showed him holding hands with children. "We were trying to counter the positives from that ad," a former Rove staffer told me, explaining that some within the See camp initiated a whisper campaign that Kennedy was a pedophile. "It was our standard practice to use the University of Alabama Law School to disseminate whisper-campaign information," the staffer went on. "That was a major device we used for the transmission of this stuff. The students at the law school are from all over the state, and that's one of the ways that Karl got the information out—he knew the law students would take it back to their home towns and it would get out." This would create the impression that the lie was in fact common knowledge across the state. "What Rove does," says Joe Perkins, "is try to make something so bad for a family that the candidate will not subject the family to the hardship. Mark is not your typical Alabama macho, beer-drinkin', tobacco-chewin', pickup-drivin' kind of guy. He is a small, well-groomed, well-educated family man, and what they tried to do was make him look like a homosexual pedophile. That was really, really hard to take."
The eery, sleazy similarity between Rove versus Kennedy in 1994 and this week's disgusting "sex ed" ad from the McCain camp ... it deserves a second thought.
My friend Alan Bean gives Barack Obama some good advice here ... and it's good advice for the rest of us too.
Check out this story from my friend and musical collaborator, Tracy Howe ...
My advance copy of Phyllis Tickle's The Great Emergence arrived in the mail today. It is a treasure. Here's the endorsement I wrote for it:
The Great Emergence offers a sweeping overview of church history and locates us in a moment of great opportunity and challenge. To some, this analysis will come as a rude awakening, and to others, as a dream coming true. My hunch is that this will be one of the most important books of the year, and will shape the conversation among a wide range of Christians for years to come.
I highly, highly, highly recommend this book. It's deep, rich, provocative ... and really well written. It will release soon, and is available for pre-order now.
Now going from sublime to hilarious ... I also just read Nadia Bolz-Weber's book Salvation on the Small Screen. Nadia watched TBN for 24 hours straight in the company of some interesting friends, and the book records their responses. It's edifying in a "sarcastic-Lutheran" kind of way, but even more, it's the kind of book to just plain cheer you up. The guy next to me on a Southwest flight the other day leaned over and had to ask me what was so funny ...
The good people at hopeinfo.co.uk just posted a video I had the privilege of being part of. You can view it here ...
I posted some of my reflections on last night's RNC speeches here ...
More to come ...
In the meantime, Jon Stewart once again trumps "serious" journalists ...
Lots of good things happening in the next few months -
1. Emergent Village is promoting four important events this fall ...
* 2008-10-22 The 2008 Emergent Theological Conversation: Reclaiming Paul
* 2008-11-06 Worship in a Postmodern Accent
* 2008-11-08 Emergent Mid-Atlantic Conference
* 2008-12-05 The Great Emergence National Event
You can get information at emergentvillage.com
2. Pete Rollins (author of How (Not) to Speak of God and The Fidelity of Betrayal) has recently announced that he is planning a US speaking tour in January-February 2009 entitled "Lessons in Evandalism." This tour offers a unique opportunity to hear about Pete's latest thinking as he travels around the East Coast offering a cocktail of sermons, seminars, story-telling, facilitated discussions and workshops (in advance of two new books). He will be starting at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan on the 27th January 2009 and will finish up in New York City on the 20th February 2009. The tour aims to incorporate a diverse mix of universities, seminaries, street corners, churches, coffee shops and conferences. If you would be open, able and interested in inviting Pete to visit with you then contact Alyson McElroy Jones (pinkfly@inbox.com) for more details.
3. You can access a schedule of my events here ...
Here is a beautiful prayer from St. Augustine ...
O God, from Whom to be turned is to fall,
And to Whom to be turned is to rise,
And in Whom to stand is to abide forever,
Grant us in all our duties your help,
in all our perplexities your guidance,
in all our dangers your protection,
and in all our sorrows your peace. Amen.
This is a song by two Iranian sisters. An Iranian-born friend sent me the link, and I can't help but feel it would do my fellow USAmericans a lot of good to let this video/song sink in ...
Most of us who are most involved in "the emergent conversation" - from my perspective, at least - don't talk about "the emergent conversation" much any more. Instead of "talking about the conversation," we're busy having conversations ... about God, about Scripture, about life, about justice, about politics, about peace, about art, about poverty, about the environment, about movies, about spiritual formation of adults and children, about all sorts of things.
That might explain why a recent Publisher's Weekly article suggested that I have "moved beyond" emergent. (The author, Marcia Ford, is a tremendous writer and does an admirable job in tackling a notoriously squirmy subject.)
I think it would be more accurate to say (as the article does in fact say, later on) that the emergent conversation itself continues to develop and move forward (or "move beyond"), which explains why I feel like I'm as much a part of things as ever and I can't imagine why anyone would think otherwise.
I remember some relationships in college where my significant other and I were always talking about "the relationship," defining "the relationship," etc., etc. ... All that relational self-consciousness turned out not to be a very good sign about the future of the relationship! So I take it as a good sign when the emergent conversation is less and less about itself ... "moving beyond" to other things.
Some important and fascinating thinking has been going on about all this among the emergent village board, drawing from an absolutely fascinating survey that was posted this summer. We should be coming out with some news on the survey, future direction, etc., in a month or two.
In the meantime, there are a lot of good things happening at emergentvillage.com, and all the other nodes of this "something" that is happening among followers of Christ. For what it's worth, I have no interest in arguing who is and who isn't emergent, emerging church, missional church, postmodern, new monastic, etc., etc., etc. It's just not the way I think, and in fact, drawing branding lines to define an in-group or out-group makes me itchy. Besides, for some people, having emergent sympathies might be like working for the CIA - the people who are deepest in could be the last to admit it for lots of good reasons.
Anyway, I'm interested in finding common ground with everybody I can ... as the subtitle of "A Generous Orthodoxy" suggested. I tend to think that this is what the emergent conversation has actually been about all along ...
Continue reading emergent in publisher's weekly...
Steve Knight is doing a tremendous job putting up good content at the emergentvillage.com blog ... he posted Don Miller's benediction from earlier this week. Well done, Don!
My friend Ryan Beiler over at sojo.net posted an especially good piece today ...
It features quotes from the real Charlie Wilson that resonate with the main thrust of my book Everything Must Change ...
I just heard from Jorge Camargo who has been involved with translating some of my books into Portuguese (thanks Jorge!).
Apparently A Generous Orthodoxy, which was recently translated, was just chosen by the Brazilian Association of Christian Publishers as book of the year. I'm honored!
If you want to order the book in English, you can do so here ...
I also just heard from Michel, a Farsi translator, that Finding Faith is now available in Iran. Here's some information ...
I returned home from England Monday afternoon after missing my Sunday afternoon flight (stupid mistake on my part ... but that's another story). It was a wonderful weekend at Greenbelt.
My sessions were amazingly well attended, especially because ...
- at my first session, the electricity wasn't working so I used a bullhorn to speak to several thousand people, who sat patiently, straining to catch the gist of my message.
- at my second session, a fire alarm went off, forcing a thousand or so people to leave bleachers and sit on tarmac, but again, they stayed and listened with amazing attention.
- also at my third session (where we reprised my first session, this time with electricity), it started to rain, but people just pulled out umbrellas and nobody moved!
- at my fourth session, we joked that it would probably start snowing (it was pretty chilly, but not that chilly!). You can see some pictures here.
A special dimension of Greenbelt is seeing old friends and acquaintances ... including Andrew Jones from NZ and Scotland (among other places), Fuzz Kitto from Oz, Jonny Baker from the UK, David Dark from the US, Gareth Higgins from Ireland (soon to be from the US), Pete Rollins from Ireland, Steve Taylor from the UK and LA, and Phil Yancey from Colorado. And it's also a place to meet new friends - including Frank Schaeffer and Sarah Miles, folks I've looked forward to meeting for a long time, and whose company and conversation were really enjoyable.
In only got to listen to one band ... Aradhna, which I've become a big fan of. There was so much music going on, but I was almost constantly either speaking or in meetings.
There's a rumor spreading that a "faith-art-justice" festival in the spirit of Greenbelt is being planned for the US. As someone involved in the dreaming and planning for this, I can tell you that the rumor is true ... stay tuned.
I'll be with the good people of The Meeting House September 19-21. Here's where you can find information on the event ... "Why Everything Must Change."
Hope to see you there!
Here is one of the most thoughtful reviews I've seen of Finding Our Way Again ... I love the way the reviewer makes connections with other writers, from Walter Brueggemann to Henri Nouwen to Jim Wallis to Bernard of Clairvaux, etc.
I'll be speaking at Greenbelt this weekend ... a truly unique gathering in England, focusing on faith, art, and justice.
If you're there, here's my basic schedule ...
