Young Anabaptist Radicals

Young Anabaptist Radicals

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Operation Payback, Anonymous and Wikileaks: A look at tactics, morality and innovation

Nearly two weeks after my first post on Wikileaks, their diplomatic cables and the resulting fall out continue to make the front page news. The arrest of Assange and attacks on Mastercard, Visa and Paypal by “Operation Payback” have garnered far more attention then the cables themselves. The New York Times quoted one Internet guru comparing Operation Payback to the battle at Lexington that started the Revolutionary war in the United States.

In looking at “Operation Payback” and its denial of service attacks, journalists have begun to focus on Anonymous, which is typically described as the group of hackers behind the attacks. Some portray it as a shadowy cadre of internet vigilantes, meeting somewhere out there in the ether, plotting their next strike. Others paint a heroic picture of activists fighting for free speech against giant corporations and governments. Estimates of the number of people (or computers) involved vary widely.

A little bit of history is useful in understanding Anonymous. I first came became aware of Anonymous through their Project Chanology campaign which focused around opposition to Scientology. In their protests outside Scientology offices, they wore masks modeled on that worn by the main character in V is for Vendetta. Along with demonstrations, their tactics used by Project Chanology were a lot like high school pranks: sometimes silly, sometimes crude, often juvenile and always motivated by a strong sense of righteous indignation. The collective culture of Anonymous was born in the /b/ section 4chan, an internet forum worthy of its own lengthy article. Suffice it to say that 4chan thrives on trolling, griefing, digital bullying and generally offensiveness of all sorts.

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December 11, 2010 Corporations, culture, Current Events, Tactics Read more >

Can we envision and create access?

Friendship

“As a church have we forgotten how to go to the lengths of cutting open a roof and lowering our disabled friend in through the ceiling just so they could meet Jesus?”

– Julie Clawson, from “Americans with Disabilities and the Church”, a July 2010 entry on her blog, One Hand Clapping

In church circles we often plaster phrases like “everyone is welcome” and “come as you are” across lawn marquees and in Sunday morning bulletins. But how often do we back that language up with authentic, Christlike inclusion?

More specifically, what are some ways we fail to remove barriers and obstacles to worship for our brothers and sisters who bring disabilities (or different cultural gender experiences, role, or sexual orientation) with them into the sanctuary on Sunday morning?

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December 5, 2010 disabilities, Exclusion, Mental health, Privilege, Tolerance, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , , Read more >

Wikileaks’ Cablegate as a threat to empire: Cyber Command scrambles

Today Wikileaks began its release of over 250,000 diplomatic cables in conjunction with media outlets around the world. I believe the work they are doing is on the emerging edge of resistance to US imperialism. The releases not only unmasks the powers in meticulous detail, but threaten the very mechanisms through which empire seek to influence, control and coerce. After all, if client states and their leaders know their collaboration with the U.S. could be published all over the world, they may be less ready to go along with imperial machinations.

For example in Newsweek, Christopher Dickey describe a cable in which Yemeni leaders promising to lie to their own people and parliament. He goes on to complain, “That bit of dialogue is not just embarrassing, it’s going to make the covert war against the most dangerous Al Qaeda franchise that much harder to wage.”

For once, it is the empire that it is on it’s back foot, scrambling to respond. (more…)

November 29, 2010 International Relations, Media, Technology, US Military Read more >

When we first visited Young Anabaptist Radicals PLUS first new poll in over a year!

Our poll “When did you first visit Young Anabaptist Radicals?” which ended today holds the record for longest running one in YAR history, clocking in at over a year and two months (It went up on September 24, 2009). Not surprisingly, it also holds the record for most responses at 183.

Because it’s been running so long, it’s been skewed a bit by all the first time visitors showing up and dutifully answering the questions, but I think the numbers themselves are quite interesting:

Year when you first visited YAR:
2006: 19
2007: 17
2008: 10
2009: 15
Last 3 months: 16
First time: 106 (more…)

November 23, 2010 Meta (YAR) Read more >

School of the Americas Protest Coverage

I’m feeling pretty overwhelmed right now, on the personal level. Yet I have this perpetual desire to never let the personal woes and difficulties overwhelm the big picture.

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. (more…)

November 21, 2010 activism, Current Events, Death, Discipleship, Economics, Foreign Policy, Journalism, Nonviolence, Police, US Military, war Read more >

An idea for creative resistance

As I was standing in the shower this morning, pondering the latest news story about the new Travel Safety Administration (TSA) search procedures, I came up with an interesting, Biblically based, idea about how one might go about resisting these new invasive search procedures.

