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Dark MaTTER

@jdaviddark-blog / jdaviddark-blog.tumblr.com

This is where David Dark goes for it in a tumblr kind of way.
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dailyasterisk

I deny the resurrection

Without equivocation or hesitation I fully and completely admit that I deny the resurrection of Christ. This is something that anyone who knows me could tell you, and I am not afraid to say it publicly, no matter what some people may think… I deny the resurrection of Christ every time I do not serve at the feet of the oppressed, each day that I turn my back on the poor; I deny the resurrection of Christ when I close my ears to the cries of the downtrodden and lend my support to an unjust and corrupt system. However there are moments when I affirm that resurrection, few and far between as they are. I affirm it when I stand up for those who are forced to live on their knees, when I speak for those who have had their tongues torn out, when I cry for those who have no more tears left to shed.

Peter Rollins “My Confession: I deny the Resurrection”

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jdaviddark-blog

<nods>

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locusimperium
Three characteristics of [Richard] Wurmbrand attract me — his intelligence, his faith, his compassion… He knew, as few Christians know, that Christianity faithfully lived is politics enough. He had no time for ideology, or for the murderous abstractions of the irresponsible.

Philip Berrigan, journal from prison in Springfield, Missouri, 1971.

I have no other knowledge of Wurmbrand, but this description is beautiful.

(via locusimperium)

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dailyasterisk
Just your interpretation
dailyasterisk.com

Sometimes, in our discussion of scripture, history, God’s will, military operations, or something a famous person said or did, an opinion is offered and, in response to the stated opinion, someone says, “That’s just your interpretation.” Technically speaking, this isn’t a response at all. Unlike...

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locusimperium

And this was taken just minutes ago at a pre-civil disobedience meeting for people of faith in Ferguson. The plan is to, at the action, look individual cops in the eye calmly and say, “You are part of the system responsible for the murder of Mike Brown. I call you to repent and offer to hear your confession.”

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mosteverybody
The world – whatever we might think when terrified by its vastness and our own impotence, or embittered by its indifference to individual suffering, of people, animals, and perhaps even plants, for why are we so sure that plants feel no pain; whatever we might think of its expanses pierced by the rays of stars surrounded by planets we’ve just begun to discover, planets already dead? still dead? we just don’t know; whatever we might think of this measureless theater to which we’ve got reserved tickets, but tickets whose lifespan is laughably short, bounded as it is by two arbitrary dates; whatever else we might think of this world – it is astonishing. But ‘astonishing’ is an epithet concealing a logical trap. We’re astonished, after all, by things that deviate from some well-known and universally acknowledged norm, from an obviousness we’ve grown accustomed to. Now the point is, there is no such obvious world. Our astonishment exists per se and isn’t based on comparison with something else. Granted, in daily speech, where we don’t stop to consider every word, we all use phrases like ‘the ordinary world,’ ‘ordinary life,’ ‘the ordinary course of events’ … But in the language of poetry, where every word is weighed, nothing is usual or normal. Not a single stone and not a single cloud above it. Not a single day and not a single night after it. And above all, not a single existence, not anyone’s existence in this world

'whatever else we might think of this world – it is astonishing'

Wislawa Szymborska, in her 1996 Nobel Lecture.

via @sullydish

(via mosteverybody)

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dailyasterisk
United States of Generica
dailyasterisk.com

It would take a team of social scientists to explain the long history of our growing disconnect from the natural world. But one obvious factor is the way we’ve obliterated the native landscapes that give each region its distinct character. Don’t expect, for instance, to find big bluestem grass or...

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locusimperium
If history is going to be scientific, if the record of human action is going to be set down with accuracy and faithfulness of detail which will allow its use as a measuring rod and guidepost for the future of nations, there must be some standards of ethics in research and interpretation. If on the other hand, we are going to use history for our pleasure and amusement, for inflating our national ego, and giving us a false but pleasurable sense of accomplishment, then we must give up the idea of history either as a science or as an art using the results of science, and admit frankly that we are using a version of historic fact in order to influence and educate the new generation along the way we wish.

