well thank you i feel like i'm with a lot of old friends here today and i want to thank christian ethics today for an amazing program i canceled my whole afternoon just to hear all these great great speakers and i'm glad to be here with you for the whole time looking forward to hearing old friend melissa greg boyd is a new friend he's a very bright light that is uh helping to illumine this question and of course my soul mate for decades tony campolo i call him my elder because he's so much older than i am but uh peggy is here too and and we're i just love to see these these two i'd like to start with a we're in washington dc so let me start with a a religious joke and a political joke the religious joke was uh there were two senators in the senate dining room one a republican and one a democrat republican says the democrat you democrats don't understand religion at all you don't get it you haven't got a clue democrat says we do too we understand a lot about religion the bible says okay let's see if you can recite the lord's prayer i've got 20 bucks says you can't recite the lord's prayer right here and right now he said yes i can and he begins a democrat now i lay me down to sleep i pray the lord my soul to keep republican hands with 20 bucks i didn't think he could do it that joke was told to me by richard land a southern baptist who i collaborate with on a number of issues like darfur and other things which shows how silly the old idea is of the god being a republican or a democrat people of faith should not be in the pocket of any political party or candidate we are supposed to be the ultimate swing vote holding both sides accountable to our moral compass the second's a political joke here in washington dc one day there was a man drowning in the potomac 100 feet offshore and republicans heard about his plight they rushed down to try and help and he's going down 100 feet offshore they throw him the republicans 50 feet of rope and say the rest is up to you democrats hearing about this problem and the republicans respond they were down to do better and now he's really going down 100 feet offshore and so the democrats throw him 200 feet of rope and then let go of their end the lesson of that joke is that politics in this city is broken it is failing to address all the great moral issues of our time it is not resolving any of them and the question for us is not to join politics but to change it and transform it when politics is broken what normally happens is social movements rise up to change politics and the best social movements always have spiritual foundations i'm to speak about social justice i want to say this we are not going to get to social justice in this nation without a revival of faith we're just not going to get there i've been working on a new book beyond god's politics and i want to talk today about not just whether we should change the world but how because i think only a revival of faith is going to deal with this agenda of social justice we have got some some mountains to move the h-i-v aids pandemic is a mountain three billion people on this planet half of god's children on the planet are living on two dollars a day that's a mountain to move thirty thousand kids died yesterday and will today and tomorrow because of lack of clean drinking water diseases my little league kids will not die of and no food in their bellies that's a mountain to move i was in a meeting at davos the world economic forum on education 800 million children are not being educated at all in the world no school never ever it would cost 10 billion dollars a year to educate 800 million kids that's a month of iraq which would make us more secure do you think as our priorities are so broken we've got mountains to move that politics will not move cannot move my bible says if you have faith the size of a mustard seed what can you move come on baptist mountains i want to suggest the mountains have to be moved and will not be moved by politics as it is but by social movements with spiritual foundations my first experience of this topic faith in public life came early as a plymouth brother and kid in detroit michigan when i asked questions about how come we live the way we do in white detroit and life seems so different in black detroit it was told by a church elder you have to understand jim that racism has nothing to do with christianity that's political and our faith is personal i think that's the night that i left in my head and my heart and i was gone altogether in a couple of years i came back to my faith with a conviction that god is personal but never private i've been trying to work out the implications of that now for the last 30 years many christians want to engage the world with their faith but they wonder how to do so they worry about being faithful to the gospel and about not compromising the church's witness in the world by becoming tainted with partisan politics replacing faith with ideology that's our topic all day this afternoon you're going to hear a lot of thoughts about that these are valid concerns but i believe our faith causes to transform the world my growing up verse of course in my little evangelical church was for god so loved the world they gave his only begotten son whosoever believeth in him should not perish but of everlasting life but they only focused on the last two stanzas should not perish but have everlasting life what about for god to love the world what is our conviction about that this god is personal this god wants a relationship this god knows everything about everybody in this room and wants a relationship with us anyway why to sign us up for god's purposes in the world preparation for this book i've been reading a lot about wilberforce and finney and king and all the times and places where faith has transformed a society the church historians say spiritual activity doesn't get to be called revival