Friday 22 August
6 pm: "Rediscovering Faith as a Way of Life" - Rise Stage.
7:15 pm: Panel - What Kind of Church is Emerging? - Shine Stage
***After the panel (about 8:30 pm) - I'd love to hang out with anybody who wants to. Find me after the panel ends and we'll find a place.
Saturday 23 August
3:15 pm: "Praying Naked" - Rise Stage
***After the session (about 4:30 pm) - I'd again love to hang out with anybody who would like to. Find me after the session and we'll find a place to chat.
Sunday 24 August
10 am: "Postmodern and Postcolonial" - Rise Stage
This summer just keeps adding one tremendous week on another. Last week ...
Sunday - got to speak at Cedar Ridge on Mark 5-6. You can listen to or download the talk here ... It's always good to be at our home church!
Tuesday - Recorded a "blogging heads" diavlog with SBC Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission leader Richard Land ... which hasn't been posted yet, but I'll post a link here when it is up. We talk about what terms like "conservative" and "liberal" mean and find lots of common ground by seeking higher ground.
Wednesday - Thursday - I really enjoyed my time at the Preaching Peace conference at Messiah College. I had a chance to present a lecture called "Pre-emptive Peacemaking" (I'll post a revised version of the slides here on the site soon.) But even better, I had the chance to hear some top-notch lectures and participate in some truly "generative" dialogue. If you're looking for a good conference to attend - where you'll hear things and think about things that virtually nobody else is addressing - check out one of their conferences. Christians preaching peace ... what a concept!
Friday - Visited our daughter and son-in-law newly relocated to Iowa City. A joy to be with them.
Saturday-Monday - I was in Grand Rapids, Saturday night doing a booksigning at Baker Book House, and Sunday and Monday with Mars Hill ... one of my favorite churches on the planet to visit. (I presented another version of the "pre-emptive peacemaking" talk ... will post powerpoints soon.) Highlights included getting to spend some time with the Mars Hill Staff, Rob and Kristen Bell, Aaron and Shauna Niequist, and other good friends. Aaron led worship at Mars on Sunday ... he's writing some of the best worship songs anywhere these days, and it was an honor and pleasure to work with him.
In between, I worked with Mara Vanderslice on an ad for Matthew 25 in support of Barack Obama for president.
I just told a friend that I have to consciously take time to thank God for recent blessings and opportunities, because new ones roll in so fast. And on top of everything, it's summer, when green and sunlight and warmth and fruitfulness show the glory and goodness and beauty of the Creator in special, wonderful ways that can never be captured in words, as hard as we try.
This ad will appear on the CNN Faith Forum that Rick Warren is hosting this weekend.
I hope you'll consider helping out Matthew 25's continuing efforts ... donation information here ...
Here's a music video featuring some photos from our Everything Must Change tour this spring, some from the Amahoro gathering in Rwanda/Burundi in May, and a few others too.
I just had a tremendous time at the Preaching Peace conference at Messiah College in PA, and will be at Mars Hill Church in Grand Rapids Sunday. Plus there's a book-signing Saturday night at 6 pm at the Baker Book store ... Please come say hello!
I posted over at Progressive Revival a short report about another case of viral misinformation about Barack Obama. I recounted how over the last few weeks, Mara Vanderslice, Amy Sullivan, and others have “drawn needed attention to some more and less subliminal messages coming from the McCain campaign.” These McCain approved TV ads have linked Senator Obama to the – gulp – Anti-Christ, using imagery and language Evangelical Christians would resonate with.
A similar message has been virally worming its way through the internet, this one evoking – gulp again - Adolf Hitler. The viral message ended with the predictable “If you agree this is important, pass it on. The mainstream media will not do it for you!” It claimed to have been written by "Bill Brown, a highly respected retired member of the Billy Graham team." Thousands believed the claim and passed on the email – after all, it was on the internet!
Some internet-savvy noses detected a hoax. They surmised that Bill Brown was a fictitious name, but my friend Steve Knight new better. He, also a former employee of the Billy Graham team, knew that Bill Brown was a real person who had in fact worked for the Graham organization. What he didn’t know was whether Brown had actually written the letter.
So – in a wise move of avoiding both naïve credulity and presumptive cynicism - Steve made the wise move of checking out the story with Brown himself.
I’m including his email in its entirety, because I think it’s a model of good communication.
Continue reading Naivete, Cynicism, and Wisdom...
My friends Amber and Chad invite you to enter their story and respond with your creative abilities ...
For further background, you might want to read this ...
To post your reply, go to Songs for a Revolution of Hope here ...
Need for a song:
I have been listening to Brian McLaren’s new CD and David Crowder’s newest CD, Remedy. Feeling inspired by both in different ways, I have found myself wondering if a talented musical artist could put to words exactly what I have been feeling this past year. You see my life, our life, took a dramatic turn a couple of years ago when our son, Peyton, was diagnosed with autism. We jumped into looking for ways to help him reach his max potential. He was very sickly and so the first response was to find a doctor willing and able to understand our unique situation and not just label him “failure to thrive.” After much searching, we found a doctor who was a pediatrician but moved into natural healing. Within 6 weeks of implementing this doctor’s approach, Peyton gained 5 pounds and grew 4 inches. During this time, we also jumped into every therapy possible to help Peyton who was almost two learn to crawl, sit up, walk, play with toys, eat anything other than baby food and eventually speak.
Continue reading for Poets and Songwriters ... invitation from Amber...
Steve Knight (who does a tremendous job with the emergentvillage.com blog - thanks, Steve!) passed on this comment/question from the site
Not sure this is the place to say this, but will give it a swing. I am a seventy-two year old Mennonite and am much taught by emergent thinking. Question: Is there any room for "old folks" in the movement? I ask you that, Brian, because I see something that looks like a little gray in your beard...
First, you're quite charitable, as "a little gray" is now a major understatement. (I was buying a fishing license recently and the form asked "hair color" to which I replied ... none.)
Second, as a 52-year-old, I'm right between you and 32-year-olds, so I think there's room for all of us. In my speaking, I frequently encounter people well over 80 who truly "get" what we're about.
Third, there's not only room, but there's a special need for older, seasoned voices.
And fourth, I think there's a special need for folks of an Anabaptist heritage like yourself. Your community has centuries of history practicing what many of us are just beginning to learn. So thanks for this good question!
If bad campaigning has you down, here's something to put a smile back on your face ...
If you haven't seen this piece by Amy Sullivan on the new low struck in the US presidential campaign, it's worth checking out. I hope that my fellow Evangelical Christians will not be suckered by this kind of manipulative tactic, and I hope that as many of us as possible will speak out against it.
My suggestion: watch to see which Evangelical leaders speak out against this abuse of religious rhetoric. And watch to see which ones defend it - either vocally or tacitly. That will make clear where the constricting borders of the Religious Right of the future will be.
If you want to join me in expressing disgust at this kind of campaign rhetoric, join the Matthew 25 initiative here ...
More and more people here in the U.S. are getting involved in/with the emergent conversation (either "in" it as participants or "with" it as observers or critics). Too few are sufficiently aware of the global nature of the conversation. Some folks still think of what's going on as an exclusively "American" thing, when the truth is that we USAmericans showed up late to a global party already in progress.
People involved in/with the emergent conversation in the US would be encouraged - and humbled, I think - to encounter the depth and vigor of conversation going on in Europe - via gatherings like Greenbelt and various networks like Emergent UK and emergent Germany.
As more people become aware of the postmodern side of the coin and its important conversations about truth, they should also become aware of the postcolonial side of the coin and its important conversations about justice. As they learn about the growing diversity of reflective practitioners talking about the shape and future of the church in the West, they should also learn about the amazing array of women and men leading parallel conversations in the global south.
To get a flavor of the rich African conversation, check out this piece ... and explore the whole site, including this report from a recent gathering in South Africa. Be sure to sign up for the newsletter too.
Consider especially this quote from Sarah Gonski, an American spending the summer in Burundi, East Africa:
One of the friends I met, Hannah Nayoge, is a beautiful young woman who is working on a public health degree in Kampala. After a long few days of deconstructing old theologies, Hannah and I had a conversation in which she told me she was tired. Tired of it all. Tired of a world hurting and a church content to turn its back and make lofty pronunciations on the eternal fate of outsiders. Tired of performing the mental gymnastics of truly wrestling with what it means to follow Jesus. “But”, she said, smiling hopefully at me, “something new is coming. I feel it”.
To get a taste of what's emerging in Latin America, check out what I think is the leading integral mission network in the world ...
Or check out this exciting new network in Malaysia.
It's a global conversation. Hannah Nayoge is right: Something new is coming.
If you haven't seen my enthusiastic support letter for the Matthew 25 Network and for Barack Obama, check it out here.
