Ron Cole : unplugged, unorthodox, sacrilegious

Nick and Josh round table conversation...a faithful response to the oil spill & creation care

In my most recent post, " the empires new clothes...the naked truth " I skimmed the slippery surface our relationship with the empire. Our insatiable appetite for oil at any cost to the exploitation and destruction of creation, and a global economy in which money is thrown into it like a slot machine and financial experts pull the lever of luck. Where is the prophetic voice of radical subversive faith that critiques, corrects, that reveals an alternative view to that of the empire?

Larry Schweiger, president of the National Wildlife Federation (and a person of faith), raised a prophetic word when he spoke of our “addiction” to oil. Addictions, as many people have discovered, eventually make your life not work anymore. And that is what has happened to the U.S. and the world -- our oil addiction is making things not work. The list of consequences is long -- from critical climate changes, to the loss of jobs, to supplying money for terrorists, to sacrificing the lives of our young people in wars over oil, to watching an oil spill that nobody seems to know how to stop pour hundreds of thousands of gallons each day into the Gulf of Mexico. ( Sojourners GOD'S politics; Jim Wallis )

On Monday Nick and Josh brought together 3 prophetic voices, in this podcast Josh grabs another round table podcast with the likes of Julie Clawson, Ben Lowe, and Tom Sine. The four of them discuss the (lack of a) Christian response to the oil spill in the gulf of Mexico as well as other issues facing the American Christianity’s move towards more active caring for creation.

For more on the three guests click below: Julie Clawson, Everyday Justice
Ben Lowe, Green Revolution Tom Sine, The New Conspirators and Mustard Seed Associates (also, see Christine Sine’s blog)

This is likely one of, if not the best conversations I've heard on faith and it's relationship with creation care. Tom Sine, Julie Clawson, and Ben Lowe speak with great wisdom and passion. They critique. They encourage, and they offer hope with practical solutions.

Do yourself a favor, listen alone or get together with a few friends and listen...but do listen!!!

[Direct link to ep 151 - Oil Spill Roundtable with Ben Lowe, Tom Sine, and Julie Clawson]

You can also sign a petition ( HERE ) against offshore drilling at AVAAZ.org the world in action.

Haiti...how you can help

As the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, Haiti has the highest rates of mortality for mothers, infants, and children under 5. Sixty percent of the population lacks access to basic health-care services. Most Haitians survive on less than $2 a day and depend on remittances from relatives in other countries to meet their basic needs -- remittances that have plummeted with remittances that have plummeted with the global recession. Even in the capital of Port-au-Prince, impoverished communities have few resources to cope with the acute impacts of this disaster.

With an estimated 3 million people affected by the quake, Haiti is in urgent need of immediate and ongoing assistance. The U.S. government is sending medical and disaster response teams, along with critically needed supplies. Catholic Relief Services has pledged $5 million for immediate relief efforts. World Vision, Oxfam, Lutheran World Relief, and many of our other partner organizations are preparing to meet the needs of all those displaced and wounded.

To support the work of these organizations and learn more about their programs, please visit:( here )

Lost...the voice, the cry, the shuffling feet of Climate Refugees

They are not victims of political upheaval or violence, who have access to financial grants, food, tools, shelter, schools and clinics through governments and international organizations. They are environmental refugees. Rising sea levels and catastrophic flooding, expanding deserts and drought...races of people are losing land in which they've lived in all their life. They are a people on the move in search of any piece of life sustaining land.

Lost in the economics of who's going to pay what, and lost in the science of whose at fault, and lost in the technology of can it save us, and lost in the voices babbling of politicians...is the voice, the cry, and the shuffling feet of refugees on the move.

The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
–William Butler Yeats, from “The Second Coming”

In Copenhagen we've assembled the rich, the powerful, and the brightest. It's my prayer we won't see the best, and worst...and have done nothing.

 

While the disastrous consequences of climate change may seem a ways off for some in the developed world, the International Organization for Migration reported today that it has already driven an estimated 24 million people from their homes--a number, they warned, that could rise to as high a billion people by 2050.

In most cases, these "Climate Refugees" are fleeing rural regions stricken by desertification, water pollution, and famine--problems caused directly or made worse by global warming--and heading into already crowded cities. As these factors become more common with the rise of temperatures in the coming years, the effect of these mass migrations on hard-hit regions will be devastating and eventually become worldwide.

