Breaking the Mold

Weighed in last time about non-violent self-sacrifice as the heartbeat of Easter.

Here are some folks breaking the current Christian cultural mold and busting out with something new:

Every Church a Peace Church

A bunch of Mennonites, Brethren and Quakers started a non-profit organization/movement called Every Church a Peace Church a few years back.

They’re dedicated to “the formation of new peace churches and the transformation of "war-justifying" churches into peace churches, so that the world will be turned toward peace as churches live and teach as Jesus lived and taught.”

At this point they’ve got about 20 churches in the fold and they’re organizin', educatin' and mobilizin' key folks in traditional "just war" churches and helping catalyze new church plants dedicated to seeking justice through non-violent self-sacrifice.

The traditional Peace Churches--including the Mennonites, Anabaptists, Quakers, Brethren and the Amish--are pretty brittle shells of their former selves these days.

But at one time they had big time influence on American culture. The movement to abolish slavery came straight out of the heart of those groups and they were instrumental in the Civil Rights struggle.

Revitalizing that tradition in some new form--which is what these ECAPC folks are trying to do--would do nothing but good for the discussion among religious people about the use of violence.

The Emerging Church

The Emerging Church is the most common pop name for a large and increasingly influential ‘movement’ of ‘post-modern’ congregations all over the world.

Basically, it’s a new movement that discards older models of Christianity and seeks to create a fresh, post-western expression of gettin' saved and doin' good. I’m pretty sure this is going to be a big old 'who's your daddy' spiritual movement in the years to come.

You can slice and dice The Emerging Church lots of ways, but one of the most important characteristics is its identification with the powerless rather than the powerful.

Most traditional forms of Christianity eventually (quickly) become highly identified with the politically and economically and culturally powerful. Basically, the more a Christian tradition becomes identified with those groups the more it becomes willing to support state sponsored violence in a wide variety of situations. That only makes sense since the powerful wield that big state sword.

Because Emergents tend to identify with the relatively powerless, many of 'em lean toward pacifism or embrace it fully.

Non-violent models of change are in the DNA of The Emerging Church That could have big time implications over the next few decades.

Christian Peacemaker Teams

I love these guys. I'm doing something else important right now, but eventually, who knows? I may end up spending my "golden years" with 'em. Who wouldn't want to see an arthritic old fart on the front lines in Uzbekistan? :^)

You probably heard of one of the CPT members, Tom Fox, who was abducted and executed by stupid religious people in Baghdad recently. CPT has become a worldwide and influential phenomenon. Here’s what's officially what:

Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) arose from a call for Christians to devote the same discipline and self-sacrifice to nonviolent peacemaking that armies devote to war. Enlisting the whole church in an organized, nonviolent alternative to war, today CPT places violence-reduction teams in crisis situations and militarized areas around the world at the invitation of local peace and human rights workers. CPT embraces the vision of unarmed intervention waged by committed peacemakers ready to risk injury and death in an attempt to transform lethal conflict through the nonviolent power of God’s truth and love.

Their strategy includes:

• skilled, international teams that work effectively to support local efforts toward nonviolent peacemaking;
• “getting in the way” of injustice through direct nonviolent intervention, public witness and reporting to the larger world community;
• engaging congregations, meetings and support groups at home to play a key advocacy role with policy makers.

I’ve often wondered what would happen if 5% of Christian churches around the world got with non-violent self-sacrifice and sent missos to join a movement like CPT. Riffing on Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi but this time directly against warfare.

Many missos like that would get 6 feet deep quick. But big numbers die in your garden variety war anyway.

If you're as serious about peace as an army is about war it makes sense you'd be willing to lay down your life.

Why is that idea so strange to so many people when dying for US or Chinese or Russian strategic interests isn't?

Soon: Warfare wise or whack in the 21st century?