Stephen Zunes , professor of politics and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of San Francisco and chair fo the academic advisory committee of the International Center on Non-violent conflict, offers a view off the mainstream media grid.
He claims that the most successful pro-democracy protests have been the non-violent ones. Over the past decades, this has been the case. Note - the Philippines, Serbia, Chile, Poland, Bolivia, the Maldives and now Egypt and Tunisia.
Even Libya made its greatest strides in the early non-violent phase of the uprising. In the first week resignations took place in the cabinet, pilots crashed their planes or flew them out of the country, refused to bomb protesters. Thousands of soldiers defected. But when the protest grew violent the gains stalled.
Zunes claims that Libya may end up being an example not of the ineffectiveness of non-violence but of the need for strategic, well-organized non-violent protest.
It takes great courage to take part in these protests but in the long run, the violent rebellion may prove far more costly.
Peter
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Sunday, May 1, 2011
But I don’t like church!
So how is the church to respond to a generation that does not seem to want to go to church? Some younger people are attending but the echo generation (the children of the boomers) is less connected to church than previous generations.
Tom Sherwood, former campus minister, is helping us to listen and learn to the echos. Tom is conducting a research project on youth and young adults called Listening to the Echo.
Tom’s research uncovers a deep spirituality that is part of the lives of many young people. They care about justice issues. They are passionate about the environment. They just don’t see the church as being relevant or helpful to them.
Tom heard this comment from a 20 something young person:
“Religion is more harmful than helpful.”
Tom says he has heard lots of ignorance about who we are as the United Church. Many young people confuse us with Catholicism and American fundamentalism. When the echos articulate their theology, it is remarkably like our own in the United Church.
How do we help echos see the real us?
Perhaps we need to be clearer and more articulate about who we really are. as a faith community. Perhaps we need to find ways to be in conversation with young people to see what we do have in common or to see what we can learn from each other. What do you think?
....more on this in weeks to come.
Peter
Tom Sherwood, former campus minister, is helping us to listen and learn to the echos. Tom is conducting a research project on youth and young adults called Listening to the Echo.
Tom’s research uncovers a deep spirituality that is part of the lives of many young people. They care about justice issues. They are passionate about the environment. They just don’t see the church as being relevant or helpful to them.
Tom heard this comment from a 20 something young person:
“Religion is more harmful than helpful.”
Tom says he has heard lots of ignorance about who we are as the United Church. Many young people confuse us with Catholicism and American fundamentalism. When the echos articulate their theology, it is remarkably like our own in the United Church.
How do we help echos see the real us?
Perhaps we need to be clearer and more articulate about who we really are. as a faith community. Perhaps we need to find ways to be in conversation with young people to see what we do have in common or to see what we can learn from each other. What do you think?
....more on this in weeks to come.
Peter
Sunday, April 24, 2011
God So Loved The Dirt
“God so loved the dirt...”
There it was - this unusual title of a magazine article about God loving dirt.
It seems like a fitting headline for this weekend with Good Friday and Earth Day coinciding. Christians should be first in line when it comes to caring for the dirt and for all the other elements and beings of creation.
The Holy Weekend begins with Jesus going straight from the Last Supper to a garden where he prays for guidance. And now on Easter morning Mary goes to the other side of the city to follow the burial rituals. Here in the cemetery she mistakes Jesus for a gardener. And so he is. The God who is revealed in Genesis is more gardener than warrior. We lost that somewhere along the way and as Joni Mitchell wrote, “we have to get back to the garden.”
In Norman Wirzba’s article, he says “Whether Christians do right by the environment depends on whether we see the Earth as a megastore where we can shop for whatever we want or as a garden that needs careful tending.”
Peter
There it was - this unusual title of a magazine article about God loving dirt.
It seems like a fitting headline for this weekend with Good Friday and Earth Day coinciding. Christians should be first in line when it comes to caring for the dirt and for all the other elements and beings of creation.
The Holy Weekend begins with Jesus going straight from the Last Supper to a garden where he prays for guidance. And now on Easter morning Mary goes to the other side of the city to follow the burial rituals. Here in the cemetery she mistakes Jesus for a gardener. And so he is. The God who is revealed in Genesis is more gardener than warrior. We lost that somewhere along the way and as Joni Mitchell wrote, “we have to get back to the garden.”
In Norman Wirzba’s article, he says “Whether Christians do right by the environment depends on whether we see the Earth as a megastore where we can shop for whatever we want or as a garden that needs careful tending.”
Peter
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Accept Me As I Am
A local Houston paper reported that over two dozen churches in Houston sponsored a “Bring your Gay Teen to Church Day.” This was set in motion because of a teenager’s suicide. A desperate young person could no longer cope with years of bullying. The largest church in Houston, Joel Osteen’s megachurch, declined that invitation to be involved. Osteen believes homosexuality is a sin.
I recall on a Habitat for Humanity trip to Amarillo, a young person from Joel’s church told me how exciting it was to be part of a such a huge congregation. You really should come here if you are ever in town. If I was a young gay person, being bullied, I don’t think I would feel all that welcome at that megachurch.
