Blog Posts By Jarrod McKenna

The legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the reality of climate change are both victims of western culture’s remarkable capacity to accommodate and neutralize that which is most critical of it.Early in the civil rights movement, Bayard Rustin said to King, “I have a feeling that the Lord had laid his hand upon you. And that is a dangerous, dangerous thing.” Similarly, the FBI once described Martin King as the “most dangerous man in America” – and yet, as Martin Luther King Jr day rolls around again in the United States, we are often presented with a figure that seems more like a cheerleader for the status quo rather than a prophetic challenge to it. Somehow, it seems we have made this dangerous figure very safe.For instance, in a speech at the Pentagon commemorating King’s legacy, the Defense Department’s general counsel Jeh C. Johnson remarked, “I believe that if Dr King were alive today, he would recognize that we live in a complicated world, and that our nation’s military should not and cannot lay down its arms and leave the American people vulnerable to terrorist attack.”But to claim that Dr King would be pro-war today is as likely as him being pro-segregation. After all, this is the Dr King who said, “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defence than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” And this is the same Dr King who said in his speech on 4 April 1967 (a speech that turned three quarters of American public opinion against him), “To me the relationship of the ministry [of Jesus Christ] to the making of peace is so obvious that I sometimes marvel at those who ask me why I’m speaking against the war.” And this is the same Dr King who said, the night before he was murdered on 4 April 1968, “It is no longer a choice, my friends, between violence and nonviolence. It is either nonviolence or nonexistence.”

This video clip by The Work of The People is going to upset a lot of people.

Ok, so if Amos was to show up today and deliver his poetic-prophetix in the body of a skinny, pale spectacled, over educated English environmental analyst, he might look something like the amazing Danny Chivers. ...

This clip comes from a fantastic collective who are putting into practice Gandhi's words "under certain circumstances, fasting is [a] weapon God has given us for use in times of utter helplessness." ...

This video features three heroes of mine and courageous Christian leaders, Desmond Tutu, Wangari Maathai and Rev. Dr. Samuel Kobia, talking about the importance of climate justice for the poorest of the poor right across the continent of Africa.

It was only last month that Sydney newspaper The Herald Sun's Faithworks blog carried a post with this paragraph: There is an amazing moment on the latest Hillsong DVD, This Is Our [...]

If you thought socially conscious music in the mainstream was a thing of the past, turn your ears to what Australia is listening to. A song about justice and reconciliation in Australia was the highest new entry in the charts two weeks ago - starting out at #2 on the Australian charts and #2 after Madonna on the digital track charts - and remains in the top 50. As The New York Times reported: