Ghost ranch 2012

A thought experiment

What would the church be like if it were run by and
for ...
1’s - Perfectionists
2’s - Givers
3’s - Performers
4’s - Romantics
5’s - Observers
6’s - Devil’s Advocates
7’s - Epicures
8’s - Bosses
9’s - Mediators

A thought experiment

What would happen for the next generation?

Do certain theologies work best for certain
Enneagram types?

What happens to the people who don’t fit in the
“personality” of a religion, denomination, or
congregation?

Walking away from church (LA Times)

Organized religion's increasing identification with conservative
politics is a turnoff to more and more young adults. Evangelical
Protestantism has been hit hard by this development.

October 17, 2010|By Robert D. Putnam and David E. Campbell

The most rapidly growing religious category today is composed of
those Americans who say they have no religious affiliation. While
middle-aged and older Americans continue to embrace organized
religion, rapidly increasing numbers of young people are rejecting
it.
As recently as 1990, all but 7% of Americans claimed a religious
affiliation, a figure that had held constant for decades. Today, 17%
of Americans say they have no religion, and these new "nones" are
very heavily concentrated among Americans who have come of age
since 1990. Between 25% and 30% of twentysomethings today say
they have no religious affiliation — roughly four times higher than
in any previous generation.

So, why this sudden jump in youthful disaffection from organized religion?
The surprising answer, according to a mounting body of evidence, is politics.
Very few of these new "nones" actually call themselves atheists, and many
have rather conventional beliefs about God and theology. But they have been
alienated from organized religion by its increasingly conservative politics.
During the 1980s, the public face of American religion turned sharply right.
Political allegiances and religious observance became more closely aligned, and
both religion and politics became more polarized. Abortion and homosexuality
became more prominent issues on the national political agenda, and activists
such as Jerry Falwell and Ralph Reed began looking to expand religious activism
into electoral politics. Church attendance gradually became the primary dividing
line between Republicans and Democrats in national elections.
This political "God gap" is a recent development. Up until the 1970s, progressive
Democrats were common in church pews and many conservative Republicans
didn't attend church. But after 1980, both churchgoing progressives and secular
conservatives became rarer and rarer. Some Americans brought their religion
and their politics into alignment by adjusting their political views to their
religious faith. But, surprisingly, more of them adjusted their religion to fit their
politics.

For many religious Americans, this alignment of religion and politics was
divinely ordained, a long-sought retort to the immorality of the 1960s. Other
Americans were not so sure.
Throughout the 1990s and into the new century, the increasingly prominent
association between religion and conservative politics provoked a backlash among
moderates and progressives, many of whom had previously considered
themselves religious. The fraction of Americans who agreed "strongly" that
religious leaders should not try to influence government decisions nearly doubled
from 22% in 1991 to 38% in 2008, and the fraction who insisted that religious
leaders should not try to influence how people vote rose to 45% from 30%.
This backlash was especially forceful among youth coming of age in the 1990s and
just forming their views about religion. Some of that generation, to be sure, held
deeply conservative moral and political views, and they felt very comfortable in
the ranks of increasingly conservative churchgoers. But a majority of the
Millennial generation was liberal on most social issues, and above all, on
homosexuality. The fraction of twentysomethings who said that homosexual
relations were "always" or "almost always" wrong plummeted from about 75% in
1990 to about 40% in 2008. (Ironically, in polling, Millennials are actually more
uneasy about abortion than their parents.)

Just as this generation moved to the left on most social
issues — above all, homosexuality — many prominent
religious leaders moved to the right, using the issue of
same-sex marriage to mobilize electoral support for
conservative Republicans. In the short run, this tactic
worked to increase GOP turnout, but the subsequent
backlash undermined sympathy for religion among many
young moderates and progressives. Increasingly, young
people saw religion as intolerant, hypocritical, judgmental
and homophobic. If being religious entailed political
conservatism, they concluded, religion was not for them.

Sociologists Michael Hout and Claude Fischer of UC
Berkeley were among the first to call attention to the
ensuing rise in young "nones," and in our recent
book, "American Grace," we have extended their
analysis, showing that the association between
religion and politics (and especially religion's
intolerance of homosexuality) was the single
strongest factor in this portentous shift. In religious
affinities, as in taste in music and preference for
colas, habits formed in early adulthood tend to
harden over time. So if more than one-quarter of
today's young people are setting off in adult life with
no religious identification, compared with about
one-20th of previous generations, the prospects for
religious observance in the coming decades are
substantially diminished.

Evangelical Protestantism, which saw dramatic growth in
the 1970s and 1980s, has been hit hard by this more recent
development. From the early 1970s to the late 1980s the
fraction of Americans age 18 to 29 who identified with
evangelical Protestantism rose to 25% from 20%, but since
1990, that fraction has fallen back to about 17%.
Meanwhile, the proportion of young Americans who have
no religious affiliation at all rose from just over 10% as late
as 1990 to its current proportion of about 27%.

