tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-161535202024-03-18T23:59:10.887-04:00NathanDayWilsonI write about culture and community, faith and family, humor and sometimes heartache. If you agree with what I write, be in touch; if you disagree, just wait for me to be in touch with you. Actually, feel free to read, reflect and respond.NATHAN D WILSONhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14792866131114687443noreply@blogger.comBlogger208125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16153520.post-88140847570332517232020-03-15T11:45:00.003-04:002020-03-15T12:00:36.091-04:00Fear and love in the day of COVID-19<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 12.5pt;">Fear is not all bad.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 12.5pt;">It has, in fact, vital roles. For instance, it can move us to
marshal resources in the face of crisis. It can cause us to pause before doing
something potentially destructive to others or self. It factors into our fight
or flight decision-making.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 12.5pt;">At the same time, though, I’m sure you agree that excessive fear
is dangerous. It can lead to misperceptions and destabilize our interactions.
It can contribute to depression and cause us to focus on easy,
often-scapegoating solutions to complex problems.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 12.5pt;">These days, there is plenty of fear. Coronavirus. The stock
markets. The election.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 12.5pt;">Those are in addition to the usual fear or anxiety-producing
events like finding or losing a job, changes in health or health care, and
relationship difficulties.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 12.5pt;">There’s much to unpack about legitimate and illegitimate fear,
about the causes and products of anxiety, and about the social and mental
constructs that filter and shape our perceptions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 12.5pt;">For today, though, let me offer a word of comfort by simply
reminding us that the phrase “fear not” is one of the most common in the Bible.
It appears some 366 times. That’s a “fear not” for every single day of the
year, even during a leap year like this one.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 12.5pt;">Fear not is in the Bible’s first book (Genesis) and its last
(Revelation). It rolls off the tongue of Joseph to his brothers, Moses to his
followers and Jesus to his disciples. It is sung by the psalmist and pronounced
by the prophet.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 12.5pt;">Fear not is a frequent refrain when people are embarking on
distinct new ventures in life, such as in the Book of Acts. In Acts 18,
Acts 27 and other places, Paul encourages those with him to “fear not” and keep
their courage.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 12.5pt;">There are texts often used at funerals, such as Isaiah 41:10,
“Fear not, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will
strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right
hand.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 12.5pt;">I’ve been to more than one ordination service for a Christian
minister that included spoken or sung renditions of Psalm 27: “The Lord is my
light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my
life; of whom shall I be afraid?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 12.5pt;">Fear not is all over the Bible. It’s as though the compilers and
inspirer of Scripture had a hunch that fear was a prominent emotion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 12.5pt;">I wonder what’s at the core of excessive fear. Sure, there are
events and happenstances in life such as the ones I named above, but they don’t
produce fear so much as reveal it. What’s at its core?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 12.5pt;">Is a lack of trust – in God, in others, in ourselves – at the
core of fear? In other words, since I lack trust in God, I fear my
circumstances; since I lack trust in others, I fear them; since I lack trust in
myself, I fear being honest about my strengths and my shortcomings.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 12.5pt;">Or is self-centeredness at the core of fear? That is, since I
think raising my status depends on depreciating others, I fear them. Since I
think my security hinges on excluding others, I fear them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 12.5pt;">I’m not sure what’s at the root of this nearly ubiquitous
emotion. Whatever it is, though, it seems to have a mutually limiting relationship
with love.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 12.5pt;">You’ve probably heard, as I have, that divine love can cast out
fear. I think that’s true. Equally true, it seems to me, is that <b>human fear can
cast out love</b>.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Nathan Day Wilson</div>NATHAN D WILSONhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14792866131114687443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16153520.post-69385015300382000462020-02-27T12:30:00.000-05:002020-02-27T12:30:02.685-05:00You are God's beloved<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Nathan Day Wilson</div>NATHAN D WILSONhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14792866131114687443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16153520.post-76442812157442380512020-02-16T13:46:00.003-05:002020-02-16T13:47:27.470-05:00How Religious People Can Actually Help -- TEXT<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="Fid_13" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Interfaith unity can reduce misconceptions</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Your Turn</span></div>
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<span class="Fid_14" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Nathan Day Wilson Guest columnist</span></div>
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<span class="Fid_11" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Some describe the United States of America as the most religiously diverse country, while others depict it as the most religiously devout, at least of nations in the northern hemisphere.</span></div>
<div class="abody" style="font-size: 1em; line-height: normal; margin-right: 15px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px 10px;">
<span class="Fid_11" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Regardless, the important issue is how we allow religion to shape us. Will religion be a source of conflict or of community, a basis for clashing or for cooperating?</span></div>
<div class="abody" style="font-size: 1em; line-height: normal; margin-right: 15px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px 10px;">
<span class="Fid_11" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">With kids enrolled in two universities and frequent interactions with students at a different university, I recently thought about how this religious interaction is particularly pronounced on campuses. Colleges and universities are ideally positioned to help all of society determine effective ways to recognize religious diversity and promote cooperation.</span></div>
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<span class="Fid_11" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Diversity, by itself, is not automatically socially constructive. History shows that when diversity – whether it’s racial, ethnic or religious – is left unattended, it can lead to tensions, intolerance and even outright conflict.</span></div>
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<span class="Fid_11" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">But when diversity is positively engaged, as history also shows, it can build social cohesion and social capital.</span></div>
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<span class="Fid_11" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Similarly, interactions between people of different faiths are not</span><span class="Fid_11" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> automatically helpful. They require attention.</span></div>
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<span class="Fid_11" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Interfaith engagement has often meant interfaith dialogue. Interfaith dialogue, while certainly important and needed, primarily impacts those involved in the dialogues, which is usually a small group of people.</span></div>
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<span class="Fid_11" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">What’s needed now, alongside dialogue, is broader-scale interfaith cooperation. Interfaith cooperation is a civic imperative, not just a religious interest, and so it is no longer only for a small group of committed dialogists.</span></div>