until it has changed something in the society otherwise it's not revival it's time to talk about revival again faith must be both personal and public and never just private why do we engage in the world what does this kingdom of god mean is it just is it for the world at all or just to take believers out of the world as i was taught as a kid or just perhaps to form counter-cultural communities of faith in the world that we ask people to join does the kingdom have any witness to the world the politics beyond the believer and beyond the community of faith is the kingdom of god political and if so how now i could just kind of preach up a storm this afternoon and get so excited like tony campolo will do at the end he's our cleanup hitter today but i want to put on the glasses here and be a little serious about some theological issues uh because i'd like to sort of try out some things i've been thinking about uh at least some highlights of them about what does it mean to engage the world what are the rules of engagement for us as people of faith new testament scholar nt wright says for generations the church's prayer has been polarized between those who see the main task as being the salvation of souls for heaven and the nurturing of those souls through the valley of this dark world on the one hand and the other hand those who see the task of trans of improving a lot of human beings and the world rescuing the poor from their misery longer i've gone on as a new testament scholar and wrestle with what the early christians were actually talking about the more it's been born in on me that the distinction that is one that we modern westerners bring to the text rather than finding it in the text the great emphasis in the new testament is that the gospel is not how to escape the world the gospel is that the crucified and risen jesus jesus is lord of the world says empty right and that his death and resurrection transform the world and that transformation can happen to you you in turn can be part of that transforming work that draws together what we truly call evangelism people being bringing people to the point where they come to know god in christ for themselves with working for god's kingdom on earth as it is in heaven the lord's prayer he invokes here we've said for years without ever paying attention to what we're saying it's very curious he says when i lecture about this people pop up and say surely jesus said my kingdom is not of this world my kingdom is not of this world an empty right says no the answer is no what jesus said in john 18 is my kingdom is not from this world that he invokes the greek it's not from this world it's quite criminal text that jesus kingdom does not start with this world it's not a worldly kingdom but is for the world from somewhere else but for the world john howard yoder has taught me a lot about these matters about the kingdom and its political implications about how the kingdom of god which god came jesus came to inaugurate is meant to create an alternative reality in the world and then transform the kingdoms of this world inaugurated by jesus but not yet brought to its final fulfillment it's always a kingdom that is already but not yet and here's what yoder says four dramatic assertions the ministry and the claims of jesus are best understood as presenting to people not the avoidance of political options but one particular social political ethical option number two that christ is lord a proclamation to which only individuals can respond is nonetheless a social political and structural fact which constitutes a challenge to the powers number three the cross of calvary was the politically legally to be expected result of a moral clash with the powers ruling his society number four god is the kind of god active in history of whom the bible speaks then concern for the course of history is itself not an illegitimate or irrelevant concern no mythical or existential or spiritualistic depreciation of preoccupation with the course of events is justified for the christian the order points out how jesus faced four political options in his day that correspond to our own i won't go into those but it was the essenes that communities where john the baptist came from uh withdrawn ascetical alternative communities if you will the zealots a violent political option the sadducees and the pharisees different forms of collaboration piety jesus had sympathy for the essenes this kind of radical communitarian another way of living uh but he broke from where their withdrawal from the society he was very sympathetic with the zealots but he broke from their violent insurrection notion and he never was even attracted the pietism of the pharisees or the collaboration of the sanchez in his best book on this the christian witness and state yours is possible it is possible for the christian or the christian church to address the social order at large and state criticisms and suggestions concerning the way in which state fulfills its responsibility for the maintenance of order i want to suggest to us today quickly very quickly seven rules of engagement for us as the people of god it's one thing it would be easy in this crowd i'm sure looking around the room to say that we as christians have to care about social justice we have to engage the world but the question is how and there are important difficult complicated questions as to how and i think our task today is to figure out the how and not just the weather so very quickly and i'm just just going over some highlights here number one god hates injustice god hates injustice and we should too if we are god's children the injustice of the world cries out to heaven and god gets angry over it and when we do too it is a sign of the image of god in us the prophet amos actually uses the word hate to describe god's response to social celebrations religious sacrifice and empty