[blockquote type=”center”] “Reconciliation can be understood as exchanging places with ‘the other,’ overcoming alienation through identification, solidarity, restoring relationships, positive change, new frameworks, and a rich togetherness that is both spiritual and political.” Radical Reconciliation: Beyond Political Pietism and Christian Quietism (p12) [/blockquote]

It’s been 14 years since A New Kind of Christian. 10 years since Velvet Elvis. Both of these books served as groundbreaking works for dissatisfied evangelicals. I found ANKoC at a garage sale and read it in the bathroom while my toddlers bathed. It was the first book that made me realize there was a possibility of, well, being a different kind of Christian. Reading Velvet Elvis was the earthquake that rocked my world and my faith hasn’t been the same since.

I know many other people have similar stories. But is experiencing a faith shift reason enough to continue the status quo of power structures and abuse?

Over the past 20 years there’s been post-modern Christianity, Emergent Christianity, and Progressive Christianity. Now it looks like there’s another new form of churchianity – Convergence. But if you look closely, it’s just more of the same. And what we need to be asking ourselves, is more of the same what we should be supporting?

The lines between progressive and emergent have been blurry from the beginning. As Mike Clawson of Emergent Village said last year:

“As listed here, these are several similar, ‘offshoots’ of the Emerging/Progressive movement. Do we declare our job done and hand off the remaining tasks to the myriad of new emergent/progressive Christian groups now existing (e.g. Wild Goose Festival, TransFORM, Missio Alliance, Ecclesia, the Center for Progressive Renewal, the CANA Initiative, MESA, etc.)?”

[blockquote type=”left”] “Empires enforce and maintain domination on subject peoples through military might, economic oppression, and ideological belief systems, no matter what era in history they emerge. The influence of an empire is pervasive as it ‘inextricably interweaves religion (what binds people together) with politics (what people do together) and economics (how people produce and exchange goods and services together.)’ This was true for the Roman Empire and the empires of history. It is also true of empires today.” (p13) [/blockquote]

See also – this post by Tony Jones.

All of these groups are inter-related, especially the Center for Progressive Renewal and Convergence. (MESA appears to be defunct [although look at some of the names], and CANA has become Convergence [with some of the MESA values copied over].)

Brad has a great write-up of the history and relation between the people and groups. But what’s important is the circular motion of all of these groups. They all intertwine. They all support each other. They read and blurb each other’s books, they put on conferences together and speak together.

They are primarily all white people, with a lot of white men, and neatly tucked into this circle of white power is the story of Tony and Julie. I am not going to rehash that here. But it is a wedge in this circle of platform, power, and privilege.

[pullquote type=”left”] “Zacchaeus knew…that he had sinned against God and against his neighbors and that he had to make public recompense. A cozy chat with Jesus in the privacy of his home would not do…The suffering of his victims was a public suffering. His remorse had to be public as well, and so should be the restoration of his broken relationship with his community.” (p69) [/pullquote]

Of these other spin-off groups mentioned, let’s take a look at what the Emergent/Progressive movements have birthed, in regard to power structures.

Wild Goose Festival, which in the past has been criticized for its line-up, last year had 1/3 of its presenters be people of color. I’m very interested to see the leadership make-up and the names of those involved, but I don’t see them listed anywhere.

TransFORM I think is really impressive, with a diverse leadership team and an amazing conference where only 1/3 of the presenters are white. Missio Alliance also has an upcoming conference, with 1/3 diverse presenters, but both their leadership team and board of directors are very white. Ecclesia is also really white. The Center for Progressive Renewal has a lot of female leadership which is great, but it too is overwhelmingly white.

[blockquote type=”left”] “His choice for Jesus was a choice for justice, and his choice for justice was a choice for the poor. Zacchaeus could now only stand where God stands: with the wronged and the destitute and against the wealthy, the powerful, and the privileged. Instead of sharing the privileges of the wealthy, he would now share the pain of the oppressed.” (p72) [/blockquote]

Another organization that is involved in the creation of Convergence is the Faith in Public Life, which also, surprise surprise, features a very white staff.

