Hennepin County Forum on Affordable Housing, Immigrant Rights, and Restorative Justice

Here is the text from my opening remarks at the Hennepin County forum for Affordable Housing, Immigrant rights, and Restorative Justice:

"Thank you so much for coming out this evening and for your participation. Again thank you to Commissioner Callison for your service in our county. We are grateful and honored by your presence here tonight.

I want to welcome you here and welcome you to this place. I was asked to spiritually ground our evening together and so to do that I will start with the important work of first pointing out the bathrooms. There is an accessible and all gender restroom in the corner of this room. There are additional restrooms downstairs to your left. If you need a ramped exit, it is in the back of this room, then turn right and there is a ramp taking you out to the south side of our parking lot.

The Mills Church is in district 6 of Hennepin County. This church began 121 years ago and rented the original Minnetonka Town Hall for $1 a Sunday. Village Hall is the building on the west side of this parking and hosts our youth ministries.

It is pretty normal to begin a story of where here is with the particular dates and boundaries of our group. However, most stories have a beginning before you or I entered the narrative. This church, this city, this district, this county, this state exists on Dakota land. Lake Minnetonka and Minnehaha creek are and will always be sacred sites. What we call Baker road has long before been a migratory trail that went from Shakopee up to lake Mille lacs for both the Dakato and the Ojibwe nations.

Behind my own history is a very old mythic story that primed me to believe that my prosperity depended on, accepts, and tolerates the dispossession of someone else. Whether conscious or unconscious my gain comes at someone else’s loss. For me this myth also came with a kind of religious justification. Our god wanted us to have, therefore it is understandable that they do not. Maybe because we are chosen, or exceptional, superior or better than in some way: This is often the hidden and explicit Why behind a reality where I have and some do not. And though painful to confront, avoidance does not promise a better future for anyone.

2700 years ago one in a very great history of Hebrew Prophets challenged this story…the myth that prosperity must tolerate dispossession. Instead this poet declared that prosperity depended on seeing and bringing justice for the dispossessed. In this story, to be chosen or exceptional means to be a people that treat the foreigner as native born, and provides shelter and protection to single mothers, to the orphan, refugee, and to fatherless children. This prophet named Micah expands our imagination by exhorting us to work toward a world where nation no longer fights against nation. We no longer expend energy training for war, rather our resources are directed toward peace with God, others, and creation. Make justice, love mercy, walk humbly. Beat swords and weapons into shovels. And then this other famous line…Then, “Everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree and no one shall make them afraid.” Micah 4:4

Everyone, not some at the expense of others, but everyone has meaningful work tending their own grape vines and is able to provide a safe haven for their family flourishing and at peace under their own fig tree.

Now just one more date in history...

It was August 1790…Jewish congregations in NewPort Rhode Island wrote a letter to the newly elected first president of the United States, George Washington.

In their congratulations was a profound question. Will we as Jews be welcome? Will we have a home and a place in this new nation?

Washington gave a 340 word response that included these words…

“For happily the Government of the United States gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance…The children from the stock of Abraham” are welcome and then he quotes Micah 4:4

“Everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree and no one shall make them afraid.“

This wonderful history would have remained unknown to me if it wasn’t for our good neighbors and friends at Bet Shalom congregation around the corner on Orchard Road. I am indebted to them and grateful for our kinship.

And these beautiful words and history would have remained without a tune for me if it wasn’t for a talented young man from Puerto Rico name Lin-Manuel Miranda

In writing the award winning musical about Alexander Hamilton.

He had the vision to have these words sung by an African American George Washington. Building on the vision that Washington saw and now including those for whom most of this nations founding Fathers did not see.

[sing]

“Everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree and no one shall make them afraid. They’ll be safe in the nation we’ve made / I want to sit under my own vine and fig tree a moment alone in the shade, at home in this nation we’ve made.”

These lyrics capture the spiritual foundation of all of our major religions. The ability to identify my own desires and be able to extend them to the other. To love the other as you love yourself.

"I want to sit under my own vine" is simply extended to Everyone. Everyone will sit. It is a story and a vision that dispossesses no one.

My hope tonight is that our time this evening be guided and blessed by the same prayer that George Washington extended to the New Port Jewish community…

"May the God of all mercies scatter light, and not darkness, upon our paths, and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in God’s own due time and way, everlastingly happy."

