Clarion: Journal of Spirituality and Justice

Confession of a Radical by Brian Zahnd

Recently I was speaking with a pastor whose political views I would describe as “God and Country zealotry.” In the course of our conversation, which had taken its typical political turn, he said, “We must defend Freedom, Democracy and Capitalism in the name of Christ.” 

That is quite a claim. But is it true? Must Rousseau freedom, Jeffersonian democracy and Laissez-faire capitalism be defended in the name of Christ? Let’s think about it for a moment. 

Freedom. It’s the promise of every empire. It's what Rome and all the rest promise. And it's always what we go to war for. Freedom. Political Freedom. Economic Freedom. Individual Freedom. “The land of the free and the home of the brave.” The vocabulary of patriotic fervor. As if there were no Freedom until Jeffersonian democracy arrived on the scene. So what was Jesus talking about? Jesus and Paul seemed to have a thing or two to say about Liberty and Freedom, but they never breathed a word about political democracy or economic capitalism. Have we been seduced by the blandishments of empire? America may be a kinder, gentler Babylon, maybe the kindest, gentlest Babylon there's ever been (though native Americans and African slaves may beg to differ, not to mention the civilians of Hiroshima and Nagasaki). Be that as it may, America is still a Babylon. And as such it has nothing to do with the kingdom of Christ…other than to be a rival.  

With God on Our Side (with Kevin Miller and Ron Dart)

Theological Affinities in the Writings of Abraham Joshua Heschel and Martin Luther King, Jr. -- by Susannah Heschel

Reprinted from:  Black Zion: African-American Religious Encounters with Judaism, ed. Yvonne Chireau and Nathaniel Deutsch (New York: Oxford University Press, forthcoming)

    The photograph of Abraham Joshua Heschel walking arm in arm with Martin Luther King, Jr., in the front row of marchers at Selma has become an icon of American Jewish life, and of Black-Jewish relations. Reprinted in Jewish textbooks, synagogue bulletins, and in studies of ecumenical relations, the picture has come to symbolize the great moment of symbiosis of the two communities, Black and Jewish, which today seems shattered. When Jesse Jackson, Andrew Young, Henry Gates, or Cornel West speak of the relationship between Blacks and Jews as it might be, and as they wish it would become, they invoke the moments when Rabbi Heschel and Dr. King marched arm in arm at Selma, prayed together in protest at Arlington National Cemetery, and stood side by side in the pulpit of Riverside Church.

Hakani -- Buried Alive: A Survivor's Story

David Cunningham and Kevin Miller have released their documentary about the infanticide of indigenous children  in Brazil and the hope of a girl who overcame it. You can now watch or download the entire film at www.hakani.org. The movie serves to promote initiatives that protect the children but is facing opposition from elements of the Brazilian government who would like to shut it down.

Peter Dale Scott: The meeting of poetry, prose and politics -- by Ron Dart

Peter Dale Scott comes from a worthy Canadian line and lineage.  His grandfather, Frederick Scott, was a contemporary of Stephen Leacock, an important Canadian poet, an Anglican priest and padre to many soldiers and at the forefront of the Winnipeg strike in 1919. Frederick Scott embodied, in thought, word and deed, a vision of responsible citizenship, but he was very English. Peter’s father, Frank Scott, was one of the best known Canadian poets, constitutional lawyers and founder of the League for Social Reconstruction (LSR) and the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF). The LSR-CCF were the forerunners of the New Democratic Party (NDP). Frank Scott was a student of Stephen Leacock. As the English empire waned and the American empire waxed, Frank opposed the English colonial way of his father, but he tended to genuflect, in a subtle way, to the New Romans to the south.  Peter’s mother, Marian Dale, was an accomplished Canadian painter. The Politics of the Imagination: A Life of F.R. Scott (1987), by Sandra Djwa, recounts, as an authorized biography, the life of Frank and Marian Scott.

A More Perfect Union: Obama's Speech - March 18, 2008

Stephen Leacock and George Grant: Faith and Politics by Ron Dart

Stephen Leacock was perhaps the greatest English Canadian intellectual of his generation.
Damien-Claude Belanger

George Grant was Canada's most significant public philosopher.
Graeme Nicholson

Stephen Leacock (1869-1944) and George Grant (1918-1988) were men of deep religious faith and passionate about politics. Both men were firmly rooted and grounded in the Anglican tradition, were committed to the classical Canadian conservative political vision and were prominent professors at public universities and in public life. These men did not retreat into private institutions to protect a fragile faith that could not stand up to the challenges of serious and substantive intellectual thought.

Phone Call: Burma Worse than Reported

A sister living in Yangon called a few hours ago with breaking news. BBC world reported that 200 monks were arrested. The true picture is far worse!

For instance, the monastery at an obscure neighborhood of Yangon, called Ngwe Kyar Yan (on Wei-za-yan-tar Road, Yangon) was raided early this morning.

A troop of lone-tein (riot police comprised of paid thugs) protected by military trucks, raided the monastery with 200 studying monks. They systematically ordered all the monks to line up, then banged and crushed each one's head against the brick wall of the monastery. One by one, the peaceful, non-resisting monks, fell to the ground, screaming in pain. Then they tore off the red robes and threw them all in the military trucks (like rice bags) and took the bodies away.

Why Columbia U. Got It Wrong by Jim Hall

This past Monday (Sept. 24) Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke at Columbia University in New York. I happened to be watching CNN when it was happening live and heard the introduction by the President of Columbia. As the headlines in Tuesday's papers indicated, it was a scathing rebuke, which I found astonishingly blunt. It was simply incredible to watch. The TV news shows have not done justice to the full extent of his remarks, but in characteristic form, have chosen to zoom in on the most pointed quotes.

Charles Taylor and the Hegelian Eden Tree: Canadian Compradorisim by Ron Dart

The fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom. Genesis 3:6 Canada

may produce more original work on Hegel than any other nation.   
David MacGregor, Literary Review of Canada (February 1994)

 

The fact that the well known Canadian philosopher, Charles Taylor, won the enviable Templeton Prize for Progress Toward Research or Discoveries About Spiritual Realities in 2007 has been noted and noticed by many. There are few that have won this prestigious award, and fewer Canadians have taken the trophy home.Taylor did so, and did so in a way that has made many a Canadian proud of their native born boy. But, philosophy is about asking critical questions, and critical questions keep us from slipping into
hagiography. Why did Taylor win the Templeton Prize, what questions need to be asked of Taylor, what intellectual agenda does he serve and are there other Canadians of equal worth and merit that might have won the Templeton Prize but did not?