Conference attendees openly display their feeling about immigration. (Photo credit: United Methodist Women) |
The 2011 United Methodist Women’s (UMW) National Seminar, meeting in Birmingham, Alabama, hoped to recapture the moral-crusading spirit of the Civil Rights era. Instead of racial segregation, they focused especially on the cause célèbre issue of immigration, particularly Alabama’s new strict law on illegal aliens. August 13-17, hundreds of activists meshed together liberal activism, liturgical innovation, and feminist theology. Increasingly limited to a dwindling and aging demographic, UMW once counted over 1 million members but today has fewer than 600,000.
Entitled “Mission: Reconciliation,” the UMW National Seminar focused on immigration, climate change, domestic violence, and human trafficking. Held every four years, the “social justice leadership development event” aims to steer UMW officers toward a “local and global mission of justice and advocacy.”
The conference drew inspiration from the 1960s civil rights movement in Birmingham, trying to channel the enthusiasm for racial equality toward other favored causes. Besides attending workshops and various Bible studies, the seminar attendees joined in the “Sustain Our State 1-2-3 GO: Intergenerational Rally.” The protesters believe they will help Alabama by “assuring healthy, clean water and air and real public transit” enacted via government policies. One rally official announced, “Water, clean air, energy and transit are environmental and intergenerational issues – the poorest and the young who are our future are most affected by failure to protect the air and water as a public trust, and least able to get education, jobs, healthcare and daily needs. These are public health issues and jobs issues as well.” The group sent along their sentiments in an official petition to Alabama legislators.
Dr. Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz provided the theological foundation for these social justice activities in daily Bible studies. A former teacher at United Methodism’s Drew University Theological School, she trumpeted the fundamentals of the Social Gospel. She exclaimed: “Good News to the poor is health. Good News for the poor is a roof over their head…Don’t spiritualize Good News, please!” To holistically help the needy, she asserted that “There is not going to be anyone out there to do it. We have to do it.” For Isasi-Diaz and many others, “The ministry of the church is a ministry of reconciliation.”
“Reconciliation is a societal-political process that reconstructs the moral order of society and that was a central practice of Jesus for his public ministry,” Isasi-Diaz explained. She echoed a quote on the UMW’s Facebook wall by South African Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu: “I don’t preach a social gospel; I preach the Gospel, period. The gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is concerned for the whole person. When people were hungry, Jesus didn’t say, ‘Now is that political or social?’ He said, ‘I feed you.’ Because the Good News to a hungry person is bread.”
In ways probably surprising to most church members, Isasi-Diaz insisted on redefining key Gospel terms. For instance, metanoia or “repentance” is not a change of soul regretfully away from sin and a turn joyfully to Christ. Instead, she insisted: “It is not a matter of regret, guilt, and shame…To demand admission of guilt and repentance before forgiveness may well throw us into a cycle of death and violence.” Instead, Christianity is a matter of doing justice and adopting Christ’s morality. Many would say she put the cart before the horse when she claimed, “You cannot be in relationship with God unless you are a community of brothers and sisters.” Not to worry: “Jesus eliminated the reasons people were ostracized.”
Isasi-Diaz noted, “Scripture does not give us a model for us to imitate nor does is set up for us criteria to follow. Scripture illumines the values, attitudes and dispositions of Jesus and they are touchstones for us.” How does the progressive Christian handle this dilemma? By adopting the “ideology” or “worldview” of Jesus. As she pointed out, this Christian ideology contains “values that are made explicit in norms, and are set to work in attitudes and dispositions which result in action.” For example, “Jesus saw injustice as enmity amongst people.” The Christ had two goals, according to Isasi-Diaz: “radical inclusivity and upsetting hierarchies.” Although this revolutionary stance might grind against traditional Christianity’s spiritual cosmology, it certainly meshes well with contemporary liberal views on immigration, feminism, and sexuality.
Getting more explicitly political, Isasi-Diaz also announced: “I have never been as despondent for my government as I am now.” Speaking of conservatives, she complained: “Their purpose isn’t to build a better future…Their purpose is to get rid of President Obama.” She then condemned Republican U.S. Senate Leader Mitch McConnell.
Closer to Isas-Diaz’s heart, however, was radical feminist theology. Unlike some, she has no problem with the concept of power. According to her, it is “amoral,” completely dependent on its use. Men and women, then, can both have power legitimately. After all, the former theological instructor thought that the woman who anointed Jesus’ feet experienced a phenomenon of near-equal weight as the all-male Eucharist.
But Isasi-Diaz noted history is replete with abuses of power. She observed: “Some time back, those in power [the men] decided they would relegate us to the private sphere” to merely reproduce while men take over the public sphere. Thankfully, feminism carried out the social gospel Great Commission and helped “revert power to the community.” Isasi-Diaz recalled Roman Catholic ordination battles. After their bishops rejected female ordination, they reputedly told protesting activists, “You all just want power.” Isasi-Diaz remembers the emphatic feminist answer: “Yes, we do. So what?”
The morning Bible studies clearly set the tone for the conference. Unfortunately, many of the workshops were not available online. One twitter-savvy attendee did report: “SIX WORDS -RAPPING, EMCEEING, BREAK DANCING GRANNIES AND MOMMIES!” The closing song for the final morning study matched the often self-empowerment attitude of the entire UMW project quite well. The audience sang together, “We are the ones we have been waiting for.”
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