Amen"

Onto a Vast Plain

This poem by Rilke was one that spoke to me while on sabbatical this summer.

I'll highlight the lines in particular that struck me:

"You are not surprised at the force of the storm--
you have seen it growing."

"it becomes a riddle again and you again a stranger"

"Now you must go out into your heart as unto a vast plain.
Now the immense loneliness begins."

"Through the empty branches the sky remains.
It is what you have."

"Be earth now...
Be the ground lying under that sky.
Be modest now, like a thing ripened until it is real."

Onto a Vast Plain

Rainer Maria Rilke           
(Hear it read aloud by Joanna Mercy)

You are not surprised at the force of the storm—
you have seen it growing.
The trees flee. Their flight
sets the boulevards streaming. And you know:
he whom they flee is the one
you move toward. All your senses
sing him, as you stand at the window.

The weeks stood still in summer.
The trees’ blood rose. Now you feel
it wants to sink back
into the source of everything. You thought
you could trust that power
when you plucked the fruit:
now it becomes a riddle again
and you again a stranger.

Summer was like your house: you know
where each thing stood.
Now you must go out into your heart
as onto a vast plain. Now
the immense loneliness begins.

The days go numb, the wind
sucks the world from your senses like withered leaves.

Through the empty branches the sky remains.
It is what you have.
Be earth now, and evensong.
Be the ground lying under that sky.
Be modest now, like a thing
ripened until it is real,
so that he who began it all
can feel you when he reaches for you.

Repenting of Contempt: Great Reformation 5.0

6) Repenting of Contempt: 

Post 6 of 6 on my list of reforms in honor of the 500th anniversary of the protestant reformation. The first word is repenting of Christendom, which is a reformation of power. The second word is repenting of Capitalism, which is a reformation of trust. The third word is repenting of Consumerism, which is a reformation of identity. The fourth word is repenting of Certainty, which is a reformation of authority. The fifth word is repenting of Clannish Self-Protection, which is a reformation of tribe. Today’s last and final word is repenting of Contempt, which is a reformation of the heart.

The number one predictor of a marriage that will end in divorce is contempt. This is the finding of preeminent marriage researcher, Dr. John Gottman, and author of “The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work”.

“You make me so angry” is a normal ingredient in healthy relationships. Whereas, “You disgust me,” is a game changer and more often than not, the game ender.

A few years ago there was this show called “Lie to Me”. The lead actor, Tim Roth, played this investigator who could solve cases based on people’s facial expressions. If he saw someone display the face of contempt, a disgusted face. He would say in an endearing British accent, “Now that is the face of a killer.”

Contempt is a hierarchical emotion. It corresponds to a belief that I am superior to you. I am better than you. You are beneath me. When you feel contempt you want to spit. You roll your eyes. You mutter sounds of disgust under your breath and dismissively shake your head. Contempt is a dehumanizing emotion that takes root in the heart and begins to find expression in dehumanizing actions.

In a 1992 speech, Leon Mugesera, a senior politician in Rwanda’s Hutu ruling party, called the Tutsi minority “cockroaches”. This language of contempt became actualized in the Rwandan genocide of 1994. Nazi propaganda regularly associated the Jews with disease-spreading rats. Cockroaches and rats are disgusting pests, just like these out-group members. Call the exterminator.

“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.” Jesus, Matthew 5:21-22

Jesus is diagnosing what lies underneath murder. 

There is a progression. 

1) “You make me angry,” becomes…

2) “You disgust me.” (“Raca” is the sound of clearing your throat to spit.) Becomes…

3) You’re dead to me. “You fool” is a dismissal of a person’s standing as a human being. You aren’t even worth interacting with as a person. You have become an object of disdain. It is giving the finger to “the idiot” who just cut you off in traffic. They cease to be a human being in that moment. You are superior to them. They are objectified and disposable.

Jesus is giving this warning: If you allow anger to foster into contempt...you are on the road to hell. You have already murdered someone in your heart and this inner violence will get worked out into actual violence.

In my heart, “you are a cockroach”, 

becomes “you are a cockroach” in my speech, 

becomes “you are a cockroach” at the end of my machete. 

Hell that festers in your heart produces a living hell on earth. It is how genocides happen and continue to happen.

Contempt will only produce hell. 

Contempt cannot bring heaven.

