Transition Movement

A. Unabashed Pacifist:

If Jesus had appeared as a warrior, then Christians going to war might make sense. He didn’t, so what gives?

B. Unabashed Christian:

Holy One,

Marvelous are your works, such that we see signs of your activity in even the most natural of coincidences. We experience sickness or distress, then assume you punish us for some violation of religious or moral “law.” We witness natural calamity; you have brought judgment for someone’s wrongs. A chance encounter with someone who assists us on our path; you brought us together. We double-book on our calendar and another person has to cancel one of those appointments; thank you, God, we say, for re-arranging the schedule. Whatever.
In addition to making you a “God of the gaps,” we make you a "coincidental God."
Amen

C. Un-quoting Jesus:

“Mom knows best. So for my first trick, I’ll turn this water into wine, symbolizing the fact that cleansing on the inside is more important than cleansing on the outside.”

[I always wondered about that story, but He didn’t explain it.]

D. Blog: Wind at Our Backs?

I’ve been part of a group that’s trying to stir a movement in the Asheville area to begin preparing for more severe climate change and the inevitable decline in cheap oil supplies and what that will mean for human life on Earth in terms of economies, transportation, food production, building, etc. How to we prepare our communities to be resilient enough to survive the drastic changes that we will face? If you haven’t yet encountered the Transition Initiatives, or Transition Towns Movement, look for them on the Internet.

Our local group has twice shown the film, End of Suburbia, and this past week sponsored two presentations on climate change by a professor John Brock of Warren Wilson College. He says we appear have the wind at our backs in terms of what we're doing locally. His presentations (the first at 1 on a weekday afternoon, the second at 7 on a Sunday evening) were attended by about 125 people from in and around Asheville. Our emailing list now numbers about 200 people who are beginning study groups, networking, and thinking about the various working/action groups that will begin to plan and put into place some of the ideas that will make ours a more resilient community.

For me personally, it’s exciting to see how many people are concerned and ready to do something to build a more cohesive community that will be able to respond to life without cheap oil and to make it a better life in the process.