wise words from Eboo Patel
When I was in Rwanda a few weeks ago, we visited several of the churches where thousands of Tutsis fled, seeking sanctuary from genocide. The church buildings became their grave. None of us who have visited these memorials will ever be able to forget ... with piles of the victims' blood-stained clothing stacked on the pews, with stacks of their bones and skulls arranged like hymnals on shelves. Particularly moving for me was to stand in one of the churches as Richard Twiss, a Lakota Sioux whose ancestors experienced a similar story of genocide right here in America, chanted a Native prayer over the bones of the murdered.
Outside that church was a sign that read,
If you knew who I am
And if you knew who you are
You would not kill me.
An important piece by Muslim activist Eboo Patel quoted this poem by William Stafford - you'll feel the haunting resonance:
If you don't know the kind of person I am
and I don't know the kind of person you are
a pattern that others made may prevail in the world
and following the wrong god home we may miss our star.
To read Eboo's article in full, go here.
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interview with doug pagitt, part 2
Hopefully you've heard about the Church Basement Roadshow that's coming to a city near you this summer. It features three close and respected friends of mine - Tony Jones (whose new book The New Christians is a must-read), Mark Scandrette (whose beautifully-written 2007 release Soul Graffiti is being released in softcover), and Doug Pagitt (author of A Christianity Worth Believing).
Here's the first part of a brief interview with Doug ... with a few comments of my own at the end.
Brian: Tell me the story behind the book - what motivated you to write it?
Doug: This book was motivated by my impulse as an evangelist - I hope the book is as helpful for those who see themselves outside the faith as inside. I entered into Christianity as a teen and immediately wanted to extend that same invitation to most everyone I met. Part of that invitation was to help people who knew nothing of Christianity (people like me) to learn of it.
But I quickly realized that there were many people who had learned versions of the faith that were actually getting in the way of them living the kind of integrated Christian life they wanted. A faith where their practices could have content partners that were suitable for a life-time relationship. I met many people who would need to use all kinds of caveats around the content of their faith when talking about it - "Well, I know that such and such is true, but ...
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Sojo post …
Here's the first of a two-part post on faith and politics at the God's Politics Blog ...
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Note to critics and self
Blessed as I am with a group of loyal critics, I always try to listen and learn from their critique to see if the Holy Spirit is in any way trying to guide me through their perspectives. All of us, after all, have blind spots, and all of us - me more than most, no doubt - have a lot to learn.
A few critics again and again make the allegation that I am - along with many of my friends - "pandering to postmodernity," in a misguided desire to be relevant to contemporary culture. Relevance, in their minds, is a terrible temptation that seduces us away from the "ancient paths."
I have thought and prayed about this pretty carefully, and I actually think my goal has never been to accommodate to postmodern culture - or in any way to trim the gospel to fit into postmodern tastes. Instead, my goal has been to be honest about the ways in which the Christian religion in its many forms has already over-accommodated itself to modern Western culture, and before that to medieval Western culture, and before that to ancient Greco-Roman culture. These are accommodations about which I wish some of my critics would become more concerned.
Having learned from the past, I would hope we could strive to live faithfully in the world of today - an increasingly postmodern, postcolonial, post-Industrial, post-Christendom, and otherwise post-al world. Our goal should be to live fully "in" the world - incarnationally in it, missionally sent into it ... but not to be "of" it, as Jesus said.
The relation of the gospel to culture is fascinating and complex. It is interwoven with another important issue: the relation of the gospel to the future, the present, and the past. I've written books about the incoming future (like Church on the Other Side and A New Kind of Christian). I've written books about the life and mission of followers of Christ today (like A Generous Orthodoxy and Everything Must Change). And my new book is about the recovery of ancient spiritual practices (Finding Our Way Again: The Return of the Ancient Practices).
With these thoughts in mind, this morning I came across this quote from Jacques Ellul. Anyone familiar with Ellul's work knows he was not overly enthusiastic about many dominant trends in contemporary culture.
Ellul's comment strikes me as a wise word of balance to all of us - my critics, myself, my friends, everyone. Ellul said,
The yearning for holiness is not at odds with the desire for relevance. For while holiness sets us apart unto God, it is God who calls us into the world.
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amahoro-africa.org update
My friends Claude and Kelley Nikondeha sent out this newsletter regarding our recent time together in East Africa.
Amahoro Africa gathered over 180 leaders from 15 countries for a focused discussion on The Gospel of Reconciliation in Kigali, Rwanda.
The discussion took on a very concrete nature given our context, as we listened to both Hutu and Tutsi tell their stories of survival after the 1994 genocide that took place in this very city and surrounding hills. Our hearts were broken, our heads overwhelmed trying to understand how this could happen here, and yet there was a sadness knowing that genocidal tendencies are being made manifest across Africa and beyond.
Our Kenyan friends shared of their too-recent experiences in the post-election violence, and how there is a need for deep reconciliation between the tribes before another outburst erupts and threatens more lives.
Our South African friends struggle through the current outbreak of xenophobia in their country, knowing that healing needs to go still deeper in the townships and urgent work needs to be done to quell hatred and potential violence. It was evident to all of us gathered together that reconciliation is not merely theoretical discussion, it must move to practical steps we can take home with us to Kenya, South Africa, Burundi and beyond. Forgiveness, justice, pre-emptive peace-making are not mere words, they are now imperatives. It is also clear that this is just the beginning of a discussion, not the last word.
You can read the rest of their newsletter below ... of special interest to me is Claude's burden for the Batwa ... I hope some of you will consider making a financial contribution to this good work.
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