[Peace-discuss] RE: The Christmas He Dreamed for All of Us

[janine giordano]

I think the best way to initiate conversation with churches 
is to make use of those of us on this list and friends of 
those on this list who are already Christians and willing to 
talk about this. Ask those already involved in social justice 
projects to be bold enough to initiate conversations, and let 
those of us who are not religious be supporters of 
the "indigenous" movement of Christians for justice. I 
believe this is the old organizing tradition of sucessful 
social movements in this country. It's the old principle 
of "consciousness raising," organizing and in fact missionary 
activity: support those already working with a network of 
people who have ideas and resources that can stretch the 
movement to a greater area and greater population. Who on 
this list goes to a church with members who could profit from 
a conversation of this type? Are you willing to join in a 
discussion among ourselves and potentially to invite our 
respective churches/Christian organizations' members to join 
us? 

I know I've said this before, but I really think we need to 
have faith in Christians that progressive politics/ the anti 
war movement is really their cause, and that they can fight 
for it, and that successful social movements are guided by 
the principle that oppressed people must fight for 
themselves. I believe the same about black freedom and 
women's freedom, etc. It's not that we need to 
find "sympathetic" insiders to get us in. For, we are not the 
best fighters for a cause that is not our own. The process of 
empowering new leaders is part of the movment. I think we 
need to build up/ nurture "mature" believers in both 
Christianity and social justice who can build networks with 
our support, and join in coalition with us for a bigger 
grassroots movement.

janine