Where the Water Goes Around

Book excerpt: Where the Water Goes Around is a biblical and political reading of Detroit over the course of three decades by an activist pastor. Detroit is a place where one can take the temperature of the world. Think on the rise of Fordism and auto-love, the Arsenal of Democracy, the practice of the sit-down strike, or the invention of the expressway and suburban mall. Consider more recently the rebellion of 1967, the deindustrialization of a union town, the assault on democracy in this black-majority city, the structural adjustments of municipal bankruptcy, and now a struggle for water as a human right. Bill Wylie-Kellermann tells the story of working out his "place-based vocation" with a simultaneous commitment to gospel nonviolence. He evokes the place Anishinabe peoples tread lightly the banks of Wawiatanong, "where the waters go round." One narrative thread walks a procession through the streets, a contemporary "stations of the cross," to the locations of crucifixion today. It names the occupying principalities and their outposts on the ground. Another tells the story of resurrection in struggle and human community. Herein are public disruptions, liturgical direct actions, and courtroom trials. In resistance and risk, this book proclaims gospel in context.