do it.

Luckily, I have one to hand...

... but apparently it's too big and so I must post in two parts.
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I don't expect this to be a precise and exhaustive manifesto, but moreso a summation that will allow me to articulate a few points of my overall worldview. This is subject to change, and would worry me a little if that were not the case.

I consider myself to be a Christian who is theologically orthodox. I use this terminology in an attempt to override the tired categorisations of "liberal" and "conservative" theology, the former too often used to imply a faith which is uninteresting and diluted, and the latter too often used to imply one which is rigid, invasive, and intolerant of critical scrutiny. I consider my own religious outlook to be described by neither of those (admittedly broad) terms. Instead, what I mean by an orthodox faith is that I am a follower of Jesus Christ, the crucified and risen Incarnate Son of God, and that this faith is guided by the His Spirit through a personal relationship and also through the divine inspiration of those collection of holy scriptures to which we refer as the Bible.

I refer to this faith as "Trinitarian," because I believe this relationship with the living God to be an expression of the eternal relation of love between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. From this relationship I derive all that I am, every last nuance, and if I believe that God is love, and indeed that every single underpinning of following God both is and results in the outworking of love, then I could not perceive God to be anything other than an actual living relation of love Himself. To me, God is eternal, the ground of being, the source of all things, the very embodiment of reality. While He is beyond human comprehension, we nonetheless glimpse His nature in the person of Jesus Christ, who was known as both the Son of Man and the Son of God. In this sense, the person of Jesus carried with Him both the fullness of humanity and the fullness of the divine, and was Himself that living revelation of God's nature to us mortals. He showed this by how He lived, by the miracles He worked, the teachings He offered, and the way He acted toward others.

I might also refer to this faith as being centred upon the cross, that cross upon which Jesus was crucified. It's often wondered why this symbol, a symbol of death and execution, should be at the focus of Christianity. This is because it was upon that cross that Jesus showed the full extent of His humanity before the world, by which He willingly suffered in every possible way that human beings are able to, whether by physical pain, emotional despair, or the burden of that fallen condition we refer to as "sin." In death, God in the form of Christ became one of us, and in His resurrection, He gave us the hope that we could be so much more. That we could be free from our sinfulness, and indeed from every last point of our suffering, and that we could hold the same fate of eternal life that God Himself enjoys, that we could be reconciled to Him in the ultimate display of love.

Having done this, Jesus offered what we Christians refer to as "salvation." This term is very often used to simply refer to a state of afterlife, that final reconciliation to God. And I wholeheartedly believe that this is very much the case, that we Christians find such reconciliation by our faith alone, by reaching out to God and receiving that which Christ achieved for our sake. That this salvation could not be accomplished by anything we ourselves have done, by any good work or deed, but simply by being willing to receive the gift of faith, which God gave in love. This beautiful concept of grace has unfortunately found itself abused, not necessarily by certain peoples' malicious or selfish agendas, but simply by a lack of holistic focus. Many churches often tell us that all we need to do is have faith in Jesus, and encourage others to do the same, for therein lies the completeness of our salvation. We might be told to be "obedient" to God by following Christ's teachings (as well as the teachings of those apostles who came after Him), but are not given much of a clear vision of how such obedience is undertaken.

In this sense, I have come to view God's salvation not just as a concept of eternal life which comes after this mortal one ends, but as a very present act which transforms us in the here and now, and continually does so from that moment on up until the time we die. It is often said that our end goal as Christians is to strive for our every identity to become like Christ Himself, and to me that means very real changes in attitudes and actions that we make in the here and now. This is so because "going to Heaven" is not a Biblical concept at all... we Christians pray "Your (God's) Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven." It's not so much that we're preparing ourselves for the afterlife, but rather that God Himself is transforming the very world we live in. The "Kingdom of God" is the term that Jesus used to describe the kind of vision He expected to be embodied amongst His followers, and outlined this vision by the kind of teachings He gave.

What makes this term even more intriguing is that its original Greek infers precisely the same language which was used to refer to the Roman Empire. In fact, much of the language that the Bible uses to speak of Christ uses highly political language. The "Gospel" literally means "good news," that is, Jesus preached the good news that a new kind of rule was coming into the world. The term has its origins in the Roman Empire to refer to the birth of a royal heir, that Caesar had a son who would later be able to receive the kingdom. "Son of God" was a title used for Caesar himself, as the political system which revered him was inextricably tied to the mandated public worship of him as a god. The very first sentence of Mark, the first chronological record of the life of Jesus, opens up with this sentence: "This is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God." It is a profound statement which infers a subversion of the main political authority of the day and the use of its own propaganda to refer to the ultimate source of authority.

