Clarion: Journal of Spirituality and Justice

Excessive Force: Rethinking How We Police and Parent - Fred Sprinkle with Chris Hoke

Excessive Force: Rethinking How We Police and Parent [Contains Graphic Violence] from Wind Vane Films on Vimeo.

Life Under the Bomb Means a Life of Resistance - Wayne Northey

Photo above: “Our message over the years has been simple and urgent: Nuclear weapons have totally failed us. They don’t make us safer; they don’t provide jobs; they don’t make us more secure—these are age-old lies. Instead, they bankrupt us, economically and spiritually.” (Photo: Courtesy of Rev. John Dear)

Wayne Northey: This piece is profoundly humbling–and moving. In George Yancy: To Be Black in the US Is to Have a Knee Against Your Neck Each Day, Dr.  Yancy challenges us Whites who claim solidarity with Blacks/People of Colour, “ . . . then I would ask that they show me their scars . . .”

John Dear in this piece displays his scars from a decades-long fight against the building and possession of nuclear weapons–enough weapons to destroy the Planet 20 times over! Let that sink in! Let that sink in! . . .

These multiplied thousands of missiles from hell hold the entire world hostage, and as Rev. Dear indicates, place the entire Planet on Death Row. Obscene! Unconscionable! This beyond-ultimate-evil-premeditated-brutal-Obliteration of all Life thereby thrusting such planning into a whole other dimension of human imagining . . . into a twilight zone of  massive-death-dealing aspiration that the likes of a Stalin, a Hitler, a Pol Pot, a Mussolini, and all mass murderers of all time combined . . .  could only have longed for . . . only in their wildest dreams could have enacted . . .

On my HOME page you will find what follows (and much more) in the context of the Gospel as Counter-Narrative to Empire:

In short, any number of nuclear war planners in Washington contemplated striking 295 Soviet cities, with an estimated death toll total of 115 million, and another 107 million dead in Red China, besides millions more in Soviet satellite countries (The Violent American Century: War and Terror Since World War II, John W. Dower, Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2017; page 37. See also my post on this here; pp. 28 & 29). In some circles, as a kind of sick dark humour, the two bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki due to “only” 200,000 dead, came to be called “firecracker nukes (ibid, page 29).” (This is not to mention the millions killed since World War II with related devastation in at least 37 countries around the world, or the millions murdered through US proxy wars, CIA covert operations the world over, surrogate terror exported to countries throughout Central and South America for more than a century, and other parts of the world, etc., etc., etc… (See ibid, throughout the book.)^[1]

And these “noble” American nuclear strategists holding up of course America as bastion of freedom and democracy throughout the world, blithely contemplated over many decades mass murder on a scale that all previous mass murderers combined in the history of the world could only dream of! And serious contemplation of first-strike deployment was given repeated consideration: Public as well as confidential proposals to launch a “preventive” or “pre-emptive” strike against the Soviet Union were not uncommon before the Soviets developed a serious retaliatory capability — including for instance General Douglas MacArthur. The American public likewise supported this in general (ibid, page 41).

This is America — Leader of the Free World?! Vocabulary for such monstrous evil mindsets utterly fails! Yet every US Administration since Truman authorized the first atomic bombs dropped (which phenomenon he, a Baptist Sunday School teacher, declared to be “the greatest event in human history” — and not the Resurrection?! — one massively death-dealing, the other universally life-giving), along with thousands of strategists, day-in, day-out, went off to work with this kind of obscene potential horror, like “visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads”. How delightfully American (Empire)!^[2]

And Hitler and Stalin are considered “maniacal” in their mass murders?! By the above dark-humour standard, they were only “firecracker despots” compared to a long line of US Presidents. What then are all these upstanding Americans — right up to the present, with possibly a genuinely deranged current President seemingly itching to “nuke” some nation such as North Korea — if not mad monsters? And the overwhelming monstrosity of America the Ultimate Evil Empire only increases exponentially when one reads noted historian Alfred McCoy’s description of what is being developed by said American Empire.

A paper that I wrote years ago, Christianity and the Subversion of Just About Everything!, in relation to this, with an introduction and excerpt, may be accessed here. I explain in introducing it that today, were I writing the paper, the overall positing of “Just About Everything!” would mean Empire. The Judeo-Christian Story is nothing if not one long Counter-Narrative to Empire!There is an expanding scholarship that underscores this, links to several instances of which are on the HOME page, and also mentioned on the page introducing the paper above. Amen! Thy Kingdom Come! Maranatha! (Come, O Lord).

Please also see the post on U.S. biological warfare: Baseless: My Search for Secrets in the Ruins of the Freedom of Information Act by Nicholson Baker. And Trump blames the Chinese for producing biological weapons!

