From Focal Conference Final Address

This has been a very stimulating day. It’s been a real pleasure to meet with all of you and share this part of the journey. I am encouraged that you would take this time out to meet together and reflect on our role as Faithful Global Citizens.
I offer my thanks to Roland who kicked the day off for us encouraging us to “Reclaim Faithful global citizenship” as a moral imperative that the political and religious left share in common.
I want to use what time is left to draw our thoughts together and focus them forward to the tasks that lie in front of us.
First of all an observation perhaps a truism but a reality that we need to take a hold of with determination and courage, that is the Christian left at its best is a prophetic movement.
Like almost all prophetic movements we should not expect to be a populist movement. The prophets of the Hebrew bible for example were often lonely, persecuted, misunderstood by the popular culture of their era.
Jesus knew moments of popularity, but at the times when his message became most challenging the crowds departed his friends abandoned him – and he taught his disciples to expect similar treatment.
So if we are true to the message and example of Jesus we should not expect to be popular. Now there are exceptions to the rule and I’d like to be one but I won’t count on it.
One of the most significant exceptions was the civil rights movement headed by Martin Luther King . This was a prophetic movement, routed in liberal Christian theology and praxis. Many factors culminated to make this a mass popular movement that impacted far and wide. As much as I’d love to be a part of such a movement, I have no expectation of it, for I think it truly was the exception rather than the rule.
It more common for conservative movements to gain a rapid rise in popularity – but fortunately it is often short lived. So in NZ the opposition to the Homosexual law reform legislation rose rapidly gaining a large number of signatories to its petition, as did the opposition to Prostitution law reform, opposition to Civil Unions and opposition to the repeal of Section 59.
Progressive legislation often faces strident opposition but in time actually comes to be accepted and may even become the new bastion for conservatives.
Take the green movement in New Zealand this was a very radical and fringe movement in the 1970s campaigning as the Values party. Nearly 30 years ago I attended the last Nambassa festival near Waihi in the Bay of Plenty. It was a strange and wonderful place. I’d not heard of or seen organic food. I got my first taste of natural yoghurt and muesli. I saw many examples of alternative sustainable living. But it never occurred to me that this was anything but an individual choice for a simple back to basics lifestyle choice.
Many of the values that were fringe then and remained fringe up until just a few years ago are now becoming mainstream, so that even the national party talks about sustainable living.
Left wing politics has this progressive prophetic edge, where it is out in front of where most people are - pushing the boundaries, challenging the status quo, looking for and modelling a new and better way.
Because much of the programme of left wings politics becomes mainstream the left wing needs to constantly renew its vision. Look at the difference between national and labour at the moment, (I don’t mean the polls, that difference is substantial) but look at the policy difference, - there is not a great deal of difference in many areas as John Key echioes his refrain “Me too!” to many of Labour’s policies. The Left have to reposition itself constantly and that is not a problem because the vision for a sustainable and equitable future for all people is far from realised there are new challenges to move on to.
The pattern of left wing progressive movements becoming mainstream is paralleled in the church. Many of the greatest social reformers within the church have been adopted as heroes of the conservative church.
Take Wilberforce for example - a real visionary, a social reformer, political activist and committed Christian. He was progressive, prophetic, and fought long and hard against the conservatives and moderates of his day. Yet recently he has been adopted by the evangelical church as their hero. The conservative church I’m sure is not opposed to the abolition of slavery and many evangelical are now working to end child slavery, sexual slavery and so on in the world today – fantastic all strength to them. But this new norm wouldn’t have come about without Wilberforce’s liberal vision, his challenging of political and church authority and his revisionist interpretation of the bible. All of these modus operandi make the modern conservative nervous still.
Martin Luther King is another example of a progressive Christian who challenged the governing authorities, who interpreted the bible in a liberal fashion and yet has been claimed by the right wing of the church. Margaret Mayman, Spokesperson for Christians for Civil Unions made this point when addressing a rally in Wellington.
“On its website Destiny Church has a quotation from Rev Dr Martin Luther King, Jr which says "our lives begin to end the day we are silent about the things that matter."
We now know that Destiny Church wrote to the King Center in Atlanta, Georgia, asking for an endorsement for their march on parliament.
I have the text of the letter the King Center sent back to Destiny.
"Greetings. Unfortunately we cannot issue a statement regarding this (event). On top of that, one of Dr. King's closest advisor (Bayard Rustin) was gay and Dr. King did not believe in what was done to him and how he was treated here in the US at the time. For these reasons and many more--we cannot issue any sort of statement that would condone putting someone else's spirit and dignity down in favor of another. "
Coretta Scott King, Dr King's widow, is a strong supporter of equal rights for gay and lesbian people. She added her words: "I appeal to everyone who believes in Marin Luther King's dream to make room at the table of brother and sisterhood for lesbian and gay people."
Still Bernice King, (Daughter of Martin Luther King) came out to NZ and spoke on behalf of destiny church. We live in interesting times.
Martin Luther the German reformer kicked off the reformation in support of a socialist movement, while his later life was somewhat more conservative in nature; many modern conservatives rally behind Lutheran doctrine and forget his radical social agenda not to mention the bloodshed he caused.