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<span class="Fid_11" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">If colleges and universities engage religious diversity with the same hopes and resources that they dedicate to other identity and diversity issues, there’s an opportunity for lasting impact.</span></div>
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<span class="Fid_11" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">What, specifically, could this impact be? For starters, maybe we could move closer to a world where there is mutual and ongoing respect among those who claim religious identity and</span><span class="Fid_11" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> those who don’t.</span><span class="Fid_11" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> I used to bristle in academic discussions when others</span></div>
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<span class="Fid_11 split" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">would deride my religious convictions. Their attitude was that because I am a committed Christian, I can’t possibly be as educated or thoughtful about literature or philosophy or science.</span><span class="Fid_11" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> Ridiculous!</span><span class="Fid_11" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> But I’ll be darned if I don’t hear religious people commit the same sin of shortsightedness toward the nonreligious. These religious folks sometimes talk like the</span><span class="Fid_11" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> nonreligious are incapable of acting morally. Ridiculous!</span></div>
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<span class="Fid_11" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Mutual and ongoing respect among those who claim religious identity and those who don’t would move the United States and the world forward.</span></div>
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<span class="Fid_11" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Let’s not leave without this topic without a reminder: Dumbing down religion to “I’m OK, you’re OK,” or saying that all religions are the same is neither helpful nor correct.</span></div>
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<span class="Fid_11" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">They aren’t all the same. Many religions do have similar ethical expectations – namely, treat others the way you want to be treated, and show hospitality to those unlike you – but they have distinct doctrines, rituals and practices, and in some cases, different understandings of what is authoritative in</span><span class="Fid_11" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> life.</span><span class="Fid_11" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> So, all religions are not the same. They should not be treated as</span><span class="Fid_11" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> such.</span><span class="Fid_11" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> But the core issue for us, and especially the us in the U.S. this election year, is to progress – not despite different religious languages and loyalties but because of them.</span></div>
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<span class="Fid_11" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Let it be so. In other</span><span class="Fid_11" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> words,</span><span style="font-style: italic; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> amen.</span><span style="font-style: italic; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> Wilson is a minster of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) serving as director of communications for the Christian Theological Seminary. Read his blog at www.nathandaywilson. com and follow him on Twitter:</span><span style="font-style: italic; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> @nathandaywilson.</span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Nathan Day Wilson</div>NATHAN D WILSONhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14792866131114687443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16153520.post-35191183804488293292020-02-16T13:43:00.004-05:002020-02-16T13:44:10.692-05:00How Religious People Can Actually Help<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Nathan Day Wilson</div>NATHAN D WILSONhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14792866131114687443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16153520.post-61674501894805223442019-12-23T21:43:00.001-05:002020-02-16T13:45:34.387-05:00The hope of now and of next year<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Nathan Day Wilson</div>NATHAN D WILSONhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14792866131114687443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16153520.post-6554196295720967132019-12-15T08:24:00.002-05:002019-12-15T08:24:55.682-05:00Lessons from Hanukkah TEXT VERSION<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="Fid_40" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Lessons we can learn from celebration of Hanukkah</span></div>
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<span class="Fid_38" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">I’m spiritually indebted to Jewish traditions, such as Hanukkah. This year, Hanukkah begins at sunset next Sunday, Dec. 22, and runs until Dec. 30.</span></div>
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<span class="Fid_38" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The word “Hanukkah” comes from the Hebrew verb meaning “to dedicate” and generally is translated as an eight-day festival of lights. Specifically, it refers to the dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem at the end of the Maccabean Revolt, which was a war between Jews and forces from the Seleucid Empire.</span></div>
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<span class="Fid_38" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">There seem to be different versions of what Hanukkah is all about, and all of them have to do with miracles. I will only mention one. The Talmud teaches that there was a small jar with enough oil to light one candle in the Temple’s menorah for one night. Instead, the oil lasted eight nights — and this was the miracle.</span></div>
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<span class="Fid_38" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">These days, the menorah is lit at sunset each night of Hanukkah. Candles are added from right to left, just as Hebrew is read, but they are lit from left to right. Doing so celebrates the new miracle of continued light on each successive night. The blessings that are recited include praise for the One who provides the light and continues to perform miracles.</span></div>
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<span class="Fid_38" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Giving and receiving gifts is an integral part of celebrating Hanukkah. I was told the gifts do not need to be big or bought — in fact, there is some preference to the gifts being homemade — but they are to be shared</span><span class="Fid_38" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> with all loved ones. Oftentimes, children and adults play dreidel together. The game uses a four-sided spinning top, which has a Hebrew letter imprinted on each side; together, the four letters are an acronym for the Hebrew words referring to the miracle of the oil.</span></div>
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<span class="Fid_38" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">There are several songs associated with Hanukkah, such as “Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel” and “Chanukah, Oh Chanukah.”</span></div>
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<span class="Fid_38" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">And, of course, there are certain foods connected with Hanukkah. I’m a fan of latkes (but preferably with very little minced</span></div>
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<span class="Fid_38 split" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">onion). And some good doughnuts, be they jam-filled or not, are always high on my personal list.</span></div>
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<span class="Fid_38" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">All of us, Jewish or not, could learn much from the celebration of Hanukkah.</span></div>
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<span class="Fid_38" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Here are some examples. We could all review that to which we are dedicated. Who or what gets my attention, my allegiance, my affection? Am I dedicating all I should to what I should? Or, do I need to realign my commitments with my values?</span></div>
