Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove just wrote an article today, called “Nonviolence for White People” and invites your feedback: http://www.mennoworld.org/blog/2013/1/10/nonviolence-white-people/

This is a great discussion for young Anabaptist radicals, particularly white folks.

The anniversary of this war marks the years of my journey doing feminist anti-war organizing (with WAND, Mennonites, and others). It is a formation that began in the early days of this war in 2001 when, as a senior at a Mennonite high school, I became pen pals with a young woman who lived in Nazareth. She spoke Arabic and English. I spoke English and Spanish. We didn’t know anything else about each others’ realities. Through English-language letters over the next year, we began to paint a picture of daily life across the world for one another.

I never imagined that 10 years later there would still be a U.S.-led war in Afghanistan.
I never imagined that 10 years later I would live in Jerusalem, not far from Nazareth.

These two events are connected. My life and worldview are forever changed by them. I haven’t met my pen pal yet, but I’ve met many young women who live bravely in similarly difficult situations of second-class citizenship. It is women like them and prophetic women such as Malalai Joya in Afghanistan that inspire me to implement daily and faith-inspired ways to resist my contribution to the war and live alternatively.

This requires a significant amount of my time and creative energy. However, I can’t think of anything I enjoy doing more! It is a big part of why I am in the Holy Land now, working with MCC SALT, learning more about Jesus and the place that formed him. I want to learn from people here about the way they seek to resist injustice, and the patience, faith, and strategy required to do so throughout a lifetime.

Because it is both culturally more appropriate, and because I was a Comparative Women’s Studies major in university, I seek out women of all generations to hear their stories on this subject. I listen closely when a young girl describes her day to me; I sit close to the elders at the lunch table. In all their stories I look for clues as to what the bigger picture of life is like, and what forms resistance takes. In many ways, for most of the Palestinians I’ve met, just surviving another day under occupation is a method of resistance. Some women I met feel pushed to their “physical, psychological, and spiritual limits.” This constant push to the limits exhausts them. It can drive women apart from one another; I’ve seen that here already. Yet it can also bring them together, as others have testified. This was certainly the case in Liberia, after many years of civil war. Leymah Gbowee, a Liberian community organizer and one of the Nobel Peace Prize winners this week wrote in her book:

The women of Liberia had been taken to our physical, psychological and spiritual limits. But…we had discovered a new source of power and strength: each other. We’d been pushed to the wall and had only two options: give up or join up to fight back. Giving up wasn’t an option. Peace was the only way we could survive. We would fight to bring it…

And they did. Their efforts helped to end the war. Women from Christian, Muslim, and various traditional West African religions came together to pray, organize, and act for change. Gbowee writes that Psalms, prayers and songs were a big part of her sustenance during the most difficult times of the struggle. Gbowee received some of her training in preparation for anti-war work from Eastern Mennonite University’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding.

Each week, Christian individuals and groups affiliated with the World Council of Churches pray for specific churches and regions. Within a year, the collective prayer will circle the globe. These prayers are included in the weekly Wave of Prayer written by Sabeel, an Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center located in East Jerusalem. Last week (week 41), coincidentally, the prayer was for Afghanistan and the surrounding nation-states. I’m sure countless pleas for peace wafted up to God. Will God be moved to bring peace?

I’m not sure. I can only trust. But I do know that there are many women on the move for peace, in Palestine, Afghanistan, Liberia and in other places. In addition to Leymah Gbowee, the Nobel Peace Prize acknowledged the important life-work of current president of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. And for the first time in the history of the prize, an Arab woman received it also. Her name is Tawakkul Karman, from Yemen. She got news about the Prize during a nonviolent rally! These women represent the efforts of many women, who understand intimately the impact of war and injustice, and ultimately the relentless persistence needed to organize and bring forth another reality.

Building a pen-pal friendship was a good first step to learning the joys and struggles of my sisters around the world. I look forward to learning much more as the year continues, especially about many women’s efforts to end the occupation here.

But being raised Mennonite taught me that no matter how mad I was, I was not to use violence as a means to address conflict. So I was frustrated that others had mobilized power in a destructive way…and I was even more sad to hear the US government and many people’s reaction. The healing and clarifying line that emerged for me throughout the next years was that of the families of many of the victims who formed a group to make it clear in the saber-rattling days afterwards: “Our Grief is Not A Cry for War.” This line told a powerful story.