Our culture is a caldron of contempt. We have contempt for politicians, we get contempt from our politicians, we have contempt for the right, we have contempt for the left. Here contempt, there contempt, everywhere contempt, contempt.

Yes, there is so much wrong with the world…but the wrongs will not be made right with our contempt. We, even with the best of motives, will only further the hell with our contempt. It is fighting hellfire with fire.

There is one time. One time, that the gospels say Jesus was angry. The religious leaders try to trap Jesus into breaking the Sabbath laws by planting a disabled man in the audience. This is the story recorded in Mark 3:4-6

“Then Jesus asked them, ‘Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent.

He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, 'Stretch out your hand.' He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.”

“He looked around at them in anger.” I can relate to that.

“Deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts.” I can relate to that. “‘Stretch out your hand.’ He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored.” Ok, it starts to break down a bit for me at this point in the story.

But here is what I am reflecting on. Just like Jesus, I am angry and deeply distressed over many of the religious and political leaders I see. But my next step, unlike Jesus, is to move into contempt. I try to resolve my anger and distress with contempt.

I think contempt emerges from a powerless belief. There is nothing I can do except kill them in my heart. My contempt will really show them something new. I will shame them into change. Let’s call each other names until things get better. Powerless.

In contrast, Jesus flips the script. He takes his anger and distress and heals a man on the margins. His anger is creative. His distress is powerful. He refuses to allow his anger to produce seeds of contempt. He refuses to be trapped in an illusion of powerlessness. He directs his anger into healing. His distress brings heaven rather than hell.

I believe all of us have this same capacity to flip the script. To take our distress and transform it with healing acts of love. We all can bring beauty where there is currently only ash. We are not powerless. You are not powerless. I am not powerless. We can flip the script.

May our very first act of resistance each day be to refuse to participate in the cycle of contempt. May our resolution be to become activists of and for healing. May our anger and distress bring heaven rather than add to the hell.

For my final call of reform, on this 500th anniversary of protest, I am repenting of contempt. I am resolved to become an activist for healing and restorative justice. 

Join me.

Grace and peace everyone,

David

Repenting of Clannish Self-Protection: Great Reformation 5.0

French graffiti artist JR paints 65ft child in Mexico

5) Repenting of Clannish Self-Protection:
Post 5 of 6 on my list of reforms in honor of the 500th anniversary of the protestant reformation. The first word is repenting of Christendom, which is a reformation of power. The second word is repenting of Capitalism, which is a reformation of trust. The third word is repenting of Consumerism, which is a reformation of identity. The fourth word is repenting of Certainty, which is a reformation of authority. Today is repenting of Clannish Self-Protection, which is a reformation of tribe.

I know, Clannish Self-Protection, is forced alliteration and it is three words not one. I am so sorry. Here is the big idea: We are a tribal species. We’ve evolved learning to unite our families into clans of families so we have a better chance of surviving. We are vulnerable on our own and therefore we are better together. Clans are an important expansion of the immediate family. But how do we manage the boundary? Where does my clan end and yours begin? Who is a threat? Who is an enemy? Who is my brother? Who gets to join my tribe? Who is my neighbor? These are ancient and perennial questions. And ancient wisdom gives this consistent warning: If you make self-protection your single moral concern, without a view to the other, it will back fire. 

Self-protection leads to self-destruction.

“Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.” Jesus, Matthew 10:39

The ancient Egypt, in the biblical narrative, plays an interesting role. It vacillates between a place of refuge and a place of enslavement. For Joseph and his family, Egypt was a national refuge. This story takes up 14 chapters in the book of Genesis. Egypt plays this role again for another Joseph millennia later. This Joseph, his wife Mary, and newborn son seek political asylum there. In the Bible, Egypt is a prosperous place of salvation for the outsider.

The book of Exodus, however, opens with a twist. “Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt. ‘Look,’ he said to his people, ‘the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.’ So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh.” Exodus 1:8-11

The moral mandate for the Pharaoh to protect his people turned Egypt from a place of salvation into a place of slavery. A good impulse can turn in on itself. Self-protection left without a counter voice can be a blinding moral motive with tragic outcomes. It is true that having no boundaries can invite abuse, but over-protection of boundaries will turn you into the abuser.

