Political and Church Systems
Political System
“We’re in an age of the overthrow of establishments.”
Peggy Noonan, CNN, 12/18/11 (Columnist for Wall Street Journal )"Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputation and social standing, never can bring about a reform. Those who are really in earnest must be willing to be anything or nothing in the world's estimation, and publicly and privately, in season and out, avow their sympathy with despised and persecuted ideas and their advocates, and bear the consequences."
(Susan B Anthony)
“Everywhere this year, people have complained about the failure of traditional leadership and the fecklessness of institutions. Politicians cannot look beyond the next elections and they refuse to make hard choices. That’s one reason we did not select an individual this year. But leadership has come from the bottom of the pyramid, not the top. For capturing and highlighting a global sense of restless promise, for upending governments and conventional wisdom, for combining the oldest of technques with the newest of technologies to shine a light on human dignity and, finally, for steering the planet on a more democratic though sometimes more dangerous path for the 21st century, the PROTESTOR is TIME’S 2011 PERSON OF THE YEAR." (TIME, 12/06/11-1/2/12)
“...Occupy Wall Street provides a ‘teaching moment’ to congregations on the issues of social justice and workers’ rights. The core issues here are the growing inequality in the nation, the lack of responsiveness to that and the job crisis.” (Kim Bobo, IWJ’s Executive Director, FAITH WORKS NEWSLETTER, Fall/Winter 2011)
"Dictators, authoritarians, hierarchs and governments of all ilk, beware."
-Joan Chittister's concluding observation following her visit to Cairo, Egypt with the Global Peace Initiative of Women, Nov. 18, 2011. (National Catholic Reporter, 12/23/11-1/05/12)ARAB SPRING... “Ruling families began to fall. Power-transfer treaties were brokered. Parliaments were dissolved. Monarchs locked their gates and boarded their windows...It was the era of the revolution down through the wires: time was collapsed and geography shrunk by the use of social networking. . . The light from the Arab Spring rose from the ground up; the hope now is that the darkness doesn’t fall.” (NYT, 12/25/11. P. 7)
Role of History
History has been written by those in power, by the victors or "winners." However, since the 1960s, with the admittance of women and people of color into academia, there has been an explosion of "new" history that has been hidden, forgotten or oppressed. It is in this context that
- scholarship has broadened and deepened
- additional information for a more complete history has been discovred
- some institutional change has occurred
- roles of women and people of color have expanded
What is a paradigm?
A mental model that shapes everything you think, feel, and do.
Brent & Largent. The Paradigm Conspiracy: How Our Systems of Government, Church, School and Culture Violate our Human Potential. May, 1998.
All of this indicates that there is indeed a
paradigm shift taking place in all major institutions.For more information...
- Center of Concern www.coc.org
- NETWORK www.networklobby.org
- Institute for Policy Studies www.ips-dc.org
- Catholic Scholars for Worker Justice www.catholicscholarsforworkerjustice.org
- Interfaith Worker Justice www.iwj.org
- Earth Charter Initiative wwwearthcharterinaction.org
- United Nations Environmental Program www.unep.org
Church System
The Catholic Church: A House Divided, CBS News Report (10:23)
"...Since women are becoming ever more conscious of their human dignity, they will not tolerate being treated as inanimate objects or mere instruments, but claim both in domestic and public life, the rights and duties that benefit a human person." (#41) - Peace on Earth, 1963. John XXIII
“The basis of a new social order is a theological revolution.”
- Sam Keen, Lost in the Land of Oz by Madonna KolhbenschlagChurch, Women & Structural Change
For stories, stats and strategies...
- AmericanCatholicConference – www.americancatholicconference.org
- Call to Action – www.cta-usa.org
- Center of Concern – www.coc.org
- Future Church – www.futurechurch.org
- National Catholic Reporter – www.ncr.org
(Columns: Joan Chittister, Phyliss Zagano)- Voice of the Faithful – http://www.votf.org
- Women Church Convergence –
http://www.women-churchconvergence.org/home.htm"We need to acknowledge this reality without a severe judgement on ourselves, our church, our society. This conviction that women are called by nature and by grace to be significant primary agents of change in all aspects of church and society is a radical new insight not yet fully appreciated." -Theresa Kane, 2004
