Richard Twiss on following Jesus and being Native
A couple of weeks ago I read One Church, Many Tribes (Regal) by Richard Twiss, a member of the Rosebud Lakota/Sioux tribe and the head of Wiconi International. Through Wiconi, Twiss serves Native groups through education and practical help to improve their quality of life and build relationships that point the way to a hope-filled future for those who have not previously been given much reason to hope. Twiss and his wife started Wiconi with one seemingly simple concept in mind: "You can be Native and a follower of Jesus."
That may not seem very groundbreaking, but for many it is, since the relationship between Christianity and Native peoples here in North America has never been a particularly good one. Pastor and author Mark Buchanan writes about the arrival of the "people of the Black Book" in what is now Vancouver, British Columbia:
The Tswassens have a prophecy 500 years old. One of their ancient holy men foretold that a people pale as birch would one day come from across the great water in large canoes. They would bring with them a Black Book. The Black Book was Truth, end to end, a gift of inestimable good. The people lived for many years awaiting the prophecy's fulfillment.
And then one day it happened. The big canoes— bigger than the Tswassens ever imagined—arrived. They teemed with people pale as birch. And, yes, they brought with them a Black Book.
Then the killings started. The Tswassens became an obstacle to the pale men, and the pale men slaughtered them, and those they didn't slaughter they enslaved.
Given this history, and compared with the justified indignation that saturates the pages of classic accounts like Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Twiss's book is surprisingly hopeful and gracious. He doesn't skirt around history's ugliness, but he doesn't stop there either. He wants to show Native Americans and the rest of us that Native culture isn't antithetical to following Jesus; rather, the Gospel can be incarnated in Native forms just as easily -- and perhaps even more so -- than it has been in Western culture. Native Christians don't need to follow our cultural customs when it comes to church and worship, in other words; instead, they may be better off without them.
But he isn't out to sow resentment. Instead, he shows how the Gospel is what will bring true reconciliation between us and God, and between Native and non-Native groups. He even suggests that the testimony of Native Christians can be used in powerful ways around the world among others who have also been victims of terrible injustices. In his conclusion he writes:
If we, as Native followers of Jesus, are to emerge from our pain and absence to find our place in the Body of Christ, we need the love and help of all our brethren. Can we be seen as equal partners by the rest of the Body of Christ? Will we be allowed to develop new ways of doing church that honor God's purposes for the creative expression of our cultures? Will new ministry partnerships and coalitions form? Will you help be a part of this wonderful process of reconciliation, restoration and release?
Twiss is among those I'm most excited to hear speak at The Justice Conference later this month. Here's a video introducing his topic.
[Photo credit: Rachel Fortney]
Not one square inch!
Recently I’ve become acquainted with (and intrigued by) the thought and work of Abraham Kuyper, a Dutch theologian who served as prime minister of the Netherlands a hundred years ago. I’d heard (and instantly loved) his most famous quote before I ever knew much about him:
There is not one square inch of the entire creation about which Jesus Christ does not cry out, “This is mine! This belongs to me!”
Regrettably, I must confess that I haven’t yet read any actual books by Kuyper himself, though the recently released English translation of Wisdom & Wonder: Common Grace in Science & Art (Christian's Library Press) will soon remedy that. Thus far my introduction to Kuyper has come through a couple of books by Richard Mouw, recommended to me by Gideon Strauss. The first, which I wrote about in January, is a more general book on common grace theology, rooted in Kuyper’s thinking and published a decade ago.
The other is a new book called Abraham Kuyper: A Short and Personal Introduction (Eerdmans). It really is both short and personal. The first half is an overview of Kuyper’s thought on a number of issues related to theology and culture, and the second half is a sort of appropriation of that thinking for the twenty-first century. Mouw focuses on the parts of Kuyper’s thinking that have meant the most to him and that, in his view, have the most relevance for today’s reader.
Among the ideas Kuyper is most well known for is what is called sphere sovereignty. In this way of thinking, culture is composed of a number of distinct spheres. A sphere, as Mouw defines it, is “an arena where interactions take place, and where some sort of authority is exercised.” So the family, church, state, business, art, and university are each spheres, and each “has its own place in God’s plan for the creation, and each is directly under the divine rule.”
That concept may at first seem abstract or irrelevant to some, but to me, it provides a cohesive way of viewing the world, a language for talking about it, and it hints at both the why and the how of Christian cultural engagement. In this view, God intends for the family to be a family, for the church to be the church, for a business to be a business, for the state to be the state, and so on. These different spheres have different purposes and limitations, and it’s important to recognize both. And it’s important to recognize that in the Christian view, Christ is Lord over them all. He’s not unconcerned about any sphere; no sphere is to be tossed aside.
This has huge implications for how Christians view faithfulness in terms of vocation and citizenship and church membership and family life and, well, faithfulness in every square inch of creation.
Anyway, I wouldn’t say I’m ready to label myself a Kuyperian just yet, but I’m wondering if maybe David Brooks was onto something in his column on Friday:
For generations people have been told: Think for yourself; come up with your own independent worldview. Unless your name is Nietzsche, that’s probably a bad idea. Very few people have the genius or time to come up with a comprehensive and rigorous worldview.
If you go out there armed only with your own observations and sentiments, you will surely find yourself on very weak ground. You’ll lack the arguments, convictions and the coherent view of reality that you’ll need when challenged by a self-confident opposition...
The paradox of reform movements is that, if you want to defy authority, you probably shouldn’t think entirely for yourself. You should attach yourself to a counter-tradition and school of thought that has been developed over the centuries and that seems true.
What about you? Which influential thinkers or traditions have shaped how you see and live in the world? What does it look like to appropriate an old tradition for the twenty-first century?
Sustainability in the Valley of the Sun
When Andrew Ross first came to the Phoenix, he was interested in learning what local artists were doing to revitalize downtown, a desert city with an urban core that, to many urbanists, leaves much to be desired. No city exists in a vacuum, however, and Ross soon came to the conclusion that to understand Phoenix he had to understand the story of the other cities and sprawling suburbs throughout the valley. It was through this research that he concluded that the Phoenix metro area — which includes nine cities with populations of 100,000 or more — was, as he puts it in the subtitle, “the world’s least sustainable city.”
Some may take issue with that claim, but Phoenix’s problem is evident: a sprawling population of four million and counting in a sun-scorched desert certainly poses significant sustainability challenges. Further, as Ross argues, a prevailing culture of rugged individualism and a widespread aversion to all forms of regulation have only exacerbated the sustainability challenges.
As a relative newcomer to Phoenix, I was particularly interested to learn what is being done to make Phoenix more sustainable, and what obstacles stand in the way. According to the book, the obstacles have for the most part gotten the upper hand. But with a heightened awareness of the need for more sustainable living across the country and around the world, Ross believes that Phoenix can point the way to the future, for better or worse...
Read my full review of Bird on Fire: Lessons from the World's Least Sustainable City (Oxford University Press) at Englewood Review of Books.
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