There are so many opportunities available to honor Dr. King today that I hesitate to lift up a particular one or to put forward anything that might compete with others. But I think that I did find one short essay that has something to say to many of my good friends. It it called Freeing God to be God and was written by Rev. Graylan Scott Hagler, an ordained miniter in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the United Church of Christ. Rev. Hagler currently serves as the Senior Minister of Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ in Washington, DC. He helped lead the fight against payday lenders there, and he helped co-found the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America (NACA). He is also Director and Chief Visionary of Faith Strategies, LLC, a collective of clergy manifesting progressive perspectives on human and civil rights in the public arena.
Part of Rev. Hagler's essay contains the following. The entire essay can be found here.
During the pandemic, and under Trumpism, a racial split emerged in the evangelical movement as white evangelicals largely supported the policies of Trump; many of those policies clearly racist, and communities of-color, in general, were horrified at the antics of Trump and the lack of criticism from white evangelicals against those policies and antics of the Trump administration. Racial and ideological cracks were revealed where one perspective supported a political/religious orthodoxy and the status-quo, right or wrong, leaving of-color evangelicals horrified and surprised by the racist theological and ideological gap! The white evangelical community went as far as creating a religious litmus test over not wearing a mask during a pandemic, while Blacks and people of-color were disproportionally infected and died from the virus. This revealed at least two separate theologies. There is the theology of the political status-quo, governments, flag-waving, that believe that political leaders are the appointees of God, that slaves should be obedient to their masters, women are kept silent, and statements of American exceptionalism abound. On the other hand, people of-color continued to look to God for freedom, dignity, protection from the hatred and racism of the society, and to maintain hope and a sense of worth amid a hard and unwelcoming world. At least two Gods were revealed, two theologies, two ideologies, and at least two experiences that heard and perceived God in very different ways.
Showing posts with label Liberation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Liberation. Show all posts
Monday, January 16, 2023
Thursday, December 29, 2022
BUT THE GREATEST OF THESE IS LOVE by Timothy Wheeler
The post below comes from Timothy Wheeler, a lifelong socialist activist and journalist who grew up on the Left and has continued his commitment and work as a socialist movement elder and teacher. I'm posting this with two groups of people in mind. First, I have many conservative Christian friends who can't see where religious faith or spirituality and the Left might intersect and I hope that this will give them something to consider. This post is also intended for young people and others who are trying to find a place in the Left and who may be looking to the elders for direction.
My father, Donald Niven Wheeler, was an atheist. Yet among the lessons he taught me is that the Christian doctrine of love is a profoundly revolutionary idea.
He was thinking of Saint Paul’s First Epistle to Corinthians, so lovely in its poetic imagery that it sends chills up and down my spine. Think of the power of seeing truth “as through a glass darkly.” It is worth quoting at length: “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophesy and can fathom all knowledge and if I have faith that I can move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.”
St. Paul continues: “Love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy, it does not boast, it does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking. It is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always hopes, always perseveres.”
“And now these three remain: Faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
It is a contradiction that St. Paul’ sublime vision of universal love was so corrupted by evil empires, starting with the Roman Empire. First the Roman Emperors crucified Christians, including the Apostle Paul. Then Emperor Constantine in 313 A.D. issued the “Edict of Milan” decriminalizing Christianity. From then on, the ruling classes have used Christianity as a weapon of ruthless conquest. Think of the conquistadors who pillaged the New World, murdering hundreds of thousands, driven by an insatiable greed for gold. And following right behind them was the Holy Roman Catholic Church subduing and indoctrinating the Aztecs, Mayans, Incans, as round two of the conquest.
Where was the love in this wholesale genocide?
Yet tens of millions of oppressed people reject the deliberate distortion of the Holy Gospel by the religious demagogues, fake evangelism pouring out a litany of lies.
Among the clearest in exposing these lies is the African American people. They saw in Jesus’ teachings a path to freedom. I think St. Paul, the African American people----and my dad----were right: “Faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
He was thinking of Saint Paul’s First Epistle to Corinthians, so lovely in its poetic imagery that it sends chills up and down my spine. Think of the power of seeing truth “as through a glass darkly.” It is worth quoting at length: “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophesy and can fathom all knowledge and if I have faith that I can move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.”
St. Paul continues: “Love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy, it does not boast, it does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking. It is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always hopes, always perseveres.”
“And now these three remain: Faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
It is a contradiction that St. Paul’ sublime vision of universal love was so corrupted by evil empires, starting with the Roman Empire. First the Roman Emperors crucified Christians, including the Apostle Paul. Then Emperor Constantine in 313 A.D. issued the “Edict of Milan” decriminalizing Christianity. From then on, the ruling classes have used Christianity as a weapon of ruthless conquest. Think of the conquistadors who pillaged the New World, murdering hundreds of thousands, driven by an insatiable greed for gold. And following right behind them was the Holy Roman Catholic Church subduing and indoctrinating the Aztecs, Mayans, Incans, as round two of the conquest.
Where was the love in this wholesale genocide?
Yet tens of millions of oppressed people reject the deliberate distortion of the Holy Gospel by the religious demagogues, fake evangelism pouring out a litany of lies.
Among the clearest in exposing these lies is the African American people. They saw in Jesus’ teachings a path to freedom. I think St. Paul, the African American people----and my dad----were right: “Faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
Thursday, December 22, 2022
Class struggle and the revolutionary hope of Christmas by Tim Yeager
This post offers a view of the Christmas story that will surprise many readers and, I hope, provoke some study and discussion. The author of this piece is Tim Yeager, who is described at the end of the article as " Long-time labor organizer, civil rights and peace activist in the U.S., Rev. Tim Yeager is now Associate Priest at St Albans Cathedral and Volunteer priest at Waltham Abbey Church, U.K." This article first appeared in the December 20, 2017 edition of the People's World. Please go here in order to read the entire article.
