Reflecting With Scripture on Community Organizing

One of the luckiest...errr...most providentially blessed... pastors I know recently sent me something that he recently had published, and asked me to give it both a read and a shout out.  Jeff Krehbiel is blessed with a wonderful urban progressive church.  But the most unusually beneficent stroke of providence comes from his congregation's location, which is at point-blank range from one of the East Coast's most impressive and comprehensive purveyors of fine beers.   Being a good neighbor, of course, The Rev. Dr. Krehbiel has been called upon to assist them in judging fine beer during competitions. 

It's a cross he has to bear.

So when he pitched me his compilation of reflections on community organizing and some choice scriptures, I was happy to give it a read.  It's a practical little book, designed to be used both in personal reflection but also in small group study.  It's accessible, well written, and targeted at a lay audience.

For progressive churches that are interested in exploring how to engage with and connect with the needs of their communities, and are interested in being a catalyst for social change, I can see this short series of studies being quite helpful.

Honestly, though, I came away just a teensy bit frustrated.  Not because the bible studies weren't well-conceived, because they were.  Not because it doesn't provide some useful insights into organizing and faith, because it does. 

Rather, it's that in his introduction, Jeff establishes a profound and significant tension between the core ethos of Christian faith and the core ethos of community organizing.    As he puts it:

"Jesus is understood by many church people to be a model of self-effacing humility and powerlessness, while community organizers exult in the virtue of self-interest and the necessity of power.  For many Christians, the vocabulary of faith and the vocabulary of organizing seem to be at odds, if not in outright contradiction."  (Reflecting, p.8)

I've ruminated on this dynamic myself, particularly during my reading of Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals.  Jesus isn't, of course, the model of squishy passivity that he can often be made out to be.  He's not the divine doormat on which we smear our sin before we enter the Kingdom.  In Christ, there is real transforming power.  But the central ethic Christ taught and embodied is in profound tension with some of the core tenets of community organizing.  Social power and the politics of self-interest do not harmonize well with the heart of the Gospel.

Having named that highly non-trivial tension, the studies that followed just...didn't...quite...resolve it.   It seemed to get close, here and there, particularly in the fourth and final reflection on Isaiah.   But if you're going to lay out what appears to be an irresolvable tension between the thesis of the Gospel and its antithesis, political power and self-interest, then, dagflabbit, there needs to be more Hegelian dialectic intentionality in establishing a synthesis.

Ah well.   So it goes.

Perhaps that's something best further explored over a few craft-brewed beers.  I find they make dialectic so very much more entertaining. 

Saul Alinsky Walks into A Synagogue Eating a BLT

As the father of modern community organizing, Saul Alinsky is notable for a variety of things, but first and foremost among them is a mind as sharp as a tack. His writing shows evidence of wit and edge, and a deep storyteller's knowledge of some of the more pungent moments in history.

He's also deeply aware of the need to connect with communities. If you're intending to radicalize and rile up a complacent population, you need to first be very careful not to offend them. It might on the surface seem a strange thing for a self-professed radical to say. Radicals, as we popularly understand them, are supposed to come in spewing froth and venom. They are supposed to be wild-eyed. They are supposed to not care if they make any enemies.

Alinsky, though, is a relentless pragmatist. In order to bring about change, you have to convince a community that 1) change is necessary and 2) change is not a threat. To do this, you need to be very careful not to have the community view you as dangerous. You need to be innocuous. You need to be quickly identified as "one of us." You need not to say anything that might put people on guard against you. As he puts it:

If I were organizing in an orthodox Jewish community, I would not walk in there eating a ham sandwich, unless I wanted to be rejected so I could have an excuse to cop out.

Those are wise words from a very worldly wise soul. You can see how they've formed our current president.

But here's a funny thing. The organizing movement Alinsky founded now has perhaps its deepest roots in churches. Organizations like the Industrial Areas Foundation and (in my neck of the woods) the Washington Interfaith Network quickly realized that congregations were fertile ground for organizing in communities that lacked any other significant social glue. It's a logical step. A wise tactic.

In that context, though, the opening of "Rules for Radicals" seems a bit clueless. Alinsky sets the stage for his book with three quotes. First, one from Rabbi Hillel encouraging boldness. Second, from Thomas Paine encouraging commitment to rebellion. Fine so far.

But then Alinsky quotes himself acknowledging the very first radical:

...the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom--Lucifer.

Yeah, he's just trying to be cute. But suddenly, it smells a whole lot like bacon.

Community Organizing, Jesus, and Saul Alinsky

Way back yonder in the election of Aught Eight, there was a wee bit of a kerfuffle about community organizing. You know, back when Miz Sarah got all high and mighty about small town mayorin' bein' real work, and community organizin' being somthin' only them lib'rals do when they cain't find work for the summer and Mumsy isn't opening up the house in the Berkshires until August.

Folks got all riled 'bout that, and so many Priuses and Volvos started sportin' bumper stickers that said: "Jesus Was A Community Organizer."

I saw one of those bumper stickers the other day on the back of a shiny Audi SUV in the well-off, liberal area in which my church is sited. It reminded me that over and over again, I've told myself that I needed to read Saul Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals." Alinsky, in case you don't know him, is the Grandaddy of community organizing. His work to empower and radicalize communities in Chicago has a surprisingly deep impact on the American political system. Hillary Clinton wrote her doctoral thesis on him. Barack Obama cut his political teeth in the crucible of Alinskian organizing. That's made Alinsky a particularly potent boogeyman of the reactionary right.

He's a...commie! A...socialist! Aieeeee!

I figured it was about time to get down to some summer reading, and Alinsky was next in the rotation. So tonight, I'm curling up on the couch with Saul.

I'm wondering, in particular, just how well the thesis underlying that bumper sticker will hold up.