“But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites and worked them ruthlessly. They made their lives bitter with harsh labor” Exodus 1:12-14

The Egyptians came to dread the very people they were oppressing. They were overtaken with a paranoid fear of the other and turned the screws on the poor even tighter. Their actions were driven by a blinding fear that their tribe would cease to exist. Their own self-protection became justification for dehumanization. The most prosperous nation in the ancient near east believed they would be over run by refugees. And so the place of salvation very quickly became a place of slavery. Clannish self-protection led to their self-destruction. This is the story of the Exodus and the warning from our wisdom traditions.

“Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.” Jesus, Matthew 10:39

The rise of nationalistic movements all across the globe is driven by this perennial fear of the other. “We will only be safe, if we are only made up of us and not them.” This is a blinding fear that leads to tyranny. If we don’t exorcise this fear, we will allow it to turn us into tyrants. And the plagues we fear will be of our own making. We won’t be destroyed by them, we will be destroyed by ourselves.

To be a follower of Jesus is to have an ever-expanding view of family. To have permeable membranes which are able to include and welcome the other, not as stranger, but as Christ himself (Matt. 25). 

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven…If you love those who love you, what reward will you get?...And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Matthew 5:43-48.

“Wow, you really love your own clan…big deal, even the Sons of Anarchy do that. You know what will change the world? God includes the outsider in her family, I want you to do the same. Love like that.” (My translation)

"If the world is a temple, then our enemies are sacred, too. The ability to respect the outsider is probably the litmus test of true seeing." Richard Rohr, Everything Belongs

Grace and peace everyone,

David

I highly recommend Richard Beck’s new book “Stranger God: Meeting Jesus in Disguise.” So good and honest on why the practice of radical hospitality is so challenging. And the practices necessary for expanding our affections to include the other as family.

Repenting of Certainty: Great Reformation 5.0

4) Repenting of Certainty:
Post 4 of 6 on my list of reforms in honor of the 500th anniversary of the protestant reformation. The first word is repenting of Christendom, which is a reformation of power. The second word is repenting of Capitalism, which is a reformation of trust. The third word is repenting of Consumerism , which is a reformation of identity. Today’s word is repenting of Certainty, which is a reformation of authority.

Here is the big idea: The myth of Certainty has eroded social, moral, and institutional authority because it is incorrigible. (We are right, we know we are right, and our energy is directed at defending our rightness). We have religious incorrigibility and political incorrigibility and this has lead to a disintegration of public trust and cooperation. Any hope of rebuilding a sense of social cohesion and capital moving forward will come from institutions that demonstrate wisdom and corrigibility. “Don’t trust us because we say we know everything…we don’t. Here are our systems that help us make course corrections. We will be transparent with our failures. We ask for forgiveness. We invite your input. We value how to learn and grow. We value communal discernment over doctrinal and ideological defending. We value corrigibility over certainty. And most of all…We are FOR human and creational flourishing for all people in all places.

Luther’s reformation, 500 years ago, emerged in the space between Copernicus and Galileo. The discoveries of these great scientific pioneers destabilized the authority of the institutional church. The church was no longer seen as the single mediating voice in defining reality for the masses. Likewise, the heart of Luther’s reform was a challenge that undermined the authority of the Pope and magisterium with his famous appeal to Sola Scriptura (The Bible as authority). The revolutionary shift from “Papal to Paper” authority was later mirrored in the political sphere in the revolutionary moves from Kings to Constitutions. 

Luther’s Sola Scriptura came of age with the science of Isaac Newton. Newton gave us fixed laws that would help us build the modern world. We could now finally graduate from a magical world-view to one of metaphysical and epistemological objectivity. We could know things. We could know them reliably. We could know for ourselves and know for certain how the world works and how to master it. The children of the enlightenment were optimistic and confident that the age of reason would usher in a brave new world. Authority was democratized and rational.

Faith in this environment was valid to the degree that it was reason-able. Rationale theological systems and arguments for God became the curricular responsibility and goal of religious education. Clergy were credible and licensed according to their ability to articulate right beliefs. Doctrinal certainty and rationality became the religious by-products of the modern era. Certainty and perceived religious authority were directly proportional. Being a Christian was primarily about believing in beliefs…the right beliefs…and our religious institutions were certain about this. To the degree that we were certain, was the degree of authority we possessed in proclaiming our authority in knowing for certain. We had created one big self-reinforcing circular argument of legitimacy.