A mural imitating the religious painting "The Last Supper" covers a wall of a popular housing complex in Caracas, showing from left to right: Fidel Castro, Ernesto 'Che' Guevara, Mao Zedong, V.I. Lenin, Karl Marx, Jesus Christ, Simon Bolivar, Venezuelan rebel fighters Alexis Gonzalez and Fabricio Ojeda, and Venezuela's late President Hugo Chavez. | Fernando Llano / AP
Christmas time can be so depressing. It brings out some of the worst features of capitalism and rubs them in our faces. You can’t escape, whatever your philosophical or religious belief.
Advertisements spur on feelings of guilt if you don’t buy enough of the right kinds of consumer products for people you love. Creative financing is offered so that lenders can make even more profit. And it is an environmental disaster … more plastic, cardboard, and packaging is produced, carted about, and dumped into landfills, vacant lots, and incinerators at Christmas time than at any other time of the year.
And yet… Nearly smothered beneath piles of gift catalogs and sale circulars, nearly drowned in a sea of synthesized elevator-music Christmas carols, in a locked theological vault guarded down through the centuries by legions of preachers, priests and pontiffs, there burns a persistent secret flame. It is the flame of a revolutionary hope—hope for a better world, a more just society, where the social order is turned upside down so that the poor are fed and the rich are relieved of their ill-gotten gains. And it is something that working people of any culture, any religious or philosophical background can relate to.
What does Christmas have to do with the class struggle? In a word—everything. The story goes like this:
Once upon a time, in a land far away on the edge of a great empire, there was a people with an ancient culture, a storied past, and a great literature, who had been conquered by a technologically advanced imperial power. They were occupied by foreign soldiers and ruled by corrupt local despots who collaborated with the foreign oppressors. There were periodic revolts of local peasants and slaves that were put down mercilessly.
In the midst of all that, a young unmarried girl becomes pregnant out of wedlock. You might think she would regret this development, but on the contrary, she finds in the anticipated birth of a child a reason to rejoice and to hope for a better world. In her joy and determination, she sings an ancient song of liberation:
My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden. For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me: He has shown strength with his arm, he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts, he has put down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of low degree; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. (Luke 1:46-53)
She and her fiancé are then forced to make a difficult journey while she is in the last weeks of her pregnancy, ostensibly to comply with the demands of their imperial rulers to register for a census. They are denied lodging in local inns. Homeless, the young family takes shelter in a stable, where the mother goes into labor and gives birth to a baby boy among barnyard animals.
Hardly an auspicious beginning for a child in whom his mother had placed such hope. And then things get worse. The local ruler, a collaborator who is kept in power through an occupation army, decides on an act of terror. Convinced that a revolt is brewing in the village where the young couple has just had their baby, he sends in death squads to kill all the male children under a certain age.
Christmas time can be so depressing. It brings out some of the worst features of capitalism and rubs them in our faces. You can’t escape, whatever your philosophical or religious belief.
Advertisements spur on feelings of guilt if you don’t buy enough of the right kinds of consumer products for people you love. Creative financing is offered so that lenders can make even more profit. And it is an environmental disaster … more plastic, cardboard, and packaging is produced, carted about, and dumped into landfills, vacant lots, and incinerators at Christmas time than at any other time of the year.
And yet… Nearly smothered beneath piles of gift catalogs and sale circulars, nearly drowned in a sea of synthesized elevator-music Christmas carols, in a locked theological vault guarded down through the centuries by legions of preachers, priests and pontiffs, there burns a persistent secret flame. It is the flame of a revolutionary hope—hope for a better world, a more just society, where the social order is turned upside down so that the poor are fed and the rich are relieved of their ill-gotten gains. And it is something that working people of any culture, any religious or philosophical background can relate to.
What does Christmas have to do with the class struggle? In a word—everything. The story goes like this:
Once upon a time, in a land far away on the edge of a great empire, there was a people with an ancient culture, a storied past, and a great literature, who had been conquered by a technologically advanced imperial power. They were occupied by foreign soldiers and ruled by corrupt local despots who collaborated with the foreign oppressors. There were periodic revolts of local peasants and slaves that were put down mercilessly.
In the midst of all that, a young unmarried girl becomes pregnant out of wedlock. You might think she would regret this development, but on the contrary, she finds in the anticipated birth of a child a reason to rejoice and to hope for a better world. In her joy and determination, she sings an ancient song of liberation:
My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden. For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me: He has shown strength with his arm, he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts, he has put down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of low degree; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. (Luke 1:46-53)
She and her fiancé are then forced to make a difficult journey while she is in the last weeks of her pregnancy, ostensibly to comply with the demands of their imperial rulers to register for a census. They are denied lodging in local inns. Homeless, the young family takes shelter in a stable, where the mother goes into labor and gives birth to a baby boy among barnyard animals.
Hardly an auspicious beginning for a child in whom his mother had placed such hope. And then things get worse. The local ruler, a collaborator who is kept in power through an occupation army, decides on an act of terror. Convinced that a revolt is brewing in the village where the young couple has just had their baby, he sends in death squads to kill all the male children under a certain age.
Sunday, December 4, 2022
A meditation/reflection by Carl Davidson
MANY THINGS DON’T BOTHER ME MUCH, BUT A FEW THINGS BOTHER ME A LOT. One is how our minds work, especially about what we think we know, mainly the memories and lessons we draw on when we are faced with choices and problems. Some are rules we believe workable. But most of us most of the time, and all of us some of the time, rely on NARRATIVE, OR STORIES, some told to us yesterday, some we overheard, many more that we recall from our memories, both of things we directly experienced or indirectly heard or read about.