One of the most significant impacts that 9/11/01 has had on my ministry is that I have been challenged to tell more stories instead of making factual, theological, or ideological points. So, I would like to take the opportunity of this post to share a story about a Muslim young man who was a victim of a post-9/11 hate crime. Don Teague, from CBS News, wrote about it (18Jul11) and I quote his article at length:

In a rage about the 9/11/01 attacks, white supremacist Mark Stroman went on a shooting rampage at three convenience stores, going after people who he suspected were Muslim. The surveillance cameras in the stores captured every bloody moment. Stroman said he “‘acted out of rage, love and stupidity.’ Two of his victims died. Stroman was convicted of murder and sentenced to death.” Years later, from Death Row, he admitted that “It’s sad, my split second of hate and anger after 9/11 has caused many people lifetimes of pain and I regret that to this day.”

Why does he now regret his actions? Because of Rais Bhuiyan’s courage to meet with him. Bhuiyan was Stroman’s third victim. “Gunshot wounds left Bhuiyan blind in his right eye. Three dozen shotgun pellets are still embedded in his face. But Bhuiyan says his Muslim faith teaches forgiveness, and that forgiveness brings ‘peace, passion and healing in our society, in our country.’”

It is not often that the victim of a killing spree is a death penalty opponent. Bhuiyan advocated in Texas courts and media outlets for mercy…to spare the life of Mark Stroman. “For this man to step up with his faith and show complete forgiveness is remarkable,” Stroman says. “We have to break the cycle of this hate and violence,” Bhuiyan often repeated.

It is both remarkable and unprecedented, as it was the first time in Texas that a victim of a convicted murderer has asked for clemency. All of Bhuiyan’s pleas were denied. Stroman lost every legal appeal. Stroman acknowledged that he’d die a changed man. “I’ve come from a person with hate embedded into him into a person with a lot of love and understanding for all races.” He added.
Pace e Bene Executive Director Ken Butigan met Rais Bhuiyan at the Dallas Peace Center meeting in June. Ken took the picture below, and noted Bhuiyan’s “his deep life-force and commitment to nonviolence.” The Pace e Bene Executive Director Ken Butigan met Rais Bhuiyan at the Dallas Peace Center meeting in June. Ken took the picture below, and noted Bhuiyan’s “his deep life-force and commitment to nonviolence.” The Dallas Peace Center is one of many important places that have been doing the slow work of mending the cloth of God, especially in these last ten years when the conversational fabric of society has ripped drastically. The sharing of stories, more so than legislative proposals or activities (at the beginning), have been a sustaining thread.

The original coverage of the story is hereVictim pleads for Texas death row inmate’s life.

So, in an effort to keep things in perspective, I wanted to at least highlight = lift up for prayer everything that is going on down in Georgia right now, as human rights activists, Catholic Worker members, and really a whole bunch of folks (many of them Christians on discipleship journeys that take them to the gates of Ft. Benning after being with people affected by US foreign policy) from across the country gather to celebrate resistance to the school of the americas (WHINSEC) which has trained a number of people in doing the dirty work of US american politics through the last number of decades. check it out at: www.soaw.org .

Please pray for reconciliation and a decrease in militarism. And pass the world along about this celebration of resistance and mercy.

If you have any comments about lifegiving and motivational protests that you have been in, I’d love to learn about them. If you have any encouragement for the protesters there (some will be arrested) I will pass those prayers and messages of encouragement on to them there.

An excerpt:

All these neo-Anabaptists denounce traditional American Christianity for its supposed seduction by American civil religion and ostensible support for the “empire.” They reject and identify America with the reputed fatal accommodation between Christianity and the Roman Emperor Constantine capturing the Church as a supposed instrument of state power. Conservative Christians are neo-Anabaptists’ favorite targets for their alleged usurpation by Republican Party politics. But the neo-Anabaptists increasingly offer their own fairly aggressive politics aligned with the Democratic Party, in a way that should trouble traditional Mennonites. Although the neo-Anabaptists sort of subscribe to a tradition that rejects or, at most, passively abides state power, they now demand a greatly expanded and more coercive state commandeering health care, regulating the environment, and punishing wicked industries.

Even more strangely, though maybe unsurprisingly, mainstream religious liberals now echo the Anabaptist message, especially its pacifism. The Evangelical Left especially appreciates that the neo-Anabaptist claim to offer the very simple “politics of Jesus” appeals to young evangelicals disenchanted with old-style conservatives but reluctant to align directly with the Left. Most famously, Jim Wallis of Sojourners, once a clear-cut old style Religious Left activist who championed Students for a Democratic Society and Marxist liberationist movements like the Sandinistas, now speaks in neo-Anabaptist tones.

