In the News: Reading & Resisting
A round-up of recent religion news. Continue Reading →
Tag: nonviolence
In Praise of Capital
Amy Levin: Marching down Lafayette yesterday, surrounded by hundreds of #occupywallstreet protesters, I experienced what many in my shoes might call a “secular spirituality,” as we ritually chanted in exhilarated unison. “We are the 99%”–or as my cohorts and I chanted it, “you are the 99%”–occupied the street–as–stage, sending our message with powerful frequency to hundreds of passerbys. The 99% is powerful; sheer numbers matter – but chant only works insofar as the 99% become self-aware of their own 99% identity. The power then becomes contingent on a type of identification, a recognition of the self within a greater shared collectivity. Isn’t this how some define religion? Continue Reading →
Preaching Against the Wars
The Proper 29 Project, created by Mennonite pastor Mark Villegas and named for Reign of Christ Sunday (November 21, also known as Proper 29), asks pastors to “address the violence in Iraq and Afghanistan” in their sermons. Writes Anna Groff at The Mennonite:
Villegas is pastor of Chapel Hill (N.C.) Mennonite Fellowship and a columnist for The Mennonite. He informed all the pastors he knows about the project–many of which are Mennonite. As of Nov. 4, several Mennonite pastors told him they would participate.
Some of the non-Mennonite pastors told him they would receive negative response if they preached about this issue.
“It’s hard here in North Carolina,” said Villegas on Nov. 4. “Our economy is tied to the military-industrial complex. Preaching about the suffering cause by U.S. forces in Iraq hits too close to home in a state that has such a high military population.”