Continuing to sound the trumpet for conservative social policy on issues such
as homosexuality may or may not be the right thing to do from a theological
point of view, but it is likely to mean saving fewer souls.
Nevertheless, predictions of the demise of religion in America would be premature.
More likely is that as growing numbers of young Americans reject religious
doctrine that is too political or intolerant for their taste, innovative religious
leaders will concoct more palatable offerings. Jesus taught his disciples to be
"fishers of men," and the pool of un-churched moderate and progressive young
people must be an attractive target for religious anglers.
To be sure, some of these young people will remain secularists. Many of them,
however, espouse beliefs that would seem to make them potential converts to a
religion that offered some of the attractions of modern evangelicalism without the
conservative political overlay.

Robert D. Putnam, a professor of public policy at Harvard University, and David
E. Campbell, a professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame, are
the authors of "American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us."
Information about a talk Robert Putnam will be giving on Oct. 21 in Los Angeles
can be found zocalopublicsquare.org.

Dave Kinnaman, You Lost Me:
“The church is not adequately preparing the next generation to
follow Christ faithfully in a rapidly changing culture.” (p. 21). The
church is ...
Overprotective—“a creativity killer where risk taking and being
involved in culture are anathema” (p. 92).
Shallow—“easy platitudes, proof texting and formulaic slogans”

Antiscience—“science appears to welcome questions and skepticism,
while matters of faith seem impenetrable” (p. 93).

Repressive—”Religious rules—particularly sexual mores—feel
stifling to the individualist mindset of young adults...”

Exclusive—“a culture that esteems open-mindedness, tolerance, and
acceptance.”

Doubtless—“[M]any feel that the church’s response to doubt is
trivial and fact focused, as if people can be talked out of doubting.”

Letting Go Letting Come

?

Needed today:
New questions to create conversations
to lead us on a new quest.

Statements

! ?
Questions

From the place where But doubts and loves
we are right
Dig up the world
Flowers will never
grow Like a mole, a plow.
In the spring.
And a whisper will be
The place where we heard in the place
are right Where the ruined
Is hard and trampled House once stood.
Like a yard. Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai

Some Provocative Questions

1. The narrative question: What is the shape of the
biblical narrative? Storyline, plotline?

2. The authority question: What is the Bible, and
what is it for? How does it have authority?

3. The God question: Is God violent? Why does
God seem so violent and genocidal in so many
bible passages?

4. The Jesus Question: Who is Jesus, and
why does he matter?

5. The Gospel Question: What is the gospel
- a message of evacuation or
transformation? Exclusion or inclusion?

6. The church question: What do we
do about the church?

7. The sex question: Can we deal
with issues of sexuality without
fighting and dividing?

8. The future question: Can we find a
more hopeful vision of the future?

9. The pluralism question: How
should we relate to people of other
faiths?

10. The next step question: How can
we pursue this quest in humility,
love, and peace?

Question 1:
What is the shape of the
biblical narrative?

(A pre-critical question)

Eden Heaven

Fall Salvation

History/
The world
Hell

Platonic Ideal Platonic Ideal

Fall Atonement,
puriﬁcation
Into
Aristotelian Aristotelian
Real
Real
Hades

Pax Romana Pax Romana

Civilization,
Rebellion development,
into colonialism
barbarism Barbarian/ assimilation
pagan
world
Destruction,
defeat

Is there an
alternative
understanding?

Eden Heaven

Fall Salvation

History/
The world
Hell

Minor Adjustment 1: Inclusivism

Eden Heaven

Fall Salvation

History/
The world

Minor Adjustment 2: Universalism

Eden Fall

Salvation
?
Heaven History/
The world

Is it time for a paradigm shift?

sdrawkcab gnidaer
Rick Warren, Billy Graham, Charles Finney, John Wesley (or Calvin), Luther,
Aquinas, Augustine, Paul, Jesus

reading forwards
Adam, Eve, Sarah, Abraham, Moses, David, Isaiah, John the Baptist, Mary, Jesus

Exodus: Liberation & Formation


Genesis: Creation and Reconciliation

Isaiah: Peaceable Kingdom - Justice and
Mercy


Genesis: Creation and Reconciliation

G
e
n
Mercy
e
s
i
s


HUMAN DESTRUCTION
G
e
n
Mercy
e
HUMAN VIOLENCE
s
i
s HUMAN EXPLOITATION


every crisis is an
opportunity

Question 2
The authority question:
How does the Bible have authority?

Constitution?

Library?