“True evangelical faith is of such a nature that it cannot lie dormant, but manifests itself in all righteousness and works of love; it dies unto the flesh and blood; it destroys all forbidden lusts and desires; it seeks and serves and fears God; it clothes the naked; it feeds the hungry; it comforts the sorrowful; it shelters the destitute; it aids and consoles the sad; it returns good for evil; it serves those that harm it; it prays for those that persecute it; [it] teaches, admonishes, and reproves with the Word of the Lord; it seeks that which is lost; it binds us that which is wounded; it heals that which is diseased and it saves that which is sound; it has become all things to all men. The persecution, suffering, and anguish which befalls it for the sake of the truth of the Lord is to it a glorious joy and consolation.”

Do you have any spiritual practices (sometimes called spiritual disciplines or spiritual exercises) that you hope to pursue this next year or the next decade?

I’m thinking about the ones that I hope to do this year (or at least for the next little while) and my challenge is also to “not pick too many”.

We have all the plans in place for a professional transition team and search committee. We act like calling a pastor is OUR doing and by OUR power. While we are certainly involved, if God does not act and help us to discern well, and bring the person to us…it doesn’t matter how professional we are. A designated prayer group will be formed to “hold the congregation in the light” (as the Quakers would say) and repeatedly turn the process over to God and to spiritually nurture the search committee through prayer.

One thing I have learned from my experience with the church in Ghana is that even the best-laid plans by humans can be thwarted…and that everything we do as a church must be bathed in prayer. In Ghana, people are not afraid to use the term “prayer warrior” because they see these people (often the older folks in the church…but can be an intergenerational group that meets as well) as fighting back the evil spirits and the devil.

Prayer Support Group (PSG)- sounds dry, or maybe like a pharmaceutical solution
Prayer Pacifists-doesn’t communicate.
Prayer Team- dunno.

OR perhaps it’s okay to call it prayer warriors…since our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the powers and principalities… (as our radical-eschatological Anabaptist ancestors would cite)

HELP! thanks

MCC relates to what you are about as Young Anabaptist Radicals, and this process is significant for MCC and the broader church community.

MCC is a radical organization: it is about living out our basic values as Anabaptist Christians, rooted in the teachings of Jesus, Scripture, and in the Anabaptist church community. It is important for the broader Anabaptist community to be aware of and speak into this New Wine, New Wineskins process that is engaging MCC stakeholders in discerning God’s direction for the organization. This in-depth listening and evaluation has been guided by three core questions:
1. What is the task that God is calling MCC to in the 21st century (purpose)?
2. To whom is MCC accountable (who is the “keeper of the MCC soul”)?
3. What is the appropriate structure for ensuring that the values and principles held by MCC are effectively expressed at every level and drive exemplary programming?

I am on staff with MCC in Ontario and was a member of the Inquiry Task Force charged with listening to the feedback and suggestions of MCC board and staff, church leaders and youth, constituency and partners. After being part of the meetings that ST mentioned in Winnipeg, I believe the concerns that were listed above are being addressed:

• MCC Canada and the MCC US are moving towards a covenantal relationship that is about unity, not division – working together, not fragmenting program. Though there will be some transition (including how MCC’s international program will be organized) it is clear to me that the changes coming out of the New Wine, New Wineskins process will make the organization more united, not less.

• The question of US and Canadian denominations having sufficient representation at the governance level is also being addressed. The key here is finding the appropriate balance at the board level of 4 voices: lay leadership, denominational leadership, people with specific expertise to shape policy and best practice, and international and/or partner perspectives so that the voices of those who MCC works alongside are heard at the board table. There are three more rounds of feedback before structural changes are proposed and I am confident that denominational leadership will be satisfied with the strong representation they will have on MCC boards.

• With regards to MCC Binational and MCC Canada tensions, I would encourage you to read the section on page 7 “A Word About MCC Canada and MCC Binational Relationships” to learn about how MCC is moving forward in dealing with these concerns. In any organization there will be tensions among executives and the board, managers and program staff, colleagues with each other. In the case of MCC, where there are 12 members of one body working together to carry out relief, development and peace around the word, it is no surprise that there are tensions within that body. The New Wine, New Wineskins process has allowed for these issues to be put on the table and discussed with honesty, openness, and humbleness. There is a willingness among MCC leadership to work through these issues in the spirit of being united in Christ. The MCC Binational Board spent a whole evening at its last gathering focusing on this issue and charting a path forward. The new structure of MCC will take into account past tensions, and work to enable and encourage healthy relationships among entities that choose to work together – entities that have chosen to enter a covenantal relationship with one another as members of one body.

As Anabaptists we sometimes take our church institutions for granted, but much of the work that is done through these institutions “in the name of Christ” is truly radical. At the root of MCC is love of neighbour, caring for the sick, visiting those who are imprisoned, walking with people in poverty, and radically following God’s call to work and live non-violently. Don’t take this for granted. MCC needs your voices as it restructures in order to continue this radical work in the 21st century.

