Everyone is welcome as we have our special follow-up discussion on our September event on Jesus and Justice at Busboys. It will be held at the Panera’s on DuPont Circle this Wed at 6:45PM. Click here for all the details (click here). For this discussion, I would like to highlight the voices of those who are currently engaged in justice advocacy either in their job or in their free-time. As much as I value voting and verbal support for justice candidates, I’m not talking about people who vote a certain way but people who are actually “working” for justice. Verbal affirmations can only get us so far in the world.
We have a bunch of people in our group involved in local and international efforts to create a more just world, and they do what they do because of their faith. These people follow a unique spiritual pathway (“justice spirituality”) that all of us can learn from. My wife, Jennifer Butler, will give her own perspective on the faith and justice connection. She is the Executive Director of a small, non-profit PR firm (Faith in Public Life) that provides PR services to ministers and religious organizations working on justice causes. She’s also has served a term in the Peace Corp, and she ran the Presbyterian Office at the United Nations for several years before moving to DC.
She was raised in a very conservative home and Christian school in the Deep South where concern for the poor was frowned upon, but then she had a “justice conversion” experience in high school when fears over nuclear war were at their height in high school. She’ll share what happened when she encountered the Jesus of Justice, how that encounter changed her life, and what sustains her in her work today.
We’re going to get a lot out of this conversation, because I suspect a lot of us grew up in home & church environments where faith was only about personal salvation and your “individual relationship with God.” Let’s reflect theologically about where we are today!
So if you have ever thought about getting involved in God’s movement for justice in the world, this is the discussion you’ve been waiting for!
Looking forward to our conversation!
Posted by Glenn Zuber in Uncategorized | Monday, October 10th, 2011
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 help the world encounter the Kingdom of God, a place where peace and justice reign. In King’s day the presenting problem was legally-sanctioned racism that reinforced widespread economic inequality; the movement of God was a revolution in civil rights and human dignity.
Now 30something authors Adam Taylor and Peter Heltzel in an evening book signing conversation at Busboys & Poets, 14 & V will share their inspiring and challenging perspectives on Race, Justice Advocacy, and Jesus in our current cultural and theological moment. To a large degree, US Christians have not been able to bridge the racial divide within their own ranks, often with significant social & justice implications for the larger society. If you are inspired by Gandhi’s principle “Be the change you seek to see in the world,” then this will be a great, thought-provoking evening!
Along with talking about their books, they will suggest practical ways that different racial communities within the larger Christian community can better partner to strengthen the common good. While talking about our present circumstances , they will also discuss how they have been inspired by MLK’s call to create a just society as they engage in their own creative, grassroots faith-based justice advocacy which takes place in a very different context, the post-Civil Rights era. These two authors work, write, organize, and theorize in a world when the burdens of the world might be different from the 1960s but the need for creative faith leaders to root their work in the prophetic imagination of Jesus and the Hebrew prophets remains as pressing as ever.
Adam Taylor (World Vision, USA) and Peter Heltzel (New York Theological Seminary) have both written extensively on, and modeled, how Christians can build cross-racial, economically diverse, global movements that represent the hopeful in-breaking of the Kingdom of God into our broken, often demoralized society. While speaking from different racial backgrounds, Adam Taylor and Peter Heltzel are similar in many ways: they are theological writers, grassroots organizers, and public policy commentators. Both Adam and Peter have worked within the mainline Protestant, evangelical Protestant, and black church traditions to built cross-racial, economically diverse networks to create a more just world.
Join us for a great evening on a potentially-life changing topic!
Here’s more information on our two conversation partners:
Adam Taylor : He is Vice-President of Advocacy at World Vision, USA , one of the largest faith-based non-profits in the world today. Previously, he served as Senior Political Director at Sojourners. He co-founded Global Justice, an organization that educates and mobilizes students around global human rights and economic justice. He’s the author of Mobilizing Hope: Faith-inspired Activism for a Post-Civil Rights Generation, forward by Jim Wallis (Intervarsity, August 2010).
Peter Heltzel : He is Assistant Professor of Systematic Theology at New York Theological Seminary. He co-founded the New York Faith & Justice Network, a leading faith-based voice for economic justice in the Big Apple. He’s the author of Jesus and Justice: Evangelicals, Race, and American Politics (Yale, 2009), and edited, Evangelicals and Empire: Political Alternatives to the Political Status Quo (Brazos, 2008).
Brian McLaren visited us again for a DC Theology Pub on June 2nd, and he gave a great talk on “Spiritual Practices for Today’s ‘Not Religious’” based his new book Naked Spirituality: A Life with God in 12 Simple Words! This edition of theology pub met at Buffalo Billiards on Dupont Circle.
More than 20 percent of Americans define themselves as “spiritual but not religious,” a growing segment of people who are looking for new spiritual pathways. McLaren addressed the reasons why so many Americans see themselves in this light. He suggested in his talk that a transparent encounter with God is what most spiritual people are seeking – and that this encounter is too often missing from organized religion.
McLaren has described why he wrote his new book: “This is a book about getting naked—not physically, but spiritually. It’s about stripping away the symbols and status of public religion—the Sunday-dress version people often call ‘organized religion.’ We are after a lost treasure as old as the story of the Garden of Eden: the possibility of being naked and not ashamed, naked before God and naked before one another, too, where we have no need to cover up, to protect, to posture, to dress to impress, just the freedom to be who we are what we are, as we are. I hope this book will help you strip away distractions and discover that precious hidden treasure underneath.”
