We are people who began meeting together, attracted by our mutual rejection of the permeating American ethos and our mutual belief that the alternative lay somewhere in radical obedience to Jesus Christ. We were a small group of university strike leaders, seminarians, whites, blacks, college students, professors, and artists who organized teach-ins, a free university, worship celebrations, and community involvement to develop and execute our ideas. We grew.
We are a chief-less movement from two tribes: Some of us as student radicals discovered that our historical and social analysis was able to destroy institutional Christianity because of its American, nationalistic captivity but by that same historical analysis found Jesus of Nazareth to be an ally, a liberator, a Lord; others of us began with faith in Jesus Christ and found the New Testament demanding radical discipleship. Our small group has found itself to be a part of an awakening, a volatile atmosphere, a movement of committed people who have found personal liberation and an ethical basis for prophetic activism in Jesus Christ. The good news we proclaim is the entrance of Jesus Christ into history, the inbreaking of a new order, the proclamation of a message of reconciliation and new life to alienated men and women. As radical Christians we seek to recover the earliest doctrines of Christianity, its historical basis, its radical ethical spirit, and its revolutionary consciousness.
We fault theological liberalism which neglects people’s need of personal transformation and, while holding to a pollyanna view of humanity, distorts the historic content of the Christian faith and retreats to ecclesiastical hierarchies. We fault a narrow orthodoxy that speaks of salvation but is often disobedient to the teaching of the prophets, the apostles, and Christ Himself, who clearly state that faith divorced from a radical commitment to social justice is a mockery. We dedicate ourselves to no ideology, government, or system, but to active obedience to our Lord and His Kingdom, and to sacrificial service to the people for whom He died.
Our faith must be distinctively Post-American, because of the offense of established religion in the proclamation and practice of a caricature of Christianity so enculturated, domesticated, and lifeless that our generation easily rejects it as ethically insensitive, hypocritical, and irrelevant to the needs of our times. The church has lost its prophetic voice and has become the chaplain of the American nation preaching a harmless folk religion of convenience, conformity, and presidential prayer breakfasts. We believe that the gospel of Jesus Christ is a liberating force that has radical consequences for human life and society. However, for the true nature of the Christian faith to be realized, it must break the chains of American culture and be proclaimed to all peoples.
Christian radicalism provides the vehicle for people willing to change their own lives, to challenge the system, to take the problem of change seriously. Christians must be active in rejecting the corrupt values of our culture, prophetic in our resistance and activism against the injustice of a racist society, warfare state, and exploitative system. The determination of the movemental church is to be those of a new order who live by the values and ethical priorities of Jesus Christ and His Kingdom in the midst of the indifference and injustice of the American church and state.
The People’s Christian Coalition is a non-membership alliance of people and communities working together to build radical Christian consciousness, commitment, and action in our times. We wish to serve the people by proclaiming the gospel of liberation in Christ, by articulating the ethical demands of discipleship, by working for peace, justice, and freedom and by serving you. We are convinced that strength will never lie in bureaucratic structures but in the dedication of people willing to organize locally. We are trying to serve the movemental church by publishing the POST-AMERICAN and creating a communication network and information clearinghouse for radical Christians around the country, by providing people and resources for speaking about the nature of American society and power and the necessity of Christian response, and by establishing our own living community and organizing prophetic Christian witness in Chicago. We are a grassroots coalition calling for people committed to the Christian message that is distinctively Post-American, that changes people’s lives and generates an active commitment to social justice that serves as the basis for social liberation. Let us work together. Serve the Lord. Serve the people.
Got something to say about what you're reading? We value your feedback!