In the coming weeks, I plan to offer the top reasons I've decided to vote for Barack Obama ... stay tuned!
IMPORTANT NOTE: In going public with my support for Senator Obama, I'm acting as a private citizen and not as a representative of any organization. (Just wanted that to be clear.)
My good friend Dr. John Franke will be installed as the Lester and Kay Clemens Professor of Missional Theology on Friday, October 10, 2008, at Biblical Seminary in Hatfield PA (north of Philadelphia).
To celebrate his installation, there's an exciting roster of speakers including:
Seminary president David Dunbar - also a long-time dear friend
Prof. Scot McKnight - a gifted author, teacher, and blogger
Tim Keel - one of the best pastor/artists in the nation
Darrell Guder - brilliant thought leader in the missional church
And I'll be giving a lecture called "An Epistemology of Love," drawing from the work of N. T. Wright, Jack Caputo, Jane Goodall, and - most importantly, St. Paul and Jesus.
You can get more information here.
We've got a lot of work to do.
Check this out.
Then watch/listen to this ...
LATE NOTE: Some truly encouraging news here ... - not that we've made progress in caring for creation, but that our damage hasn't reached to every corner yet.
Another encouraging news item about Lonesome George (mentioned in my book The Story We Find Ourselves In ...)
I heard today from Tracy Howe that the song 11:57 (listen here) from our Songs for a Revolution of Hope is receiving airplay at Radio Universidad Puerto Rico.
What an amazing summer I've had. It began with an impossible-to-describe time in Africa in May, then to England for a tremendous conference in June. Then what a July ...
- First was the great privilege of speaking to the Lambeth gathering on evangelism in our changing context. Additional positive reports have been filed about my time there.
- Then I had the joy of participating in the Common Word dialogue at Yale. This important dialogue brings together Christians and Muslims to talk about how we can be peacemakers - focusing on the Great Commandment to love God and love neighbor. Another great pleasure there - having the chance to room with Mazhar Mallouhi, someone I've wanted to meet for quite some time because of Paul Gordon Chandler's amazing book about him. What a delightful and interesting person!
- Then July ended with a gathering called "Ich-theology." This is a small gathering of theologians and Christian leaders (hence "theology") who share a love for fly fishing (the study of fish is "ichthyology"). It was a special joy to be with friends Wes Granberg-Michelson and Pat Keifert and to make new friends as well. (I'll try to post a few fishing pictures when I get a chance.) We gathered in Yellowstone - one of the most beautiful settings on the planet ... vast, varied, wild, rugged, and brilliant with the glory of the Creator.
I feel so full and grateful ... And the summer's not even over yet. Next week I'll be at the Preaching Peace conference in Pennsylvania (join us if you can!), then speaking at Cedar Ridge and Mars Hill, and then off to Greenbelt in England (fourth transatlantic flight in four months).
I wish I could find words to express how blessed I am. Thanks be to God!
I'm blogging on beliefnet ... here's my first post.
It's called "Who's Going to Win?"
I leave Sunday for an important gathering in Connecticut bringing together Christian and Muslim leaders.
Then I head out to Wyoming where I'll be gathering with a group of theologians who share in the spiritual practice of fly fishing. I won't have internet access there, so I'll probably be pretty blog-silent this week.
For friends in the Maryland area, I'm speaking at Cedar Ridge on August 10 ...
Here are some posts about my time at Lambeth ...
First from the official Lambeth website:
http://www.lambethconference.org/daily/index.cfm/2008/7/22
Here's a Christian Today interview:
Here's a roundup from Tall Skinny Kiwi:
http://tallskinnykiwi.typepad.com/tallskinnykiwi/2008/07/brian-mclaren-a.html
And not to miss - Stephen Colbert's usual deep, thoughtful, fair-and-balanced coverage here:
http://www.comedycentral.com/colbertreport/videos.jhtml?videoId=177674
What a tremendous honor and pleasure it's been to speak on the subject of evangelism at the Lambeth Conference being held here in Canterbury, England.
I know that most people think the "news story" here is about divisive controversies over sexuality, but my sense is that the real news story is very different. There is a humble spirit here, a loving atmosphere, a deep spirituality centered in Bible study, worship, and prayer, and a strong desire to move beyond internal-institutional matters to substantive mission in our needy world.
In every conversation and gathering I've participated in, the spirit has been kind and holy and positive. That sort of good news doesn't attract the media the way a salacious or pugilistic story does ... It will be interesting to see whether the press reports what is actually happening here, or if they need to rewrite the narrative to fit the shape of war-tales they are more accustomed to telling.
My sense is that the quiet, prayerful, and humble patience of Archbishop Rowan Williams is leading the way to better days for the Anglican Communion. It feels like the bishops gathered here are turning a corner together. I feel that I'm witnessing the emergence of something good, beautiful, true, and blessed ... Hearts here are sincerely open to the Spirit of God.
Thanks for all who prayed for me regarding my plenary session here tonight. Everything went well, and I look forward to my next two days here.
My friend Simon helped create this beautiful, moving video - just over two minutes long.
I've been posting quite a bit lately because I've had an unusually long stretch of time at home and at my desk. That stretch comes to an end tomorrow as I head over to England. Upon returning to the US, I'll be in Wyoming for about a week and blissfully disconnected from technology. So ... hopefully I've left enough to keep faithful readers occupied while I get some time away.
If I can send a brief post from England, I will ... We'll see! But blog-posting frequency will decrease for a few weeks at least.
Enjoy summer ... it passes quickly!
I like winning, but I’ve done a lot of losing in my life, especially when it comes to voting. I’ve got a pretty good track record of picking losers.
But recent history tells us that picking winners in presidential elections has its own dangers.
What happens if the presidential candidate you prefer wins this fall?
Continue reading faith, politics, and voting ... part 6...
For those of you who missed our Everything Must Change Tour (or want to recommend it to a friend), we'll be doing one more event November 1.
For more information, go to the deepshift.org site ... here.
Many of you know I'm an enthusiastic supporter of the Matthew 25 Network. Here's a letter I wrote that's on their new website ... the site is worth checking out!
Continue reading The Matthew 25 Network...
I'll be speaking at Messiah College for Preaching Peace August 12-14 ...
Then at Mars Hill in Grand Rapids 16-18 August ...
Then at Greenbelt in England 21-24 August ...
Come say hi!
My friends in the Episcopal church here in Maryland are putting on the Gardens and Grace Conference in several weeks ...
Cathedral of the Incarnation, Baltimore, Maryland
September 28 – October 1, 2008
This national Conference is for clergy and lay leaders, students and parents, gardeners and seekers, to educate, inspire, and motivate participants to embrace environmental stewardship, social justice, sustainable living, and a creative, centered spirituality and take action to make positive changes in their lives and communities.
I'll be speaking and encourage you to be part of this interesting event on a truly important subject.
Near the end of Everything Must Change, I wrote ...
If we disbelieve the dominant framing story and instead believe Jesus' good news of the kingdom of God, we will suddenly find ourselves making new personal decisions - not because we have to, as a duty, but because we want to...
Then I listed a number of examples, beginning with the way we pray, but not stopping there:
We will also buy differently. For example, when faced with a choice between an inexpensive pair of pants produced by a corporation that exploits workers (whom we now see to be our neighbors), we will choose a more expensive pair produced by a corporation that treats workers fairly. Maybe we'll own fewer pairs of pants, but we'll feel better wearing them.... We will vote differently, drive differently, invest differently, eat differently, volunteer differently, treat our neighbors differently, and so much more.
When I speak to large groups about the message of the book, I often ask people to do a little exercise. I have people check the tag sewn in the collar of one another's shirts and then call out where the shirt was made. Typically, in a group of 400 people, there will be 30 to 40 different nations shouted out. We then talk about what it means to see the people in these nations as our neighbors. We consider how we are connected to them by the shirts on our backs. We realize that our small buying decisions affect their daily lives. (For more on this important subject, check out the good work of Trade as One.)
Keeping that in mind helps US citizens like myself to put our voting in perspective. Voting is not the only decision that counts - in a sense, every dollar we spend is a ballot that endorses one company over another. Every time we choose to greet a stranger or smile or show kindness to another, we are voting for friendliness and warmth in the world. Every time we fail to do so, we vote for coldness and alienation.
Continue reading faith, politics, and voting - part 4...
Here's a link to a 1:30 video about the "bridge to nowhere" photo (over the Choluteca River in Honduras) shot by Vince Muci and available for download at offthemap.com ...
My book Secret Message of Jesus is on sale at amazon.com for $5.49. That's pretty cheap!
And amazon.com is selling my New Kind of Christian trilogy for $10.17 each ...
Even my newest book, in hardcover, Finding Our Way Again, is just over $12.
