Theopoetics and social change.

Theopoetics and social change. We open up the hungers and longings of our age. We enter into a conversation with the deepest places of our selves and our audience. To engage in the theopoetic is to tempt the radical nature of ourselves, it is to follow in the footsteps of the God-Speakers that could upset the republic, could speak from the margins of our hungers and unspeakable truths. Jason Derr, In Consideration of the Theopoetic (1) What is the activity of a priestess of the social imagination? Whatfocus shall a theopoetic social change agent take? How can we as socialchange organizers both "upset the republic," in Derr'slanguage, and also awaken the hungers and strengths of the human heart,accessing the power and Presence of imagination and ofGod-Deity-Divinity-Mystery? This essay is a report from the field, anupdate about ways that theopoetic intent has informed one set ofexperiments in social change organizing. The theopoet argues that, in many cases, like old soda pop,language has gone flat in our religious traditions. We use the samelanguage again and again without examining and refreshing it, and oftenno one really wants to drink it any longer. Bound up with the flatnessof language, our rituals become rote. Instead of actually interactingwith Deity-Divinity-Essence-God, rituals and religious conversationbecome routinized. Rather than paths of power, we tread paths of habit.(2) In Theopoetic: Theology and the Religious Imagination, Amos Wilderasserted that when language gets too encrusted, it fails to produceeither new theophanies or Spirit-fed enactments of ancient truth. Theconversation in which Wilder participated, with artists, musicians,mystics, and psychologists, was about the integration of soul intospirit, the re-introduction of ecstasy into religion, the renewedembrace of vision/hymn/poem as categories of God-talk. (3) There is a risk that theopoetics will remain just a conversationcorner in the academy: Yes, the writing may evoke more writing, butthese rivers of words deserve to also flow into the sanctuary and towardthe streets. If theopoetics is to keep growing toward its real promiseof more powerful engagements with Mystery-Absence-God-Presence, thentheopoetics will need to find life not only in the pages of journals,but also in worship services that midwife the new/ancient humanity, andin incarnate experiments of struggles for justice/peace. The latter isthe focus of this essay. Theopoetics as a stance promises to deepen and develop socialchange organizing, by enriching issue-based organizing with a search foran empowerment rooted in Presence and Power. The theopoetic activistwants not just words--but enfleshed initiative. The theopoetchange-maker seeks new re-engagements of faith stories. Not onlycommunity change, but individual regeneration. And not only individualsalvations, but full-bodied wholeness, for the person, the faithcommunity, the neighborhood. The theopoet leader is a change agent whospeaks not just in slogan and catchphrase, but from the currents of adeeper Life. I am concerned that many times, those of us in spiritual socialchange leadership fall short of the mark. Too often, it is possible tofall into the kinds of patterns that theopoetics train us to beskeptical about--for example, to fall into the rhetorical trap of usingthe same tired constructions of Us vs. Them, instead of seeking newframings that catalyze the imagination and spirit in the direction ofhopeful action. And it is far too easy for faith-based leaders to retellscripture stories only to make moral points about justice or peace, butnot to dwell in them with their people, to access power in new/ancientways. Far too easy to continue to plan the same old vigil, the samekinds of rote civil disobedience, which become themselves a kind oftired and flat language that no one hears anymore. I have at times taken these easier roads. But I am hungry, and Ithink I join many others in my yearning, for faith-rooted social changeactivism which draws from wells the run from a deeper Source, andachieves fresh and generative political relevance. I want to learn akind of social change that both organizes around specific initiativesand accompanies people and communities into a new kind of visionaryleadership and spiritual/community power. I am practicing a leadership that bridges toward vision andcommunity-building, and an ever-clearer practice for empowerment ofspecific communities with which I work. Those particularly in my mind asI write these reflections are other social change organizers andcommunity leaders who are discovering/seeking how we might organize byhelping foster dreams and a sense of the possible. There is a longing for imagination and possibility, sometimesburied under the mountains of facts, failures, realities, andconclusions. For all those interested in social ferment and socialchange--this imagination, rooted in transcendence, issuing forth newglimpses of the Divine Possibility, is the gold for which we mine, thewater for which we tremblingly hold a divining rod in our hands. How is imagination awakened? The smell of a lilac bush wafting onair; a refrain from an old song; the sight of a childhood home. Thewords of a sermon, the voice of a friend, the touch of a lover. The hintof things not yet ripe, but ripening. Flashes of bright color. Timealone or in community. Silence. Memory. (4) How is imagination awakened for renewing a community, renewing ourworld? Much the same way: Hints and curling questions, hopes held out,along with bridges to hopeful action. My main context for experiments in theopoetics and social change ismy congregational peace and justice organizing as part of the staff ofOn Earth Peace, a US-based ministry rooted in the Church of theBrethren. (5) This work has included support calls for peace-committedcongregations in the months following 9/11; equipping congregationalinitiatives around the country related to alternatives to the militaryand counter-recruitment, and undergirding congregational ministries formilitary returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Because of time I havespent soaking in the waters of constructive theology and theopoetics, Ibring those perspectives to this congregational work.