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<span class="Fid_38" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Here’s another one: How do I define what a miracle is, and what miracles have occurred around me? Maybe they were really big; maybe they were pretty small and certainly not supernatural, but still quite significant. With whom should I share the miracles I’ve witnessed?</span></div>
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<span class="Fid_38" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Just one more for now: Maybe life works somewhat like the oil in the temple jar. The more we share with others, the more we all benefit.</span></div>
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<span style="font-style: italic; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Wilson is an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Follow him on Twitter: @nathandaywilson</span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Nathan Day Wilson</div>NATHAN D WILSONhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14792866131114687443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16153520.post-84090216094883092242019-12-15T08:23:00.004-05:002019-12-15T08:23:55.346-05:00Lessons from Hanukkah<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Nathan Day Wilson</div>NATHAN D WILSONhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14792866131114687443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16153520.post-32904751738183088022019-12-08T08:56:00.000-05:002019-12-08T09:43:06.285-05:00It’s time to find room at the inn for everyone TEXT VERSION<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="Fid_11" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">It’s time to find room at the inn for everyone</span></div>
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<span class="Fid_9" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">William Sloane Coffin said the best sermon he never preached was at a Christmas Eve service when he pastored New York City’s Riverside Church.</span></div>
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<span class="Fid_9" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The poinsettias were beautiful. The people were joyful. The place was packed. It was time in the Christmas pageant for the innkeeper to deny Mary and Joseph with the resounding line, “There’s no room at the inn!”</span></div>
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<span class="Fid_9" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The innkeeper role was perfect for Tim, a young man who had Down syndrome. That’s what the pageant organizers thought. That’s what Tim’s parents thought.</span></div>
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<span class="Fid_9" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Tim had, in fact, rehearsed the one line – “There’s no room at the inn!” – many times with parents, pageant organizers and participants alike. He had it mastered. He was ready.</span></div>
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<span class="Fid_9" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">So there stood Tim at the altar of that church’s majestic sanctuary, bathrobe costume firmly belted, as Mary and Joseph</span><span class="Fid_9" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> made their way down the center aisle. They approached him, said their lines as rehearsed, and waited for his reply. Everyone in the sanctuary and a host of angels waited with bated breath, leaning forward as if willing Tim to remember and resound his line.</span></div>
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<span class="Fid_9" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“There’s no room at the inn!” Tim boomed, just as rehearsed. But then, as Mary and Joseph turned on cue to travel further, Tim suddenly yelled “Wait!” They turned back, startled and surprised by this off-script move. “But you can stay at my house!” he called.</span></div>
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<span class="Fid_9" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Bill Coffin strode to the pulpit, looked out at the congregation, and said “Amen.” He sat down. The best sermon he never preached.</span></div>
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<span class="Fid_9" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Remembering this story made me, again, wonder when we individually and collectively will have the courage to stop saying so often, “There’s no room at the inn” and instead, like Tim, start saying, “But you can stay at my house.”</span></div>
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<b><span class="Fid_9" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">To the hungry and homeless, imagine</span><span class="Fid_9" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> the impact if we were to say collectively, “Wait! We’ll make a place for you at America’s table of plenty!”</span></b></div>
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<span class="Fid_9" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Or to the sick and uninsured, “Wait! We won’t turn you away from the doctor.”</span></div>
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<span class="Fid_9" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Or to those working hard every day trying to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads, “Wait! We will help you escape poverty and we’ll authentically</span><span class="Fid_9" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> analyze and act on the systems and situations that exacerbate</span><span class="Fid_9" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> poverty.”</span></div>
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<span class="Fid_9" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Or to children who are home alone or on the streets after school, “Wait! We’ll make a safe place for you with caring adults in after-school programs.”</span></div>
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<span class="Fid_9" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">I’m one who believes that God came to live among us as a child – a child who cried and laughed, loved and learned, born as a vulnerable baby needing care and dying surrounded, at least partly, by a supportive community. And, between his birth and death, he challenged the cultural and political priorities of his time and stood up for the poor, the weak and the vulnerable.</span></div>
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<span class="Fid_9" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">It seems to me this is a good time of year for all of us, and especially those who believe in the incarnation I named above, to repent and reaffirm our commitment</span><span class="Fid_9" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> to building communities, a nation and a world where all can find room</span><span class="Fid_9" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> in our inn.</span></div>
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<span style="font-style: italic; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Nathan Day Wilson is an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Read his blog at <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" style="color: blue; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;">www.nathandaywilson.com</a> and follow him on Twitter: @nathandaywilson.</span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Nathan Day Wilson</div>NATHAN D WILSONhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14792866131114687443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16153520.post-286348861225540992019-12-08T08:55:00.000-05:002019-12-08T08:55:16.273-05:00It's time to find room at the inn for everyone -- Faith & Values, 8 Dec 2019<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Nathan Day Wilson</div>NATHAN D WILSONhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14792866131114687443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16153520.post-44394531811966854382019-12-01T20:39:00.003-05:002019-12-01T20:40:46.044-05:00Ways to deal with what we don't want to see TEXT VERSION<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">How do we deal with what we do not want to
see? <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Garfield
is one of those comic strips that sometimes evokes more than a polite smile.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
the first panel of one such strip, Garfield is sitting at the table with a
feast in front of him: Turkey, dressing, biscuits, vegetables, pies and more.