Again: thousands of Americans every day are caught up in the Maniacal Suicidal Madness: calmly working towards the Earth’s Demise as nonchalantly as planning a road trip . . . Who like Nazi concentration camp guards return home from work , hug their kids, and go off with their wives to take in a Beethoven Concert…

All Americans, and of course the entire Western world are accessories and beneficiaries, if not direct cheerleaders.  Ghastly! Murderous! Horror-filled! Morality from Hell!  . . .^[3]

Further, as the Japanese were targeted as the Ultimate Collective Scapegoat in the West on August 6 & 7, 1945, so ever since, the entire world became the potential Ultimate Scapegoat on Planet Death Row! These insights arise from the amazing work of anthropologist and literary critic René Girard.^[4]

But we are so inured to the obscene presence of nuclear weapons in the world that we blithely shut it all out as we go about our daily lives. Yet Dear writes:

That’s why I say, the existence of nuclear weapons is far beyond any philosophical questions of goodness or morality. For years, I’ve been saying: nuclear weapons are bad for New Mexico and the world, bad for our health, bad for the economy, bad for children, bad for our security, bad for the environment, but also bad for our souls! Ultimately, their existence is a religious issue, a spiritual issue. It says we really worship the false “god of war,” as Hitler called him, not the living God of peace. These weapons say, “We will wipe out in 15 minutes what it took you 15 billion years to create.” The only humane, sane, moral, and therefore religious, holy stand to take is to publicly oppose them, resist them, denounce them and work for their abolition.

CLICK HERE to continue reading

At Last, the Inhale - poem by Jessica Cotten

photo credit: @danesduet Unsplash

At Last, the Inhale

Jessica Cotten

 

Let me

Catch my breath

Hovering,

Fluttering.

 

Let me

Feel the wind

Whispering

On my skin.

 

Let me

Feel my roots

Tracing

Water’s edge.

 

Let me

Pause there.

 

My suffocating thirst.

Give me

Time to quench it.

 

Watch me

Awaken,

Leaf to mountain.

Watch me

Delight in

My restoration.

Let me feel,

Let me mend,

Let me tend

To my soul.

 

Let me

Linger like this.

2020 RJWorld eConference: David Milgaard and Wayne Northey

RJ World 2020 is a 10-day online showcase of more than 100 inspiring presenters from around the world -facilitators/practitioners/teachers/researchers/ artists – who are passionate about sharing insights and ideas in the realm of restorative justice and restorative practices in all sectors.

EVENT DATES: AUGUST 22-31

The video to be presented at the Conference may be shown now, but one must sign up for the Conference by August 22, 2020, at $50USD/person, to view our webpage. Now for the video, done over Zoom (David in Cochrane Alberta, I in Agassiz BC).

For general information please click on: RJWorld eConference

“No one suffers it like God” Kenneth Tanner

Michael was missing for almost four weeks. Like millions, he exists at the margins and this Covid crazy was simply too much; too much went wrong with no one to help him, all relief agency minders working from home, and he just could’t handle his unbearable existence anymore. He walked out the door of his apartment one night without telling a soul and just drifted away.

When he missed a couple of services, I went looking for him, as I tend to do (ask around, haha). I’d been to his place a few times during the crisis to check on him but when I discovered that no one in his apartment complex had seen him in three weeks, my heart sank.

With help from the homeless community in Pontiac, some good shop owners, the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office, and Emery, we first spotted Michael last Friday and then found him Wednesday night after a week of searching. I was overjoyed. I’d put some important things I’d promised friends on hold to find him. He matters to me and to our church.

Michael and I visited his landlord Thursday, a very good man, and Michael should be back in his apartment next Wednesday. A lot else remains to be done to restore some semblance of togetherness for his life—a lot of logistics and resourcing—but he is resting well on our church campus tonight with all he needs because that is the kind of community we are. 

We will do better by our brother, assist him more closely going forward, make sure he feels our support, and I repent for not being more diligent, but he said something on the way back from the landlord that felt like a window I’d been hoping might open for a long time.

I’ll remind you, this man slept under a concrete staircase for four weeks on Michigan’s hottest days this year and until Wednesday night had not had a shower or complete meal in a month (longer?). God help me.

He pointed out the front windshield at the blue sky as we were driving down M-59 and said: “Father, there’s a lot of pain in this world, a lot of people suffering right now, but no one suffers from bearing the weight of it it all like God.”

Photo: The staircase Michael lived under in July.

Q&R with Brad Jersak - 2 COVID 7:13? - 2 Chronicles 7 and the Pandemic

Question

I have a question regarding the scripture in 2 Chronicles 7:13,14 “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” 

 

So many churches, pastors and leaders are quoting this OT scripture regarding the current pandemic and asking people to pray to have God stop this pandemic, and these are leaders of denominations and movements here in Australia.

 

In my mind, the premise of this interpretation of this text is that God has sent this plague because of our sin and so it is a punishment from God. Wouldn’t it be a more appropriate interpretation to understand this text in light of the author's perspective and mindset of their understanding of what God was like?

 

I would love to hear your thoughts or ask that you would be able to point me in the right direction regarding this particular scripture and how we interpret in light of prayer and this current pandemic.

 

Response

Good and timely question! 

 

I would begin by saying that Christians have no business in this text without reference to Christ and his gospel. That is, we are not welcome to read it as if we were Jews who had never heard of Jesus, his ministry and his teachings. Like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, our invitation is to read the OT (Moses, the Prophets and all the Scriptures) as they prefigure Christ. Jesus must be our Rabbi and Sponsor into 2 Chronicles.

