Chicago Semester

Our participation in the recent Congress gave our program a chance to interact with people of faith from all over the nation and world, regarding our response to cities and to the problem of violence more specifically.  Last year, as our leaders reminded us, over 700 children of school age were victims of handgun violence in Chicago, and 66 persons were murdered.   Given the violence that happens on a regular basis in cities such as Chicago, and around the world, the conference gave us a chance to reflect on what our role is as a faith community given these realities.  Several of the plays that we have seen this year faced the problem of violence.  These included Le Miserables, as well as the more contemporary work, In Darfur.  Of course, we know that the New Testament enjoins us to be peacemakers, and that the prophets rebuked those who in power proclaim peace (stability and order) when there is no peace (the meaning of shalom, the well being of all). 

The Conference also challenged us to face the question of what it means for us to be Christians, as well as citizens and fellow human beings, in an era of escalating violence.  For Clinton, several of the more solid presentations came from biblical scholars, especially from Walter Brueggemann and from Renita Weems.  Some solutions argue for individual choice and one’s private good; others argue for what makes for the common good.   However, biblical teaching from the Old Testament to the Parables clearly eschews privatism, materialism and individualism at every turn.   In the Old Testament, the faithful were part of a nation, and the prophets called that nation and its leaders to act with justice and with compassion, especially for those most vulnerable.  In the New Testament, followers were called to be part of a body of Christ, a community of the faithful who must be concerned about the well being of one’s neighbor, as the Great Parable teaches us.  Felicia was most engaged academically by Walter Brueggeman's study on bread (scarcity v. abundance); and most inspired by Shane Claiborne to remember that every little thing counts -- nothing is lost in God's kingdom.  She was also floored by Dr. Fullilove's presentation about what it has meant to be black and poor in America and how public policies that may have looked good at the time have done much to disrupt the fiber of stable African American communities across our country.

With such a mandate, and in such a climate, our educational task is daunting.  Our private concerns must include our call to be citizens and to live compassionately among others, even if those others are different than who we are, they still possess the Imago Dei.  While no one can say what particular path is “the right way to be,” unqualified; we can come up with some general principles to guide our actions.  Micah exhorted the faithful to “do justice, love compassion and to walk in humility before our God.”  We all know that the “greatest commandment” is the call to love and revere the Creator and His bountiful gifts, and to love our neighbor as ourselves! These commandments are inescapable.  St Paul writes that we moan in ourselves with the creation, as it awaits its own freedom from futility.  We live these mandates out as individuals; but also as a community of faith.  We seek to transform the world, even as we transform ourselves as faithful doers of the Word.  The Congress helped us, if only for a while, to focus on the real world and what is happening today in our cities.  Hopefully, for each of us, we will have greater clarity regarding our true Vocation, as those who are called by God to serve his reign in the world, even as we work together as a hopeful community in expectation of the better world to come.

~Compiled by Clinton Stockwell, Felicia Laboy Howell and Cynthia Stewart~