He is obviously enjoying it. In the corner of that panel is the subtle image of
Odie the dog outside the window.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
second panel is a closer view of Odie; he’s covered with snow and has empty water
and food dishes. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">What
will Garfield do? Will he open the window and hand food to Odie? Will he invite
Odie in to share the feast? How will Garfield handle his abundance alongside
Odie’s scarcity? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
the third panel Garfield shuts the drapes and says, “That’s better.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">How
do we deal with what we do not want to see? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
thought about that Garfield strip – one that I have in a large, disorderly folder
of comic strips and poems and other things labeled “This Will Preach” – the
other day when I came across Langston Hughes’ gripping poem, “God to Hungry
Child”:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Hungry
child,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
didn’t make this world for you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">You
didn’t buy any stock in my railroad.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">You
didn’t invest in my corporation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Where
are your shares of Standard Oil?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
made the world for the rich<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">And
the will-be-rich<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">And
the have-always-been-rich.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Not
for you,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Hungry
child.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">That
poem took my breath. If it does not cause you to think or feel something, you
might want to check for metabolism.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The powerful
dissonance of attributing those words to God is exactly the point. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">We
could end hunger. Since we have not, are the hungry to conclude that God
somehow wants it this way? Why else would decision makers fail to end the
scandal of hunger? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">How
do we deal with what we don’t want to see?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">One
way we could deal with what we don’t want to see is to close our drapes, our
minds, our checkbooks. We could reveal our inner Garfields and pretend like
what we don’t want to see doesn’t exist. (News flash: It still does.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Another
option is to blame the things we want to avoid on something outside of our
control. God, perhaps. Hughes is not doing this but is pointing to the
absurdity of doing so.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Or
we could go all anti-Garfield. <b><i>Rather than close off or close out what we don’t
want to see, we could intentionally and courageously open ourselves to it. </i></b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Open
our hearts to feel the plight of others. Open our minds to consider creative
solutions. Open our mouths to engage in authentic discussions. Open our hands
to work alongside others. Open our checkbooks to support those who are
creatively working alongside others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">How
do you deal with what you don’t want to see?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Nathan
Day Wilson is an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of
Christ). Follow him on Twitter: @nathandaywilson<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br /></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">Nathan Day Wilson</div>NATHAN D WILSONhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14792866131114687443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16153520.post-16294054713422233242019-12-01T20:38:00.000-05:002019-12-01T20:38:36.417-05:00Ways to deal with what we don't want to see<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEw7bKYxVnmtjLPszYkpTkRNFTj9o3y_1n6oRMVGEnWm1rLRguyNySSoSpCiMwhxxh76UZcA-c1hghuJ0Ga1Suq1PC0sYNq2rNRcHZ6PsAzkCCY_uKttubjiX42qU7tguEbC8u/s1600/FV+my+column+1+Dec+2019+Garfield.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1237" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEw7bKYxVnmtjLPszYkpTkRNFTj9o3y_1n6oRMVGEnWm1rLRguyNySSoSpCiMwhxxh76UZcA-c1hghuJ0Ga1Suq1PC0sYNq2rNRcHZ6PsAzkCCY_uKttubjiX42qU7tguEbC8u/s640/FV+my+column+1+Dec+2019+Garfield.jpg" width="494" /></a></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Nathan Day Wilson</div>NATHAN D WILSONhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14792866131114687443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16153520.post-64119616869598726352019-11-03T15:40:00.002-05:002019-11-03T15:40:50.710-05:00God's will be done. How are you helping?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Imagine
the following scene. In a hurry, as usual, familiar words rush from your mouth:
“Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on Earth as it is heaven.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Suddenly,
abruptly, almost curtly, a voice responds: “Are you sure?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Shocked,
you reply, “Sure of what?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
voice continues: “Sure that you want my will to be done, my desires to be made
actual.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">You:
“Well, yeah, we could always use a little more heaven on Earth!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
voice: “My will: No more children dying of hunger. No more extreme poverty. No
more allowing the greed of a few to trump the need of many. No more drawing
lines between people based on worldly standards. Peace among nations, even
religions. People truly loving me and each other. These are my desires. This is
my will. Is this what you want?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">You:
“Yes, sure. Absolutely. All that sounds exactly right. It sounds very good, in
fact.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
voice: “Then what are you doing to make these things happen?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">If
that dialogue happened, what would you think and feel; what would you do? Would
you ever dare to pray those words again?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">After
all, the voice — which we assume to be God’s voice — has called you out. You
claimed to want God’s will on earth. And the voice met your claim and raised
you one: What are you doing to make that claim, those words, become reality?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">That’s
a tough one. In fact, it is so tough that I think we ought to back up and blame
it on Jesus. After all, he’s the one who used this phrase in his model prayer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">It’s
true. Jesus was big on realm of God, or kingdom of God, talk. Line up 100 New
Testament scholars and ask what is most central to the message of Jesus, and I
bet a bunch and then some will say it is this idea that God’s realm can
transform earthly realms.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Just
open the Bible. Kingdom of God talk is all over the place, especially in the
first three Gospels. In Mark, which is the oldest, Jesus uses the phrase in his
inaugural address: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent and believe” (Mark 1:15). Matthew and Luke both include kingdom talk in
their beatitudes and many parables.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">So,
what did this phrase mean for Jesus? For Jesus, God’s kingdom had a present and
a future meaning at the same time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
the present, right now, you can claim the presence of God within you and among
you within community. The future aspect for the kingdom of God envisions a
transformed world where relationships are deeper, and the Earth and its
fullness are rightly recognized as belonging to God (Psalm 24).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">One
of my favorite people to quote – that being me – is fond of saying that the