LEGAL CONSTITUTION COMMUNITY LIBRARY

Uniformity Diversity

Preserve order Preserve diversity

agreement argument

enforcement of conformity encouragement to risk

LEGAL CONSTITUTION COMMUNITY LIBRARY

Rules to live by Stories to live by

Submission Creativity

Analyze, interpret, argue Enter, inhabit, practice

amendments? new acquisitions

Stories in conversation ...
David, Goliath, and the Temple

Two Arks

Pharaoh, Hagar, Solomon

Joshua, Jesus, and the Canaanites

Question 3
God and violence

FLAT
DESCENDING
ASCENDING

TENT

Derek Flood graphically displays Paul’s edited quotation of Psalm 18:41-49 and
Deuteronomy 32:43 in Romans 15:8-10. Notice what Paul picks to retain and
what he chooses to reject:
For I tell you that Christ has become a servant
of the Jews on behalf of God's truth, to confirm
the promises made to the patriarchs so that the
Gentiles may glorify God for his mercy, as it is
written: “I destroyed my foes. They cried for
help, but there was no one to save them—to the
LORD, but he did not answer…. He is the God
who avenges me, who puts the Gentiles under
me…. Therefore I will praise you among the
Gentiles; I will sing hymns to your name.” (Ps.
18:41–49).

Again, it says, “Rejoice, O Gentiles,
with his people, for he will avenge the
blood of his servants; he will take
vengeance on his enemies and make
atonement for his land and
people.” (Deut. 32:43)

Flood concludes: “Paul is making a very
different point from the original intent of these
Psalms. In fact, he is making the opposite point
—we should not cry out for God’s wrath and
judgment [on the other], because we are all
sinners in need of mercy.” He concludes, “This
is not a case of careless out-of-context proof-
texting; it is an artful and deliberate reshaping of
these verses … from their original cry for divine
violence into a confession of universal
culpability that highlights our need for mercy.”

Letting Come ...

Adapting and creating infrastructures
Adapting and creating practices
Prototyping microcosms ...
Crystallizing vision and intention

A plan for “letting come” in the
American church in the next ten
years

1. Network a maximally
diverse team of
collaborative leaders.

- mutual learning, trust, respect,
encouragement
- networking networks

2. Articulate &
disseminate a new
vision - with proposals/
demands - through all
media and a variety of
networked voices
- Theological, ecclesial, missional, spiritual, social,
economic, political

3. Announce a “bigger”
movement that gathers
the past and present
into a hopeful &
challenging vision for
the future.
- telling a new story
- social movement theory
- theology of movements and institutions
- branding

4. Create marginal zones/
open spaces for far-
reaching proto-typing.
- faith communities, seminaries,
festivals, protests, mission,
networks, ordination,
governance, liturgies, creeds,
confessions
“temporary autonomous zones”

using/avoiding existing polity
creating workable protocols
new economic models
new training models
new communication models
new support/connection models
new heroes who embody the new
values of the movement

5. Sequester funds for
these new lines of
ministry.

6. Attract new people in
new ways to the new
zone.
“Bring in a new day with new
people.”
New leaders, new members,
new training

7a. Expect some legacy
entities (eventually) to
imitate innovative
entities - so prioritize
the innovative entities.

(expect most to ignore or
criticize before imitating)

7b. Shift from tree model
(1 fruit) into garden
model (many fruits).

8. Expect to rebrand and
rename just about
everything - to
communicate new
identity and ethos -
thus creating new
diversity and new
alliances.

Liturgical Social Action

Evangelical Charismatic

9. Trust and move
authentically with the
Holy Spirit.

note difference between being authentic/
orthodox/legitimate/effective and
being thought so!

10. Expect lots of trouble
and pain ...

There is no baby without childbirth!

What is mine to do?

What do I need right now, where I am?

Christian
Identity
in a
Multi-Faith
World

We know how to
do
two things
very well.

We know how to
have
a STRONG-
HOSTILE
CHRISTIAN
IDENTITY.

We have the only way.
STRONG-
You are going to hell.
HOSTILE
We are God’s chosen.
You worship false gods.
resistance if futile.
you will be assimilated - or
eliminated.
we possess absolute truth.

We know how to
have

a weak-
benign
CHRISTIAN
IDENTITY.

it doesn’t matter what you
believe.
all religions are the same.
all roads lead to god.
only sincerity matters.
doctrines divide.
keep religion private.
weak-benign
Mind/Matter: I don’t, it doesn’t.

strong-hostile
OR
weak-benign?

Or???

IDENTITIES
ARE
FORMED BY
Stories.

Ivan Illich (Austrian
former priest,
philosopher, social
critic, 1926-2002)

Neither revolution nor reformation
can ultimately change a society,
rather you must tell a new powerful
tale, one so persuasive that it sweeps
away the old myths and becomes the
preferred story …

… one so inclusive that it gathers all the
bits of our past and our present into a
coherent whole, one that even shines
some light into the future so that we can
take the next step…. If you want to
change a society, then you have to tell an
alternative story.
- attributed to Ivan Illich (Austrian former priest,
philosopher, social critic, 1926-2002)

CLENCHING
FIST

OR

OPEN HAND

What kind of story
did Jesus tell?

