nonviolent direct action

Oct
05

Ignacio Martin-Baro & Liberation Psychology

Posted by Paul at 7:38 pm

I’m enjoying reading Psychology of Liberation: Theory and Applications, edited by Maritza Montero and Christopher Sonn.  But especially inspiring is the work of Ignacio Martin-Baro, the primary founder of liberation psychology.  He was eventually murdered because of his work in critical social psychology.  He was 47.

Here’s his explanation of Freire’s term “conscientization” (one of the most important words ever created):

“The human being is transformed through changing his or her reality, by means of an active process of dialogue in which there is a gradual decoding of the world, as people grasp the mechanisms of oppression and dehumanization.  This opens up new possibilities for action where new knowledge of the surrounding reality leads to new self-understanding about the roots of what people are at present and what they could become.” (PL, 56)

You can read his work in Writings for a Liberation Psychology.

I’ll post more quotes along the way….

 

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Aug
06

Un-Doc-U-Bus: No Papers, No Fears

Posted by Paul at 7:49 am

“There are only two feelings.

Love and fear.

There are only two languages.

Love and fear.

There are only two activities.

Love and fear.

There are only two motives, two procedures, two frameworks, two results.

Love and fear.

Love and fear.”

-Michael Leunig

 

Undocumented immigrants are often controlled through fear.  And the Un-Doc-U-Bus riders are showing that courage and love can indeed overcome fear and exclusion and hopefully change policy as well.  I think this is a great action (one of the 198 nonviolent direct actions), what do you think?

 

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May
09

Solidarity Fast with Palestinians?

Posted by Paul at 8:21 am
Israel and Palestine Peace

1,600 Palestinians are fasting because of unjust detentions.  This article from the Daily Mail “1600 on Hunger Strike and the World Doesn’t Even Bat an Eye” is a good summary of the current situation.

What will it take for the world to care enough to end the occupation?

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May
02

Social Movement Studies: The Ethics of Research on Activism

Posted by Paul at 8:07 am

Activism - (Occupy Wall Street - OWS)If you’re interested in researching activism as well as engaging in it I think you’ll find this helpful.

Social Movement Studies: The Ethics of Research on Activism (Taylor & Francis)

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Oct
28

Naked Greed Day – Give them your underwear, too

Posted by Paul at 3:35 pm

Jesus taught neither violence nor passivity in response to financial exploitation. Jesus instead taught a prophetic, nonviolent, and active third way to respond to economic oppression and injustice that empowers the disenfranchised and exposes the corruption in the economic systems. Jesus said that when someone seeks to exploit you economically by suing you for your clothes off your back, you are to take off all your clothes (your inner garment too) in public and give it all to the greedy people suing you. Jesus taught his followers to strip naked in public court and hand over their underwear, which in effect says something like, “You think I’m naked? You know what’s really naked? Your greed and self-interest.” The humiliation then fell on the people whose greed was so rampant it was unclothing people, taking their houses, their lands, their possessions, their incomes, their hopes, and even the very shirts off their backs.

“When someone sues you for your outer garment, give them your undergarment as well” (Matt. 5:40). This seemingly absurd teaching of Jesus is actually a powerful way to take a public action against economic exploitation, corruption, and greed—and now is the time for us to expose naked corporate self-interest by baring our own bodies in public. One way to do this is to be sure and participate in Bank Transfer Day on November 5.

Then on November 12, 2011—Naked Greed Day—gather at banks, corporations, and trading companies that have amassed billions of dollars at the expense of the 99% and remove one piece of clothing as a symbolic gesture to expose their greed, so that it is no longer clothed and hidden. We can publicly oppose corporate greed by removing one piece of clothing as a sign to the world that we the people are being stripped to our underwear by the destructive economic policies and practices of complicit corporations and governments. The self-interest that damages the common good must be exposed, and Jesus taught that a powerful way to expose it was to expose oneself. These removals of clothing should be done in ways that respect the dignity of children and all people, for the businesses we expose respect neither children nor all people as much as they should, and the honor of our actions of protest must exceed theirs. These removals of clothing should also not be wasted and left in front of the businesses, but should be donated when possible to those who need them, so that our nakedness that exposes the Naked Greed of the wealthiest already begins to clothe others who are in need.

Humiliating ourselves can invite those who profit so much from the low wages paid to the majority to change their behavior, or at least it can focus attention on them in a new way so that respect for their exploitative business acumen is undermined and laid bare. The removal of clothes in public to humiliate oppressors was done in South Africa to oppose Apartheid, in Liberia to end the wars and oust Charles Taylor, and at other significant times in history.

The historical context for Jesus’ teaching was the indebtedness that many people in the Roman occupations experienced. Low wages and laws that favored the wealthy led to loss of land to pay debt, which led to more debt for the landless peasants who labored on the increasingly large estates of the wealthy, which led to the wealthy and landed lenders suing the poor for the shirts off their backs as collateral for the loans.

