"We can't redeem the world, it can't be fixed. Why can't the world be fixed? Because the root source of all social problems is us individuals...... its as old as Voltaite- tend your own garden. You can make the space around you maybe a little bit more humain. You can help an individual around you, but you can't change the world."
(David Horowitz. Rubin Report interview Video. March 2017)
" I thought I was in good shape - in college, I'd been running every morning, and I had just gained my black belt in Tae Kwon Do. But backpacking was something else. A friend who had finished the Appalachian Trail several years earlier had told me, "nothing gets you in shape for the trail, short of putting your pack on and walking." Damn, she was right, I thought grimly as I lurched down the trail "
(Lucy & Susan Letcher. Southbound: The Barefoot Sisters.)
"They noticed that I'd lost some weight, but I told them it was nothing compared to the "emotional fat"- all the things I thought I could never do without that had melted away along the Trail."
~ Bill Irwin. Blind Courage
"I believe there is a certain sense of awe and renewal for anyone who spends much time exposed to Nature."
~ Bill Irwin. Blind Courage
"Earl Shaffer completed what is generally accepted as the first continuous end-to-end hike of the A.T. in 1948. His thru-hike became the inspiration for thousands of others who set out to walk the distance and be changed by the Experience.
"Some hike the trail for only a day and find themselves renewed. But continuous weeks in the God made world can yield a fortune of insight
~ Bill Irwin. Blind Courage
"It was not an intellectual awareness. It was spiritual. For me, it was the difference between drawing the molecular structure water and drinking from a spring. My fellow hikers discovered it by watching the sunset, not the lights of Manhattan. It happened on the footpath, not a freeway"
~ Bill Irwin. Blind Courage
".... rainfalls in the mountains, the water runs to the Sea, the evaporation forms clouds and the whole thing starts over. On the trail, I saw it with my soul for the first time."
~ Bill Irwin. Blind Courage
"Despite my aching feet,my sense of winder continued to grow."
~ Bill Irwin. Blind Courage
"The imperative towards non-violence went beyond opposition to bloodshed and fighting. The idea extended to basic treatment of others, whether they were a next-door neighbour or people of other ethnic backgrounds. These Christians took the teachings of Jesus seriously and were able to apply the principles to their own contexts......
Indeed, they were very liberal on the subject of neighbourliness and ethnicity while being fairly closed, according to today’s standards, about
dancing and other social activities. These believers were striving to live as faithful Christians in a complex world." dancing and other social activities. These believers were striving to live as faithful Christians in a complex world."(John Carlos Baily of Ontario - became Gospel Herold editor in 1939)
"As the war unfolded in 1939, Bailey became the informal contact point between congregations and government. He advised the government about the existence of some conscientious objectors among Church of Christ congregations and published information about the proper procedures for young men to follow in order to be exempted from service.For instance, in October 1940, Bailey published a copy of his letter addressed to the Minister of National Defence and two replies to that correspondence. At this point, conscription has not yet been put in place, and it is unfortunate that the microfilm copies of this paper at Acadia’s library do not extend beyond 1940, for it is not possible to see for ourselves how Bailey and others reacted once conscription was imposed. We are also left without knowing the later editorial policies of this paper as the conflict continued and worsened. Did it change to a more nationalistic stance as the American Church of Christ papers had done under pressure during the First World War?
There is little doubt that the reality of war changed the tone of the debate for and against military service. Rather than asking the question of the Christian attitude to war as Bailey had in 1936, by December of 1939, the Gospel Herald addressed the question, “Shall We Fight For Our Loved Ones”?Nationalism, duty and ridicule became elements in the debate.Even in the face of potential jeering, the writer (probably evangelist Gordon J. Pennock) was unrelenting in his stance. Christians should not assist the war willingly even when regarded as cowards. Christians must stand for what they believe and “right from the start, be determined not fight even if it means that we must go to jail or face the firing squad.” His implication was that Christians should not be cowards as well. However,he does admit that “if conscription comes to Canada” he “can see no reason why Christians should not go willingly and work in the Red Cross”as Bailey had suggested.
This attitude to war is in keeping with the findings of Socknat as the war progressed and as conscientious objectors declared themselves. Socknat concludes that “the majority of COs in the camp were members of millennial sects or the Conference of Historic Peace Churches; consequently, they viewed alternative service simply as the price they had to pay to remain true to their faith.”
(John Carlos Baily of Ontario - became Gospel Herold editor in 1939)
"He also tries to address the apparent conflict with state authority that a pacifist stance creates by raising the issue of honouring the King of the Dominion of Canada. His position is that he “would rather live in Canada, in the
British Empire than any place in the world,” but to “condemn the viciousness of war is not surely dishonorable is it? The Bible says, Honour the king. God didn’t say ‘love the war makers.’ Our gracious Sovereign doesn’t want war any more” than God does." (John Carlos Baily of Ontario - became Gospel Herold editor in 1939)
~ Must We have War Again? A Preliminary Exploration of Pacifism in the Restoration Movement in Canada Through the Pages of the Gospel Herald (1936-1940)
RUSSEL PRIME
Non-Violence Positions in Restoration Movement Churches of Christ in Canada.
