Chris Michael Kirk » Spirituality/Theology

Arrest Me

Author CMK on June 10th, 2008

I want to get arrested. I need to get arrested…and soon.

I was raised with the notion that good people don’t get in trouble. I never served detention in school, and while I’ve always been encouraged to have and share an opinion, I never felt strongly enough about anything to react in such a way that I became sideways with the powers that be. That is a problem. That’s why I need to get arrested.

My teacher, Jesus, was arrested and killed because his version of reality crashed into the version of the empire. His immediate followers were imprisoned time and time again because of their bold, brash faith. In fact, most my heroes have been locked up for good causes. I was told to say the “Pledge of Allegience” and thank God that I live in a country where I have the freedom to not have to get arrested and tortured for my faith. I think that’s crap now.

My complicity needs to come to an end. It’s time to stop accepting things as they are, waiting for a political solution, or getting caught up in all the reasons why I can’t. If you have some good ideas, throw down a comment. If I’m not arrested by next July, come back and call me a failure.

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Martyr?

Author CMK on June 5th, 2008

An iconic figure has opened is undergoing trial at the hands of the empire. He very well may be sentenced to death. He has welcomed this reality saying, “If I’m killed, I will be killed for the sake of God. I’ve been seeking to be a martyr for years.” I could be describing Jesus, but instead I’m speaking of a man named Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

In case you missed it, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is the alleged mastermind of several terrorist attacks including 9/11. Since 2003, he has been in U.S. custody. Today, his military tribunal trail has begun in which Mohammed shared the above desire to be martyred.

Now, for those of you enraged that I just compared this alleged terrorist to Jesus, please understand that I am not drawing a comparison between the two at the core of their message and action. Jesus was a pacifist. Sheikh Mohammed is a terrorist. Jesus said love your enemy. Sheikh Mohammed says, “Kill the infidels!”

However, I think there is a valid comparison on a larger level. Both Jesus and Sheikh Mohammed have found themselves at odds with the dominant superpower or empire of their day. As empires do, both Rome and the United States are interested in extending their power by eliminating threats to their dominance and prosperity. Jesus challenged the kingdom of Rome while Sheik Mohammed has challenged the kingdom of America.

If the US chooses to kill this man, we will make him a martyr as he desires. We have already held him without charge and probably exposing him to torture. But now we have a unique opportunity. If we show mercy and restraint, we will let him be what he is: a terrorist with a losing strategy of hate and violence. If we kill him, we will paste his face on Middle East walls for decades. While justice certainly demands that we hold him accountable, wisdom requires that we choose the higher ground, reverse the temptations of pursuing the Pax Americana with violence, and respond to terror with firm compassion and truth.

I don’t want Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to be a martyr. I don’t want his version of a hateful God to dominate. I want to be proud that my country did the right thing. God help us if we do not.

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Mini-Retirements

Author CMK on June 4th, 2008

Tim Ferriss has posted an interview about the concept of Mini-Retirements. In case you haven’t read it, Ferriss authors the inspiring and wildly outside the box, “The 4 Hour Workweek.” He debunks the myth that success is measured by spending 40 hours or more anchored to a job and challenges the convential wisdom of what wealth is, moving from material possession to experience. While Ferriss is almost too smart for the rest of us, his ideas have a lot to offer.

One such idea is “mini-retirements”. He argues against the idea that we should work for 40 years with two weeks vactaion (if that) a year, and then take twenty years of retirement when we’re too old to enjoy it. He suggests taking mini-retirements along the way. Again, his approach come across oversimplified at times, but read the article and see what you can glean from it.

Personally, I think mini-retirements have a connection to the Jewish ideas of Sabbath and Jubilee. In the Hebrew text, God instructs his people to take every seventh year off, allowing the land to rest and the poor to eat from what grows naturally. After 7 Sabbath years, they would declare a year of Jubilee which was even more extensive, involving the return of all property to its original owners.

Regardless of how you do it, we were not built to work eight hours a day for fifty weeks a year. We need to build into our lives times of silence and retreat. We need to see the world before our eyesight fades and our feet hurt. Let’s work to develop new ideas of productivity and success which create a sustainable existence for ourselves and our planet.

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My Inner Snob

Author CMK on June 2nd, 2008

The concrete floor is filled with plastic folding tables surrounded by metal chairs. A average-looking woman is strumming a guitar as even more average-looking women sing along to an average song written twenty years ago. I look around and find myself surrounded by a large black woman, a white man with prison tattoos, an old lady with a funny smell. I feel out of my element. My inner snob rears his ugly head.

I’ve taken Ester to church nearby our home for some Sunday morning worship. As a family, we don’t attend worship services on a regular basis, so this is a special attempt at connecting to a faith community. I had found this church online and was quite impressed with their work in the community with the poor and their attitude of welcoming others as is. I loved the fact that this people had relocated to a neighborhood that no one wants to be in to do the work of Jesus. But, then there was with my inner snob kicking in.

Honestly, everything in me wanted to get up and leave. I was sweating and not just because the room did not come equipped with air-conditioning. But, I stuck it out and found the gathering to be intimate and honest. The people were amazingly friendly and interested in knowing my daughter and I. In retrospect, it looked a lot like the people of Jesus hanging out together, simply and without pretenses. While there was so much I hated about it, I couldn’t help but feel that I was in the presence of something special, if only I was wise enough to see beyond the drab surrounding and off-key singing.

As Natasha and I wrestle with what sort of faith community our family should connect with in Wichita, we’ve run into some difficulties. We have several friends who are leading “emerging” faith communities in this city. I love each them and connect to what they’re doing. We naturally gravitate towards these groups because of common interests. Objectively, all of them are better looking, better prepared, and more in line with my personal interests than the faith community I attended yesterday. But, is that what matters—finding those who look like me in a place in which I feel most comfortable?

While I love the emerging church conversation, I wonder if in some ways we’re just trying to get all the cool, hip, crunchy, philosophical people in one space. I wonder if more of us (relatively hip, cool, crunchy, and philosophical) folks should join on with the average-looking, un-hip communities just down the block. I know that most of us don’t want to be surrounded by personal clones, and yet somehow many of our communities end up looking predominantly white, middle-class, and highly educated. Could this be evidence of our inner snobs? How can we get beyond these boundaries and thrust ourselves into uncomfortable situations for the good of God’s kingdom come? What do you think?

Archive for the ‘Spirituality/Theology’ Category

Arrest Me

Martyr?

Mini-Retirements

My Inner Snob