Compassionate Awakening
A great invisible community is gathering. Millions of individual seekers of love, compassion, and affirming community are finding each other primarily in the worlds of podcasts, blogs, and social media. Many in this invisible community are refugees moving away from churches, leaders and institutions which have themselves abandoned love as a guiding principle. But this community also includes a wider family of seekers, activists and allies around values like equality, social justice and the respect and affirmation of all people as made in the image of God.
Not "Kingdom of God" but "God Movement"
In the flow of history, a long moral arc has been at work in our society and among many people of faith recognizing and advocating for human rights, civil liberties and full participation by all - in our society as well as in our faith communities - irrespective of race, ethnicity, country of birth, gender, sexual orientation or gender identity. This expansion of rights and equality is consistently opposed by the American evangelical church (AEC), in a manner not unlike the support by many church folk for slavery and against abolition, for white supremacy and against the civil rights movement. Note the significant fact that both of these movements of moral paradigm shift were in large part driven by people of faith, while simultaneously being attacked and rejected by the institutional rank and file of the church in resistance to social change.
City of Freedom
I see in the present time a third wave of beloved community, as more and more people advocate for the removal of gender or and sexual preference as a basis for restriction of equality or participation in all parts of our society. This is a broad stroke view of civil rights and the equality of persons in U.S. history in which the "first wave" was the movement for the abolition of slavery culminating in the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation in 1865. The second wave was the dismantling of Jim Crow and legalized segregation through the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Freedom was a watchword of these movements, and "city of freedom" was one of the themes expressed as the force of the civil rights movement gained momentum.
"Three Waves" - The narrative of three waves of historical movement in civil rights history does not suggest that any chapter of this movement has been completed or realized. Further, these are three strands among many others – gender equality, immigrant rights, Native American identity and sovereignty, disability rights – that continue to strive for full humanity, freedom, and participation in civic, cultural and religious life.
Affirming Community
Christian deconstruction has emerged as spiritual frame of mind describing a significant portion of particularly younger people of faith, as we suddenly recognize the millions of people young and old who are quietly exiting churches and finding community in hundreds of podcasts, blogs, social media groups and internet communities centered around openness to deep questioning and a willingness to break the molds of institutional religion. Key methodologies of the AEC ("American Evangelical Church") - such as "gatekeeping" by leadership to restrict questioning, to control beliefs, and to censor non-approved voices, teachings, and books - are tossed to the side in the deconstruction movement as the freedom of the individual to seek and ask, to read and to explore, and ultimately to believe, only under the dictates of individual conscience, becomes the primary ethos.
Community of Hope
These various strands of a movement are often defined only in negative terms, such as "deconstruction," but the energy driving the growth of community in this movement is not negative but rather constructive and affirmative. If we trace the underlying themes back to the civil rights movement and even beyond that to early 20th century liberal theology we find "Beloved Community," espoused (but not originated) prominently by Martin Luther King Jr. as he reflected on the spiritual basis for unity and brotherhood of all people, to use the language of his day.
Not closed but open ... "many, many rooms."
In contrast to the evangelical mainstream, many people of faith,
not aligned with conservative political ideology, are affirming of LGBTQ
individuals, are open in their consideration of gender issues, are concerned
about our history of systematic racism and history of restricting rights and
opportunities for black Americans, and hold an open hand toward those of other
ethnicities and nationalities regardless of their immigration status. These
diverging views on the church’s role in society appears to be a driving force
leading increasing numbers
of seeking Christians and younger generation Christians to abandon an
evangelical church they find to be out of step, closed minded, and in many
cases regressive in its approach to these significant cultural issues.
Community of Affirmation
I am finding an increasing wealth of pastors, leaders and authors and other authentic people of faith who are venturing beyond the theological, social, and political confines of evangelicalism and are demonstrating inspiring visions of Jesus centered and biblically informed Christianity that are open and affirming and life giving. Untold thousands and likely millions of Christians are finding life and community connecting with kindred spirits who are gathering around ideas informed by labels such as post-evangelical, new evangelical, and Christian deconstruction. These are, for the most part, people of faith who desire to follow Jesus, although the company of “recovering” Christians and other former evangelicals who seek refuge in this community includes the widest range of theological beliefs and by it's nature is not defined by theological boundaries.