Please keep MCC in your prayers, as one important part of the ministry of the Anabaptist church in the world.

A number of church leaders, former MCC directors, and others invested in this process have expressed concerns around:

· the fragmentation of international program into national entities. How can we maintain (and improve) MCC’s ability to carry out its mission if international program is given to national MCCs?

· denominations not having sufficient representation on the governance of the proposed national MCC entities, nor the central entity.

· The fact that MCCBN and MCCC tensions have not been adequately addressed in order to be able to move forward.

The tensions between MCC Canada and MCC Binational are not new. Some of the tension can be attributed to personalities, cultural differences, and different levels of comfort with regards to use of government funds. Significant historical experiences, such as slavery and racism in the United States, and the aboriginal/immigrant experience in Canada shape people’s lenses and program priorities. It has become clear that these tensions that have developed over the last 30 years need to be addressed.

In related news…It has been decided that Mennonite World Conference (MWC) will convene a global service forum in 2010 to talk about how service agencies around the world can work together and support one another. That is separate from the New Wine/New Wineskins process, but, MWC hopes that this can happen in time to be useful to MCC as it looks at re-organizing its structure.

If you would like a copy of the letter from some young adults who work in MCCBN, simply post your email here and I can get you one.

Please keep MCC in your prayers…If there is not backlash to posting here about some work we are doing in MCC, I can also post what the “results document.”

This project is still in its early stages of construction. John Roth and others led a workshop at Mennonite World Conference Assembly Gathered (Paraguay 2009) about it…listening to perspectives and discerning whether or not it was a good idea. What do you think about the idea? Will you use it as a resource?

I think this is a good idea because everyone around the world can contribute to create collective knowledge. Some of the things written by people in their home churches about themselves may make North Americans (perhaps especially mission agencies) uncomfortable. This could be a good thing for dialogue. Wiki creates a space that is not owned by anyone. Following up on Alan’s initial post, this decentralization of “ownership of the story” could be a healthy thing. Since young people are more tech saavy, it can be a way that we connect to the background stories of our Anabaptist friends from around the world.

If you want to collaborate with the project in a substantial way, (it needs volunteers to help monitor it and encourage posting) feel free to contact John directly at johndr@goshen.edu

Location
Caritas Village
2509 Harvard Avenue,
Memphis, TN 38112

This year’s anarchism and Christianity conference, hosted by Jesus Radicals, will look squarely at the economic and ecological crisis facing the globe, and point to signs of hope for creativity, for alternative living, for radical sharing, for faithfulness, for a new way of being. We are living in a karios moment that will either break us or compel us to finally strive for a new, sane way of life. The question we face at this pivotal time is not if our empires will fall apart, but when they will fall–and how will we face it? We hope you will join the conversation.

CONFIRMED SPEAKERS
Plenary presenters
- Layla Abdel Rahim, anti-authoritarian wanderer, researcher and university lecturer, writer, and unschooling mother
- Emmanuel Charles McCarthy, co-founder Pax Christi-USA, nonviolence advocate and peace activist
- Ewuare Osayande, author, poet and political activist; founder of POWER (People Organized Working to Eradicate Racism)
- John Zerzan, anti-civilization theorist, writer and speaker; host of Anarchy Radio

Panelists
- Jeannie Alexander, Amos House Catholic Worker
- Eric Anglada, New Hope Catholic Worker Farm
- Brenna Cussen, Saints Francis & Therese Catholic Worker
- Gene Davenport, Lambuth University

- Eileen Fleming, We Are Wide Awake
- Ethan Hughes, The Possibility Alliance
- Lee Van Ham, Jubilee Economics Ministries

SESSIONS
- Anarchism and Christianity Primer
- Seeing What Greenspan Couldn’t: A New, Partnership Economy
- Jesus & the Money Changers: Rioting Against the Economic Crisis

- Nonviolence in the Holy Land: A spiritual journey and nonviolent political odyssey from the Middle East to the USA
- Anarcho-Primitivism versus a Darkening Reality
- Revealing the Kingdom in the Midst of Empire: Reimagining Citizenship, Reimagining Economics
- A Lullaby for the Planet: Undressing Ourselves for a Viable Parenthood
- Exploring New Possibilities (tentative title)
- Gospel Nonviolent Anarchism—Logos & Emmunah

RECREATION
- Community Tour - GrowMemphis
- Film screening - “What A Way To Go: Life At The End Of Empire”

More information: http://www.jesusradicals.com/conference/

What follows is what I think about smoking/what I’m struggling with/the questions I have. Please, if you have any wisdom to share…SHARE IT. As a feminist I am willing to put this out in the public because I do believe the personal is political. And I know that the relationships that individuals have also effect the collective.