I wonder how welcome gay folks feel in our community. I wonder what we can do to make those who endure cruel jokes and spiritual judgement, feel more welcome in our congregation. The Ottawa Presbytery is taking this year to explore what it would mean for us to become an affirming presbytery. I hope we can be listening and learning so we can consider that question for our own congregation.
Peter
I recall on a Habitat for Humanity trip to Amarillo, a young person from Joel’s church told me how exciting it was to be part of a such a huge congregation. You really should come here if you are ever in town. If I was a young gay person, being bullied, I don’t think I would feel all that welcome at that megachurch.
I wonder how welcome gay folks feel in our community. I wonder what we can do to make those who endure cruel jokes and spiritual judgement, feel more welcome in our congregation. The Ottawa Presbytery is taking this year to explore what it would mean for us to become an affirming presbytery. I hope we can be listening and learning so we can consider that question for our own congregation.
Peter
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Prayers For Hard Times
The news of the world over the last month has been very difficult to watch. The stories from Japan, Yemen and Libya seem to pile misery upon misery. No wonder that anyone who can seems to want to get out of those dangerous places as soon as they can.
One story I heard recently reported Christian leaders in Libya who say they have no intention of leaving the country. Religious sisters working in hospitals in the eastern coastal religion have been tending the wounded. The Catholic Church is the largest group in Libya but other churches are also living their ministry in the midst of much suffering and uncertainty. So our prayers are with Catholic, Anglican, Greek Orthodox, Coptic Orthodox and our Pentacostal brothers and sisters.
Peter
One story I heard recently reported Christian leaders in Libya who say they have no intention of leaving the country. Religious sisters working in hospitals in the eastern coastal religion have been tending the wounded. The Catholic Church is the largest group in Libya but other churches are also living their ministry in the midst of much suffering and uncertainty. So our prayers are with Catholic, Anglican, Greek Orthodox, Coptic Orthodox and our Pentacostal brothers and sisters.
Peter
Sunday, March 13, 2011
How Safe Is Our Path?
Like many of you, I have been watching the disaster scenes from Japan with horror. Is this really taking place? Are those real people in those cars, slowing down as the wall fo water rushes toward them and they are swept away?
One interview today was shockingly real. A Canadian returning from Japan and his work with a nuclear plant described his experience. As he watched from a safe vantage point cars in the parking lot below were tossed about. A nearbye fishing plant was picked up and slammed into a cliff. He admitted that he was still shaking. This native son was so grateful to have his feet back on solid Canadian ground. He was never going back to Japan Then he warmly embraced his grand-daughter.
We Canadians often feel grateful when we return home to safe, familiar territory. But as people of faith, we have a second instinct, a counter cultural instinct to go out into a world which is increasingly uncertain. Our mission is to be the hands and feet of Christ in the world. How safe does that make our path?
Peter
One interview today was shockingly real. A Canadian returning from Japan and his work with a nuclear plant described his experience. As he watched from a safe vantage point cars in the parking lot below were tossed about. A nearbye fishing plant was picked up and slammed into a cliff. He admitted that he was still shaking. This native son was so grateful to have his feet back on solid Canadian ground. He was never going back to Japan Then he warmly embraced his grand-daughter.
We Canadians often feel grateful when we return home to safe, familiar territory. But as people of faith, we have a second instinct, a counter cultural instinct to go out into a world which is increasingly uncertain. Our mission is to be the hands and feet of Christ in the world. How safe does that make our path?
Peter
Sunday, March 6, 2011
How Can We Respond, As A Church, To The Need
Jan and I tried all the church doors until we finally found one that opened. This was 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, an African-American centre of protest in 1963. In September of that year, four members of the KKK dynamited the church killing four girls between the age of 11 and 14. The tragedy reminded the world of the cruel determination of those who resisted the dream of racial justice.
In 1997 Spike Lee produced a documentary about the four girls and the lives that were cut short. Since then their stories have been in my thoughts.
We were shown around the church by a man whom we took to be one of the deacons. Particularly moving was the gorgeous modern stained glass of a black Jesus on the cross, a gift from the people of Wales.
I asked if any of the families of those girls still attended and he said yes, there were still family members that attended worship now and then. He took great pains to tell us that this was not just a museum but was a living breathing congregation of Christians.
Amazing how the church provided such leadership and strength to the civil rights movement. I wonder if we could do so again in response to the immense needs in our world.
In 1997 Spike Lee produced a documentary about the four girls and the lives that were cut short. Since then their stories have been in my thoughts.
We were shown around the church by a man whom we took to be one of the deacons. Particularly moving was the gorgeous modern stained glass of a black Jesus on the cross, a gift from the people of Wales.
I asked if any of the families of those girls still attended and he said yes, there were still family members that attended worship now and then. He took great pains to tell us that this was not just a museum but was a living breathing congregation of Christians.
Amazing how the church provided such leadership and strength to the civil rights movement. I wonder if we could do so again in response to the immense needs in our world.
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