Randy Woodley > Quotes

“A society concerned with shalom will care for the most marginalized among them. God has a special concern for the poor and needy, because how we treat them reveals our hearts, regardless of the rhetoric we employ to make ourselves sound just.”
― Randy S. Woodley

“Jesus, properly understood as shalom, coming into the world from the shalom community of the Trinity, is the intention of God’s once-and-for-all mission. That is, the mission of birthing and restoring shalom to the world is in Christ, by Christ, and for the honor of Christ.”
― Randy Woodley, Shalom and the Community of Creation: An Indigenous Vision (Prophetic Christianity

“Monotheistic peoples have prayed to the Creator of all things for millennia without ever knowing the Second Testament claim that Jesus Christ is the historic Creator. Put simply, if indigenous people have been praying the Creator and the Creator is Christ, to whom have the been praying? Asked in another way, since there exist among indigenous peoples numerous testimonies of the creator's intervention and blessing in their lives, with whom have they been in relationship?
Certainly a broader missional view would have been good news to such people. Instead, indigenous peoples were most often told by Euro-western missionaries that they worshiped another god. One also wonders what has been the effect of a theology that separates the Creator-Son and Savior/Restorer of all things? Such an imbalance has prevented western theologians from understanding a broader view of salvation that has helped maintain a dualism that prevents people from understanding that all creation, together, comes under the covering of Christ's universal restoration.
Based on the past missional perspectives, the result of such an imbalanced theology is apparent -- a weak salvation theology equals a weak god. A weak god is not great enough to reach all peoples everywhere or able to restore all creation. The god of western mission has too often been capricious, carrying with him an exceptionalist theology that favors the categories and conclusions of the Euro-western world. Perhaps God is greater than the west has presumed. There is nowhere that we can travel, including the depths of the ocean or outer space, where Christ is not active in creation. It would seem that part of our job on earth is to discover what Christ is up to, and to join him in it!”
― Randy S. Woodley

“We need to both appreciate and engage leaders and thinkers who are involved in decolonial work, but it is not enough to let them shoulder the burden on their own. Those who occupy a place in centers of power must join in the anticolonial task of examining institutional practices, challenging hurtful and oppressive structures, and interrogating narratives of exclusion and superiority.”
― Randy Woodley, Decolonizing Evangelicalism: An 11:59 p.m. Conversation

“Shalom is communal, holistic, and tangible. There is no private or partial shalom. The whole community must have shalom or no one has shalom. As long as there are hungry people in a community that is well fed, there can be no shalom. . . . Shalom is not for the many, while a few suffer; nor is it for the few while many suffer. It must be available for everyone.”
― Randy S. Woodley

“Shalom is not a utopian destination; it is a constant journey.”
― Randy S. Woodley

“This principle of reciprocity--a give-and-take in a relationship of balance--is not just some transaction done to advance one's own aims. Traditionally, Native Americans see reciprocity as a natural law of the universe and as crucial for humans to maintain harmony.”
― Randy Woodley, Journey to Eloheh: How Indigenous Values Lead Us to Harmony and Well-Being

“God commands both individuals and the society in which they live to be generous and always take care of the poor. In such a community, shalom has a chance to thrive. In such a community, God will actually be glad to assign his name and dwell.”
― Randy S. Woodley

“Western peoples need to develop an more honest history and a shalom-oriented theology, in practical partnership with the indigenous peoples of the world, to gain a better understanding of place. I suggest that the way forward is both structural and relational, requiring honest historical and theological rethinking and a coming to grips with the following concerns: colonialism and neocolonialism; the way current forms of capitalism resist shalom; the way racism affects our thinking and relationships; the practical implications for living on stolen land; how violence is thought to be needed in order to maintain the present system; what true reconciliation looks like. We need to find ways to share power, and we should seek to understand what justice issues are still unresolved among indigenous and other disempowered peoples.”
― Randy S. Woodley

“Myth is not about whether something is fact or fiction; myth is more about truth. Good myth, according to the old adage, is about something that continues to be true again and again, over time.”
― Randy S. Woodley

“As they made their way forward, his grandfather reminded him to keep looking back. If he did not recognize where he had been, his grandfather said, he would never find his way out of those woods.”
― Randy Woodley, Journey to Eloheh: How Indigenous Values Lead Us to Harmony and Well-Being