I realized again that I’m a “God-geek” when I wanted to know something marriage a few weeks ago and so I looked at C. Arnold Snyder’s chapter titled “Anabaptist Marriage” in Anabaptist History and Theology textbook. My point was to see how these young activists handled marriage in the context of an intense social movement. (It didn’t really help all that much, but I did learn that some women appreciated the relative freedom of the Anabaptist movement to leave abusive and restrictive spousal relationships and that sometimes a married couple referred to each other as “wedded brother” or “wedded sister,” their primary identification was still with the community and with the movement.)

I accept him, as he is, with all his good and bad. But when it comes to having to make a choice about who I want to share intimate spaces with and surround myself with…who I would want to spend the rest of my life with and commit my most broken and beautiful self to, I want it to be a person or people who in all ways strive for and live into health, healing, and wholeness for all of their days…in all ways.

Our bodies are God’s temples. Isn’t smoking/drinking/not exercising etc. a destruction of that temple? As young Anabaptist radicals we both work to protect the bodies of others…advocate for their safe passage between tanks and fences…stop war…How could someone willfully destroy that which is of God when they spend a lot of time trying to build up more of God in the world.

It feels like a contradiction to work in solidarity with others for a better life, but then whittle away at your own life…and if healthcare in your country is socialized, how selfish is it to use up resources that could go to someone else? Those resources could go to someone less wealthy, and someone who didn’t consciously and repeatedly inflict sickness upon themselves.

Or what about the issues with the tobacco companies? Or the land that is being used to grow tobacco for export crop instead of food for residents?

What is it that smoking gives people? Is it not possible that this feeling can be obtained through some other form? Exercise trains the mind and body to respond in the best way possible in a given situation. To calm down…to think creatively…to work as a team…Do I have the right as a potential partner to hold my potential partner to the highest standard? (Or at least the standard that I hold myself to?)

He sometimes reminds me that people have the right to kill themselves. Yes, in secular society, I would agree that you have the right to kill yourself, but I would argue that as a Christian, you do not have that right. Especially if one is committed to nonviolence (he’s a pacifist…doing excellent intellectual work to support radical nonviolent faith-based action in the world). But then, why do violence to one’s self? Smoking is SO well documented to hurt so much of the body…not to mention it puts out 2nd hand smoke and makes stuff smell bad.

If you treat your own body badly, why should I trust you to treat mine well? (Even though he says he will)

Marriage and long term partnerships include compromise. If I am going to give up some of my bad habits then the other person should do the same, right? If we’re not in this together in our struggles and joys and sacrifices (for the benefit of the beloved) then, even though it looks so possible and beautiful, we shouldn’t pursue it.

Help, my YAR friends! Am I off my rocker? Am I being to rough or judgmental? This stuff is hard. I am totally willing to change my views…I just need to be convinced and nuanced. I know I do. For example, since I am really putting myself out there at this point, I might as well say that I think coffee is cheating one’s health too (in addition to the complication of the blood-soaked politics) . It does your body’s work of waking you up for you…often masking unhealthy life rhythms of incorrect rest/busyness ratios…and sometimes creating a dependency/addiction.

This is a chance to weigh in to the process. The search committee is consulting far and wide across the Mennonite church. Feel free to add your voice in the comment section below.

Some things to consider, if you’d like to:

Think about our current world and church and the strengths and needs of Mennonite Church USA as you understand/have experienced them.

Consider our denominational vision–Vision: Healing & Hope: “God calls us to be followers of Jesus Christ and, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to grow as communities of grace, joy, and peace so that God’s healing and hope flow through us to the world.”

Also consider our denomination’s mission: “Joining in God’s activity in the world, we develop and nurture missional Mennonite congregations of many cultures.”

Some questions to consider:

1) What role and leadership qualities do you believe we need MOST at this time in the Executive Director position to assist us in all parts of our church to live out this vision and mission in our world?

2) See below for Job Description…

3) What emphasis should the search committee highlight at this time for a special emphasis (young, Racial/Ethnic person, “insider” vs. “outsider”)?

4) Are there personal traits that you think that the new Executive Director will need in additional to those listed in the draft job description?

5) Are there new things that the new Executive Director needs to be doing and are there things that the new Executive Director should stop doing?

6) What do you want the Search Committee and the Executive Board to know as they search for a new Executive Director?

7) When you reflect on this role in the church, are there persons that you think the search committee should be considering.

2) A copy of the proposed Job Description is below. As you review the current draft:
a. What items can you affirm of the proposed job description? What items raise questions for you?
b.How do you respond to the essential qualities identified? Are they realistic? Which are MOST important to you? What is missing?
c.Additional qualities have been listed that we believe might be beneficial for this role. Would you move any of these into the essential category? Are there any you would remove? What should be added?

