MFSA: Social Holiness

Shhh…don’t tell my pastor, but I skipped church last weekend for a protest. Sunday (May 1) was May Day, a day which for over a century has been recognized both domestically and internationally as a day of celebration of the labor movement and a day to rally in support of workers’ rights. Annual rallies on May Day were first called for in 1890, 4 years after what has come to be known as the Haymarket Massacre in 1886, when a workers’ strike in Chicago was fired upon by the police after an unknown individual threw a bomb into the crowd. In the US, the rallies have expanded to include immigrants’ rights. I went to Chicago’s May Day march with a contingent of students from my school, DePaul University; this was my second time attending the march, and I looked forward to it as an outlet to exercise my faith. Since I came to DePaul, I have had many significant opportunities to reflect on the theological imperative for my activism, and it has shaped me substantially.

I am currently serving my second quadrennium as a board member of the General Board of Church and Society, and my tenure on the board has certainly been a learning experience. In fact, it has radically shaped my life (influencing my choice of majors, International Studies and Peace, Justice, and Conflict Studies, and my life goals). It gave me a scriptural understanding of peace and justice, introducing me to the radical implications that my faith can have on my living and being in the world, passages such as Micah 6:8 (seek justice, love kindness, walk humbly with God), Isaiah 2:4 (beat your swords into plowshares), Matthew 25:31-46 (feed the hungry, give a drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, visit the sick and imprisoned), and the like. It has opened my eyes to issues both local and global to which I might not have otherwise had such deep exposure. However, it was my tenure at DePaul University which really caused me to pause and reflect on why I do what I do.

I became involved in activist work on a number of different issues during my time at DePaul, doing international human rights activism through Amnesty International and working as a student organizer on DePaul’s Living Wage Campaign (targeted to guarantee living wages for all subcontracted workers at DePaul), so my attendance at the May Day rally was a natural fit. My time to reflect on my activism and service work while at DePaul has introduced me to the Vincentian (in the tradition of St. Vincent DePaul) understanding of this work; at DePaul, we talk about what we call the three ways of VIA (Vincentians in Action): awareness, dialogue, and solidarity – be aware of the context of the justice/service work, ask questions and talk with marginalized communities on a human-to-human basis, then act on that knowledge and understanding. Additionally, DePaul has given me the framework of human dignity as a rationale for such work; our Christian faith mandates that we respect and work for the promotion of dignity, and God requires that we seek justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God.

As I have come to discover, I found the richness and beauty of my Wesleyan/Methodist identity mediated through my Vincentian identity. Wesley cared about and reached out to the poor and the oppressed, the worker and the marginalized. The first Social Creed (adopted in 1908 by the Methodist Episcopal Church) dealt exclusively with labor rights, and the tradition continues today through our Social Principles, the work of the GBCS, and the work of MFSA. My involvement in and support for labor and immigrant rights is very much part and parcel of my Christian faith. And this is why MFSA matters to me. It gives me and many others an opportunity to exercise our faith in what may be considered an unorthodox way, but in a way that is is both personally and socially significant. For as Wesley said, “there is no holiness but social holiness”.

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Kara Johansen Crawford is a senior at DePaul University, graduating in June with a BA in International Studies and Peace, Justice and Conflict Studies. Kara has been actively involved in both activism and community service while at DePaul and is particularly passionate about labor justice, issues involving Latin America, and engaging faith communities on social issues.

Can't We Leave Jesus Out?

When I turned eighteen, I thought it would be a good idea to get a cross and flame tattoo on my back. I had grown up United Methodist and attributed much of my radical politics to my mother, who is a pastor, and because of that, I also attributed those radical politics to The UMC. Both my parents taught me social justice as a Christian value. So I was pretty surprised after I turned eighteen to see that The UMC was not as radical a place as I thought it was. I was appalled to find out that The UMC did not ordain what the Discipline names self-avowed, practicing homosexuals.

Later, after becoming a lay delegate to Annual Conference as a Junior, I was appalled at the opulence of the hotels our conference is held in and the slow-moving bureaucracy that is our church. So I wondered: what were some of the ways I could transform that tattoo into something else, something no longer Methodist-related? But then I went to Student Forum, where I learned about MOSAIC and OnFire, the young adult chapter of MFSA. Here were places where I saw hope for making The UMC into that church I thought it was growing up, that church that practiced the justice that Jesus taught us.

As a seminarian at Drew Theological School, I have had the opportunity to participate in the OnFire Borderlinks immersion trip to the border between the USA and Mexico and later to mobilize with others, including so many United Methodists, on Washington for immigration reform. Those moments were moments where I was proud to be United Methodist, amidst these people working for justice in the world and in our church.

Last semester, I researched Methodist publications for their reactions to the Red Scare, in light of the fearmongering in our time, and was so inspired by what I read about MFSA. In the new history of United Methodism, for instance, the authors write,

"In 1953 [Rev. Jack] McMichael [of the Methodist Federation for Social Action] appeared before the [House Committee on UnAmerican Activities] and challenged its accusations of Communist subversion with such telling references to the ministry of Jesus that an aggravated committee member shouted, 'Can't we leave Jesus out.'" 1

MFSA has shown me that Jesus' ministry is one of subversion, and that The United Methodist Church can live into that same ministry with the help of a few folks committed to justice. Why MFSA? Because they won't leave Jesus out of it; they are working to bring the church into that vision of justice Jesus taught us.

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Shannon is a seminarian and Drew Theological School in Madison, New Jersey, and is pursing ordination in the Baltimore-Washington Conference.


1 Russell E. Richey, Kenneth E. Rowe, and Jean Miller Schmidt, The Methodist History in America: A History, vol. 1, (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2010) 420.