Peter Storey to Florida Methodists: “No Americanism for You!”

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Activism, anti-Americanism, Barton Gingerich, Caesar, Duke Divinity School, Florida Annual Conference, God, liberal, liberalism, Methodist Church of South Africa, Methodist Federation for Social Action, MFSA, peace, Peter Storey, social action, social gospel, South Africa, theology, UMC, United Methodist, United Methodist Church, war

Peter Storey with Nelson Mandela (Photo Credit: Duke Divinity School)

by Barton Gingerich (@bjgingerich)

During last week’s Florida United Methodist Annual Conference, the unofficial Methodist Federation for Social Action (MFSA) featured Peter Storey as speaker for its simultaneous events. Storey is the former president of the autonomous Methodist Church of Southern Africa, past president of the South African Council of Churches, and served as the Methodist Bishop of the Johannesburg/Soweto area for 13 years. He garnered fame for courageously fighting against apartheid, authored several books, and taught courses at United Methodism’s Duke Divinity School, where he is professor emeritus. A champion for liberal nonviolence and Social Gospel activism, Storey found a receptive audience with the MFSA and its fellow liberal church activists.

During the MFSA banquet, Professor Storey lectured on “God and Caesar.” “Clearly social action and United Methodism are inseparable,” he concluded, “Truly you can’t talk about being a Methodist without being engaged in social action.”

Storey seemed especially worried about America, claiming that he had great sensitivity to social matters since he endured under “an oppressive totalitarian regime in my own country.” “Those atrocities that occurred on 9/11 did something to the nerve of the church in this country,” he surmised. He mused, “The church did its pastoral duty to a shocked nation. The church held the nation’s hand, but the politicians made up the nation’s mind.” Nevertheless, he excoriated  “a particularly shallow President of the United States” for framing the “theological narrative… It was simple (as you could well suspect): they’re evil and we’re good.” “Sometime after that, questions became treasonous. It somehow became unpatriotic to question this narrative in any way,” Story explained.

The retired bishop thought much dysfunction in the American United Methodist Church springs from a reluctance to choose the right side in national partisan struggles. The UMC “has been trying to straddle a widening political gulf and trying to have a foot on both sides of that gap, and it’s becoming extremely uncomfortable to hold that position.” The members and clergy of the ailing denomination have failed to condemn “capitalism with no limitations on it whatsoever,” “a philosophy of serial war,” and an “attitude of ecological contempt, which is dangerous to planet earth.” The speaker advised, “There is a need to re-evangelize Methodism to its prophetic witness.”

Storey concluded his crusade against any hint of otherworldliness. “I want to say the church is only the church when it’s engaging the world. All the rest is just preparation,” he revealed, to the potential chagrin of any contemplatives. “What would happen if our people decided to wrestle with the massive inequities that divide our world into ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots?” he asked, “What would happen if the church finally confessed that its longest standing disobedience to Jesus is its flirtation with war and the just war theory?” He also thought the issue of sanctuary flags needs “to be wrestled with.” “It is Caesar’s banner; it doesn’t belong in God’s house,” the activist leader urged. “Caesar will always push the boundaries of power. If they can, they will….We need to stop wrapping the church in red, white, and blue.” He also shared, “People are very concerned about removing God from the Pledge of Allegiance. I’m more concerned about whether the Pledge of Allegiance has removed God from many of our hearts.”

Finally, at the end of his evening presentation, Professor Storey hinted support for changes on United Methodist sexuality teaching, which currently disapproves of homosexual and other non-marital sex. Storey, on the other hand, complained, “All means all. It doesn’t mean some…It doesn’t mean if you look like me or love like me.” No doubt the radicals in the MFSA-friendly audience took this to mean agreement with their own very expansive attitude regarding sexual morality.  South African Methodism, especially the strand touted by its white leaders, is often more liberal than Christianity, including Methodism, in the rest of Africa.

Tyler Wigg-Stevenson’s Advice for Christian Activists

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Activism, Evangelicals, Institute on Religion and Democracy, Kristin Rudolph, Q Ideas, Two Futures Project, Tyler Wigg-Stevenson

(Photo Credit: Jonathan Merritt)

Kristin Rudolph (@Kristin_Rudolph)

As a young generation of activist-minded, idealistic evangelicals confronts the brokenness and frustration of the real world, Tyler Wigg-Stevenson is calling for a “calibration check” to determine what it means for Christians to “have a faithful commitment to doing good.” In the first of a new webcast series from Q Ideas, Wigg-Stevenson told Q founder and president Gabe Lyons he sees “a generation of Christians really who are thinking seriously about cultural renewal [and] … the common good.”