(6) I came into my early efforts committed to meet people where theywere and explore what was really happening with them. I wanted toconnect in a "seedly" or "gardenish" manner with thepeople I was contacting--connecting in a deeper way, understanding theforces they were up against and the specific situations theyencountered. I wanted to be a theopoetic social change organizer, not"just" organizing around specific initiatives, but using myefforts as an organizer to create spaces for people's political andspiritual power to emerge more fully. Not reiterating slogans andstatements, but tilling the soil so that new life could emerge. I will focus on three parts of On Earth Peace's work that haveinvolved aspects of the theopoetic: theological reflection withorganizers, one-on-one support calls, and our annual campaignsurrounding the International Day of Prayer for Peace. In each of these,a theopoetic sensibility enters in through the awakening of imaginationabout self, social change work and its possibilities, and Source. Theological reflection with social change organizers In the ramping-up period of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,communities we were connected with were experiencing a heightened ormore visible pressure and presence from military recruiters seeking tofill their recruitment goals. People across the country began (orcontinued existing efforts) to speak up--sometimes confronting therecruiters--and sometimes seeking to address the root causes of thesituation (such as a lack of opportunity for young people). (7) Inresponse to a swelling number of requests, On Earth Peace offeredbimonthly networking phone calls for congregationally based organizersresponding to military recruitment and generating alternatives for youthin their communities. A typical call connected people from coast to coast in the UnitedStates, and included theological reflection, open sharing time, andstrategy. (8) The theological reflections were spacious, poetichomilies, with time for meditation and sharing. They were intended tofoster communal reflection on our work in light of the stories ofscripture and the activity of God. Here is one example, on demons,disease, and counter-recruitment organizing. Luke 9 From Luke 9 (NRSV): 1 When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, 2 and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. Jesus sends us out as people in the Way, getting in the Way, to drive out demons and cure diseases, preaching the kingdom of God and healing the sick. Too often, a contemporary hearing of words like "demon" and "disease" can either focus only on special powers that the early church had--thereby proving its God-touched uniqueness which is inaccessible to us--or dismiss it as fable. As we prepare ourselves to be sent out as counter-recruiters in the fullness of God's power, it matters for us to be empowered by these words, for we are not "just" political agitators. We are not "just" naysayers concerned about specific foreign policy choices. Our commission is a deeper one than that to grapple with demon and disease, to preach the kingdom, and to heal the sick. What might demon mean here? For me, personally: despair, isolation, depression, the weight of the world's broken beauty. Reflect silently: What demons or diseases do you struggle with? I often feel too weak, or too afflicted, by my own demons and diseases to go out and heal others. Sometimes, I am tempted to heal and cast out of others that which is still binding me. But the strange and silent presence of Jesus liberates us, or promises to, as we draw close. What if we, in preparation for counter-recruitment, drew close to receive our own healing? What demons and diseases might our communities face? Apathy, materialism, racism, economic blight, an addiction to revenge, a blindness which prevents even seeing the other parts of one's own community. What demons or disease might your own community be facing? (Call them out.) The path toward the Way, toward a counter-recruitment organizing of spirit and power, will involve in a neverending spiral both our own deep spiritual and psychological healing and our stepping forward with spiritual power to cast out demons. Counter-recruitment can preach about and reach for shalom communities, where demons of racism and empire and self-hatred are cast out, where each one is loosed of the bonds that restrain them, where economic blight is healed to become the flourishing thriving of justice and right, where blindness is replaced by joyful sight. God, meet us in our need. Give us vision to see and name the spiritual diseases that are making us sick. Cast out demons that bind us and our communities. Give us the wisdom to see and engage the work that is before us, in all its