Picture a courtroom with judges, witnesses, prosecutors, observers, and the accused poor person. The poor person would be the poorest of the poor if all they have for collateral is their outer garment, their robe—their clothes! Perhaps it’s a farmer who lost his land because of imperial legislation that consolidates land in the hands of the few, thus creating an overabundance of people who will work for poverty wages and who accumulate debt just to survive. The prophet Amos condemned this behavior: “They who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth … lay themselves down beside every altar upon clothing taken as collateral” (2:7-8).

The rich began seeking nonliquid investments to secure their wealth. Land was best, but it was ancestrally owned and passed down over generations, and no peasant would voluntarily relinquish it. Exorbitant interest, however, could be used to drive landowners ever deeper into debt. And debt…created the economic leverage to pry Galilean peasants loose from their land. By the time of Jesus we see this process already far advanced: large estates owned by absentee landlords, managed by stewards, and worked by tenant farmers, day laborers, and slaves. It is no accident that the first act of the Jewish revolutionaries in 66 C.E. was to burn the Temple treasury, where the record of debts was kept (Walter Wink, Engaging the Powers, p. 178).

A poor person with no land, no assets, and no money is being sued for his shirt to make sure that he repays his debt. All he has is his clothes and his body. When the judge says that the poor person is to give his outer garment to the creditor, the poor person is told by Jesus to strip off all his clothes and stand there completely naked in the courtroom. In front of everybody, in public, expose their injustice and corruption and greed and exploitation by exposing his own body. It is the system that is corrupt and guilty, not the poor person who is in debt.

Jesus’ teaching left the poor person’s body intact and whole, only naked and exposed. And that nakedness did not shame the poor person as much as it shamed the people who caused it to happen: the one suing as well as the system that allows such an atrocity to happen.

And this third way of dealing with economic exploitation and abuse that is neither violent nor passive is one of the powers of the Occupy Movement. One could fight economic exploitation with violence by killing the creditors and legislators for destroying so many lives, but even though that has happened, it is not wise. Or people could organize a violent revolution to change the system, but even though that has happened, it is not wise either. There are violent ways to reduce debt and set the oppressed free, but in my opinion these must be rejected. Yet it is why those who own the loans have access to such powerful militaries—to make sure violent debt reduction options are less likely to happen.

But I like to imagine a nonviolent revolution that includes debts being forgiven as credit card accounts in corporate computers are erased and people around the world have trillions of dollars of credit card debt erased. Mortgage interest rates lowered, yes! But also mortgage principal balances lowered. Imagine a revolution where billions of dollars of debts owed by countries in the global south to billionaires in the global north were just erased. Millions, no billions, of people would rejoice and there would be a very few very frustrated millionaires and billionaires. But there are nonviolent ways—and legislation is one of them—to persuade and require the purveyors of economic injustice to reduce debt, increase wages, and contribute more to the common good of all people.

A passive way to deal with having the shirt sued off your back is just to go along with it silently, and many people choose to do this. Give them your clothes and go home. At least you still have your underwear. The wages many were (and are) paid for working all day every day could not cover the costs of rent, food, and basic necessities so you had to borrow just to be able to feed your family. Now they are taking your clothes, your robe that keeps you warm at night, to make sure you pay back the loan and interest on food your family has already eaten. A passive response is “That is just the way it is. The world is unjust.” “There is no sense in trying to do anything about it, what can a poor person do anyway?” “You can’t fight City Hall and you can’t fight Wall Street.”

But Jesus did not say, “When someone sues you for your outer garment, you’re probably going to lose anyway so just give it to them and go home and be glad you still have your underwear.” Jesus did not say, “When someone sues you for your outer garment, give it to them but then ambush them on their way home and bash their head in. Then take your clothes back.” Jesus did not say, “When someone sues you for your outer garment, join the violent revolution and overthrow the imperialist pigs and burn the debt records.”

Jesus did say that when someone is destroying you economically you should be neither passive nor violent, but you should expose their greed by taking off your clothes in public. So let’s do it.

 

Two banks to include are Citigroup (with 427 offshore tax dodging subsidiaries) and Bank of America (with 115 offshore tax dodging subsidiaries). According to the Executive Excess 2011 Compensation Survey, 25 companies paid their CEOs more money than they paid Uncle Sam in taxes, two of which are Prudential Financial (CEO compensation $16.2 million; US Federal Income Taxes $722 million refund) and General Electric (CEO compensation $15.2 million; US Federal Income Taxes $3.3 Billion refund). There are concrete ways to fix these problems:

1. Narrower CEO-worker pay gaps, like around 20 to 1 rather than the current 325 to 1.

2. Eliminate taxpayer subsidies for excessive executive pay—“ordinary taxpayers should not have to foot the bill for excessive executive compensation.”

