Cynicism and Hope Reclaiming Discipleship in a Post-Democratic Society

Thanks to all who attended the Cynicism and Hope Conference. The gathering exceeded our expectations on many levels.

At the request of some conference participants, we've set up a forum for further discussion.

We've also made audio recordings of some of the sessions available. Enjoy!

Subject to change... but not much.

If you attended the conference, we'd like your feedback. Cynicism & Hope was the first event of this scale that most of us organizers ever put together. We want to learn from this experience and make what we've learned available to others.

We may share this information with speakers, our congregations, and others who want to plan similar events. However, your name and contact info (if you choose to include it) will NOT be shared with anyone.

Plenary Speakers

Opening Address: Pastor Ric Hudgens, Reba Place Church. "Three Cheers for Cynicism."
Bible Study: Nancy Bedford, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary. "We Wait for Hope (Galatians 5:5)."
Pre-lunch Address: Stephen Long, Marquette University. "Witness Instead of Protest: A Non-Reactive Politics."

Keynote Speaker: Peter Dula, Eastern Mennonite University

Workshops

• Ralph C. Wood, Baylor University. "Personal and Communal Hope: Flannery O'Connor and J.R.R. Tolkien."
  • In all of our efforts to bring the Gospel to bear on the world's massive social and economic and political disasters, the personal and communal character of our hope must not be forgotten. The workshop will focus on the witness made by Flannery O'Connor, showing her work in the personal and the local and particular, as she sought to avoid gassy abstractions and grandiose claims. Then Dr. Wood will turn to J. R. R. Tolkien's THE LORD OF THE RINGS in order to stress the supremely communal character of Christian faith, arguing that it envisions the battle against evil as utterly dependent on the solidarity of the Nine Walkers-a community of the good that has no equal among the wicked.

• Patty Peebles, Living Water Community Church, "The Church is our First Family: Exploring Alternative Family Practices of Singlehood and Marriage"
  • This session explores the cynicism felt by disciples seeking faithful family practices in a consumer-driven society and the hope found in theologically guided alternatives. The Church often does little to undermine unhelpful assumptions about romantic partnering, storybook marriages, and parenting which leads to a kind of separation between single and married sisters and brothers. Closely following, misperceptions and misinformation, leave us with little else than continued reliance on hospital births, public schools, and meat-heavy diets. In this workshop, we will discuss ways of affirming singlehood in the Church while also providing resources for alternative family discipleship.
• Molly Sabourin. "Finding Significance in the Everyday."
  • Impacting the world globally is a natural side effect of finding peace within our circumstances locally. There are countless opportunities to change the future, one small act of obedience at a time.
• Greg Clark, North Park University. "Pacifism as a Practice of Hope in the Life & Words of Martin Luther King, Jr."
  • A brief phenomenology of the virtue of hope to distinguish it from its imposters like optimism.
• Chris & Cassie Haw, founding partners of Camden Community House. "Failing Forward: Virtues and Vices of a Start-up Neo-Monastic Community."
  
  • Having moved into a struggling post-industrial neighborhood, the Haws have walked through various questions and concerns: what of the philosophy of "downward mobility"? How does it square with being criticized as condescension and privileged cultural hubris? What makes for a "community" and what are ideal models for our time? How do we think of "evangelism" (or the gospel for that matter) today, having faced and participated in the American Church? We'll walk through concerns like these via our lens of community life in Camden.
• Roy Jimenez, Mennonite Central Committee. "The Mass Media and How it Shapes our Minds."
  • We will analyze the products of the Mass Media's main brokers. Participants will discern how these products affect our social fabric, our actual personality, decision making and thinking styles. In the second part of this workshop participants will explore different aspects of hope: it's nature, it's death, it's absence; as well as a consideration of the process of gaining, regaining and keeping hope alive as we continue to interact with the Mass Media in our everyday lives.
    
• Dale Suderman, therapist. "Cynicism as Therapy: Seeing the Log in our own Eye."
  • After twenty years of doing therapy with the poor and marginalized of Chicago, the Jesus saying about seeing the beam in one's own eye as a tool for insight and change takes on new meaning. The original cynics--known as the dog philosophers-- foreshadow social realism and also a radical social critique of society. How cynics and the Jesus saying about self-awareness offer both practical guidance and hope is the subject for this workshop.
• Tom Finger, Mennonite theologian and author, "A Sign of Hope: Current Dialogues with Iranian Religious Leaders."
  • Demonizing the enemy seems to be a necessary prelude to war. Demonizing usually involves refusing to dialogue with the enemy, and preventing contacts with that country's people, lest these experiences challenge the demonic stereotypes. Drawing on his recent encounters with Iranian Muslim leaders, Tom will report on how they and American Christians are talking when their governments are not.
• Jason Barr, Evansville cooperative housing project, "Anarchism, Christianity, and the Prophetic Imagination".
  • What has anarchism to do with Christianity? Through a fresh reading of Biblical texts and Christian history, Jason Barr will argue that anarchism is a powerful critique of modern society Christians can appropriate to deconstruct the idolatrous myth of the modern nation-state as the guarantor of peace and prosperity in favor of a vision rooted in the story of Jesus Christ, liberator of the whole creation. Recommended reading for this session includes Brian Walsh and Sylvia Keesmaat's Colossians Remixed: Subverting the Empire, Walter Brueggemann's The Prophetic Imagination, and Jacques Ellul's Anarchy and Christianity.

