The etymology of the term radical is from the Latin radix, “root”; if we want to get to the root of anything we must be radical. Radical Discipleship is about nothing more and nothing less than laying bare the roots of the personal and socio-political pathologies of our imperial society and its dead-end history, even as we seek to recover the roots of our deep biblical tradition: namely, the messianic movement of rebellion and restoration, of repentance and renewal, a “Way out of no way” that has been going on since the dawn of resistance to the dusk of empire.
BCM board member John Parker, who’s been rolling with us since 1999, always has his finger on the pulse of faith and justice work in North Carolina. He alerted us to the May 18 issue of the Alban Weekly, which gave our work a shout out (emphasis ours): As ministers and congregations bask in…
We invite you, in these hard days, to step away for a long weekend of replenishment through bible study, workshops, art, song, worship, ritual, campfires, imagining of new worlds, and the flowering beauty of the Pocono mountains in the spring.
Friends: I first took a retreat at Our Lady of the Redwoods Abbey in Mendocino County, CA in the late 1970s. There I met two Cistercian monks who had deep impact on me. One was Mother Myriam Dardenne (1920–2010) , the first Abbess, who offered me the liberating affirmation that my study of scripture was a form…
PODCASTS: Our friend Ragan Sutterfeld just released an hour-long interview he did late last year with the Ekklesia Project about the Bible, Christian Zionism and the war on Palestine. He talks with Ched and our Canadian colleague Sylvia Keesmaat (right). Check it out here. We’re getting to know young Sabeel activist theologian Thanh Nguyen; Ched…
Last Friday was the Feast of La Virgen de Guadalupe. At right is a retablo, a hybrid style of indigenous artistry, centuries of Catholic iconography, and Spanish culture. Retablos are small oil paintings on tin, zinc, wood, or copper which were used in home altars to honor saints. This one has hung in our…
Last Sunday after Pentecost, 2025 This Sunday is the last one in Year C; after this (and after Thanksgiving) comes the first Sunday in Advent for Year A. It’s been fun (if challenging) to blog weekly from texts and themes in HARP; starting next week we’ll return to blogging twice a month. We hope you…
HARP Zoom Forum: In case you missed this announcement last week, as we begin Ordinary Time with its unbroken string of Sunday Lukan gospel readings, it’s a good time for a summer and/or fall study group or preaching series! To help resource such, I will convene a twice-monthly zoom forum, beginning on Wed July 2,…
Twenty-five years ago, BCM began helping build popular schools to nurture radical theological and social movement literacy. This vision arose from conversations with friend/mentor Bill Wylie-Kellermann, who shares a parallel “genealogy of faith” with me. Over the next decade, the Word & World project curated spaces around the country for intersectional community, conspiracy and collaboration…
Danielle Strickland and James Sholl interview Ched on their “Right Side Up” Podcast, and possible Ordinary Time Zoom forum The Revised Common Lectionary takes an Eastertide detour through John’s gospel this month; I’ll resume my Lukan reflections on Ascension (week of May 26) and Pentecost Sundays (week of June 2). We then begin Ordinary Time,…
Today is the 500th anniversary of a group of radicals who defied the Zürich city council by baptizing each other as adults the night of January 21, 1525. This fanned the embers of the Radical Reformation and Anabaptist movements.