"Revolution" is the most postmodern piece about much of the language in emergent conversations – the idea of revolution refers to something that really does not exist.
How can anyone be so frustrated at a lack of revolution happening and then leave in frustration? That's what I don't get. Things don't "just happen" no matter how much we desire them to. Revolutions take social agency that is inherently pragmatic and Marx was right, revolutions are always inherently related to social classes. I often piss people off with what I write about and say. But I am not pretentious enough to delude myself into thinking that this is part of some kind of "revolution." If this is an activity that is for the purpose of fun and accounts for some kind of zenith of subversive activity, it is far from a revolution.
Due to the overwhelming affluence of self-identified emergents, any notion of revolution is severely overstating the function of emergent and why people have really linked in with the "conversation." One does not need to gather data to support this assertion. Just cruise through the emergent marketplace and that should be sufficient. In global terms this is a very affluent group of folks engaged in the conversation with broad-band, leisure time to post blog content, and, read a lot of books that cost $15 – $25 bucks a pop often as part of continuing education funds from church budgets or revenue generated from book publishing.
I do not fault any of this. What I do take issue with are those who are cynical because the revolution apparently "sold out" when there was never a chance for a revolution to happen. The idea never did and never will fit the social circumstances of those who are engaged in the conversation. An alternative community of any kind is not revolutionary, it is simply different. None of this is inherently bad, as long as we are honest about the limits of what this is all about.
If there is frustration over the lack of revolution, it is because the idea of revolution was and still is something bound for inevitable failure. Feeling disenfranchised should not be confused with a revolution because it is not. Selling all that you have and following Christ to permanently alter systems that reinforces classism, unfettered capitalist greed at the expense of millions to incite local change, and a reified free-market religious ethos more akin to success in business than love of neighbor – well that's revolutionary. It's revolutionary because it's political and social. You can't have a revolution without it emerging from this place and revolutions require leaders who sacrifice everything they have to the point of death. No revolution has been without this kind of charisma and none will be. It's also why I despise "revolutionary" branding like the image of a Hugo boss glasses wearing, goateed face 20 something drinking free-trade coffee while wearing a Che Guevara t-shirt listening to protest music as if that is a revolution. That is capitalism and you have been bought by a brand. Sorry to inform you that what you thought were changing actually co-opted your myopia.
Revolutions are dirty and nasty enterprises and if we are not getting dirty and nasty to radically alter systems that are unjust, then it's not a revolution. But I am fine with emergent not being a revolution. This is in part because I am honest about what it is and what it is not. I don't mean to personally offend, but I am sick of books with "manifesto" somewhere in the title because that is a term with social power that has been misused to suggest a kind of "revolution" that is not real. These are not really "manifestos" as much as commentary on a specific segment of the population that shares certain social characteristics and worldviews with each other.
So what is real? Liberals are tired of one kind of evangelicalism setting the theological agenda for American Christianity. Mainline denominations expend so much energy in maintaining their embedded systems that there is very little fuel left to burn to get people wrapped around ideas of systemic change much less something radical. Meanwhile these organizations are in large part not retaining members or baptizing enough babies to sustain their efforts or sustain professional ministers. Most Americans like to keep things peaceful and just get along with others who have different ideas and so, a tolerant liberal class of religious folks are from the outset at a cognitive disadvantage to change much of anything since that means offending people to the point they despise you.
This is about a segment of the religious population that no longer feels quite at home with the places in which they grew up being religious. So maybe this is the time not to bite off more than we can chew, but to accept reality, and then to find a salient socio-political function beyond the creation of these various religious enclaves of spiritual comfort once they have been established. If these functions are not to heal the sick as a first order, then the religious enclave of comfort should disband for this is the mission that Jesus would have us do before we do anything else.
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I blame apple computers for the misuse of the "r" word. Have you ever listened to one of their commercials? They've revolutionized everything. The way we organize music, the way we put together photo albums, the way our earplugs fit into our ears. It all a revolution!
The word loses a bit of power in our context, I think….
I was about to make a Manifesto for the Faithful Remnant, but now I find out Manifestos are out. Probably for the best it was going to be totally snarky. Good post.
Good stuff Drew. I think it would to everyone some good if we stopped using the word "revolution" for a while.
i really don't want to be a revolutionary. nor do i think i have been called to be. i like my coffee and i like teaching people to think about religion better and to act more justly and with more compassion. i think we can all do this stuff where we are without having to cater to delusions of grandeur!
I was about to make a Manifesto for the Faithful Remnant, but now I find out Manifestos are out. Probably for the best it was going to be totally snarky. Good post.
Good stuff Drew. I think it would to everyone some good if we stopped using the word "revolution" for a while.
i really don't want to be a revolutionary. nor do i think i have been called to be. i like my coffee and i like teaching people to think about religion better and to act more justly and with more compassion. i think we can all do this stuff where we are without having to cater to delusions of grandeur!
[...] Drew Tatusko – the emergent cloud must land and emergent is not a revolution now because it never was [...]
[...] I argued, I do not think emergent Christianity is dead, but the idea that it was going to be "revolutionary" is in fact anemic at best and this is perhaps what the disappointment is really all about. As [...]