"In 1936, Bailey based his opposition to bearing arms in war on two grounds: on the command not to murder or kill others and on the economic greed that war represents. He asks, “Can a Christian kill his fellow men and be guiltless?” Bailey believes that killing others in war makes believers no better than criminals. The carnage of the Great War – “those
that came back were gassed, maimed in every conceivable way” – shocks and saddens him. He also appeals to parents, asking them should their sons “die as rats to fill the coffers of the already rich?" Here he raises his
second argument: “how international financing kept both sides in the field” to make money. He feels that such a “nauseating” scene “shouldopen the eyes of the people to the solemn truth that war is a racket.” (John Carlos Baily of Ontario - became Gospel Herold editor in 1939) second argument: “how international financing kept both sides in the field” to make money. He feels that such a “nauseating” scene “shouldopen the eyes of the people to the solemn truth that war is a racket.”(John Carlos Baily of Ontario - became Gospel Herold editor in 1939)
"We are often tempted not to trust in God but to trust in our faith tradition of trusting in God. They are not the same thing! Talking about our saints and theologians who trusted in God is a clever way to avoid the experience itself, to avoid encounter with the living God, to avoid the ongoing Incarnation. We tend to trust the past for its own sake, as if past time is somehow holier than the present. God did not come to earth to protect human traditions. In fact, Jesus pointedly asks the Pharisees and scribes, “Why do you transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?” (Matthew 15:3, RSV)."
~ Richard Rohr
"When religion becomes mere ideology or theology, it starts—and stays—with universal theories; the rubber never hits the road again. As Pope Francis says, people all over the world are rejecting this ideological (top down) form of religion—as they should, because this is not the path of Christ himself."
~ Richard Rohr
"There are not sacred and profane things, places, and moments. There are only sacred and desecrated things, places, and moments—and it is we who desecrate them by our blindness and lack of reverence. It is one sacred universe, and we are all a part of it."
~ Richard Rohr
Much common religion is ideology more than any real encounter with Presence.
~ Richard Rohr
"Most of organized religion has actually discouraged us from taking the mystical path by telling us almost exclusively to trust outer authority (Scripture, Tradition, or various kinds of experts) instead of telling us the value and importance of inner experience itself. In fact, most of us were strongly warned against ever trusting ourselves. Roman Catholics were told to trust the church hierarchy first and last, while Protestants were often warned that inner experience was dangerous, unscriptural, or even unnecessary. Some Evangelicals actually call any non-noisy prayer “diabolical.” Talk about fear of the soul!
These were ways of discouraging actual experience of God and created passive (and often passive aggressive) people."
~ Richard Rohr
"When Christians say “Come, Lord Jesus” (Revelation 22:20) or “Jesus is Lord” (1 Corinthians 12:3), we are actually announcing our commitment to Jesus’ upside-down world where “the last are first and the first are last” (Matthew 20:16) over any other power system or frame of reference. If Jesus is Lord, then Caesar is not! If Jesus is Lord, then the economy and stock market are not! If Jesus is Lord, then my house, possessions, country, and job are not! If Jesus is Lord, then I am not!"
~ Richard Rohr
"The price for real transformation is high. It means that we have to change our loyalties from power, success, money, ego, and control to the imitation of a Vulnerable God where servanthood, surrender, and simplicity reign."
~ Richard Rohr
"The Judeo-Christian God wanted to give us Godself, but we preferred ideas and laws.'
~ Richard Rohr
"One night at a (AA) meeting, a man in our group said this was the only place where a plumber could teach a priest how to live. That intrigue me and brought me back to the next meeting, where a fellow gave the best advice I'd ever heard about living one day at a time.
"When you go to bed at night," he said, "kick your shoes so far back under the bed that you have to get down on your knees the next morning to get them. While you're down there, ask God to help you make it through the day. That night, thank him for what he did for you and kick your shoes way back under the bed again.""
~ Bill Irwin. Blind Courage
"After the first meeting, I resolved not to go back. They just weren't my kind of people. They were blue-collar, and I was a professional. They were on polish, and I was used to moving in a more sophisticated crowd. They were drunks; I was an alcoholic"
~ Bill Irwin. Blind Courage.
"In later years of Benton MacKaye's life, he described the threefold purpose of the A.T as 1) to walk, 2) to see, and 3) to see what you see."
~ David McCasland & Bill Irwin. Blind Courage
“I’m convinced that we clergy have an unconscious but vested interest in not teaching people true contemplation because, frankly, it makes our job unnecessary. Job security is [dependent] upon [people] coming back on Sunday morning. I’m fine with church. I have mass. I’m a good priest. But we’ve made it into a business whereby we need the people to keep relying upon us.”
- Richard Rohr
"Moses E. Lard of Kentucky, editor of Lard's Q u a r t e r l y , believed that Christ under no circumstances permitted his followers to go to war. Lard attributed the cause of war to men's lusts. War violated God's will for peace and was opposed to the Christian principles of love and good will toward all men. A Christian could not go to war innocently for the very act of going into battle announced an intent to kill. Lard believed that if the government ordered a Christian to go to war, he should refuse, and "if the state arrest him, let it be so, if the state even shoot him, be it so; never let him go to war."
(Johnnie Andrew Collins. PACIFISM IN THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST: 1866-1945.
A dissertation presented to the Graduate Faculty of Middle Tennessee State Universityin partial fulfillment of the requirementsfor the degree Doctorate of Arts. December, 1984)
"Although a majority of the southern conservativesdid not accept Lipscomb's belief in total non-involvement, many did believe that the church should remain silenton politics and social reform. The majority of the Disciples continued to vote, a few held office, and many would serve in future wars. A few leaders of the Churches of Christ prior to 1945 strongly reflectedLipscomb's pacifism and reluctance to participate inpolitical action. But within the Churches of Christ
there was toleration for those with differing viewpoints and this issue was never made a test of fellowship."
