Rick then spoke of his experiences on the Mexican border and the sanctity of all life. "We become holy in community; we must study and do Torah, and we build the Church by building community. God is within everyone, and the direct experience of working with, for, and among the poor and oppressed is the quickest way one can experience the presence of God."
After a few more speakers, Jack was overfilled and restless to move about. He wandered the campus while listening to a CD by Dave Rovics, one of the musicians at the conference. For the rest of the day, Jack couldn't get "They're Building a Wall" out of his head:
They're Building a Wall by David Rovics
They're
building a wall, A wall between friends, A wall that justifies any
means to their ends. Many feet thick and twenty feet high. They're
building the wall between water and land, So we can eat fruit and they
can eat sand. A wall to keep quiet that which you fear most. They're
building the wall to remove reality from your facts on the ground, A
wall to keep distant the terrible sound of the houses that crumble and
the children that die, A wall to keep separate the truth from the lie.
A wall made of brick but bricks can be broken When the people of Zion
have finally awoken And said no more walls, no more refugees, No more
keeping people upon their knees. And before apartheid was ended they
were building a wall.
That
evening, Bishop John Shelby Spong began by asking, "What has happened
to Christianity? I have been a student of the Bible my entire life. I
am a committed Christian and open to anyone's opinion, but not to their
own facts. The Bible has been used to justify slavery, segregation, to
deny woman equality, and to promote war. A lot of evil happens when the
Bible is misunderstood and misused. In the name of God, men have become
murderers. We live in a world where people in power get to define those
without power. The prophets spoke the word of God in concrete
circumstances and throughout history. Hosea spoke of God as love. Amos
understood that worship and justice go together. Micah confronted
Israel with their behavior, and God again told the people what is
required: "Do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your Lord.'"
On Friday morning, in Newman Hall, in the sanctuary known as Holy Spirit Catholic Church, Betsy Rose led the crowd in singing:
There's a new world coming,
There's a new world coming,
There's a new world coming,
I can hear her breathing.
Jack
marveled at all the smiling faces around him and about the fact that he
had not been in a Catholic church since his youngest sister was wed
twenty-four years ago by their brother, Father Mike.
Rev.
Dr. Welton Gaddy, leader of the Interfaith Alliance Foundation and
pastor at Northminster Baptist Church in L.A, brought the crowd to
their feet from the start. "We are people hungry to get on with the
business we are about. American politics have already been transformed
by religion and spirit, just not the one we believe and desire. We are
a deeply divided nation, and the substance of what passes for religion
looks like the stuff of politics. There is no such thing as the
American religion, for we are a country of over seventy-five faith
traditions. The proper role of religion is to link core values, to
cooperate, to respect all people, to promote peace, justice, and
compassion, and to protect the weak, poor, and the environment. Today,
politics have become a form of religion. We need freedom for and from
that kind of religion. Religion should command, inspire hope, and build
bridges between other faiths and to those with no faith at all. We will
be restless until we speak the truth to power. We will be restless
until we comfort the afflicted and disturb the comfortable. We will be
restless until we become a nation that cares for its entire people and
lives with respect towards all others in the global village. May we all
be restless, and then speak and act in peace and goodwill, in the
spirit of cooperation."
Jack's
mind wandered back to what he had read in Subversive Orthodoxy:
Outlaws, Revolutionaries, and Other Christians in Disguise, as soon as
he noted the author Robert Inchausti was on the morning's program.
Inchausti had written, "To change the world we must become receptacles
of God's love, understanding and goodwill. We must have faith, not
merely of the mind, but of the heart that surrenders the whole man to
the divine inflow; moral action links personal salvation directly to
social responsibility. Victory is not the goal, doing God's will is."
Jack
reflected everyday on what God wanted from him, and spent most of the
time in the dark. He left his ruminating behind when Robert Inchausti
stood at the podium and proclaimed, "This country was built by
spiritual progressives. Spiritual progressives are the center and we
are not a mushy middle. The new bottom line is not new at all; it was
already articulated by the Puritans. The Puritans were about charity,
not power, and that is the true American tradition. We radical
spiritual activists are the heart of the American tradition. Of course
we know there will always be the poor among us, but our call always has
been to respond."
At
the break, Jack was the first one out of Newman Hall, and he strode
directly to UC Botanical Garden to be with over three thousand
California-native plants and sublime silence. On his way back for the
afternoon session, he met a rabbi from Australia and a pastor from
England, who had traveled to America specifically to attend the
conference. Jack marveled at the possibilities of what might happen on
the other side of the world when these men shared what they had
experienced.
Jack
parted ways with them and headed back to Newman Hall to hear Father Fox
speak about the New Reformation. And Jack thought, Everyday, I am
crossing paths with so many incredible people. Last month I sat in
Reverend Ateek's Sabeel office in Jerusalem, and the other night I sat
next to Abla, his sister-in-law, at a meeting of MEPAC. There, I met a
community of tireless workers in the political realm keeping the issue
of peace and justice in Israel and Palestine on the front burner. The
next day, I was in the office of this riot of a woman who founded
MECA--funny, crusty, and salty, with a most compassionate heart. For
seventeen years, MECA has been bearing witness to the West Bank and
Gaza. Then there's Doug, the guy from that last work group; I have
never known anyone like him. Talk about connecting with one's feminine
side! It has got to be holy wisdom, the feminine divinity that led him
to photograph the neighborhood gardens in his town and display them on
Main Street, to bring the folks around and build community. Then he
takes up dancing and singing--his wife must be wondering who she is now
sleeping with.
It
was apparent to Jack when he returned to Newman Hall that the fire
department's maximum allowed crowd size was being ignored. In the
center of the sanctuary of Holy Spirit Catholic Church, Father Fox
proclaimed,
"Forget original sin; remember original blessing. There are
two Christianities in our midst. One worships a punitive father and
seeks obedience at all costs. It is patriarchal, demonizes woman, the
earth, science, gays, lesbians, and deep thought. It builds on fear and
it supports empire-builders. Its theology includes a punitive father in
the sky and teaches original sin.
"The
other Christianity recognizes the original blessing that all beings
derive from. We recognize awe, not sin, not guilt, as the starting
point of true religion. We recognize a divinity who is source of all
things and is as much mother as father, as much female as male. We
honor creation and diversity. When God created everything, He
pronounced it all good. We are here to make love to life. Yes, we are
here to make love to life.
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