Naked Spirituality offers twelve words, or practices, to anchor the reader in God and free him or her to do the holistic work the gospel calls for – to pray as well as save the planet; to worship as well as lift up the poor and needy. McLaren shares practical wisdom for living a truly spiritual life as he presents a dozen exercises for beginning and sustaining a meaningful relationship with God. Rooted in four seasons, these practices are represented by simple words which are easy to remember but rich in transformative power.
McLaren invites readers to leave behind negative experiences of religion so they can become truly spiritual people and reclaim the promise of religion. He writes: “Religion, by its etymology, is about connecting us together again. In this light true religion and naked spirituality are two names for the same thing: seeking vital connection. So if religion is experienced as promoting selfishness rather than otherliness, as prioritizing one’s own personal salvation and religiosity over the well-being of others, then religion becomes anti—religious. Maybe if we name this kind of unspiritual phenomenon “de-ligion” instead of “religion,” we can save the latter word for the traditions that enhance and support naked spirituality.”
Our June 2nd event was great, come by the pub any time you can! There’s always room at the table for one more!
Posted by Glenn Zuber in news•Uncategorized | Saturday, June 4th, 2011
Does God care about injustice? If God did, would that change your worldview? Think about the ramifications…
We are thrilled that Paul Brandeis Raushenbush will be giving a talk on the return of social gospel thinking, especially among younger U.S. Christians, at a book signing for his recently edited work, Christianity and the Social Crisis – In the 21st Century: The Classic that Woke up the Church. So grab a beer and join us! Raushenbush is uniquely positioned to talk about the history, theology, and future of this key movement within world Christianity called the “social gospel”—why it developed in early industrial America, why some oppose it as dangerously revolutionary, and why its principles are increasingly shaping the faith of younger Christians today (across the theological spectrum!). Paul Raushenbush is the great-grandson of Walter Rauschenbusch, the author of the classic theological treatise on the social gospel (Christianity and the Social Crisis) published over a century ago.
Social Gospel thinking goes by many names today (“biblical justice,” “mercy and justice,” social teaching, etc.), but if you have ever thought your faith had something to say about systemic injustice (human trafficking, poverty, economic exploitation, etc.), then you’ve been shaped by social gospel assumptions! In a nutshell, social gospel thinkers argued that Jesus’ healing message applied as much to individual hearts as whole societies because Jesus’ goal was both to save souls and transform the world. Many have said that the Social Gospel is one of the few unique contributions to world Christian theology made by the U.S. church. This is an event that you won’t want to miss. Check out what the hype is all about!
Besides his new book, Paul Raushenbush has made a number of unique contributions to religion in America. He is also the Religion Editor for the Huffington Post, an online source for theological news and commentary that has quickly become one of the best in the nation. Besides being an author and editor, Paul Raushenbush is an accomplished minister and university teacher. He is the Associate Dean of Religious Life and the Chapel at Princeton University. He is also the Co-Director of the Program on Religion, Diplomacy and International Relations at The Liechtenstein Institute on Self Determination at Princeton University. He has appeared on ABC World News Tonight and is a repeated guest on CNN and NPR. An ordained American Baptist minister, Rev. Raushenbush speaks and preaches at colleges, churches and think tanks around the country, including the College of Preachers at the National Cathedral in Washington D.C., The Chautauqua Institute in upstate New York, the Center for American Progress, and the New America Foundation.
The event is sponsored by Iona Conversations, DC Theology Pub, and An Emerging Conversation in DC.
Meeting space: We will meet in the Library Room of the Darlington House just up the street from the north exit of the Dupont Circle station (I mean right off the metro exit!). The Library Room is the event space in the Darlington House on the 3rd level (over the 1st pub level and 2nd restaurant level). There will be chairs, tables, and couches everywhere. There will be a cash bar for drinks, but no food for sale.
Here’s someone’s video of a Brian McLaren’s book talk & book signing at Busboys & Poets 14 & V in Washington, DC. Brian talked about his newest book, A New Kind of Christianity: 10 Questions Transforming the Christian Faith. The videographer captured some interesting interviews on why people came to hear Brian. Brian went over the “10 Questions” transforming the Xtn faith and then there was a Q & A. The talk was hosted by Iona Conversations and DC Theology Pub. An Emerging Xtny Conversation was organized after the end of the talk.
Posted by Glenn Zuber in news•Uncategorized | Monday, February 28th, 2011
y on, and modeled, how Christians can build cross-racial, economically diverse, global movements that represent the hopeful in-breaking of the Kingdom of God into our broken, often demoralized society. While speaking from different racial backgrounds, Adam Taylor and Peter Heltzel are similar in many ways: they are theological writers, grassroots organizers, and public policy commentators. Both Adam and Peter have worked within the mainline Protestant, evangelical Protestant, and black church traditions to built cross-racial, economically diverse networks to create a more just world.
non-profits in the world today. Previously, he served as Senior Political Director at Sojourners. He co-founded Global Justice, an organization that educates and mobilizes students around global human rights and economic justice. He’s the author of Mobilizing Hope: Faith-inspired Activism for a Post-Civil Rights Generation, forward by Jim Wallis (Intervarsity, August 2010).