worship in the face of oppression take away from me the noise of your religion i will not listen but let justice roll down says the prophet amos justice matters the prophets in their incense when the poor and the innocent are manipulated exploited and abused by the rich and powerful god reserves jesus reserves his strongest words of judgment for those who fail to feed the hungry and give drink to the thirsty welcome the stranger clothe the naked care for the sick and this tony talks about this so well the time we're all about the only place judgment comes up is matthew 25 and what is it what is it about how we treat those who we leave out and leave behind that's where the judgment comes that was my conversion passage matthew 25 it took me out of the student movement and into the christian movement because no revolutionary like che guevara ho chi minh or carl marx was as radical as jesus about the poor martin king put it while a minister cannot preach the glories of heaven while ignoring the social conditions in his own community that caused people an earthly hell when young people are appalled when they learn of young women and children being trafficked in modern sexual economic slavery or that death has become a social disease when the life expectancy between rich places and poor places now is 40 years when young people care about how their favorite outfits and shoes were made in impressive sweatshops or the equivalent of an asian tsunami death toll happens every month in africa when they care about that it's a sign that god is still alive in them when young people have to leave the church when they begin to be quickened about social justice as i had to it's a tragedy when they stay in the churches and care about justice it's a blessing bible names three categories of persons who need protection who are always in need of justice one quickly the widow and the orphan a regular concern of the prophets who stand for all those excluded by economic opportunities and social justice second there is a stranger often again in the bible side of the other who are outside the majority culture because they are members of minority groups usually racial minorities it's of course the big issue right now today on the hill with immigration and of course thirdly there is the enemy often the most vulnerable of all nations especially superpowers seem to need enemies to rally their citizens and protect their power the infidels the communists the terrorists jesus doesn't say that our enemies are not real but we are to love them anyway loving them doesn't mean submitting to their agendas it means treating them as human beings who possess the image of god after all who would jesus torture german theologian d bonhoeffer says it well christianity stands or falls with its revolutionary protest against violence arbitrariness and the pride of power with its plea for the week bonhoeffer wrote christians are doing too little to make these points clear rather than too much christian christendom adjusts itself far too easily to the worship of power christians should give more offense shock the world far more that there than they are doing now christians should take a stronger stand in favor of the weak rather than considering the first possible right of the strong number to the kingdom of god is in new order jesus proclaims in matthew repent metanoia for the kingdom of god is at hand metanoia comes from that root word metamorphosis it means it doesn't mean being sorry it means you're walking the wrong direction you've got to turn around walk on a whole new ritual why comma because the new order's about to break in and if you want to be part of it you've got to have a change in you that john would later call it a new birth it's joining a movement the god movement clarence jordan said jesus and the kingdom of god movement this is to transform the world matthew five six and seven the sermon the mouth this is the magna carta of the new age the manifesto of the new order the constitution of the kingdom it reverses the logic of the world and its kingdoms and all its political options it turns as don crable says the world upside down i never had a sermon in my evangelical church ever about the sermon on the mount ever that was for a different dispensation as a 14 year old kid i said blessed are the peacemakers we won't need that in heaven we need that now they didn't quite understand that jacqueline the french social sociologist and theologian who is a leader to nazi occupation writes his extraordinary words in the book i recommend all of you the presence of the kingdom 1948. now the situation of the christian in the world is a revolutionary situation his or her share in the preservation of the world is to be an inexhaustible revolutionary force in the world the fact that christians as human beings at certain points in history lose sight of that revolutionary character of their religion does not mean the holy spirit is ceased to work it means that that we have ceased to understand our faith as revolutionary in consequence of the claims of the kingdom of god what god is always making on the world those claims the christian finds himself herself by the very fact involved in a state of permanent revolution the church's posture is a perpetually revolutionary stance that's why christianity in defense of the established order christendom christian civilization christian nation christian empire and the rest have never made any sense the kingdom of god is a new order of things this then is the revolutionary situation says to be revolutionary to judge the world by its present state by its actual facts in the name of a truth which does not yet exist but which is coming and it is to do so because we believe the truth to be more genuine and more real than the reality which surrounds us three the church is an alternative community mohandas gandhi admirer of jesus but not a