“Just as there are physical laws that govern the physical universe, so there are spiritual laws that govern your relationship with God”. This is how Bill Bright’s famous gospel tract opens. It is thoroughly Newtonian and I had it memorized. The biggest questions of existence could be boiled down to 4 Spiritual Laws. And if you could recite the prayer on page 10, you got saved. Spiritual Cause and Effect was now ready for mass distribution. The laws of science could put a man on the moon, but couldn’t get you to heaven. You needed spiritual laws for that. And thus, the afterlife became the knowledge niche that only religion could fill.

The new sciences of this century have disrupted the stability of the modern world view, in a similar way that the scientific revolution disrupted the pre-modern world view. The universe isn’t closed and fixed after all. It is moving and expanding. The building blocks of the universe aren’t blocks. They are relationships of energy. We can’t know for certain what sub-atomic particles will do. We can only posit probabilities. Now none of this is a slam on past knowing. In fact the discipline of science can teach us how to be more corrigible.* Corrigibility is built into the practice of science. And the new sciences are giving us a needed gift of mystery and humility that faith should have never abandoned. 

Learning that the earth isn’t the center of the universe did not lead to the death of faith 500 years ago. Neither will incorporating a 13.8 billion year old universe or evolution into our growing understanding what it means to be human on this planet. Faith can evolve and mature. I believe it is best to give yourself permission and faith permission to change and grow. This isn’t a weakness. It is how it is supposed to work. You don’t need to fear being wrong. Faith can be a corrigible journey, more than a destination of certainty. As the apostle Paul said, “we see through a mirror, dimly” (1 Corinthians 13:12).

Here is the good news. The WITHNESS of God was never dependent on our rationale capacities. The WITHNESS of God is not dependent on our possession of right beliefs. The WITHNESS of God is not dependent upon us at all. The primary question that I have come to ask is whether I am living awake or asleep to the presence of God in me, in you and in all creation. This isn’t a new age guru construction. Read Colossians 1:15-20. I think religious practice can play and is best when it plays a vital role in helping communities wake up and live awake. I think it is its gift. And I want to be apart of helping this gift find its full expression in the world.

I adore the bible, but the bible was never intended to be a Pope. It is a sacred library. It is the testimony of a community pointing to the living word of God. The Living Word who gives expression to a mysterious creational and relational unity of Divine life that shares authority in relationship with human beings. This is a remarkable tradition! And students of Jesus are called to bring this witnessing tradition as a conversation partner with what we see the Spirit doing today. We are called to bring this witness as a conversation partner with science, psychology, and politics, and to family dinners, and other religious traditions. Conversations that will lead to greater discernment in order to make even better decisions that further the shalom of God in the world. Jesus gave his students the authority to “bind and loose” (Matt. 16:19). This is the authority to make decisions and instructed them to continue to learn and grow through discerning the presence of the Spirit who will lead you into all truth (John 16:13).

Religious vitality in the next 500 years will be held in communities of best practices. Holistic centers of mentoring and learning that are experienced in cultivating flourishing lives with God, self, others and creation. Religious authority will be entrusted to those with demonstrated ability to graduate students of transformative love. Authority will be measured and valued in terms of the fruit of the spirit, rather than the certainty of ones beliefs. As Jesus said, “They will know you are my disciples by your love” and “you will be recognized by your fruit” (John 13:35, Matt. 7:16).

Grace and peace everyone,

David

*For more on the current emerging reformation, learning from the corrigibility of Science, Papal to paper authority, and church as school of love, I recommend reading “The Great Spiritual Migration” by Brian McLaren. See also the "Sin of Certainty" by Peter Enns. P.S. I should also add that a good percentage of my post is probably rubbish. I'm just not sure what percent and what parts, but I am open for correction.

Repenting of Consumerism: Great Reformation 5.0

3) Repenting of Consumerism:
Post 3 of 6 on my list of reforms in honor of the 500th anniversary of the protestant reformation. The first word is repenting of Christendom, which is a reformation of power. The second word is repenting of Capitalism, which is a reformation of trust. Repenting of Consumerism is a reformation of identity.

I know, I am a total kill joy, right? But here is the thing…consumerism is the kill joy. Our very identities have been reduced to producing and consuming products. Being human is quickly measured by an index of consumer confidence. Life is forecasted to be good if our purchasing ability and desire is high. Doom and despair ominously preys on the society suffering from purchasing insecurity. We have normalized a system that reduces and refers to us as consumers and job creators. 

Try this greeting out: “Hello, fellow consumer. What have you produced today?” 