Just in case you're interested in picking up a copy for a friend or whatever ...
I was just interviewed by a gifted journalist this morning about faith and politics. It made me think about the difference between a good interview and a not-so-good one. So much has to do with the interviewer's own curiosity ... and ability to challenge the interviewee to think (not just respond on auto-pilot).
I did a podcast interview a few months back with Tripp and Chad, who are inherently curious and fun to talk with ... you can listen to it here.
Many of you know about the big pieces of my heart that have been claimed by Africa, Latin America, and Asia in recent years.
Here's an update from Amahoro-Africa.org ...
Here's an update from La Red del Camino ... there's a button that links you to an English version of the site if you don't speak Spanish.
I was thrilled, during a visit from Tricia Yeoh last week, to learn of this website from Malaysia called ROH ...
These networks represent real signs of hope ...
I'm not sure I'll ever get a more encouraging review than this one, posted by my almost-an-atheist friend Helen ...
If you're in the DC-Baltimore area, you're welcome to join a few friends for coffee, etc., at Daily Grind in Fulton, MD, from 8 to 9:30 a.m tomorrow, July 14.
There's no agenda - some folks might bring some questions from my books, topics to discuss, issues they're facing - we'll just sit around a table and enjoy good coffee and good company.
More info here ...
I just watched this live video of my friend Tracy Howe performing "Love and Justice" in Denver ...
This is exactly how I envisioned the song sounding when I wrote it: rough, raucous, joyful. Great work, Tracy and friends!
If you're interested in downloading the song or the CD, you can do so here ...
My friend Don Miller is riding across the US by bicycle with some friends to raise money and awareness for Blood:Water Mission.
The group started in Los Angeles on June 6th and is expected to complete the trip here in Washington D.C. on July 27th.
You can click here to download a press release describing the ride and why Don is participating. Also, here is a link where Don is blogging about his daily experiences.
Here's a video where he explains the project ...
(If you're offended by "hell" in the video title, try considering it an act of irony ...)
Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.
... and then read chapter 16 of The Secret Message of Jesus
Continue reading Watch this ......
My friend and co-conspirator Denise Van Eck passed on this beautiful quote from Henri Nouwen today.
A New World Is Yet to Come
Henri Nouwen
You are Christian only so long as you constantly pose critical questions to the society you live in, so long as you emphasize the need of conversion both for yourself and for the world, so long as you in no way let yourself become established in the situation of the world, so long as you stay unsatisfied with the status quo and keep saying that a new world is yet to come. You are Christian only when you believe you have a role to play in the realization of the new kingdom, and when you urge everyone you meet with holy unrest to make haste so that the promise might soon be fulfilled. So long as you live as a Christian you keep looking for a new order, a new structure, a new life.
I know that most people think only in terms of the product of the election. Only one question matters: Who won?
But I think the process of the election is tremendously important to. It raises an even more important question: What are we becoming?
For example, if someone wins through dirty tricks, we have become a dirtier nation in the process. If someone wins through dishonest or superficial arguments, we have become a less honest and shallow nation in the process. If someone manipulates us with unrealistic promises, we have become a more gullible nation in the process. If someone wins through vicious rhetoric or fear tactics, we become a more divided and frightened nation.
A friend sent me an email this morning which suggested one of the more positive possibilities in this process. He and his wife are enthusiastically supporting Barack Obama in this election, and they have been shocked by the negative responses they've received from some relatives and friends at church. Among the responses that have saddened them most have been overt and covert expressions of racism.
After an uncomfortable conversation with a family member that turned into a good dialgoue about race, my friend's wife sent this email to her relative (shared with permission):
I've been thinking...and since it's 4.30am and i can't sleep, thought i'd write...re: "why does God make different races?", your question on the beach.
Continue reading Faith, Politics, and Voting ... Part 3, Process and Product...
To vote or not to vote?
Some folks I've talked to are not going to vote in the 2008 elections. Some are disillusioned. Some don't like either candidate enough to vote. For some, not voting is an act of protest against the whole system, which they believe is hopelessly corrupt. Some believe that their citizenship in God's kingdom means they shouldn't become involved in "earthly" citizenship.
While I respect my friends who aren't going to vote - especially those who have prayerfully thought the decision through from multiple vantage points - I will vote in this election for several reasons.
Continue reading Faith, Politics, and Voting ... Part 1...
All of us who choose to vote must base our vote on something.
For some people, it's party. They're Democrats or Republicans and from election to election, they support whomever the party serves up. For others, it's a litmus test issue - abortion, homosexuality, war, whatever. For others, it's fear or hope or some other "gut level" appeal - whoever scares or inspires them the most gets their vote. And for still others, it's a "group thing" - they belong to a group (a race, a religion, an interest group, trade union, a social class, or whatever) that issues a statement on which candidate is most attractive to their group, and that's who wins their vote.
For many of us, none of these factors are satisfying.
Continue reading Faith, Politics, and Voting ... Part 2...
Recently I needed to set the record straight about an AP article that had a misstatement about my relation to the Barack Obama campaign.
This week, a CNN story had a similar statement that requires some clarification:
Brian McLaren, a former pastor who spent 24 years in the pulpit and is now an informal adviser to the Obama campaign, believes that a significant portion of evangelical voters are ready to break from their traditional home in the the Republican Party and take a new leap of faith with Obama.
A few friends contacted me and said they were afraid the article gave the impression that I left a 24-year pastorate in order to become an Obama advisor, which isn't true. I left the pastorate in January 2006 - long before the campaign began - in order to devote more time to writing, travel, and networking. If I am an advisor to the campaign at all, it is very informally - probably nothing more than the fact that at least one campaign staffer has read some of my books.
The article accurately reflects my belief that increasing numbers of evangelical voters have become increasingly alienated from the Religious Right and are moving toward Senator Obama. I'm certainly one of them. While I was never a fan of the Religious Right, for many years I sat on the sidelines and didn't speak out publicly that the leaders of the Religious Right didn't speak for me. Looking back, I'm ashamed of my inaction and I believe my silence unintentionally empowered "the powers that be." Since leaving the pastorate, I have felt more free to speak out as a Christian and private citizen about my discomfort with the agenda of the Religious Right, and my hopes for a better way of relating faith, politics, and voting. I plan to be more involved in this election than any in my life ... and that includes offering whatever advice I can to whomever might find it helpful.
Over the coming months, I'd like to share on this blog a few thoughts about the way I see faith, politics, and voting to be connected. I'll post under this heading, using Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, etc., if people want to follow the thread.
When I was writing The Secret Message of Jesus and Everything Must Change, I became more and more amazed at the radical message and profoundly formative power of what we commonly call the Lord's Prayer. For me, as for many, the words had become so familiar that I was tempted to go on autopilot whenever I said them.
I tried to render the prayer into fresh language that would convey some of this power and depth, while retaining its primal and understated simplicity. Then I began singing a kind of simple chant of the prayer in my own private devotional life, which I eventually began teaching to others. People frequently ask me to share it with them, so I put together this little video ...
Please forgive the roughness of my voice and my video production skills. (I'm just using isight and imovie on my mac.)
I should add that you can also have someone sing a line of the prayer "solo," and then have the congregation echo it ... this slows people down even more, so that they really savor the words and let the prayer echo in their hearts.
I hope you'll find some value in this version of this amazing prayer - in your personal prayer life, and in your faith community as well.
Here's the powerpoint presentation from my talk at Sojourners' Pentecost event in DC.
Click to download the file.
You can learn more about the Batwa land project at Kelley Johnson Nikondeha's blog here ...
And more on life as visitors to Burundi at Ron and Sarah Gonski's blog here ... be sure to check out their description of "hospital prisoners," which is another amazing story.
Here's a video (thanks Dave Shook!) that will give you a sense of what a group of friends experienced in Burundi a few weeks ago ...
Here's the poem I wrote about the experience ...
And here's a link to amahoro-africa.org where you can donate and learn more. Stay tuned for a specific request about getting involved ...
I just received this today ...
++++
Pastor Brian,
I want to apologize to you about some reviews that I put on www.amazon.com. After reading The Truth War by John MacArthur, I was alarmed by your works.
Recently, I put myself in your shoes and thought what it would be like for people to post things that are not favorable. I went and took my comments off.
I still am unsure of some of the comments that John MacArthur highlights, but am sincerely sorry for my actions.
Sincerely,
+++++
Here's my reply (slightly edited for privacy's sake) ...
Continue reading a truly encouraging note...
In recent years, I've become a bigger-than-ever fan of Christian higher education - largely due to the experiences I've had as a guest speaker/lecturer at some really impressive institutions. This article highlights what are for me the most attractive Christian colleges - the ones eager to break out of old "left-right/liberal-conservative" distinctions.
