Don't flush and forget - read Steve de Gruchy on sewage as a theological issue

Steve de Gruchy from South Africa has written this week's reflection on Seven Weeks for Water. In it he says:
Indeed the Jordan River perspective holds together economics and ecology, recognizing that “we all live downstream”. It is a reminder that freedom is worth nothing for the poor if we cannot deal with sewage.

Read the whole of his reflection here and don't forget to leave a comment.

The World Forum on Theology and Liberation

Fifteen hours after I arrived back from the UK Dr B flew to Brazil, to Belem to attend and report from the World Forum on Theology and Liberation which precedes the World Social forum which will also meet at the end of this month in Belem.

The 3rd WFTL will be a meeting for a theology of the sustainability of life on Earth. It will have to make a theological reflection and discourse on the basis of a very concrete and organic meaning of life, since the analysis of the social and political reality in the Amazonian context promotes a direct relationship with the earth, water and biodiversity and reveals the limits and alternatives of the relation of human beings with their immediate environment.

The programme kicks off on Wednesday with a lecture by Leonardo Boff concentrating on rituals of water. Speakers later in the week include Steve de Gruchy, Chung Hyun Kyung and Mercy Odoyuye and the site is available in four languages so check it out.

A space of encounter for a theological reflection about alternatives and possibilities for the world, with the purpose of contributing to the construction of a worldwide network of contextual theologies guided by perspectives of liberation. In an ecumenical spirit, it welcomes and promotes the expression of ecological spiritualities, encouraging a deeper understanding of global socioeconomic problems in the light of the resources of theology and vice-versa. It is a space that favors the dialogue between differences of gender, religion, ethnicity, culture, generation and physical capability, fostering a theology whose discourse contributes to inform transforming practices in society, in order to promote the formation of citizens who are active in the building of a new world of solidarity.

Can anger be holy?

I particularly enjoy the various quotes Simon Barrow puts on his Faith in Society blog. This quote on anger by Aristotle set me thinking in my rare idle moments this week. The linked article by Gene Stoltzfus on anger and peace-making makes a good point about anger being an ally in igniting firm truth telling. Over the centuries we have somehow edited the elemental force and energy out of our interpretation of biblical texts. It's almost as if we don't like to mix strong emotion with faith, preferring to re-write life and faith as something that is well-behaved and "nice".
Thinking about anger sent me back to my bookshelves and Lytta Basset's "Sainte Colère" which came out a few years ago - called Holy Anger in English. In it she argues that anger is not censored in the Bible. Job for instance dares to voice his anger about the dreadful situation he's in to God; Cain doesn't rail against the injustice of his offering not being acceptable and directs his anger into killing his brother; it's only when Jacob wrestles all night long with the stranger that he receives his new name and extricates himself from a manipulative and unhealthy web of family relationnships. And of course Jesus also gets angry. One of the verses in a hymn from Iona goes "Jesus Christ is raging, raging in the streets, where injustice spirals and real hope retreats". I think it's a good thing to integrate anger into our spirituality in a more positive way than through the Dies Irae, and as most people get more theology from hymns than anywhere else maybe that's one way to do it - though I should add that there are quite a few people out there who really don't like the Iona hymn.
You can read part of Lytta Basset's reflection on turning the other cheek here. That Bible text reminds me of a difficult time once in parish ministry when one of the elders said in discussion of a difficult personnel issue "we must turn the other cheek" to which I responded "but the other cheek you are turning is mine not yours!" Turning the other cheek is about changing the paradigm of violence, making violence visible and trying to confront it. It isn't about accepting violence, evil and injustice like a doormat and pottering nicely on!
Basset argues that "holy anger is different from spontaneous human anger; holy anger seeks to ressemble God's anger while not claiming that it ever actually achieves this." A holy anger refuses to appropriate God's anger for itself. It also does not victimise people or create scapegoats and can only bear fruit if motivated by love.
Channelling anger, finding a positive voice for our anger is not easy, yet it's the key to a vibrant civil society and to much campaigning work. It's traditionally been difficult for women and many other marginalised people to get their anger or rage listened to in our societies. Finding a voice for our concerns and anger is essential to our humanity, as is learning to listen to those expressing such concerns rather than telling them to close their lips and turn the other cheek. So that leads me to end this ramble on anger with a quote from Berthold Brecht which I first heard in a sermon in former East Germany as the first free elections were about to take place.
"Even anger against injustice makes the voice grow harsh.
Alas we who wished to lay the foundations of kindness could not ourselves be kind."

From Geneva to Solentiname

At our feminist theology group last night Guillermo Kerber opened up the group to his passion for Latin American theology, his passion for justice and equity between rich and poor and also to the world of Alejo Carpentier, Jesus the storyteller and magic realism - both as a literary and theologcial tradition.
It was a gentle but empassioned tour de force taking us from the riches of banks and international organisations in Geneva to the Gospel of Solentiname; from base community readings of the Bible, - see, judge, act - to subtle differences between the theologies of Leonardo Boff and his brother Clodovis Boff.
We were reading the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, wrestling with the gulf between the rich and the poor, celebrating the fact that Lazarus at least has a name unlike so many other nameless poor, expressing distate with the idea of the burning kingdom of the dead, and trying to find a way back from this text of terrifying judgement to hear the call to conversion in our own situation. One of the ideas I'm still working with following our discussion is metanoia as discernment in crisis. I also reflected that the first time I read the Gospel in Solentiname was in East Germany. Tonight while googling I've discovered that the French version only now exists as a rare book and was originally translated from the German rather than the Spanish.
Alors maintenant quelques liens en français pour mes lectrices (et lecteurs) du groupe, concernant Ernesto Cardenale et son Evangile selon Solentiname, la théologie de la libération, Jon Sobrino, et une conférence à écouter en ligne de Odair Pedro Mateus ainsi qu'un entretien ave lui sur la théologie de la libération. Sa femme Katarina Vollmer Mateus interviendra dans notre group au mois d'avril. Alejo Carpentier en français. Bizarrement j'ai découvert que l'évangile selon Solentiname a été traduit en français mais depuis l'allemand!