3. Accountability to shareholders for CEO pay.

4. Accountability to broader stakeholders—all of us!—the communities and people that are affected by tax dodging, high CEO pay, and low wages.

@NakedGreedDay

www.EvangelicalsforSocialAction.org

www.pcpj.org

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Oct
14

Four Suggestions for the Assemblies of God

Posted by Paul at 10:28 pm

I presented this at the Society for Pentecostal Studies conference March 4, 2010 in Minneapolis, as a response to Margaret Poloma’s book “The Assemblies of God: Godly Love and the Revitalization of American Pentecostalism.”

….reading your book about the denomination of my faith heritage provoked many thoughts about the roads, the paths, that the AG at the crossroads can now take, but I will focus only on four that I think will help us know if we’re going to be more or less faithful to Jesus and revitalized by the Spirit.

My context – I am a fourth generation Assembly of God kid from Kansas – my great grandparents and grandparents came into the movement in the 1930s and 40s, my parents were raised in the AG and so was I. Almost every night of my life until I was eighteen years old and left for college, my father would come into my room, kneel down next to my bed, lay his hand on me, and weep and pray for me, our family, the church, and the world. The essence of my father’s theological and practical advice for me, that he has repeated repeatedly my entire life, is “Seek Jesus.” I attended an AG college, an AG seminary, AG summer camps, went on AG mission trips, taught at an AG college for nine years, and I’m still an AG minister.

So I’m responding to Margaret’s sociological study of the AG and trying to listen to my father’s advice to “seek Jesus.”

1) Racism

Regarding the founding of AG – racism was a significant factor in the 350 white ministers leaving the Church of God in Christ to form the AG in 1914.

a. Official AG USA publications need to refer to this openly, with repentance, and with theological explanations of diversity and white privilege.

b. I was a tongue talking racist, that’s part of my testimony. I once was blind but now I see, I now see the reality of white privilege and how deeply prejudiced I was (even though I was in church multiple times a week, youth camp every summer, etc. In fact, I learned many of the racist jokes from my youth group leaders and friends), and I gain nothing from denying that. Honesty, confession, repentance, transformation – these are marks of sanctification and maturity and the AG USA would do wonderfully well to keep its historical sins front and center, and it’s reasons and strategies for addressing them and being healed from them front and center as well. The door for this has been opened by the AG statement against racism, which reads in part:

“The church calls to repentance any and all who have sinned against God by participating in racism through personal thought or action, through church and social structures, or through failure to address the evils of racism.”

“We pray for God to give us the courage to confront the sin of racism where it may be found in our lives, in our churches, in our society structure, and in our world.” We must cooperate with the Holy Spirit in actively rooting out racism and seeking the reconciliation of men and women to God and to each other.

c. Pentecostals testify, so the AG USA should share it’s testimony that it has a sinfully racist past (the origin story should be modified to reflect this), still perhaps struggles with racism and prejudice, and that it’s being delivered as it explores the intricacies of race and ethnicity as a predominantly white denomination founded primarily by white ministers who had left an interracial denomination (COGIC).

2) War – Military Service Article

a. Many of us know that the early AG, and most early Pentecostal denominations, were peace churches and took their stands as conscientious objectors or noncombatants during World War I and even during World War II. They justified this theologically, based on Jesus. They had a christocentric hermeneutic that justified their commitment to loving their enemy.

I should also mention here that “pacifism” does not mean being “passive” and does not necessitate being ‘apolitical.’ Pacifist simply means “peace maker” so laying down one’s sword and supporting nonviolent direct action to attain political goals can certainly go together – Dr. King was a Christian pacifist, but he was certainly not apolitical.

b. As many of you know the AG changed its statement in 1967 to be pro-choice, leaving killing in warfare up to the individual conscience of each Christian. There is a reference to Romans 13, warfare in the OT, but nothing about Jesus. Combatant participation in war could be justified better than the statement currently does, and I think the just war tradition/theory/criteria should be articulated.

c. Therefore, I have a concrete suggestion for the AG at this crossroad between the road of uncritical nationalism and uncritical militarism and the road of thoughtful, reflective, and engaged conversations about these challenging issues.

d. The AG should form a task force that writes well developed rationales for 1) combatant participation, employing just war tradition and written by AG folk who believe that it is justifiable for Christians to kill in warfare, 2) nonviolence, written by AG folk who believe in consistent nonviolence and who could speak theologically and pastorally about conscientious objection and noncombatant service, and 3) Just Peacemaking practices that invite both just war theorists and pacifists to work for peace and justice together to prevent war and reduce violence, which is a goal of just war theory. Just Peacemaking theory is an excellent attempt to move past the age old arguments of “it’s okay to kill” and “Christians should never kill” to working together on the things that make for peace. I recommend Glen Stassen’s book Just Peacemaking: The New Paradigm for the Ethics of War and Peace.

e. Christian explanations of all three should be present in our curriculum, ‘position statements’, on our website. This would reflect what we officially as a denomination have already affirmed with our participation in the unanimous NAE vote to adopt “For the Health of the Nation.” The NAE, of which the AG is a member, has already stated that each denomination should teach just war, pacifism, and just peacemaking.

