taking on the hauerwaus mafia

tony jones has put out a cut chapter from his book the new christians. he is taking on the "hauerwas mafia" which was a topic of our conversation at the cohort last time tony was in town. i like hauerwas, but we all agreed that there are some contradictions with him saying anti system yet being cradled by one.. mostly through trouble with pacifism, especially for matt who ministers to a large, very active, military community. the title of the chapter is "chaplain to the culture."

i like tony for his very honest unabashed style. i know where he stands. i've seen him attacked and be gracious and be very annoyed, guess that depends on you. most of all, he's been very kind and gracious to me. the picture he's saying "blog this gavin" and i think he was trying to do a "pound it." he didn't do it very well.

Comments

[Chris S.]

On pacifism... I have changed my thinking a ton lately. I have learned so much from a guy named Bruxy Cavey who is the teaching pastor at a church called the meeting house near Toronto. Anyway, I think that there is a major change that needs to take place when thinking about pacifism. Pacifism in following Christ is the furthest thing from passivity. I think that pacifism moves us to having to engage in our world on an even deeper level than if we are depending on violence to solve the injustices of the world. I would also say that pacifism is the way of Jesus, which means that it is for communities and individual followers of Jesus and in no way binds governments of government institutions and can't be legislated. I think the deeper thing to think about here and where I am still working out my thinking is in the area of how a follower of Jesus is supposed to engage in the government. If the Kingdom ethic can't be legislated then what is the Christians role in government?
Just thinking out loud!

[gavin]

that is good thinking outloud chris, your thoughts fall into some of the same thinking of yoder or bonhoeffer.

in this composition, the complication is ministering with those who are part of violence in the name of country. it is noble in areas, it is peacekeeping in areas, but it is also violence on another in areas. how does one minister to that, and a standing rule against any violence or systems puts judgement into ministering context and that is a tough place to me.

that's me thinking out loud. which usually gets me in trouble. &:~)