Jesus entered a world like ours -
running on stories of
Domination
Revolution
Puriﬁcation/Scapegoating
Isolation
Competition
Victimization/Self-preservation
This is remarkably similar to the religious
situation in Jesus’ day.

-Domination - Sadducees,
Herodians, Romans
-Revolution - Zealots
-Puriﬁcation/Scapegoating - Pharisees
-Isolation - Essenes
-Competition - Wealthy Judeans
-Victimization/Self-preservation -
Poor Galileans, sinners, lepers,
outcasts

We could call these the stories of the
clenching ﬁst ...

Warrior narratives
Conﬂict narratives
Sword narratives

They tell us who we
are.

-Domination - We are the exceptional,
superior, in-charge, divinely chosen
-Revolution - We are the dispossessed,
righteous warriors
-Puriﬁcation/Scapegoating - We are the pure
who know who the enemies among us are
-Isolation - We are the pure who must remain
separate from the impure.
-Competition - We are the ﬁttest who survive,
the heroic few who know how to prevail.
-Victimization/Self-preservation - We are the
oppressed, aggrieved victims who are
therefore virtuous and deserve better.

Domination: Us over them
Revolution: Us versus them
Puriﬁcation: Us versus some of us
Isolation: Us away from them
Competition: Us competing with them.
Victimization: Us in spite of them

DOMINATION PURIFICATION

COMPETITION
SELF-
PRESERVATION

REVOLUTION
ISOLATION


CONFLICT!
COMPETITION
SELF-
PRESERVATION

REVOLUTION
ISOLATION

We could call these the stories of the
clenched ﬁst ...

Warrior narratives
Conﬂict narratives
Sword narratives

Jesus came with an alternative
story:
the good news
of the kingdom* of God.
[*reign, commonwealth, dream, dance,
economy, ecosystem, movement, beloved
community, network, etc]

A story of the
open hand ...

Gardener narrative
Peacemaking narrative
Plowshare/Pruning hook narrative

The good news of the kingdom
of God
-called people to repentance
(paradigm shift/ radical
rethinking),
- a new way of life,
-a new identity “in Christ”

Clenching Fist Stories
Self-preservation: Us in spite of them

Jesus’ Open-Hand Narrative of
Creation/Liberation/Reconciliation
NOT Domination: Service, Neighborliness
NOT Revolution: Reconciliation
NOT Puriﬁcation: Welcome/Hospitality/Inclusion
NOT Self-preservation: Pursuit of common good
NOT Isolation: Incarnation ... Penetration ...
Identiﬁcation
NOT Competition: Generosity, Self-Giving

NEW CREATION/ RECONCILIATION


COMPETITION
SELF-
PRESERVATION

REVOLUTION
ISOLATION

A STRONG BENEVOLENT IDENTITY


COMPETITION
SELF-
PRESERVATION

REVOLUTION
ISOLATION

Hypocrisy:
Religions can intentionally or
accidentally baptize, support,
legitimize, and camouflage the six
clenched-fist stories.
They can cover up a wolf-ish,
clenched- fist message in open-
hand, sheep’s language.

Misconception:
Our religious differences
keep us apart.

Actuality:
It is not our religious
differences that keep us
apart, but rather a haunting
religious similarity ... one
thing we all hold in common.

Actuality:
We build our religious identity
through hostile, oppositional
narratives ... we know who
we are by who we are
against.

RELIGIOUS RELIGIOUS
DOMINATION
PURIFICATION
RELIGIOUS
RELIGIOUS
SELF- COMPETITION
PRESERVATION
RELIGIOUS
REVOLUTION
RELIGIOUS ISOLATION

We often disciple people into the
wrong story … and help them
become “christians” without
challenging their stories.
In such a way, the Christian
religion can become the most
dangerous story, not the most
healing and liberating story.

1. The DOMINATION Jesus who
dominates through cultural
colonization, militarism, and
economic hegemony.
2. The REVOLUTION/REVENGE
Jesus who is planning revenge on his
enemies.
We believe Jesus proclaims the power of
love, not the love of power.

3. The PURIFICATION Jesus who excludes
and shames the impure rather than
graciously including and healing them.
4. The ISOLATION Jesus who invites people
to withdraw into a “holy bubble” of a “nice
christian subculture” awaiting evacuation.
We believe Jesus calls us to incarnation and
transformation, not condemnation and
evacuation.

We’re tired of …

5. The SELF-PRESERVATION Jesus who
complains about how badly “we Christians”
are being treated (and ignores the atrocities
we’ve committed).
6. The COMPETITION Jesus who promises
blessings and prosperity without a mission or
a cross.
We believe Jesus taught the joy of being a
blessing, not the happiness of getting blessed,
the joy of giving over receiving.

A weak and benign Christian
identity may be less dangerous
than a strong and hostile
identity ...

