Worshipped with David Crowder.
Jammed with Fred Lynch as he rapped the Gospel of John. Very cool project called Epic.
Now, Jim Wallis is sharing. I need to try to meet him, because my mom is sure he knew my uncle Keith Gingrich well, who was heavily involved with peace and justice issues in Washington D.C. with the Mennonite Central Committee.
Jim: God is personal, but never private. The God of the Bible is a public God. Our faith intends to change the PUBLIC arena, the marketplace of ideas, not just our lives. This kingdom is meant to overturn *everything* – economics, social relationships, politics – everything is on the table.
Adam: It seems like the evangelical church has focused much on the individual/privatization of our faith. Aside from making a few sack lunches to take down to the homeless, they are primarily focused on “their” walk with God, “their” quiet times, etc. The mid-20th century liberal “social gospel” probably has much to teach us today, as we have swung the pendulum too far the opposite direction.
Jim is now talking about Democrats, Republicans, politics issues we are facing today in America, poverty, campaign issues – and I am pissed because I just thought to myself, “What does this have to with us – come on – what about the emerging church?” Damn. This is what we need to be focused on. Yes, instead of living out a privatized, American/Evangelical faith, we need to be focused on what our faith is going to mean in the public arena. We need to be concerned with what “being a Christian” is going to mean to single moms living in poverty – and how they are going to view the Christians’ negligence of this issue. As Jim just mentioned, what would Amos and Isaiah have done about this in their time?
Jim: “The National Association of Evangelical and the National Council of Churches will be together next week in Washington, sitting at the table of the Call to Renewal. That is like having the Bloods and the Crips together. I normally sit a Mennonite between them to make sure nothing happens…”
Jim: “Since when did Jesus become pro-rich, pro-war & pro-America. I hate to mention this, and you might want to share this with your churches back home, but ‘God Bless America’ isn’t found anywhere in Scripture.”
Adam: Yes. Except for in Idaho, which has been very hard for me. I have had a hard time with the patriotism that is so inbred into my church and other churches around our area of Idaho. I even find it really humorous about the fact that they even pray before the Rodeos in Idaho (and Josh C. tells us they do that in Texas as well). God Bless America. No, I don’t think God does.
The four main issues: gay marriage, 10 Commandment monuments, prayer in schools and abortion. Call to Renewal & Sojourners is looking at the religious issue, and we’re saying that poverty, ecology/environment, war fought on false pretenses – *these* are the religious issues of today.
It is good to protest things that are wrong – it is far better to have an alternative. We must no longer content ourselves with just protest – we must promote alternatives. In doing so, we must embrace those relationships (with children & those closest to us) that teach us and show us how precious life is. We must choose between hope or cynicism – let us choose hope. Hope is believing in spite of the evident, and watching the evidence change.