future can be better than the present and those of us with opportunities to
make it so have responsibilities to make it so. It’s one of my core beliefs and
it is rooted in texts such as this one.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">God’s
will be done on Earth as it is in heaven. It’s a big claim. What are we doing
to make it real?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Wilson
is an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Follow
him on Twitter: @nathandaywilson<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXzubxXBFmCqaQJjIW-yq4EKH-TH2Dg3W_MGyA0Q5BQO0lxwHY38W5XqnyvzOmmLe43eh9hFooLvYAVv5PkAn3ixPtPh0GtKzlNzyr7p6wesMDg9iQLqkqmr7EGjQwaxIYcBuz/s1600/FV+my+column+God%2527s+will+be+done+3+Nov+2019.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1237" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXzubxXBFmCqaQJjIW-yq4EKH-TH2Dg3W_MGyA0Q5BQO0lxwHY38W5XqnyvzOmmLe43eh9hFooLvYAVv5PkAn3ixPtPh0GtKzlNzyr7p6wesMDg9iQLqkqmr7EGjQwaxIYcBuz/s640/FV+my+column+God%2527s+will+be+done+3+Nov+2019.jpg" width="492" /></a></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Nathan Day Wilson</div>NATHAN D WILSONhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14792866131114687443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16153520.post-20189595208268391062019-10-07T09:03:00.004-04:002019-10-07T09:06:15.720-04:00We won’t fix climate crisis until we treasure the globe<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="article_head0" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif, Georgia; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.4em !important; padding: 0px;">
<div class="maintitle" style="color: #9a3d3d; font-size: 1.6em; line-height: 1.1em; margin-right: 15px; padding: 0px 10px;">
<span class="Fid_28" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">We won’t fix climate crisis until we treasure the globe</span></div>
</div>
<div class="article_body0" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif, Georgia; font-size: 16px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;">
<div class="first column" style="float: left; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; width: 365px;">
<div class="div_padding0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 3px;">
<div class="abody" style="font-size: 1em; line-height: normal; margin-right: 15px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px 10px;">
<span style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b>Nathan Day Wilson</b></span></div>
<div class="abody" style="font-size: 1em; line-height: normal; margin-right: 15px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px 10px;">
<span style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="abody" style="font-size: 1em; line-height: normal; margin-right: 15px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px 10px;">
<span style="font-style: italic; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“The heavens are telling the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims God’s handiwork.” (Psalm 19)</span><span class="Fid_27" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> I was pleased and disheartened, when I was reminded of that verse this week.</span></div>
<div class="abody" style="font-size: 1em; line-height: normal; margin-right: 15px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px 10px;">
<span class="Fid_27" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">I was pleased for the reminder that, according to the Bible, nature and nature’s God are inseparable; they are one. In the words of another psalm, “When I consider the heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place...” (Psalm 8).</span></div>
<div class="abody" style="font-size: 1em; line-height: normal; margin-right: 15px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px 10px;">
<span class="Fid_27" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">For the Bible and those who read it seriously, there is a core, inescapable relationship between God and nature or creation or the environment. It’s that relationship that leads church people to sing hymns such as “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee” and “The Spacious Firmament on High.”</span></div>
<div class="abody" style="font-size: 1em; line-height: normal; margin-right: 15px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px 10px;">
<span class="Fid_27" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">And, yet, I was disheartened, too. For while they tell of God’s glory and proclaim God’s handiwork, these days the heavens and earth must surely also declare reprehensible the effects of human activities: overconsumption, overexploitation, pollution and deforestation.</span></div>
<div class="abody" style="font-size: 1em; line-height: normal; margin-right: 15px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px 10px;">
<span class="Fid_27" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Take pollution as one example. The dangers of pollution start at the beginning of life. Toxic pollutants cross the placenta, increasing the risk of preterm birth and low birth weight, which</span><span class="Fid_27" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> can cause lifelong damage to multiple organ systems. Children breathe more rapidly, so they absorb more pollutants at a time when their developing organs are more vulnerable. As a result, air pollution causes an estimated 600,000 deaths each year in children younger than 5, mostly from pneumonia.</span></div>
<div class="abody" style="font-size: 1em; line-height: normal; margin-right: 15px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px 10px;">
<span class="Fid_27" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">In adults, pollution contributes to a wide range of respiratory and circulatory diseases and may accelerate cognitive decline in seniors.</span></div>
<div class="abody" style="font-size: 1em; line-height: normal; margin-right: 15px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px 10px;">
<span class="Fid_27" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Pollution is only one part of our climate crisis. Many people are struggling with anger and depression in the face of an overwhelming climate crisis. Climate</span></div>
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<div class="last column" style="float: left; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; width: 365px;">
<div class="div_padding0 split" style="margin: 0px; padding: 3px;">
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<span class="Fid_27 split" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">change has been known of and talked about for decades, while attempts to preserve the environment and reduce climate change have been blocked by corrupt politicians and corporations overtaken by greed.</span></div>
<div class="abody" style="font-size: 1em; line-height: normal; margin-right: 15px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px 10px;">
<span class="Fid_27" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">How should people of faith respond?</span></div>
<div class="abody" style="font-size: 1em; line-height: normal; margin-right: 15px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px 10px;">
<span class="Fid_27" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">We begin by reasserting with vigor the connection between God and God’s nature. I’m convinced that until we do, we won’t be moved to consistent actions.</span></div>
<div class="abody" style="font-size: 1em; line-height: normal; margin-right: 15px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px 10px;">
<span class="Fid_27" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">In addition our relationship to nature must change from “owner” to “steward.”</span></div>
<div class="abody" style="font-size: 1em; line-height: normal; margin-right: 15px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px 10px;">
<span class="Fid_27" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Stewards are caretakers, not consumers. Stewards practice social justice. Stewards know that equity is not optional if we are to live together.</span></div>
<div class="abody" style="font-size: 1em; line-height: normal; margin-right: 15px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px 10px;">