But there is a better alternative:

A strong and benevolent
Christian identity centered
on Jesus and his story
(good news) of the
kingdom/commonwealth of
God.

We have the only way.
STRONG-
You are going to hell.
HOSTILE
We are God’s chosen.
You worship false gods.
resistance if futile.
you will be assimilated -
or eliminated.

it doesn’t matter what you
believe.
all religions are the same.
all roads lead to god.
only sincerity matters.
doctrines divide.
weak-benign
keep religion private.

Because I Follow Jesus, I love
you.
I move toward “the other.”
I break down walls of hostility.
i stand with you in solidarity.

strong-
you are made in God’s image.
i am your servant.
benevolent
I practice human-kindness.

O God, whose love makes
us one family,
May your unspeakable
Name be revered.

Here on earth may your
kingdom come … on earth
as in heaven may your
dreams come true.

Give us today our bread for
today.
And forgive us our wrongs
as we forgive.

Lead us away from the
perilous trial,
Liberate us from the evil.

For the kingdom is yours and
yours alone, the power is
yours and yours alone, and the
glory is yours and yours alone,
now and forever. Amen.
(Hallelujah … Amen)

Come.
Follow Me.
Find your
identity in
me ...

which story
Do we live
by?

The outcome will depend in large
measure on the prevailing stories
that shape our understanding….
Perhaps the most difﬁcult yet
essential aspect of this work is to
change our stories…. Thus, the
true believers of the New Right
gained power not by their
numbers, which were relatively
small, but by their ability to
control the stories …
- David Korten, The Great Turning, p. 20,

[Jesus] dedicated his life to
changing the prevailing stories.
- David Korten, The Great Turning, p. 20, 237, 261

The idea of Jesus as the messianic Christ and
founder of an imperial church was a reconstruction
that did not come to fruition until nearly three
centuries after his cruciﬁxion, when the emperor
Constantine embraced Christianity and made it the
ofﬁcial religion of the Roman Empire. Christianity
has served empire ever since, lending moral
legitimacy to unconscionable violence and
oppression in the name of the man whose life was
devoted to teaching love and compassion.
- David Korten, The Great Turning, p. 259

A story
about a
youth
group
…

Conventional View Emerging View

The Human God created the world as perfect, God created the world as good, but
Situation: What but because our primal human beings – as individuals, and as
is the story that
ancestors, Adam and Eve, did groups – have rebelled against God and
we find not maintain the absolute filled the world with evil and injustice
ourselves in? perfection demanded by God, like a terrible disease. God wants to save
God has irrevocably determined humanity and heal it from its sickness,
that the entire universe and all it but humanity is hopelessly lost and
contains will be destroyed, and confused, like sheep without a shepherd,
the souls of all human beings – wandering farther and farther into
except for those specifically lostness and danger. Left to themselves,
exempted – will be forever human beings will spiral downward in
punished for their imperfection sickness and evil.
in hell.1
Basic Since everyone is doomed to Since the human race is in such desperate
Questions: What hell, Jesus seeks to answer these trouble, Jesus seeks to answer this
questions did questions: how can individuals question: what must be done about the
Jesus come to be saved from eternal mess we’re in? The mess refers both to
answer? punishment in hell and instead the general human condition and its
go to heaven after they die? How specific outworking among his
can God help individuals be contemporaries: living under domination
happy and successful until then? by the Roman empire, and divided into
various competing sects.
Jesus’ message: Jesus says, in essence, “If you Jesus says, in essence, “Other people and
How did Jesus want to be among those groups – including your own religious
respond to the specifically qualified to escape leaders - are leading you farther and
crisis? being forever punished for your farther astray. I have been sent by God
sins in hell, you must repent of with this good news – that God loves
your individual sins and believe humanity, even in its lostness and sin.
that my Father punished me on God graciously invites everyone and
the cross so He won’t have to anyone to question and reject what they
punish you in hell. Only if you have been told and instead follow a new
believe this will you go to path. Trust me and become my disciple,
heaven when everyone else is and you will be transformed, and you will
banished to hell.”2 This is the participate in the transformation of the
good news. world, which is possible, beginning right
now.”3 This is the good news.

1
Of course, there are many modern western non-religious ontologies and framing stories too,
plus Eastern ontologies and framing stories – both religious and irreligious.
2
This reflects a Calvinistic Evangelical protestant version of the message. The popular Roman
Catholic version might say, “You must believe in the teachings of the church and follow its
instructions, especially those regarding sacraments.” The popular mainline or liberal Protestant

2 questions: Conventional View Emerging View

From Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a
The Human
Situation: What
God created the world as perfect,
but because our primal
is the story that
we find
ancestors, Adam and Eve, did
not maintain the absolute
God created the world as good, but
human beings – as individuals, and as
groups – have rebelled against God and
filled the world with evil and injustice
ourselves in?
Revolution of Hope
perfection demanded by God,
God has irrevocably determined
that the entire universe and all it
contains will be destroyed, and
like a terrible disease. God wants to save
humanity and heal it from its sickness,
but humanity is hopelessly lost and
confused, like sheep without a shepherd,
in hell.1

What are the top global

problems?