(Johnnie Andrew Collins. PACIFISM IN THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST: 1866-1945.
A dissertation presented to the Graduate Faculty of Middle Tennessee State Universityin partial fulfillment of the requirementsfor the degree Doctorate of Arts. December, 1984)
Lipscomb distinguished between a citizen and subject.A subject to a government was in passive submissionand was required only to pay his taxes and live a quietand peaceful life. The citizen exercised all the privileges and responsibilities of a full participation in political affairs. A citizen was obligated to carry out all the functions of the government, including fighting for the government. It was inconsistent to vote and hold political office and yet claim to be anti-political and anti-war. Lipscomb said: "if you are going to share the honors and emoluments of the governments,
be men and bear its burdens. There is no half-way ground."
(Johnnie Andrew Collins. PACIFISM IN THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST: 1866-1945.
A dissertation presented to the Graduate Faculty of Middle Tennessee State Universityin partial fulfillment of the requirementsfor the degree Doctorate of Arts. December, 1984)
"Incarnation refers to the synthesis of matter and spirit. Without some form of incarnation, God remains essentially separate from us and from all of creation. Without incarnation, it is not an enchanted universe, but somehow an empty one."
~ Richard Rohr
In the Gospel A d v o c a t e , W. H. Goodloe lamented the fact that the Disciples of Christ were as deeply involved as others in the political excitement. This zeal, Goodloe wrote, if directed towards evangelization would convert the whole country in a few years. Instead, Christians were involved in talk of war demonstrating that "Christians are more under the dominion of the prince of this world than the dominion of Christ.""
(Johnnie Andrew Collins. PACIFISM IN THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST: 1866-1945.
A dissertation presented to the Graduate Faculty of Middle Tennessee State Universityin partial fulfillment of the requirementsfor the degree Doctorate of Arts. December, 1984)
John W. McGarvey, the respected scholar and preacher, wrote in the American Christian Review in April, 1861, that he would not change his feelings toward his brethren whether he remained with the Union or went with the Confederacy. Furthermore, if war did come, he would make every effort to keep his fellow Disciples from joining the war, even though the civil and military leaders might consider this act treason.
He closed the article with the statement of his belief:
"But I would rather, ten thousand times, be killed for refusing to fight, than to fall in battle, or to come home victorious with the blood of my brethren on my hands."
(Johnnie Andrew Collins. PACIFISM IN THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST: 1866-1945.
A dissertation presented to the Graduate Faculty of Middle Tennessee State Universityin partial fulfillment of the requirementsfor the degree Doctorate of Arts. December, 1984)
The Civil War tested the unity of the Disciples of Christ and determined the future direction of the church. In addition, it was a test for the conscience of the individual Disciple as to what role he would play in the war. As the war approached, many Disciples continued to adhere to the pacifist stand of the leaders of the Disciples while others joined in the preparations for war. The Disciples' fellowship was divided into "theoretical pacifists, practical neutralists, and militant Northern and Southern war hawks." Which group was most influential cannot be determined, but while many of the preachers North and South were urging non-participation, thousands of Disciples in both sections were enlisting in the armies.
For almost all of 1860, the religious journals of the Disciples remained silent on the conflict, but by 1861 editors were publishing appeals for moderation
and urging unity above all else.
In June, 1861, Alexander
Campbell urged Christians to avoid the war for the Christian is "not permitted to redress his wrongs by taking vengeance
upon the wrong- d o e r — he is to commit his cause to Him to whom vengeance belongs."
The dispute, Campbell said, was an honest difference of opinion concerning the rights and powers of governments over its citizens and the grievance should be settled without war. No true Christian,
Campbell states, "shall be found in the ranks of so unholy a warfare" but rather should "be peaceable and gentle towards all men.""
(Johnnie Andrew Collins. PACIFISM IN THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST: 1866-1945.
A dissertation presented to the Graduate Faculty of Middle Tennessee State Universityin partial fulfillment of the requirementsfor the degree Doctorate of Arts. December, 1984)
"As the events leading to the Civil War occurred, the Disciples remained unsettled and unsure on the issue. However, almost all of their leaders were moderate pacifists due to the influence of Stone and Campbell. These preachers focused on their disdain for the affairs of the world,and their emphasis was upon New Testament primitivism.
Opposed to them were those preachers just as ready to accept the war with Mexico as a means of fulfilling the millennial destiny of Protestant Anglo-Saxon America.""
(Johnnie Andrew Collins. PACIFISM IN THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST: 1866-1945.
A dissertation presented to the Graduate Faculty of Middle Tennessee State Universityin partial fulfillment of the requirementsfor the degree Doctorate of Arts. December, 1984)
The outbreak of the Mexican War in 1846 became the first real test of the pacifism of the Disciples(Church of Christ) and triggered the first major discussion of the war question in the Disciples' periodicals. Alexander Campbell had long opposed war. In the first issue of the Christian Baptist in 1823 he wrote:
"And stranger still see, the Christian general, with his ten thousand soldiers, and his chaplain at his elbow, preaching as he says, the gospel of good will among men; and hear him exhort his generals and his Christian warriors to go forth with the fight the battles of God and their country; praying that the Lord would cause them to fight valiantly, and render their efforts successful in making as many widows and orphans as will afford sufficient opportunity for others to manifest the purity of their religion by taking care of t h e m ! !"
