Mobilizing Hope E-Book

Adam Taylor

• Herausgeber: IVP
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2010

Seitenzahl: 363

Beschreibung

Martin Luther King Jr. read the words of the apostle Paul to the church in Rome—"Be transformed by the renewing of your mind"—as a call not to retreat from the world but to lead the world into the kingdom of God, where peace and justice reign. In King's day the presenting problem was entrenched racism; the movement of God was a revolution in civil rights and human dignity. Now Adam Taylor draws insights from that movement to the present, where the burden of the world is different but the need is the same. Jim Wallis writes in the foreword, Mobilizing Hope "is a story of how Adam and many of his cohorts are shaping the next strategies for faith-based social change; a theology for social justice; a spirituality for young activists; a handbook for those who want to experiment with activism and search out their own vocation in the world; and a strategy manual that draws lessons from past movements for change."See what today's transformed nonconformists are doing at home and abroad to keep in step with the God of justice and love, and find ways you can join the new nonconformists in an activism of hope.

Leseprobe

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Mobilizing Hope

Faith-Inspired Activism for a Post-Civil Rights Generation

Adam Taylor

Foreword by Jim Wallis

www.IVPress.com/books

A man comes across an ancient enemy, beaten and left for dead. He lifts the wounded man onto the back of a donkey and takes him to an inn to tend to the man’s recovery. Jesus tells this story and instructs those who are listening to “go and do likewise.”

Likewise books explore a compassionate, active faith lived out in real time. When we’re skeptical about the status quo, Likewise books challenge us to create culture responsibly. When we’re confused about who we are and what we’re supposed to be doing, Likewise books help us listen for God’s voice. When we’re discouraged by the troubled world we’ve inherited, Likewise books encourage us to hold onto hope.

In this life we will face challenges that demand our response. Likewise books face those challenges with us so we can act on faith.

likewisebooks.com

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InterVarsity Press P.O. Box 1400 Downers Grove, IL 60515-1426 World Wide Web: www.ivpress.com E-mail: [email protected]

© 2010 by Adam Taylor

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from InterVarsity Press.

InterVarsity Press® is the book-publishing division of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA®, a movement of students and faculty active on campus at hundreds of universities, colleges and schools of nursing in the United States of America, and a member movement of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. For information about local and regional activities, write Public Relations Dept. InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA, 6400 Schroeder Rd., P.O. Box 7895, Madison, WI 53707-7895, or visit the IVCF website at www.intervarsity.org.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®.NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

Design: Cindy Kiple Images: alohaspirit/iStockphoto

ISBN 978-0-8308-6802-5

Contents

Foreword: The Next GenerationJim Wallis

Introduction: The Transformed Nonconformist

1 Activism Is a Story of Faith

2 Getting to the Root Cause of Injustice

3 Following a Holistic Jesus

4 Pragmatic Solidarity and Hopeful Activism

5 The Character of Transformed Nonconformism

6 Redeeming the American Dream:From Rugged Individualism to the Beloved Community

7 New Wine for a Changed World

8 Racial Reconciliation and Racial Justice

9 From Narrow Nationalism to Global Leadership and Citizenship

10 From Solely Service to Civic Discipleship

Conclusion: A Lifetime Sojourn

Epilogue

Notes

AfterwordCongressman John Lewis

Transformed Nonconformists

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Foreword

THE NEXT GENERATION

Adam Taylor, more than any young leader I have met, exemplifies the best of the next generation of Christian activists. He was first a student of mine at Harvard’s Kennedy School; then my course assistant; then I joined the board of Global Justice, the student network that Adam started; then he joined our board at Sojourners; then he became my senior political director; then he became a White House Fellow. Adam has become my friend, kindred spirit and younger soulmate in the movement to put faith into action.

Mobilizing Hope is his first book, and is a manifesto for this generation, which is such a sign of hope for me. This important book is five things at the same time.

First, it is a story—partly Adam’s story and partly the story of his many cohorts who are shaping the next strategies for faith-based social change. Adam understands the power of story, and this book invites readers to connect their own story to the history of social justice. Adam integrates his life experience with a new generation’s guide to organizing. He describes his beginning activism in high school and through college, his trips to South Africa, and his continuing education in contemporary social movements. He draws on those experiences to analyze campaigns, strategy and tactics learned from his work with Global AIDS, the Jubilee debt relief movement and Sojourners.

