Spiritual But Not Religious: Anne Rice, Christianity, and Wild Goose Culture

June 10, 2011 By wildgoosefestival 12 Comments

The Wild Goose Festival seeks to be a place where people of faith and people who struggle with faith (which might be all of us?) can wrestle together with what it means to be people who live at the intersection of justice, creativity, and spirituality in the 21st century. This is a conversation our larger culture is having, involving artists, authors, blue collar workers, ministers, and more.

Last summer it spilled onto Facebook, as best-selling novelist Anne Rice announced that she was quitting Christianity:

“For those who care, and I understand if you don’t: Today I quit being a Christian. I’m out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being “Christian” or to being part of Christianity. It’s simply impossible for me to “belong” to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten years, I’ve tried. I’ve failed. I’m an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else.”

She elaborated:

“I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being ‘Christian’ or being a part of Christianity. It’s simply impossible for me to ‘belong’ to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life. In the name of Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen.”

What Ms. Rice has shared has hit a nerve. Wild Goose contributor Brian McLaren responded inMy Take: Why I Support Anne Rice but Am Still a Christian, and Festival team member Mike Morrell interviewed Rice directly for the Homebrewed Christianity podcast, where she acknowledges “I am still obsessed with Christ…[but] some of us don’t want to be thrown down the stairs by the followers of Christ”

The biggest dividing point between people of faith today is not liberal versus conservative – it’s SBNR (spiritual-but-not-religious) versus the happily-religious (who are also, we presume, spiritual too). But need this be a dividing line? In the wake of seismic religious change in the past century, coupled with increased awareness of the very real injustices perpetuated by institutionalized faith, it would seem that many are drawing this line in the sand. There are no easy answers to the sea change indicated by voices like Rice. But we hope we can find them with each other.

This is very much a conversation we’re interested in continuing as the Wild Goose Festival takes place in just twelve days. If you haven’t purchased your tickets yet, please do so as prices go up at the door. We hope we’ll be in conversation with you, creating something beautiful together.

Filed Under: Main Features, spirituality, Wild Goose Blog Tagged With: , , , , , 12 Comments

Taking Flight at Wild Goose – Cynthia Lagrou

June 6, 2011 By wildgoosefestival 4 Comments

Last year I had the opportunity to produce a collaborative book project – Taking Flight. Contributors include Jimmy Carter, Frank Viola, Vaun Swanson, Linda Mader, and many other wise and thoughtful voices.  When German artist, Stephanie Eatherly, submitted stunning cover art with two wild geese, it was completely unexpected.  A Google search revealed that wild geese are the ancient Celtic symbol of the Holy Spirit, and that wild geese are just that – wild; and their song – noisy and annoying. Months later, when I caught wind of the “Wild Goose Festival,” I knew something was up.

The wild goose reminds us that the Spirit of God cannot be tamed. Perhaps the Celts understood that when we attempt to control the Spirit, the Spirit breaks free and finds a home in groups and individuals – the same individuals who have launched historic movements, ultimately transforming the face of history and Christianity.

David Clark of New Zealand’s Community of St. Luke says,

Those upon whom the Spirit rests are forced by that Spirit to become like wild geese – noisy, passionate and courageous advocates of the gospel’s radical demands for reformation while warning against the dangers of believing that it can be captured or directed.  Wayside preachers, radical reformers, visionary women, risk-taking adventurers, scholars exploring beyond the boundaries of orthodoxy, and caring people going beyond the boundaries of the safe and appropriate, have changed the face of the church over the centuries, empowered by the Spirit more appropriately depicted as a wild goose than cooing dove.

During research for Taking Flight, one portion in particular inspired and captured my imagination – the profound legacy of the Quakers. Though harshly persecuted, these radical reformers were responsible for initiating a breadth of social change – the abolitionist and women’s rights movements, among others – all birthed from a heart of faith and passion for human equality. Many of the values in today’s mission-oriented markets and socially responsible movements can be traced back to early Quaker practice. The Quaker approach shows not only how one’s faith can be lived out in a wounded world, but how socially conscious movements can become embedded into future belief systems through culture, business and politics.  Quaker theologian, William Penn, for example, created the Pennsylvania Frame of Government which served as a foundational democratic principle in the US Constitution and which ensures the rights of the individual - the most important principle of modern political history.  (More interesting early Quaker tidbits  here.)  