And now Convergence and CPR are putting on a national church leadership conference.

[blockquote type=”center”] “Join the leading practitioners and thinkers in progressive church at this year’s National Church Leadership Institute where we will curate conversations around five trendlines: DIY, crowdsourcing, the local food movement, the cloud and the sharing economy. Together, we’ll have a blast, re-imagine the church and build a more just and generous future!” [/blockquote]

[pullquote type=”right”] “The church in the United States has too often been formed using models emerging from contexts of privilege. Rather than perspectives shaped by those at the margins of society, the church reflects a white, male, middle-class, able-bodied, heterosexual, exclusive viewpoint.” (p86) [/pullquote]

You will probably not be surprised to see that the racial issues at the forefront of faith and country are not mentioned at all. And if you’ve done any reading on the players in the Progressive/Emergent movements, you probably will not be surprised to see so many familiar faces.

As Brad says:

[blockquote type=”center”]”Introduction. Speaking and consulting have become integral parts of becoming/being well-known in larger Christian communities as a theological thought leader and/or ministry role model. This section focuses on key Emergent/Progressive opportunities to develop a speaking platform, especially at larger and/or annual events.”

“If you track all the Conventions and the emerging/Emergent speakers through these nine conventions, you’ll see a sort of limited pick-list of mostly Caucasian men who represent Emergence, how to related with and speak into the lives of people from postmodern cultures, leading/discipling postmodern generations, etc. Start interconnecting that list and you’ll find many of them cross-listed as serving in official capacities with Emergent Village, Wild Goose Festival, and CANA Initiative/Convergence – as well as on the list of those published with books about emerging/Emergent.” [/blockquote]

What exactly has the Progressive/Emergent movement given us, and why should we expect Convergence to be any different? If we are just reproducing more of the same white, powerful and privileged leadership……then what in the hell are we doing? Why are we pretending that this is some new, awesome movement? Why the hell is Brian McClaren shown in pictures leading workshop after workshop on how to do church? Where is the upending of the old power structures? Do not call new wineskins what we can clearly see are stained, leaky, and worn out.

[pullquote type=”left”] “The import of this is unmistakable. For the coming of justice it is not sufficient to raise the ones at the bottom, leaving everything else the same. Something must also happen to those at the top: they must be cast down. Justice for the downtrodden requires casting down the ones who tread them down. The coming of justice is a painful experience.” – Wolterstorff (quoted on p62) [/pullquote]

If we look at the history – if we look at the actions of the leaders – we can see that nothing has changed. Power structures are the same. Denial of serious issues are the same. Immense pressure for dissidents to toe the line are the same. They think we need a new, new kind of Christian? A new, new kind of Christianity? Where does it end? When do we stop circling the wagons and start dismantling the power structures and the abuse they enable?

You guys! We cannot support a system that continues to uphold whiteness, that continues to be unsafe for victims, and then say we care about social justice issues! It takes a system to uphold systemic injustices. It takes people complicit in the system to make it work, and it takes people opting out of the system to bring change.

You can be a genuinely nice person and be a racist. You can be a really kind person to so many people and yet still be an abuser. You can be nice and kind and even have wise things to say on one subject – and yet be totally wrong on another. And you can be all of the above – nice, kind, and wise and still perpetuate systemic injustice and abuse of power.

Let’s look at the core founders of Convergence. I’ll just point out a few names. Brian McClaren. Doug Pagitt. {I removed Rachel Held Evan’s name because she says she is not a founding member and has never worked with Convergence, and is working to get her image removed from their website.} And if you look in the ‘more’ section, you’ll find more prominent Emergent names.

