Where my mind is today...
"Christian nonviolence is not a strategy to rid the world of violence, but rather the way Christians must live in a world of violence. In short Christians are not nonviolent because we believe our nonviolence is a strategy to rid the world of war, but rather because faithful followers of Christ in a world of war cannot imagine being anything else than nonviolent."
-Stanley Hauerwas interpreting Yoder's pacifism
"Jesus did not bring a new idea : rather in him an old idea ceased being an idea at all and became a living reality."
-John Knox
"I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do, because I notice it always coincides with their own desires."
-Susan B. Anthony
"Those who say religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion is ."
"Nobody can hurt me without my permission."
"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong."
"There is enough for everyone’s need but not enough for everyone’s greed."
-Gandhi
"If we have more than we need while someone else has less, then we are thieves."
– Shane Claiborne
If the attitude we have toward water as a power source is the same as we have toward oil as a power source, then we will be in the same energy crisis in the future.
- paraphrased comments of Joan Chittister
"What you believe follows only after what you do."
- Scott-Martin Kosofsky, a book designer and editor, decided to revise the "Book of Customs,"
-Stanley Hauerwas interpreting Yoder's pacifism
"Jesus did not bring a new idea : rather in him an old idea ceased being an idea at all and became a living reality."
-John Knox
"I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do, because I notice it always coincides with their own desires."
-Susan B. Anthony
"Those who say religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion is ."
"Nobody can hurt me without my permission."
"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong."
"There is enough for everyone’s need but not enough for everyone’s greed."
-Gandhi
"If we have more than we need while someone else has less, then we are thieves."
– Shane Claiborne
If the attitude we have toward water as a power source is the same as we have toward oil as a power source, then we will be in the same energy crisis in the future.
- paraphrased comments of Joan Chittister
"What you believe follows only after what you do."
- Scott-Martin Kosofsky, a book designer and editor, decided to revise the "Book of Customs,"
Soul struggle
I am struggling with two ways of what I feel are the current "new" ways of being Christian.
The first is the voice which advocates using all the cultural tools at our disposal for the building up of the kingdom of God. So we blog, podcast, text, have websites, wireless capabilities, iPhone, twitter, facebook/myspace, etc. We meet at coffee bars and pizza places to have conversations and dialogue what it means to be Christian and what the nature of God is. We find specific outreach opportunities which have stories connected to them (such as adopting a family or drilling water wells in Africa). We read books by Leonard Sweet, Tony Jones and the like. We talk about emerging and the postmodern shifts in our culture. We seek out third places and look to highlight the sacred in these places. It is building relationships with strangers we meet in the places we go to. We call this incarnational.
The second is the voice which advocates the removal of things which can be distracting from the kingdom of God. So we move to abandoned places of empire or live in community. We seek to live simply and have few possessions. We share economic resources and constantly discover new ways to limit our use of resources such as energy, water or food. We find ways to struggle with systemic sins (such as poverty, racism, and economic injustices). We read books by Shane Claiborne, Tom Sine, and Chris Haw. We talk about cycles of nonviolence and nonviolent resistance. We seek out those in the margins to live with them. It is building relationships with the homeless in places which we would not normally go. We call this incarnational.
This is not a new struggle for Christians. How do the people of God relate to culture is a question as old as time, and I am beginning to be beat down by this struggle.
The first is the voice which advocates using all the cultural tools at our disposal for the building up of the kingdom of God. So we blog, podcast, text, have websites, wireless capabilities, iPhone, twitter, facebook/myspace, etc. We meet at coffee bars and pizza places to have conversations and dialogue what it means to be Christian and what the nature of God is. We find specific outreach opportunities which have stories connected to them (such as adopting a family or drilling water wells in Africa). We read books by Leonard Sweet, Tony Jones and the like. We talk about emerging and the postmodern shifts in our culture. We seek out third places and look to highlight the sacred in these places. It is building relationships with strangers we meet in the places we go to. We call this incarnational.
The second is the voice which advocates the removal of things which can be distracting from the kingdom of God. So we move to abandoned places of empire or live in community. We seek to live simply and have few possessions. We share economic resources and constantly discover new ways to limit our use of resources such as energy, water or food. We find ways to struggle with systemic sins (such as poverty, racism, and economic injustices). We read books by Shane Claiborne, Tom Sine, and Chris Haw. We talk about cycles of nonviolence and nonviolent resistance. We seek out those in the margins to live with them. It is building relationships with the homeless in places which we would not normally go. We call this incarnational.
This is not a new struggle for Christians. How do the people of God relate to culture is a question as old as time, and I am beginning to be beat down by this struggle.
Shane Claiborn - Irresistible Revolution
"As we practice hospitality, there comes a point where the suffering around us drives us to ask what it would take to reimagine the world. We've all heard the saying "Give someone a fish and they'll eat for a day, but teach them to fish and they'll eat for the rest of their life." But our friend John Perkins challenges us to go farther. He says, "The problem is that nobody is asking who owns the pond." As we consider economics, some of us will give people fish. Others will teach people to fish. But still others must be looking at who owns the pond and who polluted it, for these are also essential questions for our survival. We must storm the fence that has been built around the pond and make sure everyone can get to it, for there are enough fish for all of us.
Be the change by Jason Valendy is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.