What does the message of Jesus

1

say to those problems?
2

Top Global Problems:
High Noon (20)
The Human
Situation: What

we find
Conventional View

is the story that
Emerging View


United Nations University (15)
in hell.1

Copenhagen Consensus (10)

Millennium Development Goals (8)

1

PEACE plan (5)
2

United Nations University: The State of the Future
Top Fifteen Challenges: How can …
1. … sustainable development be achieved for all?
2. … everyone have sufﬁcient clean water without

is the story that

conﬂict?

3. … population growth and resources be brought into
in hell.1

balance?

4. … genuine democracy emerge from authoritarian

regimes? How did Jesus
respond to the
crisis?
want to be among those
specifically qualified to escape
being forever punished for your
sins in hell, you must repent of
your individual sins and believe
groups – including your own religious
leaders - are leading you farther and
farther astray. I have been sent by God
with this good news – that God loves
humanity, even in its lostness and sin.

5. … policymaking be made more sensitive to global long-
that my Father punished me on
the cross so He won’t have to
punish you in hell. Only if you
believe this will you go to
heaven when everyone else is
God graciously invites everyone and
anyone to question and reject what they
have been told and instead follow a new
path. Trust me and become my disciple,
and you will be transformed, and you will

term perspectives? banished to hell.”2 This is the
good news.
participate in the transformation of the
world, which is possible, beginning right

6. … the global convergence of information and
1
2

communications technologies work for everyone?
7. … ethical market economies be encouraged to help
reduce the gap between rich and poor?

8. … the threat of new and reemerging diseases and immune
micro-organisms be reduced?
9. … the capacity to decide be improved as the nature of work
and institutions change? Conventional View Emerging View

10. … shared values and new security strategies reduce ethnic
is the story that

conflicts, terrorism, and the use of weapons of mass
the souls of all human beings –
wandering farther and farther into

destruction? Basic
exempted – will be forever
punished for their imperfection
in hell.1
Since everyone is doomed to
human beings will spiral downward in
sickness and evil.

Since the human race is in such desperate

11. … the changing status of women help improve the human

condition? Jesus’ message:
can God help individuals be
happy and successful until then?

Jesus says, in essence, “If you
contemporaries: living under domination
by the Roman empire, and divided into
Jesus says, in essence, “Other people and

12. … transnational organized crime networks be stopped from
respond to the
crisis?
specifically qualified to escape
being forever punished for your
sins in hell, you must repent of
leaders - are leading you farther and
farther astray. I have been sent by God

becoming more powerful and sophisticated global enterprises?

13. … growing energy demands be met safely and efficiently?
banished to hell.”2 This is the
good news.
world, which is possible, beginning right

14. … scientific and technological breakthroughs be
1
2

accelerated to improve the human condition?
15. … ethical considerations become more routinely
incorporated into global decisions?

8 Millennium Development Goals:
1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.
2. Achieve universal primary education.
The Human
Conventional View

Emerging View


3. Promote gender equality and empower
Situation: What

we find
ourselves in?
is the story that

women. contains will be destroyed, and
except for those specifically
lostness and danger. Left to themselves,
sickness and evil.

4. Reduce child mortality.
in hell.1

5. Improve maternal health.
Jesus’ message:
go to heaven after they die? How
happy and successful until then?

Jesus says, in essence, “If you
specific outworking among his
by the Roman empire, and divided into
Jesus says, in essence, “Other people and

6. Combat HIV/AIDs, malaria, and other

diseases. the cross so He won’t have to

7. Ensure environmental sustainability.

1

8. Develop a global partnership for
2

development

Copenhagen Consensus Top 10
Global Problems
1. Hunger and malnutrition

is the story that

2. Climate change
ourselves in? perfection demanded by God,

3. Conﬂicts
in hell.1

4. Financial Instability
questions did
Jesus come to
answer?
questions: how can individuals
be saved from eternal
punishment in hell and instead
go to heaven after they die? How
question: what must be done about the
mess we’re in? The mess refers both to
the general human condition and its
specific outworking among his

5. Water and Sanitation

6. Subsidies and Trade Barrierssins in hell, you must repent of
that my Father punished me on

7. Population/Migration

8. Communicable Diseases
1
2

9. Education

10. Governance and Corruption

Rick Warren’s PEACE Plan
1. Plant churches to combat spiritual

emptinessThe Human
Situation: What

we find
ourselves in?
is the story that

2. Equip servant leaders to combat
in hell.1

corrupt leadership

3. Assist the poor through

humanitarian aid (poverty)