Wigg-Stevenson, a pastor and founder of the nuclear abolition group, Two Futures Project, said “there’s been a real surge in what I’d call Christian activism over the last ten years.” He explained “the work’s harder than we initially thought it might be,” which demands serious consideration of what it means “to live out our faith in public.” To consider these questions, Wigg-Stevenson wrote The World is Not Ours to Save: Finding the Freedom to Do Good, which was released this year.

The author said the idea of “progress and that we are just slowly but surely we’re building a better world and it’s irreversible” cannot be reconciled with a Christian understanding of the world and history. “Part of the progressive vision … is that we’re building into the future. But it doesn’t necessarily have an answer for how you deal with the past,” Wigg-Stevenson explained. He continued: “One of the things I think is so troublesome from a Christian perspective is that [a progressive vision] just cannot make sense of the irreversible tragedy of history that there are people and cultures who have been ground under … and they are not retrievable.”

“As Christians we have to think that history needs more than an oil change. History needs redemption and that’s part of a Christian understanding of salvation,” Wigg-Stevenson stated. He cautioned activists that the world is “tragically shot through with sin and that requires a Redeemer … so our response to history is not to get in and tinker with it until it’s okay, our response to history is to be faithful to the only One whose entry into history is its solution.”

“American Christianity, especially American evangelicalism is so pragmatic, so practical,” Wigg-Stevenson explained, that it often loses sight of its primary commitment to Christ and takes a “problem solving” approach that leaves little room to lament the incurable brokenness of our world. Further, he said “first and foremost our call is to fidelity [to Christ] and in some places fidelity looks like being effective,” but “fidelity isn’t always effective.”

Wigg-Stevenson pointed out how American evangelicals have downplayed the role of peace in Christianity, as they “are not super comfortable with the peace movement coming out of the Vietnam era as being something sort of culturally and morally suspicious. I think we need to get over that allergy to peace because peace is shot through the Bible.”

He pointed to Micah chapter four, which describes the “the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established … and peoples will stream to it” in peace during the last days. Wigg-Stevenson said “the kingdom is quite obviously not here yet … [and] the ‘mountain of the temple of the Lord,’ from a Christian interpretation of Micah, is the mountain of the cross. That’s where Christ, whose own body became the temple of God, that’s where he was crucified and died for our sin.”

He explained that “every place where … Christ is exalted in every heart and in every community will start to see effects that look like what’s outlined in Micah, [though] they might be small.” A primary orientation toward Christ as Redeemer is the essential foundation of all good work, the pastor advised. Lyons agreed, adding: “these glimpses of the kingdom are the way that the world starts to know there is a better way [to live].”

Activist minded evangelicals would do well to heed Wigg-Stevenson’s advice. It is easy to lose sight of the Christian’s primary call to love God while pouring one’s life into a worthy cause. To do so results at best in burn out, at worst idolatry, and even worse, both. While evangelicals are rightly concerned with addressing the world’s brokenness, a sober approach to activism grounded in Christ’s ultimate redemptive work is true faithfulness.

One Million Bones on the National Mall

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Act for Sudan, Activism, advocacy, Congo, Faith J. H. McDonnell, genocide, genocide prevention, mass atrocities, One Million Bones, South Sudan, Sudan

Laying of the bones in Congo Square, New Orleans
(Photo credit: One Million Bones)

By Faith J. H. McDonnell (@Cuchulain09)

The IRD is a founding member of Act for Sudan, a bi-partisan alliance of activists who advocate for an end to genocide and mass atrocities in Sudan. This weekend, June 8-10, Act for Sudan is co-sponsoring an unprecedented event to demonstrate the enormity and devastation of genocide. Lives lost in such places as Sudan, South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, and Burma will be represented by one million handmade bones, displayed on the National Mall.

One Million Bones describes itself as “a large-scale social arts practice” which means they “combine education, hands-on art making, and public installations to raise awareness.” The organization provides genocide education adapted for every grade of school. As the name suggests, the art-making consists of providing people with the opportunity to create “bones” that represent and honor victims of genocide and mass atrocities, as well as those who are still fighting to survive in those regions of conflict. Public installation of the bones serves as both a memorial and a visual petition to those who have the responsibility to protect the innocent.

Over the past three years, One Million Bones has done two preview installations to prepare the way for this weekend’s installation on the National Mall. The first took place in Albuquerque in August 2011. 500,000 bones were installed at that event. Another 500,000 bones were installed at an event in New Orleans in April 2012. Students, artists, activists, and church members from around the United States and around the world participated in the creation of the one million handmade bones to be installed on the National Mall. I created a bone during a Sudan/South Sudan advocacy conference in Des Moines last year.