In 1845 Campbell wrote an article against war in general but refused specifically to condemn the Mexican War. After dismissing various justifications for war, he pointed out that the teachings of Jesus, particularly in the Sermon on the Mount, opposed war: "If he would not have any of them to render evil for evil, and if he pronounced the highest honor and blessing on the peace-makers, who can imagine that he could be a patron of war !
Campbell's most famous statement on this issue was before a meeting of the Wheeling Lyceum in Virginiain 1848 when he strongly declared his beliefs on the evils of war. Wars, he said, have always been fought for selfish motives and "not one for defense alone." To him "war is not now, nor was it ever, a process of justice . . . it is either a mere game of chance, or a violent outrage of the strong against the weak."
Moreover, the men who fight wars do not make wars, thus those who are innocent as far as beginning the wars suffer the consequences. Wars, he concludes, resultfrom men's lusts and evil passions and Christian precepts
"positively inhibit war."""
(Johnnie Andrew Collins. PACIFISM IN THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST: 1866-1945.
A dissertation presented to the Graduate Faculty of Middle Tennessee State Universityin partial fulfillment of the requirementsfor the degree Doctorate of Arts. December, 1984)
"A majority of the early leaders of the Restoration Movement were pacifists. At the age of nine Barton W. Stone had witnessed the demoralizing effects of the Revolutionary War upon his community in western Pennsylvania. He remembered the immorality that characterized the
military encampments near his home. According to Murch, he became "a confirmed pacifist, hating the cause and
effects of war in all its forms. He denounced war, along with slavery, as two of the greatest evils of mankind."
(Johnnie Andrew Collins. PACIFISM IN THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST: 1866-1945
A dissertation presented to the
Graduate Faculty of Middle Tennessee State Universityin partial fulfillment of the requirementsfor the degree Doctorate of Arts. December, 1984)
"Furthermore, pacifists don’t make such a commitment because we believe we are superior to other human beings, but because we know the opposite. I am not a pacifist because I am innately less violent than anyone else, but because I know how violent I am capable of being. As Stanley Hauerwas famously says “I tell everyone I’m a pacifist so that other people will prevent me from killing some son-of-a-bitch one day.” If anyone has a superiority complex, it is a person who believes they are justified in killing another human being."
~ Two Friars and a Fool blog:
"As we start talking about pacifism, let’s begin to define it by saying what it’s not. One of the big criticisms I hear of pacifism is “So you don’t think we should do anything about evil?” I think some people get confused by the sound of the word, thinking that pacifism comes from passivity. It’s pacifism, not passivism. Pacifism isn’t about “not doing anything”; it’s about choosing a different set of weapons for the war on evil."
~ Tim Archer
He Alexander Campbell of Restoration Movement Churches of Christ) criticized the exaltation of warriors that existed in all areas of society, and believed it promoted violence.
"Behold, too, the young mother arraying her proud boy with cap and feather, toyed with a drum and sword, training him for the admired profession of a man
killer....The pulpit, too, must lend its aid in
cherishing the delusion. There is not infrequently heard a eulogium on some fallen hero, some church service for the mighty dead, thus desecrating the religion of the Prince of Peace by causing it to
minister as the handmaid of war."
FIGHTING AGAINST WAR: PACIFISM WITHIN CHURCHES OF CHRIST
A term paperPresented to professor John Mark Hicks. Harding School of Theology
Memphis, Tennessee
By
Brent A. Moody
April 10, 2013
“Then the prophecies of the old songs have turned out to be true, after a fashion!" said Bilbo.
"Of course!" said Gandalf. “And why should not they prove true? Surely you don't disbelieve the prophecies, because you had a hand in bringing them about yourself?
"You don’t really suppose, do you, that all your adventures and escapes were managed by mere luck, just for your sole benefit? You are a very fine person, Mr. Baggins, and I am very fond of you; but you are only quite a little
fellow in a wide world after all!"
~ J.R.R Tolkein, The Hobbit
"We do not aim just to control behavior, but to change the inner castle of the soul, ..."
~ Dallas Willard. The Divine Conspiracy
"This idea of doing nothing proves to be absolutely terrifying to most people I speak with. But at least the person who is capable of doing nothing might be capable of refraining from doing the wrong thing. And then perhaps he or she would be better able to do the right thing. And doing nothing has many other advantages. It may be a great blessing to others around us, who often hardly have a chance while we are in action."
~ Dallas Willard. The Divine Conspiracy
"I have discovered that all the unhappiness of men arises from one single fact, that they are on able to stay quietly in their room."
Pascal, Christian philosopher
"We hear the cries from our strife-torn streets: "Give Peace a chance!" and "Can't we all just get along?" But you cannot give peace a chance if that is all you give a chance. You have to do the things that make peace possible and actual. When you listen to people talk about peace, you soon realize in most cases that they are unwilling to deal with the conditions of society and soul that make strife inevitable.
And we can't all just get along. Rather, we have to become the kinds of persons who can get along. As a major part of this, our epidermal responses have to be changed in such a way that the fire and the fight doesn't start almost immediately when we are rubbed the wrong way."
~ Dallas Willard. The Divine Conspiracy
"In 1985, I was invited to give an eight-day retreat to the Trappist monks at the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani, where Thomas Merton had lived. They told me then that Merton was not very popular with many of the older monks in those early days, and was considered a rebel because “he told us that we were not contemplatives. We were just introverts saying prayers all day”
~ Richard Rohr
"Franciscans never believed that "blood atonement" was required for God to love us. The Great Mystery of incarnation could not be a mere mop-up exercise, a problem-solving technique, or dependent on human beings messing up. Jesus did not come to change the mind of God about humanity; Jesus came to change the mind of humanity about God."
