the Ujaama Consultation Week!

Dear Friends,
I have been trying to figure out how best to summarize this past week for you in a blog post. I have been playing around with posting notes, thoughts, a paper, or something like that to describe it but I think it is best to leave it as a story.

So Tuesday Night I went with some friends from my Theologies of Transformation class to see a lecture by Allan Boesak. He gave a lecture at the Ujaama 21st anniversary on “The Theological Underpinnings of the Empire” which probably sounds rather intimidating at first look, but basically it analyzed our current global political climate and asked the question what we are dealing with. He identified that we are dealing with a global empire. It is an empire that is dominated by Neoliberal Capitalist Ideals, dominated by free-market economy based democracy, and that worships the idol of the ‘holy’ Individual (Or perhaps Mammon, or perhaps, the ‘great and almighty’ ‘I’ or any other Ba’al that we can consider). The Empire is best known as the USA but I would extend it to being the empire of the G8/G20, We are unfortunately unable to identify a singular tyrannical emperor, but we can see that it is an Oligarchy that is dominating the empire, with Leaders, Ideologies, Corporations, Countries, Businesses, and Financial Institutions controlling and protecting its own interests. It is a power house of culture, ideas, and all outputs, it imports the foreign for its own consumption yet exports its own version of the foreign to dictate how the world culture should be. It is no different than the Roman Empire, It has the Pax Americana, the state worship of ideologies, co-option of religions, it has an altar that sacrifices for the sake of the economy. A super exciting lecture that identified deeply what we are dealing with, yet at the same time it was lacking. It lacked a theological reflection of what we need to do and work towards as theologians.

As for me, it left me feeling like the theologians present for the most part were like the nation of Israel at the time of Gideon. Just ‘OMG there is an oppressive empire, they are dominating the life of our churches, and our people, and they will never be removed.’ Unlike Gideon these theologians (I am perhaps overstating the fact in using all of them but I am going with the problem that I saw) are just willing to complain about the idols, and the empire but not want to do anything. We need theologians who like Gideon are willing to build an Altar to the LORD and name it “The LORD is SHALOM”. Theologians who would take the second Ox of their father and tear down the pole built to Ba’al and then sacrifice the ox on the altar. We need theologians who are willing to challenge the systems of the Empire that are built up. Perhaps Kairos Documents are one example, but when recognizing the evil of the Global Empire I think we don’t dream bold enough to flip the system on its head. Perhaps like Dr. Roderick Hewitt brought up we need to be The Church that is willing to be controversial and name imperial systems for what they are. A Church that would call each other out on bad ideas that support the oppressive system of Neoliberal economics. A Church, that would be THE CHURCH, the Kingdom of God present in the world. I would take it a step further and argue that we need to have THE CHURCH and say that the Institutional church is not necessarily the CHURCH, that THE CHURCH exists inside of the Institutional church, and that it exists also outside. THE CHURCH adopts a model of Eschatology as it’s principle knowledge of how to live life. It accepts the KINGDOM OF GOD, instead of the EMPIRE OF THE WORLD. This is central to the message of the Jesus of the Gospels. And this needs to become the central message of our churches today.

Wednesday Morning I went to a session (with the same students) to see a presentation on the KAIROS DOCUMENT (check it out on the Ujaama website: ujaama.ukzn.ac.za ) and actually got a presentation on the KAIROS DOCUMENTS hearing about the Kenyan Kairos, and the Zimbabwean Kairos. Super cool! It was amazing to hear some of the original co-signers of the Kairos document talk about how and why it was created, and then reflect on how much further Kairos Palestine has gone, as they make a strong call to Love the enemy, and hate the oppression. So good!

Friday Morning I went to the student session where students shared reflections on the issues that were presented. It was alright, there were two students in particular who provided beautiful insights on the current issues of the times. One Identified that there is an idolatry in our broader society of the values and principles of Neoliberalism (part of his thesis that he just finished), the other identified that we need to live and actively seek a prophetic message that can reach all people in our communities. I was hoping to ask the question of what is the alternative and how do we get rid of the idolatry in our society and what do we go towards.

But I had to go instead to class, as my lecturer was leaving (and I got a lift with him and the guest lecturer for the class back to the varsity). Anyways so Dr. Clint Le Bruyns gave a lecture on his Mzwandile Memorial Lecture that he gave the night prior but going into more details in some regards. Interestingly the lecture focused on the interrelationship between faith, the economy, and work. Which was just wonderful as we got discussing how the Economy isn’t a neutral body, but has values and beliefs and ideologies which drive it, and then how faith interfaces with those values (and can and should bump against those values) in the world of Work. Basically we eventually got talking about how we embody these values in our theology but also in our lives. We need to be working on how to become people who live out our theology.
Then Friday afternoon we had another lecture for industrial mission as we dealt with issues of food sovereignty. In it we examined a variety of responses (not that one is more important than another, they just respond to the problem as we see it) to the issue of Hunger. First we looked at Charity(CARITAS): the notion of providing relief and solving the immediate problem of hunger, the lack of food. Second we investigated Community Development (Service (Diakonia)): How do we solve hunger by empowering and enabling individuals to produce or grow their own means to access food, this involves dealing with the capacity of a community to access food by way of their own skills and abilities. Third we looked at Policy and law making (TORAH): in particular this seeks to have the governments implement the issues surrounding food rights that are in their constitutions. Finally we looked at the idea of working to make democratic movements (JUBILEE,): How to mobilize communities to gain and transform the systems of society which enforce hunger and lack of food. (In brackets are the Biblical ideas that help to illustrate the ideas theologically). This takes the response for food away from the old adage “Give a man a fish, and he will be full for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will never be hungry again.” But deals with the realities of asking the tough questions like “Why is it illegal to fish in the river?” and “Who owns the fences that are blocking us away from the river?” and beyond that to “Who is polluting the river so that we can’t even eat the fish we catch?” Dealing with food issues involves creativity and a mixture of all four of those concepts especially when we realize the depth of the issues.

Anyways the reason why I talk about all the stuff I learned is to share with you the crazy excitement of the week. Basically after almost each of these moments all I could do was bounce around and get more and more excited about the possibilities of the work that I can do as a theologian. I dreamed dreams, shared my excitement, and worked out the issues that I had and thought about where it needs to go, and how it needs to go from here. This is the sort of stuff that makes me glad I have had experiences which allow me to dream alternatives and that I don’t have to be limited. It makes me glad that I am a theologian (so I can dream the impossible alternatives due to an impossible starting point in how I work as a theologian). Super Exciting!
Unfortunately I am going to be hitting a hectic time of heavy work, I have about 2 weeks left of classes, and three till my first exam. And a whole bunch of papers and reflections to write. You might have to forgive me if I don’t blog for the next couple of weeks but know that I am working on writing papers and what not (After my first exam I will be able to have a bit more space to breath!)

Cheers!