Sharon Delgado

Pastor, Author, Speaker, Activist

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Year: 2013

  • Hope for Transformation

    As 2013 ends and 2014 begins, I carry hope in my heart for transformation, not just personal, but social.  The phrase “another world is possible” is, for me, a matter of faith. There are many children in my life.  I have grandchildren and great grandchildren who live nearby.  I teach Sunday School.  What will the…

  • Seasonal Antidotes to Consumer Culture

    On Sunday the children of our church performed a Christmas pageant, complete with Mary, Joseph, angels, shepherds, wise ones, sheep, and a talking donkey.  The children sang Christmas carols and at times the congregation sang along. As I mentioned in my last blog post, The Revolutionary Stories of Baby Jesus, the biblical stories of Jesus’…

  • The Revolutionary Stories of Baby Jesus

    This page includes an Excerpt from Chapter 15, “The Triumph of God Over the Powers” in Shaking the Gates of Hell:  Faith-Led Resistance to Corporate Globalization by Sharon Delgado. During Advent and Christmas, Christians around the world celebrate the stories surrounding Jesus’ birth in pageants and liturgies. Literalists insist that these stories must be taken as…

  • More Arrests at Beale

    On Tuesday, November 26, I was at Beale Air Force Base when four more people were arrested  while nonviolently protesting drone warfare.  Flora Rogers, Mike Kerr, MacGregor Eddy, and Shirley Osgood (with whom I was arrested at Beale in October 2012) were attempting to deliver a letter to Colonel Phillip A. Stewart, the base commander,…

  • A Corporate Coup

    The World Trade Organization (WTO) is meeting this week in Bali, Indonesia, where anti-WTO demonstrators have taken over the streets.  On Tuesday, the first day of the talks, demonstrations were held around the world to mark the Global Day of Action Against Toxic Trade Agreements. A particular focus for protestors here in the United States…

  • Gratitude and Cultural Resistance

    Jesus said, “You cannot serve both God and Mammon,” because if you do, your motives and loyalties will be divided.  You will be torn between 1) following the divine will and 2) acquiring money, wealth, worldly possessions, “stuff.”    I write in detail about “Market Fundamentalism:  The Religion of Mammon” in my book, Shaking the Gates of…

  • A Call for Climate Justice

    People around the world have responded swiftly and generously to the devastation in the Philippines caused by Typhoon Haiyan, the largest storm ever recorded.  In the wake of this disaster, it is important for us to go beyond simple relief efforts.  We must heed the warnings of climate scientists who point to present disasters and…

  • November Tomatoes and Climate Change

    It’s mid-November, and our plants are still bearing red tomatoes.  The days are  warm, it doesn’t freeze at night, and it hasn’t rained.  Maybe when we lived in Santa Cruz we still had tomatoes in November, but in the Sierra Nevada?  It should be raining or snowing here. Over 50% of the United States is…

  • Speaking Out Against Drone Attacks

    I was moved the other day when my daughter posted to FaceBook and commented on the story of the drone strike in Pakistan that killed a grandmother, Mamana Bibi, and injured several of her grandchildren while they were working in the family garden.  My daughter wrote:  “Imagine a 68 year old woman picking vegetables with…

  • Resistance and Contemplation

    Contemplative prayer is the practice that grounds my personal relationships and my work.  This grounding in prayer is a means through which the Holy Spirit, when I am open, equips me with clarity, compassion, and courage to resist the Powers that would destroy and diminish life.  As Karl Barth said, “To clasp the hands in…