4. Care for the sick to combat disease

1
2

5. Educate the next generation to

combat ignorance

spiritual emptiness corrupt leadership poverty
disease ignorance hunger and malnutrition
climate change conﬂicts Financial Instability
Water/Sanitation subsidies/trade barriers
population/ migration communicable diseases
education governance/corruption hunger
education gender inequality child mortality
maternal health environmental sustainability
ethnic conﬂicts terrorism weapons of mass
destruction organized crime networks energy
demands clean water population growth
authoritarian regimes

spiritual emptiness corrupt
leadership poverty disease
ignorance hunger and malnutrition
climate change conﬂicts Financial
Instability Water/Sanitation
subsidies/trade barriers
GLOBAL
population/ migration
CRISES
communicable diseases education
FOUR

governance/corruption hunger
education gender inequality
child mortality maternal health
environmental sustainability ethnic
conﬂicts terrorism weapons of
mass destruction organized crime
networks energy demands clean
water population growth
authoritarian regimes

Machine: a
complex tool
Prosperity
fashioned to
achieve a
desire.
Societal Machine

Prosperity

Security

Societal Machine

Prosperity

Equity Security

Societal Machine

Prosperity

Equity Security

Societal Machine

The Ecosystem

Heat

Solar Energy
Prosperity

Resources
Waste
Equity Security

Societal Machine

The Ecosystem

Heat

Solar Energy

The Ecosystem

Heat

Solar Energy
Prosperity

Resources Waste

Equity
Security
Societal Machine

The Ecosystem
Crisis 1. A Prosperity System that can’t stop growing beyond
environmental limits, resulting in multi-faceted environmental
crises. (The crisis of the planet.)

Heat

Solar Energy
Prosperity

Resources Waste

Equity
Security
Societal Machine

The Ecosystem

Heat

Solar Energy
Prosperity

Waste
Resources

Equity
Security
Societal Machine

2. An Equity System that can’t keep pace with the growing
gap between the rich minority and the poor majority,
resulting in suffering, resentment, and fear. (The crisis of
poverty.)

Heat

Solar Energy
Prosperity

Waste
Resources

Equity
Security
Societal Machine

The Ecosystem

Heat

Solar Energy
Prosperity

Waste
Resources

Equity
Security
Societal Machine

3. A Security System that arms rich and poor with more and
more catastrophic weapons, resulting in vicious cycles of
crime, mass migration, terrorism and anti-terrorism. (The
crisis of peace.)

Heat

Solar Energy
Prosperity

Resources
Waste
Equity Security

Societal Machine

The Ecosystem

Framing Story

Heat

Solar Energy
Prosperity

Resources
Waste
Equity Security

Societal Machine

4. The Failure of the World’s
Religions to provide a framing story
capable of healing the societal Framing Story
machine - i.e. Good News. (The
crisis of purpose.)

Good News of the Commonwealth of God
Creation, Liberation, Reconciliation


COMPETITION
VICTIMIZATION

REVOLUTION
ISOLATION

The kingdom of God …

A God who forgives …
A God who includes …
A God who notices …
A God who serves …
A nonviolent God who reconciles …
A God who heals …
A God who transcends boundaries …
A God who sides with the poor …
A God who is present …
A God bigger than organized religion …

Victimization: Us in spite of them

Kingdom of God/New Creation/
Reconciliation: Some of us for all
of us.

Non-Domination: Service
Non-Revolution: Nonviolent subversive action
Non-Puriﬁcation: Eating with outcasts
Non-Victimization: Your faith has saved you!
Non-Isolation: Physicians come to the sick
Non-Accumulation: Seek ﬁrst God’s kingdom and justice

Kingdom of God/New Creation/
Reconciliation: Love God, love
neighbor, love enemy, proclaim good
news

Heat

Solar Energy
Prosperity

Resources
Waste
Equity Security

Societal Machine
The Ecosystem

Domination, Revolution, Puriﬁcation,
Isolation, Victimization,
Competition?

Heat

Solar Energy
Prosperity

Resources
Waste
Equity Security

Societal Machine
The Ecosystem

Good News of the
Kingdom of God?

After John was put in
prison, Jesus went into
Galilee, proclaiming the
good news of God.

The time has come, he
said. The kingdom of
God has come near.
Repent and believe the
good news!
Mark 1:15

4 Crises: The Human
Situation: What
Conventional View

is the story that
Emerging View


Planetary crisis (Prosperity)
except for those specifically
in hell.1
lostness and danger. Left to themselves,
sickness and evil.


Poverty crisis (Equity)

Peace-making crisis (Security) that my Father punished me on

Purpose crisis (Spirituality/story)
1
2

Heat

Solar Energy
Prosperity

Resources
Waste
Equity Security

Societal Machine
The Ecosystem

Good News of the
Kingdom of God

The essence of struggle is neither endurance nor
denial. The essence of struggle is the decision to
become new rather than simply to become older. It
is the opportunity to grow either smaller or larger
in the process. There is, then, a gift hidden in the
travails of forced change. It is the gift of beginning
again: conversion.