3) Israel/Palestine

a. On page 213 Margaret points out that 11% of AG USA folk do not think that the US should support Israel over the Palestinians in the Middle East. In other words, we should support the Palestinians and the Israelis equally. I think this 11%, this prophetic minority, represents the road that the AG should travel if we are to be as biblically solid, theologically healthy, and Spirit-led as we claim to be.

b. I suggest that AG USA learn from our Palestinian Pentecostal Christian brothers and sisters so that we can read scripture better and become less dispensational and less one-sidedly Zionist. We can love Israel, love Jewish people, and support the existence of the state of Israel while also helping the state of Israel make wiser choices regarding the settlements, the occupation of the West Bank, the wall not being built on the green line, and the implementation of a just peace for both Israelis and Palestinians.

c. This means that American Pentecostals in general, the AG USA in particular, could put ourselves in humble learner positions and hear the testimonies and prayer requests (the subaltern voices, and theology and experiences) of the Palestinian Pentecostal and Evangelical Christians who have lived under occupation in the ‘Holy Land.’

4) Gender

a. The AG ordains women and has since its inception. George Wood has even defended this position against Southern Baptist and fundamentalist critiques.

b. But we need more intentionality in promoting and empowering women in pastoral and denominational leadership. 28% of AG ministers do not support women serving as senior pastors, 43% do not support women in district or national leadership, and 47% do not support having women on deacon boards. These are serious problems, and as a theologian I would suggest that these attitudes represent less than healthy, less than faithful, and less than ‘pentecostal’ understandings of scripture, gender, and leadership. I think is not the road that the AG should travel on in the future.

c. A way to pave the road for smoother travel into a more faithful future is to intentionally include women in leadership positions in district and national offices, even if there are quotas – not tokenism to fill a slot for political reasons – but intentional reduction of male leadership and increase of female leadership to reflect what the Spirit really would like to happen so the church can be better equipped to fulfill her potential. However, there’s a lot of theological work that has to be done so that men can realize that it’s not their ministry to share any way, it’s not ‘their’ power or their place that they then graciously open up to women. Ministry and leadership are God’s gifts to give, it’s God’s ministry, not men’s.

In conclusion, I think the AG can even now “seek Jesus” and choose roads of life, and pave those roads, and that we can journey forward in confession and truth-telling regarding our racist past so that we can authentically and deeply experience healing and transformation; that we can journey forward by expanding the conversations about war and peacemaking by articulating just war criteria, nonviolence, and just peacemaking practices; that we can best support Israel by also supporting the Palestinians and listening to the voices of that part of our Pentecostal family that has been suppressed; and that we can intentionally work to change the minds of thousands of AG men (and women) who are against women in leadership and intentionally changing the structure of the AG so that women must be included. I believe that this is at least part of what the Spirit is doing today to expand Godly Love.

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Oct
13

“Occupy ‘til I come” – Zacchaeus, the anti-Jesus, & two #OccupyWallStreet Stories

Posted by Paul at 10:13 pm

When the very rich Zacchaeus heard Jesus’ teaching he said, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”  If Zacchaeus got only 12.5% of his wealth through cheating that means this promise to Jesus would reduce Zacchaeus to having no possessions.  Calculate it: 50% to the poor right off the top.  Followed by 12.5% of unjustly acquired wealth paid back at 4x the rip-off rate = another 50%.  That’s 100% of his possessions he was willing to release.  Zacchaeus very conceivably was offering to give all that he had away to the poor and the people from whom he stole.  Even if he stole only 10% of his wealth through loopholes, coercion, and gimmicky accounting tricks he would be giving 90% of it away – leaving him with 10% of what he had before he climbed up that sycamore tree and listened to Jesus.

What was Jesus’ response to this amazing proclamation by Zacchaeus?  Jesus said, “Today salvation has come to this house!”  A wealthy person willing to give away his or her wealth – which is often unjustly acquired in at least a few ways – is a sign of the presence of God, of being saved and delivered from the gods of Wealth.  The Bull of Wall Street, fashioned after the ancient money god Baal, destroys lives in its path toward more and more.  People matter more than possessions, and Jesus heard this truth in Zacchaeus’ exclamation of freedom from wealth.