Second, it is a theology for social justice, full of biblical references, reflections and metaphors that point to God’s intentions and future for the world. This is not an argument rooted in political ideology but a vision for social justice rooted firmly in the Scriptures. It does not conform to the old categories of left and right but seeks to hold both sides accountable to a biblical ethic which isn’t politically predictable. It sheds old baggage and polarities, and speaks to a new generation looking for new options. In doing so, Mobilizing Hope opens up the possibilities of new alliances and constituencies for both moral and political transformation.

Third, it is a spirituality for young activists, with the mature understanding that if you want to be a person of justice and action, and last for very long, you must also become a person of prayer and contemplation. I know how real and important faith is to Adam, and it motivates every page of this book. Most important, he believes that the foundation of any social movement is people whose faith leads them to believe that change is possible. He knows that hope always precedes change. Hope is the substance of faith, and the only absolutely indispensable ingredient for individual and social transformation. When we look at history, there is a spiritual chain of events: faith that leads to hope, hope that produces action, and action that leads to change. It is that sequence that has empowered all successful social movements, and it is one that Adam Taylor understands.

Fourth, Mobilizing Hope is a handbook for those who want to experiment with activism and search out their own vocation in changing the world. It is a guidebook for how to make a difference, with many examples of what works and what does not. As I speak around the country, I meet a growing number of young Christians who want to put their faith into action for social justice. They’ve done mission trips to urban America and around the world, and seen the hunger, poverty and disease that afflicts so many of God’s children. They want to change that reality, to move beyond just service, but they don’t know where or how to begin. Mobilizing Hope offers a starting point.

Fifth, it is a strategy manual. Adam consciously draws on lessons from past movements for change, particularly the civil rights movement (this is a good introductory primer for some of those events and movements). He recognizes that we cannot simply duplicate past movements, but unless we learn from them, we are in danger of losing the connection between generations. And he strikes the right balance between building on the legacy of past movements while creatively trying new strategies and tactics. Adam shows how to draw from historical movements to develop new forms of organizing and advocacy that can meet our current realities.

Adam quotes one of my favorite lines from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “This hour in history needs a dedicated circle of transformed nonconformists.” That belief is the core of the book, the importance of a committed minority of transformed nonconformists who creatively apply their faith in fresh, bold and innovative ways. This book intends to inspire and mobilize a new generation to become part of that prophetic minority.

From now on, whenever I meet those eager and seeking young people who want their faith and their lives to make a difference in the world, I have a book to recommend. And I commend it to you. It could change your life.

Jim Wallis

Founder and president, Sojourners

Introduction

THE TRANSFORMED CONFORMIST

Ain’t gonna let nobody turn me around, turn me around, turn me around. . . . I’m gonna keep on walkin’, keep on talkin’, marching up the freedom lane.

Freedom Singers

In my favorite sermon by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “The Transformed Nonconformist,” the civil rights leader offers a penetrating diagnosis of the culture of his time along with an equally compelling prescription:

This hour in history needs a dedicated circle of transformed nonconformists. Our planet teeters on the brink of atomic annihilation; dangerous passions of pride, hatred, and selfishness are enthroned in our lives; truth lies prostrate on the rugged hills of nameless cavalries; and men do reverence before false gods of nationalism and materialism. The saving of our world from pending doom will come, not through the complacent adjustment of the conforming majority, but through the creative maladjustment of a nonconforming minority.[1]

Dr. King is preaching from the apostle Paul’s epistle to the Romans in which he offers a forewarning about the ensnaring influence of societal patterns upon our lives. Instead of living out the countercultural patterns of Christ, we find ourselves conforming to the patterns of this world. Paul writes:

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:1-2)

Patterns of this world often become so normalized that we barely question their validity and often fail to comprehend the degree to which they circumscribe so much of our existence, keeping us from living our lives with a kingdom-like purpose and meaning. Patterns die hard, particularly when they become camouflaged as tradition or concealed as an immutable status quo. Patterns of this world can deceive and distract us, clouding our sense of calling.