~ Richard Rohr
"We live in a world where busyness is king. We’re so busy glorifying how busy we are, we miss out on experiencing the moments that matter. And while we’re so busy making a living, we forget to make life—which is quite tragic."
~ Brian Gardner
"You've turned down literary honors?
You've turned down a knighthood?" ~ Steve Croft (60 Minutes)
Yes! ~ David Cornwell - Jean Le Carré
"Why?" Steve Croft
"In my own country I'm so suspicious of the literary world that I don't want its accolades. And, least of all, do I want to be called a Commander of the British Empire, or any other thing of the British Empire. I find it emetic."
And why do you feel that way?
"I don't want to posture sombody who's been honored by the state and therefore must somehow conform with the State. And, I don't want to wear the armour."
(60 Minutes interview. By Steve Croft. Jan 21, 2018)
"Wouldn’t it be beautiful to have a pro-life movement that stood against abortion, but also stood just as passionately against the death penalty, gun violence, militarism and war, the degradation of creation, police brutality, and all other things that destroy life? That would truly be a pro-life movement. To be prolife is not only about protecting the unborn, but also about supporting folks after they are born......
I like to say that I am pro-life from the womb to the tomb."
~ Shane Claiborne
“Sometimes I go about pitying myself
And all the while I am being carried on great winds Across the sky.”
~ Chippewa Indian saying
"Most Christians glibly recite “Thy kingdom come,” but this means almost nothing until and unless they also say “My kingdom go.”
~ Richard Rohr
"It was an important day in my life when at last I understood that if he needed forty days in the wilderness at one point, I very likely could use three or four."
~ Dallas Willard. The Divine Conspiracy
"But his use of solitude, silence, study of scripture, prayer, and service to others all had a disciplinary aspect in his life."
"The simplest way you can recognize if true contemplation is present in an era or a group is that there will be an explosion of solitaries and gentle prophets."
~ Richard Rohr
"Christians need to retrieve our own tradition of accessing and living from an alternative consciousness. "
#RichardRohr
"Starting in AD 313, Christianity gradually became the imperial religion of the Roman Empire. It was mostly top-down and hierarchical for the next 1700 years. As the “imperial mind” took over, religion had less to do with Jesus’ teachings on nonviolence, inclusivity, forgiveness, and simplicity, and instead became fully complicit in the world of domination, power, war, and greed itself. The wolf started living right inside the hen house, and the common pattern of low-level religion was repeated.......
I am sorry to have to share this with you, but the impact of the Church’s collusion with empire must be confessed or we will never be free from it. It also helps us understand why so many have given up on Christianity and often, unfortunately, thrown out the baby with the bathwater."
~ Richard Rohr.
"Your life is not something from which you can stand aside and consider what it would have been like had you had a different one. There is no 'you apart from your actual life."
~ Dallas Willard. The Divine Conspiracy.
"Consumer Christianity is now normative. The consumer question is one who utilizes the grace of God for forgiveness and the services of the church for special occasions, but does not give his or her life and innermost thoughts, feelings, and intentions over to the kingdom of the heavens. Such Christians are not inwardly transformed and not committed to it.
Because this is so, they remain not just "imperfect," for all of us remaining perfect, but routinely and seriously unable and unwilling to do the good they know to do."
~ Dallas Willard. The Divine Conspiracy
"The ego rarely asks real questions and mostly gives quick answers. This invariably leaves ego-driven, fundamentalist minds and groups utterly trapped in their own cultural moment in history. Thus they miss the Gospel’s liberating message along with the deepest challenges and consolations of Scripture."
~ Richard Rohr
"The egoic need for clarity and certitude leads fundamentalists to use sacred writings in a mechanical, closed-ended, and quite authoritarian manner. The ego rarely asks real questions and mostly gives quick answers."
~ Richard Rohr
"For the first 300 years after Jesus’ death, Christians were the oppressed minority; we were rebels hiding in catacombs. But by the year 400, Christians had changed places. We moved from the catacombs to the basilicas. That is when we started reading the Bible not as subversive literature but as establishment literature.
Once we were in a position of power and privilege, we couldn’t read or understand many Scriptures (for example, the Sermon on the Mount) because we had to maintain our empire, and in this direction the Scriptures give us little support or consolation.......
But when Scripture is read through the eyes of vulnerability—what we call the “preferential option for the poor” or the bias from the bottom—it will always be liberating and transformative. Scripture will not be used to oppress or impress. The question is no longer “How can I maintain the status quo?”
~ Richard Rohr
"God reveals God’s self to us through what unfolds as our life, along with every visible thing around us. These ordinary revelations must be respected and deeply listened to—before we start reading Bibles, joining churches, and quoting dogmas.
Life itself is the primary divine revelation."
~ Richard Rohr
"Faith is God’s self-exposure received and responded to trustfully. A genuine act of faith is always in response to a new disclosure. It is meant to be an ongoing dialogue of divine disclosure and human response—an ever deeper divine disclosure and an ever deeper human response—just like any human love affair. People who are incapable of vulnerability thus cannot get very far on the journey of faith. They usually substitute either religion itself or atheistic denial."