Strip for the TSA

Follow me for a second and I’ll tell you what I mean.

Background

The TSA has now upped the game when it comes to air travel. They are introducing new full body scanners which virtually remove all of your clothes and allow the TSA agents to see everything.  And I mean everything.  If you don’t want to submit to this scan then you can opt for the new enhanced pat down which involves, among other things, actually touching your genitals.  Here’s the catch.  Once you have gotten yourself into this situation and didn’t want to do either one, one would assume that you would be able to simply say, ‘no thanks, I’ll walk to California’ and leave the airport.  Not so fast.  It’s against federal law to leave the security screening process one you have started it, therefore if you choose to refuse both of these methods of search, you are subject to a $10,000 fine and/or a civil lawsuit   (All of this was brought to a head by the experience of John Tyner) So what that means, is that anyone who is traveling through a major city, has the chance of being stuck in a situation where you two apparent options are 1) be violated or 2) face fines and lawsuits.

Or are there really only two options? (more…)

November 19, 2010 Terrorism, The Bible Read more >

Mennonite Takeover?

Just read this article. I feel misunderstood; but in a way they do call us out on some stuff. It’s called “Mennonite Takeover?.” What do you think?

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.

November 14, 2010 activism, Anabaptism, Bias, Biographical, Blog, Change, Church, communication, Community, Conscientious Objection, culture, Current Events, Discipleship, Ethics, Evangelism, Group Identity, History, Mennonite Church USA, Nonviolence, Peace & Peacemaking, philosophy, Polarization, Polemics, Power, Theology, Tolerance, Tradition Read more >

preaching on the suffering of war

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“The Iraq War will surely go down in history as an embarrassment to the Christian church. Zealous Christian preachers promoted the cause from their pulpits, urging the nation to engage in a preemptive strike against a country presumed to have the capacity to eventually wage nuclear war. What troubles me most is that many of those warmongering sermons made little or no reference to Jesus, the one who taught us to love our enemies. Further, as Charles Marsh argues convincingly in his book Wayward Christian Soldiers, Christians from around the world vigorously appealed to keep our nation from this action. The recent release of classified documents only adds to my distress. I urge preachers to take this new preaching project seriously.”

~ Ervin R. Stutzman, Executive Director, Mennonite Church USA

*  *  *  *  *  *  *

If you’re a preacher, please consider participating. If you’re not, please forward the invitation to a pastor near you!
Thanks,
isaac

November 5, 2010 Mennonite Church USA, war Read more >

The Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear, Chicago Style: More then Funny Signs?

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I just got back from the satellite Rally to Restory Sanity and/or Fear here in Chicago. I’ve been reading the confused articles leading up to the rally. Is it all about irony? Is it about moderation? Is it about progressive politics? Is this the millennial generation’s Woodstock?

After spending half an hour wondering around the edges of the rally here in Grant Park, it’s clear that those in attendance weren’t sure either. On the stage were Chicago progressive (trying their best to show enthusiasm and commitment to making a difference in challenging Chicago’s corrupt politics) competing with a Chicago comedians making jokes about sandwiches.

Alongside the stage was a muted jumbotron showing Comedy Central’s live coverage of the D.C. rally. The most unifying cry the crowd could get behind while I was there was shouting, “Audio! Audio!” when Jon Stewart came on screen. That’s right: They’d come to stand with thousands of other people in the middle of Grant Park on a beautiful October day so that they could all watch television together. And the funny thing is that they weren’t trying to be ironic.

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October 30, 2010 activism, culture, Fun, Group Identity, Polarization, Polemics, Reviews, Young Folks Read more >

Revelations from WikiLeaks

The recent revelations about U.S. and British forces in Iraq uncover a stunning darkness. According to The Guardian, the 400,000 documents made available last week through WikiLeaks reveal “15,000 previously unreported civilian deaths.” The number of deaths kept secret by the leaders of our government exposes the sickening violence of war. While I would rather ignore the stories of killing and torture in Iraq and Afghanistan, I am reminded of the words of the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer. In 1934 he wrote to a friend, “Only complete truth and truthfulness will help us now.”