The Executive Director will lead Mennonite Church USA toward a Christ-centered spirituality and missional calling, and will:
• Inspire Mennonite Church USA through a compelling articulation of the vision, mission and priorities of the church
• Form and lead an Executive Leadership Team that empowers Mennonite Church USA to join in God’s activity in the world and achieve outcomes established by the Executive Board
• Serve as the Chief Executive Officer and primary public spokesperson of Mennonite Church USA
• Ensure strategic alignment in denominational efforts on the churchwide priorities of Witness, Antiracism, Leadership Development and Global Connections
• Perform such other responsibilities as requested by the Executive Board

A person who contacted me from the search committee gave me the okay to ask for y’alls opinions.

http://americas.bikemovement.org/

As anyone who has been on a bike for an extended amount of time for their primary form of transportation knows, it is a life-altering experience. Godspeed to Lars and Jon and Love to all whom they will visit. I am in the process of encouraging the youth group from my church to bike to the Mennonite Youth Convention in Columbus, Ohio June 30-July 6. I hope it works out…it will definitely be life-altering. Besides saving money and petroleum, getting some fresh air and exercise, biking together is a great self-esteem and group-building opportunity. It generates an equality among races and genders through the creation of a camaraderie and shared intense, rewarding experience.

But there is some resistance. Sometimes I get so excited about something I can’t embrace alternatives. Pray for me as I discern how much to push and where to step-back….And DO visit bikemovement America’s website.

For years, I’ve gotten a sinking feeling in my stomach as the month of November draws to a close and this day looms. On the one hand, Thanksgiving is about joy and gratitude. It is a time when I travel to see family and friends, welcome a few days of rest and look forward to the holiday season. In my mind, I know it is a good thing to have a day where the sole emphasis is to give thanks to God for all God has done. I also appreciate the opportunity to celebrate all my loved ones do and are to one another.

And yet Thanksgiving reminds me of a beautiful but altogether itchy sweater. Sure it looks good on the rack in my closet. It is slimming, well-made, gorgeous color—everything you could hope for in a sweater. But if I put it on I’m guaranteed to spend the whole day tugging, scratching and feeling downright uncomfortable. Try as I might, I can’t shake that weird feeling about that good ole holiday. It gets to the point where weeks in advance I’m trying to come up with other things to say besides “Happy Thanksgiving.” And since “Happy Day Off” doesn’t cut it I go ahead and mutter the greeting anyway, wheels still turning for a suitable substitute.

I guess the trouble with Thanksgiving for me begins with the history of the indigenous people who were here long before America was even an idea. It is a day that celebrates the gift of food the Wampanoag gave to the Pilgrims as they suffered from disease and hunger. It celebrates how this native tribe who had already experienced raids and slavery at the hands of the Europeans nevertheless taught these foreigners the skills necessary to grow their food and survive. And yet inextricably linked to this now mythical tale are years and years of treachery, racism and violence, blessed by Christian language no less, against millions of indigenous people. Small pox blankets, “civilizing” schools, broken treaties…they are bound together with our Thanksgiving celebration no matter how we try to reinterpret the day’s meaning and baptize it with new Christian language and metaphors.

Becoming vegetarian and now vegan just ratchets up my Thanksgiving sweater’s itchiness. The thought of all those living, breathing turkeys—beings that experience suffering and pain, that long for sunlight, that understand in their own primitive ways what it means to be free—locked down in darkness (or penned on their “free range” farms) awaiting slaughter is hard to bear. Through no fault of their own, these creatures who had the unfortunate luck of being born into a less advanced (and less violent) species, are mutilated, abused and butchered so people can serve their burnt flesh on a platter and gorge on their bodies. What does it mean to say “thanks” to God for our food given the conditions these creatures endure? How can this be a “happy” meal when all of this unnecessary killing is done for no other reason than we like turkey flesh and we can wield power as we will?

Perhaps the trouble with Thanksgiving for me is that there is a whole lot of thanks but not a lot of repentance. There’s a whole lot of “grace” but not enough confession. At the very least it would be nice if more people saw the complexity and contradictions of the day. Rather than giving into the myth, getting sucked into the television set and going about their business as usual, it would be nice to know that other people were feeling a bit itchy about the whole dang thing too.

At the very least, that might make me feel a little less nervous.