These various strands of a movement are often defined only in negative terms, such as "deconstruction," but the energy driving the growth of community in this movement is not negative but rather constructive and affirmative. If we trace the underlying themes back to the civil rights movement and even beyond that to early 20th century liberal theology we find "Beloved Community," espoused (but not originated) prominently by Martin Luther King Jr. as he reflected on the spiritual basis for unity and brotherhood of all people, to use the language of his day.
In reality, it is a complete distraction to define the God Movement toward Beloved Community as against the tragic self-destruction of the AEC (see next chapter). More to the point, the collection of circumstances of this third decade of the twenty-first century are serving to create growing possibility of communities centered around values such as imago dei (valuing each person in themselves as an image bearer), love of one's neighbor, egalitarianism, on loving the poor, the oppressed, the estranged, refugees and immigrants, while placing value on asking questions and on individual freedom of thought, belief and expression, These affirmations are accompanied by questioning practices of racism, xenophobia, homophobia, colonialism, American exceptionalism, and Christian nationalism.
"The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice." Martin Luther King, Jr.
This movement is part of a longer
moral arc in our society and among many people of faith recognizing and
advocating for human rights, civil liberties and full participation by all - in
our society as well as in our faith communities - irrespective of race,
ethnicity, country of birth, gender, sexual orientation or gender identity.
This expansion of rights and equality is consistently opposed by evangelicals in
a manner not unlike the historical support by many church folk for slavery and
against abolition, for white supremacy and against the civil rights
movement. Note the significant fact that both of these movements of moral
paradigm shift were in large part driven by people of faith, while
simultaneously being attacked and rejected by the institutional rank and file
of the church in resistance to social change.
Post Evangelical / Ex-vangelical / New Evangelical
We need more constructive identifiers of this growing community. In writings and interviews there are many descriptions ... compassionate awakening, city of freedom, community of hope, God movement, to name a few. The movement is wider than the church, but among those of faith, the post-evangelicals, ex-vangelicals, and "new" evangelicals see themselves as reclaiming a more authentic witness to Jesus than has emerged in western European and American Christian modernity.
That’s why I say we need a new motif – a thoroughly Christ-centered theme that can motivate our mission in ways that escape the confines of rationalist biblicism that is squeezing the life out of our churches and pushing many who ask difficult questions, who are seekers, doubters, curious, boundary breakers or category benders out of the tent of evangelicalism. I observe that many churches express a more open affirming vision in the naming of their community in examples such as ... "Amistad de puebla" ... "All Peoples" ... "Dignity" ... "Our Hope" ... "Gracia Diversa" and "Metropolitan Community Churches," the chosen name of an international collection of affirming churches.
Notes and Resources:
Image credit: http://clipart-library.com/group-circle-cliparts.html
Multiple concepts of BELOVED COMMUNITY are referenced herein, and I take credit for none of them. "Compassionate Awakening" is referenced by Dr. Robyn Espinoza in interview with Tim Whitaker New Evangelicals Podcast and also Compassionate Christianity Podcast. Other references below.
Clarence Jordan, Cotton Patch Gospel, a colloquial translation of parts of the New Testament. Jordan used the phrase "God Movement" in place of the traditional translation "Kingdom of God." Jordan was founder of Koinonia Farms near Americus, Georgia.
Charles Marsh. The Beloved Community: How Faith Shapes Social Justice from the Civil Rights Movement to Today. 2005, Basic Books.
Ralph E. Luker. “Kingdom of God and Beloved Community in the Thought of Martin Luther King, Jr.” In Ideas and the Civil Rights Movement, edited Ted Ownby. 2001, University Press of Mississippi.
The New Evangelicals Podcast, Tim Whitaker, Founder. Approximately 150 episodes and counting. I recommend starting at the beginning. (I do not "advocate" (i.e. agree with) every guest on the podcast. Rather, I advocate learning from others who are honest and ethical seekers. This is the strategy espoused by Tim Whitaker with the NE podcast.)
Learning How to See with Brian McLaren Podcast, by the Center for Action and Contemplation.
Homebrewed Christianity Podcast, Tripp Fuller. "To invite vs. to exclude" idea similar to Alfred North Whitehead, Process and Reality, “The Galilean Vision,” to invite rather than to control, in contrast with Greek and Roman concepts of deity. Cited often by Tripp Fuller, Brian McLaren, and others.
Holy Post Podcast, Phil Vischer.