Here are two stories that I can’t get out of my head as I think about the truth of war. In 2006, in the town 60 miles north of Baghdad, Khalib and his pregnant sister Nabiha were in a rush to get to the hospital. As they made their way down the usual streets, they came upon a new U.S. military checkpoint. The soldiers perceived the approaching vehicle as a threat, so they opened fire and killed Nabiha and the child in her womb. She was 35, and the dead baby was a boy.

War is never kind to women and children, especially to pregnant women. Neither is war kind to the mentally disabled, who are some of the most vulnerable among us. (more…)

October 28, 2010 Death, Iraq, Military, Power, US Military, war Read more >

Queerness, Mennonites and Bullying: Beyond Spirit Day and Wearing Purple

This week on Thursday, people around the world wore purple in response to a spate of suicides has raised the profile of bullying dramatically. Specifically, bullying of gay and lesbian adolescents and teens. Watching this video of Google employees got me thinking about my own experiences of bullying as I grew up.

For the first 8 years of my education, I attended New Danville Mennonite School, a small Mennonite elementary school in Lancaster county. Almost as early as I can remember during my time there, I was picked on.

It started on the bus ride to school, which included two bus trips. The first one went from my home to Penn Manor, the local public high school. Most of the other riders were going to public elementary or high schools. The second bus took us from Penn Manor to New Danville and so only had kids going to New Danville. It was on the second bus, of mostly Mennonites, where I faced regular bullying and harassment through my early grade school years.

Often one or two kids would egg each other on and so the tradition was passed down from brother to brother and cousin to cousin. Some of the names they called me still hurt enough that I won’t repeat them here. I remember the bus drivers one or two ineffective attempts to stop the harassment. But it was impossible for them to maintain any discipline while safely driving a bus full of kids over Lancaster’s winding hills.

Starting in fifth grade, the bullying became more physical. It seems I was a good way for boys coming into their adolescence to try out their new-found strength. I remember Todd* in particular because he was the popular boy in the class. It was as if he was experimenting to see how much pain he could inflict, where hitting me under the desk in class or kicking me in the back while we walked down the hall.

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October 25, 2010 Exclusion, LGBTQ, Peace & Peacemaking Read more >

Oppression analysis on its own isn’t enough: Becoming an Ally

Gears of Iowa

by Tim Nafziger and Mark Van Steenwyk

In July, Mennonite Church USA executive director Ervin Stutzman blogged some reflections on his visit with Mennonites from various Native groups in Ashland, Montana. He clearly describes the way white settlers’ sense of manifest destiny led to the clearing of the Cheyenne and other groups from their land. He acknowledges the deep trauma these communities have experience. He shares the effect this had on him personally. In other words, he knows that oppression is bad and that he as part of the dominant group, is complicit in it.

Stutzman concludes the article with a commitment to “walk alongside our Native American brothers and sisters as they seek God’s way for their future.” What does this mean, exactly? What does it look like to take the the tragic knowledge of history of oppression and the analysis of how this oppression continues and do something to make a difference?

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September 27, 2010 Allyhood, antiracism, Indigenous, liberation theology, Power, Privilege, Race Read more >

United States National Religion

I’m guilty of a form of idolatry.  It is really rather insidious.  It has a guise of being in keeping with the Kingdom but it ends up taking away my time that I should be doing following Christ into the world.  I listen to a whole different set of priests.  I read a different set of scripture.  There are even temples and altars where, if I wanted to, I could go worship.  Through this idolatry, I claim that I can change the world for the better, that if I just figure out the right way to think, the right people to follow, the right ways to act, then the world will be redeemed.  I spend hours at this, literally at times.

I don’t think I’m the only one.  Thousands and millions of people in our country follow this idol.  It consumes them.  It causes marital strife.  It breaks up the fellowship of believers.  It causes divisions and factions, both within the church and without.  Hateful things are said in the name of this idol because, just like with any religion, there are different ways of viewing the same thing and sometimes things are up to interpretation.

This idol is actually global.  There are people all over the world consumed by this form of worship.  Depending upon what nation you live in, there are different ways in which it is practiced.  But, essentially, it all comes down to the same thing.

What idol am I talking about?  One word: politics.