The research sites that the number of people affected by natural disasters has more than doubled in the last 20 years as being a major cause of the migrations. Those impacted most are the poor, who have no means of migrating internationally, which tends to drive internal movement, namely into urban centers--many of which are unequipped to handle the influx.

As time goes on and the situation becomes more dire, these climate refugees may be ending up at the doorstep of the world's wealthier nations, so says the report:

While acknowledging that the impact of climate change on migration is predominantly internal movement, international migration is nevertheless likely to be increasingly important in the future and will necessitate policy and program responses that are currently lacking.

A BILLION people - one in seven people on Earth today - could be forced to leave their homes over the next 50 years as the effects of climate change worsen an already serious migration crisis, a new report from Christian Aid predicts.

The report, based on the latest United Nations population and climate-change figures, says conflict, large-scale development projects and widespread environmental deterioration will combine to make life unsupportable for hundreds of millions of people, mostly in the Sahara belt, South Asia and the Middle East.

---

About 155 million people are known to be displaced now by conflict, natural disaster and development projects. This figure could be augmented by as many as 850 million, as more people are expected to be affected by water shortages, sea level crises, deteriorating pasture land, conflicts and famine, the report says.

I'm baffled that this is not seen as a crisis by the worlds faith communities. All faiths have a profound connection, woven into the very fabric of creation. On the deepest level we are all related, what ever your color, race, or langauge. Like DNA there is a divine strand of something beyond us that connects us. It is a global village in which we are all...neighbors. All God's people...or if you're an atheist we all come from one cosmic bang.

 

I'm rather shocked reading various faith based blogs, and websites for the past week that there has been a great void, a vacuum...lots of church stuff, lots of deep theological rambling and missional musings. But it seems there is no link between the church and creation, no link between theology and creation...and no link between mission and creation.

 

The plight of environmental refugees my friends is a crisis of faith of biblical magnitude.

 

Jeremiah 9:23-24 “This is what the LORD says: ‘Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,’ declares the LORD.”

 

You can follow the United Nations Climate Change Conference news here on their site.

The research sites that the number of people affected by natural disasters has more than doubled in the last 20 years as being a major cause of the migrations. Those impacted most are the poor, who have no means of migrating internationally, which tends to drive internal movement, namely into urban centers--many of which are unequipped to handle the influx.

As time goes on and the situation becomes more dire, these climate refugees may be ending up at the doorstep of the world's wealthier nations, so says the report:

While acknowledging that the impact of climate change on migration is predominantly internal movement, international migration is nevertheless likely to be increasingly important in the future and will necessitate policy and program responses that are currently lacking.

A BILLION people - one in seven people on Earth today - could be forced to leave their homes over the next 50 years as the effects of climate change worsen an already serious migration crisis, a new report from Christian Aid predicts.

The report, based on the latest United Nations population and climate-change figures, says conflict, large-scale development projects and widespread environmental deterioration will combine to make life unsupportable for hundreds of millions of people, mostly in the Sahara belt, South Asia and the Middle East.

---

About 155 million people are known to be displaced now by conflict, natural disaster and development projects. This figure could be augmented by as many as 850 million, as more people are expected to be affected by water shortages, sea level crises, deteriorating pasture land, conflicts and famine, the report says.

I'm baffled that this is not seen as a crisis by the worlds faith communities. All faiths have a profound connection, woven into the very fabric of creation. On the deepest level we are all related, what ever your color, race, or langauge. Like DNA there is a divine strand of something beyond us that connects us. It is a global village in which we are all...neighbors. All God's people...or if you're an atheist we all come from one cosmic bang.

 

I'm rather shocked reading various faith based blogs, and websites for the past week that there has been a great void, a vacuum...lots of church stuff, lots of deep theological rambling and missional musings. But it seems there is no link between the church and creation, no link between theology and creation...and no link between mission and creation.

 

The plight of environmental refugees my friends is a crisis of faith of biblical magnitude.

 

Jeremiah 9:23-24 “This is what the LORD says: ‘Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,’ declares the LORD.”

 

You can follow the United Nations Climate Change Conference news here on their site.

(Hope)nhagen...a Genesis Accord, or exit theology

The original aim was to find a successor deal to Kyoto, which expires at the end of 2012. The international community had set a December deadline to make it happen.

However, a rift between developed and developing nations over emissions — who should cut, how much, and who should pay for it — has dampened expectations for what will come out of Copenhagen.