christian got it right he said you must be the change you want to see in the world we're called not just to a new order but to a new community the community is to be the pilot project of the new order a demonstration of what is coming and an invitation to a new communal reality in his essay the kingdom as a social ethic yoder writes the alternative community discharges a modeling mission the church is called to be now what the world is called to be ultimately i love that this is the starting point for our political witness the life of the church itself meant to be an alternative community living in a new way visibly demonstrating the values of jesus and the kingdom of god creating a counter-cultural community living by different values than the society offering an evangelistic attraction to a more healthy and human way of life that the gospel offers this suggests the church will be more faithful as a prophetic minority and not a dominant religion jesus is lord is a profoundly political statement the early church was convicted accused convicted of atheism in regard to the gods of the roman world would there be enough evidence to convict the american churches of atheism in regard to the gods of our culture and our society the church too often becomes a mere thermometer taking the temperature of the world and adjusting accordingly accordingly instead of a thermostat which actually changes the social temperature so much more i'd like to say but let me just move on uh let me say this dr king believed that social change was always in the hands of what he called maladjusted non-conformist i love this quote this hour in history needs a dedicated circle of transformed non-conformists the saving of our world from penning doom will come not from the actions of a conforming majority but from the creative maladjustment of a transformed minority that my friends is a metaphor for the church fourth the kingdom of god transforms the world by addressing specifics thus specifics of injustice the community faith is meant to be counter-cultural i've said that but its role in the world is transformational you know the classic work christ and culture by h richard niebuhr suggesting we have to choose between the two counter-cultural threats i think no christ is both against culture and the transforming of culture if you will the two must now be put together in the old paradigm the kingdom is not born of worldly kingdoms biblical politics resists ideology and rejects the notion of ideal societies rejects the notion of ideal societies instead focuses on specific issues and reforms starting points the kingdom we reject all utopian perfect societies which are not possible creations because of our sinful condition in the fallen world ideology is the political name idol is the religious name of humanly constructed supposedly ideal societies that aim at perfection or close to it politics can change the world is an idolatry rather we focus as the people of god on specific criticisms and changes and reforms that we help to make possible concrete reforms of real situations and circumstances in which we find ourselves not utopian dreams but specific critiques yoder says the kingdom of god expresses itself the christian witness in terms of specific criticism given to certain injustices in times and places and specific improvements this is not a formula for political withdrawal or for exemplary sectarian communities it's a way to engage politically dr king put forward a vision of a beloved community a vision that reflected the notion of the kingdom of god but then he fought for specific goals a civil rights law in 1964 voting rights act in 1965. similar reforms have been inspired by faith movements the end of the slave trade women's suffrage child labor law reform we get specific and and when we get too close to power we lose that desmond tutu when they won finally in south africa he had supported the anc he had fought for the anc as they were a movement for change when the anc became the government desmond dude stepped outside and became a prophetic voice to the new south african regime he was following this notion of kingdom politics hurricane katrina hit and um uh the church has moved in and did a very good job uh better than government did and they were effective efficient and they're on time but churches can't rebuild levies they can't provide health care for 44 million people don't have it they can provide living wage jobs for all the americans who need them they can provide affordable housing for all those who don't have it the fifth principle is the church is the conscience of the state holding it accountable for upholding justice and restraining its violence we are those who say that that the church leads by example but we can't do everything there is a role for the government and there is a role for the church and the two are not the same this is a topic we have to discuss much more deeply than we have in the past and i think today will offer us an example of that let me move on to say that number six means the sixes the churches should take a global perspective nationalism doesn't go well with the kingdom of god and i want to commend greg boyd's important book on this topic the church is the international body of christ as my english wife reminds american christians god bless america is not found anywhere in the bible or it's in that chapter where it also contains god helps those who help themselves christian faith is growing most rapidly and impressively in the developing world in the poorest places on earth among people who feel no loyalty to america who see the united states in two ways the world's wealthiest nation on top of a global economy that is not friendly to them or is the last remaining superpower whose geopolitical interests are often not compatible with their own interests the majority of christians around the world the majority of