Patterns are modes of thinking and acting that often become ingrained in our lives. According to sociologists, patterns are learned behaviors that become internalized and socialized. Anthropologists contend that patterns are culturally mediated and acquired. Psychologists posit that patterns represent cognitive records that shape our behavior. Theologians argue that patterns are the consequence of free will and that life-negating patterns are the result of separation from God’s will.

According to Paul, as long as we accommodate to the cultural norms and paradigms of the world, we will be unable to fully experience God’s perfect will in our lives. The path of least resistance is to complacently adjust to what the conforming majority says and does. This is true both in and outside the church, as our religious institutions have too often become just as conformed to the patterns of this world as the rest of society. To paraphrase Dr. King, too often the church has become a thermometer that measures the temperature of society rather than a thermostat that works to change it. This is not to say that all civic and religious culture has gone astray and needs adjusting. But patterns that reinforce selfishness, greed, nativism and violence are antithetical to biblical values and should offend our moral compass.

While many patterns make us feel good, they often provide a false sense of security or freedom. When we see others doing the same thing we feel justified to continue with an attitude or action that we know is of the world and not of the Spirit. While some patterns are innocuous, others, particularly those that lead us to perpetuate or ignore injustice, are pernicious. In contrast, God’s patterns are by design life giving and life affirming. Vigilance is required to distinguish between God’s ordained patterns and the patterns of the world.

A younger generation is growing increasingly thirsty for new patterns that reflect a renewed commitment to social justice. They are responding to the ever-present gravitational pull toward justice that has moved their predecessors to action. These tremors of activism necessitate new fountains of action and reflection anchored in hope.

In the face of seemingly intractable and often overwhelming crises we must become what Archbishop Desmond Tutu calls “prisoners of hope.” Hope provides the inspirational and motivational bridge from our presently broken reality to a preferred future. Mobilizing hope requires breaking out of and replacing some patterns that have limited the in-breaking of God’s kingdom. Instead, we must internalize Paul’s call to become creatively maladjusted.

Activism for a Post–Civil Rights Generation

When Dr. King delivered this sermon in 1963, the arc of the civil rights movement was in full swing. The movement was forcing America to face up to the contradictions and evils of Jim Crow segregation. This movement epitomized creative maladjustment fueled by the transformative power of nonviolent social change. Through sit-ins at lunch counters, voter-registration drives, marches and grueling door-to-door education, people of all ages worked to dismantle an unjust and oppressive system of racial subordination and transform people’s hearts and minds. Acting out of a deep-seated faith from which they drew moral courage, movement leaders possessed the moral imagination to see an alternative reality in spite of the odds. While it can be counterproductive to overly romanticize previous movements, subsequent generations are slowly losing touch with a sense of what social movements can accomplish and the innovations that are necessary to expose and combat injustice today.

In high school I became addicted to the history of the civil rights movement. To this day I still pop in one of my prized tapes of the award-winning series Eyes on the Prize in order to get an extra dose of inspiration. Yet to many young people today, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and even the Southern Christian Leadership Congress (SCLC) represent obscure and antiquated acronyms. SNCC was a multiracial movement led and driven by young people that often pushed the envelope, dramatizing the brutality and inhumanity of segregation. It is as though the reverence and awe that I feel toward SNCC is fading among a younger generation, like music deemed “old school.”

Every generation can take for granted the struggles that came before them. However, in my generation’s case, there is more going on than simply amnesia or lack of concern. Part of what is making us feel disconnected from civic activism is the degree to which the challenges and injustices of our current age have morphed into much more covert and institutionalized forms. Injustice continues to adapt to its new environment.

Yet we can’t be held hostage to history, simply memorializing activism from the past. Instead, we must reinvent activism in ways that meet the challenges of our present reality. Many of the challenges from the 1960s such as economic injustice and inequality persist, even if they are harder to detect. Meanwhile, new challenges such as global climate change, terrorism and the prison industrial complex have emerged that test our resolve to God’s kingdom-building project.