On that subject, Shane Claiborne had a great quip at the "Jesus for President" tour here in DC the other night ...
He said everyone has been fixated on left and right, but maybe the more significant difference is between kind and nasty (nice and mean). That's the kind of "flipping the script" that I think opens up new possibilities. Where old polarities tend to polarize, this one gets us all thinking.
Three more questions with brief replies ...
Continue reading Q & A: Parables, Atrocities, and Russian translation...
One on worship songs ... one on military spending ... one on a former pastor in pain.
… with my brief replies
Continue reading Q & A: 3 comments, not questions really …...
People often ask me about an image I use in some of my talks. It's often called "the bridge to nowhere." The image is licensed by the photographer, so I can't disseminate it, but you can get licensing information here.
This fellow did me a big favor. He sent in questions and then proposed answers, which I thought were pretty good…
Continue reading Q & A: What do "emergents" mean ......
I wish I could respond personally to all the interesting questions and comments that come in, but I can’t. In the coming weeks, I’ll post some questions and responses in small batches. Here are two questions that came in recently. The first deals with vicious commenters on blogs, and the second asks four questions about my beliefs - and does so in a non-vicious way, by the way.
My replies are in the text
-- like this.
Continue reading Q & A: vicious blogs and doctrine ......
Amy Sondova posted an interview we did here ... at her blog "backseat writer."
A lot of people have been asking for some of my powerpoint presentations. They're now available in PDF format here ...
I hope they'll be useful. Feel free to adapt and use them in ways that would be useful in your context.
This is a photo from the recent RUN conference in the UK ... The theme was "More Than This: Breaking the Mould [Mold in the US] of Mission."
This is a photo from Burundi - one of the many exciting outcomes of our amahoro-africa.org gathering this year is a project to help the Batwa people in some important ways. (I wrote about my visit with the Batwa here ...) This is the team - convened by Claude Nikondeha - that have some amazing possibilities ahead of them.
If you'd like to help support this and other good works at amahoro - go here.
In case anyone caught Philip Elliot's AP story that mentioned me ... it was a good article, but not quite accurate in at least two details. These things happen.
It said,
Meanwhile, Obama's campaign is aggressively reaching out to evangelicals.The Illinois senator dispatched former 9/11 Commission member Tim Roemer to meet with fellow Roman Catholics. He sent Brian McLaren, one of the country's most influential pastors, to meet with fellow evangelicals. And aides have conducted more than 200 "American Values Forums," soon to be followed up with house parties and town hall-style meetings aimed at young Catholics and young evangelicals.
Of course, we all know that I'm not one of the country's most influential pastors. Nor was I sent to meet with fellow evangelicals on Obama's behalf, although I'd be happy to share with anyone of any faith persuasion my hopes, concerns, and commitments regarding the presidential election.
I was invited to speak on faith and politics at one of Senator Obama's "faith and values" forums in Iowa last year. And I am an enthusiastic supporter of The Matthew 25 Network, which is supporting Senator Obama, and which you can read about here and here. And I plan to be more outspoken about the election in the coming months, here and elsewhere - not as a spokesperson for any organization, but as a responsible private citizen. In fact, I just said good-bye to a CNN crew who was here filming a story about Evangelicals who support Senator Obama, tentatively to be aired on Tuesday.
For many years as a pastor, I never was public about my political commitments because I didn't want to cause conflict in the church I served. Instead, I tried to promote respectful dialog and responsible political engagement among my fellow Christians. Now as an author, I will continue to try to promote respectful dialog and responsible engagement. But I also feel more freedom - and responsibility - to speak more personally about my political commitments, always, I hope, with civility and respect for those who differ.
So, inaccuracies happen. To say I was sent by Senator Obama wasn't accurate. To say I hope he will be our next president rather than Senator McCain is accurate.
My friends Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw bring the "Jesus for President Tour" to DC Friday, 27 June, at 7 PM here ...
Calvary Baptist Church
755 8th St. NW
Washington, DC 20001
202-347-8355
I'll be playing some original music (with friends from Harp 46) during the intermission.
It will be fun and otherwise joyful!
PS - It's free, but you're advised to arrive early ...
Here's a question that I thought would be worth sharing ...
I want to first thank you for your willingness to publish, speak, and be an effective church leader. I remember reading "A New Kind of Christian." ... I can remember being like Dan Poole, wanting to swing a stick at you... trust me that is not the case anymore, for the most part. I have heard you speak at YS Conventions, Willow Creek (Shift 2008) and appreciate you generous nature you bring to the pulpit, and gracious spirit you have for those who have criticized you.Ok, to my question. I find myself in trouble in my local congregation because I have read and taught from your books. I was recently called a heretic recently ...
HOW, does someone who finds herself as "emergent" exist in a local congregation that is more comfortable with closed systems, black and white answers, rigid orthodoxy and legalistic orthopraxy? I love my church, but feel I am no longer a fit, the problem is, in searching for another system, there are not many churches that have progressed, if I may use that term, to this more "generous orthodoxy."
I have now read all of your books, and while I don't always agree with you, I always respect you. What does someone who is "generous" do with a church that is "ungenerous". Basically, what I am asking, how does someone who thinks like you, agrees with you (mostly) and wants to dialogue more than dictate exist in the modern church in America?
OK. For a reply ...
If you've read Everything Must Change, I think you'll agree that we all need to be agents of peace, especially those of us who influence others.
My friend Michael Hardin is organizing an important gathering this summer for people who want to improve their peace-making skills. It's called Preaching Peace ... It will take place August 12-14 at Messiah College in Southern Pennsylvania.
Here's a draft of speakers and workshop titles ...
I hope to see many of you there!
Continue reading For Preachers, Pastors and Teachers ... and others...
The Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA.org) was launched in 1979, in response to growing concern “over an increase of [sic] questionable fund-raising practices in the nonprofit sector.” As their website explains, Senator Mark Hatfield challenged “a group of key Christian leaders” to begin policing their own mission agencies as a kind of “Christian Better Business Bureau.”
Perhaps thirty years later Evangelicals, because of "an increase in questionable rhetorical practices in the nonprofit sector," need to form the ECRA: the Evangelical Council for Rhetorical Accountability. Those of us who have a lot of pew time know … not to mention those who listen to religious broadcasting and partake of religious literature, websites, and blogs (!) … that such accountability is sorely lacking.
The need for an ECRA became clearer than ever to me this week when a beloved elder in the Evangelical broadcasting community spoke out against Senator Barack Obama. What is evident to me in this interchange is not just a difference in policy, but also a ...
Continue reading The ECRA: A Modest Proposal...
Every once in a while, I think it's good to share some of the encouragement I receive ... because we're all in this together! This one comes from the RUN conference in England ...
Dear Run team and speakers.On the way to the RUN conference my pastor asked me what I hoped to get from the conference. My answer , "A sense of hope for the church (national), that I might see some point to it & feel positive about it again".
I write this with tears of relief & gratitude. I have found there are others like me. I am not alone in my huge disappointment & desire. There are others who are desperate for Christ's body to look, sound & act different; to be 'more than this'. Not only are there people who join me in this but there are those who are able to articulate what we might look like & what things we can do to help us sound & act differently. My hope was restored.
For me listening to Brian was like soaking in a bath of salt water & hope that, whilst washing off surface dirt that had begun to cling, sully my appearance and cause infection, was also a balm to my soul.( ..and I didn’t go all crinkly from being in it 3 days!). At times I felt I was being anointed, at others it cut me to the quick; for both I am very grateful.
It is my guess that ministerial training in this country needs this kind of ‘surgery’ , huge doses of this teaching, in order that the church’s sickness gets healed and the body of Christ in this nation might spread the gospel instead of dis-ease. My hope is partly that the church instead of anaesthetising itself to reality & the nation’s pain, might embrace it as Christ did the cross and indeed as He embraced me….even me.
Thank you Brian and RUN for the opportunity to step off a while from my clumsy, slow journey and now to continue with the re -assurance that, despite the fact that I have only recently set out and have gone only a tiny way so far combined with the utter lack of a map, it is a journey worth continuing and even it is worthwhile me continuing on it.
May God bless you, rest you and multiply all you do in His name.
May these words encourage all of you who are bringing hope that there can truly be "more than this."
People often ask me what I'm reading, and this year, I've been reading works by Chris Abani.
I met this gifted Nigerian-born novelist in Switzerland in January. He shared his story of becoming a teenage novelist and later a young activist, being imprisoned and tortured by the corrupt dictatorship there, escaping to England, beginning to write again, and coming to the US. On top of being an excellent writer and speaker, he was a delightful person.
First I read Song for Night, the story of a boy soldier. It's haunting, hypnotic, and at once humanizing and disturbing.
