Very pleased to find a strong review in Publishers weekly for our new book, SPLIT TICKET, coming out next month. Publishers Weekly is one of the if not the most influential trades in the publishing biz. So a positive nod from them can go a long way.
To see the review on the PW site itself, click on this link.
To order SPLIT TICKET, click here.
Split Ticket: Independent Faith in a Time of Partisan Politics
Edited by Amy Gopp, Christian Piatt, Brandon Gilvin, Chalice (Ingram, dist.), $16.99 paper (224p) ISBN 978-0-8272-3474-1
At a time when partisan politics involves backbiting and cynicism, here is a collection of essays about politics aimed at unity and hope. In the spirit of a friendly roundtable, the essay writers, mostly 20- and 30-something pastors, each discuss the importance of Christians involvement in political activism. The writers represent areas from Los Angeles to Bosnia and take up a variety of causes both systemic and personal, including genocide and affordable housing. Their diversity proves that Christians are not a monolith and must wade through what are characterized as competing truths in discerning whether to advocate. Some urge Christians to fight the power of empire, citing the way Jesus challenged the status quo to effect change. Others retreat from activism, citing Jesuss pacifism. Yet the authors all agree that Christians should work against injustice in some way and should employ peaceful debate to work toward unity. Using their own tales of injustice in a post-9/11 world, they force Christians to wake up and take a standeven if they themselves cannot agree on exactly what that should be. (Aug.)
New series of books tackles questions, issues that challenge young Christians
CHIEFTAIN PHOTO/JOHN JAQUES Pueblo author Christian Piatt talks about a series of books he is collaborating on with a variety of authors from throughout the country.
BY LORETTA SWORD
Have you ever questioned the believability of the virgin birth of Jesus Christ? Ever wondered why, if Mary conceived as a virgin, the Bible traces Christs lineage through Joseph?
Chances are youve pondered these questions and many others about the Bible or Jesus, but never discussed them with other Christians and certainly never in church.
Thats what gave local author/editor Christian Piatt and partner Brandon Gilvin the idea for WTF (Wheres the Faith), a series of books that pose such questions to a wide variety of religious, agnostic, social justice and other leaders and thinkers some of them well-known in religious and spiritual circles. The books are published by Chalice Press. Gilvin is the associate director of Week of Compassion, an international relief and aid ministry of the national Disciples of Christ organization, based in Kansas City, Mo.
The books are aimed primarily at young adults a demographic that churches are struggling to hold onto as their congregations dwindle in all age brackets.
The first book in the series, OH God, Oh GOD, OH GOD! Young Adults Speak Out About Sexuality and Christian Spirituality, was released earlier this year and provides honest and open dialogue about the beauty and gift of sexuality while understanding it in a mature way, including the risks and consequences but without the moral and doctrinal overtones of most Christian books on the topic, Piatt said.
He and Gilvin edited the book, and Piatt contributed an essay about abortion.
Two more books, which address questions that many Christians ponder but rarely explore in depth or among each other, will be published next year the first, Banned Questions about the Bible, in February and the second, Banned Questions about Jesus, in August 2011.
All of the books take a more emergent-church approach. Theres no focus on denominations or creeds so much as on content and providing a variety of information, including other sources to study, to help people make up their own minds. Were trying to present multiple perspectives so people can choose for themselves. Its about seeking your own understanding of various issues through prayerful seeking, and trusting that if you take the first step, God will meet you halfway and help you find the answers youre seeking, Piatt said.
Churches are dying everywhere, and I believe its because theres been a disconnect between the lives of most people and what they hear in church on Sunday.
These books are intended to break down the taboo of We dont talk about that in church. In a healthy church, there should be no boundaries, no limitations about what is explored. Were supposed to bring our whole, human selves to the church and to our faith.
Another book due out this August, Split Ticket: Independent Faith in a Time of Partisan Politics, addresses the interconnectedness of faith and politics and explores how Christians can be part of the process without violating their faith or turning their backs on social justice issues and the political process for fear of conflict. Piatt is a contributor as well as co-editor of this volume.
You People: Faith and Race, will follow Split Ticket. All of the finished books are available through the Chalice Press website or its catalogs, at Amazon.com or through Piatts website. Some also are available by special order online from Barnes & Noble and smaller national booksellers, and all are stocked at Cokesbury Christian book stores nationwide. The works in progress will be as well after publication.
Piatt, who founded Pueblos Milagro Christian Church six years ago with his wife, Amy, who is pastor there, said the Oh God book already has sold more than 1,500 copies to individuals and to churches that are using them in youth groups and young-adult book-study groups.
The content is heavy enough that we wouldnt recommend just throwing these books in a teens lap and saying have at it. It needs to be navigated with the help of an adult leader, Piatt said.
Despite brisk sales and many positive reviews in Christian and mainline publications, negative reaction from some conservative Christian groups has surfaced, too, Piatt said, but his response is always the same: Why is it that sexuality cant be discussed in the context of faith unless the whole focus is abstinence, which we all know doesnt work?
He gets few responses to that question, he said, and doesnt worry about the criticism because the people who react that way arent the target audience for our books.
The same critics no doubt will see the banned questions books, and Split Ticket, as too frank and not nice, he predicts.
But we believe its more important to be authentically relevant than it is to be nice. Jesus wasnt always nice. He challenged the status quo and he didnt tolerate injustice. He encouraged frank discussion about difficult issues. But some Christians cant tolerate controversy or confrontation at all, and others only get involved often in an angry, intolerant way with all the things they are against.
