Filed under: Activist, Madison, Wisconsin, Mission Leadership | Tags: Christ, community, environmentalism, Freedom, Global Human Need, Globalization, HIV/AIDS, individualism, Jesus, Madison, neighbor, Pharisees, poverty, technology, University of Wisconsin, water, Western culture
How do people react to individualism, environmentalism, and poverty in Madison? These forces may be at the same time subtle and powerful. Globalization is having a paradoxical effect, connecting people and resources through technology and isolating people in reaction to the enormity of global needs. “As the [global] demand for water continues to increase, there is greater pressure placed on an already shrinking water supply,” says Joel Pedersen, a UW-Madison environmental chemist. “More people are considering the reuse of water.” While most expect individual freedoms to continue, others are sounding the alarm to warn us that individualism in Western culture is a major contributor to global problems. In Madison, research on water resources, HIV/AIDS, and global poverty is churning in the laboratories of the University of Wisconsin. How should today’s Jesus follower respond? Followers of Christ believe in community, but most have so aligned with the culture of individualism that they take little notice of urgent global human needs. Jesus said, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Perhaps, like the Pharisees of Jesus’ day, evangelical believers in the 21st century should ask “Who is my neighbor?”
Filed under: Madison, Wisconsin, Mission Leadership | Tags: Bascom Hall, Christianity, Church, environmentalism, free, Globalization, gospel, individualism, Lee Dreyfus, Madison, materialism, pluralism, postmodernism, poverty, secularism, South Hall, Truth, University of Wisconsin, UW-Stevens Point
During his 1978 run for governor, the former UW-Stevens Point chancellor, Lee Dreyfus, was quoted saying Madison is “thirty square miles surrounded by reality.” (Moe 1999) There are major “gaps between gospel values and the practices of Christianity in ‘Christian’ Europe” and other formerly Christian territories. (Budde 1997:5) Equally true is the gap between the early gospel values and practices at the University of Wisconsin. A plaque on Bascom Hall reveals the commitment to “encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth may be found.” Etched in the stone of South Hall, is: “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. Class of 1955.”
The following posts will discuss four characteristics of globalization in the Madison context and how they affect the Church in Madison. They are post-modernism; materialism; secularism and pluralism; and individualism, environmentalism, and poverty.
Filed under: Madison, Wisconsin, Mission Leadership | Tags: Berkley, Christian, community, Development, Globalization, individualism, Madison, materialism, postmodernism, secularism, Sterling Hall, study, University of Wisconsin, Western civilization, Wisconsin Idea
This is the first of a series of posts from a study I performed in 2004 on how the Christian community can respond to the effects of globalization in the city of Madison, Wisconsin. In it I will describe the context and an appropriate missional response. As I review this study with you, I will also post some real time activities and ministries responding to globalization taking place in Madison.
Introduction
Satellite television is broadcasting the notable influences of globalization as global culture industries seek ways to quicken the pace and broaden the demand for entertainment, variety, and convenience. The microchip has ushered Western civilization into a new age of ever more rapid development and information transfer. Modernism, and the “in-between” era of postmodernism, has guided individual participants toward the shared values of materialism, secularism, and individualism, with a vast array of interrelated characteristics of globalization.
Madison, the capitol of Wisconsin, is a city with over two hundred thousand residents and host to over forty thousand University of Wisconsin students. Sometimes called “Berkley of the Midwest,” the UW-Madison has a history of radical student activity. At the time of the Vietnam War, Madison was shaken by a series of student protests. Madison residents can buy organic smoothies at the Library Mall Juice cart run by Karl Armstrong, famed for his part in the 1970 bombing of Sterling Hall, which killed a graduate student of physics. Madison, proud of its progressive thinking and tolerance, powerfully influences state and national politics, philosophy, entertainment, and education. The “Wisconsin Idea” is described as the compelling need to carry “the beneficent influence of the university … to every home in the state.” (Stark 1995) With more than four thousand international students from one hundred and twenty nations, the UW impressively shapes more than Madison; it affects the world. (Bollag 2004)
The examination of how globalization has affected Madison, especially with respect to the influence of the University of Wisconsin, will help us to understand the context in which the Church in Madison is ministering. With that understanding in mind, we will discuss how the Church in Madison ought to respond and what the kingdom of God could look like in a major university community.
Filed under: Mission Leadership | Tags: Bascom Hall, Budde, Christianity, community, Europe, Lee Dreyfus, Madison, Modernism, Truth, university, University of Wisconsin, UW
During his 1978 run for governor, the former UW-Stevens Point chancellor, Lee Dreyfus, was quoted saying Madison is “thirty square miles surrounded by reality.” There are major “gaps between gospel values and the practices of Christianity in ‘Christian’ Europe” and other formerly Christian territories. (See Michael Budde’s book, “The (Magic) Kingdom of God: Christianity and Global Culture Industries.” Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press. 1997:5) Equally true is the gap between the early gospel values and practices at the University of Wisconsin. A plaque on Bascom Hall reveals the commitment to “encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth may be found.” Etched in the stone of South Hall, is: “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. Class of 1955.”
Today, the university community continues to seek truth, with the limitations of Modernism’s arrogant spirit. Finding truth requires humility and a willingness to learn from sources new and old, including learning from those who have been isolated and marginalized for their religious faith.
