A bishop and gun safety activist offers a way forward from opposing viewpoints.
Instead of dismissing those whose views and experiences are different from our own, the author argues that we must look directly at them and see the goodness that is inherent in all things. From the language we use to the imperative to understand and include, we have a duty to work through opposition and build community.
Bishop Beckwith describes it this way: “We are trained to think, yet the cultural emphasis on thinking has not be applied to our ability to see . . . We are not as well trained in seeing the world’s fullness―pain and joy, compassion and cruelty. We regularly receive glimpses of pain and joy, but they are often presented in such a way as to reinforce our thinking.”
Read less
Blog
There are forces and voices in our increasingly polarized world that want us to view the issues of the day in a binary way: this or that; good or bad. Most issues are more complicated. This blog seeks to invite people to journey beyond the safety, if not the rigidity, of our silo and our ego – to the soul; where we have the opportunity to see things differently.
Vulnerability, Mystery and Artificial Intelligence
Functional Atheism is a term I first heard about thirty years ago from writer and conference leader Parker Palmer. He described a functional atheist as someone who says they believe in God but lives as though God doesn’t exist. I have held on to the term for these...
On the Lookout for Hospitality
It seems that an agreement has been reached to raise the debt ceiling, so as to avoid default. After months of dire predictions, weeks of preening by pundits and politicians, and several days of round the clock negotiating, a deal has been achieved, which now...
Fear, Trauma, and Guns
Last week I was in Washington DC with a group of bishops, clergy and laypeople to witness and strategize about our work in gun violence prevention (referred to as GVP). Organized by Bishops United Against Gun Violence, which I helped form after the Newtown,...
