You might not be interested in politics, but politics is interested in you – and in your students. We know it can be intimidating to engage with the difficult challenges of an increasingly polarized world. That’s why we’re bringing you resources from leading Christian voices that will help you get equipped and be ready to train your students for the tough task of standing for justice, healing and hope.
Below you’ll find information on two upcoming webinars, plus a new video resource from Karam Forum 2021 that we’re releasing.
Reviving Reconciliation, webinar, Jan. 18
We’re bringing you a webinar on Reviving Reconciliation, on January 18, 1:30-2:30 central time (2:30 eastern, 11:30 Pacific). Host Chris Brooks of Woodside Bible Church will lead a conversation with guests David French (The Dispatch), Jules Martinez-Olivieri (North Park University) and Michael Wear (Public Square Strategies).
Extreme ideologies on both the Left and Right don’t begin with a commitment to some particular scheme of political, economic and social arrangements. They begin with a cosmology and anthropology of endless conflict: “Us versus Them forever, world without end, amen” is their ultimate foundation. Hence the gospel of Jesus Christ, which centers on reconciliation, is both the most profound possible challenge to these extreme ideologies and the conceptual model that allows us to envision how better political, economic and social arrangements might be achieved.
You won’t want to miss this provocative conversation about how the church can lead a fiercely polarized culture back from the wilderness of mistrust and animosity. Mark your calendar today!
This webinar is for members of Karam Fellowship. If you’re a member, there’s no need to register. The link to join the webinar can be found in our weekly email, The Grapevine, which goes out to all Fellowship members. Just click that link when it’s time for the webinar to start.
If you’re not already a member, you can still join us! The webinar link will go out automatically in our “Welcome to the Fellowship” email message to anyone who joins the Fellowship between now and Jan. 18. We rely exclusively on our Fellowship members (thank you!) to fuel all our work, including this newsletter. If you want to support our work, and if you want to be part of fruitful and equipping events like this one, please consider joining the Fellowship today!
Witnesses for Justice Today, video from Karam Forum 2021
We’re also proud to bring you video of our conversation on the church and politics with French and Wear, moderated by Vincent Bacote of Wheaton College, at Karam Forum 2021.
Here are a few tastes to whet your appetite. French, asked where there might be some “good news” right now, replied:
There is a hunger for reason, there is a hunger for something different than the hyper-polarized catastrophism of lots of modern political discourse. Everywhere I go, I find people who say: “Who can I read, that’s reasonable? What can I watch, that’s reasonable?” And this is actually a group of Americans that has been studied and identified in some pretty rigorous research. They’re called the “exhausted majority.” These are the Americans – they’re on the right, they’re on the left, they’re in the middle, so it’s not just the moderates – who believe we can do better. And think that the way politics has us moving is too toxic….And since you said the good news, I won’t really harp on the bad news, that the really operative word in the phrase “exhausted majority” is “exhausted,” and not “majority.” So we’ll just leave that for later.
Michael Wear, asked why our politics is so challenged right now, replied:
We could talk about structural finance campaign finance reform, the way our elections work – we could talk about that all day, and we should, those things are important. But the real hard truth that we need to come to terms with is that the state of our politics is in some fundamental way a reflection of the state of our souls, that our politics is a reflection of who we are….Generally as a people, we are going to politics as a forum for self-expression and self-aggrandizement; politics has become a sort of reservoir for all of our hatreds and loves and aspirations and animosities. And politics is not meant to bear that weight. It can’t bear that weight. And what happens is, when we go to politics for those reasons, it actually crowds out our ability to go to politics for its limited purposes of affirming human dignity and advancing justice. And that’s what we see right now. We see a political culture that is saturating not just the political system proper, but we see in our churches, in our communities, increasingly the toxic political culture that we have – a culture that is based on what social scientists…describe…as political sectarianism.
Both speakers offer specific advice for pastors on how to handle the political pressures they’re under in the pulpit and in church life. Check out the whole conversation!
“Complicated Wickedness”: Wesley and Systemic Injustice, webinar, Feb. 22
We’re also excited to announce that on February 22 at 11:00-12:00 central (12:00 eastern, 9:00 Pacific) we’ll be bringing you a webinar on how John Wesley handled – theologically and practically – the dynamic interdependence of the systemic/institutionalized aspects of evil and personal moral responsibility. He spoke of the challenge of “complicated wickedness,” and the need to address both the social and individual manifestations of sin and injustice.
Sounds like something we might take a page or two – or a whole chapter – from in our own time! Jennifer Woodruff Tait (St. John’s Episcopal Church), Charlie Self (Assemblies of God Theological Seminary) and Jay Moon (Asbury Theological Seminary), fresh from their conversation on Wesley and the Industrial Revolution at Karam Forum 2021, will reconvene to give us a deep dive into this aspect of Wesley’s work.
Look for more details on this webinar in next month’s newsletter, and mark your calendar!