– Nekeisha Alexis-Baker. Information on the origins of Thanksgiving gleaned from Jacqueline Keeler’s essay “Thanksgiving: A Native American View” available on Alternet at http://www.alternet.org/story/4391/

I agree (in thought and action) with a lot of what is said in the 12 points and what I see in the daily lives of the community around me and my interaction with some of these folks. But my particular question is spurred with regards to mark 1, which says that they relocate to abandoned places of Empire.” Some think that I am doing the “new monastic thing…” I’m not sure about that, but I do know that I am in my home area…and it fits many of the descriptions, but it’s not abandoned by Empire. Or do they mean that it’s abandoned by Empire because no (or hardly any) white people live in the area? There is a beautiful organic culture here and I don’t want to discount that by saying it’s abandoned. I think it is important to affirm the initiative of persons rather than possibly falling into “white savior” complexes again. I see that many New Monastics are very aware of race and class dynamics, so I’m hoping that mark 1 can be articulated in a more antiracist way.

The other question is about gender and sexual orientation. Point 9 (below) states support for only certain types of intimate human relationships. I know that many of the people concerned about gender and sexual orientation and re-thinking family systems were away at the “Word and World” conference the same weekend that the 12 marks were produced and so were not in Durham to contribute to the 12 marks conversation. We just DON’T need another macho-left. Thinking about gender and the historical control of women’s bodies and sexuality at the foundation of the religious establishment, I hope that New Monastics are willing to articulate explicit feminist/antisexism and antioppression convictions. If not, I don’t think what they are doing is very radical. Rethinking how we have traditionally understood sex, gender roles, gender identity and sexual orientation is a crucial step (or are crucial steps) to creating the sufficient space to form right relationships towards shalom contexts and holistic societies.

Moved by God’s Spirit in this time called America to assemble at St. Johns Baptist Church in Durham, NC, we wish to acknowledge a movement of radical rebirth, grounded in God’s love and drawing on the rich tradition of Christian practices that have long formed disciples in the simple Way of Christ. This contemporary school for conversion which we have called a “new monasticism,” is producing a grassroots ecumenism and a prophetic witness within the North American church which is diverse in form, but characterized by the following marks:

1) Relocation to the abandoned places of Empire.

2) Sharing economic resources with fellow community members and the needy among us.

3) Hospitality to the stranger

4) Lament for racial divisions within the church and our communities
combined with the active pursuit of a just reconciliation.

5) Humble submission to Christ’s body, the church.

6) Intentional formation in the way of Christ and the rule of the
community along the lines of the old novitiate.

7) Nurturing common life among members of intentional community.

8) Support for celibate singles alongside monogamous married couples and their children.

9) Geographical proximity to community members who share a common rule of life.

10) Care for the plot of God’s earth given to us along with support of our local economies.

11) Peacemaking in the midst of violence and conflict resolution within communities along the lines of Matthew 18.

12) Commitment to a disciplined contemplative life.

May God give us grace by the power of the Holy Spirit to discern rules for living that will help us embody these marks in our local contexts as signs of Christ’s kingdom for the sake of God’s world.

For the preach-off, folks will give three-minute sermons on scriptures they’ve received 24 hours prior. People can vote with their donations, and a panel judges will give humorous feedback.

The donations benefit up and coming young adult leaders from the Global South by giving them a full scholarship to attend the Global Youth Summit (July 10-12 in Asunción, Paraguay).

In addition to the fun of preach-off, we realize that the lives of many people in Northern Indiana have been enriched by connections with the global church. So this event will be interspersed with short testimonies from people in the area, celebrating these ties as we raise funds to support the next generation of Anabaptist leaders from around the globe.

So, YARs…we’re collecting crazy passages. If you know of one, please write the reference as a comment. Your help is appreciated…and if you’re in Northern Indiana at 6pm on Dec. 6 you are warmly invited to materialize and participate!

The Declaration below, coming from “Envision: the Gospel, Politics, and the Future” at Princeton University June 8-10, 2008, began with an online dialogue of approximately 100 participants on June 2 about religion, social change, and politics. On June 8, a diverse panel of scholars discussed the results of the dialogue.

After attending the conference and hearing reports about the conversations that occurred throughout many aspects of the conference, the panel met and created the declaration. You can sign it if you want.

Envision the Future: A Declaration on the Common Good
Princeton, New Jersey
11 June 2008

We are at a critical moment in the history of the United States. The common good has been seriously compromised. Perpetual war, rampant poverty and inequality, environmental crisis, and the narrowing of the possibilities of human life and cultural flourishing imperil our future.

In this moment of crisis, we have an important opportunity to reclaim the common good; to enact a robust vision of a common life that moves away from a world where resources and responsibilities – whether economic, political, or social – are held in the hands of a few to a global community in which they are held by all and all are benefited. Envision is a theologically and politically diverse movement of Christians committed to following the way of Jesus. Our movement includes Evangelicals, Pentecostals, mainline Protestants, Anabaptists, emerging church members, and others who profess that the call of Jesus includes struggling for peace, social, economic, and racial justice, and a flourishing creation.

