Thursday, December 10, 2009

evangel-ing - fragment C

What if we arrived at a point in time and place where we realized much of what we had imported as “Good News” from other times and places had become so tarnished and sooty from the pollution of human past, and heilsgeschichte, in general, that the “good news,” thoroughly immersed in the nastiness of recent histories, had become, rather than a source of liberation and salvation, a source of spiritual and social malnutrition, oppression, or repellent from the Object of one’s faith—namely God, creator, sustainer, liberator? What if the dance of language and tradition, performed to the rhythms of history—a history of empiricism, colonialism, racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, elitism, and the like—has, over time morphed from salsa to slamdancing, from la coca rocha to crunk? What if it has become a lacerator, rather than a salve, a poison rather than a medicine?

What if the Good News, in a religious context where religion is often identified as cultural conservatism and nationalism, rather than radical and prophetic reform and ardent love of the Other and "the other" regardless of national affiliation or happenstantial status and/or location at birth; and where religion is often seen as merely a crutch, a nostalgic sentiment, a means to gain success, prosperity, wealth, power, and personal gain, whereas (in contra-diction) the proclamation of Christ was one of challenge, of radical abandonment of wealth and material attachments, of radical love of Other and other, etc…

What if the Good News in such a context is simply protest against such a context?
Could Protestantism then be called Evangelism?
And protest-ing be evangel-ing?
Ah, evangel-ing! So much better a word than “Evangelizing,” no?
Perhaps this is the word we have been looking for?


1 comment:

  1. "The danger of language and tradition" – a prophetic, idol-bashing point against spiritual inertia!

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