Saturday, October 11, 2008
Beloved Community Conference Saturday Morning
This morning at the Beloved Community Conference, we began with some fellowship and coffee and good networking time. Then we got to hear from Peter Laarman, from Progressive Christians Uniting. His topic was "Mercy and Truth Will Meet: What it Takes to Be a Movement That Matters."
He began talking about our current economic crisis, and how it might be a good thing for Christians in that it will expose idols such as wealth and nationalism. He called for a prophetic rather than pastoral response to this crisis, one that can point to the rainbow of hope beyond our current situation by telling truth with mercy about the brokenness of our system. Such truth-telling can cause anger, which can drive change. He said that passivity is cultivated by consumerism, debt, and overwork, and called for a return to a sabbath economics of rest and restoration.
He said that Progressive Christians United is driven by four elements: growth in faith, strength in eachother, seeing the world more clearly, and liberating ourselves and others for social transformation. He said that movements must be driven by coherent vision and ideas plus a sustaining culture.
He pointed to persistent patriarchy as a major cause of homophobia, and said that examples of equal justice love are an important part of changing people's minds and hearts on this issue.
He called for creating hives of busy activism around social justice, incubators or communities of leadership development, networks to link progressive Christians to each other, and basic consensus on public issues to communicate to others.
He did point to a few issues he suggested for the basic consensus:
equality
inclusivity of other faiths into the kingdom of god
torture
slavery
demonization of youth of color
debt peonage through usury and student loan system
There were great questions afterwards, and now we are hearing some wonderful praise music by Kemo, a praise group from Christ Church Uniting in Northwest Atlanta.
More later
He began talking about our current economic crisis, and how it might be a good thing for Christians in that it will expose idols such as wealth and nationalism. He called for a prophetic rather than pastoral response to this crisis, one that can point to the rainbow of hope beyond our current situation by telling truth with mercy about the brokenness of our system. Such truth-telling can cause anger, which can drive change. He said that passivity is cultivated by consumerism, debt, and overwork, and called for a return to a sabbath economics of rest and restoration.
He said that Progressive Christians United is driven by four elements: growth in faith, strength in eachother, seeing the world more clearly, and liberating ourselves and others for social transformation. He said that movements must be driven by coherent vision and ideas plus a sustaining culture.
He pointed to persistent patriarchy as a major cause of homophobia, and said that examples of equal justice love are an important part of changing people's minds and hearts on this issue.
He called for creating hives of busy activism around social justice, incubators or communities of leadership development, networks to link progressive Christians to each other, and basic consensus on public issues to communicate to others.
He did point to a few issues he suggested for the basic consensus:
equality
inclusivity of other faiths into the kingdom of god
torture
slavery
demonization of youth of color
debt peonage through usury and student loan system
There were great questions afterwards, and now we are hearing some wonderful praise music by Kemo, a praise group from Christ Church Uniting in Northwest Atlanta.
More later
Labels: Beloved Community, Progressive Christian
