Is the US Ready for the Christian Left? Doesn't Matter, They're Here
Throughout Western history, some have tried to use the power of the Christian message for their own ends or purposes. So it is with today's Christian Right-- which has (somewhat absurdly) tried to reduce the Christian message of hope and love to a paltry mean-spiritedness toward gays and women (even women who are victims of rape). But the times they are-a-changin' for Christians-- even formerly conservative Evangelical Christians. This week, thousands of Christians rallied against the failed Iraq War in Washington, DC. And that is just the tip of a huge iceberg.
In President Ford's staunchly Republican hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan, thousands flock each week to hear Rob Bell's radical message of joy and peace. Zack Exley was there to witness:"Three thousand people were on their feet, singing powerfully and worshiping in an explosive expression of collective joy that simply does not exist in the left of this era. There were certainly some "hipster Christians" in the crowd (tattoos, goatees, etc.), but overwhelmingly the congregants were mainstream-looking Michiganders."
And as Exley's insightful In These Times article below notes, left leaning Christians have been regularly attracting bigger and more passionate crowds than the Christian right recently. In St.Paul, MN, Jim Wallis had a much bigger crowd--in back to back nights--than James Dobson. "One of the Dobson organizers came over and told me, 'If they make us keep focusing on just two issues [abortion and gay marriage], they're going to lose all of us,'" he says. But some people I know actually take the ministry of Jesus seriously. This can lead to some very radical and even lefty behavior.
Just this week, my good friend, Rev. Tim Simpson of the Christian Alliance for Progress (and more than two hundred others) got arrested for protesting the Iraq War. Again--Tim got arrested--again. From the very beginning of this project last September in his first visit to a DC jail, Tim, who is nearly blind, and the Christian Alliance for Progress have taken a leading role in the planning and implementation of the Christian Peace Witness (CPW) for Iraq. This was an amazing effort for my friend from Jacksonville, but Tim is one of many who feels called to act as a Christian peacemaker.
And as Bernice Powell Jackson noted at the CPW service held at the National Cathedral in Washington DC., "Hope, for Christians, can never just be a word – it must become an action. Hope for Christians must be a public commitment to follow Jesus in the non-violent struggle for justice and peace. Hope for Christians must be a public sharing of the love of Jesus. Hope for Christians must be a public witnessing to the power of love to overcome hate, to overcome cynicism, to overcome war, to overcome death itself."
Amen.
Here is an excerpt from the excellent In These Times article c/o AlterNet
What Lessons Can Progressives Learn from Evangelicals?
In Grand Rapids, Mich., a 36-year-old evangelical pastor named Rob Bell regularly describes his ministry as "revolutionary," "radical" and "an insurgency." Far from alienating people with such language, Bell's Mars Hill Bible Church draws thousands of new worshipers each year from the mostly conservative and white suburbs of west Michigan. In one recent sermon, available as a podcast from MarsHill.org, Bell tells his congregation that the only time Jesus speaks of God directly taking someone's life is the Parable of the Rich Fool (Luke 12:13-22), a story about a man who builds bigger barns to store a surplus harvest instead of sharing it with those in need. He closed the sermon by listing a dozen places around Grand Rapids where congregants could unload their own surplus wealth.
In his book Irresistible Revolution, 30-year-old author Shane Claiborne, who is currently living in Iraq to "stand in the way of war," asks evangelicals why their literal reading of the Bible doesn't lead them to do what Jesus so clearly told wealthy and middle-class people to do in his day: give up everything to help others.
The popular evangelical Christian magazine Relevant, launched in 2003 by Cameron Strang, the son of a Christian publishing magnate, contains a "Revolution" section complete with a raised red fist for a logo. They've also released The Revolution: A Field Manual for Changing Your World, a compilation by radical, Christian social-justice campaigners from around the world.
Bell and Claiborne are two of the better-known young voices of a broad, explicitly nonviolent, anti-imperialist and anticapitalist theology that is surging at the heart of white, suburban Evangelical Christianity. I first saw this movement at a local, conservative, nondenominational church in North Carolina where the pastor preached a sermon called "Two Fists in the Face of Empire." Looking further, I found a movement whose book sales tower over their secular progressive counterparts in Amazon rankings; whose sermon podcasts reach thousands of listeners each week; and whose messages, in one form or another, reach millions of churchgoers. Bell alone preaches to more than 10,000 people every Sunday, with more than 50,000 listening in online.
In President Ford's staunchly Republican hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan, thousands flock each week to hear Rob Bell's radical message of joy and peace. Zack Exley was there to witness:"Three thousand people were on their feet, singing powerfully and worshiping in an explosive expression of collective joy that simply does not exist in the left of this era. There were certainly some "hipster Christians" in the crowd (tattoos, goatees, etc.), but overwhelmingly the congregants were mainstream-looking Michiganders."
And as Exley's insightful In These Times article below notes, left leaning Christians have been regularly attracting bigger and more passionate crowds than the Christian right recently. In St.Paul, MN, Jim Wallis had a much bigger crowd--in back to back nights--than James Dobson. "One of the Dobson organizers came over and told me, 'If they make us keep focusing on just two issues [abortion and gay marriage], they're going to lose all of us,'" he says. But some people I know actually take the ministry of Jesus seriously. This can lead to some very radical and even lefty behavior.
