Join Greg Boyd and Drew Hart in a webinar on Anablacktivism November 12

The history of Anabaptists can be appealing to folks that are fed up with the status quo of society and want to instigate social revolution. Yet many people that have that spark and then join Anabaptist communities are frequently disappointed. Such was the case for civil rights leader Vincent Harding, who left the Mennonite Church after a decade of frustration. Martin Luther King famously asked “Where have you Mennonites been?” in response to their apparent absence in the ongoing nonviolent movement that had been unfolding. In more recent days neo-Anabaptists have been charged with participating in a white dominated movement that seems to be for white men, and led by white men. My own experience has been that the Mennonite Church has done much more work in the past few decades with these issues than the neo-Anabaptists have, but both seem to continue to perpetuate racial hierarchies in the church. Furthermore, many Anabaptist movements seem at times to be incapable of learning from oppressed people groups. Black people have been a group to serve but hardly imagined as image bearers of God having something to teach these white Anabaptists. While I, like Vincent Harding, find something attractive about Anabaptism, I too am unwilling to follow a white dominated movement that has shut out all possibilities of being transformed by the rich Black Church tradition.

Fortunately, I believe you can have your cake and eat it too! I have been working hard to cultivate new conversations and practices that take seriously how we can more faithfully follow Jesus in light of the wisdom of the Black Church and its theology and the living Anabaptist tradition. This is what I call Anablacktivism. That is Anabaptism + Black Theology + Activism. A theological discourse and praxis-oriented approach like this is capable of learning from both communities, while disentangling the problems of white dominance that have plagued many historic Anabaptist communities since landing in North America. Beyond white separatist Mennonitism or the cultural hegemony and white blinders of neo-Anabaptism, anablacktivism dares to allow two different Christian traditions both born on the underside of western Christendom to shape its vision of Christian life. Keeping track of Christendom and white supremacy at the same time, it is capable of offering a more hopeful future for the Church.

Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary is Hosting A Webinar on Anablacktivism

Interested in learning more? Excellent! Check out this webinar coming up on November 12 featuring popular Anabaptist leader Greg Boyd and myself, as we discuss Anablacktivism. If you sign up by November 7^th and it is your first AMBS webinar, it is free! Yes, that is right, I said it is free! Hurry and sign up today!

Here is all the information you need:

Webinar: Greg Boyd on Anabaptism: Engaging Drew Hart and "Anablacktivism" 

Moderated by David B. Miller, Professor of Missional Leadership Development, Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary

Thursday, November 12, 2:00-3:30 pm EST

$20 before November 7

In this webinar Greg Boyd will discuss with Drew G.I. Hart how the Neo-Anabaptist movement in North America can engage "Anablactivism" and vice-versa. Drew's research, focused on the intersection of Black theology and Anabaptism, invites us to consider the potential of Anablacktivism for inspiring Christ's followers to faithful action today. We will ask Greg and Drew to consider how Neo-Anabaptism both challenges and sometimes acquiesces to systems of injustice, and what can be done to harness the energy and wisdom of both efforts for the sake of God's reign.

Your first webinar is free if you register by November 7. Or sign up for 5 webinars and get the next one free. Learn more and register.