This kind of subversion was rooted in the idea that this political entity, the Empire, had ultimately failed the people who lived under it. Many of the same problems which we see happening today, that of abject poverty, famine, and the marginalisation of certain groups of people from the more affluent sections of society, were all going on in Jesus' time as well, and He had very specific ways in which He addressed them. Many of Jesus' teachings required His followers to live in just social and economic conditions with the people around them, as an example of what the love of God was all about. The sick and lame of the day were shunned by the religious authorities, and in healing them, not only did Jesus demonstrate the miraculous power of God, He also enacted the restoration of such people into their social dignity. Jesus would call upon tax collectors to return large portions of their revenue back to the public, because they were leaving others in destitution. This man's spiritual ministry had its home amongst the absolute outcasts among civilisation, and demonstrated the paradoxical love of the Creator: that through He was God in human form, He was born as a refugee into a backdrop of state-sanctioned infant genocide, took the working-class trade of a carpenter, and eventually became homeless. He literally had everything, yet made Himself nothing, and all for the sake of those around Him. I believe that Jesus still calls us into the margins even to this day, and that our function as His disciples is not only to offer the good news of salvation, but also to demonstrate that this salvation effects people on every possible level.

To me, then, the Gospel is about liberation. Liberation from our sinful nature, liberation of the poor from their destitution, liberation of the rich from their greed and materialism, liberation from death into life, and so on. It is just one reason why I cannot understand the preoccupation of the mainstream church with homosexuality, in that those who are offering a good news of liberation are essentially making an entire section of society feel alienated and unwelcomed as human beings made in the Image of God, and loved by Him as well. It is one reason why I cannot understand the need of certain churches to exclude women from leadership and the priesthood, since to do so is to deny the voice of half of humanity, and suppress rather than liberate.

The liberating power of the Gospel, I feel, affects this world at every possible level, and speaks out against the corruption which holds it in a terrible grip. For this reason, as a Christian, I cannot see social justice as anything less than a necessary outworking of my faith, and I will actively pursue justice with others simply because the love of God compels me to do so. It also means that I will act in ways that those around me might not necessarily understand. Many view the homeless as worthless and deserving of their lot in life, whereas I will form relationships with such people because I am called to love my neighbour as myself, and in doing so I love the One who made me. Many see asylum seekers as economic leeches who wish to steal the public's livelihood and also their national resources. I, however, have my primary identity in Christ rather than in any kind of nationalism or patriotism, and so I will seek to serve all people regardless of standing, nationality, or circumstance.

Above all, however, my faith will compel me to question the very system of things which allows such injustice to happen in the first place. Why do some nations exist in abject poverty? Why do certain groups of people find their lives continually in danger (and not just in developing nations either)? Why are some families unable to feed their young despite working 12 hour shifts for 7 days a week?

The single most simplistic answer to these questions, at least from a standpoint of faith, is human sinfulness; that is, our capacity to turn inwardly into ourselves, to seek our own agendas at the expense of others around us, and to ultimately turn away from God. However, sin has impacted the world to such a large and insidious degree that it has effect every level of our existence without our even realising it. Christ warned us not to store up treasures on earth, yet many of us strive to make ourselves wealthy in the hopes that we will lead a luxurious existence. He warned us not to be prideful, yet we have created vast empires of commerce which hold themselves at the pinnacle of technological, abundantly economic society. He told us to love our neighbours and act toward others as we would have them act toward us, and yet we hold ourselves in materialism without giving any thought as to the process by which our shopping reaches us. Just as in the time of Christ, the socio-political system of the Empire had failed its people, so too in our time the system of capitalism has driven an almighty wedge between the rich and the poor, alienated us from one another, and kept us in a system of production and consumption without any real understanding of the humanity behind the end producer who made our consumption possible. Within such a system the grim reality of sweatshop labour thrives to generate enormous income for corporations at the cost of any kind of sustainable living wage for those who actually make the clothes we purchase on the cheap. Similar realities exist with much of our overseas food produce simply because we choose to make ourselves unaware of the source and in so doing will continue to fuel the economic machine which drives third world farmers into an unending spiral of poverty. This poverty, at both the spiritual and material level, exacerbates oppression from powers and militias who are all too keen to fill the void with violence, and subjugate the helpless people under them. Moreover, the system which keeps us developed nations in wealth and those developing nations in poverty, leaves in its bloody path a trail of environmental destruction. This sinful system, as a result of our own sin, has failed the people living under it.

