Since when has anger solved problems? Did Jesus say hate the billionaires? Do we have the courage to resist and call out abusers, yet still turn the other cheek and not engage in violence? Only love, forgiveness, humility , and equality can durably solve our problems. Are you willing to humbly share power equally with everyone else?
I've watched and read your comments this week. I want to read them as charitably as possible. I also want to understand the feeling I get reading them. It feels as though you're here to correct an author rather than connect to them and their experience of the world.
I co-created this stage with our authors to highlight the faithful experiences of people who don't have the privilege of viewing things from the center. The people whose lives, as they bear their souls in this space, may not be safe in the physical spaces they live in. This project, this space is about reading and experiencing scripture through marginalized voices. And, for me, taking that experience of faith into my day and making changes to the way I interact in the world with compassion and justice.
To bear one's soul publicly through acts of vulnerability is no small feat. I admire every one of our writers and their perspective first. The only thing I ever ask of them is to be open to the experiences of others.
I don't know you. I don't know your social location, your historical advantages or disadvantages. All I know is what you've written here. And, it give rise to some anger in me. So, I will offer a couple observations (that may feel more like corrections than connections I admit):
Anger is a God-given emotion hard-wired into our brains to help us know when we've been wronged or a system is unjust (you can read Andy Lester's "The Angry Christian" for more on this). I'd challenge you to separate anger, the emotion needed to bring about change, and anger, the behavior that sometimes gets us in trouble. Jesus overturned tables, that was not a peaceable act of love and forgiveness, he drove people out of the temple because what they were doing was unjust.
Many of our social movements toward equity are born of the anger of people who experience marginalization and oppression. Are the tactics always great, of course not, but anger is what drives the energy for change. As the father of a non-binary kid, I hold my breath when they walk out the door. I'm angry with a world that would treat them as though they are less than, without love, forgiveness, humility, and equity. I will do my damnedest to protect them and challenge the systems that harm them.
Sometimes love means holding people accountable for their actions, which often makes them angry and they lash out. Sometimes, forgiveness means making peace with our anger through the another's ability to change and hold themselves responsible for the harm they've done (see restorative justice material for more on this). Blanket forgiveness is garbage when there is no accountability. Humility is an accurate appraisal of what we're good at and where we have room to grow, it's not a meek stance toward the world that doesn't speak truth to power. Equity is absent in this world and our public discourse is constantly harmful to those who have little power.
Anger makes us speak loudly for justice. Today, the church has largely abdicated it's voice and allowed Christian Nationalism to rise by being quiet and peaceable, that makes me apoplectic.
I am always happy for people to engage with this project, which seeks to transform the ways we practice our faith through lenses that aren't our own.
My goal in building it with these wonderfully diverse people and points of view was to spark imagination toward a better way of living with compassion and justice.
I'm tired of purity and doctrinal debates. I'm tired of academic discourse and the siloing that comes from it. I'm tired of good people who want a world of love, forgiveness, humility, and equity being silent while their siblings bear the brunt of an angry world while they shout "thoughts and prayers."
I don't want debate, and truth be told I'm damn good at it. I want change so that my kid grows up feeling as though the world loves them for who they are, not how they conform.
Thank you for reading here. Thank you for challenging. I hope you're challenging yourself to experience the world through the experiences of our authors rather than solely the content of your beliefs. Empathy, which is missing from your list above, is the cornerstone of love and forgiveness.
I hope you will continue this journey with us and begin with a question of "why would they write this about the scripture passage" rather than how I'm reading it, which is "let me tell them what they did wrong."
--Rev. Dr. Jason Whitehead, Lead Curator, Daily Ripple
Thank you Rev. Dr. Whitehead for explaining your views. Which seminary did you attend?
Empathy is certainly helpful. As a former public school teacher, instinctively provided students with questions and balanced views on hot issues. As a Quaker Unitarian now politically independent after spending decades futilely searching for answers to our political problems with all four biggest parties, then God showed me Jesus already had the answers. Now, joyfully voting again for "all of the above" for President this year to represent the shared executive power we should all want. Why do we want to exclude each other from power by accepting our dysfunctional winner-take-all system, when the Swiss have already proved executive power can be shared? We cannot achieve lasting peace without equally sharing power by consensus/spiritual unity, but how many churches still use the force of majority rules or elevate elders over all others?
Please do not allow your fear for your child to inspire more anger and hatred that only harms him in the long run...trust God will provide. Jesus' anger was a necessary part of God's plan to get him on the cross to save us all from our selfish interests.