Then I read Abani's poetry - Kalakuta Republic, a testament to surviving imprisonment and torture.
Today I finished Graceland - one of the best novels I've read in many years.
If you're looking for a worthwhile summer read from a gifted writer ... check out Chris Abani here.
For friends, readers, etc. in the Maryland area, I'd be happy to hang out for coffee/breakfast on July 14, 2008, at the Daily Grind in Fulton, MD. You can get directions, etc., here.
Bring a question or topic you'd like to talk about. There might be 2 of us or 10 ... we'll have some good coffee and conversation.
Let's meet at 8 am, and we'll wrap up by 9:30 or 10.
It was a really enjoyable week in the Midlands (near Peterborough) with RUN (reaching the unchurched network).
It's so interesting to me - since I get to meet so many different groups, networks, denominations, etc. - to get a sense of the "spirit" of a group. Some are aggressive and confident. Some are broken and reflective. Some are conflicted and seeking healing. Some are calm and placid. Some are anxious and cautiously hopeful. Some are mean-spirited and arrogant. Some are joyful and overflowing.
And of course, today's arrogant group might become conflicted tomorrow and then ...
Continue reading Back from England...
When people ask, "How was your time in Africa?" this is about all I can say.
I'm a little jealous of my friends Sarah and Ron who are spending the summer with Claude and Kelley Nikondeha in Bujumbura, Burundi.
Sarah and Ron's blog is here ... Be sure to read the story of "patient prisoners."
Claude and Kelley's is here ...
Be careful, or Africa will get a part of your heart too. On second thought, don't be careful.
For friends, readers, etc. in the Maryland area, I'd be happy to hang out for coffee/breakfast on July 14, 2008, at the Daily Grind in Fulton, MD. You can get directions, etc., here.
Bring a question or topic you'd like to talk about. There might be 2 of us or 10 ... we'll have some good coffee and conversation.
Let's meet at 8 am, and we'll wrap up by 9:30 or 10.
It was a great Sunday. In addition to enjoying a truly enjoyable Father's Day with my father and my kids (3 in person, 1 by phone) ... we got to attend Cedar Ridge this morning - too rare a treat for me with my travel schedule. The music was beautiful (Teresa Thomas leading mostly hymns, plus a beautiful original song of hers), the atmosphere was warm and relaxed, and every chance I get to celebrate the eucharist enriches my soul. I was especially struck by meeting two people after the service who told me they were in the process of becoming Christians. One told me that he began attending Cedar Ridge a few months ago and immediately felt at home. "I'm in the process of becoming a Christian," he said, and I thought that was a wonderful way to say it. Then a young fellow who had grown up in a more or less fundamentalist home and then left the faith told me that he was now coming back to faith, but a different kind of faith this time. "It's not like turning on a light switch," he said. "It's more like a new day dawning."
Tomorrow I leave for England for the week. I'll be with the RUN folks - great people. I may be able to post a bit, but you never know how internet connections will be ...
Darren King asks some great questions and makes some smart insights here ...
Eboo Patel, a kind and brilliant Muslim leader and new friend, offered comments on my Wednesday-afternoon talk at Willow Creek here.
If you haven't read his book, Acts of Faith, I highly recommed it. I had read a few chapters of the book a while back, but am re-reading the whole book now, and it's so good.
David Crumm, the best interviewer I've ever had the pleasure of speaking with, reviews my newest book, Finding Our Way Again, at Read the Spirit. (David gives me one of the nicest compliments I've ever received by comparing me to Bob Dylan.)
David also writes on series editor Phyllis Tickle here.
I spent Sunday through Tuesday at the Envision Conference at Princeton University. The highlight of my time there - all of which was important and good - was the round table on the emerging church ... It was done in a Pecha Kucha format, planned and organized by Keelan Downton. Each presentation came through like poetry.
Especially impressive to me was the diversity of the panel - An Asian American man (Al Hsu), an Anglo American woman (Bowie Snodgrass), an African man (Claude Nikondeha - who flew 30 hours from Burundi to be there), an Anglo American man (Doug Pagitt), an African American woman (Alise Barrymore), an Australian man (Michael Smitheram), a Native American man (Randy Woodley), and a Latino man (Gabriel Salguero). With the sheer creativity and vitality of their presentations, the range and depth of content, the mix of humilty, sincerity, and hope ... I had tears in my eyes through much of the time.
Then I spent Wednesday and Thursday at Willow Creek in Chicago. I've been a fan of Willow Creek since the beginning. Even when many people were critical, I've always felt that Willow's leadership was so extraordinary that it was a mistake to caricature Willow or in any way count them out. They have kept learning and leading, and my honest feeling from being there twice in recent months is this: Willow Creek's most powerful contributions are still ahead of them. Seeing Nancy Beach in action this week confirmed this confidence - as did hearing reports of the recent Celebration of Hope launched by the church - in my mind, an event of historic proportions that I hope you'll be hearing more about soon. Bill Hybels' vision seems to me to be more prophetic and incisive than ever ... stay tuned on this.
So, I'm home today, recovering from a lot of travel, preparing to speak at the Sojourners' Emerging Leaders Dinner tonight here in DC, part of the Pentecost 08 gathering. I'm very encouraged. Good and beautiful things are happening.
continued from yesterday ...
Brian. What kind of feedback have you gotten on the book so far?
Doug: Really good response from people who are saying, "not only did I really like the natural, hopeful message of the book but I have a bunch of friends who think the way you do and have never been able to connect with Christianity". And many responses like, "These are the kinds of thoughts I have had deeply hidden in my soul for a long time."
And I am getting really negative response from the fringy, hard-core ...
Continue reading doug pagitt interview, part deux...
My friend Todd Hunter has a new website ... he's involved with a new venture that I think has tremendous potential. Check it out ...
Jim Wallis wrote a moving piece about his response to Barak Obama's speech Tuesday night. Jim recalled the racial situation of our childhood years and called this a transformational moment.
As I read the beautiful comments posted in response, I was surprised by how many people said they - like Jim - had tears running down their faces as they heard Barak's speech Tuesday night. I was among them.
I hope that all of us - Republican, Democrat, and other - will pause to celebrate the significance of these days, and I trust that we Americans will seize the moment to strengthen our common bonds and further heal from our racially divided past ... rather than let the inevitable heat of the election cause racial tensions to simmer again.
The recent xenophobic violence in South Africa reminds us - especially those of us who are part of the white majority - that we must "pursue what makes for peace" and seek to be makers of peace and seekers of justice, as Christ taught. In America, that means being increasingly aware of the prejudice and injustice our neighbors - especially our Native American, African American, Latino, Asian American, and other ethnic groups - have experienced and still experience here in America. May we seize this moment, not only to celebrate the progress we've made in 40 years, but also to continue the transforming process in light of the gospel of reconciliation, so that future generations will experience the fruit of our continuing commitment to the justice and peace of God.
When I was in Rwanda a few weeks ago, we visited several of the churches where thousands of Tutsis fled, seeking sanctuary from genocide. The church buildings became their grave. None of us who have visited these memorials will ever be able to forget ... with piles of the victims' blood-stained clothing stacked on the pews, with stacks of their bones and skulls arranged like hymnals on shelves. Particularly moving for me was to stand in one of the churches as Richard Twiss, a Lakota Sioux whose ancestors experienced a similar story of genocide right here in America, chanted a Native prayer over the bones of the murdered.
Outside that church was a sign that read,
If you knew who I am
And if you knew who you are
You would not kill me.
An important piece by Muslim activist Eboo Patel quoted this poem by William Stafford - you'll feel the haunting resonance:
If you don't know the kind of person I am
and I don't know the kind of person you are
a pattern that others made may prevail in the world
and following the wrong god home we may miss our star.
To read Eboo's article in full, go here.
Hopefully you've heard about the Church Basement Roadshow that's coming to a city near you this summer. It features three close and respected friends of mine - Tony Jones (whose new book The New Christians is a must-read), Mark Scandrette (whose beautifully-written 2007 release Soul Graffiti is being released in softcover), and Doug Pagitt (author of A Christianity Worth Believing).
Here's the first part of a brief interview with Doug ... with a few comments of my own at the end.
Brian: Tell me the story behind the book - what motivated you to write it?
Doug: This book was motivated by my impulse as an evangelist - I hope the book is as helpful for those who see themselves outside the faith as inside. I entered into Christianity as a teen and immediately wanted to extend that same invitation to most everyone I met. Part of that invitation was to help people who knew nothing of Christianity (people like me) to learn of it.
But I quickly realized that there were many people who had learned versions of the faith that were actually getting in the way of them living the kind of integrated Christian life they wanted. A faith where their practices could have content partners that were suitable for a life-time relationship. I met many people who would need to use all kinds of caveats around the content of their faith when talking about it - "Well, I know that such and such is true, but ...
