Shaping a More Beautiful Future
This Great Idea comes directly from Diana Butler Bass – and includes everything you need for a fantastic adult and/or youth and adult conversation.
In her November 7, 2025 post, Empire Is Not Beautiful – And Jesus’ Vision for a Better World Is, Diana Butler Bass invites us to compare and contrast a group of four articles.
Reflecting on her new book, Bass writes, ‘A Beautiful Year focuses our theological attention on the “anti-imperial” aspects of Jesus’ life and teachings. The book draws a meditative contrast between the ugliness and cruelty of empire and the beauty of God’s desire for this world.’
Read her whole post here.
She concludes her reflection with an invitation, to compare Jesus’ beautiful vision with ‘two huge news stories this week’ that reveal ‘the fruit of American empire’.
The first two have to do with Tesla shareholders awarding Elon Musk a TRILLION DOLLAR pay package ‘only months after he personally oversaw the destruction of U.S. aid programs. The result? As of now, at least 600,000 people, mostly children, in Africa have died from those cuts.’
- The Shutdown of U.S.A.I.D. Has Already Killed Hundreds of Thousands – The New Yorker Documentary
- The short documentary “Rovina’s Choice” tells the story of what goes when aid goes.
- Film by Thomas Jennings & Annie Wong
- Article by Atul Gawande
- November 5, 2025
- Musk Wins $1 Trillion Pay Package, Creating Split Screen on Wealth in America – The New York Times
The second story is about the Trump Administration withholding SNAP assistance, literally withholding food, leaving one out of eight Americans to go hungry.
- Down to $1.18: How Families Are Coping with SNAP Cuts – The New York Times
AND then throw a lavish Great Gatsby Halloween party the night before the withholding went into effect.
Bass writes, ‘These are just two news stories from a single week in the Roman, er, American empire.
We aren’t a Christian America. Not even a little. We’re the opposite. And genuine Christian faith – the entire message and ministry of Jesus – is counter-cultural resistance to all of this.’
She offers her book as a subversive source of meditation.
I offer ISAIAH as an engaged stance of resistance.
They’re not mutually exclusive!
Let the conversation build community.
Let Bass’s practices feed souls.
Join ISAIAH for their Palm Sunday Path – and beyond – to move us from empire to Jesus’ vision of a much more beautiful world.
Email me with questions about ISAIAH’s Palm Sunday Path, or join this week’s training or December planning.
- Tuesday, November 11, 2025
- 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM CT
- Palm Sunday Path National Training Option 2
- https://secure.everyaction.com/MIgaTm6b1UmOBDCAcjgTBQ2
- Thursday, November 13, 2025
- 1:00 – 3:00 PM CT
- Palm Sunday Path National Training Option 3
- https://secure.everyaction.com/pzcoolGfM0q_ggyCJrDKlQ2
Talk.
Pray.
Organize!
