Conference lgp30::christian-perspective

"In some circumstances, religion is a profoundly revolutionary force,
holding out a vision of how things might or ought to be.  Historically,
religion has been one of the most important motivations for change
because of it's particular effectiveness in uniting people's beliefs
with their actions, their ideas with their social lives."

					- Meredith B. Maguire

    
    Richard, 
    
    	The following are some of my favorite quotes on the subject
    of radical social activism.  There are many many Christians who
    have courageously followed this path and spoken/acted upon 
    various corruptions and injustices they experienced in their political 
    and religious cultures.  If I have an opportunity, I'll list a few 
    of these "radical social activists" in another reply... heading
    the list would be Jesus Christ.
                                   
    	Any religion which professes to be concerned about the souls
    	of men and is not concerned about the social and economic
    	conditions that can scar the soul, is a spiritually moribund 
    	religion only waiting for the day to be buried.
    
    		-- Martin Luther King, Jr.
    
    	Prophetic inspiration, is for the sake, for the benefit, of
    	a third party.  It is not a private affair between prophet
    	and God;  its purpose is the illumination of the people rather
    	than the illumination of the prophet.  The prophet in us says,
    	"NO!  This is not the way the Creator wanted the universe to 
    	respond to the blessing that creation is.  We can -- we must 
    	-- do things differently."
    
    		-- Rabbi Abraham Heschel
    
    	Only when redemption in Christ is understood as historical, 
    	as an affirmation of God's original intention for creation, 
    	rather than a rejection of creation, will it become possible
    	to see the great New Testament theme of equality in Christ
    	as a mandate, not merely of flight from the world, but of
    	transformation of the world in the direction of justice.
    
    		-- Rosemary Ruether
    
    	First, it is imperative in the name of the gospel to make
    	the underdeveloped masses aware of their human dignity, of
    	their rights to a better lige, one which is worth of the 
    	human person.  The second point is to stir the consciousness
    	of the rich at home and abroad.
    
    		-- Dom Helda Camera
    
    	What does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to 
    	love kindness and to walk humbly with your God?
    
    		-- Mic. 6:8
    
    	If you love the justice of Jesus Christ ore than you fear
    	human judgement, then you will seek to do compassion.
    
    		-- Mechtild of Magdeburg
    
    	To watch over a man who grieves is a more urgent duty than
    	to think of God.
    
    		-- Elie Wiesel
    
    	A radical conversion of the non-poor is needed today.
    
    		-- Maria Augustine Neal
    
    	Jesus repeatedly addresses himself to the individual in terms
    	of re-creation.  When he approaches the poor, the oppressed,
    	and the sinner, he does not simply console them in their plight;
    	he proposes to re-create their present situaiton and thus do
    	"justice" to them.  This is the quintessence of Jesus' under-
    	standing of the kingdom.
    
    		-- Jon Sobrino
    
    	Joy was in fact the most characteristic result of all Jesus'
    	activity amongst the poor and the oppressed.
    
    		-- Albert Nolan
    
    	As a rule it was the pleasure-haters who became unjust.
    
    		-- W. H. Auden
    
    	Compassion means justice.
    
    		-- Meister Eckhart
    
    	The prophet in each of us is our social conscience.
    
    		-- Matthew Fox
    

Would Operation Rescue be considered "radical social activism"?  (Not
to discuss abortion, just whether or not it fits into this category.)

Collis

    Collis,
    
    > Would Operation Rescue be considered "radical social activism?"
    
    Of course. :-)  
    
    Karen

    Thanks, Karen, for entering those provocative thoughts.
    
    I'm not so sure I'd categorize Operation Rescue as radical.
    I tend to see Operation Rescue as reactionary.  However, I will
    remain open to the possibility.
    
    Peace,
    Richard

    Richard,
    
    re Operation Rescue - radical or reactionary?
    
    That's why I added the smiley face at the end of .4.
    I'm fairly sure that those inside the Operation Rescue movement
    see it as being radical as opposed to reactionary, while others
    may tend to see it differently.
    