Social and political activism needs a better public relations manager. Activism is all too often associated with derelicts, rabble-rousers, radicals and extremists. This is in part because activists often defy authority, go against the grain and spark controversy. But they also plant seeds of change in society and surface issues that would otherwise go ignored. Almost unconsciously we celebrate a long legacy of activism. America’s founding fathers were activists against oppressive British rule. Gandhi was an activist against the imperial British occupation of India. Rosa Parks was an activist in refusing to give up her seat on numerous occasions in Montgomery, Alabama, before being arrested and kick-starting a bus boycott that ignited a movement. Harriet Tubman was an activist who guided slaves to their freedom through the Underground Railroad. Archbishop Desmond Tutu was an activist fighting to dismantle the system of apartheid. Many of our most admired American and global leaders were activists. Most importantly, Christ was an activist who turned upside down the patterns of his world, ushering in a new kingdom that often stands in direct opposition to our earthly kingdom.

No one wants to be on the wrong side of God’s movement of justice in history. When we look back, we often falsely believe that certain reforms in politics and transformations in society were inevitable, such as the end of the slave trade, Jim Crow segregation or apartheid in South Africa; however, these systems of injustice fell because of the tireless will and relentless sacrifice of a cadre of transformed nonconformists. If we are asked by our children, “Were you a part of the campaigns during the turn of the millennium that halted the global AIDS crisis, ended extreme poverty around the world, dramatically reduced domestic poverty in the United States, reversed global climate change, halted modern day forms of slavery, etc.?” what will be your answer? This book seeks to make that answer an emphatic yes.

What I love about Paul’s message is that he goes on to emphasize that there is a unique role for every person who is willing to allow their life to become a living sacrifice. Paul goes on to write, “For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness” (Romans 12:4-8 nrsv). Similarly, in activism, we play different roles according to our unique gifts. Not everyone needs to be a gifted orator, brilliant strategist, policy expert or effective organizer. But everyone has a critical role to play according to God’s design and purpose. Finding our role in social and political activism represents an integral part of Christian discipleship.

You are called to be an activist in the context where your gifts and passions meet the greatest needs around you. But we must all overcome patterns that numb us to the burning hurts in the world and must be rescued from the conformity that the world foists upon us. You must harness and use the gifts God has given you and work in concert with others with complementary gifts. There’s an activist buried inside each and every one of us that is waiting to break free, like a sleeping lion that simply needs to be awakened by the right experiences, relationships and commitments.

My passion and core belief in the power of activism comes in part from my reading of history as well as from my practical, lived experience within a range of contexts locally, nationally and internationally. My forays into activism have come with a great deal of defeats and disappointments. However, the fulfillment and gratification I’ve experienced from victories large and small have enabled me to avoid becoming cynical or disillusioned. I have seen the empowering impact that activism can have on people’s lives, and I have seen transformation take place within my own life as a result. Whether through my involvement in the global HIV/AIDS movement, living wage campaigns or the Jubilee movement to cancel developing countries’ debt, I’ve witnessed people from many different walks of life effect tremendous change.

Inspired by Paul’s message, Dr. King’s quote provides the foundational purpose for this book: to inspire and mobilize a committed minority of transformed nonconformists who creatively apply their faith in fresh, bold and innovative ways. I believe that this committed minority possesses the power to lift us out of the muck and mire of our current reality to a higher ground of thought and action, and in the process accelerate the in-breaking of God’s kingdom. By resisting some patterns and instead living out God’s patterns, we will experience a more fulfilling, purposeful and abundant life.

Throughout this book I will try to provide real life examples of young leaders who have engaged in projects of transformed nonconformism. My hope is that you will be inspired by these stories and commit to embrace a more activist faith, joining a growing movement of transformed nonconformists who are mobilizing hope in ways that transform their communities, cities and world. Yes, I know, altar calls don’t usually come until the end of a book or a sermon, but I thought I would present the invitation right from the beginning. It’s only a sign of deep respect.

This committed minority of transformed nonconformists doesn’t come from just one political persuasion or partisan affiliation. We are racially and ethnically diverse and don’t fit neatly into the often broken political labels of liberal or conservative. These inherited categories fail to capture the complexities of the issues we face and tie us down into overly restrictive ideological categories. While I speak and act from a Christian faith perspective, one can also champion and embody social justice without being motivated by faith or because of another faith tradition. As Jim Wallis aptly says, religion does not have a monopoly on morality. However, this book is written primarily for people whose faith fuels their activism and is anchored in my Christian perspective.