evangelicals around the world were and are against the war in iraq and are against american foreign policy until we deal with the fact of our global identity will not get very far in this conversation that's why so many kids on mission trips around the world get transformed radicalized changed by just seeing how the world looks from a different place then they grew up i think if globalization is they say inevitable it probably is but it has no ethics inevitable no ethics it may be the body of christ that could contribute to a conversation with how how there must be rules in the global neighborhood what are the ethics of globalization how do we not let globalization leave so many people behind the body of christ is an international body that could change the conversation on all the global issues because of our identity as being beyond the nation state finally number seven seek the common good for christians that come into the kingdom mandates us to seek the common good of societies the bible is references many of the common good i've been exploring them in christianity islam judaism it's rich very rich the common person acts paul's admonitions in corinthians about about uh seeking the welfare the you know the the equality he used the word equality of the people of god in all of its churches jeremiah has led to the exiles in babylon they seek the welfare of a city in which i've sent you into exile and pray to the lord on its behalf for in its welfare you will find your welfare says jeremiah and the niv translates that phrase seek the peace and prosperity of the city the hebrew notion of shalom which is often meant to translate as peace it's so much deeper and richer it means completeness soundness welfare health safety peace and right relationships then nehemiah when the exiles return from babylon to the destroyed city of jerusalem he says he gathers him he says now you see the trouble we're in how the city lies in ruins and the gates are burned come let us rebuild the wall of jerusalem that we may no longer suffer disgrace i told them the hand of my god had been gracious upon me the words the king had spoken to me then they said let us start building and nehemiah verse 18 says so they committed themselves to the common good nehemiah gives everybody a job to do and gets them building for the common good catholic social teaching is the best on this for us evangelicals the idea of the common good is rich in catholic social teaching protestant ideas of the public of the black church for years has lived out of theology of the common good being the glue that holds together whole neighborhoods hulk when no one else was doing anything the black churches held together whole neighborhoods whole communities evangelical revivals have led to reform and transformed the american and british society jewish concepts of tikkun to repair the world and shalom are about to come and i'm learning there's a whole rich teaching in islam about the common good the common good could bring us together and there's the secular notion of this is of course in the constitutional tradition welcoming those citizens who aren't christians we the people created by our government to promote the general welfare it says catholic bishops offer us four principles to guide our political engagement i'll list those and i'll tell a final story the bishops say this is in their political uh pamphlet they put out every year it's still the best thing out there faithful political engagement we're called to be political but not partisan the church cannot be a chaplain for any one party or cheerleader for any candidate our cause is the protection of the weak and the vulnerable the defense of human life indeed not the particular part of your candidate number two church is called to be principled but not ideological we cannot compromise our values or teaching but be open to different ways to advance them three we're called to be clear but also civil advocate justice but practice civility finally we're called to be engaged but not used engaged but not used welcome dialogue with all political leaders and counts but to engage and persuade public officials i want to say that whoever your favorite candidate is running this time democrat republican whoever your favorite if that candidate wins they will not be able to move the mountains that must be moved they will not even if they like to they will not be able to move the mounts without a movement on the outside to push to change the nation's conscience to hold them accountable to get to lyndon johnson was not a political leader until martin king and rosa parks made him one our task is not to elect just new candidates but to indeed change the wind and build a movement for social change we are called individuals are called to christ join the new order of the kingdom of god to enter into an alternative community by living its new values to engage the world around critical specific issues of injustice to hold the state accountable to maintain a global perspective and to seek the common good of the place we find ourselves very quickly when i was in atlanta last time as tony knows you go to atlanta it's like if you're a preacher it's like a kid in the candy store they preach in 7-elevens in atlanta you know i mean it's like wherever you go it's they're preaching so i went back to ebenezer baptist church one of my favorite places to go and joe roberts who is about to retire welcomed me back and and he said you've been in the old israel this is the new israel the new sanctuary 2000 seats it was a wonderful night that night but he reminded me the first time i was there a long time ago when we had the first legal holiday for dr king ebenezer had a peace and justice service invited this young white preacher to come and i was i was flattered by imitation but terrified by being in that pulpit and sure enough i got up there and i just froze in