One Million Bones founder and TED Fellow Naomi Natale, actress Robin Wright, Holocaust survivor Eva Kor, former U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Sudan Dr. Mukesh Kapila, Enough Project founder John Prendergast, Carl Wilkens, the only American to remain in Rwanda during the genocide, and many other human rights leaders as well as international musicians, will join hundreds of activists from around the United States at the National Mall during the Saturday, Sunday, and/or Monday events. The bone laying and an evening program will take place on Saturday, educational workshops and a candlelight vigil on Sunday, and on Monday activists will move to Capitol Hill for advocacy.

If you are able, please attend One Million Bones. You can learn more about this powerfully moving project and sign up to volunteer at the Washington D.C. installation at www.onemillionbones.org. You may identify yourself as a member of the Act for Sudan team, if you would like. If you can’t come for all three days, you are welcome to participate whenever you can. View the schedule here.

Each bone represents a call to action, a story, a voice. (One Million Bones)

Evangelical Immigration Table Doesn’t “Need to Know the Details” of Reform

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#iwasastranger, Activism, advocacy, Barton Gingerich, Billy Hybels, CCDC, comprehensive immigration reform, David Anderson, ERLC, evangelical, Evangelical Immigration Table, Evangelicals, Gabriel Salguero, Immigration, Jenny Yang, Laurie Beshore, Lee de Leon, lobbying, Noel Castellanos, Richard Land, Southern Baptist, Washington DC, Willow Creek Community Church, World Relief

(Photo Credit: Tucson Sentinel)

by Barton Gingerich (@bjgingerich)

Yesterday morning, Christians from many walks of life gathered to the Evangelical Immigration Table to advocate for comprehensive immigration reform. Prominent voices of many races, ages, and cultural backgrounds spoke and prayed at the Hill’s historic Lutheran Church of the Reformation. That parish is no stranger to political activism: it hosted meeting for Martin Luther King, Jr. and is now the home of the radical Methodists for Social Action (MFSA). While most of the sponsors and speakers obviously favored looser immigration restrictions, more seasoned voices offered concern for the rule of law, border security, and fair taxes.

“Wouldn’t it just be like God to use immigrants and immigration to bring us together?” inquired Bridgeway Community Church’s David Anderson. “When you are loving your neighbor, you’re doing a good thing,” he added, “But the love of God is strong enough to break all barriers of hate.” It was evident that participants had a high view of their cause. Noel Castellanos of the Christian Community Development Association prayed, “God, we are so glad that we can be a part of such an important moment in the nation and the church…We are so grateful that now your kingdom on earth is becoming as it is in heaven.”

Laurie Beshore, global missions pastor at Mariners Church, observed, “While the Bible does not give us national immigration policy, it provides principles to work from.” She quoted a verse about extending hospitality to sojourners and strangers (without further explanation), warning, “In the United States especially, we see hospitality as offering refreshments.” She thought the term was an all-encompassing way of life. The Templo Calvario’s Rev. Lee de Leon declared, “As a Hispanic in the nation, it’s a wonderful day…God’s working a miracle in the capital. People are crossing the aisle…, and evangelicals are coming together as never before.” “We are to love the stranger,” he urged, “This is only the beginning…The nations of the world are at our door.”

The retiring Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission leader Richard Land offered the most cogent policy arguments: he discussed Romans 13 and the ordained responsibilities of civil government. “We in America are fortunate that we have a highly developed sense of the rule of law,” he proclaimed, “I can count the number of countries with that on my hands.” “The government hasn’t been enforcing its laws on immigration for twenty years,” he complained. Land contended, “We’ve had two signs up at the border: ‘No Trespassing’ and ‘Help Wanted.’” “[Illegal immigrants] have broken the law so they can work, unlike our own homegrown criminals, who break the law so that they don’t have to work,” he instructed. The ERLC president told audience members, “Government is a lagging indicator. It’s a caboose. The people are the locomotive…When the people change, the government changes after them.”

Another notable evangelical figure, Willow Creek Community Church’s Pastor Bill Hybels, also addressed the Immigration Table. He condemned the “never-ending nightmare” for undocumented aliens “of deportation” and “a never-ending limbo” of lacking citizenship. The Rev. Gabriel Salguero, president of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition, informed the large crowd, “The time has come…because nothing changes without brave people demanding it.” After praising the social witness of German anti-Hitler pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, he announced, “For if our action is not bathed in prayer, it is at rick in becoming unjust action. If we pray without righteous action, we are engaging in vain babbling….No one other than Jesus can give you power.” Salguero also lauded 19^th century evangelist Charles Finney, who used to make altar calls for people to get saved and to sign up for the abolitionist movement.

