More from Call to Action 2005

More input from the always brilliant Call to Action conference this past weekend. Technological issues delayed my posting till now: fie on a conference center without working wireless.

James M. Lawson, Jr., an activist who taught nonviolence with Dr. King, opened the conference with his plenary address on Friday night. I dashed in from work for the second half. Rev. Lawson spoke about the legacy of Rosa Parks and offered suggestions for uniting religious and community activism for justice. "Don't be afraid," was one of his primary messages to activists, and "cultivate your network" of support and reinforcement. He urged us to create a list of those who support and sustain us and deadpanned "Maybe add to your list one or two people whom you consider to be outrageous sinners." This is not to challenge our moral worldview, but rather to give us opportunities to "become ignition points of God" to one another, sinners and pious ones alike.

Rev. Lawson's delivery ranges--and sometimes veers--between thrilling solemnity and crackling, hollering energy. Although I think he deployed it better at CTA in 2003, both medium and message worked to wake up the crowd. "We've done enough talking to each other," Lawson said, initiating a frustration with the inward spiral of progressive movements that I'd hear echoed throughout the conference. He urged us to focus our energies outward to reform the church, recommending classic nonviolence as a tool for channeling our righteous anger. Anger, he said, drives us through protracted struggle, and it is this that leads to change.

I stayed with some friends at a triumphantly social justice-minded parish in Milwaukee. Like real ascetic pilgrims we slept in the religious education rooms, surrounded by toys, tiny chairs and a huge print of the Dali crucifixion. Because this is the Internet, and because things are the way they are in the Church, I'm withholding the parish name so I can tell you the following story about our host. Brother Dave is a tall Midwesterner who palbably embodies that spirit that religious sometimes do of finding good everywhere in the world, of never being less than happy. He frequently evokes the phrase "wreathed in smiles," especially when talking about Call to Action and its missions. Quoth Brother Dave, with heavy sarcasm: "You're studying theology? Well, now, that's not fair. You're a woman! Does the Curia know about this?" Once he bid me goodbye with a cheery "Get ordained real soon, okay?" I told him we were working on it.