The words of yet to be Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 2002 when he was leader of the now-defunct Canadian Alliance party, "Kyoto is essentially a socialist scheme to suck money out of wealth-producing nations." His rationale may have shifted slightly since then, but, Canada is still more of an obstacle to see constructive action in the Global Warming/ Climate Change Crisis. And with the down turn in the economy globally, the huge loss of jobs in the global work force, the continual shifting sands in the Stock Markets and national debts that are entering the realm of infinite...the reality to do something about Global Warming effects the climate of many many factors. Global warming is an insidious self inflicted disease that not only destroys life, but also spreads injustice especially in the poor marginalized spaces on the planet.

It is surely not a socialist scheme, I would like to coin the term a " Genesis Accord ". Above any thing it is about " All " creation, every speck...every race and language of people; beyond borders and boundaries; all land, all waters, all the landscape, the air in which we all breathe communally with each other. Without a an accord in which all inhabitants of creation take seriously as individuals and as countries...we can without a doubt say creation is coming to an end. It's Over!

Sadly a lot of the worlds faiths are not engaging their communities in the importance of this crisis. There are pockets of conversation and action, but not what you would expect. Especially when all faiths theologically are woven into the very fabric of creation.

Since the last reformation  " Christianity's theology of redemption and salvation have been pretty myoptic in terms of vision...saving the individual soul. One of the biggest challenges for the emerging/ missional church will be to develope a theology that is cosmic where redemption is about " ALL " of creation, and how that will play out interms of the church's missiology.

We need to re-read the creation story of Genesis...waking up to the reality that we're not outside of it, innocent by-standers...we're actaully in the midst of it.

26-28 God spoke: "Let us make human beings in our image, make them
      reflecting our nature
   So they can be responsible for the fish in the sea,
      the birds in the air, the cattle,
   And, yes, Earth itself,
      and every animal that moves on the face of Earth."
   God created human beings;
      he created them godlike,
   Reflecting God's nature.
      He created them male and female.
   God blessed them:
      "Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge!
   Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air,
      for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth."

29-30 Then God said, "I've given you
      every sort of seed-bearing plant on Earth
   And every kind of fruit-bearing tree,
      given them to you for food.
   To all animals and all birds,
      everything that moves and breathes,
   I give whatever grows out of the ground for food."
      And there it was.

31 God looked over everything he had made;
      it was so good, so very good!
   It was evening, it was morning—

The above from Eugene Peterson's Message in Genesis chapter one. Another piece of scripture that I have often sited for a more cosmic approach to redemption is Colossians 1:15-18

15-18We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God's original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body.

18-20He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—he is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he's there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross .

Emphasis mine of course, but in the context of above, people of faith can not ignore any part of creation. Lay hold of this thought...if Christ spoke all creation into existence, is in and holds it all together...on that cross it wasn't just your redemption and salvation that hung in balance...it was " all " of creation. So...the resurrection, the new creation...has to be about redeeming " all " of creation. This is the Missio Dei for people of faith.

I'm not a theologian...more of a dreamer, that prays that the same Spirit that filled Jesus would fill me with the imagination of Christ. The thought that Jesus spoke " absolutely everything " into existence, seen and unseen...and that when the Father saw it, he said it was good...very good. And, that even at this moment...He is in, and of all things...and holds it all together.

If I make " the theology of redemption " about " All " of creation, instead of just you and me...and people...am I diluting, watering down what the cross is about. And if the " new creation " in to which Jesus calls as as partners, to co-create to build the new creation " the Kingdom "...is about everything. Everything...from people, to the environment, to social justice, global equality, poverty, politics, wealth, ...what does that mean for the Missio Dei of the church, for your faith community and for you as an individual. Could it be our view of redemption is so incredibly shallow...compared to the imagination of Christ. The challenge for the missional/emerging church will be to write and live a theology...that captures the imagination of the Kingdom Jesus wants to live.

Despite protests to the contrary, modern Christianity has become willy-nilly religion of the state and economic status quo. Because it has been so exclusively dedicated to incanting anemic souls into heaven, it has been made the tool of much earthly villainy. It has, for most part, stood silently by while a predatory economy has ravaged the world, destroyed its natural beauty and health, divided and plundered its human communities and households. It has flown the flags and chanted the slogans of the empire. It has assumed with the economists that the " economic forces " automatically work for the good and assumed with the industrialists and the militarists that technology determines history. It has assumed with almost everybody that " progress " is good...It has admired Caesar and comforted him in his depredations and faults. But in its de facto alliance with Caesar, Christianity connives directly in the murder of Creation.