dimensions. AMEN. (9) One-on-one support calls for organizers A main way that On Earth Peace organizers have connected withcongregationally based peace and justice organizers around the countryis on the phone. These one-on-one calls offer support to differentpeople on different issues, with a continuing intent to awakenimagination and connect to deeper resources. At their best, three main things happen in each call: coaching,connection to broader movements, and spiritual accompaniment. Bycoaching, I mean helping people look at their organizing through a lensof strategy and eliciting their thoughts about allies, obstacles,resources, and what victory might look like in concrete terms.Connection to broader movements means providing stories and informationfrom specific relevant movements and providing affirmation forparticipating in the river of non-violent social change. Spiritual accompaniment in this context has several aspects: * Acknowledging and opening to spiritual power * Praying for the person before the call * Praying with the person on the call * Connecting to scripture story, and the story of God's love * Asking, How is God moving in you through this work? What ishappening in your heart and spirit? * Asking, how is this part of what God is doing in the world? * Acknowledging the forbidden, the dark side, and harder aspects ofthe work The heart of each call is to nurture the individual'sleadership as a faith-based peacemaker and theircongregation's/community's leadership as an influence forlong-term change. The calls are meant to be pastoral in tending to theheart of the organizers, and prophetic in asking questions about nextsteps. The main technique is the elicitive question: not telling, butasking, inviting their story and their dreams to come out. Thiselicitive approach reflects the heart of the theopoetic commitment. (10) Organizing for the International Day of Prayer for Peace and beyond In 2007, On Earth Peace started organizing around the InternationalDay of Prayer for Peace. Each year, September 21 is both the WorldCouncil of Churches' International Day of Prayer for Peace and theUnited Nations' International Day of Peace. On or near September21, 2009, a total of 148 congregations and community groups whoconnected with On Earth Peace led events in their community. In these efforts, we use a questioning and imagination-awakeningapproach. The core catalyzing question is, "What's theviolence that's impacting your community?" We askcongregations to wrestle with that question and to begin taking thatquestion and related questions out into their community. "What dowe need to know, if we want to care about what's happening here?What are the ways that people's lives are less than they could be,here in our community? What are the signs of hope? What might God bedoing with our community right now?" (11) The intention is that these questions, and this engagement, leadcongregations into new relationships, and into new understandings oftheir community, so that when the community is gathered on September 21for a public prayer event, a new thing will happen--some newcoalescence, some new foundation for a next step in creative publicaction on the community's pressing issues. To support this, we offer an organizing manual and training callson topics including (1) how to lead a community listening initiative;(2) principles of non-violence leadership for community change; (3)media outreach and coverage; and (4) planning a public prayer servicethat people will turn out for. These training calls supplement a seriesof about six one-on-one support calls that we offer to congregationalorganizers leading up to September 21. In the end, we are not just interested in what happens on September21. We are interested in people and communities that grow in theirleadership, and have informed perspectives, and are rooted in prayer andready to move their communities toward justice and non-violence. TheIDOPP campaign was also about changing notions of peacemaking--fromanti-negative, to a positive and proactive peacemaking. We want to formand spiritually accompany people, not just fill their heads with ideasabout peacmaking. This is why a question-raising model, in with ideasabout peacemaking. This is why a question-raising model, in which wewalk with the individuals through their struggles with engagement,matters so much. We are interested in the deeper spiritual formation, inthe people who emerge from our interactions. One of the ways that we followed up September 21, 2008, was atraining event called "You Can't Stop the River: CommunityChange for Congregations." Ministry teams gathered fromcongregations from around the country that were ready to take action ona specific issue in their community. About ten congregations cametogether in Kansas City, Kansas, in April 2009, to work on issuesranging from hungry children in the community, to gun violence, torecruitment of youth by drug dealers. The retreat incorporated training on effective non-violenceleadership along with theology and scripture, prayer and inspiration. Weworked to awaken the imagination of the people who were there, and alsoequip them, so that when they got home, they could develop a process intheir own community that would enliven, involve, and accomplish specificgoals. The event included prayer time, together and alone; worship andhealing services, as well as engagement with scripture and each otherand the heritage of non-violent community change. Growing the seeds is ultimately not our work Meister