Please join me at Wild Goose for the session entitled Flourishing on the Fringes where we will be charting interior dimensions, embarking on the transformational adventure of world change, traversing the intersections of social innovation, arts and compassion,  and reclaiming the Christian narrative to reflect integrity, compassion, and reconciliation. If you haven’t already, you can still get you tickets here.

Cynthia is a cross disciplinary creative professional exploring the intersection of the arts, purposeful media, and compassion.  Her most recent projects include Compathos.tv (Founder / catalyst ), Drawn from Water the Movie (Executive Producer), Bay Area – Compathos Film with Social Impact Director Series (Producer, Curator),Taking Flight (Creator , author, lead editor), and Compathos Productions (Founder).  She believes narrative that inspires innovation, responsible action, enthusiasm and hope are essential for the epic adventure of positive world change and resilient transition.

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Uncommon Ground

May 26, 2011 By wildgoosefestival 1 Comment

As the culture of the Wild Goose Festival unfolds, it’s becoming clear that one of the things we value is uncommon ground. We’re seeking to bring together a diverse community of creative people and idea leaders whose ethos and work does not fit neatly into the Left/Right, evangelical/mainline boxes that our soundbiting media tends to inflict upon us. There is a hunger to transcend the level at which we’ve created the problems of our contemporary civilization – a starving to look at our past and future through a different lens, and envision a fresh present practice. The three Wild Goose Festival contributors we’re spotlighting today can help us on the journey toward making such new vision a reality.

David Dark asks questions, and then writes about them. David’s acclaimed first two books Everyday Apocalypse: The Sacred Revealed in Radiohead, The Simpsons, and Other Pop Culture Icons and The Gospel According To America: A Meditation on a God-blessed, Christ-haunted Idea, are not likely to get him invited onto Glenn Beck’s show. In addition to contributing to Radiohead and Philosophy: Fitter Happier More Deductive, he has most recently published (appropriately enough) The Sacredness of Questioning Everything. After years of teaching high school English, he is now a doctoral candidate at Vanderbilt. He lives in Nashville with his wife, singer/songwriter Sarah Masen.  Join David at the Goose as he questions everything to unearth yet more of the Sacred, which (as it turns out) is here all along. And who knows? You might end up in his next book.

Anna Clark is helping pioneer a new breed of environmentalist – one that sees ecological sustainability not as a grin-and-bear-it political maneuver, but a rational lifestyle choice that yields more enjoyment in the long run. She is the author of Green, American Style and contributor to Taking Flight. She is president of EarthPeople, a global consulting and communications firm. Anna began by asking herself the question, “Can one person make a difference?” In 2005, after launching a her company on the singular idea that sustainability can be customized into a profitable strategy for any-size organization, she now has an international base of clients implementing her ideas.  EarthPeople clients include clean tech startups such as Evatran, municipalities such as the City of Austin, and companies such as JCPenney and Time Inc.’s Fortune/Money Group.  Anna is a featured columnist for Greenbiz.com and has been interviewed by USA Today, Fox Business News, and Entrepreneur Radio. Her opinions have appeared in the Dallas Morning News and The Christian Science Monitor. At the Goose, she will be speaking on Women and Sustainability: How to use our faith to heal the earth, help its people, and serve our God.

Derek Webb wears many hats: Artist, pop theologian, songwriter, agent provocateur, marketing genius. A veteran of the Dove Award-winning, CCM chart-topping band Caedmon’s Call, Derek went in more solo direction in 2003 to chart his own path, releasing a number of albums including Mockingbird, Stockholm Syndrome and Feedback. Spanning genres from rock to folk to electronica and ambient, the content of Derek’s prodigious output has the ability to thrill and aggravate many different constituencies, usually simultaneously. For instance: when he sings about the glories of Calvinism, the threat of American empire to people of faith, the dehumanizing consequences of anti-gay sentiment amongst conservative Christians, or the insidiousness of war. Or when he gets a song featured on Grey’s Anatomy. Additionally, Derek is a pioneer of digital community-building amongst independent artists and listeners, founding the free and legal music sharing site NoiseTrade.com. Like David Dark, he lives in Nashville, and is similarly married to a talented singer-songwriter, in this case Sandra McCracken. Join Derek at the Goose where he will sing some songs and initiate some blessedly uncomfortable conversations.

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Filed Under: Festival Info, Main Features, music, speakers, Wild Goose Blog Tagged With: , , , , , 1 Comment
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