"THE SOLUTION DEMONSTRATED:
•Widespread repentance among the clergy and church leadership of our nation, undeniable by
pagans and reported by news organizations, resulting in pagans coming into the fear of God. "

No.

As we said in words or in action when predatory christianity and forces of colonialism and cultural destruction reached for all indigenous peoples, we will not capitulate.  We have sound, strong and grounded traditions that our Ancestors have passed on to us from time immemorial....time before time.  And now so many years after the tragedy of force, rape and pillage have successfully torn the garment of our Ancestral traditions and allowed the disjointed energies of missionary religious imperialism to destroy culture and peoples...but we do not look away from a future with our Ancestors at our side.  There is no future without the indigenous world, strong, empowered and living its Ancestral mandate to move forward with those traditions in unity and harmony with All That Is.

"Please read "God Is Red" and any book by John Henrik Clarke to see why this lacks redemptive qualities. I would love to know how one young religious tradition, eclipsed by the history and success of indigeny gets to embark on its own neo-neo-colonial parade of religious imperialism with as little serious direct scrutiny. It would be interesting to speak with Mr. Nesbit, though the video is of little substance, but is thick with presumption." - Ukumbwa Sauti on Heartleand Apostolic Prayer Network facebook page, reply to James Nesbit video posted previously.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Heartland-Apostolic-Prayer-Network/186978891349897

This is the main-ish video that communicates what DC40 is all about - ish.  If it were to have more content, meaning or more value than a $.40 piece it would would have been interesting.  But what it does show is that the initiative has no more oomph than the religious abstraction of most of the pop-jesus movement, resonated in such flaccid form as Daystar's insipid 24/7 broadcast of characters and charlatans pimping the unsaved for dollars, cents and their tender sensibilities.  If these monetary vowel movements didn't have so many people supporting them, this initiative, along with the christian-dominant pop-cultural melee, would be of little interest.  I have yet to see or hear the argument that validates christianity or it's missiological maelstrom as the intellectual or energetic force of human redemption and liberation in this age of capitalist exploitation, classism and environmental degradation.  Actually, it is precisely these things that modern christian missiological ideology and politics supports and seeks to manifest.  It is exactly these things that TI42 resists and seeks to illuminate during this initiative and beyond.

To the DC40 leaders/organizers/(none so) blind (as those who do not wish to see) leading the blind:

Not that you are listening....or are in the habit of listening....but we'd be very happy to debate you on the efficacy of your humble initiative and explain to you and a global jury of our peers why your work and time is more a nod to the demonic than to the angelic, more to the mundane than to the spiritual.  We guarantee you, though, we are plenty busy here at TI42, but would be overjoyed to go toe to toe with you on the features and benefits of both of our initiatives and the historical processes that gave them birth, even with the large bulk of the USAmerican populace weighing in soundly with an extra pound or so a la King James per person for the majority of most communities.

We here at TI42 fear no evil.  Therefore, we have no fear of you.  ; )

Sincerely,
The Organizers of TI42

P.S. - seriously - get in touch - we'd love to chat.

On Columbia

There have been several responses to the DC40 Prayer Initiative,(1) a spiritual assault intended to assert their "authority to take dominion [and] speak His will on Earth" in accordance with "the Biblical mandate to dominate the culture and transform all aspects of society."(2) One of the more popular has been rituals to Columbia (3) in Her role as protector of liberty and religious freedom.(4) As is not uncommon in the Pagan community, this has resulted in some controversy. Many have noted that Columbia's namesake didn't exactly bring liberty and religious freedom to the natives of the "New World." As one Wild Hunt commenter put it:

I am bothered by the invocation of America as being "founded" on freedom, without acknowledgment that America was also founded on genocide of indigenous peoples and the enslavement of Africans (to say nothing of ongoing exploitation and atrocities against these groups and the earth herself). Now, I am quite sure that no one in the Columbia project supports genocide or oppression! But it's hard for me to get on board with views of the US or the Founding Fathers, or pieces like the songs to Columbia, as simply being these shining beacons of freedom, without acknowledgement of the complicated history and present of the US. How does the Columbia movement acknowledge and incorporate the realities of colonialism into its views of the US? How can the symbol of a country that has meant oppression for many (as well as freedom to many, and often both at once) be reclaimed in a way that respects all these experiences?(5)

Even the most popular image of Columbia, the statue which stands atop the Capitol Dome, embodies many American contradictions.(6) The original design for "Lady Freedom" wore a Phrygian cap, otherwise known as a "liberty cap." By orders of then Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, this was changed to a helmet to symbolize "victory over tyranny."  Davis, a Mississippi plantation owner (and future president of the Confederacy) objected to the use of what was at the time a popular symbol within the Abolitionist movement.