<span class="Fid_27" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“We have forgotten that we belong to each other,” Mother Teresa said.</span></div>
<div class="abody" style="font-size: 1em; line-height: normal; margin-right: 15px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px 10px;">
<span class="Fid_27" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Perhaps remembering that is key to our survival.</span></div>
<div class="abody" style="font-size: 1em; line-height: normal; margin-right: 15px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px 10px;">
<span style="font-style: italic; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Wilson is an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Follow him on Twitter: @nathandaywilson</span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Nathan Day Wilson</div>NATHAN D WILSONhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14792866131114687443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16153520.post-72591272455411415242019-10-07T09:01:00.004-04:002019-10-07T09:01:54.939-04:00faith and climate crisis jpeg<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Nathan Day Wilson</div>NATHAN D WILSONhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14792866131114687443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16153520.post-1380724344800930982019-09-16T11:40:00.004-04:002019-09-16T11:40:53.328-04:00God's unbounded and unboundable love -- text only, no images, easier to read<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I don’t know who, but
someone quipped, “I used to be an incurable optimist, but now I’m cured.” More
and more, I resemble that remark; do you?</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br />
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<span style="background: white;">But a loss of optimism does not have to mean a
loss of hope. Optimism, after all, is rooted in me and my abilities; it’s the
expectation of a better future based on the reading of present circumstances.
Hope, on the other hand, is the trustful anticipation of genuine newness,
perhaps beyond our imagining, based on something much bigger than ourselves —
for people of faith, it’s based on the divine.</span><br />
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<span style="background: white;">One of my favorite verses is 1 John 4:16, “God
is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.” It
is, for me, not only a hopeful verse, but also a verse of hope.</span><br />
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<span style="background: white;">After all, God’s love is given to all. Not all
of a certain nation or race or religion. All. And not only all people. Surely
we can tell that God’s love abides in other animals and the plants, the fauna and
the flora.</span><br />
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<span style="background: white;">An interesting note about God’s love and its
connection to our hope is that God’s love doesn’t seek value, it creates it. We
are loved not because we have value, but we have value because we are loved.
Our value, like God’s love, is a gift and not an achievement.</span><br />
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<span style="background: white;">Maybe that’s the first reason that Jesus commands
us to love our enemies: God loves them too. Notice that the very same sentence
in which Jesus commands us to love our enemies goes on to say “for God makes
the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the
unjust alike.”</span><br />
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<span style="background: white;">If you have stepped foot in a church very often
you likely have sung about “a wideness in God mercy” and “one great fellowship
divine throughout the whole wide earth.” If so, you have affirmed God’s
impartial love for all people, with no special privileges only for some.</span><br />
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<span style="background: white;">In other words, you have affirmed as have I that
“God Bless America” means “God Bless North Korea” and Russia and Mexico and so
on. The biblical truth is that there is no special providence for any nation at
the expense of any others. Territorial discrimination is as evil as racial.</span><br />
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<span style="background: white;">It's important to remember in this affirmation
of God’s unboundable love, that God’s love does not mean God’s approval. I
don’t know that God hates, but if God did I suspect the object of that hate
would be hateful things. Carnage. Racism. Xenophobia. I suspect they turn God’s
stomach, even make God mad. Certainly they must make God sad. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">That’s what makes freedom so tricky, it seems to
me. If God’s love is real, then our freedom is real. We are not slaves or
puppets but children of God, free to do good and free to sin. Unloving choices
are sometimes made.</span><br />
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<span style="background: white;">When in anguish over human violence we turn to
God and ask, “How could you let that happen?”, I sometimes wonder if God asks
us the same question.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Follow Wilson on Twitter: @nathandaywilson<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Nathan Day Wilson</div>NATHAN D WILSONhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14792866131114687443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16153520.post-63026766061067925542019-09-16T11:40:00.001-04:002019-09-16T11:40:18.662-04:00God's unbounded and unboundable love<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Nathan Day Wilson</div>NATHAN D WILSONhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14792866131114687443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16153520.post-52871251173253499152019-09-15T09:58:00.002-04:002019-09-15T09:58:25.676-04:00God's unbounded and unboundable love<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Nathan Day Wilson</div>NATHAN D WILSONhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14792866131114687443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16153520.post-29247172281269073292019-09-08T13:34:00.002-04:002019-10-07T09:04:32.124-04:00Make Love Your Aim -- text, no images<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-weight: bold; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">‘Make love your aim’: Paul’s words matter</span></div>
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<span class="Fid_4" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b>Nathan Day Wilson</b></span><br />
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<span class="Fid_4" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">I can remember the exact place and time when I realized that “cogito, ergo sum” — that is, “I think, therefore I am” — was less important than “amo, ergo sum” — that is, “I love, therefore I am.”</span></div>
<div class="abody" style="font-size: 1em; line-height: normal; margin-right: 15px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px 10px;">
<span class="Fid_4" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">I was a student at the Ecumenical Graduate Institute at the University of Geneva in Switzerland. I was nominated by my 51 classmates from 32 different countries to preach at a worship we were to lead at the Ecumenical Centre.</span></div>
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<span class="Fid_4" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The student selected to be the worship leader, with whom I was to plan all the non-musical components of the worship service, was a woman from Rwanda named Mary. Mary is a physician who was educated and trained by the Red Cross. Mary and I developed an important and close friendship working together on this worship, the focus of which was reconciliation.</span></div>
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<span class="Fid_4" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">I put considerable thought and study into the issue of reconciliation. I interrogated</span><span class="Fid_4" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> the Bible. I investigated the historic examples of times that restitution necessarily accompanied reconciliation. I inspected the nuances that led some to seek retribution and reject reconciliation.</span></div>
