The prophets are among us. The recent upsurge in radical activism -- by immigrants in Arizona, public sector workers in Wisconsin, marriage equality activists and Wall Street occupiers -- revives the spirit of the Hebrew prophets and of the abolitionists, feminists, socialists and pacifists of American history. My new book, "Prophetic Encounters: Religion and the American Radical Tradition," demonstrates that radicalism cannot be fully understood apart from the religious ideas and institutions that have inspired and sustained it.
Radical activism is "prophetic," I believe, because it mirrors the religious phenomena of revelation and conversion. The ancient prophets Amos and Jeremiah continue to inspire activists to "speak truth to power," whether or not they share the theologies of Amos and Jeremiah. When people share their stories of marginalization, struggle and hope for a better world, they gain new purpose and new identity. America's earliest labor activists did it by naming themselves "Working Men" and electing other workers to political office. The first black abolitionists took pride in their "African" identity but also insisted that they had a full place at the table of American power. Empowered by new identities, activists worked to "build a new society within the shell of the old," to use a slogan from the Industrial Workers of the World, or to create the "beloved community," to use a phrase Martin Luther King Jr., borrowed from the philosopher Josiah Royce. Most radical movements have had their own hymns, from "John Brown's Body" to "Solidarity Forever;" they offer pilgrimage in the form of protest marches and sacramental initiation through civil disobedience. Mainstream politics, with its horse-trading and pragmatic compromises, may not look much like a religion. But radicalism burns with divine fire.
The similarities between radical activism and religion help explain why religious institutions and ideas have made vital contributions to every movement for social change in the United States. The Working Men often gathered at Universalist churches or congregations of "Free Thinkers." Abolitionism had deep roots in Black Methodist and Baptist congregations, as well as lodges of Black Freemasons. 19th century women's rights speakers were often Quaker leaders or ordained Protestant ministers or Spiritualist mediums. The activists who marched arm-in-arm at Selma in 1965 were not only black and white, but also Catholic and Protestant, Jewish and Unitarian Universalist. And the Occupy Boston encampment is home to a "spirituality tent," a Jewish sukkah or tabernacle and a cadre of "Protest Chaplains," many of them Divinity students, who help their comrades find the spirituality in their activism.
My conversations with these students have reinforced my sense that radicalism can never transcend its spiritual roots. "At Occupy Boston I feel a sense of purpose I've never experienced before," one student declared. "My friend has never seemed so happy," observed another. Such comments contrast sharply with the mood at commencement time, when extraordinarily talented and well-prepared graduates step timidly out into a world with few jobs and little hope. They suggest that participants in the "Occupy" movement are empowering themselves as well as working to change society. Like countless activists in past generations, they experience "prophetic encounters" when they work together for change.
But the similarities between religion and radicalism also explain the recurring tensions between the "religious" and the "secular" left. In every generation, some activists--abolitionist John Brown, for example, and Catholic Worker Dorothy Day--have seen their work for justice as confirmation of the transcendent visions of Jesus, Moses, Buddha or Muhammad. Their participation in conventional religious communities has deepened their activism, and vice versa. But other activists have felt betrayed by the timidity of conventional religion. For them, the movement is the true church, far superior to "pie in the sky" religion. The white abolitionist movement split in 1840 between those who wanted to work within existing churches, those who wanted to create new, anti-slavery churches and those who wanted to "come out" of all organized religion. Similar divisions threatened women's rights and socialism, and they are present at Occupy Boston as well: one prayer service conducted in the spirituality tent was interrupted by another activist who implied they'd be siding with the police if they didn't immediately join in civil disobedience.
Such conflicts are as inevitable as they are painful. The Hebrew prophet Isaiah compared God's call to having a burning coal placed on his lips and the encounters of activism can be just as fiery. Activist spirituality changes constantly, in unpredictable directions, because activists are also encountering the sacred afresh in one another. It happens when Metropolitan Community Church congregations, Wiccan covens and gatherings of Radical Faeries find the divine through shared celebration of sexuality. It happens when Unitarian Universalists don yellow shirts that read "Standing on the Side of Love" and apprentice themselves to immigrant communities in Arizona. It happens when urban youngsters stick their hands into the rich compost of an organic farm. Wherever humans encounter one another deeply, they find a power that might be named spirit or mana, God or Goddess. For two centuries, this power has placed Americans on the path toward justice -- and it is still available to us today.
Prophet - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Prophets in Islam - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Judaism 101: Prophets and Prophecy
He said, "while wit excites the fancy, understanding can [discern] the difference between two very similar things".
So, it might surprise many to know that nowhere does the Bible indorse "individual rights", nor does it condone or support a Democratic form of government, especially of the pluralistic forms as practiced by Babylon which readily accepted other peoples who worshiped gods foreign to Babylonian state religious practice.
We must revisit the history of the Black Civil Rights Movement, and admit the fact that Martin Luther King drank from the spirit of Hinduism, when he practiced the nonviolence of Ghandi's reading of the New Testament through Hindu eyeglasses, to understand that Movement's true spiritual origins, which is Babylon.