    But that's the nature of "radical social activism".  It defies
    consensus. :-)
    
    > However, I will remain open to the possibility.
    
    I think this is always a good idea Richard.  The Holy Spirit has a 
    heck of a time working through closed minds. ;-)
    
    Love ya bro,
    Karen

    Richard,
    
    If you believed what OR folks believe, how much more radical could your
    response be?  :-|  <-- indicates serious face, serious question
    
    Nancy
    
    

    As stated elsewhere, I'm not entirely unsympathetic to OR.
    
    Most folks tend to think of _any_ extreme as radical.  However,
    as indicated in my basenote, I am using radical to mean "favoring
    sweeping (pervasive, diffuse) social change."  Also, I mean
    radical to mean to cut through to the "root" of the issue.  OR
    seems to be reacting to a symptom rather than dealing with the
    cause.
    
    There also the right-wing or conservative factor to consider.  The
    John Birch Society, for example, may think of itself as radical, but
    it is genuinely reactionary.
    
    Peace,
    Richard

re Note 66.8 by CSC32::J_CHRISTIE:

>     John Birch Society, for example, may think of itself as radical, but
>     it is genuinely reactionary.
  
        Define "reactionary", please.

        (I came to the conclusion a while ago that everybody was
        "conservative" about something -- you are conservative about
        that which you consider essential.  Thus a wild-eyed liberal
        is conservative at least with respect to their liberal
        principles.)

        Bob

    
    
    >I am using radical to mean "favoring sweeping (pervasive, diffuse) social 
    >change."  Also, I mean radical to mean to cut through to the "root" of the 
    >issue.
    
    Richard, I don't know this, but take for assumption that the social
    changes being sought are:
     
    To perceive an unborn human a baby. 
    To eliminate sex outside of (yes, heterosexual) marriage
    
    I don't know this, but I suspect that OR sees these as the roots, a
    mindset that will dehumanize one class of people for the sake of
    satisfying one's sexual desires. I also suspect that they see these as
    completely opposite of God's view on the subject. I suspect that they
    see themselves as part of a radical movement, regardless of academic
    classification by some other yardstick.
    
    Jamey
    

Bob,

Reactionary (Webster's): Marked by reaction, esp., opposing progress
or liberalism.

Peace,
Richard

    Jamey,
    
    While I'm not entirely unsympathetic to the purpose of Operation
    Rescue, I cannot find it within myself to dehumanize pregnant women
    by legally forcing them to become, simply put, biological maturation
    support units.
    
    As you know, this topic is pursued in 3 other notes.
    
    Peace,
    Richard

    thanks Richard
    
    Bonnie

It is really true, that all exercise of morality or religion
in the western world is performed on a cushion of wealth;
if not one's personal wealth, then the wealth of one's surrounding
community and culture; and this wealth has been accumulated at the
world's expense.

The morality of rules and laws based upon rewards and punishments
leads to the ruling of "slaves" by the benevolent exploitation of
their illusions.

When you give bread in order to be charitable, live with with a man
or a woman in order to be faithful, eat with a minority in order to be
unprejudiced; you may still never "see" or "know" the other person.

Women represent over 1/2 of the global population,
	1/3 of the global labor force,
	control less than 1% of the world's property,
	are responsible for 2/3 of all working hours
	and earn less than 20% of the total wages.

    "Every school day, one hundred thirty five thousand U.S. children
    bring guns to school."
    
    					- Children's Defense Fund
    
    What are the spiritual implications of this?
    
    Richard

"If a religion informs believers that their misfortune is part of God's
plan to test their faith, they are not likely to challenge that misfortune.
Believers are unlikely to try changing a situation that the belief system
has defined as one that humans are powerless to change.  Belief systems
that embody this kind of fatalism are not conducive to social activism."
Page 205

Meredith B. Maguire, "Religion: The Social Context," 1987, Wadsworth Publishing
Company.