Eckhart wrote: "The seed of God is in us. Given anintelligent and hard-working farmer, it will thrive and grow up to God,whose seed it is; and accordingly its fruits will be God-nature. Pearseeds grow into pear trees, nut seeds into nut trees, and God-seed intoGod." (12) As we discussed these matters, my friend Carol Carson responded:"The organizer is the farmer, and if you want to follow Eckhart,God has planted the seed. The seed still has the responsibility to grow.You can't make it grow. No matter what a farmer does, she cannotmake a seed grow. She can do everything possible to create the rightenvironment to allow the seed to reach its potential." (13) Theopoetic social change organizing is about nurturing seeds ofGod--seeds of personality, of justice, of beauty, and of rightrelationship. This is the work of a Lover, a Beloved, a Gardener, aBuilder. The theopoet seeks to support, undergird, and bless the seedwithin those she organizes, but ultimately the seed itself is whatgrows, guided and directed by the imprint/image within. Theopoetic social change seeks the power of deeper making andcreativity--and seeks to unleash it from within the communities andindividuals where it abides. Theopoetic social change seeks the Wordmade flesh--the enfleshment of visions and Power within the realities ofthe people each theopoet loves and relates to. When it moves from pageto sanctuary and streets, theopoetics will provoke a creative collisionof poem and picket, a fertile pollination of Art and Presence, arestless longing for the Life within and beyond the Absence. Theopoetic activists are called to tend to the heart and theimagination and the spiritual power of people and communities. This isthe heart of theopoetic social change--unlockingpersonal-power-from-within, engaging myth and theology in new ways,walking with people while they develop the programs and initiatives thatare rooted in engagement with God and deeply relevant to their ownsituations. Elicitive, but not just elicitive for its own sake, atheopoetic of social change carefully moves toward spiritual power,toward initiatives and experiments that are not just theory, but whichtake concrete form, that take flesh and have body. Notes (1.) Article accessed on August 30, 2009, athttp://www.zimbio.com/Theopoetic/articles/6/ Consideration+Theopoetic. (2.) For a summary of the state of the conversation on theopoetics,I commend you to L. B. C. Keefe-Perry, "Theopoetics: Process andPerspective." Christianity and Literature, Vol. 58, No. 4 (Summer2009). (3.) Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1976. (4.) Rubem Alves' beautiful meditation on Christology, memoryand imagination, I Believe in the Resurrection of the Body (Eugene, OR:Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2003), begins with memories provoked by thescent of a lilac bush. (5.) Please visit http://www.onearthpeace.org. (6.) My MA thesis was Re-enchantment: Theology, Poetics, and SocialChange (Richmond, IN: Bethany Theological Seminary, 2003). (7.) Find an overview of this movement by visiting the website ofthe National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth(http://www.nnomy.org) or the Youth and Militarism program of theAmerican Friends Service Committee (http://www.youth4peace.org). Astrategic treatment of the movement can be found in Matt Guynn,"Notes Toward More Powerful Organizing: Pitfalls and Potentials inCounter-recruitment Organizing," Nonviolent Social Change: TheBulletin of the Manchester College Peace Studies Institute. May 2008. (8.) This model was developed with the collaboration of Deb Oskin.For a sample agenda, contact me at mguynn@onearthpeace.org. (9.) This understanding of the demonic was informed by the work ofWalter Wink. See his Powers trilogy, particularly Unmasking the Powers(Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1986), (10.) For more on an elicitive approach to social change, pleaserefer to the work of Training for Change, an international social changetraining center based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which equipsactivists in effective facilitation and workshop leadership. I am amember of their training team. See http://www.trainingforchange.org. (11.) This kind of social action research, and related elementsthat we brought into our organizing, were especially informed by Kingiannonviolence, and the work of David Jehnsen and Bernard LaFayette Jr.,especially The Leaders Manual--A Structured Guide & Introduction toKingian Nonviolence: The Philosophy and Methodology, by BernardLaFayette Jr., and David C. Jehnsen (Galena, OH: Institute for HumanRights and Responsibilities). See http:// www.kingiannonviolence.info. (12.) Cited in Original Goodness, by Eknath Easwaran, founder ofthe Blue Mountain Center of Meditation, copyright 1989, 1996; reprintedby permission of Nilgiri Press, Tomales, CA, p. 11,http://www.easwaran.org. (13.) Personal conversation, August 21, 2009. Thank you to Caroland conversation partners Karen Fraser Gitlitz, Ann Hunstiger, TristanBach and Mary Follen, all fellow students with me at the Grunewald Guildduring my 2009 sabbatical. The Guild is an ecumenical Christiancommunity in the mountains near Leavenworth, Washington, with themission to "promote and encourage creativity within individuals andcongregations in response to the mystery of creation through theexploration of art & faith." The Guild offers a variety of artinstruction, retreat and travel programs. Visit the Grunewald Guildonline at http://www.artfaith.com.