[Oe List ...] New Century, Different Crisis

Sat Nov 3 09:56:01 EDT 2007

I hear you, Randy, and know that is what you believe, but we need to say it
so we cannot be misunderstood. "Social/society" doesn't mean all creation or
the earth community to most people, I judge.

John

  _____  

From: oe-bounces at wedgeblade.net [mailto:oe-bounces at wedgeblade.net] On Behalf
Of R Williams
Sent: Saturday, November 03, 2007 8:50 AM
To: Order Ecumenical Community
Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] New Century, Different Crisis

John,

I believe the word "social" is inclusive of all creation (key--earth
"community") and that Niebuhr's three evils can be restated to be inclusive
as well.  Nationalism and economic imperialism are at least two of the
contradictions underlying the degradation of the earth. (Example: Bush's
rationale for pulling out of Kyoto--"not good for business.")  By the way,
some of the materials at www.rauschenbusch.org quote and/or refer to Thomas
Berry and The Great Work, so they too understand the importance of what you
are saying..

Randy

----- Original Message ----
From: John Cock <jpc2025 at triad.rr.com>
To: Order Ecumenical Community <oe at wedgeblade.net>
Sent: Saturday, November 3, 2007 7:33:17 AM
Subject: [Oe List ...] New Century, Different Crisis

What about care for the total earth community? As Thomas Berry says many
ways, we can spend all our energy on social/human problems and go out of
being as a species. This statement trumps HRN's three or Rauchenbusch's one
or two. How do we honor and yet radically recontext our existing
human-centered paradigm within our thinking, organization, and action?

John
  _____  

From: dialogue-bounces at wedgeblade.net
[mailto:dialogue-bounces at wedgeblade.net] On Behalf Of R Williams
Sent: Saturday, November 03, 2007 7:50 AM
To: Colleague Dialogue
Subject: Re: [Dialogue] New Century,Same Crisis--The Social Gospel 100 Years
Later

Len,

HRN put wheels under Rauschenbusch's social gospel and the key insight that
it's not just individual conversion but social (meaning instituitional)
change as well.  We translated what it means to be social pioneers into the
three master strategies of (1) contextual reeducation, (2) structural
reformulation and (3) spiritual remotivation..  Even though all three of
these address social as well as individual contradictions, the
transformation of society's structures is, I believe, the one most directed
at socia change and the one that most often is neglected.  We said 30 years
ago that Niebuhr's social evils of "racialism, nationalism and economic
imperialism" were as predominant then as they were in Niebuhr's time.  I
think that is still true for today.  To the point, today as ever in order to
care for those who care one must address the structures of society which
continue to institutionalize racialism, nationalism and economic
imperialism, and not focus just on the first and last strategies.  No single
one of them is effective unless all three are spinning.

Maybe Springboard should dust off those old strategies and decide what the
contemporary form of them must be.  What do you think?

Randy

----- Original Message ----
From: Len Hockley <lenh at efn.org>
To: Colleague Dialogue <dialogue at wedgeblade.net>; Order Ecumenical Community
<oe at wedgeblade.net>; Colleague Dialogue <dialogue at wedgeblade.net>
Sent: Friday, November 2, 2007 4:36:16 PM
Subject: Re: [Dialogue] New Century, Same Crisis--The Social Gospel 100
Years Later

A good read Randy.  

I always  thought there was a basic difference between Reinhold and H
.Richard.  Hooray for H. Richard

Any way you can see this wisdom to be of use to our meeting of
"Springboard"?

Len

At 01:43 PM 11/2/2007 +0000, R Williams wrote:

Colleagues,

In the introduction to the G-O-D Lecture in RS-1 we marked the year 1907 as
the beginning of the 20th century, and we grounded this with events such as
Einstein's theory of relativity, the Bolshevik Revolution, World War I, etc.
One of the events we did not mention was the publication in that year of the
book by Walter Rauschenbusch, Christianity and the Social Crisis, which
introduced what has come to be known as the "social gospel."

I have attached an article from Commonweal magazine in which Carey Nelson
Blake states that "Rauschenbusch tore down the wall that separated faith
from the public world and called on the church to address the suffering and
degradation that accompanied the rapid industrialization of the United
States."

Regarding the importance of this for our roots, H. Richard Niebuhr was
clearly influenced by Rauschenbusch when he stated that the church as social
pioneer turns its back on the manifestations of "sin" or "evil", abolishes
it within itself, and leads in the social act of repentance.  For
Rauschenbusch, according to Blake, "Sin was embedded in institutional
arrangements, not just in individual motivations and actions...  A faithful
life demanded of sinners both personal and social repentance."

Another note of interest, Paul Raushenbush, a great-grandson of Walter, has
edited a new edition titled Christianity and the Social Crisis in the 21st
Century.

I hope you have time to read the attached article.  I would be interested in
your reflections.

Randy Williams

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