A Call to Organize

Last updated on: May 4, 2015 at 7:01 pm by Tim Conder

A Call to Organize 2015-05-04T19:01:20-05:00 Tim Conder

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“We” need to get politically organized!

Forms of Progressive Christianity are clearly growing. Communities and expressions of inclusion and hope working for multi-valent streams of justice are present and expanding both in communal, autonomous settings and in institutions. Doug Pagitt’s short description on “progressive Evangelicalism” (http://www.faithstreet.com/onfaith/2015/02/19/10-things-i-wish-everyone-knew-about-progressive-evangelicals/36195) is tremendously hopeful and entirely on point. I had a chance dinner and visit with Doug (Convergence Network, Solomon’s Porch Church) and Cameron Trimble (Convergence Network) this February in Minnesota and left entirely enthused about the ongoing prospects of a progressive Christian voice in our society. Brian McLaren’s prophetic promise of a “new kind of Christian” later amended and expanded to a “new kind of Christianity” has been fulfilled and continues to be fulfilled. Progressive Christianity has morphed from oxymoron to reality. One of the hallmarks of progressive and emergent Christianity is a passion for local contexts in all that we do — from reading Biblical texts to social justice activism.

I realize that my call to organize is somewhat presumptuous and inaccurate. There are many historical traditions and structures of progressive Christianity that have great legacies of presence and action in this realm. I don’t want to get on the wrong side of the lineage of Dorothy Day and so many like this. If you are in one of these traditions, I am so very thankful for you and what it took so many years for you to teach me!

But, I was in two different political actions last week that demonstrate to me the unique opportunities and challenges for progressive Christians in organizing. The first is a challenge to move outside the local settings that often permeate emergent Christianity to be present in the larger discourses that drive today’s politic and the second is a challenge to collectivize well enough “to be seen, known, and utilized” in local organizing.

The Moral Movement’s third year kick-off —

The NAACP’s Moral Monday began with a clergy action in the morning and culminated with larger public action in the evening. I was a part of approximately 30 pastors who marched to the state legislature and demonstrated by preaching, praying, singing, and reading NC’s state constitution outside the Senate chamber. (Ironically, NC’s Senate was deliberating an expanded “right-to-carry” gun bill for school campuses and other public settings). About 10 of my clergy colleagues chose to practice civil disobedience (by standing/sitting within ten feet of the door) and were arrested (see photo above). The issues in question were NC’s refusal to allow for Medicaid expansion, diminished public educational funding, regressive taxes, living wages — life and death stuff. The clergy present were primarily from Black Church traditions and a small handful (five or less) from activist mainline traditions*. In the case of this and other broad-based political coalitions, there is an open call and great need for Progressive Christian Leaders to join in. The call is out. We have been invited to join in. And we are needed.*

IAF/Durham CAN Clergy Caucus

My clergy sisters and brothers in IAF/Durham CAN are off next week to Baltimore to observe some remarkable work done in community development, affordable housing, and local job creation by IAF’s local organization in conjunction with the City of Baltimore and Johns Hopkins Hospital. Despite the deep challenges that remain in Baltimore demonstrated in recent events, Baltimore’s legacy in organizing is substantial. These successes are not without precedent. Similar projects have been done in Brooklyn and many East Coast cities. Last week, I sat in a strategy session with other local clergy learning a game plan that we hope to apply to Durham. This form of faith-based organizing has remarkable power in local political settings. To the uninitiated, you would be amazed by the results from this model of political action. But this form of organizing is highly structural focusing on denominations and faith organizations with size and scale. Often it relies on hierarchical models where authoritative clergy leaders lead in or even command their flocks into action. With the danger of challenging something that is working, I see some needs for revision in this model. Highly absent (and overlooked) are smaller, organic, independent and intentional communities that are often found in progressive Christianity. Post-Christian communities and secular/ethical worldview societies are also absent. These are all groups who are often deeply committed to the same changes sought in organizing.

There are many threats to historic faith-based organizing. Without doubt, we live in a society that is both secularizing AND relocating persons of faith into less traditional worship settings. Many of my organizing colleagues in particularly Black Church traditions that have been staples in local organizing lament that that their growing churches are trans-local representing so many localities that it is difficult to motivate their congregants in the kind of local issues and political fights that are the bread-and-butter of this type of organizing.

On the other hand, many of the progressive Christian groups and fellowships that I know are obsessively local. Once again, we are desperately needed in this work. But are we not “seen” by organizers who often look to downtown steeples and high capacity sanctuaries as the hallmarks of communities to be recruited to the coalition. And when invited, we often struggle with the authoritative mechanisms that drive the action. In a pastoral job description for my own community we described the ideal leader as “an integral voice within an egalitarian staff of friends and equals, serving alongside a congregation of co-ministers who all work to embody the redemptive kingdom of Christ.” Quite frankly, that sounds like an alien script to the common idiom of authoritative leader directives in faith-based community organizing.

Given these challenges, I think progressive Christians need to find each other and form much more intentional connections between faith communities and other activist/justice communities outside the Christian tradition. Sadly communities in this tradition can be as socially Darwinistic and competitive as start-up enterprises trying to sell a product to the same market. We are often precarious, existing on the margins of sustainability. But if we form more intentional relationships, we can be “seen” by organizers and can become such a critical component of the social change our society and this created world desperately needs.

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