Our minds are full of bundles of stories. When we confide in friends about our troubles or our victories, we start with telling stories. I’ve given thousands of speeches, and by far the best way to give a speech is to start with a story about yourself. (You don’t usually forget these, so you get rolling comfortably). Then you connect that story to other stories about the topic at hand, and so on. Audiences like stories more so than a string of propositions or a list of facts. So make sure you put these facts and propositions into your stories.
But here’s the hard nut to crack. What if our stories are fully imaginary and have little to do with the real world? In fact, a few philosophers today tell us there is no ‘real’ world,’ that we only have our ‘lifeworlds’ that are comprised of our stories, and who is to say one lifeworld is superior to another? Wouldn’t that be tyrannical? (These people are called ‘postmodernists,’ and they posit a ‘post-truth world’, so now you have a decent idea of what these $10 words mean.)
Why is this a problem? Because it leaves your mind open to narratives and stories that make you feel good, that confirm what you and those close to you like to hear about yourselves, your family, your friends, your fellow church members, your country. But it also allows leaving you open to anger and outrage over undermining stories that make you uncomfortable, and these thus become lies and ‘fake news.’ iT LEAVES YOU OPEN TO FASCISM.
The truth will make us free, Scripture tells us. But I’m also reminded of Jack Nicolson’s movie outburst, ‘The truth? You can’t handle the truth!’
There is a real world, a multilayered universe of inorganic, organic, social and intellectual values that operate by laws and rules. Here I’m affirming a social reality, and we can find it, but sometimes the means of finding it are uncomfortable, even painful. I’m not a postmodernist, but a dialectical guy, asking pointed questions like Socrates did. If it stings a bit, good. That means you’ll remember it.
One tool I use these days is to ask some disgruntled people what seems a simple question, ‘Who is your neighbor?’ A few will immediately mention family or people on their block, but they quickly realize it’s far from a simple question.
It’s a profound one, and like Jack Nicholson said in the movie, many people can’t handle it. They know where it’s coming from. They’ve heard it for years. It’s the question a snarky lawyer tossed at Jesus to trip Him up. Jesus answers with a story too, a story about a Samaritan, a group of people despised by Jews back then. It’s perhaps the deepest story in the entire New Testament, one that applies to all faiths and people of no faith, well worth reading again.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_Good_Samaritan
Our minds are full of bundles of stories. When we confide in friends about our troubles or our victories, we start with telling stories. I’ve given thousands of speeches, and by far the best way to give a speech is to start with a story about yourself. (You don’t usually forget these, so you get rolling comfortably). Then you connect that story to other stories about the topic at hand, and so on. Audiences like stories more so than a string of propositions or a list of facts. So make sure you put these facts and propositions into your stories.
But here’s the hard nut to crack. What if our stories are fully imaginary and have little to do with the real world? In fact, a few philosophers today tell us there is no ‘real’ world,’ that we only have our ‘lifeworlds’ that are comprised of our stories, and who is to say one lifeworld is superior to another? Wouldn’t that be tyrannical? (These people are called ‘postmodernists,’ and they posit a ‘post-truth world’, so now you have a decent idea of what these $10 words mean.)
Why is this a problem? Because it leaves your mind open to narratives and stories that make you feel good, that confirm what you and those close to you like to hear about yourselves, your family, your friends, your fellow church members, your country. But it also allows leaving you open to anger and outrage over undermining stories that make you uncomfortable, and these thus become lies and ‘fake news.’ iT LEAVES YOU OPEN TO FASCISM.
The truth will make us free, Scripture tells us. But I’m also reminded of Jack Nicolson’s movie outburst, ‘The truth? You can’t handle the truth!’
There is a real world, a multilayered universe of inorganic, organic, social and intellectual values that operate by laws and rules. Here I’m affirming a social reality, and we can find it, but sometimes the means of finding it are uncomfortable, even painful. I’m not a postmodernist, but a dialectical guy, asking pointed questions like Socrates did. If it stings a bit, good. That means you’ll remember it.
One tool I use these days is to ask some disgruntled people what seems a simple question, ‘Who is your neighbor?’ A few will immediately mention family or people on their block, but they quickly realize it’s far from a simple question.
It’s a profound one, and like Jack Nicholson said in the movie, many people can’t handle it. They know where it’s coming from. They’ve heard it for years. It’s the question a snarky lawyer tossed at Jesus to trip Him up. Jesus answers with a story too, a story about a Samaritan, a group of people despised by Jews back then. It’s perhaps the deepest story in the entire New Testament, one that applies to all faiths and people of no faith, well worth reading again.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_Good_Samaritan
Friday, November 4, 2022
"The path to peace is never easy..." Another great poem by Stewart Acuff
I posted a poem from Stewart Acuff the other day. Here is another great poem and photograph from him. He's a deep thinker and a great poet. Look carefully around you with love. There is lots to learn in the world around us.
The path to peace is never easy
Love is action not just feeling
Justice requires vigilance and not letting go
Watch two or three songbirds mob a crow
To drive it from their eggs, babies and homes
The egret stands still and silent on stilt like legs waiting
Till its neck straightens from its snake curl striking
All day the egret waits and watches for every bite
Just as a hungry owl hunts through the night
Sometimes an entire people can act as one
When we act to defend our children and our folks' freedom.
The path to peace is never easy
Love is action not just feeling
Justice requires vigilance and not letting go
Watch two or three songbirds mob a crow
To drive it from their eggs, babies and homes
The egret stands still and silent on stilt like legs waiting
Till its neck straightens from its snake curl striking
All day the egret waits and watches for every bite
Just as a hungry owl hunts through the night
Sometimes an entire people can act as one
When we act to defend our children and our folks' freedom.