Think about it.  How many times have you been lambasted for voting a particular way, or listening to a particular commentator, or reading a particular online blog, or any number of things?  How many times have you been criticized at not being a “good person” or, for that matter even, a “good Christian” just because you support a particular party, platform, or candidate?  This idol knows no political party.  Democrat Christians yell at Republican Christians and vice versa.  Progressives attack Conservatives.  Left and Right.  Blue and Red.  We have become obsessed in our churches with aligning ourselves with a particular expression of politics to the point where politics is preached from the pulpit, it’s published in our church newsletters, it’s documented in our church publications, and it’s spoken about in the fellowship time on Sunday morning.  And, again, no side is guiltless.   I would not even say one particular side is any better or worse than another.

Please don’t get me wrong.  I do believe that we have a responsibility to speak the gospel into our culture and that includes to speak the gospel to the people in our government.  But when it becomes an all consuming passion of “I’m right, you’re wrong”, then it becomes an idol.  We start categorizing each other by party.  We start looking for ways of defending our position through Scripture and other teachings.  It becomes a goal to prove that our way of looking at politics is somehow more Christian than another.  We write letters to newspapers and Congressmen/women to try and convince them that our way is somehow more Christian than thier way and so on.

And the result?  We look like a bunch of whining, argumentative, bigotted (both sides), unforgiving, petty, malicious, vicious, nasty people who will shoot down, knock down, run over, blast, insult, slander, and libel anyone who does not agree with us.  And yes, Mennonites do this to.  And Methodist.  And Baptists.  And Catholics.  Need I go on?

Meanwhile, people go unfed.  People go without sufficient clothing for the winter.  People go without homes.  People can’t afford to pay medical bills.  People sit and cry in the dark because there is no one there to show them any semblance of love.  People live in fear of their mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, husbands, and wives.  People live in the darkness of the depression because, to them, there is no hope.  And we see this and we do our politics, claiming somehow that politics will solve these problems.  We have plenty of food, LOTS of clothes, extra money to go on vacations, to movies, out to eat, etc.  We spend our time watching football, baseball, soccor, playing video games.   And we do our politics because that will fix it all.  Guess what?  It won’t. And it hasn’t yet, neither here in the US or anywhere else in the world.  And that goes for right, left, conservative, liberal, etc.  One group says more government will fix these problems.  One group says less government will fix these problems.  One says more laws to regulate things.  One says less laws.  One says more enforcement of laws.  One says less enforcement.  Well, they are all wrong because there is only ONE who can fix it all.

My home blog is not about politics and there’s a reason for that.  We are not supposed to be about politics.  We are supposed to be “boots on the ground” people.  The politics of Jesus time did not allow for people to do the work of the Kingdom.  Nor did the politics of Paul’s experiences.  Or the politics of anyone in the first century or so of the church.  In fact, the politics of the world didn’t really become a factor in allowing the Kingdom to move until Constantine and then, instead of the politics assisting in the Kingdom, the politics took over the Kingdom.  Then we just got a NEW set of politics that either you followed the specific church of Constantine or you were not in “the Kingdom”.  So, for over 2000 years,  politics has been more a hindrance and enemy of the church than a helper.

And here we are, still trying to do things using the world’s system of politics, laws, government, etc, to try and shoe-horn the Kingdom into the world.

So, I’m calling it what it is.  It is an idol.  We have put up an idol of the world system of government, politics, etc, that somehow that human system is going to usher in the new Kingdom.  To make our government equivalent to the Kingdom is to repeat the mistakes of centuries past where human government, under the guise of being “The Kingdom”, due to the corrupting nature of power and the propensity for humans in power to give in to that corruption, perform attrocities like the Crusades, slavery in the US south, the Inquisition, the oppression of the Native American nations both in North and South America (go watch the move “The Mission” sometime to see how church and politics did “kingdom” work), and countless other oppressive, selfish, and evil practices, all done in the name of Christ and the Kingdom.

The Kingdom is already here, among us.  It is in our grasp.  We hold it in our hearts because the Spirit that comes from God molds us into it.  We are the Kingdom.  The world can be influenced by us and we can have a voice in the “politics”… but what should rule our lives is not the desire to make over the world systems in Kingdom image, but to live like citizens of the Kingdom no matter what world system we find ourselves in.  All the martyrs of the past knew this in their hearts.  They lived in the Kingdom no matter what the politics.  Some died in the Kingdom because of the politics.  Some died in the Kingdom because the politics professed to BE the Kingdom and killed them for it.  The Kingdom is here.  We should live like it.  Move ahead.  Be the Kingdom.