For three days in June 2008, over 500 of us gathered – across our divisions – in Princeton, New Jersey to critically and creatively discern a new vision of the common good. We came together and listened to one another and learned from one another. We were enriched and transformed by our conversations as we worshipped, sang, and broke bread together.

Envision offers new voices in the public square to address the complexities that confront the United States and the world. We are racially and ethnically diverse activists, clergy, lay persons, students, and scholars who are deeply informed by a faith that compels us to participate in God’s work to eradicate poverty, create peace, and build just communities and right relationships with the earth.

In recent times, some have used Christianity to divide us from one another and demonize others. They have placed Christianity on the side of the powerful against the powerless. Envision inaugurates a new relation between our faith and our politics. In a spirit of humility and hospitality, we seek to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God and each other.

We acknowledge that we do not agree on all things. We acknowledge that we do not have all the answers, but we will seek them together. In the midst of our differences we are committed to remain together at the table that God sets for us and not demonize each other, but talk, reason, and work together for a brighter and better future.

We affirm our desire to work together and with others in a shared commitment to justice, equality, and peace. We invite all who share such a commitment and vision to sign this declaration and join the Envision movement.

Here’s the link: http://fvcommunity.org/ev08/ You have to create a username, that’s annoying, but if your computer remembers it for you after you make it, that’s cool.

The “Everything Must Change” tour came to Goshen College on May 9-10. This seminar was lead by renowned evangelical leader in the emerging Christian church movement, Brian McLaren. His focus for the event was addressing the following questions: “What are the world’s top global crises?” and “What does the message of Jesus say to those crises?”

Early on in the seminar, McLaren related a story in which he was leading youth worship as a young adult. He asked the youth to help him create a list of the major concerns at their churches. Issues such as whether or not to have guitars as part of worship music were brought up. He then asked the youth to help him create a list of the issues that they considered the most pressing global concerns, and issues like nuclear disarmament and famine came up. A startling difference was apparent between the two lists. Just like he suggested in the narrative of his story, McLaren instigated a call for a breaking down of the secular/sacred divide and for the Church to be deeply involved in the issues on the second list, the global list. Those of us who attended the seminar were treated to and challenged by a multi-dimensional, mixed media approach to exploring how to understand and deal with interconnected global crisis issues of planet, poverty, and peacemaking. The fourth major crisis McLaren introduced was “purpose”. He explained the latter concept in his assertion that “the biggest problem in the world is the way that we think about the biggest problems in the world.”

Attendees were urged to dissolve the binary world of “Us vs. Them” and to put in its place “Us for all of Us” and to find the needed message capable of motivating people to address the first three crises in the original message of Jesus, that has historically too often been marginalized, even among Christians.

McLaren lectured on the revealing nature of reconsidering Jesus in his original political and social context, from which a fresh vision of Jesus emerges, one that shows striking relevance to contemporary crises in our “globalizing, ecologically-stressed, polarizing and war-torn world.” Just as in our current world reality, in his time, Jesus had to deal with the problematic nature of different cultural, religious and political groups resorting to one of four unhealthy but common states of relating to others, those being:
1. Domination
“If only we were in charge”
2. Revolution
“If only they weren’t in charge”
3. Revenge/Victimhood/Scapegoating
“If only they would change”
4. Isolation/Withdrawl
“There’s no hope. Lets retreat to the bubble”
Jesus’ answers to these relational traps characteristic of a “suicidal system” were:
Don’t Dominate – Serve!
Don’t Get Revenge – Reconcile!
Don’t Scapegoat – Embrace!
Don’t Isolate – Draw Near & Heal!

It was impressively clear that the purpose of the Everything Must Change tour was to serve as a “catalyst for long term, sustainable change in the lives of people and organizations, as opposed to being a one-time event”.
This long-term action rests upon the realization that growth is not the solution to every problem and that it can often become harmful.
It rests upon understanding that our ecological footprint is too big, and that we need to make way for sustainable relations with God’s precious Earth.
It rests upon a firm belief that where you live should not determine if you live.
It rests upon the realization of the drastically unequal distribution of wealth and the need for systematic change in how nations relate to security, prosperity, or the lack their of.
It rests upon taking a personal stand against war.
And most importantly, the long-term action calls for us to invite others into mass collaboration and to create and strengthen movements. This means, being involved yourself, and sharing your fear, passion and hope. For everything to change, we must make the way by walking it, just like Jesus.

(thanks to NTC for documenting these reflections)