Getting Ready to be Radical in 2009

If you like chaos, if you thrive on wild emotional swings, if you love mind-boggling complexity, then you probably thought 2008 was some kind of fabulous year.

As I look back on the year past and the challenges ahead, I’m left to mumble Paul’s famous question, “What then can we say about these things?”

In a recent online message, the progressive evangelical magazine Sojourners asked its readers what they hope for in 2009, suggesting the following possibilities:

> Peace on earth?
> Spiritual renewal?
> A responsive new government?
> Unity in the church?
> The end of extreme global poverty?

The tone of their message was optimistic, and despite everything that has happened since early November, Sojourners clearly pins its hopes on changes they see coming from the last election:

“A post-election poll we (Sojourners) co-sponsored revealed that a clear majority of evangelicals and Catholics believe a broad political agenda best represents their values. This poll echoes what we hear from Christians across the nation - that we are exhausted by the limitations of having only one or two issues dominate the focus of our politics.”

Sojourners’ “Vote All Your Values” campaign did indeed resonate with many faith voters in the 2008 election and helped shift the balance in Washington, but as jazz singer Esther Phillips observed, “What a Difference a Day Makes.” Since November 4th we have realized the great issues debated in the campaign were not so great compared to those waiting just over the horizon. We've reached one of those moments seen infrequently in human history, a time of turmoil that could produce dramatic positive change, or throw us into a worldwide chaos of economic collapse and wars among people fighting for scarce resources. Just two months after the election, the promises that informed the winning campaign are being exposed as insufficient. Reactionary conservatives are seizing on the new president’s promise of a less virulent form of politics to suggest the failed ideas of the past eight years still have merit. They can’t be allowed to get away with it, and that means seeing the voters’ “call to change” as a sweeping agenda, not just a shift in atmospherics.

Yes, many Christians and Americans in general are exhausted by the political fights of the last several administrations. But under the emerging circumstances, believing we can bring change with a policy of polite mutual acceptance is like believing we can stop a forest fire with a garden hose. Of course, times like these lead many individuals to hunker down and try to protect their personal interests. That’s the garden hose approach. It won’t work and it’s unacceptable for people of faith. Here’s my prescription for how we must change our thinking:

Let the truth run free. Journalism as we once knew it, or think we did, is dead. That may not be bad, but it means we need to work harder to find the truth. The mainstream television media from which most people get their news is not only corporate owned and controlled, it is afraid to ruffle the feathers of powerful political groups. That’s not surprising, since corporate accountability is a fiduciary responsibility to stockholders, not to the facts. Take the Israeli invasion of Gaza. Don’t expect to hear TV interviewers ask Israel’s representatives how a year of closed borders and denying daily necessities to the Gaza Strip may have led the people to finally lash out in frustration. The information is out there on the internet, but you’ll have to look for it. The networks don’t want you to ask that question. The same is true of how Washington and New York insiders are lining up to make personal fortunes on the financial bailout. The New York Times, to its credit, did run a story on the subject, but treated it as nothing to be ashamed of -- just business as usual.

Stop following and start leading. Let’s be honest, our leadership has been a dismal failure. Many people who voted for Barack Obama want to trust him to make changes for the better. I agree he’s a good man, but our mistake is in thinking change should come from the top down. Significant change can come only when government and the culture is pushed to the tipping point by the populace. The civil rights and labor movements are prime examples. Don’t expect success to come easily, but we can start by changing the way we think and live. We may never be more than a small minority, but if we avoid being elitists or isolationists the nation may learn there’s an attractive, more spiritual, alternative to our materialistic me-first culture. And who knows, if people with resources reject the lure of ostentatious living, it may even impact Sojourners’ goal of ending extreme poverty.

Get ready to be radical. Most of us have stood in church or at a praise meeting and sung, “I have decided to follow Jesus,” but few of us have dared to be as radical as Jesus was. I’m not saying we should court martyrdom, and I’m certainly not suggesting the kind of violent revolutions that have often ushered in radical change. But change is coming and we can either steer it or be run over by it. In the discussions of our financial meltdown, some have reluctantly begun to note that we may be witnessing the collapse of economic principles we’ve trusted. This presents a time of both opportunity and of danger. As Christians we should be ready to push for an improved system more in line with God’s values. If we fail to do so, the void may be filled by people of ill intent as it was in Europe in the 1920s and 30s. As the status quo falls away, we must make sure that the arc of history continues to bend toward justice, compassion and equality.