Thursday, July 28, 2022
Truths from Patrick Weaver
God gave us a model for helping the oppressed, the abused and those in bondage. He sent Moses to free the Children of Israel from Egypt, He didn’t tell Moses to sit them down with Pharaoh and try to fix the relationship.
And:
Somebody else needs to hear this…Did y’all notice that God used the least likely to be the most favored? Sarah was barren, David was last in line, Esther was an orphan, Ruth lost it all, Rahab was a prostitute, Noah had no Ark building experience, Moses had a stutter…
I need some folks with crazy faith to decree and declare, “My God is able!”
And:
Somebody else needs to hear this…Did y’all notice that God used the least likely to be the most favored? Sarah was barren, David was last in line, Esther was an orphan, Ruth lost it all, Rahab was a prostitute, Noah had no Ark building experience, Moses had a stutter…
I need some folks with crazy faith to decree and declare, “My God is able!”
Tuesday, June 14, 2022
Saturday, June 11, 2022
It's Trinity Sunday
Most western Christians celebrate today as Trinity Sunday.
The Episcopal Church describes Trinity Sunday in this way:
Two great and short (but very meaningful) books come to my mind today. One is Leonardo Boff's Holy Trinity, Perfect Community and the other is Geevaeghese Mar Osthathios' Theology of a classless Society, both published by Orbis Books. These come from the experiences two theologians from the Global South and speak in different ways to us about the radical consequences of truly believing in and embracing a divine Trinity. The relationship of the three distinct but united forces within the Trinity gives us a model for linking our liberation to creativity and realizing both together in practical ways.
The Episcopal Church describes Trinity Sunday in this way:
Feast that celebrates “the one and equal glory” of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, “in Trinity of Persons and in Unity of Being” (Book of Common Prayer--BCP, p. 380). It is celebrated on the first Sunday after Pentecost. Trinity Sunday is one of the seven principal feasts of the church year (BCP, p. 15). The proper readings and collect for Trinity Sunday are used only on the feast, not on the weekdays following. The numbered proper which corresponds most closely to the date of Trinity Sunday is used (BCP, p. 228). The BCP also provides the proper “Of the Holy Trinity” for optional use at other times, subject to the rules of the calendar of the church year (see BCP, pp. 251, 927). The Hymnal 1982 presents ten hymns in a section on The Holy Trinity (Hymns 362-371), including “Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!” (Hymn 362), “Come, thou almighty King” (Hymn 365), and “Holy Father, great Creator” (Hymn 368).
Celebration of Trinity Sunday was approved for the western church by Pope John XXII in 1334. This feast is associated with Thomas Becket (c. 1118-1170), who was consecrated bishop on Trinity Sunday, 1162. His martyrdom may have influenced the popularity of the feast in England and the custom of naming the remaining Sundays of the church year “Sundays after Trinity.” The Sarum Missal and editions of the Prayer Book through the 1928 BCP named these Sundays the Sundays after Trinity. The 1979 BCP identifies this portion of the church year as the season after Pentecost, and names these Sundays the Sundays after Pentecost (see BCP, p. 32).I'm sorry that I don't know where this icon came from, but it expresses Trinity Sunday in the Indigenous/Native American context quite well. We will do well to contemplate what it is saying to all of us.
Two great and short (but very meaningful) books come to my mind today. One is Leonardo Boff's Holy Trinity, Perfect Community and the other is Geevaeghese Mar Osthathios' Theology of a classless Society, both published by Orbis Books. These come from the experiences two theologians from the Global South and speak in different ways to us about the radical consequences of truly believing in and embracing a divine Trinity. The relationship of the three distinct but united forces within the Trinity gives us a model for linking our liberation to creativity and realizing both together in practical ways.
Wednesday, May 25, 2022
"Scripture is full of lamentations because it reflects real life, and real life has moments of deep sorrow and pain..."
“When the world looks to Christians for lament, this is an opportunity to embrace the suffering of others, to join in fellowship with those who are hurting. But too often Christians are silent, or apathetic, or even combative to the lament of others.
Scripture is full of laments. There’s an entire book of the Bible entitled Lamentations. Roughly a third of all of the Psalms are forms of lament. Psalm 9: 9 reflects the willingness of God to accept our laments, stating that “The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble.” Matthew 5: 4 reiterates God’s desire for us to lament, when Jesus exclaims “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” And Psalm 34: 18 declares that “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.”
Scripture is full of lamentations because it reflects real life, and real life has moments of deep sorrow and pain. Social justice asks us to lament, because justice cannot be passionately pursued until injustice is fully understood, and known, and felt. When you feel, see, and know the pain and suffering of your neighbors, you will lament.
Lamentations are happening all around us. The sorrows of the oppressed are being communicated, but are we listening?…
…To not lament is to not understand, to not empathize, to not have compassion, to not care, and to not love. When we lament with our neighbor we offer them our purest form of comfort, which doesn’t rationalize, excuse, or shy away from the pain, but rather wholly embraces the reality of their being.
There are countless opportunities to lament, to love our neighbors: Bombings. Wars. Shooting. Murders. Racism. Bigotry. Today, lament with those who lament.”
-On Love and Mercy: A Social Justice Devotional
Scripture is full of laments. There’s an entire book of the Bible entitled Lamentations. Roughly a third of all of the Psalms are forms of lament. Psalm 9: 9 reflects the willingness of God to accept our laments, stating that “The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble.” Matthew 5: 4 reiterates God’s desire for us to lament, when Jesus exclaims “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” And Psalm 34: 18 declares that “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.”
Scripture is full of lamentations because it reflects real life, and real life has moments of deep sorrow and pain. Social justice asks us to lament, because justice cannot be passionately pursued until injustice is fully understood, and known, and felt. When you feel, see, and know the pain and suffering of your neighbors, you will lament.