We instinctively know this is crazy making, but finding the way out of the crazy is easier said then done. I need someone everyday to shock me into consciousness with…“Well hello, Android, how about we both take the red pill and wake up from this dehumanizing matrix?”

Our true worth and value unfortunately marinates in a mythic stew of productivity. It is the belief that if we can prolifically produce and voraciously consume, we can possess the pinnacle of human flourishing. But this is not true.

We live in what is perhaps the most prosperous and depressed nation in the history of the world. The depressant hovering over us is like a lamenting whisper in our ear telling us that this consumptive story is not big enough. The consumer narrative is simply not rich enough to hold the full beauty of life. (As a fellow sufferer of depression, this is not a shaming word or a reductive word on the complexities of depression. It is an attempt to describe a general cultural malady resulting from a dehumanizing belief.)

The cost of living in this reduced consumptive identity in not merely psychological. When we allow our own humanity to be defined too narrowly, it has consequences on how we view all of life, the lives of others, and the complex realities of life on one planet. 

Consumerism is a reductionist narrative that devalues people and the planet. It perpetuates an unsustainable and inhumane economy of extraction and exploitation. The “good life” is precariously propped up by the exploitation of cheap labor and a myopic extraction of the earth’s natural resources. 

My son had a school project several years ago that calculated how many Earth’s it would take if everyone on the planet lived like our family of 6. I believe it was 7.5 Earths. I remember he asked me if I thought that was good. I said, “well, there is only one Earth.” And He said, “Yea, that’s right.”

I do not believe we are powerless, but I do believe confronting these realities can make us feel this way. I know I am a part of large problem and don’t always know how to operate any differently. I believe the first step calls for a reformation of identity. I am not the sum of what I own and can produce. Neither are you and neither is anyone else. We are a mysterious and wonderful combination of dust and divinity. So let’s refuse to live in the small story of just stuff. 

I believe that reformed identity can lead to reformed practices and policies that will better organize our life together for true flourishing wholeness for all people, all over this beautiful creation. Let’s tell a different story of what it means to be fully human, so that 500 years from now our descendants will experience a level of flourishing that transcended ours.

Repenting of Capitalism: Great Reformation 5.0

2) Repenting of Capitalism:
This is post 2 of 6 on my list of reforms in honor of the 500th anniversary of the protestant reformation. The first word is repenting of Christendom, which is a reformation of power. The second word is repenting of Capitalism which is a reformation of trust.

Just saying repenting of capitalism feels a bit extreme and dangerous. Don't unfriend me just yet. This isn’t about becoming a communist. It is about misplaced trust. The west has been profoundly shaped by this emerging economic philosophy over the past 500 years. And some amazing things have been advanced under the banner of capitalism. The next 500 years however, we will need to confront the real limitations and unintended consequences of free market capitalism. The invisible hand of the market has not magically created justice for all or even justice for most. Continuing to trust that it will do so feels to me like a kind of religious fundamentalism. 

I am not an economist and my view is directed toward the church. I believe the community made up of students of Jesus has a responsibility to be a counter voice rather than a complicit voice when it comes to the blind trust in the market to usher in the new heavens and earth. 

Jesus, was making an astute observation when he declared that “you cannot serve both God and money.” Capital is an attractive rival for our allegiance. Jesus, seems to be saying it is THE rival for our allegiance. It is an easy trap to trust in the power of what money can do and accomplish. It is a force to be reckoned with. I know I feel entangled in it. But I do think the church needs to be a consistent voice that exposes the cult like energy and misplaced religious devotion around market capitalism. 

Here is the reticence...to question or criticize capitalism is just about one of the most un-American things you can do. It is unpatriotic. Capitalism is sacred and it is worshipped. We want the wizard of the market to stay hidden behind the curtain. "Please, don't break the spell pastor."

Repenting of Capitalism means we are no longer going to worship it and submit to its whims as if it was a god. It is not a god. It is an economic philosophy that is fallible. It is a power that we need to demystify and tame. That means we need to be honest about its upside and downside and be willing to consider course corrections.

Repenting of Christendom: Great Reformation 5.0

Repenting of Christendom:  
This is 1 of 6 on my list of reforms in honor of the 500th anniversary of the protestant reformation.  