Later Lincoln would point to Lady Freedom as a symbol of the reunification of the United States.  We should not gloss over the various sins of the Confederacy, or of the various historical and contemporary dictators overthrown through overt or covert American intervention.  But the inconvenient fact remains that the majority of Confederate citizens favored secession and were brought back into the American fold only after a brutal war.  Whatever Lincoln's intentions, he started a trend which continues to this day. The violent and bloody suppression of a popular movement against the wishes of the people was presented as a victory for "Freedom."

Acknowledging these problems, Literata Hurley writes on the "Hail Columbia" site:

This project invites Pagans to participate as citizens in helping the country progress towards greater freedom for all people, and especially the religious liberty that Pagans are working so hard to gain and defend. We go forward with our eyes open to the problems of our past, including those embodied in Columbia, and we take her as a symbol of how we are unwilling to return to that past; we work instead to create a better future for our country and ourselves. 

Columbia represents the goal to which we are dedicated; she encourages us to protect what has been won and beckons us onward to expand freedoms, including religious liberty in a peaceful and pluralistic society. As we take steps in that journey, let us demonstrate that all acts of truth and justice are her rituals.(7)

I recognize Literata's goals and honor her good intentions. But I wonder if we might not be well-served to honor Lady Freedom by taking a closer look at the meaning(s) of "Freedom."  Martin Heidegger has spoken of the ways in which words can "conceal being," how they can become empty symbols which lead us away from the truth rather than towards it. "Freedom" has certainly suffered this fate: politicians and pundits recite it like a Sacred Name and present it as a justification for everything from waterboarding to depriving health insurance to the poor. But what is "Freedom?"(8)

For much of American history "Freedom" has been defined as the right to possessions.  Freedom meant the right to till the verdant, unspoiled plains and claim them as farmland. Freedom meant the right to grow wealthy through hard work and inventive thinking. Freedom meant the right to have one's material needs met, to be as prosperous as your neighbors and more prosperous than those people living on the other side of the tracks.  And since we identified freedom with things, it only stood to reason that sooner or later we'd identify it with stock markets and corporations. 

French existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre wrote "L'homme est condamné à être libre." (Man is condemned to be free). (9) For Sartre freedom is not something which can be given or taken by governments: it is the human condition. We are forced to choose, to decide, to create ourselves by our actions and our inactions.  The only meaning to be found in this vale of suffering and joy is that which we create: as Batman says in Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, "The world only makes sense when you force it to."  But yet Sartre also realizes that the very thing which most limits us - our fellow human beings and the society in which we live - also serves to define us.  It may be true that "L'enfer, c'est les autres" (Hell is other people).  But "Pour se connaître soi-même, on a besoin des autres" (to know oneself, one needs other people).  

We are a work in progress, constantly involved in the act of creation and self-creation. Inevitably we will make mistakes. Sartre fought passionately for the liberation of the disempowered, yet in his efforts to overthrow their oppressors he became an apologist for Stalinism. (10) We will argue, we will disagree, we will seek easy answers and find only difficult questions. And in the end we will leave a new generation to build on our triumphs and rectify our errors. 

If we are going to honor Columbia as the protector of Freedom, let us honor Her à la mode du Sartre rather than à la mode du Milton Friedman.  Let us recognize that she means something more than a chicken in every pot and a flat screen TV in every heavily mortgaged home. Let us understand that She, like all Gods, is an inescapable part of our being. We cannot trade Her away for safety or comfort, nor can we escape the terrible responsibility which She lays on us. We use our freedom when we stand up against oppression, and we use our freedom when we acquiesce to it. 