Finally, this book seeks to close the gap between a growing concern for justice and an inability to channel that concern into tangible and sustainable change. This requires a deeper understanding of the systemic and structural nature of injustice as well as new tools for advocacy and organizing that are tailored to fit our current political, social and cultural landscape.

Pouring New Wine into New Wineskins

Jesus forewarns in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, “Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; otherwise, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved” (Matthew 9:17 nrsv). Every succeeding generation is faced with new circumstances and challenges distinct from their parents. Yet we inherit certain wineskins of how to engage in social and political change. My generation inherited the fruits of growing up as the first post–civil rights generation, never having directly experienced the inhumanity of Jim Crow segregation. We have never known Africa as a patchwork of European colonies and have long commemorated World AIDS Day and Earth Day. We were born too late to grow weary of the 1960s but just in time to be exposed to 60s nostalgia. We inherited the protest politics of the 60s, including the methods and mentalities developed through opposition to the Vietnam War and the cultural war over abortion. We were born in this in- between state, caught in the crossfire of the unfinished business of the civil rights struggle and the cultural backlash of the conservative movement.

Jesus’ timeless wine truism helps lead us out of this conundrum. As disciples, we must have enough sense to reconcile the wine and wineskins of the past, preserving the good and throwing out that which no longer works. Every generation wields the potential of becoming new wine to our nation and world. The idealism, passion and imagination that are so often associated with youth provide combustible ingredients to spur social and political change. At our best, young people serve as the moral interrogators and conscience of the nation and world. Numerous historical examples prove this point, from the role of young people at the forefront of the civil rights movement to the anti-apartheid struggle. However, there is nothing inevitable about young people stepping into this transformative role. Conventional wisdom and the media suggest that this opportunity already skipped over Generation X and Y. Yet there is still time for these generations to redefine and reclaim a more active faith that gets applied in ways that confront and transform even the most intractable injustices.

New wineskins are necessary because our world has changed—the terrain for civic activism is different today than forty years ago due to the advent of the Internet, the twenty-four-hour news cycle and an increasingly integrated and globalized world. Previous social movements, including the civil rights movement, fell short of fully uprooting and changing a series of patterns that remain firmly entrenched today. The patterns that still must be resisted and transformed include: (1) a rugged individualism that often resembles a sanctified form of narcissism and comes at the expense of the common good; (2) a blind faith in market forces that reinforces a Darwinian, survival-of-the-fittest mentality; (3) a naive postracialism that hails racial progress while ignoring the ongoing need for racial justice and reconciliation; (4) a narrow nationalism that can make an idol out of America, conflating patriotism with military superiority and domination; and (5) an embrace of service and charity at the expense of a commitment to systemic justice. Each of these patterns will be unpacked and expanded on in later chapters.

Young people today also face a series of suffocating economic pressures and acute financial anxiety. The catapulting costs of higher education have pushed many to choose career paths based more on earning potential and the need to repay loans than on what they love and feel called to do. A majority of college graduates find themselves trapped in a vicious cycle of debt, which constrains their career options and exacerbates a sense of economic insecurity. An epidemic of credit card debt also contributes to these financial pressures. For instance, in 2004, two-thirds of four-year students graduated with loan debt averaging $19,200. Three out of four college students have credit cards that in 2005 carried an average unpaid balance of $2,169.[2] Meanwhile, many young people face stagnating wages for the majority of the work force and the reality of caring for aging parents who have lost their pensions and lack sufficient savings for retirement. While these trends crowd out the space and time for activism, they are not insurmountable and elevate the need for new forms of activism that account for such constraints.

As I will explore in further detail in chapter ten, young people have often replaced civic activism with community service. Community service encompasses a range of either isolated or ongoing efforts to meet human needs, often through the provision of some kind of social service; such as tutoring, refurbishing a school or preparing meals for the homeless. While noble and necessary, by itself, service can serve as a Band-Aid and result in dependency. In contrast, civic activism seeks to change the systems, decisions and policies that so often cause or exacerbate these needs. But not every need can be fulfilled purely through civic activism and policy or structural change. This demarcation is not a perfect one. Along the continuum between service and civic activism lies a series of actions designed to empower and develop communities.

