confronting the powers

Back in the '60's and '70's I was trained in community organizing not so much in formal trianing, but with various mentors within various social justice issues. This was especially true around economic justice issues. I can remember in Philadelphia in 1974 as the gas crisis emerged being trained by an urban UCC minister on how to confront the oil companies and their executives even at their homes to get them to act more "justly."

It is interesting that these days I find some of the mentors who trained me, now to be in positions of power within the UCC. They are trying to protect the denomination the way they have understood it. And to some degree, I and others have confronted them with the same tactics and confrontational dialogue that they trained me in 30 years ago.

They don't like it! They have assumed that there are good guys and bad guys. The bad guys are the heads of U.S. corporations that are hurting people worldwide. They think they are the good guys because they see themselves as the lone folks who are advocating for the powerless in our world. What they fail to see is that within the church experience they are using their power to keep church in a certain style and venue which excludes vast numbers of people who are all around us in our communities.

The remarkable gift of the Apostle Paul was his ability to learn, grow and adapt, yet to stay focused on and passionate about the mission he received personally from Jesus Christ. The churches he established are indications of his "community organizing" skills. He confronted the powers within the established religion which at that time was Judaism and eventually he confronted other folks within the newly established churches who used their power to maintain their privelege in the churches. In Ephesians 6 Paul writes "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." (KJV)