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.
by Ched Myers Published online at http://www.wordandworld.org. 6 pp. I begin with an old story. There was a Levite from a village far away in the hill country of Ephraim who was traveling through Judah returning home. He and his party were near Jerusalem and it was getting late, and his companions said, “Let us…
by Ched Myers Published online at http://www.wordandworld.org. 8 pp. Four decades ago Martin Luther King delivered his “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break the Silence” speech at Riverside Church in New York City. Not only was this his most consequentialaddress (King was assassinated exactly one year later); I believe it represents the most significant public…
by Ched Myers America, Jan 1 2007, pp 16ff. 3 pp, pix The origins of the feast of the Epiphany are historically complicated and ecclesially disputed. We might think of it as a kind of peace offering from the Western to the Eastern church, given the latter’s date (surely older) of Jan. 6 for the…
by Ched Myers Cascade Books. 5 pp. The first time I heard Daniel Berrigan speak was early in 1976 at the Newman Center in Berkeley. National myths were already running hot and heavy during the country’s bicentennial, touting imperial grandeur wrapped in noble innocence. Dan, however, was talking about America in terms of Babylon, reading…
by Ched Myers A talk given at the “Posadas sin Fronteras” at the U.S. Mexico border, December 2006. 5 pp. I want to begin by honoring the two brothers we are remembering today. The late Franciscan Brother Ed Dunn was a gentle but strong presence in this movement, always looking for deeper solidarity with the…
by Ched Myers Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries E-News. 3 pp. Being on the road is grueling. And recently it has been the most taxing I can remember: the endless stream of people, the wall to wall scheduling, the intense meetings and late night conversations. Each leg of the journey hurts physically, and I can feel myself…
by Ched Myers Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries E-News, 2006. 3 pp. On Sunday, Aug 6th, fifty of us gathered in central California to remind ourselves that communion with the Divine must be linked to resistance to evil. Organized by Catholic Worker communities, the event celebrated the traditional Catholic Feast of the Transfiguration, and mourned Hiroshima Day,…
by Ched Myers From: Sojourners and “Two Martyrs Reflect on Anger and Justice” in Tom Fox was My Friend, edited by Chuck Fager. Fayetville, Kimo Press. 4 pp. “We have assumed the name of peacemakers, but we have been, by and large, unwilling to pay any significant price,” Daniel Berrigan wrote in the wake of…
By Ched Myers Sojourners. 4 pp. There have always been two Americas: that of rich and poor, of inclusion and exclusion. The America of inclusion found expression in the ideal of “liberty and justice for all,” and has been embodied whenever Indian treaties were honored, and in the embrace of civil rights, women’s suffrage, or…