Advent Peace / Non-Violent Resistance & the Uninvited Christ / David Dark

Part 2 of 4 in our 2023 Advent Series. David Dark introduces a new way of thinking about non-violent resistance, which he dubs "Robot Soft Exorcism," whereby, in an appeal to our common humanity, we call each other out of the potentially violent power structures and systems we all (knowingly or unknowingly) inhabit. 

Show Notes

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• Evan Rosa & Macie Bridge introduce the episode
• Thomas Merton, “The Time of the End Is the Time of No Room” in Raids on the Unspeakable, pages 51-52 (check it out): “Into this world, this demented inn, in which there is absolutely no room for him at all, Christ comes uninvited. But because he cannot be at home in it, because he is out of place in it, and yet he must be in it, his place is with those others for whom there is no room. His place is with those who do not belong, who are rejected by power because they are regarded as weak, those who are discredited, who are denied the status of persons, tortured, exterminated. With those for whom there is no room, Christ is present in this world. He is mysteriously present in those for whom there seems to be nothing but the world at its worst.” 
• David Dark's Robot Soft Exorcism Twitter Thread: https://twitter.com/DavidDark/status/1012804184868048896
• Robot Soft Exorcism
• Ephesians 6:12: "For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places."
• Walter Wink's Powers series
• Turning the other cheek; demanding to be punched as an equal
• "Robot soft exorcism is inviting someone to be a human being rather than just being their position."
• Breaking it down: The Robot Part
• Breaking it down: The Exorcism Part
• Thoreau: "We all crave reality."
• Buddhists surrendering a spirit of conflict or difference before parting
• Karl Barth: If you don't have any solid difference with the person with whom you exchange the peace of Christ, the peace of Christ isn't there because the peace has to overcome some kind of difference."
• Opinion, Posture, Position: None ever have to be confused with one's identity.
• Divesting ourselves of the power we carry through the world
• Breaking it down: The Soft Part
• Civil Rights Movement is actually the Non-Violent Movement of America
• "One human exchange at a time."
• Mantra: "I wrestle not against flesh and blood." (Ephesians 6:12)
• Advent/Christmas as the prototypical Robot Soft Exorcism
• Bruce Coburn: "Redemption rips through the surface of time in the cry of a tiny babe."
• "We're really going against the news cycle if we insist on the meaning of human history being in this manger scene. To be alive to it, to be citizens of a better future than what is being settled for by our robot overlords."

Production Notes

• This podcast featured David Dark
• Edited and Produced by Evan Rosa
• Hosted by Evan Rosa
• Production Assistance by Macie Bridge
• A Production of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School https://faith.yale.edu/about
• Support For the Life of the World podcast by giving to the Yale Center for Faith & Culture: https://faith.yale.edu/give