The lesson for #OccupyWallStreet is that Jesus supports the ‘re-redistribution’ of wealth and calls it salvation for all concerned.  When the wealthy give back some of what they’ve taken there is rejoicing and they can experience a freedom otherwise unattainable.  This is ‘re-redistribution’ because the wealth the wealthy have came from the many – it came from the blood, sweat, and tears of those who labor for minimum, more often less than minimum, and often no wages throughout the world.  In mines in Africa, in sweatshops in Asia, in factories in China – those lives of those actual people are transformed into dollars that accumulate in bank accounts and trading accounts on Wall Street.  Why protest Wall Street?  Why occupy Wall Street?  Because it’s where the hundreds of millions of human lives who have been sacrificed to the gods of wealth and industry are now represented – crushed lives who struggle to feed their families generate mountains of possessions and wealth for those on Wall Street and those of us in the USA.

A heart of the Baal, a heart of the quest for wealth and the domination and destruction it entails, is Wall Street.  And those who work within that system can be transformed like Zacchaeus and recognize and admit the injustice of their ways – their ways that are often our ways too.  We turn people into money, when people really do matter more.  To the degree that a society or culture or industry values money and possessions over people to that degree it will be harmful and deeply damaging to all.

Why do I support #OccupyWallStreet and the occupations of the cities of the USA?  Because right after Zacchaeus joyfully experienced salvation and gave away his possessions, Jesus told a parable about the opposite kind of person.  A person who values money more than people and who thus makes life miserable for most.

A man who wanted to be king gave money to his servants and told them to “put this money to work” while he was gone and “occupy ‘til I come.”  The people didn’t want him to be king because he was a hard man who “takes out what he did not put in and reaps what he did not sow.”  A few ‘worked his money’ – which means they worked people – and they were able to double his money while he was gone.  But one man did not do it and was chastised severely by the new king, “Take his mina away from him and give it to the one who has ten minas!”  The others protested that that man already had ten, but the hard king revealed the opposite attitude of Zacchaeus, “I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away. But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them—bring them here and kill them in front of me.”

This wealthy king reaped where he did not sow, rewarded the servants who became hard like him, punished the servants who would not participate in his oppressive practices of abusing lives so that his money could double quickly, and coupled these excruciating monetary policies with violence and killing so that the money could flow more easily.  High return rates on investments generally necessitate high loss of life rates from the people who make them possible.

This king in this story is not Jesus.  Jesus did not say the famous “occupy ‘til I come” as a line from himself, it’s a line in one of Jesus’ stories about a greedy king who uses violence and intimidation to increase his profits.  A story that Jesus told right after the Zacchaeus experience of salvation through reduction of possessions and wealth!

These two stories together can help us see that 1) in the Zacchaeus story re-redistributing of wealth from the wealthy to the majority (the 99%) is praised by Jesus, and 2) we need to conduct careful and critical analysis of the global trade realities and violent systems that allow lives to be transformed into high monetary returns for a very, very few people.  These kinds of leaders are not wanted by most people (as clearly shared in Jesus’ story) and when challenged they respond violently to protect their profits.

In addition, 3) US citizens can justly demand tight regulations and enforcement on these industries that generate such great wealth – again, it’s human lives that turn into those dollars so we must speak for the lives (we are the lives!) because once they become dollars their voices get co-opted by the ones who control the dollars.  4) US citizens can justly demand higher taxes on those with incomes of millions (and hundreds of millions) of dollars per year because it helps bring balance to a terribly unbalanced system – when the lifeblood of most people go to generate profits for the few, who pay them as little as they can, it is fair and right and just for those profits to be taxed so that social services are provided widely.  Healthcare, education, food programs, the “safety net” that is so important for a healthy civil society must be maintained if we are to be able to claim at all that we value people more than money.  For instance, one 5.6% tax on a million dollar income is $56,000 and that provides about 56,000 breakfasts for kids who wouldn’t get them otherwise.

Jesus said that people cannot serve both God and Wealth (Mammon), and based on his teachings, I think we must also ask whether we can serve both people and money.  I hope those within OccupyWallStreet stay focused on people and emphasize that money is at most a tool, an object to be used for the good of the many and not a goal in itself because then the quest for wealth subordinates and destroys human lives.  All of us, regardless of our social locations, can try to be more like Zacchaeus and less like the hard king who reaps where he does not sow.  And as we’re seeing so clearly, we can organize, re-think the system so that it prioritizes people (especially those most in need), modify our own behavior as needed, and influence policy so that the highest are brought lower a bit and the lowest are brought up a lot.  Hopefully, it can transform from occupations of Wall Street and beyond to elected occupations of executives and legislatures where wiser policies and practices can be implemented.