 

Most importantly, it is ultimately Christ alone who reveals the true nature of God, especially on the Cross, showing us that God IS self-giving, radically forgiving, co-suffering love. God-in-Christ also shows and tells us how he relates to 'wrath' in ways more nuanced (and still developing) than in the OT writings. The characters, narrators and authors of the OT anticipate and foreshadow Christ but John 1:18 and Hebrews 1:1-3 indicate that only in Christ do we see the fulness of God's nature and ways.

 

All of that informs how Christians came to read the OT. Early Jewish worldviews describe God directly blessing and cursing our virtues and vices by sending health, good weather and abundant crops on the righteous and sending disease, droughts and plagues on the wicked. This kind of direct intervention into secondary causes comes through in the Deuteronomic Covenant (e.g. Deut. 28). The OT prophets were typically and simply 'covenant enforcers.' observing their culture and applying those covenant passages to the situation as the voice of God. 

 

But already within the OT, various authors are challenging that worldview. They understand that it doesn't always work that way. The foolish friends in the book of Job who see the world that way are rebuked for saying things that very much echo those covenants. David loves the law but also asks, "Then why do the wicked prosper? And why are the righteous afflicted?" 

 

By the time you get to Isaiah and Ezekiel (for example), you still have this type of covenant enforcement lingo, but they also begin to distance God from direct wrath. Instead of "if you sin, God will destroy you," you get "if you sin, Babylon will destroy you." Where is God in that? First, his wrath becomes indirect: "He will give you over to your sin" or "He will give you over to Babylon." The idea is that God is not the destroyer. But God warns them that he will consent to their defiance and the consequences that naturally follow. Second, God becomes their co-suffering deliverer from the wrath (which gradually becomes a synonym for Satan). In Romans, Paul will make the same clarification: the wages of sin is death while the free gift of God is life. God is not the death-dealer. In chapter 1, he defines wrath as 'he gave them over' three times. So wrath is now a metaphor for the self-destructive consequences of our own defiance and God in his love both consents to our waywardness and participates in our salvation.

 

And now this brings us to Christ, who gets the last word. Christ has come into a world where people are already perishing (John 3:16-17) with an agenda to save. He IS the image of God in this world. And as God, he addresses the problem of direct wrath (as cited in Chronicles) on two major occasions. 

 

1. John 9 - "Who sinned that this man should be born blind? Him or his parents?" Implication, Sickness, disease and disability are God's punishments for sin. Jesus denies it. Wrong question. Wrong worldview. His response is that when we see sickness, disease and death, we don't know for sure if sin was involved except in the sense that we've all been part of a cosmic bus crash and some people had worse seats. You just can't judge and individual as righteous or wicked, blessed or cursed by God, based on their struggles. Rather, we should see human maladies as an occasion for God's mercy and healing. That's always where Christians must start.

 

2. Luke 13 - Pilate's Temple Massacre and the Fall of the Tower of Siloam: Here we have people dying at the hands of the Romans and in a tragic collapse of a local highrise. Jesus addresses how we should see the victims. Were they any more wicked than the survivors? No. You can't judge that because God was not the death-dealer. In one case, it fell to human wickedness and in the other, it was probably a random tragedy. We cannot infer anything about the victims' standing before God and we cannot attribute these deaths to God. In effect, he says, "Worry about your own hearts. Stop pointing the finger. Everyone is perishing. Turn to God for mercy. Ask God for deliverance." 

 

With that established, how do we read the passage in Chronicles? We understand that a Christological reading prohibits us from a literalist read that adopts a worldview that Christ already redirected into the gospel image of God. And when there is turmoil in the land, we may certainly ask ourselves, did we somehow cause these tragedies, but we cannot venture to assign blame to God or to the victims of tragedy. But where we see injustice at work, we can acknowledge our complicity, turn back to God and watch how the fruit of our lives changes (whether naturally or supernaturally). 

 

Examples: When the twin towers fell, did God send the planes? When hurricane Katrina hit, did God swamp New Orleans? How about this pandemic? Some have said so. Why would he do that? Obviously to punish America. For what? Televangelists suggested various pet sins that they like to rail on. Their proclamations completely ignore the teachings and revelation of Christ. 

 

Yes, we can ask ourselves, have WE done anything to cause these events? Did WE instigate the kind of hate and desperation that leads to terror? Did WE cut corners that led to collapsing sea walls and dikes? Have WE mishandled COVID by neglecting to love our neighbors as we ought? Perhaps we should turn toward God to ask these questions, change our self-defeating practices and look for mercy. But we don't blame God for directly sending death and we don't sort the righteous from the wicked by measuring who was hit hardest and who got off lucky. And then we look at how these events become occasions for grace. 

 

Where is God in this? He's digging through rubble and hard at work in ICU through people who manifest his love and grace in the world. We partner with his ministry of redemption rather than siding with the accuser of the brethren. We become the change we want to see. And in this way, we fulfill a Christocentric reading of the Chronicles passage. 

 

Blessings!

Brad