Hate is Big Business in America

Last updated on: April 9, 2019 at 5:50 pm By Mark Van Steenwyk

America’s largest Christian charity is funnelling millions of dollars to hate groups. In a story being picked up by national news sources and originally broken by Sludge, the USA’s largest Christian charity (and 8th largest public charity overall) is giving millions to anti-LGBTQ and anti-Muslim hate groups. Over the past three years, the National Christian Foundation has passed along $56 million to groups like ACT for America, Alliance Defending Freedom, American Freedom Law Center, the Family Research Council, and the... Read more

The Pathology of Liberal* Spirituality

Last updated on: April 9, 2019 at 6:06 pm By Mark Van Steenwyk

One pathology of political liberalism is to equate calmness with maturity and anger with immaturity. Many who have been enculturated as middle class liberals (particularly the white ones) may shed tears for injustice, but don’t get too riled up about injustice. And so, when they come into contact with an angry poor person, or angry person of color, it is easy for them to think: “Well, I certainly care about injustice, but I don’t get worked up about it…these folks... Read more

The Program in Prophetic Spirituality

Last updated on: March 13, 2019 at 6:14 pm By Mark Van Steenwyk

Our first intensive is at Tettegouche State Park on the North Shore of Lake Superior. The Center for Prophetic Imagination exists to nurture prophetic witness. And one of the ways we do this is through our two year Certificate in Prophetic Spirituality. Do you long for a just world? Do you believe that it is the Spirit that has put that longing within your soul? Now, more than ever, the world needs prophetic voices. We’ve created our Program in Prophetic... Read more

What is Radical Discipleship?

Last updated on: April 9, 2019 at 6:31 pm By Mark Van Steenwyk

What is Radical Discipleship? This used to be a fairly simple question to me. Now? Not so much. Fifteen years ago, with the confidence of a late 20’s white seminarian, I “planted” a church whose only real mission was to take Jesus seriously. Soon, that new church experiment mutated into a full on intentional community, a sort of hybrid between a catholic worker house and a hippy Mennonite Church. We called ourselves the Mennonite Worker. At our most active, we... Read more

It’s Time to Disrupt the Church

Last updated on: April 9, 2019 at 6:36 pm By Mark Van Steenwyk

We’re well past the half-way mark into Donald Trump’s presidency. Progressives have seen, and continue to see, their worst fears coming to life. Xenophobic policies have brought immigration to a trickle, scapegoated Latin American refugees, and turned the border wall into a fascist symbol of hate. Islamphobic wars continue, with an intensification of drone strikes (now with a brazen disregard for civilian casualties). We are on the brink of a whole new oil-war with Venezuela. Trump’s son-in-law is discussing bringing... Read more

Liberal/Leftist/Progressive/Radical: What do they mean?

Last updated on: April 9, 2019 at 6:50 pm By Mark Van Steenwyk

I know these are contested terms. And that such categorization often falls short and becomes unhelpful. And it gets tricky when someone seems progressive on issues of race or gender/sexuality but is a fiscal conservative. People are rarely consistent and never entirely rational. Nevertheless, here’s how I slice and dice the terms radical, leftist, liberal, and progressive. Being a “leftist” doesn’t just mean “super, super liberal.” Nor does being a “radical” just mean “super, super progressive.” The difference between a... Read more

The Subversive Spirit

Last updated on: April 10, 2019 at 11:29 am By Mark Van Steenwyk

In the beginning, we find the Spirit hovering over the unformed deep. There, at the beginning as God spoke light into being, the first spark of creation. We know what happens later in Genesis: innocence lost, murder, the deepening of human frailty and wickedness. Amidst the shattered fragments of our frail world, the Spirit does her work…the work of sacred re-creation. It is the Spirit who opens up new possibilities, new opportunities for God’s people to be restored and transformed.... Read more

CHRI$TIAN COMPLICITY IN WAR

Last updated on: April 10, 2019 at 11:53 am By Mark Van Steenwyk

Last week, USA Today published an article listing the 20 companies most profiting from war. They write: Total arms sales among the world’s 100 largest defense contractors topped $398 billion in 2017 after climbing for the third consecutive year. Notably, Russia, one of the countries with the fastest growing militaries over the last decade, became the second largest arms-producing country, overtaking the United Kingdom for the first time since 2002. The United States’ position as the top arms-producing nation in the world... Read more

The Christian Roots of Supremacy

Last updated on: February 20, 2019 at 12:08 pm By Mark Van Steenwyk

I'm sharing the third lecture from the Spirituality of Empire series to my Patrons. Enjoy! Read more

The Politics of Jesus 6: Objections to a Radical Reading of Scripture

Last updated on: February 18, 2019 at 7:14 am By Mark Van Steenwyk

A Roman coin. There remain many open questions. My point here isn’t so much to defend a radical read of Scripture as much as it is to give a sketch of the possibilities. We read Scripture in ways that support authoritarianism because we learned how to read Scripture in authoritarian contexts. Once you start pulling the loose threads, you begin to find the whole authoritarian fabric unraveling. For sake of brevity, I’ll address the two most commonly raised passages against... Read more