Comments on: Just an image in my head http://young.anabaptistradicals.org/2007/03/28/just-an-image-in-my-head/ let's activate something Thu, 29 Jul 2010 20:49:57 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5 By: Christian Peacemaker Teams: Necrophiliacs or Prophets of Imagination? » Young Anabaptist Radicals http://young.anabaptistradicals.org/2007/03/28/just-an-image-in-my-head/#comment-3385 Christian Peacemaker Teams: Necrophiliacs or Prophets of Imagination? » Young Anabaptist Radicals Thu, 20 Sep 2007 04:04:07 +0000 http://young.anabaptistradicals.org/2007/03/28/just-an-image-in-my-head/#comment-3385 [...] This week I got an email from Cliff Kindy saying that he’s returning to Iraq for four months as part of a CPT Team. Cliff’s work as a Christian Peacemaker has been mentioned a few times before on YAR. [...] […] This week I got an email from Cliff Kindy saying that he’s returning to Iraq for four months as part of a CPT Team. Cliff’s work as a Christian Peacemaker has been mentioned a few times before on YAR. […]

]]> By: TimN http://young.anabaptistradicals.org/2007/03/28/just-an-image-in-my-head/#comment-1033 TimN Wed, 28 Mar 2007 22:43:33 +0000 http://young.anabaptistradicals.org/2007/03/28/just-an-image-in-my-head/#comment-1033 Katie, when I read your post the first thing that came to mind was a presentation that Cliff Kindy did at Goshen College in October 2002, the fall before the Iraq war would start. Cliff was in the midst of organizing <a href="http://www.cpt.org/archives/2002/aug02/0007.html" rel="nofollow" rel="nofollow">"Generations for Peace"</a> to go to Iraq in a last ditch effort to prevent the war. But Cliff was also looking beyond the war to the broader trajectory of our empire. I wrote an article for the Record at the time and quoted him:<blockquote>Kindy compared the role the church can play now in the U.S. to that which the early church played during the fall of the Roman Empire. “We are at a time of collapse of empire,” said Kindy, “Ours is beginning to collapse.” In a very different tone then Cortright, Kindy emphasized the role he believes the church needs to play in maintaining “structures of humanity” as the early church did nearly 2000 years ago.</blockquote> You pointed out in your comment on <a href="http://young.anabaptistradicals.org/2007/03/27/patriotic-correctness/#comment-1030" rel="nofollow" rel="nofollow">Patriotic Correctness</a>, success for the US in Iraq right now might not be the best thing for Iraq right now. What if we ask rather success for the US in general is good for the world right now? Two months after his presentation at Goshen College, after he was back in Iraq, he wrote a poem called <a href="http://www.thewitness.org/article.php?id=408" rel="nofollow" rel="nofollow">"Living in the Bullseye"</a>. Here's an excerpt: <blockquote>I write from the land of empires, built and collapsed — Babylon, Assyria, Alexander and Babel. Here God looked down on the tower. Here are the ruins of empire, the grave of Alexander. Dear Miriam, sister of Moses and Aaron, the one who danced as the winds held back the floods, The one who walked through on dry land, who watched as the waters terminated empire. Dear Miriam, Mary, mother of Jesus, there as the birth waters broke, the healing river. The one who watched, nurtured, pondered, wept as the crosswinds of salvation bucked empire and lifted humanity. The one who probably saw the beginning of the Body gathered, a resistance to Empire, a witness to the created humanity. Well, Sister, where is the saving flood? Where today the healing winds of Pentecost? As Empire emerges from the wellsprings of Hell, is there a Body willing to be nailed To the cross with its Jesus, in resistance to this powerful Legion? Does the resurrection Live in the scattered "least of these?"</blockquote> Katie, when I read your post the first thing that came to mind was a presentation that Cliff Kindy did at Goshen College in October 2002, the fall before the Iraq war would start. Cliff was in the midst of organizing “Generations for Peace” to go to Iraq in a last ditch effort to prevent the war. But Cliff was also looking beyond the war to the broader trajectory of our empire. I wrote an article for the Record at the time and quoted him:
Kindy compared the role the church can play now in the U.S. to that which the early church played during the fall of the Roman Empire. “We are at a time of collapse of empire,” said Kindy, “Ours is beginning to collapse.” In a very different tone then Cortright, Kindy emphasized the role he believes the church needs to play in maintaining “structures of humanity” as the early church did nearly 2000 years ago.

You pointed out in your comment on Patriotic Correctness, success for the US in Iraq right now might not be the best thing for Iraq right now. What if we ask rather success for the US in general is good for the world right now?

Two months after his presentation at Goshen College, after he was back in Iraq, he wrote a poem called “Living in the Bullseye”. Here’s an excerpt:

I write from the land of empires, built and collapsed — Babylon, Assyria, Alexander and Babel.

Here God looked down on the tower. Here are the ruins of empire, the grave of Alexander.

Dear Miriam, sister of Moses and Aaron, the one who danced as the winds held back the floods,

The one who walked through on dry land, who watched as the waters terminated empire.

Dear Miriam, Mary, mother of Jesus, there as the birth waters broke, the healing river.

The one who watched, nurtured, pondered, wept as the crosswinds of salvation bucked empire and lifted humanity.

The one who probably saw the beginning of the Body gathered, a resistance to Empire, a witness to the created humanity.

Well, Sister, where is the saving flood? Where today the healing winds of Pentecost?

As Empire emerges from the wellsprings of Hell, is there a Body willing to be nailed

To the cross with its Jesus, in resistance to this powerful Legion? Does the resurrection

Live in the scattered “least of these?”

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