What I believe, then, is that Jesus calls us to a different way of living, an alternative way of living which expresses the love of God set against the dispassion of our own artificial systems. Moreover, just as He liberates us from these manifestations of suffering and sickness, so too He liberates us from our own conventional ways of dealing with such injustices. Since God loves all people, He commands us to do the same, and in following this teaching we approach the world in a very different way than its own conventions. We see that those who oppress and are responsible for oppression are themselves the victims of sin and sickness, and so they too must be liberated and redeemed, just as much so as the very people whom they would cause to suffer. Jesus, then, commands us to love our enemies and to pray for those who would persecute us, as an acknowledgement of each person's individual humanity, and also of the supreme love which does not discriminate.

Jesus' Kingdom, as a result, is not like the kingdoms of the world. It does not rely on violence to achieve its goals as governments do, but rather calls upon its citizens to be peacemakers. If we truly love our enemies and our neighbours, then it is simply not possible for us to exact deadly violence upon them and still profess to have followed this vital teaching. By loving our enemies and accepting the call to nonviolence, we provide an example to the world of a better way, a way that speaks of the divine rather than of our own human passions, and offers the hope of redemption rather than of destruction.

It is for these reasons that I believe a Christian cannot participate within the system of governmental authority, at least not if they wish to remain true toward and uncompromising of their faith. For one thing, the nation state relies upon the use of violence to maintain itself, yet Christians have necessarily laid down the sword. For another thing, even the very concept of a "nation state" should be absurd for the Christian, for they themselves have been called to the service of all nations, and find their citizenship in a Kingdom which transcends all arbitrary national borders. To me, the concept of a Christian in the military or in governmental office is a sad one, because it is an enormous compromise of the very way of living to which we are called, the way which leads us to the margins rather than the magnificent, among the powerless rather than the powerful. I do not even vote, simply because I do not feel in good conscience that I can lend direct legitimacy to a system of authority which not only establishes itself upon the use of deadly force, but also sets itself up as an authority separate from God. My political ideology then, if one had to categorise it, might be summed up by the word "anarchist," and I am comfortable with this term. However, I feel it is more accurate to refer to myself as a theologically orthodox Christian.

To clear up confusion, however, I should make it clear that I do not believe in overthrowing the nation state or calling for its dissolution. Not necessarily, at any rate. I believe that as a Christian, my calling to love others is the way in which the Kingdom of God is received, and the more I witness God transform the creation, the closer we come to the time when God shall be "all in all," as scripture states. In this time, the Bible tells us (1 Corinthians 15) that all human authority will be destroyed to make way for the reign of God. The politics of the Gospel is quite peculiar in this sense, because while we are not called to participate in governmental rule, we're not really calling for it to be destroyed either. We're simply following the way of life God commands of us, and in doing so we're receiving a new world which forms in the shell of the old. The old system, then, doesn't need to be overthrown, and it shouldn't be just yet, because God will use this system to accord some limited sense of order to this sick, fallen, and sinful world. We Christians, however, are embodying a different, better, and more divine way of living. The governments of this world will do what they will do, and we will do what we will do, and as they continue to crumble, we will be the Kingdom which fills the void.

Of the portion of scripture which speaks of "God being all in all," this is a great mystery... that God has the power to restore the entirety of creation, and yet for us it is a mystery as to what this actually means. In terms of salvation, I believe that God has the final ability to literally transform everything, that is, to save every human being from their bondage to sin and death. However, I would never presume to know or even firmly believe whether this will truly be the case. I feel that we have free will to choose our own fates, and to decide whether or not we will receive God's love or reject it. Universal restoration, then, is what I hope and pray for, without knowledge of whether this will come to pass. I certainly believe that in the same way all of us human beings are broken, so too do we all have the capacity within us to cry out to God, even in our most extreme moments of doubt and confusion. Hell, to me, is a very real possibility, the final dreadful result of a heart which completely turns away from God... however, I believe it is exactly that... a possibility, a warning, an ultimatum. God warns us of Hell, but never tells us of who might end up there, and until that time I don't believe it is unorthodox to hope that all people be saved.