All these presentations granted enthusiasm and gusto to the reform cause in a rather nonpartisan manner. Nevertheless, the legislation briefing by World Relief’s Jenny Yang was more telling. “As evangelicals, we want immigration reform now!” she exclaimed. On the other hand, she confessed, “We don’t know exactly what’s in the reform bill…We don’t need to know the details; you just have to tell your stories.” Showing political naiveté and Social Gospel overtones, she insisted “This really is a historic moment as we meet here today…Elevate the moral voice you bring to the debate.” During the question period, someone asked if the security at the Congressional office buildings check for ID. Evidently, there were several undocumented immigrants who were going to join the crowds as they lobbied on Capitol Hill.

Indeed, activism feels good to enthusiasts, especially when coupled with a sense of moral superiority in one’s advocacy. By quoting Bible verses and making immigration reform a uniting trope for evangelicalism, the Table makes reform an issue of faith rather than prudence (and thus capable of religious enthusiasm). By extension, dissenting church members are implicated as bad Christians. Moreover, loosened immigration reforms are amenable to much of the popular culture at large, unlike life and marriage issues. The unintended consequences of immigration legislation, however, may rain on the parade later on. Regardless, as the old Religious Left can tell you, it feels good to be liked by society for once.

Being Millennial at the March for Marriage: A Real World Perspective

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Activism, Barton Gingerich, March for Marriage, marriage, Politics, protest, religion, same sex marriage, Supreme Court, United States

by Barton Gingerich (@bjgingerich)

Last Tuesday, IRD participated in the March for Marriage (that’s some of us at the top there, sans cross-dressing dancer who was 15 feet off, stage left). As you may notice, several of us were born in the 80s. I thought it might be worthwhile, in my younger years, to offer  a sort of journal entry on the experiences of the day and my reflections.

It was a gorgeous morning at the Mall when I surveyed the crowd in front the Smithsonian “castle.” My mind was still haunted by the theological points of von Balthasar from my commute reading. That, and the public abandonment of traditional marriage by “conservative” political leaders. When one reads these politically convenient confessions, he cannot help noticing that they pivot on sentiment. It was obvious that these figures based their positions not on reason or revelation, which teach compassion toward people with homosexual inclinations while forbidding the practice and certainly the marriage of same-sex couples. However, for these politicians, when a relative or close friend announces their homosexual identity, all of a sudden there is a change in position. Where these folks simply homophobes all along? Do they not believe in nature and essence any more? What kind of morality do they think will spring from this?

And what about the bullying? If we were in a different age, I’m fairly certain Ryan T. Anderson would have been locked in the stocks as people threw rotten vegetables at him. Is this how it’s going to be like for the defenders of sanity in the years to come?

I was woken up from my reflections by the enthusiastic performance of some praise chorus on the National March for Marriage stage. I am no activist; I see myself more as a contemplative spectator in most instances. But today I march with these people.

And who exactly are “these people?” No modifier will suffice. Even proportions of all races—red, yellow, brown, black, white. Several native languages, from English to Spanish to Korean. All ages, from the young guns at Marriage Generation to the senior couple that held hands as the parade crossed in front of the Supreme Court building. I have to admit that I was tempted to become Roman Catholic just to join Tradition, Family, and Property; but thought better of it despite the fantastic medieval banners, red capes, and marching band. However, the real troopers were the children and stroller-pushing parents. It would seem all are tied together with humanity’s oldest known institution.

After the IRD crew unites, we march on, finding ourselves by coincidence in the company of Anglicans for Marriage. By the time we pass the Supreme Court, things have mostly settled into their places. Loud LGBT activists have split onto either side of the street as the Red Sea. Several seem upset by the massive pro-marriage turnout (as well as the truly diverse nature of the alliance). Of course, all the media photographers ogle the half dozen or so hateful Westboro Baptist protestors. They aren’t in the March but camped out on the right curb of the Court building. The hateful signs of Westboro fit the pre-determined narrative mold better than the kind and more winsome Marchers.

We march back to the Mall to hear some famous speakers address the crowd (including the flamboyant Senator Ruben Diaz ensconced in a windbreaker, clerical collar, and tall cowboy hat). After seeing some friends, we head back to headquarters. Here, we host Owen Strachan, who offered great thoughts on gender complementarity and his involvement with Marriage Generation.

After work and several good office conversations, we went out to eat that evening. We shared our loves and concerns for the world and the Church. Honesty, passion, and clarity dominated the tone of the conversation. In a way, it boosted morale to be together, although–on that day–the court of public opinion would have us ostracized. Even if popular culture is against us, it is good to be in the company of such as these.