Fortunately, a trend of declining civic activism is slowly reversing with voting among young Americans on the rise since 2000. An estimated twenty-three million young Americans under the age of thirty voted in the 2008 presidential election, 3.4 million more voters as compared to 2004. The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) estimated that youth voter turnout rose to between 52 percent and 53 percent, an increase of four to five percentage points since 2004. Compared to 2000, the increase in youth turnout is at least 11 percentage points.[3] Voting is just one indicator.

Young people are also embracing God’s overriding concern for the weak, the vulnerable and the oppressed. However, this rising wave of concern has only just begun to translate into greater political and social activism. The 2008 election represents only the tip of the iceberg. President Obama’s watershed victory was secured in part by the overwhelming support of black and Latino young people and a sizable shift in support among young white evangelicals. However, the shift can’t be measured purely by voting patterns. It involves a broad range of engagement from consumer activism to lifestyle changes to social media.

Seeds of transformed nonconformism have been planted and are already bearing signs of fruit. A 2006 CIRCLE study[4] found that young people are working in many ways to improve their communities and the nation by volunteering, voting, protesting and raising money for charity and political candidates. In 2005, more than 36 percent of young people ages fifteen to twenty-five volunteered, nearly 20 percent were involved with solving community problems, 30 percent boycotted a product because of the conditions under which it was made or the values of the company that made it.

Yet most young Americans remain misinformed about important aspects of politics and current events. For example, 53 percent were unaware that only citizens can vote in federal elections; only 30 percent could correctly name at least one member of the president’s cabinet; and only 34 percent knew that the United States has a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council. Young people are also increasingly losing faith in government. Two-thirds of young people believed that government should do more to solve problems, but a plurality said that the government is “almost always wasteful and inefficient.” This represents a big drop in confidence since 2002.[5]

In my travels to college campuses, churches and conferences across the country, I’ve encountered young Christians who are asking penetrating questions about their faith. This generation of young adults came of age at the crossfire of red and blue America. They are also the byproduct of the schism between the mainline church’s embrace of the social gospel and the evangelical focus on personal faith and evangelism. How these young Christians approach the intersection of faith and politics can either deepen these divisions or instead offer a road map to reconcile and transcend them.

Fortunately, many young Christians are rediscovering the countercultural and radical demands of following Christ, circumventing the televangelists and prognosticators, and going directly to the Bible for guidance and inspiration. Many are tired of having their faith manipulated and twisted into neat sound bites, simplistic formulas and narrow wedge issues. These young people are yearning for a more holistic and active faith, if the church was only willing to quench their spiritual hunger with home-cooked meals instead of microwave dinners filled with dogmatic doctrine, spiritual self-help and overly commercialized religion. There are striking similarities between the social and political environment at the beginning of the 1960s and the present age. Young generations in both moments experienced the end of a long prosperity, the election of a young and inspirational president, and the nation’s jarring participation in a grossly unjust war with no foreseeable end.

The journey of the transformed nonconformist starts with seeing and making activism a core requirement of discipleship and no longer as an optional or extracurricular activity of faith. Every generation must make a choice. Otherwise, we will become old wine stuck in old wineskins. Old wine misappropriates Jesus’ words that the poor will always be among us. Old wine bows to cynicism that our political system is just too broken and accepts partisan gridlock and ideological stalemate as the norm. Old wine blames and scapegoats the poor and oppressed, washing our hands of responsibility as the weak and the marginalized are allowed to remain far too invisible. In old wine, we close our eyes and tighten our fists, walking by people left bruised and battered on the Jericho roads of this nation and world. But new wine unlocks the power God has given us to build a bridge to a different reality. As new wine, young people serve as the moral interrogators and prophetic leaders for social and economic justice. We must pour new ways of thinking and living out our faith, while learning from and building on the old, into new strategies and methodologies for creating social and political change.

Mobilizing hope involves pouring new ideas, new paradigms, new passion, new conviction and new sacrifice into new strategies, new tactics and new methods for change. As a generation, we have the opportunity to redefine and reclaim activism, not according to the cultural wars, doctrinal debates and broken political categories of the past, but according to the redemptive and transforming power of a gospel that is always alive and a God that continually makes all things new. What is needed is a dedicated circle of transformed nonconformists who are committed to remaking the world in the image of God’s just kingdom because of and not in spite of their faith.

