rob and i had the opportunity on Saturday evening to join another Goshen student in taking Dr. Vincent Harding to dinner. Dr. Harding worked with Dr. King in the Southern freedom movement, taught at Veterans of Hope project. here is a description of the project from their web site:
The Veterans of Hope Project is a multifaceted educational initiative on religion, culture and participatory democracy. We encourage a healing-centered approach to community-building that recognizes the interconnectedness of spirit, creativity and citizenship. Our educational materials are designed to support reconciliation, nonviolence and an appreciation for the value of indigenous and folk wisdom for contemporary times.
in talking over dinner, we discovered a lot of connection between Dr. Harding's work and our work with *cino and look forward to finding ways to work together in the future. some of the ideas that are sticking with me from talking with him include:
- When love and theology appear to conflict, love should take priority.
- We cannot truly love others unless we know how to love ourselves ("Love your neighbor as yourself"). This was a foundational idea for the Southern freedom movement as blacks learned what it meant to love themselves.
- There are those who will claim not to be religious, but who, in the telling of their life's stories, are living the Gospel in a way many "religious" folks are not.
- Spirituality and social change need to come together. One or the other alone becomes an idol.
this last point was interesting to discuss in the context of our own lives. whereas many Goshen students seem to fall into the trap of creating an idol out of social change, rob's and my experience until that point had been in communities where we were more likely to encounter spirituality as an idol (apart from social change and life transformation).
this idea of the connection between spirituality and social change parallels something i've been thinking about a lot lately, but using different language: justice (right relationship with others) and righteousness (right relationship with God). this is the image that keeps coming to mind:
the goal for individuals and communities, using this metaphor, would be to balance emphases on one axis with the other to be "rated" high on both scales. of course there's no way to quantify one's justice and righteousness and i'm still wary of clever gimmicks that neatly package the Christian life. nonetheless, distinguishing between these two complementary callings and understanding their relationship has been helplful for me in evaluating Christian communities, as well as my own life. this also seems to be another way of talking about *cino's work.
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