Continue reading interview with doug pagitt, part 2...
Here's the first of a two-part post on faith and politics at the God's Politics Blog ...
Blessed as I am with a group of loyal critics, I always try to listen and learn from their critique to see if the Holy Spirit is in any way trying to guide me through their perspectives. All of us, after all, have blind spots, and all of us - me more than most, no doubt - have a lot to learn.
A few critics again and again make the allegation that I am - along with many of my friends - "pandering to postmodernity," in a misguided desire to be relevant to contemporary culture. Relevance, in their minds, is a terrible temptation that seduces us away from the "ancient paths."
I have thought and prayed about this pretty carefully, and I actually think my goal has never been to accommodate to postmodern culture - or in any way to trim the gospel to fit into postmodern tastes. Instead, my goal has been to be honest about the ways in which the Christian religion in its many forms has already over-accommodated itself to modern Western culture, and before that to medieval Western culture, and before that to ancient Greco-Roman culture. These are accommodations about which I wish some of my critics would become more concerned.
Having learned from the past, I would hope we could strive to live faithfully in the world of today - an increasingly postmodern, postcolonial, post-Industrial, post-Christendom, and otherwise post-al world. Our goal should be to live fully "in" the world - incarnationally in it, missionally sent into it ... but not to be "of" it, as Jesus said.
The relation of the gospel to culture is fascinating and complex. It is interwoven with another important issue: the relation of the gospel to the future, the present, and the past. I've written books about the incoming future (like Church on the Other Side and A New Kind of Christian). I've written books about the life and mission of followers of Christ today (like A Generous Orthodoxy and Everything Must Change). And my new book is about the recovery of ancient spiritual practices (Finding Our Way Again: The Return of the Ancient Practices).
With these thoughts in mind, this morning I came across this quote from Jacques Ellul. Anyone familiar with Ellul's work knows he was not overly enthusiastic about many dominant trends in contemporary culture.
Ellul's comment strikes me as a wise word of balance to all of us - my critics, myself, my friends, everyone. Ellul said,
The yearning for holiness is not at odds with the desire for relevance. For while holiness sets us apart unto God, it is God who calls us into the world.
My friends Claude and Kelley Nikondeha sent out this newsletter regarding our recent time together in East Africa.
Amahoro Africa gathered over 180 leaders from 15 countries for a focused discussion on The Gospel of Reconciliation in Kigali, Rwanda.The discussion took on a very concrete nature given our context, as we listened to both Hutu and Tutsi tell their stories of survival after the 1994 genocide that took place in this very city and surrounding hills. Our hearts were broken, our heads overwhelmed trying to understand how this could happen here, and yet there was a sadness knowing that genocidal tendencies are being made manifest across Africa and beyond.
Our Kenyan friends shared of their too-recent experiences in the post-election violence, and how there is a need for deep reconciliation between the tribes before another outburst erupts and threatens more lives.
Our South African friends struggle through the current outbreak of xenophobia in their country, knowing that healing needs to go still deeper in the townships and urgent work needs to be done to quell hatred and potential violence. It was evident to all of us gathered together that reconciliation is not merely theoretical discussion, it must move to practical steps we can take home with us to Kenya, South Africa, Burundi and beyond. Forgiveness, justice, pre-emptive peace-making are not mere words, they are now imperatives. It is also clear that this is just the beginning of a discussion, not the last word.
You can read the rest of their newsletter below ... of special interest to me is Claude's burden for the Batwa ... I hope some of you will consider making a financial contribution to this good work.
Continue reading amahoro-africa.org update...
I've been a bit sick for the last couple days - but feeling better today than yesterday.
Several folks on facebook have posted photos of our time in Africa. Here are some links:
This is one especially for all my critics ... maybe you think this is the closest I'll get?!
I'm standing at the entrance to a new "fair trade" restaurant in Kigali, Rwanda - with me is Annemie Bosch - missiologist/theologian David Bosch was her husband. What a delightful lady - she added so much to our time in Rwanda. Thanks, Mike, for posting these.
This one is in Burundi. We had visited the beautiful orphanage run by Freddie and the Jeunesse pour Christ team in Gitega. The kids were clean, well-cared for, so happy ... As we left, directly across the street was this little group of guys. I tried out one of my very few Kirundi lines - "My name is Brian. What's yours?" And the guys started introducing themselves to me one by one. It's an amazing thing to connect with people - however simple the connection may be.
Aussie friend Fuzz Kitto - who among his many talents is a professional photographer/artist - posted his shots on flickr.
A big part of my heart is still in East Africa! I'll add other links as I learn of them.
Next year, amahoro-africa will meet in South Africa May 5-12, and then another gathering will take place in Burundi May 12-18.
One of the highlights of our trip to Africa was a quick visit to a Batwa village in Bubumba, Burundi. We had hoped to bring the whole group there - I wish we could have - but the road to Bubumba passes through an area where the last Burundian rebel group had been active (with gunshots fired the previous night), and we felt that a bus full of mazungus (whites) might have been too big a temptation for them. So just a handful of us went.
I tried to capture the experience in this poem ...
Continue reading a poem from africa...
Grace and I are back home from our amazing trip with amahoro-africa.org - I'll post more on the trip later, but for a preview, see #3 below ...
Some quick updates:
1. Have you heard about Envision 08: The Gospel, Politics, and The Future? It's happening at Princeton University June 8-10. I'll be participating, as will a number of good friends. Good news! Because of some generous donors, the conference is now being offered for only $99. And if you're coming from out of town, you can get on-campus housing for three nights at a sharply discounted rate. I hope you'll go to www.ev08.org and sign up today ...
2. Want to make a difference for the environment? Our friends at ECI have created a convenient way to support an important upcoming vote in Congress. Check it out here.
3. My friend Tim Keel blogged our amahoro-africa.org gathering last week. You can read his postings here and get a flavor for the time we shared in Kigali.
4. Someone recently sent this provocative quote from Buckminster Fuller: "You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change things build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete."
5. My friend Byron Borger, the wisest bookseller in the nation, offered some kind words about Finding Our Way Again here.
I'm not sure how much email access I'll have in the next few weeks, but I'll be with many good friends - old and new - at the amahoro-africa.org gathering in Rwanda between now and the end of the month.
Quite a few folks from the emergent network here in the US will be coming along. My guess is that several people will be blogging.
Grace will be staying in Rwanda, and I'll be going down to Burundi, political unrest permitting. Just fyi - here's where I stay abreast of African news.
Our friend Jen Lemen is traveling with us - you can read about her parallel adventure here.
If you'd like to support the good work of amahoro - here's a link where you can donate.
We have a growing list of potential hosts who would like us to bring "Everything Must Change" to their city, and we're considering doing so in Fall 2009. Stay tuned ...
In the meantime, if you haven't yet signed up for our regular newsletter, I hope you will, and let other folks know about it as well. You can sign up here ...
In the months to come we'll be sending out resources to help you put the EMC message into action - in your life, your home, your faith community, your work, and our world. For example, here's the version of the Lord's Prayer that we sang on the tour, simply ascending a scale five tones and then coming back down:
1. Our Father above us and all around us …
2. May Your unspeakable Name be revered.
3. Here on earth may Your kingdom come …
4. On earth as in heaven may Your will be done.
5. Give us today our bread for today.
4. Forgive us our wrongs as we forgive.
3. Lead us away from the perilous trial.
2. Liberate us from the evil.
1. For the kingdom is yours and yours alone
2. The power is yours and yours alone
3. The glory is yours and yours alone
4. Now and forever, amen.
5. Alleluia
4. Alleluia
3. Alleluia
2. Alleluia
1. Amen
And if you haven't yet checked out Everythingmustchange.org ... that will be a main place to share ideas, links, and ways to keep the change process unfolding.
OK ... now I REALLY have to pack for Africa ...
I really have only one regret about the tour - well, make that two, no actually three.
First and most significant, I wish we had kept the gatherings smaller and had a lot more time for personal interaction. I did my best to be available during breaks, meals, etc., but I still wish I had more chances to talk to people in more depth on an individual basis. The people I had a chance to meet were so interesting and their stories were so compelling - but I know I missed the chance to meet probably half of the people or more in each city.
I told Linnea last week that if I we do another tour, instead of working for large groups in each city, I would seriously consider limiting each gathering to maybe 75 or so, and emphasize even more that this would not be a "learning event" as much as a "training trainers" event. I don't now how the finances would work for something like that, and in the end I'm glad that everyone who wanted to come was able to come this time, but that's my only significant regret.
Second, I wish we had more high school kids present. Maybe if we do another tour, we should do one just for high school students. My feeling is that the emerging generations have a natural "get-it factor" in regard to the EMC message ... and it would be a delight to encourage and network them.