1 Activism Is a Story of Faith

During my second year as a graduate student at the Kennedy School of Government, I took a course titled “Organizing People, Power and Change” with Professor Marshall Ganz. Ganz has been my exacting and tough-minded mentor in community organizing, having spent decades working with Cesar Chavez in the United Farm Workers movement and other similar struggles. In one semester, Ganz opened my eyes to the ways in which organizing people for social change is both an art form and a science. Before taking his course, I was a novice when it came to understanding the nature of power and the architecture of building effective campaigns.

From Ganz I learned that collective action represents the safeguard of our democracy and an antidote to the misuse and abuse of power. I also learned that successful campaigns require much more than the personal charisma of a leader; they also require an understanding of the role that public narrative plays in fueling social change. Too often history is taught in a way that feeds our culture’s fixation and fascination with iconic leaders like Dr. King. This trend renders invisible the unsung heroes who served as the foot soldiers of the civil rights movement. While we remember the oratorical genius of Dr. King, countless people learned to tell their public story in ways that elicited both sacrifice and commitment from others. The use of storytelling or public narrative through countless face-to-face meetings was the lifeblood of recruiting and sustaining participation in bus boycotts, voter registration campaigns and sit-ins.

The first act of becoming creatively maladjusted is to reclaim your own story, which is an act of both empowerment and self- actualization that involves a deliberate process of reflecting on the experiences that have shaped your identity and influenced your life the most. Telling our story, or public narrative, represents the lifeblood of activism. Our public stories are more than simply our testimonies, which describe our personal encounters with God’s grace and goodness. Public stories link our personal stories to the stories of others in order to inspire collective action.

According to Ganz, “public narrative is a leadership art through which we translate values into action: engaging heart, head, and hands.”[1] Public narrative weaves together Aristotle’s three components of rhetoric—logos, pathos and ethos. The logos is the logic of the argument; the pathos is the feeling the argument evokes; and the ethos comes from the credibility of the person who makes the argument. Shocking statistics and compelling facts are almost never enough to inspire people to take action. Personal stories are needed to evoke emotion and trigger empathy.

A good public story is drawn from spiritual markers or choice points that compose the “plot” in our lives. The plot names the challenges we have faced, the choices we have made in the midst of these challenges and the outcomes we’ve experienced as a result.[2] Choice moments represent footholds that bring our public narrative to life.

Public narrative is composed of three components: a story of self, a story of us and a story of now. The first century sage Rabbi Hillel captured the relationship between these core elements when he said, “If I am not for myself, who is for me? And if I am for myself alone, what then am I? And if not now, then when?”[3] In other words, what are your core values, who constitutes your community and what do you feel so passionate about that you are willing to sacrifice time and energy to change?

The “story of self” is composed of key moments in our lives when our values are formed and we have to choose a course of action in the face of uncertainty.[4] This story is composed of a series of footnotes in our background, upbringing and life experience that form our character, values and convictions. For some of us, our parents play a leading role; for others it may be a grandparent, teacher, neighbor or mentor. Our race, ethnicity, gender and socioeconomic background also play a key role in underwriting this story. While our story of self should never be reduced purely to these attributes, we shouldn’t be afraid to articulate the ways in which they’ve shaped our identity and story.

Why our community, organization, movement and so on has been called to achieve a set of goals forms the “story of us.” Community stories include the challenges we have faced collectively and why we stood up to them based on our shared values, religious traditions and political and economic beliefs. We repeat community stories as folk sayings, popular songs, religious rituals and community celebrations, such as Easter, Passover and the Fourth of July.[5] Ganz says that “learning to tell a ‘story of us’ requires deciding who the ‘us’ is, which values shape that identity, and which of those values are most relevant to the situation at hand.”[6]

Transformed nonconformists can’t lose sight of the “us” they are connected to—in some cases making decisions to be connected to one “us” over another, ultimately for the sake of all of us. For instance, Moses chose Israel’s story over Egypt’s story in accepting God’s assignment to free the Israelites from the bondage of slavery. Like Moses, the “us” for people of faith must always be aligned with God’s special concern for the weak, the vulnerable and the marginalized. Therefore, no matter our station in life, our “us” is always inclusive of and concerned about God’s chosen “us.”