Just this week, my good friend, Rev. Tim Simpson of the Christian Alliance for Progress (and more than two hundred others) got arrested for protesting the Iraq War. Again--Tim got arrested--again. From the very beginning of this project last September in his first visit to a DC jail, Tim, who is nearly blind, and the Christian Alliance for Progress have taken a leading role in the planning and implementation of the Christian Peace Witness (CPW) for Iraq. This was an amazing effort for my friend from Jacksonville, but Tim is one of many who feels called to act as a Christian peacemaker.
And as Bernice Powell Jackson noted at the CPW service held at the National Cathedral in Washington DC., "Hope, for Christians, can never just be a word – it must become an action. Hope for Christians must be a public commitment to follow Jesus in the non-violent struggle for justice and peace. Hope for Christians must be a public sharing of the love of Jesus. Hope for Christians must be a public witnessing to the power of love to overcome hate, to overcome cynicism, to overcome war, to overcome death itself."
Amen.
Here is an excerpt from the excellent In These Times article c/o AlterNet
What Lessons Can Progressives Learn from Evangelicals?
In Grand Rapids, Mich., a 36-year-old evangelical pastor named Rob Bell regularly describes his ministry as "revolutionary," "radical" and "an insurgency." Far from alienating people with such language, Bell's Mars Hill Bible Church draws thousands of new worshipers each year from the mostly conservative and white suburbs of west Michigan. In one recent sermon, available as a podcast from MarsHill.org, Bell tells his congregation that the only time Jesus speaks of God directly taking someone's life is the Parable of the Rich Fool (Luke 12:13-22), a story about a man who builds bigger barns to store a surplus harvest instead of sharing it with those in need. He closed the sermon by listing a dozen places around Grand Rapids where congregants could unload their own surplus wealth.
In his book Irresistible Revolution, 30-year-old author Shane Claiborne, who is currently living in Iraq to "stand in the way of war," asks evangelicals why their literal reading of the Bible doesn't lead them to do what Jesus so clearly told wealthy and middle-class people to do in his day: give up everything to help others.
The popular evangelical Christian magazine Relevant, launched in 2003 by Cameron Strang, the son of a Christian publishing magnate, contains a "Revolution" section complete with a raised red fist for a logo. They've also released The Revolution: A Field Manual for Changing Your World, a compilation by radical, Christian social-justice campaigners from around the world.
Bell and Claiborne are two of the better-known young voices of a broad, explicitly nonviolent, anti-imperialist and anticapitalist theology that is surging at the heart of white, suburban Evangelical Christianity. I first saw this movement at a local, conservative, nondenominational church in North Carolina where the pastor preached a sermon called "Two Fists in the Face of Empire." Looking further, I found a movement whose book sales tower over their secular progressive counterparts in Amazon rankings; whose sermon podcasts reach thousands of listeners each week; and whose messages, in one form or another, reach millions of churchgoers. Bell alone preaches to more than 10,000 people every Sunday, with more than 50,000 listening in online.
posted by Faithful Progressive at 6:55 PM
11 Comments:
Important note: Shane Claiborne does not currently live in Iraq, he lives in Kensington, Philadelphia, PA with the rest of The Simple Way Community. You can visit them at www.thesimpleway.org
Thanks, Jamie, for that important item. However, simultaneously, I should note that living in Kensington at 3200 Potter St. is a lot like living in Iraq: gunfire outside your door & a lot of objectionable behavior like drugdealing & prostitution. It is indeed Philadelphia's most heralded landmark, then followed by Southwest Philadelphia for all the killings & violence. Being poor limits housing choices & other lasting matters.
It has been ten-months since I was in Kensington to do 8 hrs at K & Indiana (?) where a "startup" congregation [Healing Stream UCC] was hosting the Philadelphia Association meeting. A guided walking tour with vocal comments throughout confirmed the worst of what you knew or thought you knew about the area. The about-50 group was conspicuous & some were fearful even tho' we experienced no violence. It's the kind of intrusion you need to make to help establish presence. That Kensington is all too much like Iraq only establishes that people need supports in place but, in the meantime, live normally daily: easier said than done.
Arden
Up here in Canada the Christian Left has always been an important part of progressive politics. The founder of our social democrat movement was Reverend Tommy Douglas who formed the CCF (Co-operative Commonwealth Federation) which became the NDP (New Democrat Party) He was the father of universal public health care in Canada, introducing it first in the province of Saskatchewan when he was the Premier and then a few years later it was expanded nation wide as the condition of federal NDP support for a minority Liberal government. The responsiveness of minority governments to the actual will of the people is one of the best features of the parliamentary system.
To this day strongly progressive policies and programs run through Canadian churches and I think the relationship between the left and the religious is much better than it is south of the border.
Most Christians up here seem to have noticed that the bible mentions poverty thousands of times and homosexuality on only a handfull of pages.
Thanks jamie, arden & cliff. And thanks to Avedon and CL % Mike's Blog
Roundup and others who linked this post.
Down here in Texas, Christian discourse is still dominated by social conservatives, with little attention to econonomic issues. But, I sense a shift in the winds among some even of my Southern Baptist coworkers. I invite you to visit my blog at curiousprimate.blogspot.com.
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