Lamentations are happening all around us. The sorrows of the oppressed are being communicated, but are we listening?…
…To not lament is to not understand, to not empathize, to not have compassion, to not care, and to not love. When we lament with our neighbor we offer them our purest form of comfort, which doesn’t rationalize, excuse, or shy away from the pain, but rather wholly embraces the reality of their being.
There are countless opportunities to lament, to love our neighbors: Bombings. Wars. Shooting. Murders. Racism. Bigotry. Today, lament with those who lament.”
-On Love and Mercy: A Social Justice Devotional
Sunday, May 22, 2022
Feminist and liberation theologian Rosemary Radford Ruether has died
From National Public Radio:
One of the founding mothers of feminist theology has died. Rosemary Radford Ruether was among the first scholars to think deeply about the role of women in Christianity, shaking up old patriarchies and pushing for change.
Ruether died in California on Saturday at the age of 85 after battling a long illness, according to the theologian Mary Hunt, who announced the death in a statement on behalf of Ruether's family.
"Dr. Ruether was a scholar activist par excellence. She was respected and beloved by students, colleagues, and collaborators around the world for her work on ecofeminist and liberation theologies, anti-racism, Middle East complexities, women-church, and many other topics," the statement said.
"Her legacy, both intellectual and personal, is rich beyond imagining. The scope and depth of her work, and the witness of her life as a committed feminist justice-seeker will shine forever with a luster that time will only enhance."
One of the founding mothers of feminist theology has died. Rosemary Radford Ruether was among the first scholars to think deeply about the role of women in Christianity, shaking up old patriarchies and pushing for change.
Ruether died in California on Saturday at the age of 85 after battling a long illness, according to the theologian Mary Hunt, who announced the death in a statement on behalf of Ruether's family.
"Dr. Ruether was a scholar activist par excellence. She was respected and beloved by students, colleagues, and collaborators around the world for her work on ecofeminist and liberation theologies, anti-racism, Middle East complexities, women-church, and many other topics," the statement said.
"Her legacy, both intellectual and personal, is rich beyond imagining. The scope and depth of her work, and the witness of her life as a committed feminist justice-seeker will shine forever with a luster that time will only enhance."
Read the entire story here.
This came from the National Catholic Reporter:
Feminist and liberation theologian Rosemary Radford Ruether influenced generations of men and women in the causes of justice for women, the poor, people of color, the Middle East and the Earth. The scholar, teacher, activist, author and former NCR columnist died May 21. She was 85.
Theologian Mary Hunt, a long-time friend and colleague of Reuther's, announced the death on behalf of the family.
"Dr. Ruether was a scholar activist par excellence. She was respected and beloved by students, colleagues, and collaborators around the world," said Hunt, cofounder and codirector of the Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics, and Ritual (WATER).
"Her legacy, both intellectual and personal, is rich beyond imagining," Hunt said in an email announcement. "The scope and depth of her work, and the witness of her life as a committed feminist justice-seeker will shine forever with a luster that time will only enhance."
A classicist by training, Ruether was outspoken in her liberal views on everything from women's ordination to the Palestinian state. She wrote hundreds of articles and 36 books, including the systematic Sexism and God-Talk in 1983 and the ecofeminist primer Gaia and God in 1992.
In more than 50 years of teaching, Ruether influenced thousands of students, first at the historically black Howard University from 1965 to 1975, then at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary as the Georgia Harkness Professor of Applied Theology from 1976 to 2002. She was a visiting professor at Harvard Divinity School, Princeton Theological Seminary, Yale Divinity School and Sir George Williams University in Montreal.
Read the NCR story here.
Feminist and liberation theologian Rosemary Radford Ruether influenced generations of men and women in the causes of justice for women, the poor, people of color, the Middle East and the Earth. The scholar, teacher, activist, author and former NCR columnist died May 21. She was 85.
Theologian Mary Hunt, a long-time friend and colleague of Reuther's, announced the death on behalf of the family.
"Dr. Ruether was a scholar activist par excellence. She was respected and beloved by students, colleagues, and collaborators around the world," said Hunt, cofounder and codirector of the Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics, and Ritual (WATER).
"Her legacy, both intellectual and personal, is rich beyond imagining," Hunt said in an email announcement. "The scope and depth of her work, and the witness of her life as a committed feminist justice-seeker will shine forever with a luster that time will only enhance."
A classicist by training, Ruether was outspoken in her liberal views on everything from women's ordination to the Palestinian state. She wrote hundreds of articles and 36 books, including the systematic Sexism and God-Talk in 1983 and the ecofeminist primer Gaia and God in 1992.
In more than 50 years of teaching, Ruether influenced thousands of students, first at the historically black Howard University from 1965 to 1975, then at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary as the Georgia Harkness Professor of Applied Theology from 1976 to 2002. She was a visiting professor at Harvard Divinity School, Princeton Theological Seminary, Yale Divinity School and Sir George Williams University in Montreal.
Read the NCR story here.
The Liberation Theologies Online Library and Reference Center entry on Rosemary Radford Ruether is here.
Tuesday, May 10, 2022
Our Obligation to the “Least of These”---A Necessary Word From Bishop William Barber
Dear Movement Family,
We live in the richest nation to ever exist since God created the earth, yet many in power use a false Christian narrative to blame poor people and abdicate responsibility for economic justice. But we know that their talk about scarcity and their justifications for serving rich corporations over poor communities are lies. The continuous feeding of the war economy, proliferation of weapons, and notions of peace through military strength give far too many a false sense of security, no matter what curious and twisted attempt at moral justification is tried. Too many politicians raise no question when it comes to funding war, tax cuts for greedy corporate interests, and pornographic sums of money to subvert democracy while at the same time using every excuse to block spending that would lift people out of poverty. This is one of the greatest moral contradictions of our time, and we must be clear that it threatens democracy and civilization itself.