~ Richard Rohr
"We are not so much human beings trying to become spiritual. We’re already inherently spiritual beings and our job is learning how to be good humans! "
~ Richard Rohr
"We must discover and accept what unique part of the divine mystery is ours to reflect."
~ Richard Rohr
"When we see contemplatively, we know that we live in a fully sacramental universe, where everything is an epiphany."
~ Richard Rohr
"The spiritual journey is a constant interplay between moments of awe followed by a process of surrender to that moment."
~ Richard Rohr
To begin to see with new eyes, we must observe—and usually be humiliated by—the habitual way we encounter each and every moment. It is humiliating because we will see that we are well-practiced in just a few predictable responses. Not many of our responses are original, fresh, or naturally respectful of what is right in front of us. The most common human responses to a new moment are mistrust, cynicism, fear, defensiveness, dismissal, and judgmentalism. These are the common ways the ego tries to be in control of the data instead of allowing the moment to get some control over us—and teach us something new!"
~ Richard Rohr
"To begin to see with new eyes, we must observe—and usually be humiliated by—the habitual way we encounter each and every moment. It is humiliating because we will see that we are well-practiced in just a few predictable responses."
~ Richard Rohr
"If I had been a Jew and had seen such dolts and blockheads govern and teach the Christian faith, I would sooner have become a hog than a Christian."
—MARTIN LUTHER
"He expanded on the theme learned from Karl Barth that would occupy so much of his thinking and writing in the years to come: religion was a dead, man-made thing, and at the heart of Christianity was something else entirely—God himself, alive. “Factually speaking,”he said, “Christ has given scarcely any ethical prescriptions that were not to be found already with the contemporary Jewish rabbis or in pagan literature.”Christianity was not about a new and better set of behavioral rules or about moral accomplishment. He must have shocked some of his listeners, but his logic was undeniably compelling. He then aggressively attacked the idea of “religion”and moral performance as the very enemies of Christianity and of Christ because they present the false idea that somehow we can reach God through our moral efforts."
~ Eric Metaxas. Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy
"Christianity conceals within itself a germ hostile to the church."
~ Bonhoeffer
"The religion of Christ is not a tidbit after one’s bread; on the contrary, it is the bread or it is nothing. People should at least understand and concede this if they call themselves Christian."
~ Bonhoeffer
"The congregational prayer has long sent shivers down my spine, and it did so incomparably more when the group of children, with whom I have spent two years, prayed for me. Where a people prays, there is the church; and where the church is; there is never loneliness."
~ Bonhoeffer
I must have been part of a lot of weak communities then.
"It is much easier for me to imagine a praying murderer, a praying prostitute, than a vain person praying . Nothing is so at odds with prayer as vanity."
~ Bonhoeffer
"Bonhoeffer began to wonder whether he ought to pursue the life of a pastor rather than that of an academic. His father and brothers thought that would be a waste of his great intellect, but he often said that if one couldn’t communicate the most profound ideas about God and the Bible to children, something was amiss. There was more to life than academia."
~ Eric Metaxas. Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy
"Bonhoeffer would identify the church as neither a historical entity nor an institution, but as “Christ existing as church-community.” It was a stunning debut."
~ Eric Metaxas. Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy
"....in Rome, in the Eternal City , the city of Peter and Paul, he saw a vivid illustration of the church’s transcendence of race and national identity....
To think of the church as something universal would change everything and would set in motion the entire course of Bonhoeffer’s remaining life, because if the church was something that actually existed, then it existed not just in Germany or Rome, but beyond both. This glimpse of the church as something beyond the Lutheran Protestant Church of Germany, as a universal Christian community, was a revelation and an invitation to further thinking:.... "
~ Eric Metaxas. Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy
"We are dying by degrees in evangelical circles because we are resting in the truth of the Word and are forgetting that there is a Spirit of the Word without which the truth of the Word means nothing to the human spirit at last.”
From "And He Dwelt Among Us" - A.W. Tozer
The great lie of our time is that the kingdom of God is not at hand and that it isn't ever coming- that inequality, sadness, destruction, and death are inevitable.
That we must either despair or escape in the relief of busy and separate lives, succumb to fear or to apathy.
But I've seen it with my own eyes, touched it with my hands.
Everything Jesus ever said is true, not just the parts I want to believe.
His kingdom is here.
Christ is everywhere, in everything small, every blade of grass, every kindness you ever received.
He is the only song you've ever heard that makes sense.
He sees blessing where everyone else sees only a curse.
He is love- that's all He ever was and all He ever will be.
His heart is aflame, and He will wound you and heal you at the same time.
The world is so much worse than we would like to believe and God is so much wilder than we are being taught.
We can study the kingdom of God but we can never contain or subdue it.
Reading about it will never equal the experience of it.
That we must discover for ourselves...
and we will find it where God always said it would be:
on the margins,
in the upside-down kingdom.
"Assimilate or Go Home" by D.L. Mayfield
"The acid test for any theology is this: Is the God presented one that can be loved, heart, soul, mind, and strength? If the thoughtful, answer is; "Not really," then we need to look elsewhere or deeper. It does not really matter how sophisticated intellectually or doctrinally our approach is. If it fails to set a lovable God - a radiant, happy, friendly, accessible, and totally competent being- before ordinary people, we have gone wrong. We should not keep going in the same direction, but turn around and take another road."
~ Dallas Willard. The Divine Conspiracy
"In 1995, the director of the U.S. aid agency defended his agency by testifying tohis congress that 84¢ of every
dollar of aid goes back into the U.S. economy in goods and services purchased. For every dollar the United States putsinto the World Bank, an estimated $2 actually goes into the U.S. economy in goods and services."
