riding with rabbinoculars: News items from around the globe!

June 05, 2006

News items from around the globe!

It's been too long, sweet bloglings.

Lions do not believe in God!

KIEV (Reuters) - A man shouting that God would keep him safe was mauled to death by a lioness in Kiev zoo after he crept into the animal's enclosure, a zoo official said on Monday.

"The man shouted 'God will save me, if he exists', lowered himself by a rope into the enclosure, took his shoes off and went up to the lions," the official said.

"A lioness went straight for him, knocked him down and severed his carotid artery."

The incident, Sunday evening when the zoo was packed with visitors, was the first of its kind at the attraction. Lions and tigers are kept in an "animal island" protected by thick concrete blocks.

And in other news - Christian Anarchists poised on verge of Worldwide Theistic un-domination! Getting to what Jesus was really on about - Overthrowing the Empire!

BEWARE OF DOGMA BELOW!

UK gathering explores Christianity and anarchism -04/06/06

For people who think of Christianity as an establishment religion and anarchism as a nihilist creed, a gathering this weekend organised by the group Jesus Radicals may come as a shock. It suggested that the two traditions can have a fruitful exchange.

The conference at All Hallows Church centre in Leeds brought together a range of thinkers and activists formed in their justice and peace work by their Christian faith, but also appreciative of the non-statist, autonomous progressive viewpoint associated with non-violent anarchism and syndicalism.

There have been parallel events taking place simultaneously in New Zealand and the United States.

They are influenced by Christian theologians such as Jacques Ellul, Walter Wink and Vernard Eller – who stress that the coming of the kingdom (or kin-dom) of God in Jesus’ teaching and action is about the transformation of social and personal relationships and the abolition of hierarchies.

Leo Tolstoy, best-known for his classic War and Peace, is another thinker regularly name-checked. Many would also cite poet, artist and spiritual dissident William Blake, as well as historical movements like the Levellers and Diggers.

The evangelical writer Dave Andrews introduced some of these people and concepts to a wider audience some fifteen years ago with a book called Christianarchy, which stressed the biblical roots of rebellion against oppression.

And Jonathan Bartley, co-director of the UK Christian think-tank Ekklesia, has provocatively chosen to sub-title his forthcoming book on Faith and Politics After Christendom “the church as a movement for anarchy” – as a way of emphasising the role of small-scale communities and initiatives in helping to reshape the agenda once Christianity has ceased to collude with power and seek domination.

Jesus Radicals’ spokesperson Keith Hebden told Ekklesia on Friday that the popular perception of anarchism as a matter of lawlessness, beards and bombs is way out of date.

As well as pointing to a surprising strand of Christian thought on the matter, he says that “like the democratic tradition, anarchism is not one thing but a spectrum of ideas”, of which some are amenable to followers of Jesus and others are definitely not.

The meeting involved brainstorming sessions, opportunities to reflect, shared meal times, creative worship, and opportunities for dialogue with secular anarchists.

Perhaps the best-known political and academic figure to talk positively of anarchism these days is Noam Chomsky, described by Time magazine as maybe the most influential intellectual alive today.

Besides his pioneering work on linguistics at MIT in the USA, Chomsky (who has no religious affiliation) is a long-standing critic of American foreign policy and the political and religious right-wing. In a stream of books, interviews and broadcasts he has attacked the ‘military-industrial complex’ and the state’s ‘manufacture of consent’.

The Christians and anarchism gathering, entertainingly entitled ‘God Save the Queen’ (the title of the Sex Pistols’ hit) stressed that discerning and critical faith is the heart of the matter, but also translating ideas into practical discipleship.

Some of the discussions and workshops were down-to-earth, said participants, and others more academic. The aim was an inclusive event to move forward radical Christian thinking and action.

Jesus Radicals, also a website (http://uk.jesusradicals.com/), has supporters in the USA too, including two Mennonites from the Anabaptist peace church tradition.

Being anti-war, communitarian and opposed to state religion, some modern Mennonites are seen as having an affinity with the peaceful wing of anarchism – though they can be deeply conservative, too, in places like Lancaster County.

“In an age of state violence and asymmetric terrorism, terms like ‘radical’ and ‘anarchist’ can be off-putting and readily associated with unpleasant and coercive extremism,” one commentator told Ekklesia.

“But subversive, people-oriented ideas are at the heart of the Jesus movement, and were instrumental in Christ’s death at the hands of a political and religious elite.”

Those involved in the Christians and anarchism conference point positively to the new, levelling energy created out of the resurrection community and to the song by Mary mother of Jesus (The Magnificat) which talks of God “bringing the mighty from their thrones, and exalting the humble and week”.