>"If a religion informs believers that their misfortune is part of God's
>plan to test their faith, they are not likely to challenge that misfortune.
>Believers are unlikely to try changing a situation that the belief system
>has defined as one that humans are powerless to change.  Belief systems
>that embody this kind of fatalism are not conducive to social activism."
    
    I think the same thing can be said of a religion that emphasizes the
    spiritual over the physical, or that emphasizes life after death to the
    exclusion of the importance of life now.
    
    Nancy

	THE PIKES PEAK REGION
	=====================


		Colorado Springs is a place of unparalleled, rugged beauty.
	So magnificent and awe-inspiring is its surrounding natural beauty
	that someone once remarked that it looked more like a backdrop for
	a motion picture than a place where people could actually live.  Its
	legendary panorama of mountains is dominated only by the majesty
	of Pikes Peak, which is said to have inspired the popular patriotic
	anthem, "America the Beautiful."

		Somewhat paradoxically, Colorado Springs and vicinity lies
	dependently at the bosom of America's militaristic bastions.  The
	city is embraced on all sides by military installations and
	institutions: to the Northwest, the United States Air Force Academy;
	to the East, Peterson Air Force Base; to the Southeast, the Strategic
	Defense Initiative's National Test Bed located at Falcon Air Force
	Base (an air base conspicuously absent any form of landing strip);
	to the South, Fort Carson Army Base; to the Southwest, insulated
	within the depths of Cheyenne Mountain, NORAD.

		Military-related government contracts, long pursued as both
	dependable and lucrative, have lured large corporate interests to the
	vicinity, especially high tech companies such as Digital Equipment
	Corporation, Hewlitt-Packard, Ford Aerospace, and Kaman Sciences.

		With churches listed in the local telephone directory numbering
	in excess of 250, the region is saturated with churches and parachurch
	organizations.  Colorado Springs hosts the worldwide headquarters of
	Compassion International, Young Life, and the International Bible
	Society.  The city has been selected to become the future home of
	Dr. James Dobson's 'Focus on the Family,' and in 1989, Colorado
	Springs was under consideration for the headquarters of Campus Crusade
	for Christ.  Numerous other less formal and presumably less
	institutionalized religious collectivities and enterprises, often
	meeting in homes and promoted mostly through word of mouth, are not
	uncommon.

		Though segmented, religion is a regular part of the local
	popular media.  Some churches occasionally purchase broadcast
	advertising, particularly through the smaller, syndicated television
	station (KRXM).  Newspaper advertising by congregations is a regular
	part of the Saturday Religion section of the Gazette Telegraph.  For
	years, one of the local car dealers, Will Perkins, has devoted his
	TV commercials during the Advent season to messages of salvation,
	offering a telephone number for viewers to call and claim their
	"gift of redemption".

		It would not be unfair to say that Colorado Springs is a city of
	predominantly conservative politics, traditional family values, and
	strong nationalistic pride.  Radical social activism is very much at
	negative tension with local culture.  As one observer has noted:

    	   "Given that Colorado Springs is such a conservative, military
	    town, what interested me when I moved here was that progressive
	    social activism was much more visible than in other conservative
	    communities where I have lived; more importantly, much of that
	    activism has been faith-based."  (Valenza)

	PROFILING THE RADICAL COMMUNITY
	===============================

		Organizationally, the peace movement of Colorado Springs is
	highly unstructured.  There exists no titles and no hierarchy.  Yet,
	unquestionably, there is leadership.  Leadership appears to be
	deferential, based upon an unspoken concurrence regarding an
	individual's breadth of involvement, experience, integrity, and not
	surprisingly, personal charisma.  Unlike some highly structured
	organizations, little or no intra-movement struggle or maneuvering
	occurs over seizure of power or prestige.

		The Colorado Springs peace community is largely, but far from
	exclusively, Roman Catholic.  A few claim no faith expression at all.
	The community is predominantly caucasian.  Since no membership
	statistics are kept, it is difficult to gauge the ratio of male to
	female activists.  Based on my own observation, I would speculate that
	men and women are close to equal in number.  Ages of most activists
	range from teens to retirement.  However, it is not uncommon to see
	children carrying banners at demonstrations, rallies, and other
	events.

