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.
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.
The following post is an important analysis from our friend Jerry Taylor about white supremacy and the MAGA movement. It is an urgent appeal to white Christians in these remaining days leading up to the election
Last week the wonderful Janet Wolf invited us to send a message to our friend and mentor Marion Wright Edelman for her 85th birthday on June 6th. Here’s what I wrote: Dearest Marion: We have so missed seeing you each summer at the Proctor Institute; the last time was, 2019, pre-Covid! I want you to…
February 20 to 23, 2023 Bartimaeus Kinsler Institute Nearly 70 participants returned to the Ventura River Watershed on unceded Chumash land to begin their 2023 Lenten journeys with kindred spirits. You can read the Program Book (PDF) here and see a 2-page photo essay here (PDF).
Ched’s short (11 min) video tribute to Norman Gottwald was used at a memorial session at the Society of Biblical Literature annual meeting in Denver, in November 2022.
This video is a edited version of the talk Rose Berger gave at the Church of the Foothills UCC in Ventura, CA. The original recording is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KvsQFwuXjE From the CoF recording:On July 10, 2022, Rose Marie Berger, senior editor at Sojourners magazine and veteran Catholic peace and justice activist, offered a short presentation followed…
Last month (April 2022) Elaine & Ched teamed up with ReconciliAsian to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Los Angeles Uprising (as we did for the 25th anniversary in 2017). Watch the webinar we did with Sue Park Hur, David Moore and Daniela Lazaro-Manalo.
February 18 to 21, 2022 Bartimaeus Kinsler Institute In 2022, trying to ease the Zoom fatigue, we offered a scaled down version of what we did online in the 2021 BKI. We talked with colleagues who have been experimenting with curating such spaces around North America; reviewed the recent history of such labors; and examined…
A recent program on Healing Haunted Histories that focuses on the impacts California Missions had upon Indigenous peoples; we did this ~50 min. presentation to support our friends at the Los Angeles Catholic Worker, who are pushing back on their Archdiocese’s sentimentalizing of this history and legacy.