Since when has anger solved problems? Did Jesus say hate the billionaires? Do we have the courage to resist and call out abusers, yet still turn the other cheek and not engage in violence? Only love, forgiveness, humility , and equality can durably solve our problems. Are you willing to humbly share power equally with everyone else?
George
I've watched and read your comments this week. I want to read them as charitably as possible. I also want to understand the feeling I get reading them. It feels as though you're here to correct an author rather than connect to them and their experience of the world.
I co-created this stage with our authors to highlight the faithful experiences of people who don't have the privilege of viewing things from the center. The people whose lives, as they bear their souls in this space, may not be safe in the physical spaces they live in. This project, this space is about reading and experiencing scripture through marginalized voices. And, for me, taking that experience of faith into my day and making changes to the way I interact in the world with compassion and justice.
To bear one's soul publicly through acts of vulnerability is no small feat. I admire every one of our writers and their perspective first. The only thing I ever ask of them is to be open to the experiences of others.
I don't know you. I don't know your social location, your historical advantages or disadvantages. All I know is what you've written here. And, it give rise to some anger in me. So, I will offer a couple observations (that may feel more like corrections than connections I admit):
Anger is a God-given emotion hard-wired into our brains to help us know when we've been wronged or a system is unjust (you can read Andy Lester's "The Angry Christian" for more on this). I'd challenge you to separate anger, the emotion needed to bring about change, and anger, the behavior that sometimes gets us in trouble. Jesus overturned tables, that was not a peaceable act of love and forgiveness, he drove people out of the temple because what they were doing was unjust.
Many of our social movements toward equity are born of the anger of people who experience marginalization and oppression. Are the tactics always great, of course not, but anger is what drives the energy for change. As the father of a non-binary kid, I hold my breath when they walk out the door. I'm angry with a world that would treat them as though they are less than, without love, forgiveness, humility, and equity. I will do my damnedest to protect them and challenge the systems that harm them.
Sometimes love means holding people accountable for their actions, which often makes them angry and they lash out. Sometimes, forgiveness means making peace with our anger through the another's ability to change and hold themselves responsible for the harm they've done (see restorative justice material for more on this). Blanket forgiveness is garbage when there is no accountability. Humility is an accurate appraisal of what we're good at and where we have room to grow, it's not a meek stance toward the world that doesn't speak truth to power. Equity is absent in this world and our public discourse is constantly harmful to those who have little power.
Anger makes us speak loudly for justice. Today, the church has largely abdicated it's voice and allowed Christian Nationalism to rise by being quiet and peaceable, that makes me apoplectic.
I am always happy for people to engage with this project, which seeks to transform the ways we practice our faith through lenses that aren't our own.
My goal in building it with these wonderfully diverse people and points of view was to spark imagination toward a better way of living with compassion and justice.
I'm tired of purity and doctrinal debates. I'm tired of academic discourse and the siloing that comes from it. I'm tired of good people who want a world of love, forgiveness, humility, and equity being silent while their siblings bear the brunt of an angry world while they shout "thoughts and prayers."
I don't want debate, and truth be told I'm damn good at it. I want change so that my kid grows up feeling as though the world loves them for who they are, not how they conform.
Thank you for reading here. Thank you for challenging. I hope you're challenging yourself to experience the world through the experiences of our authors rather than solely the content of your beliefs. Empathy, which is missing from your list above, is the cornerstone of love and forgiveness.
I hope you will continue this journey with us and begin with a question of "why would they write this about the scripture passage" rather than how I'm reading it, which is "let me tell them what they did wrong."
--Rev. Dr. Jason Whitehead, Lead Curator, Daily Ripple
Thank you Rev. Dr. Whitehead for explaining your views. Which seminary did you attend?
Empathy is certainly helpful. As a former public school teacher, instinctively provided students with questions and balanced views on hot issues. As a Quaker Unitarian now politically independent after spending decades futilely searching for answers to our political problems with all four biggest parties, then God showed me Jesus already had the answers. Now, joyfully voting again for "all of the above" for President this year to represent the shared executive power we should all want. Why do we want to exclude each other from power by accepting our dysfunctional winner-take-all system, when the Swiss have already proved executive power can be shared? We cannot achieve lasting peace without equally sharing power by consensus/spiritual unity, but how many churches still use the force of majority rules or elevate elders over all others?
Please do not allow your fear for your child to inspire more anger and hatred that only harms him in the long run...trust God will provide. Jesus' anger was a necessary part of God's plan to get him on the cross to save us all from our selfish interests.