Amos House is an ecumenical catholic worker community in Nashville, TN. We are currently a scattered-site community meaning that instead of having one common house, we live in different houses across the city. We regularly gather together for worship with Amos House members and friends. We are students and teachers, gardeners and urbanites, activists and contemplatives, urban monastics and Christian anarchists* (see below). We spend our days in tent cities, maximum security prisons, community gardens, non-profits, and local schools and universities. We advocate for the rights of workers and tenants, restorative justice, affordable and accessible housing, food security, care for the earth, and other issues of justice. We are a living experiment in what church could look like without steeples and walls and without paid clergy.
We seek to be a prophetic presence in the Nashville community that brings attention to social ills and speaks the truth of suffering love to the powers that be. We adhere to the principles of non-violence and seek to creatively resist acts of physical and structural violence. Our community is named after the prophet Amos who confronted the wealthy and complacent for ignoring the suffering of the poor and oppressed, who demanded social justice of God’s people, and who exposed the emptiness of religion and ritual apart from sacrificial living and mercy.
Among the practices that we see as essential to our worship as a community are communal prayer, sharing the Eucharist and declaring that all are welcome at Christ’s table, washing the feet of our brothers and sisters, sharing meals and fellowship, and the un-domestication of Scripture through reading it in the margins of society and on our streets. Furthermore, we believe that a life of contemplation and prayer is essential for rooting our actions and our speech in the teachings of Christ and the spirit of God alive in all of us.
CONTACT: amoshousemercyfund@gmail.com
*Christian Anarchism is a loaded term wrought with much historical and cultural baggage. You might ask yourself, “Aren’t anarchists the ones who want to overthrow the government by force?” The answer is yes and no: some who have called themselves anarchists have advocated for violent revolution, but the stream of the tradition we identify with is rooted in non-violence and does not necessarily seek to replace one governing body for another.We at Amos House vary on our emphasis on Christian anarchism, but we all see value in aspects of it, at the very least. The term “anarchy” originates from the Greek word “anarkhos”: an—“without,” arkhos— “rulers.” Christian anarchism shuns hierarchic or “power over” models of leadership and governance, advocating instead for horizontal or “power with” models where decision making happens through consensus. The idea is this: in affirming or pledging allegiance to rulers of this world, Christians reject the authority and reign of God through Christ. (In 1 Samuel 8, Israel petitions Samuel and then God for an earthly king. God responds to Samuel, “It is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king.”) Some have even said that anarchism is more democratic than democracy because of the high level of emphasis placed on making decisions through consensus.The Jesus Radicals website is a helpful resource in understanding Christian anarchism. They articulates the discussion like this: “Without claiming that anarchism is Christian or that one has to be an anarchist to be Christian, we claim that if Christians are to engage with the world, the best available option is anarchism because it opens up space for Christians to engage without selling out their primary allegiances and core commitments, especially to peacemaking and nonviolence. Yet violence is not the only issue at stake in politics. All governments operate on a model of ruling over people. But the Gospels claim that Christians should model Jesus’ suffering servanthood. These are fundamentally incompatible outlooks. Anarchism, at its best, is a commitment to systematically critiquing all structures that place one person or group in a position to dominate others or creation. So anarchism, as a political philosophy holds some promise for Christians because the two share a commitment to critiquing the power structures and working towards a more level playing field.” (http://www.jesusradicals.com/anarchism/)
In the end, Jesus’ kingdom (the one we seek to inhabit here on earth) is upside down and antithetical to the kingdoms of this world. For those of us who claim to follow him, chances are that we might look extreme or maybe even radical (which simply means getting to the “root” of things).
If you’re interested in learning more about Christian anarchism, a helpful place to start is Tripp York’s recent book, Living on Hope While Living in Babylon. Some key figures in the Christian anarchist tradition include Leo Tolstoy, Dorothy Day, Will Campbell, Jacques Ellul, and David Lipscomb, founder of Lipscomb University in Nashville, TN.