Globalization:
A View from Below
BY JEAN-BERTRAND ARISTIDE
".... men and women of the poorest 20%, are reduced to cogs in this machine, the bottom rung in global production, valued only as cheap labor, other-wise altogether disposable. The machine cannot and does not measure their suffering. The machine also does not measure the suffering ofour planet.....
In today’s global marketplace trillions of dollars are traded each day via a vast network of computers. In this market no one talks, no one touches. Only numbers count. And yet today this faceless economy is already five times larger than the real, or productive, economy.
We know other marketplaces. On a plain highin the mountains of Haiti, one day a week thousands of people still gather. This is the marketplace of my childhood in the mountains above Port Salut. The sights and the smells and the noise and the color overwhelm you. Everyone
comes. If you don’t come you will miss everything. The donkeys tied and waiting in the woods number in the thousands. Goods are displayed in every direction: onions, leeks, corn, beans, yams, cabbage, cassava, and avocados, mangoes and every tropical fruit, chickens, pigs,
goats, and batteries, and tennis shoes, too. People trade goods and news. This is the center; social, political, and economic life roll together.
A woman teases and coaxes her client: “Cherie, the onions are sweet and waiting just for you.” The client laughs and teases back until they make a deal. They share trade, and laughter, gossip, politics, and medical and child-rearing tips. A market exchange, and a human exchange.
We are not against trade, we are not against free trade, but our fear is that the global market intends to annihilate our markets. We will be pushed to the cities, to eat food grown on factory farms in distant countries, food whose price
depends on the daily numbers game of the firstmarket. “This is more efficient,” the economists say. “Your market, your way of life, is not efficient,” they say. But we ask, “What is left whenyou reduce trade to numbers, when you erase all
that is human?”
Globalization:
A View from Below
BY JEAN-BERTRAND ARISTIDE
"When prayer is authentic, it will always lead to actions of mercy; when actions of mercy are attempted at any depth, they will always drive you to prayer "
~ Richard Rohr
"Most seminaries, I am afraid, have merely exposed ministers to their own denomination’s conclusions and do not have time for much native, interfaith, or ecumenical education, which broadens the field from “my religion, which has the whole truth,” to some sense of “universal wisdom, which my religion teaches in this way.” If it is true, then it has to be true everywhere."
~ Richard Rohr
"One great idea of the biblical revelation is that God is manifest in the ordinary, in the actual, in the daily, in the now, in the concrete incarnations of life. Our experiences of ordinary life will transform us if we are willing to experience them fully."
~ Richard Rohr
"Historically, most people naturally presumed that they would come to God by finding unique spiritual locations, precise rituals, special priests or shamans, or unique sacred words. Our correct behavior or morality around these manifestations would bring us to God or God to us. The majority of us began by looking for the right maps or laws, hoping to pass some cosmic test. The assumption was that if you got the right answers, God would like you. God’s love was highly contingent, and the clever were assumed to be the winners.
But the Bible does not make transformation dependent on cleverness at all; rather, transformation is found in one of God’s favorite and most effective hiding places: humility."
~ Richard Rohr
"The world today tends to be cynical about most things. We have a hard time believing in an enchanted world, a sacred or benevolent universe. Why would we if we see only at the surface level? Everywhere we turn, every time we watch the news, we see suffering. We have become skeptical about God’s goodness, humanity’s possibilities, and our planet’s future. We can’t help seeing what is not and are often unable to recognize or appreciate what is."
Richard Rohr
"Without contemplative consciousness, we live on the surface of our own experiences and our own self."
Richard Rohr
"The most unfortunate thing about the concept of mysticism is that the word itself has become mystified and relegated to a “misty” and distant realm that implies it is only available to a very few. For me, the word simply means experiential knowledge of spiritual things, as opposed to book knowledge, secondhand knowledge, seminary or church knowledge.
Most of organized religion has actually discouraged us from taking the mystical path by telling us almost exclusively to trust outer authority (Scripture, Tradition, or various kinds of experts) instead of telling us the value and importance of inner experience itself. In fact, most of us were strongly warned against ever trusting ourselves. Roman Catholics were told to trust the church hierarchy first and last, while Protestants were often warned that inner experience was dangerous, unscriptural, or even unnecessary. "
~ Richard Rohr. Daily Meditation. Jan 25, 2017
"Once we see God’s image in one place, the circle keeps widening. It doesn’t stop with human beings and enemies and the least of our brothers and sisters. It moves to frogs and pansies and weeds. Everything becomes enchanting with true sight. We cannot not live in the presence of God. We are totally surrounded and infused by God. All we can do is allow, trust, and finally rest in it, which is indeed why we are “saved” by faith—faith that this could be true."
Richard Rohr. Daily Meditation, Jan 05, 2018
"Far too much of religion has been about defining where God is and where God isn’t, picking and choosing who and what has God’s image and who and what doesn’t. In reality, it’s not up to us. We have no choice in the matter.
All are beloved."
~ Richard Rohr. Daily Meditation, Jan 05, 2018
"Jesus came to put it all together for us and in us. He was saying, in effect, “To be human is good! The material and the physical can be trusted and enjoyed. This physical world is the hiding place of God and the revelation place of God!”
