Ep. 32: The Discipleship of Decolonization w/ Ched Myers

Show Notes

Episode Summary

When your entire understanding of God, Jesus, and faith is filtered through the lens of the colonizer, it changes everything. But as today’s guest points out, it’s to the detriment of not only ourselves, but to everyone and every thing. Author Ched Myers talks with us about “radical discipleship,” how that relates to decolonizing our white American evangelical faith, and how a decolonized reading of Jesus offers us a truly wholistic, abundant, life-giving faith.

Note: We apologize for Ched’s sound quality on this episode.

Bio

Ched Myers is a fifth generation Californian, an activist theologian, author, and scholar who has worked in social change and radical discipleship for more than 40 years. He has authored over 100 articles and more than half a dozen books, including the paradigm-changing Binding the Strong Man: A Political Reading of Mark’s Story of Jesus. Ched holds a B.A. in philosophy from the University of California Berkeley and an M.A. in New Testament Studies from the Graduate Theological Union. He and his partner Elaine live in Southern California where he works with Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries. Their new book, Healing Haunted Histories: A Settler Discipleship of Decolonization, tackles some of the oldest and deepest injustices in American history.

Quotables

• “The concept of ‘getting saved’ actually is a very American phenomenon. It’s highly characteristic of evangelicalism.” (tweet this)

• “The glacial ice of imperial, authoritarian evangelicalism is beginning to break up, and all sorts of new little pathways are opening up.” (tweet this)

• “Everything Jesus is about is about how power is being distributed and shared.” (tweet this)

• “Jesus’ story takes place in a real landscape in which there are real rich and poor, real militias, real people dying from grinding poverty, real people struggling to survive. And he’s trying to say, ‘So what’s the good news here?’” (tweet this)

• “It’s a really great time not to abandon the gospel, but to double down on it, but that’s really hard for people who have only received this one-dimensional, highly hijacked version of it.” (tweet this)

• “Deconstruction is ultimately about what we say yes to, not just what we’re saying no to.” (tweet this)

• “Our challenge is to atone for and repair the damage that’s been done in the name of Christianity, while trying to reconstruct a more humane and equity-based and life-giving faith.” (tweet this)

• “How do we draw from the best of seminary, sanctuary, streets, and soil to shape our witness and practice accordingly?” (tweet this)

• “We have to become comfortable with seeing hope on the margins and not keeping our eyes trained on the center or the mainstream.” (tweet this)

• “Hope and change have always, always, always come from the margins, from disenfranchised communities breaking their silence.” (tweet this)

• “Our job is to build our literacy in dissident, subversive, and reconstructive movements of the past, and to build our relationality with folks working on the ground now.” (tweet this)

Timestamps and References

• [03:40]—Ched’s definition of “radical discipleship”

• [14:10]—How we departed from the tradition of radical discipleship

• [18:43]—Understanding Jesus as a nonviolent resister of empire and how the modern American evangelical church lost touch with that legacy

• [26:40]—Why Ched chose to write about Mark’s gospel

• [31:45]—Why Ched calls himself a “radical Christian, ”what radical discipleship looks like in his life, and a bit of his faith background

• [39:26]—How Ched and his wife decided to write their newest book, Healing Haunted Histories: A Settler Discipleship of Decolonization

• [44:03]—The Sand Creek Massacre

• [45:25]—HealingHauntedHistories.org

• [47:27]—What gives Ched hope for the future of faith

• [50:14]—Reyna Ortega and The Abundant Table

• [55:43]—Fun Rapid Fire questions

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Credits

This episode was produced by The Sophia Society. Music is by Faith in Foxholes, and sound engineering is by Joshua Mudge (currently accepting new clients: josh.mudge09@gmail.com).