In the Bible, Matthew’s Gospel tells us plain as day in Chapter 25 that a true nation under God must lead by caring for the vulnerable and welcoming strangers. “All the nations will be gathered before [God],” Matthew says, and God will “separate the people from one another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.” Who are the least of these today, and what are the public policies that must change to care for them?
In a nation plagued by hidden poverty, what makes us most vulnerable is the basic moral contradiction of poverty, which we have tried to ignore for the past 40 years. 140 million Americans– 43% of adults and 52% of children–are poor and low-wealth, suffering in plain sight. As pandemic relief programs like stimulus checks, expanded unemployment insurance, and expanded CTC payments have expired, we can expect these numbers to rise. In 2021, the Urban Institute estimated that without these programs, these numbers would have gone up to well over 150 million - nearly 50% of all adults. Yet we have watched billionaires make nearly $2 trillion during that same time.
As long as America ignores these realities and refuses to fully address them, we all live in an impoverished democracy. This requires a warning–not a one-day event, but a demonstration and declaration that the time to act is now. Why?
Because not ignoring the least of these today requires that we address the interlocking injustices of systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation, the denial of health care, militarism and the war economy, and the distorted moral narrative of religious nationalism. It is time to heal the wounds of our society and declare a moral revival across the land.
Because our politics are trapped by the lies of scarcity. These politics turn us against each other and blame the poor for their poverty, even though we live in a time of abundance. We have the resources to meet the needs of everybody! The only thing our politicians lack is the moral conscience to lift the least of these and the political will to make it so.
Because for far too long poor people, people of color, Indigenous nations, immigrant families, women, children, the disabled, and LGBTQ communities have been under attack, pitted against each other and blamed for society’s problems. Please take 5 minutes today to consider the pain of poverty in America.
Because we must put a face and voice on the shameful conditions confronting this nation and for the least of these we must speak and nonviolently force the nation to hear the truth and to see the faces.
We must have a moral meeting in the public square that takes the social blinders off and puts a face on the realities that can and must be changed. We must become a nation that fulfills our moral obligation to care for the least of these. We must break through the lies that have hidden poverty in America. Poor and low-income people and low wage workers are determined to stand together on Pennsylvania Avenue, Saturday June 18th, gathering at 930am, to make the nation see and hear their pain. Together, we will lift a Third Reconstruction moral agenda for the healing of the nation that can end poverty and low wealth from the bottom up. We need everyone who can to stand together and join us.
In a sermon I once preached on Matthew 25, I said to the Christians sitting in the sanctuary:
So in this season we must say, “America, listen! Hear yourself in the voices of the least of these. Don’t turn away. Recognize that the hope of the nation is in how we treat the least of these.” Remember Rabbi Heschel. Let me paraphrase what he once said: “We as a nation forfeit the right to even worship God until we do right by the least of this nation.”
Brothers and Sisters, we won’t be silent or unheard anymore. In this season we are saying, “If you have been rejected, it’s time on moral authority to challenge policies that create social murder, and we must do it not as Democrats or Republicans but as human beings and moral agents.
It’s time to work together to save the soul of this democracy and the world. Together, we must show the nation that healing is in the very people who’ve been rejected leading a moral revival.
One scripture in the Bible says,
“God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, and He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.”--Acts 10:38
Those of us who believe in this Jesus have to help the poor and looked over, the left out and hurting, the harmed and broken, to get up! Looked over get up! This is God’s way. No wonder the hymn writer said:
If I can help somebody, as I pass along,
If I can cheer somebody, with a word or song,
If I can show somebody, how they're traveling wrong,
Then my living shall not be in vain.
If I can do my duty, as a good man ought,
If I can bring back beauty, to a world up wrought,
If I can spread love's message, as the Master taught,
Then my living shall not be in vain.
My living shall not be in vain,
Then my living shall not be in vain
If I can help somebody, as I pass along,
Then my living shall not be in vain.
Forward together,
William J. Barber, II
PS- In my update last week, I noted the moral contradiction of a Congress that can find money for more weapons to fight Russians in Ukraine but will still not invest in poor and low-income people here at home. Some people have misconstrued my words as an endorsement of continued military escalation in Ukraine. I want to be clear: nothing could be further from the truth. We need to do everything possible to get negotiated peace, not the death of more people. We also have to do even more on the front end, before war ever starts. All this death, killing one another, and blowing up cities will lead the human race to its own demise.
I’ve stood for 30 years with organizations that challenge the militarism of our war economy. I have had this position as a pastor in a military town, and members of my church who serve in the military have thanked me for my deep commitment to challenging all this war and the influence of the war economy in our world. The Poor People’s Campaign names the war economy as one of the interlocking injustices we must confront in order to have a Third Reconstruction. We must be determined to continue to work together toward a negotiation of peace in Ukraine and an end to policy violence here at home. Every day I pray and sing this hymn, and I quoted it to the nation when I was asked to deliver the inaugural sermon:
God of grace and God of glory,
On Thy people pour Thy power.
Crown Thine ancient church’s story,
Bring her bud to glorious flower.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
For the facing of this hour,
For the facing of this hour.
Lo! the hosts of evil ’round us,
Scorn Thy Christ, assail His ways.
From the fears that long have bound us,
Free our hearts to faith and praise.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
For the living of these days,
For the living of these days.
Cure Thy children’s warring madness,
Bend our pride to Thy control.
Shame our wanton selfish gladness,
Rich in things and poor in soul.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
Lest we miss Thy kingdom’s goal,
Lest we miss Thy kingdom’s goal.