• Bren Dubay, director of Koinonia Farms, "Sink into Cynicism or Soar into Hope?"
  
  • Koinonia Farm, an intentional Christian community in southwest Georgia founded in 1942, survived bullets, bombs and a boycott in the 1950s. It went on to give birth to Habitat for Humanity, Jubilee Partners, the Cotton Patch Version of the Gospels, the Cotton Patch Musical and more. Then in the 1990s, Koinonia moved away from communal living. What followed were a series of events that ultimately threatened its existence far more than the physical attacks of earlier years. How did this community of faith respond? What different attitudes emerged and endured, and which were most and least helpful? Why did Koinonia survive? In this workshop, we'll explore Koinonia's story and what happened when its people came to a crossroads. How do we as a people of faith live in hope rather than succumb to cynicism? The Koinonia story will inspire and assist both individuals and communities who face the same question.
• B. Elaine Bryant, Englewood Mennonite Church. "Working with Hope for Peace as an Intercessor & a GRAPPLER."
  
  • The following is from the words of Dr. Jack W. Hayford, editor of the Spirit-Filled Life Bible: "Without the intervention of God's kingdom rule through prayer, Earth's circumstances will succumb to...the weakness of man's rule (the flesh)...or the viciousness of hell's works... All kingdom ministry begins with, is sustained by, and will triumph through prayer." (pg. 1409) The reference to "ministry" links the praying with some kind of service, action, or work. With that understanding a two-part vision that draws from a Prayer Matters booklet and a GRAPPLER (Golden Rule Affirming Promoter of Peaceful Life Enhancing Relationships) introduction will be worked with for consideration, as a means of uniting to work with hope for peace (in the sense of shalom or wholistic well-being).
• Susan Mark Landis, peace advocate, Mennonite Church USA. "Going the Distance, Keeping the Faith."
  • The Christian peacemaker is assailed by angry neighbors, an apathetic society and fuming fellow members of our congregation. Job says, “Instead of eating, I mourn, and I can never stop groaning. Everything I fear and dread comes true. I have no peace, no rest, and my troubles never end.” (Job 3:24-26) Quakers say, “Those who would share the light must endure burning.” In the midst of all that is evil and violent, where do we find hope, peace and rest for our souls?
• Julie Garrett, partnership director, Exodus World Service. "Welcoming the Stranger: the Challenge of Walking Alongside vs. Enabling in Refugee Relationships."
  
  • We'll explore cross cultural relationships with refugees and the challenges that face volunteers who welcome and befriend them. Several interactive exercises will teach through experiential learning, exploring the deeper issues that face individuals involved in relationship with refugees. The call to walk with will be explored along with the temptation to fix or enable. At root is the challenge to live alongside those with different experiences, perspectives, family structures and socio-economic standing.
  "Advocacy for versus Advocacy With."
  
  • Sudanese refugee leaders from the Bridge Group in DuPage will be sharing their experience in advocacy. The Refugee Bridge Group was begun through the efforts of Exodus World Service's Advocacy department in an effort to step away from a colonial savior model for volunteers toward empowering refugee leaders to define for themselves the important issues that they face. Refugee leaders Ali and Margret will share their experiences organizing, working with service providers and developing strategy and structure for a community based grassroots advocacy that transforms refugees from voiceless victims into active participants in local and international advocacy. How can we advocate with those who are disadvantaged instead of rescuing them? Come hear from those who have lived through both being advocated for and advocating with.

• Reba Place Church
• Reba Place Fellowship
• Living Water Community Church
• Mennonite Central Committee Great Lakes
• Seniors For Peace

How do we live out God's call to prophetic witness in an apathetic and disempowered society?

How can we learn from others who have remained faithful to Jesus' radical call in the midst of failure?

How can art, prayer and other forms of everyday resistance nourish our hope for the kingdom of God?

Join academics, activists and members of our communities as they share
their work through the lens of cynicism and hope. Our vision is to
provide a space for frustrated, justice-minded Christians who, like us,
feel trapped by the current political situation but long to be part of
meaningful action for change.