Richard Rohr. Daily Meditation, Jan 05, 2018
When I was on retreat at Thomas Merton’s hermitage at Gethsemani Abbey in 1985, I had a chance encounter that has stayed with me all these years. I was walking down a little trail when I recognized a recluse, what you might call a hermit’s hermit, coming toward me. Not wanting to intrude on his deep silence, I bowed my head and moved to the side of the path, intending to walk past him. But as we neared each other, he said, “Richard!” That surprised me. He was supposed to be silent. How did he know who I was? “Richard, you get chances to preach and I don’t. Tell the people one thing.” Pointing to the sky, he said, “God is not ‘out there’!” Then he said, “God bless you,” and abruptly continued down the path.
The belief that God is “out there” is the basic dualism that is tearing us all apart. Our view of God as separate and distant has harmed our relationships with sexuality, food, possessions, money, animals, nature, politics, and our own incarnate selves. This loss explains why we live such distraught and divided lives. Jesus came to put it all together for us and in us. He was saying, in effect, “To be human is good! The material and the physical can be trusted and enjoyed. This physical world is the hiding place of God and the revelation place of God!”
~ Richard Rohr. Daily Meditation. January 5, 2018
"The presence of the weak among us opened a deep conversation in the group. Do we stay true to the plan at all costs? Not allowing the slower ones to slow down the progress of the rest? Have we turned the way of Saint James, and maybe our lives, into a competition only for the strongest? What good is it to reach our goal if we don't learn to walk alongside those who are weaker? The suffering of others reveals the truth about each one of us.as a result, we discovered that a selfish pilgrim is not a good pilgrim. We are learning to live as brothers.
Footprints: The Path Of Your Life. Documentary (Netflix)
"The church of Jesus Christ is not a meeting to attend, but a worldwide family you belong to, and God can give expression to her however and whenever he desires."
~ Wayne Jacobsen
"Truth has its time. We don’t so much learn it in a classroom as it unfolds in us out of our growing relationship to God. Growth and transformation are a process that takes time. It would be nice to recognize truth out of the clear blue and just embrace it, but it rarely works that way. Mostly truth works its way into our heart over time as God wins us more deeply into his affection for us."
Wayne Jacobsen
".... we grabbed for an autonomous identity. This is the “false self.” Many people live most of their lives under this delusion, and confuse this concocted persona as the real deal."
Richard Rohr.
Karl-Friedrich was the least pleased with Dietrich’s decision. Karl-Friedrich had already distinguished himself as a brilliant scientist. He felt Dietrich was turning his back on scientifically verifiable reality and escaping into the fog of metaphysics. In one of their arguments on this subject , Dietrich said, “Dass es einen Gott gibt, dafür lass ich mir den Kopf abschlagen ,” which means something like, “Even if you were to knock my head off, God would still exist.”
(Eric Metaxas. Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy)
"Judgment is a terrible evangelism strategy. People don’t line up to be judged. Instead, they flee."
~ Carey Nieuwhof
"........St. Francis knew, there is only one enduring spiritual insight and everything else follows from it: The visible world is an active doorway to the invisible world, and the invisible world is much larger than the visible. This is “the mystery of incarnation,” the essential union of the material and the spiritual worlds, or simply “Christ.”"
~Richard Rohr
"Let us begin, brothers, to serve the Lord God, for up until now we have done little or nothing."
—Saint Francis of Assisi near the end of his life
"Though we differ in likeness, the imago Dei persists and shines through all created things."
~ Richard Rohr
"The indwelling divine image moves toward fulfillment in each of us throughout our lifetimes."
~ Richard Rohr
"To put it philosophically, ontology precedes morality. Without doubt, this is our “original blessing.” The divine indwelling is a gratuitous gift, standing presence, and guarantee. We are the containers, temples, and recipients of this gift. In a certain sense, it had nothing to do with us. And yet it is our own inherent and irrevocable dignity. I call it the True Self, an immortal, imperishable diamond."
Richard Rohr. Daily Meditation, Dec 31, 2017
:Centuries of Christian theology confirm that the “image” described in Genesis refers to our eternal essence in God which cannot be increased or decreased. It is the soul’s objective union with God. You (and every other created thing) begin with a divine DNA, an inner destiny as it were, a blueprint tucked away in the cellar of your being, that begs to be allowed, to be fulfilled, and to show itself."
~ Richard Rohr Daily Meditation. Dec 31, 2017
"But we are a culture of progress and efficiency, impatient with gradual growth. God’s way of restoring things interiorly is much more patient—and finally more effective.
~ Richard Rohr. Daily Meditation. Dec 30, 2017
"The word change normally refers to new beginnings. But transformation more often happens not when something new begins but when something old falls apart. The pain of something old falling apart—disruption and chaos—invites the soul to listen at a deeper level. It invites and sometimes forces the soul to go to a new place because the old place is not working anymore.
The mystics use many words to describe this chaos: fire, darkness, death, emptiness, abandonment, trial, the Evil One. Whatever it is, it does not feel good and it does not feel like God. We will do anything to keep the old thing from falling apart."
~ Richard Rohr Daily Meditation, Dec 29, 2017
"Enlightenment is to see and touch the big mystery, the big pattern, the Big Real. Jesus called it the reign of God; Buddha called it enlightenment. Philosophers might call it Truth. Many of us see it as Foundational Love."
~ Richard Rohr Daily Meditation
"Wherever we are connected, in right relationship—you might say “in love”—there is the Christ, there is the authentic “Body of God” revealed. This body is more a living organism than any formal organization."
~ Richard Rohr
"Praying for someone deepens your affection for them."
~ Jeff Frazee. Missionary to Mali. Kadiolo SE corner