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May
18

Preface to “Christ at the Checkpoint” Book

Posted by Paul at 7:42 pm

I’ve just finished editing a book that will be coming out next spring, Christ at the Checkpoint: Theology in the Service of Justice and Peace (Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2012).  It’s a collection of many of the presentations from the Christ at the Checkpoint 2010 conference.  Here’s the preface that I wrote for it.

~~~~~~~~

This book is a work of love.  The Palestinian Christians who organized the conference at which these essays were presented are motivated by their love for God, their love for Israelis, and their love for their fellow Palestinians.  In March 2010 the Christ at the Checkpoint conference in Bethlehem brought together evangelical theologians, biblical scholars, pastors, activists, and others in an unprecedented way to discuss the situation in Palestine and Israel.  Many others from various Christian traditions have reflected on these issues, as have many from the Jewish and Muslim faiths.  But Christ at the Checkpoint: Theology in the Service of Justice and Peace was organized and hosted by Palestinian evangelicals.  The goals of the conference were and are stated as follows.

The aim of Christ at the Checkpoint is to provide an opportunity for evangelical Christians who take the Bible seriously to prayerfully seek a proper awareness of issues of peace, justice, and reconciliation. The conference will: 1) Empower and encourage the Palestinian church. 2) Expose the realities of the injustices in the Palestinian Territories and create awareness of the obstacles to reconciliation and peace. 3) Create a platform for serious engagement with Christian Zionism and an open forum for ongoing dialogue between all positions within the Evangelical theological spectrum. 4) Motivate participants to become advocates for the reconciliation work of the church in Palestine/Israel and its ramifications for the Middle East and the world.[1]

The love in the lives of these Palestinian Christians is manifest in their courage to address these issues in public.  Their prayerful work for peace, justice, and reconciliation is loving work – love not only for the people in their Middle East context but also love for the world.

This book is a work of Godly Love. The study of Godly Love is an emerging interdisciplinary field devoted to examining benevolent action in the world. Godly Love is defined as

the dynamic interaction between divine and human love that enlivens and expands benevolence (see also Poloma and Hood 2008:4). This perceived interaction provides the framework for a scholarly investigation of the Great Commandment: love God and love neighbor as self. Godly Love is not a synonym for God’s love. It is rather an attempt to capture a process of interactions between an individual’s “vertical” relationship with God and “horizontal” relationships with other people in which benevolent service becomes an emergent property. This is not to suggest that all benevolent service necessarily requires a vertical dimension. But the Flame of Love Project is predicated on the assumption that God is a “significant other” (Pollner 1989:92) for at least some people and that perceived interactions with God play an important role in the nature and extent of their expression of compassionate love.[2]

Several of the organizers and presenters at the Christ at the Checkpoint conference are exemplars in a theological and social scientific study of Christians engaged in high-risk peacemaking, justice seeking, and social action.[3] These Christians certainly perceive God as a significant other who empowers them as they work for reconciliation, justice, peace, and transformation in Israel, Palestine, and beyond.  I see their organization of the Christ at the Checkpoint conference as a work of Godly Love flowing through them into the world.  They are followers of Christ passing through checkpoints in the West Bank, seeking to loving those who have created and who maintain the checkpoints.

Love is not always easy.  Love is not sentimentality.  As Sami Awad states so clearly in his presentation,

My favorite point: Engage in continuous acts of love to your oppressor. For it is not a choice we have as followers of Jesus to love the other and the enemy, but it is a commandment that we are to abide in. I will not accept any argument that says that engaging in actions of expressing God’s love to the other undermines or underestimates our goal and aspirations as Palestinians or that it makes us look as if we are weak or vulnerable. It is only in strength that you can express love.

Yohanna Katanacho’s academic presentation argues for a peaceful, rather than violent, eschatology in the Psalms and his commitment to loving enemies and peacemaking is inspiring.

I didn’t know how I could relate to the Jews. I read my Bible. Matthew says, “love your enemies” and when I was looking at that it wasn’t like multiple choice, who is my enemy? The answer was clear for me.  And I didn’t know what to do.  I would go in the streets and there would be Israeli soldiers stopping me and telling me, “Come and give us your ID card. We want to see it.” I would pull out my ID card and many times they would ask me to stand in a corner for one or two hours; it was humiliating.  It was a way in which they provoked my anger, provoked my hatred and, and just, all the time nourished that hatred.  And I go to the Bible and read again and the Spirit of God was whispering in my ears one time after the other, “Love your enemies.  Love your enemies.” And eventually I gave up, I said, “Lord I can’t.  I don’t know what to do.  How can I love my enemy? I’m living in a context that is horrible. The hatred is being nourished all the time.”  And the first thing, as if God was again whispering in my ears, God says, “Witness to them.  This is the way you love them.  Witness to them.” So I said okay, you know I will follow my spiritual pilgrimage.  