The Week In Review

It's time that we return to our regular content, and since I am now commuting an hour each way to Surrey 4 times a week - I've had ample time to work my way through my new collection of books. This week I completed: The Word and The Bomb - Hanif Kureishi and on Friday finished a copy of a speech given by Arundhati Roy - it's a 60 page little book entitled Public Power in the Age of Empire.

The both had some interesting points I would like to share with you - Kureishi while writing as a Londoner and specifically in relation to the rise in militant Islam in their country made the following statement that grieved me when I really thought about it.

"We have not seen religious revolutionaries for a long time. Apart from liberation theology in South America - the church being used as an outlet for Left opposition - the only significant religion we saw for a long time was the new Soft Age, as well as other right-wing cults, like the Moonies. Even Martin Luther King was considered by use to be a black leader rather than a religious one.

For us, religious commitment, particularly if it was political too, entailed not emancipation but rejection of the Enlightenment and of modernity. How could we begin to deal with it? You respect people who are different, but how do you live with people who are so different that - among other things- they lock up their wives?" pg 7-8

Now to look at that statement - we have not seen religious revolutionaries - and it is true we have not - we have not seen a clear non-violent focused movement seeking to change a social mindset coming from the Church but even worse it isn't even in the Church - the core of where it should be and starting, within the Christian Community as a whole - thus big C church - community. Where is the cry for peace, for social justice, for a movement clearly away from the American/North American way of life? I still find it continually hard to support my desire for a life of service against the weight of all that surrounds me and the one thing that should be there reinforcing that call isn't - my big C church - continually scoffs at me with every James Dobson radio address, with every 500 Club show, Joel Osteen book bought and spiritually hollow mega church built while children starve, while we turn out backs on those in need saying we can't afford to, ignoring the fundamental needs of clean water, food, safety and love.

The thing with revolution is one with passion and a call - one that is true - like the civil rights movement, is that it inspires - which is what we need now - instead of fear mongering and governments jumping at shadows and myths in an effort to inspire a country to hate all that is seen as "other."

As to the second quote - it highlights the current struggle with the Church in North America today - where the Religious Right serves primarily to be the pendulum swing or the knee jerk reaction to all that is seen as "other:" Gays, Lesbian, Transgender, Bi-sexuals or Gender Identified as, Feminists, Vegans/Vegetarians, Environmentalists, Pro-Choice, Democrats, Drug users, Hip-Hop music lovers, Post Modernists, even just plain old educated folks. That's all we served to do is to push away at the other saying stay over there - don't come near our kids - and in essence pushing one generation and the subsequent ones back in their understanding of the world and those who are not Christian - which simply pushes the Church even further from those it should serve. Note I said serve not convert - this isn't a frequent convert project - Jesus set out to serve - and through His love and action brought people to Him. We should really we should be saying quite the opposite, "So what do you have to say?" Why do you like Leah believe God is Green, why like me do I believe God designed us to work in partnership not one gender beholden to the other, Why do you like Jocelyn believe the Democrats have it right?

The World vs. The Outside

I've been slowly progressing through Dorothy Day's biography, I'm determined to survive the dryness for the sake of the tidbits she poses. The issue as of late - as I sort through all my stuff and seriously contemplate the future direction of my life - how simply can I live? Simple living in all it's aspects - the food I eat - where it's from etc to what I buy - in that do I really need it? Will those new jeans really land me a pick up line let alone a date - and really is life based on that? I know I don't want to raise children in western society - I remember feeling scorned on non-uniform days or at social events - I worked for everything I had, or needed starting with my first job. I didn't have money to spend it on frivolous expenses like Gucci bags or MuiMui dresses, and I sure didn't get a new car on my 16th birthday or an all expenses trip to the Hilton in Maui for my graduation. I know that's the expectation of any private school kid. So I don't send my kids to private school - only public - considering my experiences with that too I'm apprehensive. But that's far beyond the scope of the here and now. Adulthood is still very much the same - acquisition of stuff - your ring, the wedding, the house and yes even the two kids and the dog or cat. How do you define the lines - where is acceptable and extravagant?

So why other than Dorothy have I been thinking like this? Well a myriad of factors one undercutting it all is the hype over the 10 year anniversary of Diana's death. In case some of you have forgotten another woman died that year, Mother Teresa. There was a distinct binary then and even more so now - one woman worshiped by the world, and another scorned because she chose to worship that which cannot be converted into commercial success. She devoted her life to offering hope to orphans and a peaceful exit to those who had labored.

There is this quote from The Irresistible Revolution that really struck me for two reasons - one I watched my great aunt die a very painful, though thankfully that part was only about two weeks from non-smoker's lung cancer - where she labored to breathe, in the end suffocating and two because of the Gerontology course I took on Death and Dying and the truths revealed.

"Those dying people were some of the most vibrant people I had ever met. There is a morgue in the home for the dying. As you walk into it, a sign on the wall reads, "I'm on my way to heaven." And when you turn around to walk out, another says, "Thanks for helping me get there." (Claiborne 79)

In the end I truly can do so much more with so little, but I can't see it through the Starbucks, Ikea catalogues and everything else. Wonder what it will all look like when I can leave it behind.

Flickr photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/58565630@N00/

More irresistible than me or my vegan chocolate cupcakes...

Leaha requested my opinion on Shane Claiborne's "The Irresistible Revolution." I feel that I must preface my response, I do not normally read "Christian" books in any form, the ones I have read consist of Don Miller and Mike Yaconelli - the kind of authors I would sit down, have coffee and share with. Miller and Yaconelli are often criticized for their post modern style, which is more a euphemism for "anti pop culture christian." It isn't watered down, it's honest: shows doubt, brokenness and genuine grace, nothing cheap and easy.
I mentioned in the previous blog that I feel like I should just walk around with this book, and give it to everyone who does not seem to understand me. My family and friends all view me now as a hippie, all peace, love and save the animals. Personally I find it offensive. I understand the label, but I believe it belittles the choices and the changes I have and desire to make, just like the word "rebel" or even "christian" has lost its true definition. There is so much more than just a movement away from the commercial that I have wanted to see in Willingdon, SFU, or in the Church in general for a long time now. It's a change in the hearts and minds of believers to see that we've got it all wrong. We have got this loving our neighbors thing wrong if we declare war or if we are attempting to love our friends and families into heaven by cheapening grace.
More often then not in reading this book, I felt like stopping, calling up The Simple Way and saying will you take me? Can you really use me as I am? Claiborne mentions several organizations from: The Simple Way to Mother Theresa's Home for the Dying. The latter especially has me captured. He had me crying on the bus with his retelling of his time in India (word to the wise - do not read on the bus if you are prone to tears or Amen's). On top of all the amazing encouragement, insight and hope that I can do what I dream with my life, he reassures the part of my soul that loathes Christian books - all the profits from sales go direct to charity - he doesn't see a cent. And he even encourages the passing around of the text. Granted I read Leaha's copy, and will be returning it to her, I will be buying myself a copy so you can have it and possibly a dozen more for Club's Day, Sheldon or for the next person who believes my life would be better married and or living in Canada making a "good" living.

Leaha, would you be interested in any of his adventures? Like India?