And how will the Kingdom fix it all?  Because lives change.  Hearts change.  People get redeemed and they look around and they see what God sees and how they are supposed to act and live and be and move.  Changed lives see hungry people and buy them a hamburger.  Changed lives see a man with no shoes, begging for money in the city and buy him a pair of shoes.  Changed lives see the homeless and offer them the extra room in their house.  Changed lives see the people struggling to make ends meet while the bills pile up and they quietly pay off the bills and remove that stress.  Changed lives climb into the darkness with the lonely and scared and depressed and sit with them in the dark, holding them and giving them the comfort that comes from presence and love.  Changed lives speak into the violence and fear in the family, showing love to those who need love and intervening where necessary, even giving up their own safty.

And how do lives change?  By the Spirit.  And how do we get the Spirit?  Through Jesus.  And how does that happen?  People speak, people give witness, people are out there showing what Jesus can do by their actions.  All those changed lives doing things?  That’s Jesus.  When the changed lives do things, people see Jesus, people want to know about this Jesus that gave them hope.  And the people with the changed lives share Jesus.

All the kingdoms of this world will pass away, even the “mighty” USA, but God’s Kingdom will continue.  I prefer to try and live for the permanent Kingdom rather than the temporary.  And for those of you who will criticize that I’m calling for quietism be assured that I will still have my Kingdom views influence what I do in the world of politics, but no more will politics become equal to the Kingdom.  Instead, I strive for the goal, I press on, I desire the greater gifts of love, faith and hope.  I allow my life to change and, as it changes, I get up, get out, and do what changed lives do.  Go, into all the world, and make disciples.

The idol of politics is no more.

September 14, 2010 Uncategorized Read more >

A Poem for Hiroshima Day

The Necessity of Hiroshima: why we must believe

Act I

in The Year of Decisions, our savior Harry asked

“a committee of top men”
Men all carved from the same superior
Aspen, carefully lathed of their
“to study with great care”
care. Eviscerated as children, smiling
beneath strange fruit. They died for
“the implications the new”
the new; our idolatrous messiah. Our
silicon steel colossus will consume
“weapon might have for us”
us, our civilization. As surely as
Saturn Devouring His Son.

the scientific advisers of the committee reports:

“We can propose no technical demonstration likely to bring an end to the war;
we see no acceptable alternative to
direct military use.”

Act II

And so, 65 years ago today, an orange cloud blossomed above a city full of them for our salvation.

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August 9, 2010 Poetry, US Military Read more >

Immigration and the Church in Phoenix

I live in Phoenix, the front line in the war against the tired, poor, and huddled masses yearning to be free.  I would imagine everything here looks pretty awful from the outside, seemingly without a silver lining, but I’ve been seeing something different, something beautiful happening here.

In the midst of our police raids, our masses of children orphaned by deportation, women giving birth in shackles, and our racist legislation, something wonderful is happing in the heart of the church.  People from all sides of the religious spectrum are coming together in a way I haven’t ever seen before to “do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God” (Micah 6:8).

And it’s beautiful.

 A friend of mine and I went to a meeting of clergy recently, gathering to discuss what we as a church can do.  We met in the chapel of a United Church of Christ congregation downtown and had everyone from pastors and priests with their collars to rabbis with their yarmulkes, Muslim women in their hijabs and a few Anabaptists with babies in slings across their chests.  Throw in a few Buddhist monks, devout Hindus, Unitarian Universalists, Baptists, and everyone in between and you’ve got a good idea of what the average immigration reform demonstration looks like here.

It’s a rainbow of beliefs putting our differences aside and uniting in the belief of a God without borders, without nationality, and who cares more about someone’s well being then their legal status.  I have in my mind an image of God looking down on us and repeating the phrase “It is good.” as he did in the creation story in Genesis.

The hardest thing about SB1070 and similar hate based legislation is that politically, in a lot of ways, they makes sense.  But I believe that we are called to do something radically different when we decide to follow Jesus.  Jesus’ teaching didn’t make sense.  Loving your enemy, praying for those who persecute you, turning the other cheek, these things don’t make sense at all… and that’s part of what makes it so fantastic.

Believing in Jesus is believing that doing what doesn’t make sense can be the best thing, and that sometimes doing what doesn’t make sense is what makes a better world possible.  I believe in that world and I want so badly to be a part of it.

July 28, 2010 antiracism, Bigotry, Church, Current Events, Illegal, Immigration, Politics, Race Read more >