Set our feet on lofty places,
Gird our lives that they may be,
Armored with all Christ-like graces,
In the fight to set men free.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
That we fail not man nor Thee,
That we fail not man nor Thee.
Save us from weak resignation,
To the evils we deplore.
Let the search for Thy salvation,
Be our glory evermore.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
Serving Thee whom we adore,
Serving Thee whom we adore.
Forward together, not one step back!
Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II
President and Senior Lecturer
Repairers of the Breach
“The way to heal the soul of the nation is to pass policies that heal the body of the nation. It’s the just thing to do. That’s how we as a nation can together move forward.”
-Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II
We live in the richest nation to ever exist since God created the earth, yet many in power use a false Christian narrative to blame poor people and abdicate responsibility for economic justice. But we know that their talk about scarcity and their justifications for serving rich corporations over poor communities are lies. The continuous feeding of the war economy, proliferation of weapons, and notions of peace through military strength give far too many a false sense of security, no matter what curious and twisted attempt at moral justification is tried. Too many politicians raise no question when it comes to funding war, tax cuts for greedy corporate interests, and pornographic sums of money to subvert democracy while at the same time using every excuse to block spending that would lift people out of poverty. This is one of the greatest moral contradictions of our time, and we must be clear that it threatens democracy and civilization itself.
In the Bible, Matthew’s Gospel tells us plain as day in Chapter 25 that a true nation under God must lead by caring for the vulnerable and welcoming strangers. “All the nations will be gathered before [God],” Matthew says, and God will “separate the people from one another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.” Who are the least of these today, and what are the public policies that must change to care for them?
In a nation plagued by hidden poverty, what makes us most vulnerable is the basic moral contradiction of poverty, which we have tried to ignore for the past 40 years. 140 million Americans– 43% of adults and 52% of children–are poor and low-wealth, suffering in plain sight. As pandemic relief programs like stimulus checks, expanded unemployment insurance, and expanded CTC payments have expired, we can expect these numbers to rise. In 2021, the Urban Institute estimated that without these programs, these numbers would have gone up to well over 150 million - nearly 50% of all adults. Yet we have watched billionaires make nearly $2 trillion during that same time.
As long as America ignores these realities and refuses to fully address them, we all live in an impoverished democracy. This requires a warning–not a one-day event, but a demonstration and declaration that the time to act is now. Why?
Because not ignoring the least of these today requires that we address the interlocking injustices of systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation, the denial of health care, militarism and the war economy, and the distorted moral narrative of religious nationalism. It is time to heal the wounds of our society and declare a moral revival across the land.
Because our politics are trapped by the lies of scarcity. These politics turn us against each other and blame the poor for their poverty, even though we live in a time of abundance. We have the resources to meet the needs of everybody! The only thing our politicians lack is the moral conscience to lift the least of these and the political will to make it so.
Because for far too long poor people, people of color, Indigenous nations, immigrant families, women, children, the disabled, and LGBTQ communities have been under attack, pitted against each other and blamed for society’s problems. Please take 5 minutes today to consider the pain of poverty in America.
Because we must put a face and voice on the shameful conditions confronting this nation and for the least of these we must speak and nonviolently force the nation to hear the truth and to see the faces.
We must have a moral meeting in the public square that takes the social blinders off and puts a face on the realities that can and must be changed. We must become a nation that fulfills our moral obligation to care for the least of these. We must break through the lies that have hidden poverty in America. Poor and low-income people and low wage workers are determined to stand together on Pennsylvania Avenue, Saturday June 18th, gathering at 930am, to make the nation see and hear their pain. Together, we will lift a Third Reconstruction moral agenda for the healing of the nation that can end poverty and low wealth from the bottom up. We need everyone who can to stand together and join us.
In a sermon I once preached on Matthew 25, I said to the Christians sitting in the sanctuary:
So in this season we must say, “America, listen! Hear yourself in the voices of the least of these. Don’t turn away. Recognize that the hope of the nation is in how we treat the least of these.” Remember Rabbi Heschel. Let me paraphrase what he once said: “We as a nation forfeit the right to even worship God until we do right by the least of this nation.”
Brothers and Sisters, we won’t be silent or unheard anymore. In this season we are saying, “If you have been rejected, it’s time on moral authority to challenge policies that create social murder, and we must do it not as Democrats or Republicans but as human beings and moral agents.
It’s time to work together to save the soul of this democracy and the world. Together, we must show the nation that healing is in the very people who’ve been rejected leading a moral revival.
One scripture in the Bible says,
“God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, and He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.”--Acts 10:38
Those of us who believe in this Jesus have to help the poor and looked over, the left out and hurting, the harmed and broken, to get up! Looked over get up! This is God’s way. No wonder the hymn writer said:
If I can help somebody, as I pass along,
If I can cheer somebody, with a word or song,
If I can show somebody, how they're traveling wrong,
Then my living shall not be in vain.
If I can do my duty, as a good man ought,
If I can bring back beauty, to a world up wrought,
If I can spread love's message, as the Master taught,
Then my living shall not be in vain.
My living shall not be in vain,
Then my living shall not be in vain
If I can help somebody, as I pass along,
Then my living shall not be in vain.
Forward together,
William J. Barber, II
PS- In my update last week, I noted the moral contradiction of a Congress that can find money for more weapons to fight Russians in Ukraine but will still not invest in poor and low-income people here at home. Some people have misconstrued my words as an endorsement of continued military escalation in Ukraine. I want to be clear: nothing could be further from the truth. We need to do everything possible to get negotiated peace, not the death of more people. We also have to do even more on the front end, before war ever starts. All this death, killing one another, and blowing up cities will lead the human race to its own demise.
