Late but here nonetheless...
It's still a bit obsessing (?) to me...
Here are two different views:
1. From the Greenpeace (history of) book. This begins with Canadian ecology and runs through whale defense and forest support, etc. The major history.
This is rather lengthy but worth the read:
"World changers, artists, and social misfits stumble upon history and make the best of it. Or they make a mess of it. In either case, they 'touch the flesh of the matter,' as Greenpeace strategist Ben Metcalfe once dreamed. Or they discover the soul that has no name and enter the eternal battle between spirit and matter. They're on spirit's side but in matter's grip. 'Imagination is seizing power,' proclaimed the Paris students in 1968. 'Our tears prove we are connected to the suffering of others,' said pacifist Joanna Macy. We shall not be moved. Blessed are the peacemakers. Let freedom ring.
World changers aren't planners. The planners come later, with critics and social philosophers to mop up and win awards. Bureaucrats arrive to invent systems. World changes are the mothers weary of seeing their children abused and fathers who have had enough of petty tyrants. Rosa Parks, the seamstress who refused to sit in the back of the bus. Jesus. Buddha."
(Greenpeace.... by Rex Weyler)
A different vantage point:
“We wrestle to free ourselves from macrocharity and distant acts of charity that serve to legitimize apathetic lifestyles of good intentions but rob us of the gift of community. We preach we prophesy, and dream together about how to awaken the church from her violent slumber. Sometimes we speak to change the world; other times we speak to keep the world from changing us. We are about ending poverty, not simply managing it. We give people fish. We teach them to fish. We tear down the walls that have been built around the fish pond. And we figure out who polluted it.We fight terrorism- the terrorism within each of us, the terrorism of corporate greed, of American consumerism, of war. We are not pacifist hippies but passionate lovers who abhor passivity and violence. We spend our lives actively resisting everything that destroys life, whether that be terrorism or the war on terrorism. We try to make the world safe, knowing that the world will never be safe as long as millions live in poverty so the few can live as they wish. We believe in another way of life- the kingdom of God- which stands in opposition to the principalities, powers, and rulers of this dark world.”
Shane Claiborne’s book “The Irresistible Revolution”
There're people in this world - I am in relationship with some of them - who are willing to do whatever it takes, to join whatever cause is most effective, to live their every breath for the sake of oppression, preservation, redemption.
I once heard a friend claim that war is the absolute opposite of God's will because it destroys human life, animal life, and destroys the earth. What could be worse?
There is so much to say. But what makes me really glad is that, ultimately, the Kingdom of God underpins every redemptive sentiment. So I at least know I am right there. God is the ultimate redeemer. We're in. So do what we know to do... at least as much as we know thus far.
“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” James 1:22
It's still a bit obsessing (?) to me...
Here are two different views:
1. From the Greenpeace (history of) book. This begins with Canadian ecology and runs through whale defense and forest support, etc. The major history.
This is rather lengthy but worth the read:
"World changers, artists, and social misfits stumble upon history and make the best of it. Or they make a mess of it. In either case, they 'touch the flesh of the matter,' as Greenpeace strategist Ben Metcalfe once dreamed. Or they discover the soul that has no name and enter the eternal battle between spirit and matter. They're on spirit's side but in matter's grip. 'Imagination is seizing power,' proclaimed the Paris students in 1968. 'Our tears prove we are connected to the suffering of others,' said pacifist Joanna Macy. We shall not be moved. Blessed are the peacemakers. Let freedom ring.
World changers aren't planners. The planners come later, with critics and social philosophers to mop up and win awards. Bureaucrats arrive to invent systems. World changes are the mothers weary of seeing their children abused and fathers who have had enough of petty tyrants. Rosa Parks, the seamstress who refused to sit in the back of the bus. Jesus. Buddha."
(Greenpeace.... by Rex Weyler)
A different vantage point:
“We wrestle to free ourselves from macrocharity and distant acts of charity that serve to legitimize apathetic lifestyles of good intentions but rob us of the gift of community. We preach we prophesy, and dream together about how to awaken the church from her violent slumber. Sometimes we speak to change the world; other times we speak to keep the world from changing us. We are about ending poverty, not simply managing it. We give people fish. We teach them to fish. We tear down the walls that have been built around the fish pond. And we figure out who polluted it.We fight terrorism- the terrorism within each of us, the terrorism of corporate greed, of American consumerism, of war. We are not pacifist hippies but passionate lovers who abhor passivity and violence. We spend our lives actively resisting everything that destroys life, whether that be terrorism or the war on terrorism. We try to make the world safe, knowing that the world will never be safe as long as millions live in poverty so the few can live as they wish. We believe in another way of life- the kingdom of God- which stands in opposition to the principalities, powers, and rulers of this dark world.”
Shane Claiborne’s book “The Irresistible Revolution”
There're people in this world - I am in relationship with some of them - who are willing to do whatever it takes, to join whatever cause is most effective, to live their every breath for the sake of oppression, preservation, redemption.
I once heard a friend claim that war is the absolute opposite of God's will because it destroys human life, animal life, and destroys the earth. What could be worse?
There is so much to say. But what makes me really glad is that, ultimately, the Kingdom of God underpins every redemptive sentiment. So I at least know I am right there. God is the ultimate redeemer. We're in. So do what we know to do... at least as much as we know thus far.
“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” James 1:22
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