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<span class="Fid_4" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">In short, I gave this topic and this worship a lot of thought.</span></div>
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<span class="Fid_4" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">When Mary and I met one afternoon, I told Mary what I learned and she listened very politely. We engaged in conversation, found points of agreement and points of difference, and then Mary asked, quietly, if she could share something with me. I said, “sure.”</span></div>
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<span class="Fid_4" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">During the civil war in Rwanda, Mary was serving as a new physician with</span></div>
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<span class="Fid_4 split" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">the Red Cross. During the war, two of Mary’s children, her husband, both of her parents, and two siblings were killed by the opposing tribe. But since Mary was a physician sanctioned by the Red Cross, she had to provide care for any injured person, even when she knew that this person was from the tribe that murdered her family.</span></div>
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<span class="Fid_4" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">She said to me, “Nathan, I had to trust in God’s reconciling power. I had to give God’s love all the room in my heart, and</span><span class="Fid_4" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> save nothing for hate. I had to. Otherwise, I could not live with myself.”</span></div>
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<span class="Fid_4" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">That’s when I realized that it’s not thinking that gives us meaning, it is loving.</span></div>
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<span class="Fid_4" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for sound thinking. In fact, I would argue that love allows for better thinking.</span></div>
<div class="abody" style="font-size: 1em; line-height: normal; margin-right: 15px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px 10px;">
<span class="Fid_4" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">But as Paul suggests in 1 Corinthians, “If I can fathom all mysteries and have all knowledge but do not have love, it profits me nothing.”</span></div>
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<span class="Fid_4" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">For those of us who profess to follow Christ, Paul suggests that our incorporation into the risen Christ is not merely a union of our person with his. Rather, it includes something much bigger: Union with Christ is necessarily becoming a participant in a newly created order where the old has gone and the new has come.</span></div>
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<span class="Fid_4" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">To be “in Christ” means that the new creation God effected in Christ is reenacted within us. He writes, “If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation. “</span></div>
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<span class="Fid_4" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Clearly being part of this new creation includes personal transformation. All our beings — our thoughts, our attitudes, our outlook, our priorities, our</span><span class="Fid_4" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> concerns, our actions — begin to be made over. Accustomed as we are tothinking that personal transformation resultsfrom our own capacity to improve ourselves,Paul issues the stern reminder that the newcreation is not our own </span><span style="font-size: 1em;">doing! God is the primary mover.</span></div>
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<span class="Fid_4" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">And finally, this transformation allows us no longer to be alienated from one another — split by a wall of hostility — but thanks to God’s actions, to be reconciled to each other. We begin to experience ourselves as free and forgiven and then know others to be the same.</span></div>
<div class="abody" style="font-size: 1em; line-height: normal; margin-right: 15px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px 10px;">
<span class="Fid_4" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">In a time like now, so divided by allegiance to false gods such as money and power, by acts of lovelessness and hatred, and by lines drawn between people according to worldly standards, the Christian witness to God’s intended wholeness is needed now more than ever!</span></div>
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<span class="Fid_4" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“Make love your aim,” writes Paul. Indeed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-style: italic; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Wilson is an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Follow him on Twitter: @nathandaywilson</span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Nathan Day Wilson</div>NATHAN D WILSONhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14792866131114687443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16153520.post-12224858458344296692019-09-08T08:28:00.004-04:002019-09-08T08:28:57.797-04:00Make Love Your Aim <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Nathan Day Wilson</div>NATHAN D WILSONhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14792866131114687443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16153520.post-89152507127219681562019-08-04T16:46:00.003-04:002019-08-04T16:46:53.408-04:00Ubuntu is needed now <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Nathan Day Wilson</div>NATHAN D WILSONhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14792866131114687443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16153520.post-81285741767269403312019-07-01T08:27:00.001-04:002019-07-01T08:27:14.573-04:00"When life is tough ... are we going to live based on problem or priorities"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Nathan Day Wilson</div>NATHAN D WILSONhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14792866131114687443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16153520.post-52426540500032913532019-06-30T09:48:00.001-04:002019-06-30T09:50:17.152-04:00Writing the spiritual memoir -- a conversation with Thomas Larson <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUZ0v1Srgytfbamd8ICrHCZsCbCiCnKPlvLspOYsaSV2LxoO8brUnChALfobdwI5WVfz5c5eBed1Y3wdMB7I207oHsLkk13ONFRnYE0TaL1wbQiv8XtPgRqP_77tj8pJ1tNTMn/s1600/Interviewing+Tom+Larson+Indy+Reads+spiritual+memoir+writing+28+June+2019.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUZ0v1Srgytfbamd8ICrHCZsCbCiCnKPlvLspOYsaSV2LxoO8brUnChALfobdwI5WVfz5c5eBed1Y3wdMB7I207oHsLkk13ONFRnYE0TaL1wbQiv8XtPgRqP_77tj8pJ1tNTMn/s640/Interviewing+Tom+Larson+Indy+Reads+spiritual+memoir+writing+28+June+2019.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Conversation with Tom Larson, author of 4 books including Spirituality and the Writer, about writing spiritual memoirs at Indy Reads in Indianapolis on 28 June 2019</td></tr>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Nathan Day Wilson</div>NATHAN D WILSONhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14792866131114687443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16153520.post-51461838005311247972019-06-04T08:44:00.002-04:002019-06-04T08:45:11.216-04:00What advocacy is<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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To get to advocacy, let's start with politics -- </div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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Politics is not primarily about campaigns or candidates or
even elections. Politics is about the water you drink and the air you breathe
and making sure both are clean. Politics is about children not going to bed
hungry. Politics is about all of us having access to the health care we need.