- Sister Joan
Chittister, Scarred
by Struggle,
Transformed by
Hope, p. 22

Our God, whose love
makes us one family,
May your unspeakable
Name be revered.
Here on earth may your
commonwealth come…
On earth, as in heaven, may your
dreams come true.

Give us today our bread for
today.
Forgive us our wrongs as we
forgive.

Lead us away from the perilous trial,
Liberate us from the evil.

For the kingdom is yours and yours alone,
the power is yours and yours alone, the glory
is yours and yours alone,
Now and forever. Amen.

QUESTION 4: JESUS
who is he and why is he so important?

“vampire Christians”

QUESTION 4: JESUS
who is he and why is he so important?

IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE WORD
(LOGOS), AND THE WORD WAS WITH GOD
AND THE WORD WAS GOD ... THE WORD
BECAME FLESH AND DWELT AMONG US.

(JOHN 1)

rene girard
insights and contributions
- nonviolent theme in the Bible
- a narrative of evolution, emergence
- deconstruction of atonement theory
- uniqueness and universality of Christ
- proper apocalypticism
- a sense of what has gone wrong and why
- a sense of what is real and good, and why

If love and violence are incompatible, the deﬁnition of the
Logos must take this into account. The difference between
the Greek Logos and the Johannine Logos must be an
obvious one, which gets concealed only in the tortuous
complications of a type of thought that never succeeds in
ridding itself of its own violence. (270)

Heidegger is absolutely right to state that there has never
been any thought in the West but Greek thought, even
when the labels were Christian. Christianity has no special
existence in the domain of thought. Continuity with the
Greek Logos has never been interrupted... everything is
Greek and nothing is Christian. (273)

By cultural Platonism we mean the unexamined conviction
that human institutions have been and are what they are
for all eternity, that they have little need to evolve and
none whatsoever to be engendered.

... It is quite evident how a universal Platonism manages to
obscure any phenomena that contradict it. (TH 59)

Behaving in a truly divine manner, on an earth still in the
clutches of violence, means not dominating humans, not
overwhelming them with supernatural power; it means not
terrifying and astonishing them in turn, through the sufferings
and blessings on can confer; it means not creating difference
between doubles and not taking part in their disputes. ‘God
is no respecter of persons.’ He makes no distinction
between ‘Greeks and Jews, men and women, etc.’ This can
look like complete indifference and can lead to the
conclusion that the all-powerful does not exist, so long as his
transcendence keeps him inﬁnitely far from us and our
violent undertakings. But the same characteristics are
revealed as a heroic and perfect love once this
transcendence becomes incarnate in a human being and
walks among men, to teach them about the true God and to
draw them closer to Him. (234)

There is no privileged stance from which absolute truth
can be discovered... That is why the Word that states itself
to be absolutely true never speaks except from the
position of a victim in the process of being expelled....
[F]or two thousand years this Word has been
misunderstood, despite the enormous amount of publicity
it has received. (435)

Jesus as the non-violent
word of God.
God with and for the
poor.
God who cares for
creation.

What are the questions?

1. The narrative question: What is the shape of the
biblical narrative? Storyline, plotline?

2. The authority question: What is the Bible, and
what is it for? How does it have authority?

3. The God question: Is God violent? Why does
God seem so violent and genocidal in so many
bible passages?

4. The Jesus Question: Who is Jesus, and
why does he matter?

5. The Gospel Question: What is the gospel
- a message of evacuation or
transformation? Exclusion or inclusion?
- Reign, kingdom, economy, ecosystem,
dance, friendship, network of God.

6. The church question: What do we
do about the church?
- The church as school of Christ-
likeness and love, training and
deploying of love-peace-justice
activists.

7. The sex question: Can we deal
with issues of sexuality without
fighting and dividing?
- Deeper issue: sexuality to
embodiment to humanity to creation

8. The future question: Can we find a
more hopeful vision of the future?
- Evacuation plan to incarnation plan,
a Participatory Eschatology

9. The pluralism question: How
should we relate to people of other
faiths?
- Seeking a strong and benevolent
Christian identity

10. The next step question: How can
we pursue this quest in humility,
love, and peace?
- Winning a hearing, not winning an
argument.

Something is on the way out and something
else is painfully being born.
It is as if something were crumbling,
decaying, and exhausting itself,
while something else, still indistinct, were
arising from the rubble....
We are in a phase when one age is
succeeding another, when everything is
possible.
Vaclav Havel, “The New Measure of Man”

Fr. Vincent Donovan:
Do not leave others where
they are.
Do not bring them to where
you are, as beautiful as that
place might be.
Instead, go with them to a
new place neither you nor they
have ever been before.

Go into all the world and proclaim the
gospel (the good, joyful, healing story)
to all creation.
- Jesus

Text

something is trying to be born:
envisioning a new kind of Christian faith

Ghost ranch 2012

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