[pullquote type=”right”] “Costly reconciliation does not lie in the costs we pile on the bent shoulders of the powerless, those who already ‘labor and are heavy-laden,’ whose burdens refuse them rest for their souls, but in the radical risks we take on behalf of others; in the yoke we are willing to bear in costly discipleship.” (p36) [/pullquote]

Look at their first gathering. This invite-only event assumes people have the time and money to fly down to the Florida coast. And the hashtag for the event reveals a stunning lack of humility.

“Wanna build a just and generous Christianity and world? We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.” 

“It’s time to architect the next 100 years of church. We are the heroes that we seek.”

 [blockquote type=”left”] “People with privilege and power need congregations where they can exchange places (reconcile) with people who have been marginalized.” (p87) [/blockquote]

And I want to point out this picture as an example. I don’t know Romal Tune. I’ve heard great things about him recently. Which is even more reason this needs to be reversed. Romal Tune needs to be the one mentoring Brian McClaren, not the other way around.

[blockquote type=”right”] “…if you are a white person wanting to provide leadership in a multiracial or multicultural congregation, and you have never had a mentor of color, you will be a colonialist reproducing a U.S. white culture version of the church. Whites need to be mentored for leadership by persons of color.” (p89) [/blockquote]

On their About page, Convergence says:

[blockquote type=”center”] “To face this unprecedented convergence of crises, we need a historic, grass-roots, bottom-to-top convergence of people of faith, coming together in a vital spiritual and social movement.

Growing numbers of Christian leaders from many traditions – traditional Protestant, progressive Catholic, progressive Evangelical and Charismatic, and others – are coming to shared convictions that are both radical and exciting: the future of the church will not simply be a replication of the past, and it is time for vital, new expressions of just and generous Christian faith to emerge.” [/blockquote]

And I wonder – how is any of this different from Emergent? Not a replication of the past? Really? (I would also add, that if they looked to the black church, chances are they would already find people with these convictions, people who are not replicating the past, people who are already pursuing these 10 commitments.)

Because this is the gist of it. The new Convergence is the same old Emergent/Progressive crowd. And the same old crowd, as we’ve seen over the last 7 months, has a serious problem. There are many, many, many witnesses to years long patterns of abuse of power.

[blockquote type=”left”] “It is a paralyzing, unbiblical Christianity that revictimizes the true victim through pious advice to submission, endurance, and quiet acceptance…Compassionate justice to the true victim empowers and restores personhood and dignity, and creates room for reconciliation by seeing and sharing the victim’s pain and suffering.” (p107) [/blockquote]

And as new people join this group – as people (even many of my friends) support the books and conferences these people create – know what you’re supporting. We all need to continually check ourselves, check our privileges, and check our support of dysfunctional, even abusive systems. We can affirm the good in people and yet hold them accountable for the ways in which they perpetuate oppression are oppressors.

But if we choose to support the good a person does, we can’t stay silent about the non-good they do. The abuse of power and the failure to make true justice a priority flourishes when people remain silent.

 

I’ll end with this list of questions offered in Radical Reconciliation.

How do money and connections to powerful people affect our work for reconciliation and social justice?

Do our social justice organizations empower women into positions of leadership?

Do our reconciliation organizations truly reflect the diversity of their constituency, community, and region, or do they settle for token representations?

Does our stated commitment to address racial injustice take on flesh in deep friendships and communal relationships with persons of different races and cultures?

Do we who are activists fighting poverty actually know any poor people?

Do we value all justice issues equally?

 

 

 All quotes are from Radical Reconciliation.

This post contains affiliate links.

 

 

I’m adding this P.S. because it’s important to notice how easily people can be demonized and the language used to divide. THIS IS NOT OK. I don’t care how nice Glennon is. This type of language and dismissiveness is NOT OK.

From this post by Momastery, about Rachel Held Evans: “She’s just a lady who probably feels scared and hurt by the criticism and character crucifixion that inevitably comes to anyone who insists on her worthiness out loud” So, people who disagree are now performing crucifixions? Ok then.

Glennon was at the initial gathering of the new Convergence movement referenced above.