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What is “Deep Conversion?"
“Our economy is slowly destroying its support systems...Demands of the expanding economy, as now structured, are surpassing the sustainable yield of ecosystems…Other civilizations in the past have collapsed due to these same problems."
Economist Lester Brown, 2001
“The Great Turning…is a name for the transition from the industrial growth society to a life-sustaining society. It identifies the shift from a self-destroying political economy to one in harmony with Earth and enduring for the future. It unites and includes all the actions being taken to honor and preserve life on Earth. It is the essential adventure of our time.”
Deep Ecology Advocate and Buddhist Scholar, Joanna Macy, 2006
“In all the greatest forward movements of humanity, religion has been one of the driving forces. The deadweight of hoary institutions and the resistance of the caked and encrusted customs and ideas of the past are so great that unless the dormant energies of the people are awakened by moral enthusiasm and religious faith, the old triumphs over the new."
Social Gospel Theologian and Baptist Minister, Walter Rauschenbusch, 1907
“Deep Conversion” is, most simply, about the progressive, daily, practical living – on personal and systemic levels – of an ideal vision of a sustainable, fairness infused world. This ideal vision is held in common, high value by the modern, secular prophets of environmentalism and social justice, on the one hand, and by the Jewish prophets of the Old Testament and Jesus Christ, on the other. Other world religions have similar ideals. But, for too long our ideals and our living actions have not been aligned – we have not “converted” our whole lives and societies to reflect what we say we most value, even in the Church. But we can do better.
While, for most of recorded human history, this lack of alignment has been a moral tragedy for many, it is now both an extreme moral as well as a basic survival crisis for all, due to our unjust and unsustainable systems and lifestyles. A “deep” – meaning beyond the conceptual or technical and into the concrete, structural and cultural – “conversion” – meaning transformation – is, therefore, humanity’s common calling, and particularly the Church’s, at this time in history. While encouraging change has certainly begun, a “same, but greener” expectation is folly. More intense shifts are yet to come, but we will ultimately be the better and happier for them.
Many will fear these changes, and many will resist them, as they call for sacrifices of various “golden calves,” among our worldviews, business practices, theologies and rituals, laws, daily habits, means of making a living, and modes of relating to others. But to the resisters and to anyone looking for extra inspiration, religious or not, we commend the ancient story of the people of Israel when they left the exploitive, slave-based societal system of Egypt and set out into the wilderness on a mission to create a new, peaceful and justice based culture.
The Israelites undertook their Exodus on faith, and it was difficult, and they made numerous mistakes – even committed hypocrisies. But they made it through the wilderness, often got closer to their ideals, regained significant integrity, and knew the joy of a greater purpose in their hearts. History has certainly seen improved societal conditions moved by their example – from the early Christian Church to India’s home rule to American civil rights and so many others. Imagine what greatness humanity, with an inspired purpose, might achieve today, with all the additional consciousness, healing, technological, faith, scientific, cultural diversity, democratic, historical wisdom, economic, communication, and transformational process resources available.
No one yet lives in the perfected “promised land,” as the story is unfinished, and who knows when we ever will? Yet, the necessary “deep conversion” at hand now offers us a profound opportunity, in addition to a great challenge, to dust off and combine our ideals with renewed hope, energy, and discipline toward the solid manifestation of a more loving, life-affirming, beautiful, and secure global community than history has ever seen. It is to this cause of the movement from ideal to actual that Deep Conversion Communications is dedicated.
What story are you and your organization or church living?
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