W.E.B. Du Bois, Black Reconstruction (via locusimperium)

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locusimperium
If mystical experience (or religious experience more generally) were to be trusted, this would provide an authoritative basis for knowledge of the existence and nature of God: if this were to be established and acknowledged, it would accord enormous authority to those whose experience was deemed to be veridical. Or, from another perspective, if mystical experience could be delimited as private and subjective, this would be a way of ensuring that it did not have to be taken into account by those making social and political decisions: religion could be kept out of politics. If mystical experience were seen as gender-related, especially available to women, and at the same time also as private and subjective, then this could be used to reinforce stereotypes of women as the spiritual nurturers of humanity while keeping both women and spirituality firmly domesticated. It is a commonplace of postmodern philosophy that knowledge and power are interconnected, and that an investigation of what is allowed to count as knowledge can never be far removed from an investigation of power relations. It is a commonplace of feminist thinking that any investigation of power relations soon reveals issues of gender. Putting these two commonplaces together, it becomes reasonable to suppose that answers to questions of what mysticism is and of who counts as a mystic, though they will not be constant, will always reveal interconnected struggles of power and gender.

Grace Jantzen, Power, Gender & Christian Mysticism (via locusimperium)

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floodwallstreet

UPDATE: Wall Street Clogged by Flood of Climate Protesters

Sit-in Points Finger at Corporations in #FloodWallStreet Action

New York, NY — Yesterday, thousands of protesters wearing blue sparked a national conversation about the role of corporate power in climate politics when they shut down portions of lower Broadway. Following the Stock Exchange closing bell, an estimated 100 people were arrested by the NYPD in the #FloodWallStreet action which was organized to hold corporations and banks accountable for their role in creating the climate crisis.

Quotes from organizers and participants of Flood Wall Street:

“Our goal was to connect climate change to Wall Street and amplify stories from the front lines. We definitely did that. We did it by disrupting business as usual in the heart of the world’s most important financial center.” -Yotam Marom, #FloodWallStreet Organizer
“Indigenous peoples are here at Flood Wall Street to send a direct message to the financiers of the global climate crisis and the fossil fuel regime since we are on the frontlines of the impact of fossil fuel development as well as experiencing disproportionate impacts of the global crisis. We have so much at stake, and a shared ambition to target the international financiers to throw a wrench in the system and disrupt commerce and business as usual here in the belly of the beast in the United States of America.” -Clayton Thomas-Muller, #IdleNoMore
“The people and the land of Appalachia have been suffering for decades from the decisions made on Wall Street. We need a new economy built from the ground up.” -Terri Blanton, Kentuckias For The Commonwealth
“We are here representing the communities who are suffering directly from an exploitative, extractive economy that doesn’t respect people’s dignity, or human, labour, and civil rights. We are here to lift this voice and to send the message that we have the opportunity to create an economy that values humanity and dignity. We are here to redefine a just transition, where all communities have equality, access to resources, and also an economy that is good for the people and the planet.” -Abel Luna, Migrant Justice
#Experiments in Applied Righteousness
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laurenwilford
We live in an era stocked with grim adult dramas whose themes boil down, in the end, to abstractions about good and evil, darkness and light. For all its daffy, dirty ways, “Orange Is the New Black” is more strongly rooted in the real world. Like “The Wire,” it intends to illuminate injustice by using stories so bright that you can’t ignore them.

“Lockdown: The Lessons of ‘Orange is the New Black’ and ‘Louie’,” Emily Nussbaum, The New Yorker (via wilfordlauren)

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dailyasterisk
By popular demand
dailyasterisk.com

The world is being destroyed, no doubt about it, by the greed of the rich and powerful. It is also being destroyed by popular demand. There are not enough rich and powerful people to consume the whole world; for that, the rich and powerful need the help of countless ordinary people. We acquiesce...

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