the pulpit where dr king preached and daddy king and the whole movement and i just was rather tepid i said you know um dr king he was for you know for justice and peace and probably we should be too is powerful really powerful and this voice from down low left side boom back at me oh help him lord help him come on your man you're supposed to preach and so i did a little bit you're not there yet you're not there yet he weld me and amen me and mercied me and preached it brother until i was preaching it and i was sweating and preaching and prancing all over the stage and i exhausted myself and i ran down afterwards i said you just pulled that sermon out of me and deacon johnson the amen corner of ebenezer baptist church stood tall and he put his hands in my shoulders he said that's okay son i raised up many a preacher in my time and he reminded me of that pulpit had raised up many things in this nation that pulpit had had pulled out the best stuff in us as americans we got bad stuff in us we've got some good stuff too bad religion pulls out our war stuff our divisions our fears our hatreds our violence good religion pulls out our best stuff this kingdom stuff this hunger for justice compassion this desire for peace we've had so much bad religion over so many decades the good news is my friends i feel all over the country the nation is hungry for some good religion it's time we gave it to them thank you very much time for just maybe a couple of questions i know i went very very fast and through some of this it's a lot of new stuff for me and i just uh probably too fast so if any questions or comments please jump in don't be shy baptist yes sir way over in the corner is well one of the questions that we didn't get to ask the candidates on the cn forum we had a lot of good questions that we didn't get to that night one of them was whether whether fear is the proper foundation for foreign policy and i think that's a very important question to ask we must there are real dangers in our world about which we should be we should show wisdom and prudence but fear makes you into people you don't want to become how do you confront monsters without becoming a monster yourself that's our foreign policy question and i love what gordon brown the new prime minister of britain said wednesday a tuesday in manchester a whole new kind of way of dealing with the issue of terrorism in the world military might won't be enough he says it's about our ideas and our ideals how to win people over to our best ideals and ideas now you've got a head of state talking about this for the first time we have a chance to have a new foreign policy based on our better angels and values than just our fears yes please uh and the question is i thought you're going to darfur for a moment because rwanda and we have not we've not done what is necessary in darfur genocide is happening again and richard land and i have been in the white house together speak to them about darfur we're we are we are we are letting genocide happen again in darfur now in my view of iraq is a little different than yours i was against saddam hussein when my government was helping him fight his war against the iranians and the reason we thought he had weapons of mass destruction was we could because we we had the receipts from those weapons of mass destruction and and i i believe the religious leadership across the world said saddam is a threat i believe saddam was a threat and many of us offered other other solutions to not just disarm him but remove him from power which he should have been without bombing the children of baghdad we believe this war if fought would have become a disaster and it has become a disaster now i think there are ways to resolve the crisis but i believe the american occupation will never resolve the crisis in iraq and until that situation is internationalized without the american presence we will never succeed in finding security or peace or democracy in iraq it's my view one more one more question please yes i i called on her right behind you with two men so far go ahead you know i just quickly ran over the uh category of those three kinds of people that need protection and the first was widows and orphans uh there's a whole lot in this new book about about how uh you know uh women in particular bear kind of a triple burden if you look at all the sort of conflicts and the genocides and the in all the kind of poverty around the world hiv aids pandemics women and children are suffering the most from all of those great injustices the stats are just unbelievable the second thing is is they still have to be the ones holding life together and are everyplace in those circumstances they're the ones suffering the most yet they're the ones who are looked to call upon to hold life together for the whole community third they're the ones who are least in positions of decision-making power to change the decisions that cause the calamities in the first place that's a triple burden to bear and i think the wisdom i was with the airport the other day and there was a sign of a woman from the developing world that said i am powerful it was an oxfam ad and those ngos that are targeting the empowerment of women are really on the right track the empowerment of women around the world may be the best strategy for the solutions to most of what we're now talking about on a global scale uh so that triple burden has to be reversed and it's often women you know um uh muhammad yunus won the nobel prize bangladesh for years his strategy was empowering women small loans uh for cottage industries and vending kinds of things mostly women and it's transformed half of bangladesh so i think i think the the focusing on women may be key to our strategy in the developing world and for us here as well so uh this is just to start we got three more speakers to come so thank you very much for this conversation