…injustice is the social consequence of pride; and the inevitable fruit of injustice is self-destruction… It is the business of politics so to organize the vitalities of human existence that a “commonwealth” will be created out of the conflicting forces and interests of human life, a task which has never been achieved in history without setting force, as the instrument of order, against force as the instrument of anarchy. The basic problem of politics is how to prevent the force which is an instrument of order on one level of social organization from becoming the instrument of either anarchy or tyranny on the next level of social integration. ~ Reinhold Niebuhr on Politics, p. 119
“It cannot be denied that too often the weight of the Christian movement has been on the side of the strong and the powerful and against the weak and oppressed-this, despite the gospel.” ~ Howard Thurman (Jesus and the Disinherited, p. 21)
“The heart is meant to be vulnerable, malleable, broken open by love. The ancient Hebrew prophets regularly preached about turning our hearts of stone into hearts of flesh.”
—Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, A Midwinter God: Encountering the Divine in Seasons of Darkness
When has your heart hardened out of self-protection? What helps soften your heart, allowing for both sorrow and love?
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Verse of the day
Do not repay evil for evil or abuse for abuse, but, on the contrary, repay with a blessing. It is for this that you were called—that you might inherit a blessing.
– 1 Peter 3:9
Voice of the day
We lay down our arms so we can reach out our arms to one another. / We seek harm to none and harmony for all.
– Amanda Gorman, “The Hill We Climb”
Prayer of the day
God, release us from the impulse to react with gestures that induce harm. Let us cling to your grace instead.
You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make. (Source)
This is the oath that every commissioned officer in the US Military swears when they are first commissioned. For me, that was April 15, 1985.
I, [STATE YOUR NAME], having been appointed a [RANK] in the United States [BRANCH OF SERVICE], do solemnly swear [OR AFFIRM] that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the office upon which I am about to enter. So help me God.
No community, whether class or nation, can build a society by destroying everything outside of itself. — Moral Man and Immoral Society, p. 157
“When we walk the earth with reverence, beauty will decide to trust us.”—John O’Donohue, Beauty: The Invisible Embrace
Verse of the day
If you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday.
– Isaiah 58:10
Voice of the day
The first essential component of social justice is adequate food for all (hu)mankind. Food is the moral right of all who are born into this world.
– Norman Borlaug
Prayer of the day
Continue to nourish us, God who provides, so that we can continue offering up our good works to you and nourishing those around us.
Every time we see a major crisis in the history of the Church, such as the Great Schism of the eleventh century, the Reformation of the sixteenth century, or the immense secularization of the twentieth century, we always see that a major cause of rupture is the power exercised by those who claim to be followers of the poor and powerless Jesus. What makes the temptation to power so seemingly irresistible? Maybe it is that power offers an easy substitute for the hard task of love. It seems easier to be God than to love God, easier to control people than to love people, easier to own life than to love life.
Pastor Michael Moore's Blog 