Cracks in the facade of empire?

Cosmos: New moon. Sun fast (clock behind sun).

Spiritual news from the Empire State

Lovers of god are usually too engaged in everyday miracles to comment on current events. Co-creating spiritual news leaves little time – and little need – for news of the empire.

Besides, freedom from empire means freedom from the tyranny of current events, including the news about current events.

On occasion, however, a story from the empire brings tidings of spiritual news: news about loving god in our time and place. The election of a new mayor in the Empire State may be one of those stories.

There are a couple of connections (at least) to loving god in the story of New York City politics:

1. The election of a mayor who loves Allah.
2. The election of a mayor who supports socialism.

I love Allah?

Zohran Mamdani was the first Muslim to win a major party mayoral primary in New York City. He is now the first Muslim mayor-elect of the most populous city in the United States. In a political atmosphere of Christian Nationalism and anti-immigration, that is a major spiritual accomplishment.

Of course in September 2001, New York, along with Washington DC, was the target of terrorists claiming to be Muslims. As a victim of mass violence by religious extremists, New York City seemed unlikely to elect the first Muslim mayor of a major U.S. city. Yet that’s what they did.

Are New Yorkers ready to say “I love Allah”? I don’t think so. But maybe embracing a Muslim mayor is another way to heal old wounds.

Was Mamdani elected because of his faith or despite his faith? Probably a combination of both mindsets. Mamdani’s opponents made much of his faith, painting him as anti-semitic. But New York City is among the top 10 most diverse cities in the country. New Yorkers are used to interacting with people from all over the world, people who are very different in many ways. When it comes to work, they tend to care more about ability and less about identity.

Whatever the case, this is good spiritual news, good news for lovers of god everywhere. The people of our largest city chose a lover of Allah to lead their government. As-salamu alaykum! Peace be upon you, New York City!

I love socialism?

Given the kind of religion of our two-party system, another spiritual aspect of this story from the Empire State is the mayor’s affiliation with the Democratic Socialists of America.

Not a party but a political organization, the Democratic Socialists of America acknowledge that “an immediate end to capitalism is unlikely.” As a result, their strategy is ...

“fighting for reforms that weaken corporate power, increase the power of working people, and point toward a world beyond capitalism. At the local level, this has included campaigns for government-run grocery stores, free public transportation, and universal rent freezes.”

I believe loving god today means not cooperating with capitalism. But empire is very good at requiring conformity, and that is the case in the US. Unless we can unite with others and cooperate in commonwealth, we are dependent on the market and more or less required to cooperate with capitalism. In this sense, democratic socialism is aligned with loving god because both want to break free of the oppressive and harmful elements of capitalism.

Democratic Socialists of America describe their economic worldview this way:

“Capitalism is a system designed by the owning class to exploit the rest of us for their own profit. We must replace it with democratic socialism, a system where ordinary people have a real voice in our workplaces, neighborhoods, and society.”

So has the U.S. converted from an empire-loving, two-party system into a god-loving, socialist republic? Not by a long shot. But there are cracks in the facade.

• Christian Nationalism, a spiritual project channeling illwill, could not prevent the election of a Muslim mayor in the largest city of the country.
• And the blind acceptance of capitalism as the only available economic system has been strongly questioned by the New York City mayoral election.

Empires take a long time to build, and a long time to fall. The fall begins with cracks in the facade.

Exvangelicals

I still have highlights to share from this summer’s Wild Goose Festival. Here’s another one.

Many of the people who present at Wild Goose are people I would expect to be there. But most years, I’m surprised to find someone there who would have avoided this kind of event in the past. This year, I met a few of those people.

The first was Troy Riggs, an exvangelical. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, here is one definition:

Exvangelical is a term to describe people who have left evangelicalism, especially white evangelical churches in the United States, for atheism, agnosticism, progressive Christianity, or any other religious belief ...

I’m not sure Troy describes himself this way, but his presenter bio hints at it:

Troy has been on a long and convoluted journey through American Christianity over the past 40 years, including preaching and serving as an elder in an evangelical church. Thankfully he is seeing something new emerging.

Recent converts often have a passion for their newfound faith that is hard to match. Ditto those who have seen the error of their ways, or the errors of their faith institution. This was my experience listening to Troy Riggs.

His talk was called “Worldly Christianity for a world sick of religion,” more evidence of an exvangelical view. He focused on Paul Tillich and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, two German theologians of the last century.

As engaging as the topic was for me, I was impressed by Troy’s sincere delivery of the message, and his sensitivity and openness to questions. Several people asked questions and made comments in response to his invitations along the way. I thanked him for saving me 10 years by synthesizing Bonhoeffer’s insights. Several people stayed after the talk to continue the conversation with Troy, including me. If this is what exvangelicalism looks like, we need more of it.

New life in the cracks

Just as the Wild Goose Festival is a kind of incubator for spirituality and religion, New York City is turning out to be a laboratory for what’s next in politics, including – perhaps – an easing of empire and its systems of domination. Amid the cracks of US capitalism, a two-party system, and evangelical Christianity, something new is growing. May it be new life.