We may not share the same dogma and worldview as Martin Luther or Wilberforce or even MLK, but we do share a commitment to move in the same direction, following similar paths.
This conference has been about identifying the common values and commitments of the political and Christian left. These commonalities are not about doctrine or dogma or destination they are about direction. We both want to move in the direction of greater, equality, community, Stewardship and Freedom.
We can spell out in some detail what we mean by these commitments these values. We want to see:
Equality: Equal opportunity to resources, such as education, land, power, energy, food, medicine, self determination and so on. We want all people to be equal under the law, and we want equality to apply to all people of all ethnic groups, nations, abilities, ages, religions genders, sexual orientation ...
Community: We share a common commitment to realising human potential and recognise that this can only be done as we learn to deeply respect and care for each other. Human beings are social beings and none of us is fully alive if some of us are suffering. We are part of one another made for one another and so we work for peace, we work to break down barriers and fight the conditions that lead to disharmony.
Stewardship: Progressive share a commitment to a sustainable future, although I must acknowledge that the church has been behind the 8ball on this one for too long.
Freedom: We share a commitment to freedom. And if I can make a bald distinction between left and right here we emphasise freedom to rather than freedom from. So while the right want less government we recognise that sometimes more government is needed to ensure the freedoms that are required for human dignity. We want people to be free to achieve, free to realise their potential, free to express themselves, free to contribute to the common good, free to play their part in building a new world. This takes a collective commitment to the common good and requires government action.
As well as the values and commitments that we have in common Christian progressive see those commitments with Christian eyes. Our commitments are informed and inspired by the gospel. So we believe that Jesus came to give life in all its fullness to all people. We believe in good news to the poor, release to the captives, sight to the blind, freedom for the oppressed, economic justice. We believe that God requires justice and mercy and humility. We follow a God who is compassionate and seek to live compassionately.
These gospel values incarnated in the story of Jesus, feed our souls, put fire in our bellies and lead us to action. And we act in faith, knowing that while we may not see immediate results for our work that in time the radical and progressive vision, which we inspire, if it is good and right, will one day become the norm.
So our gospel imperatives inform and inspire our values and commitments and these lead to our actions. We’ve talked a lot around four key areas of NZs relationship to the rest of the world and our role individually and collectively as faithful global citizens. What does this mean for progressive Christians?
Fair Trade vs free trade.
· Fair trade started as a radical idea – ten years ago I’d not even heard of Fair Trade coffee now even McDonalds is selling it. Another example of the progressive vision becoming mainstream, and a reason for us to celebrate and encouragement as we press on to other areas
· Free Trade, is bring new awareness of 3rd World working conditions. When we talk about equality, community, sustainability and Freedom, we have to think of workers in Chinese sweatshops.
Immigration and Asylum
· Is it to be NZ First and to hell with the rest of the world. Is to be an open border and to hell with NZ? Is there another way through, that treats all people of the planet on equal footing and recognises that nationalism is not a gospel value.
Environment
· Here is an example of a way in which modern reality has forced us to take a fresh look at the bible and the way we interpret it. We’ve begun to recognise that the theology of “stewardship/dominion” that fuelled the industrial revolution is wrong for the world today. We need to debunk the associated myth that economic growth is the be all and end of all economic policy and we need to see how our consumerism and greed is destroying the planet. We need to put ecology and economy back in the same classroom. For one is the description of the world and its resources and the other is the management of them. We need to reclaim environmental issues as a moral issue perhaps the most significant and important moral issue of our day. We have borrowed the planet from our children and we’re given it back to them in a bad state.
International Aid
· Like many people I get upset with the sponsor child ads on TV, and it’s not the pictures of the little girl with bloated abdomen, or the near death boy with flies crawling over his eyes. It’s the pictures of kids that my sponsorship money is helping. It’s the smiling happy kids in the class room, or their parents drawing water from a well and planting crops. Don’t get me wrong these are good things and I support world vision and commend all those groups fighting the odds in such places. What upsets me is that these pictures of success are so minimal and we’ve come to accept that this all we can do. These are our brothers and sisters we can do more. NZ needs to step it up and give more in foreign aid we should be way above the UN Millenium Development Goals of 0.7% of GDP. And while our giving may be insignificant [even if we were double what we give it would be a drop in the ocean] - If we are able to give above the recommended minimum we can raise our voice with integrity on the world stage and encourage others to do so. This is our heritage to punch above our weight on international moral issues and we did so on the nuclear issue now it’s time to do it on the poverty issue.
We represent many groups today, for the most part small groups slogging away working for justice, working for peace, working for sustainability, working for a better world. At times it seems little is gained. As you take a stand and say there’s is a better way you’re often meet with apathy, misunderstanding, even abuse and attack. But know this you stand in great company, all of the prophets before you, the reformers of the past, and Jesus our Lord were all similarly misunderstood, rejected and scorned.
Know this also, that little by little your efforts do count. If a cause is just and noble and good and right its worth fighting for its worth shouting from the rooftops. In time and maybe after you have left this mortal coil your radical project will be mainstream the justice of your cause will be evident to all and those that follow in your footsteps will fight new battles inspired by your vision and determination.