		In 1986, the core of the peace community was estimated to
	consist of about 30 individuals, with about 100 persons making up
	a "wider ripple" (McCaffrey).  These figures probably haven't shifted
	significantly since then.  From these few, countless other lives are
	touched and influenced (McCaffrey).  The configuration is occassionally
	affected by variables such as relocation and personal circumstances.

		In the course of researching this paper, I interviewed five
	local residents who are widely recognized for their involvement in
	radical activism in the region.  I shall introduce them in chronological
	order as interviewed:

	Geoff Parker is currently the Director of the Pikes Peak Justice and
	Peace Commission.  In addition, Parker volunteers regularly at the
	soup kitchen and at Bijou House, a hospitality house which provides
	support and direction, in addition to shelter, to persons experiencing
	economic instability.

	Joan Brown, a Franciscan sister, is Editor of "Active for Justice,"
	a journal published eleven times yearly by the Pikes Peak Justice and
	Peace Commission.  Joan is also a regular volunteer at the soup
	kitchen.  Brown and Susan Mataresse, a Benedictine sister, operate
	Peace House.  Parallel in mission to Bijou House, Peace House offers
	hospitality specifically open to women.  Brown is a prolific
	journalist, contributing many of the recent articles published in
	the Colorado Springs Catholic Herald, a monthly publication of the
	local diocese.

	Claiming a Mennonite faith and heritage, Mary Sprunger-Froese is the
	Director of the Arts for Peace project of the Pikes Peak Justice and
	Peace Commission.  Mary, who has exhibited a flair for the performing
	arts, has been involved in numerous local theatrical productions.  She
	presently is tasked with exploring artistic endeavors to convey socially
	conscious messages in the hope of reaching a wider audience.

	Steve Handen and Mary Lynn Sheetz are married to each other.  Handen,
	at one time a Roman Catholic priest, is considered one of local
	activism's most articulate and visionary spokespersons.  So highly
	respected is Handen that in the course of my research, when I
	approached Colonel Ken Wenker of the Air Force Academy for his
	comments, he recommended that I pursue this particular topic with
	Handen.  Wenker, who has publicly debated opposite Handen, maintains
	that there's not the level of antagonism between those of opposing
	viewpoints in Colorado Springs as he has witnessed elsewhere.  Wenker
	describes his relationship with Handen as cordial, and one of mutual
	respect.  He defends Handen and others as possessing, "the right and
	the obligation to act out their faith," though he personally may be
	in vehement disagreement with much of it.

	Sheetz, a lively and expressive woman in her own right, is integral
	to the operation of the soup kitchen and of the Bijou House.
	Sheetz has demonstrated a strong talent for the graphic arts.
	Sheetz and Handen make their home in a smaller dwelling located behind
	the Bijou House.

		Of these five persons I interviewed, I observed a number of
	commonalties:

	o	All have aligned their lives and lifestyles with the poor and
		dispossessed.  All have chosen to live in voluntary poverty.
		Their choices of clothing, adornments (jewelry, timepieces),
		hairstyles, and cosmetics could be described in terms such as
		practical, essential, and austere.  Sprunger-Froese, for
		example, customarily wears no more jewelry than her handmade
		wedding band composed of three intertwined metal strands;
		symbolizing herself, her spouse, and God.  Sr. Joan Brown
		wears a stylized crucifix and a medallion of her order on
		a simple chain necklace.

	o	All site a spiritual premise or foundation for their actions,
		choices, and involvement in radical activism.  During our
		conversations, all spoke comfortably using Biblical allusions
		and religious terminology.  For example, Geoff Parker said,
		"There comes a time to have confidence in the God who raised
		up the Radical," clearly refering to the Christian belief in
		the resurrection of Jesus.

	o	Though not all presently hold membership ties with any of the
		local institutional churches, all were raised in an overtly
		religious home environment.