I’ve stood for 30 years with organizations that challenge the militarism of our war economy. I have had this position as a pastor in a military town, and members of my church who serve in the military have thanked me for my deep commitment to challenging all this war and the influence of the war economy in our world. The Poor People’s Campaign names the war economy as one of the interlocking injustices we must confront in order to have a Third Reconstruction. We must be determined to continue to work together toward a negotiation of peace in Ukraine and an end to policy violence here at home. Every day I pray and sing this hymn, and I quoted it to the nation when I was asked to deliver the inaugural sermon:
God of grace and God of glory,
On Thy people pour Thy power.
Crown Thine ancient church’s story,
Bring her bud to glorious flower.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
For the facing of this hour,
For the facing of this hour.
Lo! the hosts of evil ’round us,
Scorn Thy Christ, assail His ways.
From the fears that long have bound us,
Free our hearts to faith and praise.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
For the living of these days,
For the living of these days.
Cure Thy children’s warring madness,
Bend our pride to Thy control.
Shame our wanton selfish gladness,
Rich in things and poor in soul.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
Lest we miss Thy kingdom’s goal,
Lest we miss Thy kingdom’s goal.
Set our feet on lofty places,
Gird our lives that they may be,
Armored with all Christ-like graces,
In the fight to set men free.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
That we fail not man nor Thee,
That we fail not man nor Thee.
Save us from weak resignation,
To the evils we deplore.
Let the search for Thy salvation,
Be our glory evermore.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
Serving Thee whom we adore,
Serving Thee whom we adore.
Forward together, not one step back!
Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II
President and Senior Lecturer
Repairers of the Breach
“The way to heal the soul of the nation is to pass policies that heal the body of the nation. It’s the just thing to do. That’s how we as a nation can together move forward.”
-Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II
Saturday, May 7, 2022
Where Our Dedication To Social Change Comes From
The need to investigate and understand the conditions that people live under and work with
every day without prejudice:
The understanding that we are called to freedom and that the tasks of liberation commit us to a long road and a message and work of salvation:
The knowledge that the solidarity of the oppressed, the poor, the working-class, and those who suffer under the present systems of oppression is faith in action and is necessary to all of us becoming our authentic and best selves. From solidarity, authenticity, transformation and repentance, and removing the systems of oppression enemies become cooperators and justice rules:
The knowledge that were fallible, that we need to study and work together, that we need to approach one another and the tasks of liberation with humility and purpose:
That we must speak honestly from our lived experiences and listen to others without interrupted or imposing ourselves and that whatever silences the oppressed is sinful. Compassion and solidarity are our ends and our means:
That if we believe in Christ's resurrection then we must believe in the resurrection of the oppressed and the triumph of a system of life (God's Kin-dom) over a system of death and the idolatry of putting profits and war over people and creation:
Because we have a great cloud of witnesses urging us forward:
Because we are challenged to live better and more authentic lives and we can't do that by ourselves. We find ourselves in others and through others and we come to see the image of God in others through solidarity, humility, failures and the resolve to do better, taking action and winning, introspection and communal examination and worship, and starting over every day with what we have learned and alongside those who we are traveling with:
Saturday, April 30, 2022
Taking On Racism---And Winning!
Greenleaf Christian Church and Bishop William J. Barber II preaching "Reasons to Rejoice in the Resurrection"
Monday, April 25, 2022
Friday, April 22, 2022
Sunday, April 17, 2022
Which Jesus are we following and praying to?
Please think about this and then consider the following statement:
"The story of the Resurrection is that 'resurrection' is more of a verb than a noun. It's something we live into; it's not merely a story we remember."--Mark Sandlin
An Easter/Pascha Meditation from Chris Brooks
Friday, April 15, 2022
Why Good Friday is a warning against far-right Christian nationalism---Rev. Nathan Empsall, Episcopal priest and the executive director of Faithful America
Good Friday is a day when Christians remember Jesus Christ’s death on the cross — his execution upon an instrument of state torture.
It is also a powerful reminder of how dangerous it is for society when authoritarian politicians and corrupt religious leaders conspire for power and dominion.
Good Friday’s warning resonates deeply even now, nearly 2,000 years after Jesus’ death. That’s because the relationship between the religious authorities of Christ’s time and the brutal Roman governor who ordered his execution, Pontius Pilate, is little different from the Christian nationalist bond that exists between today’s Republican Party and conservative American Christianity.
It is also a powerful reminder of how dangerous it is for society when authoritarian politicians and corrupt religious leaders conspire for power and dominion.
Good Friday’s warning resonates deeply even now, nearly 2,000 years after Jesus’ death. That’s because the relationship between the religious authorities of Christ’s time and the brutal Roman governor who ordered his execution, Pontius Pilate, is little different from the Christian nationalist bond that exists between today’s Republican Party and conservative American Christianity.
Friday, April 1, 2022
Religion & the Left
Religion & the Left Series #2: The Individual, the Collective & the Common Good
How do we balance nonconformity and individual morality against the perils of capitalist individualism? What is the relationship between the individual and the collective? How can religion help build solidarity in pursuit of a greater common good? Save the date for an interfaith discussion on Tuesday, April 26th at 7pm ET, featuring representation from a variety of faiths. We will hear from the perspectives of several religious traditions followed by plenty of time for Q&A. In the meantime, view the recording of the first discussion in the series asking, "What can religious traditions bring to the Left?"
How do we balance nonconformity and individual morality against the perils of capitalist individualism? What is the relationship between the individual and the collective? How can religion help build solidarity in pursuit of a greater common good? Save the date for an interfaith discussion on Tuesday, April 26th at 7pm ET, featuring representation from a variety of faiths. We will hear from the perspectives of several religious traditions followed by plenty of time for Q&A. In the meantime, view the recording of the first discussion in the series asking, "What can religious traditions bring to the Left?"
Religious Socialism is here.
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