Notes:

1. http://www.dc40.net/

2. http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/dc-40-take-dominion-over-america

3. http://xroads.virginia.edu/~cap/liberty/origins.html

4. http://www.patheos.com/blogs/wildhunt/2011/10/guest-post-the-hail-columbia-movement.html

5. http://ux.brookdalecc.edu/fac/history/Tangents/ARTICLESFORTANGENTS/Columbus's%20Genocide.htm

6. http://xroads.virginia.edu/~cap/liberty/politics.html

7. http://hailcolumbia.us/about-us/about-columbia/

8. http://heideggerian.blogspot.com/2006/06/on-essence-of-truth-untruth-as.html

9. http://www.philo5.com/Les%20philosophes/Sartre.htm

10. http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/egghead/2003/09/exit_pursued_by_a_lobster.html

--

kenaz filan
kenazfilan @ gmail.com | 917 267 7469

kenazfilan.blogspot.com | www.kenazfilan.com

author:

the haitian vodou handbook
vodou love magic
drawing down the spirits (w/raven kaldera)
vodou money magic
the power of the poppy
the new orleans voodoo handbook

In a previous post, we mentioned education. Let's get right to the point: education as it stands in this country (america), not only doesn't educate, but stands as the last tattered remnants of colonialism and conquest: education as little more than enculturation and indoctrination. Think about it. Think about how from the moment we first set foot in school we're bombarded with "america: land of the free, best country in the world, can do no wrong, etc. etc." and the doctrine of exceptionalism that should be our nation's shame, that is itself the child of manifest destiny, thereby reinforced. On top of that, too many of our children are graduating not able to read and think critically about anything and standards of higher ed have been dumbed down to ridiculous levels (but that's another argument....starting with the fact that the powers that be don't WANT an educated populace).

Well, it seems we're not the only ones to have come to the aforementioned conclusions about the American education system past and present. There is a new documentary coming out called "Schooling the World" that looks promising and here, we give you a brief (less than three minutes) taste:

http://youtu.be/Y5OJQGnjp64

It's food for thought at the very least and that's what we should all be doing: THINKING.

Several of us recently saw a documentary called "The Language You Cry In" and it occurred to us that the dominant theme of this film is something that connects very strongly to the Turtle Island Initiative's goal of raising awareness about the importance of indigeny.

This documentary profiles a Gullah woman, the grand daughter of a slave woman. Her grand mother kept alive a song that we later find out is from the Mende tribe in Africa. It was the only fragment of heritage and ancestry that she had and none of the descendants knew what the song meant. It was just something grandma had passed down to them. Through the course of the documentary, we find out that the song is a tribal song meant to connect one to one's ancestors. It was the one thing that the first of their ancestors to be sold into slavery brought with her, the one thing she passed down to her children and her children's children and beyond: a song, a piece of medicine, with the power to connect one to one's tribe and people.

the documentary traces the work of linguists, anthropologists, ethnomusicologists, and Mende tribal members as they unravel the mystery of this song (which isn't a mystery at all to the Mende woman who recognizes the song). In the end, the Gullah woman, a descendant of people ripped away from tribe and culture, returns to her ancestral soil and is greeted by her people. It's a powerful example of exactly what our ancestors can do, and how even if we do not know from where we come, they do and always, always if we reach out, they will bring us home.

the documentary may be purchased here: http://newsreel.org/video/THE-LANGUAGE-YOU-CRY-IN.

we highly recommend it.

Below are two links of interest to those involved in restoring and protecting indigeny. The first is an article from the Irish Times about continuing depredations by white politicians and culture against Native Americans and the second link, a wrenching documentary. The documentary is rather long, but we encourage folks to take the time to watch it. Most of us did not learn these things in school.

Educate yourselves. Education isn't just a priviledge or a right, it is an *obligation.*. It is a path to freedom. Educate yourselves by any means necessary. Only then can you wake up and truly set about educating and changing your world.

anyway, here are the links: 

 

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2011/1029/1224306728718.html

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/10/treatment-of-native-americans-explored-in-documentary/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_content=treatment-of-native-americans-explored-in-documentary&utm_campaign=fb-posts