Wendall Berry: Christianity and the Survival of Creation

We can do nothing, justified by our faith alone and wait for the mass exit at the bus stop to Eternity...or we can act as partners, as brothers and sisters, as all God's children and redeem, restore creation...building a new creation.

Update from Mike Todd over @ Waving or Drowning...

Mike has a video posted of activist, writer and author Naomi Klein in a hard hitting, sobering and brutally honest video around the conversations, and dealings of striking an accord with substance. She mentions the Convergence of Movements, Mike asks, as I have, " Where is the Jesus Movement ", or broader, " Where is the voice and presence of faiths from around the globe."

Despite protests to the contrary, modern Christianity has become willy-nilly religion of the state and economic status quo. Because it has been so exclusively dedicated to incanting anemic souls into heaven, it has been made the tool of much earthly villainy. It has, for most part, stood silently by while a predatory economy has ravaged the world, destroyed its natural beauty and health, divided and plundered its human communities and households. It has flown the flags and chanted the slogans of the empire. It has assumed with the economists that the " economic forces " automatically work for the good and assumed with the industrialists and the militarists that technology determines history. It has assumed with almost everybody that " progress " is good...It has admired Caesar and comforted him in his depredations and faults. But in its de facto alliance with Caesar, Christianity connives directly in the murder of Creation.

Wendall Berry: Christianity and the Survival of Creation

We can do nothing, justified by our faith alone and wait for the mass exit at the bus stop to Eternity...or we can act as partners, as brothers and sisters, as all God's children and redeem, restore creation...building a new creation.

Update from Mike Todd over @ Waving or Drowning...

Mike has a video posted of activist, writer and author Naomi Klein in a hard hitting, sobering and brutally honest video around the conversations, and dealings of striking an accord with substance. She mentions the Convergence of Movements, Mike asks, as I have, " Where is the Jesus Movement ", or broader, " Where is the voice and presence of faiths from around the globe."

a timely prayer...the times in which we live

"We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven. We have been preserved, the many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to God that made us It behooves us, then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness."

 April 30, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln's Proclamation for a National Day of Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer.

may His Kingdom come...

Help us then, now, Lord, to work for that day when nation shall not lift up sword against nation, when tanks will be beaten into tractors, when every man and every woman shall sit under his or her own vine and fig tree, and none shall be afraid; when justice will roll down like waters and righteousness as a mighty stream.

- Civil rights veteran Rev. Joseph Lowery, in his benediction to close the inauguration ceremony of President Barack Obama.

dwindling economy...missions in the economy of the Kingdom

Andrew Jones aka Tall Skinny Kiwi shares this today...

If you had a million dollars (and only a million), what would you do to help alleviate the pain of the current economic crisis?

Paul Watson asked this question on his blog a week ago. This his how I answered it.

I would "probably find a way to help the churches and mission organizations retool with an eye towards microbusiness and social enterprise in order to emerge from the recession equipped for long term sustainability. What about a million for 100 10k micro-loans for that purpose? Track all 100 of them and create a community blog so everyone can cheer them on and learn from them.

Here I want to weave into the conversation something Don Crawford shared last week.

                   Freeset Kolkata

This is really, " the economy of the Kingdom ", it's planted in their neighborhoods, it redeems and restores, it's sustainable, there is ownership, they are co-heirs and co-creators in the process. It's a reflection of the parable of the talents, an investment in the multiplication of life. 

In the this down turn, or the crash of finances the first thought that always comes to mind is " cutback." But in the economy of the Kingdom, Jesus challenges us to do more with less. We are entering an era when we really need to be rethinking, and re-tooling they way we do mission. Green, sustainable, renewable resources are not just words of the secular world...they too, are part of the redemptive imagination of the Kingdom.

the fruit of social injustice...

Christ is not only the healer of individuals. He is also a prophet to the nations. While he walked on earth, Jesus delivered people from paralysis, insanity, leprosy, suppurating wounds, deformity, and muteness. But again, and again in word and deed he returned to the plight of the poor, whose poverty in true prophetic fashion, he considered no historical accident...but the fruit of social injustice.

What would he say and do in our hard and uncertain times, in a world of thirteen, a world one-half of whose children never so much as open their mouths to say " aah " to a doctor, a world in which almost every country is robbing the poor to feed the military?