	o	In my own judgment, it is likely that each one would be defined
		at the pinnacle end of two widely recognized spectrums of
		measuring spiritual development and style.

	o	All have been arrested multiple times for engaging either in
		acts of civil disobedience or non-violent protest.

	o	All are well educated.  All have had at least some college
		education.

	o	All tended to be positive about the possibility of affecting
		social change.  Not one, however, was so optimistic as to
		believe that change would come without struggle or setbacks.

	o	None experienced a singular "breakthrough" moment in reaching
		their present understandings.  Rather, each expressed
		experiencing an incremental conversion; a gradual new
		awakening or consciousness.  Brown indicated that, for her,
		conversion was an ongoing process.  Handen quipped, "To put
		it into computer terms, I think the software was already
		in place.  The application was the only thing that really
		changed."

	o	None are inclined to conform for the sake of conformance.  None
		considered any matter immune from questioning and scrutiny,
		particularly when power systems and authority were involved.

	THE JUSTICE AND PEACE COMMISSION
	================================

		The Pikes Peak Justice and Peace Commission provides a more
	formal vehicle for cohesive radical efforts.  Proclaiming in its
	mission statement to be grounded in the principles of Jesus Christ,
	the Commission exists "to facilitate growth toward justice and peace
	in ourselves and in our sisters and brothers of the Pikes Peak
	community by providing alternate sources of information, facilitating
	formative experiences, and encouraging prophetic witness."

		About 2 years ago the Bishop of the Colorado Springs Roman
	Catholic Diocese offered to take the Commission under the wing of the
	Church to serve as its social action arm.  The Executive Board, which
	was then composed of 2 Catholics, 4 United Methodists, 2 Unitarian
	Universalists, and 1 Latter Day Saint, declined the offer, indicating
	a desire to remain ecumenical.

		The Commission is responsible for the publication of "Active for
	Justice," which boasts a postal subscribership in excess of 600, and
	is mailed as far East as Malta, as far West as Hawaii, as far North as
	Saskatchewan, and as far South as Nicaragua.  The masthead of each issue
	declares this paper to be "A voice for social justice and nonviolence."
	Hundreds of copies are regularly distributed free of charge through area
	churches, libraries, college campuses, and merchants.

		The oldest and largest organization of its kind in the area,
	the Commission serves as a hub for the exchange of information among
	several organizations in affinity, including Citizens for Peace in
	Space, Beyond War, Amnesty International, Habitat for Humanity, Pledge
	of Resistance, Veterans' Peace Action Team, a Native American support
	group and a Central American support group.

		The Commission offers numerous educational programs.  One such
	program called "The Urban Experience" exposes church, school, and
	community service groups to the 'invisible' poverty within Colorado
	Springs.

		Steve Handen remarks, "It is a fairly easy thing to feed the
	hungry.  One of the richest churches in the city regularly volunteers
	a work day at the soup kitchen.

		"After fulfilling their Christian obligation," says Handen,
	"these well-meaning churchpeople quickly return, seemingly unaffected,
	to lives of comfort and affluence.  It's a far more unpopular and
	necessary thing to ask, 'Why are there hungry people in the first
	place?'  This question requires people to examine their own lives
	and their own daily choices."

		According to its Executive Board, part of the mission of the
	Pikes Peak Justice and Peace Commission is to pose these kinds of
	probing and disturbing questions.

	SOME SOCIOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS
	================================

		Were it to be considered a religious collectivity, the
	orientation of local peace community most likely would be classified
	as sectarian, given its negative tension with society, and the virtuoso
	level of commitment characteristic of its core members (Magwire:124).
	Moreover, it would qualify as a 'fraternita' (ie, little brotherhood),
	in that the movement seeks communality and tends to be integrated more
	by "spirit" than by formal organization (127).