Politics is about people being at war or at peace.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Politics is about distributing economic goods and defining
what property rights are. Politics is about determining what a crime is and how
it will be punished. Politics affects the degree to which we can speak or write
or even worship. Politics defines who will be accepted as members of a
community and who will be placed in the margins. Politics even seriously
influences how you raise your children by determining the circumstances of
family life and, don't forget, establishing much of the subject matter of their
education.<o:p></o:p></div>
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So, then, the question "should religion have a role in
politics" is the wrong question. It does. Religion matters. A better
question is how should religion and politics interact or relate? Religion has
long been important to people who are concerned about politics, and politics
have been important to the people who are most concerned about religion.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Let me say it another way. Those who are serious about
politics must also take religion seriously and those who are the most deeply
religious must pay attention to politics. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Throughout history, and perhaps never more so in this
country than in the last 25 years, many different avenues have emerged for
religious people to become active in politics. For example, some have portrayed
their struggle for political power as the very essence of religious life.<o:p></o:p></div>
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At the other extreme, some religious folk have conceived
politics as a summary of all the evil against which the righteousness of God
stands. Both of these perspectives, while they differ sharply in the details,
take politics seriously. So then, how should religion and politics interact?<o:p></o:p></div>
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If religious values are to influence the public sphere, they
ought to make our political discourse more honest, more civil, and more
spiritually sensitive especially to those without the voice and power to be
fairly represented. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Recently, the increased visibility of partisan religion in
politics has often made our political discourse even more polarized and even
less sensitive to the poor and the dispossessed. You see, what is at stake here
is not just politics; it's deeper than that.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In a way, it's deeper even than faith itself. At stake here
is the very meaning of our life together.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I challenge, even reject, any political litmus test that
distorts the independent moral conscience that faith can bring to politics.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I challenge those who want to undermine the integrity of any
religious conviction that does not conform to some narrow ideological agenda. I
am deeply concerned about the distortion of prophetic religious faith when
wealth and power are extolled rather than held accountable and when more
comfort is brought to those on top of society than to those at the bottom.<o:p></o:p></div>
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At the West Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy, we
are seeking to bring all of this and more to the table. It is the table where
some families, at least, still gather together for a meal. It is the table that
cements social and spiritual connections. It is the table of gathered loved
ones that sometimes marks a reunion or a holiday celebration. It is the table
where we have conversations sometimes light and lively and sometimes difficult,
even uncomfortable.<o:p></o:p></div>
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When we come to this table, we see each other's faces, and
we remind ourselves of the ties that bind us together regardless of our race,
our religion, and our economic or social status. At this table, we rededicate
ourselves to who and what we are meant to be. At this table, we have an
opportunity to be thankful. At this table, new political visions can be born.
At this table, we can see the possibilities for poor as well as rich that can
bring us together.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Anyone can come to this table and if there are not enough
chairs we will get some more. If there is not enough room, we will make the
table larger. Even the shape of this table will change as we discover who we
are and who we are becoming.<o:p></o:p></div>
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All of us, you and I, can find a place at this table. At
this table, we will have some honest discussions and maybe even debates. At
this table, we will share our resources - resources of time, energy, finances
and connections. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Who knows, at this table, we may even laugh together or shed
a tear. We will write letters, we will organize visits, and we'll study issues
and do credible research. We will educate others and try, oh we'll try, to
mobilize. We will advocate with and on behalf of those underrepresented. Some
of us may support forums, town meetings. Some of us may march or do a
demonstration.<o:p></o:p></div>
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You see, at this table we will remind each other and apply
the lessons of David and Isaiah, of Jeremiah and Nehemiah, of the councils and
teachers, of Jesus and his followers. The lessons of Gandhi and George Fox, of
Rosa Parks and Saul Alinsky, of Martin Luther King Jr. and Oscar Romero, of
Hussein Nasar and Martin Buber.<o:p></o:p></div>
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These are lessons that will teach us that new politics
depend on all of us and on each of us. Each of us is like an individual trickle
of water, which, when they come together, turn into streams and then merge and
become rivers. And with enough energy and force these rivers can become mighty
rivers, so mighty that they could have the power to shape or reshape the very
landscape around them.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Today, our public landscape could use some new shaping. So
let's create a new table. All of us, a whole bunch of little trickles, let's
form together into streams that become a mighty river.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Let us join our voices with the prophet Amos and say let
justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Nathan Day Wilson<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Nathan Day Wilson</div>NATHAN D WILSONhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14792866131114687443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16153520.post-85175854727140109562019-04-22T12:11:00.000-04:002019-04-22T12:16:13.703-04:00Palm Sunday for a dose of courage & conviction<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Print, complete, and return to address on the form<div class="blogger-post-footer">Nathan Day Wilson</div>NATHAN D WILSONhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14792866131114687443noreply@blogger.com0