Not just all people either, but the whole of creation, which groans as it waits for that appointed time. My Christian faith compels me to be an environmentalist, because the issue of environmental negligence is a social justice issue. It speaks to our own mentality as a wasteful society living in a production-consumption system of excess capitalism, and also speaks to our negligence of other nations, in that the poorest of society stand to be the worst victims of climate change. Beyond this, I think creation is a wonderful thing, and Christians perform a terrible service to the world when they feel they are in a position to rape it without consequence. I perceive the original vision, the creation narrative within Genesis, to be a wonderful affirmation of the cooperation between God, humanity, and the earth. Our "dominion" over this world was never inferred to be a reckless reign, but rather a position of responsibility and carefulness. In the ideal situation, God creates and sustains our existence on earth, and by doing so the earth provides us with food, warmth, and life. In modern times, we are pushing the very limits of that sustainable vision by our own ignorance and irresponsibility, and I truly believe that if we are to be saved from the destruction that we have caused, not only do we need to amend our lives, but we also need to pray for God's miraculous hand in it all, that He might undo the damage we've wrought.

In my own effort to love and honour God's creation, I myself am vegan, and I adopt this lifestyle for many spiritual and ethical reasons. Primarily, animals are a part of this world, and if I can be healthy without having to consume their flesh, then I consider it to be immoral to do otherwise. Moreover, the production-consumption dynamic at play in factory farming leads to a tremendous devastation of our environment, through an increase in warming gases, and also in the depletion of agricultural produce which must necessarily pass through the animal before we can reap its benefits. I would much rather grain be used to feed the poor, rather than artificially-bred animals whose sole purpose in existence is to provide my food with flavour. As a Christian, and as a peacemaker, I hold the vision of Isaiah 11 close to my heart, in which the prophet envisages the restoration of the world as one whereby humans and animals live together in perfect peace and harmony, without the need to kill or feed off each other. If we can embody even part of that vision in the here and now, then perhaps we ought to consider how we could go about that.

In a nutshell, my faith inspires me, in my complete and utter fallenness, to try and live and act in love toward the world around me, in whatever way I can see. And perhaps in relational community, we can effect a lot of those visions together. After all, if we're made in the image of an eternal community... then it could be that we're made for community ourselves. To live in simplicity, peace, nonviolence, and in an altogether alternative way of God's love.

this is NOT my manifesto, that isn't done yet, but this is the best place to post it.

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If you know me at all you probably know that I’m something of a revolutionary. I love Jesus, but I hate the label of Christians. I see so much of myself in many of my role models, but all of them seem to be missing what I’ve found. I hear the philosophical strains of an Elliott Smith lyric underlined with hopelessness. I see the fire in the eyes of Che Guevara, who believed in the eternity of his revolution, extinguished by a bullet from the gun of a Bolivian soldier. I lose respect for the Socrates who thought it his calling to find flaws in others beliefs but could provide none for himself.

Where would I be now if I had never met Jesus? What kind of man would I be? Would I be the poster child for a purposeless counterculture built on confusion and euphoria? Would I join thousands of musicians around the world in singing songs about hopelessness and despair, punctuating my numbness with the high of attention? Would I still be alive? Would I have killed myself years ago? Would I be another tragic story like Kurt Cobain or Elliott Smith, an eccentric artist finally brought around to the realization that my art only worth as much as I am?

Or would I be like everyone else? Would I find my happiness in the acceptance of others? Would I give my person in exchange for the one they liked? Would I play the part I played for years; the man who didn’t care? Would I be popular? Would the plastic me be a hit? Who cares if people like me if I can’t like myself?
Would I be the American dream – driving my Escalade to Pilates, daily fueling my zombie animus with Starbucks and soy milk? Would I join a book club to feel good about myself? Wear a big hat to show that I didn’t care?

Who would I be? I can’t tell you. But I can tell you who I wouldn’t be.

A man independent of the marionette stings of society and the judgments of those equally lost. A man secure in myself, and the new man I have become. A man seeking every day to live out the new life my savior bought me.

The man I’m learning to be.

Run, laugh, eat, cuddle, drink, be moderate when nessesary, listen to everything, smell, paint or write or act or sew your heart out, and above all: Love God and others.

your posts are fantastic, adam. i think you address everything perceived as wrong with mainstream Christianity and propose well-grounded alternatives to such. this should be published and distributed.