Empires are built and sustained by conquering, colonizing, converting and controlling other lands and people. This kind of powerful takeover and oppression needs a partner and religion has made a reliable and effective one for many throughout history. Christianity was named the religious sponsor of western civilization over 1600 years ago. One of the biggest failures of the protestant reformation was its continued acceptance of state power fused with Christianity. Both Catholics and Protestants killed and tortured the Anabaptist’s. The Anabaptist’s were one of the few groups that publically renounced the power of empire, proclaiming it to be utterly incompatible with the way of Jesus. Jesus opposed the means and power of empire. So it seems that getting tortured and killed is a risky side effect of resisting this ring of power.

Conquering, colonizing, converting, and controlling is still deeply fused in the conscious and subconscious understandings of dominant western Christianity still to this day. The ostentatious display of white supremacy groups is a particularly ugly manifestation of a long elaborate system of functional Christendom (even in a country that eloquently espouses the separation of church and state). White cultural hegemony feels threatened, along with its religious sponsor – Christianity. This fear is being used as a catalyst to mobilize those concerned that the essential ordering principles of “the greatest country on earth” are endangered and under attack. It is not uncommon for white people in general, not just extremists, to express the feeling that they are being victimized and discriminated against by forces that, they believe, will ultimately cause the collapse of a great civilization. Where does this existential foreboding come from?

I believe that the fusion of empire and Christianity has created a deep and long implicit bias in white America. A bias that the power of empire is an essential good, as long as, it is in the hands of White people. White people should therefore be in charge of non-white people and their natural resources. This belief is explicitly and implicitly embedded in both the Declaration of Independence (unrestricted ability to take control and possession of native lands west of the Appalachian Mountains, without British interference) and the US Constitution (3/5 Compromise). 

To probe this bias: Power is good so long as it is held by White people (“White people” being those to whom Western Christendom has given birth…i.e. me) I ask myself this question: “Which countries do I feel most comfortable possessing nuclear weapons?”

It is scary how long it has taken me to answer this question with this one word, “None”.

I believe that our love affair with power and domination has corrupted the imagination of what it means to be truly human. It unfortunately has served to create Christian institutions prone to blindly massage the Euro-centric ego and promote a messianic complex of western saviors exported to colonize the rest of the world with some devastating results. I summarize the fusion of empire and Christianity in America as producing this toxic, unconscious, and persistent bias: White people are the best people, they possess the best religion, have created the best country, and therefore have a divine mandate and endowed ability to save the rest of the world. 

Repenting of Christendom is first a word for me, before it is a word for anyone else. I have been coming to terms with my own implicit biases that have been formed and passed on to me from many, many, many previous generations. I have started to dream of what passing on a different spiritual legacy to my kids would look like. I dream of passing on a legacy that, with great conviction, renounces empire and follows the Jesus, who also renounced empire, in favor of governing principles of service, love, compassion and restorative justice.

The Great Reformation 5.0

My List of 6 Reforms 

(From a series of Facebook posts beginning Oct. 31^st2017, David Landt)

Today is the 500th anniversary since Martin Luther nailed his provocative 95 theses to the Wittenberg church door. October 31st, 1517 is the symbolic beginning of the Protestant Reformation. 

Church historian Phyllis Tickle said that every 500 years, for the past 2000 years, the church has had a huge garage sale.  If this is true then we are living in the 5th round of upheaval, change and renewal.  This is the 5th-five-hundred-year cycle in the life of Christian history.  This is version 5.0 of reformation.
  
Today, I am imagining the Facebook Wall to be the distant technological great grandchild of the Church door in the public square 500 years ago.  I do not have a 95 point thesis.  I will simply post an alliterated list of 6 reforms. 

I am sure, even if you don’t consider yourself particularly religious, that you have or can think of reforms that you would like to see adopted in institutional religious practice that would make for a more just and generous future. This is as good a day as any to think about and name them. 

The religious word for changing is repentance. I will offer my 6 words of repentance (change) on this anniversary of protest and reform. I would like to see my church and me repent from Christendom, Capitalism, Consumerism, Certainty, Clannish Self-protection, and Contempt.

1) Repenting of Christendom, which is a reformation of power. 
2) Repenting of Capitalism, which is a reformation of trust. 
3) Repenting of Consumerism, which is a reformation of identity. 
4) Repenting of Certainty, which is a reformation of authority. 
5) Repenting of Clannish Self-Protection, which is a reformation of tribe. 
6) Repenting of Contempt, which is a reformation of the heart.