		A sense of community sustains and nurtures local activists in
	an environment that is less than hospitable to radical activism.  This
	sense of community, as with a religious sect, creates cohesion and
	support among those who possess analogous world views which are at
	profound variance from those of the dominant culture (140).  For some,
	this sense of community transcends time and location.  For Joan Brown,
	it means a feeling of solidarity and spiritual kinship with such
	religiously rooted radicals as Jesus of Nazareth, Francis of Assisi,
	Martin Luther King, Jr., Dorothy Day, Daniel Berrigan, Jim Douglass,
	and the people of Central America and elsewhere.

		It is the consensus among the people of the peace community
	that, for the most part, the institutional church has compromised
	itself by failing to address issues of public morality (economic,
	political, martial, and environmental).  "The church has a very narrow
	range of parameters," charges Geoff Parker, asserting his perception
	of the church's reluctance to step outside the realm of personal piety
	and private morality.  "The church in Colorado Springs is more closely
	aligned with civil religion than with the gospel," says Steve Handen.
	And, it was this dichotomy that led Handen to eventually leave the
	priesthood.  "The church is guilty of tacit complicity with the forces
	of oppression and war-waging," remarks Mary Lynn Sheetz, lamenting
	the prevalent degree of religious privatization.

	   "Believers are unlikely to try changing a situation that the
	    belief system has defined as one that humans are powerless
	    to change.  Belief systems that embody this kind of fatalism
	    are not conducive to social activism." (Magwire:205)

		Commenting on the preceding, one observer comments, "I think the
	same thing can be said of a religion that emphasizes the spiritual over
	the physical, or that emphasizes life after death to the exclusion of
	the importance of life now." (Smith)  Says Sprunger-Froese, refusing
	to relinquish power and passively accept the status quo, "I for one
	accept a different Lordship than the state.  I cannot remain silent
	in the face of pervasive addictions to wealth, and the military
	measures deemed necessary to protect that wealth."

	SUMMARY
	=======

		Social activism is absolutely integral to the faith expression
	of all those I interviewed.  Mary Sprunger-Froese and Joan Brown both
	cited the Gospels specifically as their central source of motivation
	Others have made similar connections between ancient religious beliefs
	and modern social responsibilities.

		Though difficult to quantify, religion is inextricably
	intertwined into the very fabric of radical social activism in
	Colorado Springs.

		Frequently criticized as recklessly naive or lacking a
	balanced perspective, often accused of twisting Scripture to fit
	their own world view, and commonly maligned as the misguided dupes
	of un-American ideologies, this highly visible minority stands in
	defiance of formidable cultural currents and political pressures.
	Uncompromising and unglorified, the radical activists of Colorado
	Springs possess an unquenchable striving to create a world somehow
	more compassionate and less prone to violence than it is at present.
	They also have the audacity to believe it is possible.

				Resources
				---------

	Sr. Joan Brown, OPC, Colorado Springs, interviewed 10/14/90.

	Meredith B. Maguire, "Religion: The Social Context," Wadsworth
	Publishing Company, 1987.

	Raymond McCaffrey, Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph, Section B,
	11/05/86.

	Geoff Parker, Colorado Springs, interviewed 10/9/90.

	Pikes Peak Justice and Peace Commission Executive Board meeting,
	Colorado Springs, 10/25/90.

	Steve Handen, Colorado Springs, interviewed 10/21/90.

	Mary Lynn Sheetz, Colorado Springs, interviewed 10/21/90.

	Mary Sprunger-Froese, Colorado Springs, interviewed 10/21/90.

	Mike Valenza, Digital Equipment Corporation, Christian Perspective
	Computer Conference, 10/29/90.

	Nancy Smith, Digital Equipment Corporation, Christian Perspective
	Computer Conference, 11/7/90.

	Col. Ken Wenker, Philosophy Department, US Air Force Academy, 11/5/90.

I accept my own personal responsibility to replace darkness with light;
hatred with love; suspicion with trust; lies and hypocrisy with honesty;
abuse with fairness; frustration with patience; fear with understanding;
bias, prejudice, and discrimination with tolerance; ignorance with knowledge;
indifference with concern; and apathy with action.  May the Most Holy One
guide me in every step I take.  So be it.

Richard