I am coming to the end of my latest speaking tour and been absolutely loving it. Over the last few weeks I have met some truly amazing people, collected a storehouse full of new experiences and been privileged to share some of the work I have been developing in recent years. In short, I could do this type of thing forever…

…and so its time for a change.

As such, I am currently dreaming up a completely new type of tour to mark the release of my latest book The Orthodox Heretic and Other Impossible Tales (which will be available from 1st March). This tour will take place in Irish pubs across the US and Canada and will blend the very best in live music, poetry, DJing, visual art and storytelling. I can’t say too much at the moment as the whole thing is in an embryonic phase, but I needed to say something! Over the coming months I will introduce you to the crew. Starting with Jared Robinson…

Jared is a visual artist who I met while in Edmonton. The moment I saw his work I fell in love with it. Much of his art  has a dream-like quality and is marked by a deep playfulness, energy, humor and childlike intensity. His work ranges from the uplifting to the slightly deranged (think Tim Burton) and, as such, reflects his personality perfectly. Jared is going to work on some pieces inspired by my new book. These will be displayed in the pubs we visit and will be available for purchase. Here is a sample of some of his work to date (taken from his website Eye-Catchers Media),

The title for this post comes from the title of one of the talks I have been giving on the ‘Lessons’ tour. The main gist of the argument lies in exploring how the fundamentalism we witness at work today is, at its core, a movement that conserves and preserves the status quo. Its violence at the subjective level (e.g. defending the evils of misogyny, homophobia, unjust conflicts and self-interested foreign policy) is the direct outworking of its ultimate impotence when it comes to instigating real change.

Take the example of so many wars today. Amidst all their violence they are more often than not fought in order to preserve the way things are, to protect people in power, or to accumulate more resources. Thus their horrific violence at the subjective level hides the fact that they preserve the deeper objective violence of the system itself. The bloodshed thus helps to maintain the injustice that currently exists, ensuring that structures of oppression remain unchallenged.

In the same way fundamentalism, while violent at a surface level (at the level of everyday life) is simply a mask that hides the fact that it does not rock the very foundations of worldly power. Its frantic posturing and aggression is ultimately in the service of those with power, money, and voice. In this way their various highly funded projects designed to change society actually ensure that nothing of any significance really changes (those who are oppressed continue to be oppressed, the rich continue to get richer, the poor continue to get poorer).

Let us not then attack such a position for being too violent (apart from anything else, this is what such a movement thrives on; seeing itself as the church militant), rather we must pull back the curtain and show the impotent wizard for who it really is.

In contrast to fundamentalism it is people like Mother Theresa and Martin Luther King who, in their pacifism, are truly violent (who are the true church militant). In their non-participation and uncompromising actions they lived out an alternative vision of how the world could work, directly challenging the foundations of worldy power. In their seductive vision of an alternative world and their unrelenting quest to pursue it they ruptured the systems of power that surrounded them and thus expressed the true violence of Christianity. A violence that shifts the underground by allowing the outsider to be heard.

Thus, the next time we hear of some blustering speaker attempt to bolster their support by making themselves sound like the follower of a cage-fighting, bodybuilding Jesus, we should avoid the trap of arguing that their image of Jesus is too violent and instead show how it isn’t nearly violent enough. Drawing out how, amidst all their seeming machismo they are little more than a timid sheep in wolves clothing.