And third ...
Continue reading Reflections on the Everything Must Change Tour, Part 2...
I'm down to my last few hours before leaving for a trip to Africa to be part of the Amahoro-Africa gathering in Kigali, Rwanda. Before I finish (actually, start) packing, I want to thank everyone who participated in our recent eleven-city Everything Must Change tour. It was one of the most enjoyable experiences of my life, and I believe that the ripples from our eleven gatherings will spread with good effect for many years to come.
As you can imagine, I'm unspeakably grateful to Linnea Nilsen Capshaw, founding partner of Deepshift.org, and colleague in this tour. Wise, sensitive to the Holy Spirit, gifted, highly competent, cheerful, fun-loving, and prone to erupt into laughter ... she's been a pleasure to work with.
Add to that pleasure the joy of working with Tracy Howe - our worship leader and co-producer of the tour CD, and Eric Haines - a man with many super-powers which include technical wizardry and old-fashioned helpfulness, and Jo and Will Burgess - newlyweds who helped us with all sorts of logistics before and during the tour.
Then I'm so grateful to all our sponsors - Emergent Village, the Sierra Club, Sojourners Faith and Justice Churches, the One Campaign, Mars Hill Graduate School, and Faith at Work.
To our official sponsors, I'd have to add my friend Ian Morgan Cron and the good people of Trinity Church in Greenwhich, CT, who generously covered basic expenses for one of our events.
We truly were partners in this tour, and we've truly become friends as well. If you don't know about these organizations, I hope you'll take a few minutes to check out their websites - and maybe get involved.
I'm equally grateful to two other groups of people ...
Continue reading Reflections on the Everything Must Change Tour, Part 1...
The first Amazon review of Finding Our Way Again is up ... the reviewer said the book made her think and laugh, which is, from an author's point of view, a pretty good combination.
If you've read the book, I'd be grateful if you could take a couple minutes to post your review ...
The Publisher's Weekly review is here ...
By the way, three books that have made me think and laugh this year are Doug Pagitt's A Christianity Worth Believing and Tony Jones' The New Christians and Shane Claiborne's Jesus for President.
Earlier this year, I met South African filmmaker Anant Singh. You're probably familiar with his work - powerful movies like Sarafina!, Cry the Beloved Country, and Red Dust.
Here's a powerful short video that he produced - for all of us who believe that everything must change, it's worth watching and linking to.
There's a song on the Songs for A Revolution of Hope CD called "Hymn of Remorse." It begins, "We covered over your colorful earth with grey cement. We cut down trees and stripped the soil wherever we went ... Lord, have mercy."
Another song, "Let Your Kingdom Come," says, "Let your kingdom come, and let cool streams flow. Let fields flourish and fresh winds blow. Let your children save instead of destroy, so every creature can thrive, free in health and joy ... let your kingdom come."
We need songs like this, I believe, that acknowledge the beauty and goodness of creation, and face the truth that failing to care for God's beautiful creation is a sin for which we must repent. You can listen and download the songs here.
If you'd like to learn your environmental address, start here ... just plug in your zip code and start learning about the watershed in which you live.
Fifteen of the last sixteen years, I've spent a day or two as a volunteer with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources doing wildlife assessments - specifically, helping wildlife biologist Scott Smith search for the bog turtle.
The bog turtle is the smallest and rarest turtle in North America. It lives in fragile, widely-scattered mini-ecosystems in Eastern North America.
Maryland, where I live, is near the center of its range.
To me, it's a complete pleasure to spend a day enjoying God's glorious creation and helping gather data to protect some easy-to-destroy corners of it - along with the creatures who live in them. Yesterday we surveyed three sites and found eight bog turtles. More than half were re-captured animals that had been marked in past years; a couple were first-time captures. After weighing, measuring, and marking the animals, we released them where we found them, in hopes that our data will help form public policy which will protect them for years to come.
If you'd like to learn more about doing your part to protect and heal the environment, check out everythingmustchange.org and click on planet.
I've remarked to a number of friends lately that there seem to be three main kinds of religious people in the world.
First, there are the fearsome - those who like to make others afraid.
Second, there are the fearless - those who refuse to be intimidated by the fearsome.
Then in the middle are the fearful - those who are afraid to associate with the fearless because they might incur the ire of the fearsome.
I've noticed over the years that a favorite tactic of the fearsome is "guilt by association." A small group of the fearsome is using this tactic this week to attack Kay Warren for her participation in the upcoming Envision 08 gathering at Princeton, June 9-11.
One of their blogs recently began like this ...
Kay Warren Joins Heavy-Weight Emergents at Envision 08Kay Warren, wife of Purpose Driven pastor Rick Warren, will join several heavy-weight emergent leaders at the upcoming Envision 08 event this June. Kay Warren will share a platform with Brian McLaren, Jim Wallis (Sojourners magazine), Shane Claiborne, Jay Bakker (son of PTL Jim Bakker), Doug Pagitt, and several other speakers who share emerging church proclivities.
In my opinion, Kay Warren is a hero. I doubt she would even be aware of "emergent heavyweights," much less wish to be associated with them. She is busy helping influence thousands of Christians to care in unprecedented ways for people in need around the world - especially for those suffering from HIV/AIDS. The fearsome critics choose to ignore the amazing good Kay and Rick Warren have done and are doing, and instead they attack Kay for attending an event which includes people like (shudder) Shane Claiborne, Jim Wallis, Jay Bakker, Doug Pagitt and (shudder again) me.
Ironically, today's fearsome were probably yesterday's fearful who became co-opted by a mindset of fear. One can hope that more and more of today's fearful will refuse to be intimidated or play into the old politics of fear. After all, recalling Paul's words (2 Tim 1:7), God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-discipline.
Continue reading Envision 08 Conference Controversy...
This week many people around the world are recalling - with a wide range of emotion and opinion - the formation of the modern state of Israel 60 years ago.
This piece by Eboo Patel expresses what's most in my heart these days.
Blessed are the peacemakers ...
Now that the EMC tour is over (I'm still feeling pretty sad about that ... it was such an enjoyable experience) ... people have been asking about when I'll be doing some international travel. Here's what's planned this year and next:
Continue reading upcoming international travel?...
Tomorrow (Tuesday) 13 May I'll be meeting a few friends at Daily Grind in Fulton from 8 to 9:30 or so. You're welcome to drop in and join us. For links, go here ...
Goshen College welcomed us for our final stop in the Everything Must Change Tour ... I was so impressed, once again, by the school's administrators, faculty, and students, as they live out their five core values:
Christ-centered
passionate learning
global citizenship
servant leadership
compassionate peacemaking.
Someone told me that Goshen is considered a well-kept secret. I hope you'll join me in spreading the word about this extraordinary learning community, whose values resonate so strongly with the themes of our tour.
The time at Goshen was pure joy, but I must admit our DeepShift team felt a lot of mixed emotions as we packed up to leave and for the first time in eleven weeks couldn't say, "See you next weekend!" We've enjoyed such a tremendous working relationship over the past year, planning and presenting the tour and meeting amazing people around the country. We have a number of invitations to launch a second leg of the tour, which we'll prayerfully consider in the coming weeks. Until then, Linnea, Tracy, Eric, and Jo - along with our hosts, sponsors, and other collaborators, you have been wonderful beyond words to work with! Thanks be to God for the joy of partnership in a worthy cause with splendid people like you!
This week Grace and I will be preparing for our departure this weekend for Africa ... never a dull moment!
I leave in a few minutes for our last tour stop in Goshen, Indiana. It's not too late to join us - and Goshen isn't far from major midwest cities ...
One of the truly interesting and good-hearted people I have gotten to know in recent years is Lynne Hybels. She is a gifted writer and has an important voice in the integration of faith and justice - and art. Check out her recent article here.
In the article you'll find links to the good work of my friends at La Red del Camino and The Work of the People.
And here's a link to the song by Aaron Niequist that Lynne refers to in her article.
I've been listening to Don Chaffer's CD "What You Don't Know" almost constantly for the last couple days.
And Rev. Vince Anderson's "100% Jesus."
Great music.
My friend Sivin Kit has helped launch a beautiful new project in Malaysia. You can read about it here.
They describe the initiative like this:
The MICAH MANDATE website is the result of the concerns and aspirations of a group of Christians who are praying that all Malaysians in general and Christian Malaysians in particular will be more constructively engaged in matters of social conscience, public service and nation building rather than to only remain in comfortable armchairs criticising other people and institutions. Actual involvement will better shape and clarify our thinking and our doing. In the process, we will meet and relate with others of all walks of life and learn to live and work together to build a better neighbourhood and a better world. All are welcome to MICAH MANDATE. We hope that here you will find the necessary space a