And would he not pronounce our own nation a greedy disgrace?

Whole cites could live on the garbage from our dumps, on the luxuries we consider necessities. The world with its triumphs and dispairs, its beauty and ugliness, has today moved next door to every one of us.

Only spiritual deafness can prevent our hearing the voice of God in the clamour of the cities. Only blindness of a willful sort can prevent our seeing the face of the Risen Lord in the faces of the suffering poor.

The Glory of God is the human race fully alive, and that means at least minimally fed, clothed and housed.

( William Sloane Coffin 1924-2006 )

Show me your soap...

The following is an urgent request from the Compassionate Warehouse here in Victoria...

THE TWO WOMEN'S VILLAGES (400 WOMEN PLUS CHILDREN IN EACH ONE) ARE COMPRISED OF WOMEN WHO WERE RAPED, ABUSED AND TORTURED VICTIMS AND CHILDREN BORN FROM POLITICAL UNREST IN THE CONGO . NOW THEIR VILLAGES AND HUSBANDS WILL NOT TAKE THEM BACK. MANY SUFFER FROM HEALTH PROBLEMS AS A RESULT OF THE RAPE BOTH MENTALLY AND PHYSICALLY BUT THEY TRY TO TAKE GOOD CARE OF THEIR CHILDREN AS IT IS ALL THEY HAVE TO CLING TO AND THEY WANT TO LEARN A TRADE OR SOMETHING TO MAKE THEM SELF RELIANT.

THE PENTECOSTAL FELLOWSHIP WORKS IN THESE CAMPS AND HAVE BUILD PERMANENT BRICK STRUCTURE FOR THE WOMEN TO LIVE IN- THESE ARE THE 'FORGOTTEN WOMEN"

THE CIVIL WAR IS STILL GOING ON- JUST LAST WEEKEND THE REBELS HAVE STARTED TO GO INTO OTHER VILLAGES AND MURDER AND , RAPE, KILL ETC ….THIS WILL ONLY ADD MORE WOMEN TO THESE VILLAGES. SOME OF THE MEN HAVE BEEN TORTURED AND LEFT TO DIE- YOU CAN CHECK THE WEB STORIES ON THIS.

AS WELL AS THESE TWO VILLAGES, THERE ARE AN INCREDIBLE NUMBER OF PEOPLE WHO RETURNED TO THEIR VILLAGES ONLY TO FIND THEM BURNED OR DESTROYED. EVERY THING WE SEND IN THAT CONTAINER WILL BE USED AND APPRECIATED BY SOMEONE IN NEED.

I HAVE JUST RECEIVED AN URGENT EMAIL RE THE NEEDS OF THESE AND OTHER CIVILIANS----DESPERATE NEED FOR HYGIENE- SOAP AND LOTION!

MY GOAL IS TO SEND AT LEAST 800 BARS OF SOAP !!!  SO MY CHALLENGE TO YOU AND ALL YOUR FRIENDS AND RELATIVES ETC ….IS TO BRING IN AT LEAST ONE BAR OF SOAP !  WE ARE HOPING TO LOAD OUT THE WEEK OF THE 13-15 ^TH SO WE HAVE 2 WEEKS! SOME HAS ALREADY BEEN PROCESSED SO WE HAVE A HEAD START. THERE WILL BE A TALLY SHEET POSTED AT THE WAREHOUSE. 

PS – YOU ARE ALLOWED TO BRING IN MORE THAN ONE BAR OF SOAP !

WE ARE SENDING SUMMER CLOTHING, SUMMER SHOES, HOUSEHOLD PLASTICS AND SUPPLIES, HOUSEHOLD LINENS, TOYS, SPORTS EQUIPMENT, SEWING MACHINES AND FABRIC, CRAFT SUPPLIES, AFGHANS, AND SCHOOL SUPPLIES. IT WILL BE A FULL BOX LOAD –

Please put the word out in your faith communities this Sunday...have people bring it the following Sunday and I will pick it up. You can contact me at ( 250 ) 479-0887 or e-mail me at ( labmanster at gmail dot com. )

the narrow path ... or madness

Thanks to my monastic friend Brother Antony for this inspiring video clip. Is this radical christianity the alternative that subverts the empire...or is this just craziness. You be the judge...let me know what you think? Oh yah...if your not familiar with the priest in the video his name is John Dear.