“In shalom, warring over turf, wealth, or national security are extinct practices. In shalom, family wealth is no longer the point of blessing because living out shalom offers an alternative way for people to view wealth.”
― Randy Woodley, Shalom and the Community of Creation: An Indigenous Vision (Prophetic Christianity

“In order for Christians to muster enough mercy to accept the ramifications of such a broad salvation, we must be willing to rethink our current exclusivist claims on the gospel. . . Shalom living was God's plan for all nations from the beginning. God makes a nation of Abraham specifically for the purposes of spreading shalom as it is demonstrated by practicing justice and righteousness....Where does the condemnation stop and where does the acceptance of those who don't deserve more begin? The answer was clear to Jesus. Acceptance begins with just one. Each and every one.
Ezekiel 16:49 states, "This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy." Such greedy living habits were clear violations of the hospitality ethic, sharing equity and such, that are God's expectations of people living out shalom. Again, the backdrop narrative of Sodom concerns inhospitality to strangers and not taking care of the poor and needy. This is the same rebuke Jesus makes to the Pharisees. Jesus' stories are trying to get the Pharisees to think about God's willingness to welcome and not condemn others whom they feel don't deserve acceptance into God's shalom community of creation. Jesus is still trying to get us all to do the same.”
― Randy S. Woodley

“Western definitions of happiness--and Western maps of how you get there--may even lead you away from well-being.”
― Randy Woodley, Journey to Eloheh: How Indigenous Values Lead Us to Harmony and Well-Being

“Most high, all powerful, all good Lord! All praise is yours, all glory, all honor, and all blessing. To you, alone, Most High, do they belong. No mortal lips are worthy to pronounce your name. Be praised, my Lord, through all your creatures, especially through my lord Brother Sun, who brings the day; and you give light through him. And he is beautiful and radiant in all his splendor! Of you, Most High, he bears the likeness. Be praised, my Lord, through Sister Moon and the stars; in the heavens you have made them, precious and beautiful. Be praised, my Lord, through Brothers Wind and Air, and clouds and storms, and all the weather, through which you give your creatures sustenance. Be praised, My Lord, through Sister Water; she is very useful, and humble, and precious, and pure. Be praised, my Lord, through Brother Fire, through whom you brighten the night. He is beautiful and cheerful, and powerful and strong. Be praised, my Lord, through our sister Mother Earth, who feeds us and rules us, and produces various fruits with colored flowers and herbs.11”
― Randy Woodley, Shalom and the Community of Creation: An Indigenous Vision (Prophetic Christianity

“After more than 530 years of the Western worldview in America, we think it is fair to call the Western worldview a failed experiment. Western civilization has done Turtle Island and the world little good, and it has caused damage beyond compare.”
― Randy Woodley, Journey to Eloheh: How Indigenous Values Lead Us to Harmony and Well-Being

“There are substantial issues that remain, however, related to direction, hierarchy, and paternalism in missional mentalities. The heart and the willingness behind going are to be applauded. Jesus modeled an incarnational gospel and contextual approaches are to be valued over attractional models like those found in the megachurch movement. Concerns abound, though, in the shadow of the colonial legacy. How does one reclaim or reform a concept that has been so thoroughly corrupted and has taken on so much baggage? Is repentance enough? Can the form actually be redeemed and repurposed?”
― Randy Woodley, Decolonizing Evangelicalism: An 11:59 p.m. Conversation

“Remind yourself every day that all things are connected, that all people and things are your relatives.”
― Randy Woodley, Journey to Eloheh: How Indigenous Values Lead Us to Harmony and Well-Being

“Shalom is meant to be both personal (emphasizing our relationships with others) and structural (replacing systems where shalom has been broken or which produce broken shalom, such as war-or greed-driven economic systems). In shalom, the old structures and systems are replaced with new structures and new systems.”
― Randy S. Woodley

“To accept our place as simple human beings—beings who share a world with every seen and unseen creature in this vast community of creation—is to embrace our deepest spirituality.”
― Randy Woodley, Becoming Rooted: One Hundred Days of Reconnecting with Sacred Earth

“But there is hope. The United Nations did a study showing that small farms can feed the world. Small farms are more adaptable. They are less costly, because they don't need extremely expensive machinery, and less environmentally damaging, because they don't need to spray chemicals. And they provide greater local economic opportunities than large industrial farms do. Small farms have been proven to produce higher yields per acre and more nutrient-dense foods.”
― Randy Woodley, Journey to Eloheh: How Indigenous Values Lead Us to Harmony and Well-Being

