SCM was invited to speak on Winnipeg’s CKUW radio on January 19. Listen to local secretary David Ball speak on liberation theology, the role of the SCM, and questions of anti-oppression in Canada and worldwide.

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Rush Transcript: Excerpts

“Faith formation and leadership is a big part (of the SCM)…. Coming to the SCM, I was like, ‘There are so many people out there who are like this.’ We’re still small, but once you start looking at the world like this, you realize a sense of fellowship across values and also a sense of history.

I’m really drawn to the idea of the Communion of Saints - that there’s people who struggled before you and who are watching over you. That’s something I didn’t find in secular activist culture. I would encourage activists who aren’t necessarily from a faith background to develop this kind of idea, because it’s really helpful….

I get quite frustrated when people say the Bible is inherently ‘this’ or is inherently ‘this.’ The Bible is written about an oppressed people. As liberals, we tend to shy away from the bloodshed and the wrathful God. This was an oppressed people fantasizing about the overthrow their oppressors.

This wasn’t a book meant to justify inquisitions or crusades or colonial power…. The Israelites in the Old Testament were not a powerful people, they were oppressed. Once you start reading with new eyes, you realize that this isn’t a book to justify oppression. The important thing is to look at the underlying fabric - the Old Testament is meant to be read as a book about an oppressed people.

Love for the oppressor is not natural, if you read the New Testament in the context of Jesus being a radical - a revolutionary.

The resurrection is a symbol of - when all seems lost, there is hope, and that hope is not dependent on what happens here on earth, that hope is not dependent on whether you are able to do anything yourself (alone)….

As we become more and more of a corporate society, the setbacks seem too great, the future seems bleak, and we feel we should just give up. The resurrection reminds us that there will be life. Reading in this way would totally shake our interpretation of scripture.

Anyone who says that the Bible can be used to justify oppression is just plain wrong. I’m not afraid to say that. The propehets say, ‘Break every yoke of oppression, then you’ll see your light shine forth like the dawn.”

Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount was not meant to pacify - it was an exhortation to resistance….

Once you make a religion into an unchanging truth, those of us who are liberation theologians would say you’ve created an idol out of your religion and the printed word. It’s as much of an idol as our economic system, which worships markets, and it’s as much of an idol as our national security system, which puts us above all other people in the world….

I’m not going to say that religion has no power today - there’s a huge rise in fundamentalist movements. But it is still somewhat respected, which affords us a chance to do something subversive….

We have a lot of work to do here in Canada. Look at the situation with Indigenous people in Canada. Especially with a Christian group…. In some ways, understanding the interconnection of oppression has been in SCM for a long time, because we have a systemic analysis of the problems. That said we’ve always fallen short…. We’re trying really hard to look at racism, homophobia, sexism, and link them together, and start modeling a community where justice can flourish….

Never assume you’re doing enough, but push yourself further. Are we focussing on real issues of importance to people of color, for instance, or just on popular issues of white liberals?

Who are we in solidarity with? Are we willing to confront things that we’re complicit in? The time is now….

Our national conference (“System Error: Unearthing Ways that Work”, in Manitoba) will be the whole national movement coming together to learn, grow and develop skills… We’re going to look at facing the fears of ecological collapse, encroaching fascism and the shadow times - the storm clouds on the horizon. Instead of just keeping the wool over our eyes, and continuing the activism that is just band-aid or patch-work, how do we build sustainable political communities that will last into the future, despite what is going on around us?

[Ends with a cover of Dar Williams’ song ‘I had no right’]