I don’t know where God is leading me but I’ll take a small step of obedience.  I went to a restaurant and they had a flyer called Real Love and on the flyer was a quotation from Isaiah 53.  And it was written in Hebrew as well as in English.  So I decided to take that flyer, put it in my ID card, and when the soldiers ask me, “Give us your ID card,” I will pull it out and give it to them and in this way I will obey my Lord. In the sense that, you know, God said, “Witness to them.” I said, “Lord, this is what I’m doing.”  So the soldiers would call me and say, “Come, give us your ID card.”  I would pull my ID card, give it to them, and they would open it and say, “What is this?”  And I would say, “This is how God wants me to relate to you.”  I didn’t want to lie, I didn’t want to tell them this is how I feel about you because I really didn’t feel any love in my heart, but I also wanted to obey the Lord. So they would look at it and say, “Ah, this is from the Hebrew Bible.” And they would read it and then we’d have a discussion and they would let me go.  Sometimes they would ask me more questions and I did that so many times to the extent that without observing my heart and mind and emotions started changing, but I didn’t pay attention.  God was shaping my heart and I would walk in the same streets, seeing the same soldiers, and I would pray in my heart, “Lord, please let them stop me.  Because when they stop me I can share your love with them.”[4]

Yohanna’s experience reveals one way that interactions between divine and human love can enliven and expand benevolence in the world.  Rather than choosing violence or passivity, Yohanna’s experience of God’s love and leading in his own life led him to pass that love on to his enemies even in a context of oppression. This is Christ’s love at the checkpoint. The stories, theologies, and arguments in this book written by Palestinian Christians reflect perspectives of children of God who have passed through many checkpoints and who have brought much love into the world even when the opposite could reasonably be expected of them.

But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you….  If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?  For even sinners love those who love them.  If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you?  For even sinners do the same….  But love your enemies…. (Luke 6:27-28, 32-33, 35a NASB)

This book is a work of Godly Love because the Palestinian Christians who organized this conference and commissioned this book do not just love those who love them, as so many tend to do.  They also seek to live lives of love that include all of those around them.

This book is a work of justice and “justice is what love looks like in public.”[5] Justice is righteousness.  Justice is holiness.  Justice is right relationships with and right treatment towards other people.  “Loving kindness and truth have met together; Righteousness/justice and peace have kissed each other” (Psalm 85:10 NASB).  Love, truth, righteousness, justice, and peace go together.  Hate, lies, unrighteousness, injustice, and violence tend to go together as well.  The essays in this book are concerned about what followers of Jesus ought to think and do about issues of land, economics, and politics.  Scripture is replete with references to land justice, economic justice, and political justice.  Social righteousness – righteousness in society – is a continual call in Torah, from the Prophets, from Jesus, and beyond.  Social righteousness is needed today in Israel and Palestine, and the Christians who have written this book – including the dispensationalists – agree that working for justice in society is a call from God to which we should respond.

This book is a work of Godly Justice.  The Christians who have written this book believe that God is a just God.  God is a God who desires that humans practice justice.  “For what does the Lord require of you?  To do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.”  Where people work for justice, God is at work.  Where people are less oppressed, God is at work.  Where resources are divided fairly, God is at work.  Where land is not stolen, God is at work.  Where water is shared evenly, God is at work.  Where matrices of control are dismantled, God is at work.

If we experiment with the definition of Godly Love a bit we could have an inviting definition of Godly Justice, and I submit that the work in this book aspires to embody Godly Justice in the world.  “The dynamic interaction between divine and human love justice that enlivens and expands benevolence peace.”  In fact, the title of the book The Love That Does Justice captures well the theological understanding of a God who desires justice and who inspires people to work for justice in loving ways.[6] The imperative to love God and love others draws us to consider what that kind of love looks likes in public, and as many of the essays in this book argue, it looks like justice.

This book is a work of peacemaking.  The authors of this book do not all agree with each other on everything that is presented in this book.  We are not speaking with one theological voice or one perspective on biblical studies and the land.  The fact that I have edited this collection of presentations and essays does not mean that I endorse all the arguments contained herein, and there could not be one editor who could since there are contradictory positions offered. This book is a book of arguments, even arguments on different sides of these issues.  But that was part of the goal of the conference, and peacemaking does not mean that we must only work with those with whom we completely agree, peacemaking is actually quite opposite from that.  Peacemaking means arguing and disagreeing and working things out. This book is a work of peacemaking because it presents evangelical voices who desire justice and peace for Israelis and Palestinians, yet who do not all offer the same perspectives.  There are dispensationalists and non-dispensationalists, and both the dispensationalists and non-dispensationalists do not even agree among themselves.  I am not a dispensationalist and I disagree with some of the theological and biblical arguments of other non-dispensationalists in this book. Yet it is crucial that the nuances of these evangelical arguments be shared if evangelicals are to participate in peacemaking and justice seeking in the land of the Holy One.

Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God.”  Sometimes my oldest daughter will tilt her head just so and shoot a cute look, and she looks just like her momma.  I can see her momma in her when she acts that way. And that’s what Jesus said about peacemakers – people can see your ‘Father’ in you when you make peace, you’re acting like God when you’re a peacemaker.  This book seeks to help make peace between not only Israelis and Palestinians, but between Christians who are at odds with each other on these most crucial issues.  Peacemaking is not about avoiding conflict, it requires engaging in the most contentious of conflicts with patience, humility, and love.

This book is a work of Godly Peacemaking.  According to most Christian theologies, God is a peacemaker.  God loved the world by sending Jesus (John 3:16), and while we were still enemies Christ reconciled us (Romans 5:10). When people work for peace in difficult situations God is with them, for this is who God be – God works for peace in the midst of conflicts.  People often ask, “Where is God?”  I believe that God is in the work of the people who are working for peace in Palestine and Israel.

Continuing the experimentation with the definition of Godly Love leads me now to consider a definition of Godly Peacemaking, “The dynamic interaction between divine and human peacemaking that enlivens and expands _______.”  What does Godly Peacemaking enliven and expand?  When conflicted peoples who are in conflict listen to one another, hear one another, learn from one another and change their injurious behaviors in response to the needs of others, there can be greater justice in the world.  Godly Peacemaking enlivens and expands justice.

The theme of the conference and this book is Christ at the Checkpoint: Theology in the Service of Justice and Peace.  In conclusion, I’d like to explore some words in the title for their potential since they illumine what God is doing through this movement.  For Christians, Christ is God – and God is love.  It is theologically appropriate to say that Christ is love. So we could consider that Christ at the checkpoint is God at the checkpoint, Christ at the checkpoint is love at the checkpoint, Christ at the checkpoint is Godly Love at the checkpoint.

The “Checkpoint” is an intersection of Israeli fears, desires for security, and attempts to control the behavior and resources of others, with Palestinian frustrations, desires for freedom, and resistance to injustice. The checkpoint is a place of both power and disempowerment. The checkpoint is a place of competing claims and conflict. Christ at the Checkpoint is Godly Love in a place of conflict, as clearly revealed in the testimony shared by Yohanna Katanacho.

Theo-logy is God’s (theos) word (logos), the study of God, or words about God.  To claim to know the way of God is audacious, yet that is what Christians claim is possible through Jesus Christ.  What words we say about God and what lives we live because of God reveal our theology, and I think it is a fair claim to say that the best words about God are words that bring about justice (righteousness) and peace. And this is exactly what Godly Love looks like in a place of conflict. Godly Love – the dynamic interaction between divine and human love that enlivens and expands benevolence (justice, peace, reconciliation). Godly Justice – the dynamic interaction between divine and human justice that enlivens and expands peace. Godly Peacemaking – the dynamic interaction between divine and human peace that enlivens and expands justice.  As you read Christ at the Checkpoint I invite you to attune yourself to the possibility of experiencing Godly Love in a place of conflict and hearing words about God that bring both righteousness and peace.

[1]. www.ChristAtTheCheckpoint.com. The conference was primarily organized by Bethlehem Bible College and all royalties from the sale of this book go to Bethlehem Bible College.

[2]. Margaret Poloma and Matthew Lee, A Sociological Study of the Great Commandment in Pentecostalism: The Practice of Godly Love as Benevolent Service (Edwin Mellen Press, 2009), 7.  For other work on Godly Love see Matthew Lee and Amos Yong, eds., The Study of Godly Love: Interdisciplinary Approaches (DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press, forthcoming), Margaret Poloma and Ralph W. Hood, Jr., Blood and Fire: Godly Love in a Pentecostal Emerging Church (New York: NYU Press, 2008), Margaret Poloma and John C. Green, The Assemblies of God: Godly Love and the Revitalization of American Pentecostalism (New York: NYU Press, 2010), and www.GodlyLoveProject.org. The Flame of Love Project is a collaborative effort by researchers at the University of Akron and The Institute for Research on Unlimited Love, funded by the John Templeton Foundation, that seeks to provide the scientific and theological foundation for a new interdisciplinary field of study: the science of Godly Love. I am in the Institute Core Research Group of this study.

[3]. Robert K. Welsh (Professor of Graduate Psychology at Azusa Pacific University in California) and I are the principal investigators in this qualitative and quantitative study, which is funded by The Flame of Love Project.  We are currently writing a book about their lives and work.

[4]. Interview with Yohanna Katanacho, March 17, 2010 in Bethlehem, Palestine. Personal files of author.

[5]. Attributed to Cornell West.

[6]. Michael A. Edwards and Stephen G. Post, eds., The Love That Does Justice: Spiritual Activism in Dialogue with Social Science (Stony Brook, NY: Unlimited Love Press, 2008).

 

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