“There’s a point where you have to stop thinking about all the things that are bothering you and actually watch what’s going on around you. I find that those are the times when Creator speaks to me the most, and usually the deepest. I don’t think there’s any special trick to it.”
― Randy Woodley, Indigenous Theology and the Western Worldview (Acadia Studies in Bible and Theology): A Decolonized Approach to Christian Doctrine

“Such a split--a deadly one, as it turns out, for Native Americans--was reinforced through what is called binary thinking. In binary thinking, Puritans and others operating from that worldview judged everything to be either right or wrong, with no middle ground... This type of absolutism makes it difficult for Western thinkers to hold two seemingly incompatible things in tension without having to find resolution.”
― Randy Woodley, Journey to Eloheh: How Indigenous Values Lead Us to Harmony and Well-Being

“When I go out and I listen in creation and I’m listening to the birds, then all of a sudden the Spirit speaks in my heart. It’s not necessarily always silence. Engaged listening is such a sacred thing, and the Spirit works through that so often.”
― Randy Woodley

“America tells a story about itself. It’s a story based on freedom, equality, opportunity, and fairness. These imagined values spin a narrative that America is the place where the divine story uniquely comes together with the human story and unfolds as divine providence. We could call it the myth of American exceptionalism. Together, these notions serve as a location for the American dream. This false narrative has become, to many people, a real place. But the place they imagine is formless. Western minds think of “the land of the free” in terms of all land: a vague place, a nostalgic and fuzzy landscape. America, according to the American dream, is the place where all these wonderful traits are sewn into the national story—and not in any one place, but rather “from sea to shining sea.” When Americans think of land in the abstract realm, it becomes universalized, meaning “all land.” But all land, which is concretely inconceivable, means no land. So land becomes not a real place but an abstract reality. American exceptionalism—and its progeny, the American dream—contains an ethic of extreme competition, to the point where Americans believe we must fight (read “kill others”) to be free and retain our divinely bestowed values. Native Americans were killed by the millions to create this myth. And yet the greatest leaders of all time—Jesus, Buddha, Guru Nanak, Black Kettle, Mahatma Gandhi, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King Jr., and others—call us to peace through very different narratives. Each had the ability to observe the worst of life but tell a story that makes us better. Each told a better story. How do we hear a better story to replace the half-truths of history? We listen to people with a different view who tell another side of history. The fact remains that we live our lives according to our myths—our narratives. We find what fits in such a myth, and we make that part of our own personal story. We leave out the histories that don’t fit our myths, like genocide and ecocide. But when we leave out any part of the story, we distort reality. America has taught people to live against each other and against nature and has justified and even glorified these actions. We have a long way to go to counteract the American myth and reverse the tide. We have a long way to go to accept our reality.”
― Randy Woodley, Becoming Rooted: One Hundred Days of Reconnecting with Sacred Earth

“What Creator first gave us is creation. It’s amazing that when the written Scripture does come along it wonders at, and is in awe of, all of creation and what it has to teach us, including what the animals and the ants have to teach us. Jesus did the same thing. He reveled in the flowers and trees, the seeds and the soil. In a way, Scripture verifies creation as Creator’s first story.”
― Randy Woodley

“Hoarding means both depleting natural resources and creating a storage problem. Neither does it make sense to hoard food away from the needs of others.”
― Randy Woodley, Journey to Eloheh: How Indigenous Values Lead Us to Harmony and Well-Being

“Of course, there are a lot of different contemplative traditions when it comes to silence. In our Native way, we are more or less listening, not just to ourselves or what we would say the Spirit puts in our hearts, but to what’s going on around us. We’re listening to the birds to see what kind of message they have. We’re listening to the wind to see if there’s a song in it for us. It might sound esoteric, but we’re listening to the way that we “spin in silence” by hearing what I believe is perhaps Creator’s most communicative means on earth—which is creation.  

I think of that when I read Luke chapter 4, the story where Jesus goes out into the wilderness for forty days. [...] Jesus was watching creation. He was observing what was going on around him. He was listening. The reason that we know that is because when he comes back, he talks about creation for the rest of his life. He talks about flowers and birds and trees and seeds and crops and the earth, and the soil. He could have talked about all kinds of things—Roman chariots and their power and aqueducts and the ingenuity involved—but that’s not what we have a record of. What we have a record of is someone who seemed to be at peace with the quietness of creation.…”
― Randy Woodley