The urgent challenge we are called to face now, the choices we must make to act now and the change we might achieve as a result form the “story of now.” The challenge must convey immediacy as we are called upon to act now because of whose we are and the preferred future we aspire to create together. The intersection between the stories of self and us and the pressing injustices in the world gives birth to the story of now. A good story of now breaks us out of inertia and offers an imperative for taking action.

In cases in which we fail to author our own story, others will often fill in the blanks for us. The 2004 presidential campaign of Senator John Kerry provides a haunting example of this in the political realm. The Kerry campaign initially remained silent while a couple of conservative bishops attacked Kerry’s Catholic faith due to his pro-choice position, threatening to deny him communion. Thus, this negative storyline became the dominant frame in the media and the public’s mind rather than a positive image of Kerry as a devout Catholic believer and churchgoer. The Swift Boat Veterans ads also cast doubts and aspersions upon Kerry’s military service. While the campaign had noble reasons for trying to stay above the fray, these negative stories disturbed the narrative, in part because the campaign failed to tell its story as effectively and persuasively as its critics. Authoring our own story starts with identifying the watershed moments in our lives that often determine our trajectory and form our character.

Burning Bush Moments

Moses wrestled with the stories of self, us and now in his struggle to accept God’s calling upon his life to free the Israelites from the yoke of slavery and lead them into the Promised Land.[7] While we know little about Moses’ early life, we do have evidence of his intolerance toward injustice. For example, in Exodus 2, Moses strikes down and kills an Egyptian who he sees brutally beating a Hebrew slave, leading to his forced exile from Pharaoh’s court. Moses’ dual Egyptian and Hebrew identity enables him to understand the ways and means of Pharaoh’s court while also identifying with the oppressed Hebrew slaves. Moses is faced with a painful but conscious choice to either turn a blind eye to oppression and hold on to his life of comfort and privilege, or decide to get in the way of injustice and risk losing everything. Creative maladjustment often means making similar choices, making common cause with the oppressed, and using our status or privilege to fight injustice.

Years later something bizarre and extraordinary happens. God turns Moses’ world upside down when he sees the angel of the Lord appear in a flame of fire out of a burning bush. At the burning bush Moses engages in a heated debate with God, asking, Why me? Who is calling me? Why these people? And why now? These questions echo the stories of self, us and now. What I love about Moses is how much we can relate to his response. His initial reaction to God is one of fear and trepidation. Moses asks, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” but God replies, “I will be with you” (Exodus 3:11-12 nrsv). God’s reply represents all the reassurance we should need, serving as a reminder that God never leaves nor forsakes us, yet Moses still isn’t convinced. He then asks, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” (Exodus 3:13 nrsv). God replies, “I am who I am” (Exodus 3:14 nrsv). God reminds Moses that his identity is inextricably linked to his faith. Moses’ story of us is bound together with the plight of the Israelites and God’s promise to deliver them. In the end, Moses chooses Israel’s story over Egypt’s because the twisted logic of Egypt was at odds with God’s covenantal promise to Abraham.

When was the last time you experienced a burning bush moment? Typically our burning bushes aren’t as dramatic as the one that Moses faced, but there are more subtle moments in our lives when God commands our greatest attention, sometimes in an abrupt instance and other times far more gradually. Burning bush moments are deep encounters with God’s will and calling. We may not always see God in the moment, but if we look deep beneath the surface of our experiences, we can see God’s presence and purpose become manifest. Burning bush experiences test and try us, stretching our sense of calling and presenting us with crossroad moments.

How Far Does the Rabbit Hole Go?

In a systematic theology course taught by Dr. John Kinney, dean of the Samuel Proctor School of Theology, I was charged with selecting and analyzing any popular movie through a theological lens. Movie watching has never been the same since as I now drive my wife nuts with my post-movie theological commentary. Almost every film is chock-full of theological themes and references. Since theology at its core deals with the human condition, the relationship between people and God, and conceptions of afterlife, evil and sin, almost every film constitutes a treasure chest just waiting to be discovered.

In the first groundbreaking movie of the Matrix trilogy, a computer hacker named Neo is tracked down by Morpheus, the leader of a revolutionary band of freedom fighters on a mission to free humanity from the captivity of machines who have enslaved the world. In the film, Neo appears almost as a Christlike figure, referred to by Morpheus as “the One.” One of my favorite scenes is the pivotal moment in which Neo is given a life-altering and