Ted Lyddon-Hatten and Rich Reid: Recent Art and Film Collaborators with BCM

Our artist-theologian friend Ted Lyddon-Hatten will be at the Wild Goose Festival this summer sharing his amazing "ephemeral art" (see my previous blog about our last collaboration).  Above is a drawing he did last summer with myrhh on our patio table, which we left there for six months.  Check out Ted's amazing artwork here, here,  here and here, and I urge you to  catch him at the Festival, June 21-24 in Shakori Hills, NC.

Meanwhile we recently received our "Ocean Friendly Gardens" certificate from the local Surfrider Foundation for the way in which our yard models both native landscaping and the philosophy of "slowing, spreading and sinking" surface water.  Even cooler, our neighbor Rich Reid, who is an accomplished National Geographic photographer, is doing a documentary about this program.  He's been doing time-lapse photography in our yard, where our native plants are at the height of springtime beauty.  

If you want to help us keep improving our yard project as a demonstration site, come participate in our Bartimaeus Summer Work Institute, July 1-6: details and registration here.  

Webinar on Pentecost and Cultural Diversity Employs New Platform

Pentecost is coming up on Sunday, May 27th.  To help prepare, Ched held a 90 min. webinar on May 15th about some of the themes evoked by this Feast Day.  First we looked at Genesis 11 and the Tower of Babel, which is often portrayed as the antithesis of Pentecost, whereas in fact the story portrays divine "centrifugality" as the antidote to imperial "centripetality."  Then we learned about the roots of Pentecost in Shavuot, a Sabbath Economics feast of redistribution. Finally we saw how that vision is translated in Acts 2 into a theology of multiculturalism. 

We used a new platform, Adobe Connect, for the first time, and had enthusiastic reviews from the more than 25 participants (including group viewings in Pasadena and Minneapolis).  We'll continue to develope and improve this way of doing our educational work.

Above picture: "Pentecost,” El Greco, 1596-1600.

A Positive Review of Our God is Undocumented

I'm passing on a recent positive review that appeared in the Englewood Review of Books: 

A Promise Even Greater than that of Lady Liberty

A Featured Review of

Our God is Undocumented: Biblical Faith and Immigrant Justice.

Ched Myers and Matthew Colwell

Reviewed by Jonathan Felton

A Church without Borders

One could be forgiven for expecting this book to be a rehash of liberal arguments about immigration policy, anchored by a smattering of bible verses. It isn’t. Ched Myers and Matthew Colwell have something else in mind, and their short book contributes some big ideas to discussions of “biblical faith and immigrant justice “

The authors acknowledge that the reflections in their book are “unapologetically theological and ecclesial.”  This is a book about God and the church. They are more concerned with conveying “a faith-rooted ethic regarding the sojourner in our midst than with the current debates over U.S. immigration and naturalization policies.” Acceptance of their thesis does have implications for our attitude toward those policies. The authors hope we will approach them with a revised sense of loyalty, and therefore with a renewed set of priorities.

The authors urge their readers to realize “a church without borders,” a conviction which “arises from our own experience with immigrants as well as from our study of scripture. Both teach us that God has a special relationship with those marginalized by social and political systems and therefore that the church should as well.”

An introduction to ChedMyers.org

About this site:  Our purpose is to provide one-stop access to writing and talks by activist theologian Ched Myers.  A biblical scholar and popular educator, Ched is an author, organizer and advocate who has for 30 years been challenging and supporting Christians to engage in peace and justice work and radical discipleship.  To learn more about Ched's work, click on the "Life and Activism" tab at the top of the page. 

For information about Ched's writing, speaking and the Bartimaeus Institute, click on the tabs above.  If you are new to Ched's work, we invite you to play the videos and audio excerpts below to get a glimpse of his approach.

Ched's work is available for free download or for purchase by clicking on the links on the right.  We have made available more than 100 of his articles and books, and new pieces will be added as they are published.  We also now have more than a dozen audio downloads, with more to come, and we are working on making video presentations available as well. You can search by product or topic using the right hand column. (Note: If you want audio or video but can't figure out how to download them, let us know and we'll burn them on to a CD or DVD for you.)

Pricing protocol:  Any of Ched's articles or audio talks currently available elsewhere on the web can be downloaded on this site at no cost (or we provide the link).  All other published material, as well as a number of Ched's unpublished talks and sermons and audio, are available here at what we think is a fair and affordable price.  The revenues generated by product purchases go to support the work of Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries.  (Note: A number of you have told us that our prices are too low. If this is your view, please make a donation to BCM by using the "Donate" button at right.  Donors to BCM will receive our monthly "Partner's Circle E-News" and three resource mailings a year.)

We hope you'll bookmark this site, and return whenever you want to draw upon this rich collection of reflections on scripture and social issues. Thanks for your interest in Ched's work.

Introduction to Bartimaeus Institute

Radical Discipleship

The call to discipleship in Mark's gospel

Sabbath Economics

http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/TmSwvZGVU4g?fs=1&hl=en_US">

Interview with Ched on The Iconocast