So the spirit of "come one, come all whatever your gods are" inspiring this radical activism would have such prophets as Isaiah turning in his grave, for every Hebrew prophet Scripture records stood foursquare against the spirit of Babylon.
For those individuals who can shake off their existing prejudices, imagine outside the cultural box of history, stand against the tides of fashionable thought and spin, who have the moral courage to learn something new, an intellectual and moral revolution is already under way, where the 'impossible' becomes inevitable, by the most potent, political, Non Violent Direct Action any human being can take to advance peace, justice, change and progress. More info at: http://www.energon.org.uk
By your own inference, I'm sure you would agree with me, that the spirit which is inspiring and driving this radicalism, in America, is not from God. Yes, we know it isn't. And its not just happening locally in America, but is the identical presiding spirit which is inspiring the general breakdown of leadership and social order in countries around the world.
We can now especially see that this same spirit is sweeping aside the dictators of Muslim regimes, in order to unit the whole Middle East into one monolithic empire of Islamic Jihad whose stated goal it to conquer and subdue the West and by by the sword and war make them submit to Koranic rule under Sharia Law.
What we're seeing happening here in Europe of the increasing takeover by Islam, will happen to you too, if you don't stop it, because believe me, this is a war to the death.
I think it inappropriate to suggest that the Occupy movement or any other such protests (take the Tea Party for instance) is absent from the spirit of God, as it takes a political stance that mimics far too many people who view life through only a political lens. In addition, who are you (or any of us) to "know" which political protests have God's blessings and which do not.
You also seem to be misguided in your belief that the entire Middle East is being driven into one "monolithic empire of Islamic Jihad". If you truly believe that an entire people can unite behind any one principle, then its clear that you haven't witnessed politics in America today.
Your misguided view that the entirety of the Middle East civilizations are united in imposing Sharia law on the rest of world is not merely radical & incorrect but is reprehensible on so many levels. Here you talk of God and yet it appears that very nature is absent from so much of your
The Lord Jesus said. Few will hear he's voice and accept it, and others will mock the believers.
Again this book was written a few thousand years ago, but everything written in it is coming to light.
How crazy are you atheists and non believers? How can you boldly disrespect the unknown? When you die don't you know what's waiting for you! And you wont have any control over the unknown. So continue your unbelief lifestyle, for it will only end in fire.
Maybe tomorrow
Maybe not
You speak of disrespect and yet then condemn to fire all of those who don't share your own personal view of faith. Seems a bit hypocritical to me...
Stay in the grace of Jesus Christ our Lord. Jesus our God, not just the christians God, but every person who is a live and died. He is their God. He offer life everlasting if you only belief. Such a loving God.
The idea that any "one" should be allowed to limit personal beliefs or any religion that is allowed to be practiced, is reminiscent of China or some third world countries. Our country was based on the very notion that we should all enjoy the Freedom of Religion, to believe in what we choose instead of some government dictated theory. Your words truly just made me shudder...
http://minnesotaindependent.com/91187/video-anti-abortion-activist-challenging-ellison-launches-anti-islam-ads
There is nothing good or scientific about loading up a culture with a set of backwards traditions. The Christian religion is riddled with backwards and outdated ideas including but not limited to being against birth control and condoms. How can the Church's teachings be considered good when it's comes with a price, a payback? So if it's associated with a price or to be loyal to the very people giving you the hand out it's NOT GOOD.
That can never be compared to that old warhorse, and Harvard Alum, Martin Luther King, gave up his life for a 10 cent raise for black garbage workers in Memphis, using a strict "application" of the message "let my people go!"-of the Hebrew prophets, who's main focus was always Israel. And its legitimacy was in the fact that Black people still worshiped God. And other groups that borrowed...some black folks say "stole", or even "highjacked"..that religious legitimacy: Feminists, Gay rights et, al., stood foursquare against the teachings of Scripture Black people sought to uphold.
In stark contrast to Dan McKanan, who, as, I suppose, is a student of Scripture, the New Testament prophet John In Revelations, foretold of a general breakdown of the nations, and many of the groups and social cohorts so named here, with the single exception of the Black Civil Rights Movement, seem clearly part of this breakdown, as they have as their platforms ideologies which attack the Biblical injunctions and moral teachings both the Old Testament prophets and New Testament apostles resolutely stood for.
Thanks.
True, it's impossible to overstate religion's essential contributions to social movements.
Without religion there could never have been a Civil Rights movement, nor even the abolition of slavery under Lincoln. For without religion, Americans would never have been able to justify owning slaves in the first place.
And how could we have had the democratic revolutions of the 18th and 19th centuries (including our own) without church-sanctioned kings to overthrow?
The women's suffrage movement would have been stillborn if society hadn't obeyed Biblical rules to treat women as chattel.
And how could we admire the courage and nobility of today's gay rights activists if our forefathers had never enacted homophobic laws based on Leviticus?
To paraphrase a great modern philosopher: "Religion: the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems." (H. Simpson)