Piatt said he and his partner in the WTF series, and authors who contributed responses to questions or essays despite their widely divergent religious beliefs all believe that our responsibility is to get actively involved in these things were afraid to talk about so that younger Christians, especially, will be more inclined to form deeper commitments to their faith and to service than to abandon their church, or religion altogether. They can only do that if theyve reached their own conclusions rather than having beliefs force-fed to them.
At the end of life, Piatt said, what will matter most is not how many souls someone has saved or how many foreign missions were conducted, or how big and beautiful the church is because believers were willing to give cash but not their time.
What Jesus will want to know of every individual, he said, is What did you do for the poor, for the oppressed, for the imprisoned for the least among us?
Doing nothing, he said, only condones the suffering and injustices that humans inflict upon each other.
Not getting engaged, not dealing with these issues, is not an option if you consider yourself a person of faith.
For more information about the WTF series, upcoming books, or past titles by Piatt, go to: www.christianpiatt.com, which also provides links to videos of Piatt and some of the other authors and a link to his blog.
This video talks about our upcoming book on Faith and Politics, called SPLIT TICKET. The song in the background is one of my spoken word pieces, called “Revolution.”
Dont Ask, Dont Tell
in Church?
By Christian Piatt
Originally published in PULP
Lots of adjectives have been attached to my name in the past, but provocative is one that seems to keep sticking. As a writer of mainly theological material, its expected that Ill use certain buzzwords and will avoid some topics that simply should not be talked about in polite company, let alone church.
Sounds like a challenge. I like challenges.
Enter the new book series Im co-creating and editing for Chalice Press, called Wheres the Faith? The acronym by which the series is known is WTF?, a brief nod to the provocateur in me. Part of the idea behind this series of books on matters of young adults and faith is to tackle the issues were supposedly not allowed to, so of course, the first book out of the gate had to be about sex.
After about eighteen months of planning and hard work, Oh God, Oh God, OH GOD: Young adults speak out about sexuality and Christian Spirituality hit the streets to at least so far rave reviews. The common sentiment, at least from those who will actually pick the thing up, is that its about time we started talking about things like alternatives to abstinence-only sex education, homosexuality, pornography and other hot-button topics.
For the essay on homosexuality, I was excited to bring on my friend, Shannon, who attended seminary as an openly gay man with my wife, Amy, back in Texas. In his essay, Growing Up Gay, he talks in both humorous and heartbreaking terms about what its like being a man living in a faith calling, while also being transparent about his sexual orientation.
I was afraid of being stabbed in the middle of the night, he writes, recalling his childhood in North Carolina, and of being kidnapped, of being beaten up by the bully at school, of failing my grade and of missing the rapture. I was most afraid, however, of being different in general and of being gay in particular. I didnt want to be laughed at and made fun of and called names. Instead, I just wanted to fit in and be like everyone else.
As one who serves in a local church, I can tell you that working in ministry isnt exactly the best way to blend in. But he feels led to a life of spiritual service, sexuality aside, and so the long, uphill climb began.
Actually, the phrase sexuality aside doesnt exactly fit the situation, as I learned while watching him struggle through the ordination process. When a seminary student completes his or her graduate school requirements and practical ministry work in our denomination, they may apply to be ordained by a team of other ministers in their region. Our denomination, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), varies widely from region to region in policies, given that we have an intentionally weak central governance structure.
But this also means that, while some states or regions will gladly ordain openly gay ministers, others are less affirming, or even tolerant. No surprise that Fort Worth, Texas, fell into the less affirming category. Basically, they take the Bill Clinton approach to this issue, which is dont ask, dont tell, at least during the ordination process. This creates a system that, put simply, asks people seeking a life in ministry to lie or obfuscate to their peers.
Everyone on the ordination committee who knew Shannon knew he was gay, and if you meet him, its not exactly hard to figure out. I mean, the guy has a poster of Barbara Streisand in his entryway, for Gods sake. But he was advised to make his sexuality a non-issue as he moved through the process, buying into the game long enough to get his certification, at least.
Easy enough for someone who is straight to say. As a left-handed person in a right-handed world, I notice how very little righties think about being right-handed. But we lefties encounter things every day, from scissors to keyboards and so on, that make real the bias of the world against our nature.
I can only imagine the anger and disappointment Shannon must have felt in being told that something so central to his identity was a non-issue. On the contrary, his sexual orientation had everything to do with his ministry. Not that he wanted to start a gay church or anything, but it pointed to the very issues of justice and compassion of which he has become an unfortunate object lesson, far too many times.
So he came out to the committee and forced its members to deny him ordination because of his orientation, which they did. Several times in years since, he has considered leaving the ministry, though we encourage him to hang in there. After all, why would the systems ever change if theres no one on the inside trying to break down the old walls of intolerance?
Its tragic, though, that his road is so much harder than ours, simply because of who he is. What in the world would Jesus think?
If you have been following the three-part WTF Chat on my podcast with my WTF? (Wheres the Faith?) book co-creator and co-editor Brandon Gilvin, or if youve been waiting until all three parts were available at once, the time has come.
Check out http://christianpiatt.podbean.com/ for parts one through three-now available, or as usual, search Piatt in iTunes.
I also have a podcast posted about the most dangerous four-letter word in the English language. This is a sermon I offered at Milagro Christian Church in Pueblo Colorado and at Lees Summit Christian Church in Missouri, both in August.
http://christianpiatt.podbean.com/
Dig it.