Broken We Kneel : Reflections on Faith and Citizenship

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Summary: A timely book of true hope and courage
Review: Diana Butler Bass shares hope with the church, and all who care deeply about the role of faith in our national life. Bass dares to speak boldly of the hope with in her, and of our challenge to be members of an alternative intentional community, the Church within the Empire. Her words give courage to all whose hearts ache for another way to be both Christians and patriots, to humbly tell out from our souls the greatness of the Lord. Bass' text is a welcome antidote to the myopic zealotry that has been so prevalent in our national landscape after September 11th. I pray that from the hope renewed in reading this significant little book many, "proud hearts and stubborn wills are put to flight, the hungry fed, the humble lifted high." An engaging and inspiring read for all concerned about faith in America. Share this book with your friends, your pastor, grandmother, and reading groups. Would be an excellent springboard for parish discussion groups.

Rating:
Summary: Broken we walk
Review: Diana Butler Bass writes for the many Christians whose horror at the attacks on September 11 was compounded by the abduction of Christian terms for nationalist, militarist, and imperialist goals, and the enthusiastic unquestioning enrollment of innumerable congregations and church leaders in a neo-medieval crusade.

A meditation framed on the experience of conflict with the Washington D.C. congregation on whose pastoral staff she was serving at the time, the chapters will call to mind the works which indelibly marked the path of Christianity in the 20th century, whether theatrical, like 'Murder in the Cathedral' or 'A Man for All Seasons', confessional like Merton's letters and meditations on the American war against Vietnam; but the language is not the language of the polemic or the theatre or even autobiography, but the language of lament, of exile, even of excommunication. There is no ease in such language, and there are no simplifications in the book, which opens with the author's confession to her (Episcopal) priest that she had removed the United We Stand sign from the church entryway, because it was a call to vengeance and to a national crusade. When the priest informs her that the church belongs to the congregation, she responds that it's God's church, and from there, travels from the powerful political congregation which dedicates its faith to nation to the celebration of Easter some 20 months later in an inner city church three blocks from the White House.

Those who seek the company of the suffering servant of which the gospels speak, rather than the Nordic warrior messiah that stands at the center of the American war cult as much as he did at the heart of the German Church of the Third Reich, will find a familiar voice & a kindred heart in 'Broken We Kneel'.

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Summary: You will discover the truth about September 11, 2001
Review: The deepest implications of 9/11 have nothing to do with George W. Bush or Osama bin Laden, and everything to do with Christians' duty to oppose violence and empire wherever they may emerge. As Butler Bass explains, the confusion of the state with the church has perilous consequences, both theologically and throughout human history. In the face of war, Christians are called to remember that they are "in the world, but not of it." They must love and forgive all people, even those their kings declare are enemies. (One of the most innocently radical elements in "Broken We Kneel" is Butler Bass's discussion of oikos - the concept that we are all one family.)

Indeed, though Butler Bass bills her book as a lament, it is equally a gentle reminder that Christians are aliens in the City of Man, and that bombs falling on Iraq and Afghanistan can neither return our missing loved ones nor answer our own prayers for healing. She also offers hope that through renewed commitment to hospitality in the tradition of Jesus, we may strengthen our citizenship in the City of God.

God is speaking to us, even now whispering good news of comfort and hope. If September 11 challenged you as a Christian, Diana Butler Bass will help you to listen to God again. Buy this book now.