{"id":18260,"date":"2018-08-06T15:44:35","date_gmt":"2018-08-06T22:44:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/?p=18260"},"modified":"2018-08-06T15:46:03","modified_gmt":"2018-08-06T22:46:03","slug":"courage-to-create-a-politics-worthy-of-the-human-spirit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/courage-to-create-a-politics-worthy-of-the-human-spirit\/","title":{"rendered":"Courage to create a politics worthy of the human spirit"},"content":{"rendered":"

By The Rev. Paul Graves\u00a0<\/b><\/h4>\n

Last week, I received a column from John Pavlovitz, a pastor whose thoughts I’ve mentioned here before. His title is attention-getting: \u201cAn Open Letter to Those Who Still Give a Damn<\/a>.\u201d His audience is people who are worn out from the political and religious dysfunctions that plague our country these days. I\u2019m one of those people!<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sick and fatigued nearly to the point of despair \u2013 only nearly! \u2013 by the divides we must navigate over matters political and religious, especially when they combine into a cesspool of disrespect and dishonesty. I\u2019m so eager to find basic alternatives to such distrusting, fear-driven chaos.<\/p>\n

So let\u2019s take a breath and uncover our deeper human spirit that\u2019s been smothered by so much fearful dehumanizing talk and action! One place I\u2019ve found some space to breathe fresher breath is Parker Palmer\u2019s newest book: Healing the Heart of Democracy \u2013 The Courage to Create a Politics Worthy of the Human Spirit<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Palmer is a great guide into the basics of human spirituality. This book is a wonderful example thrust into the context of politics and the search for a healthy democracy. He begins with a poignant glimpse at the spiritual power of Abraham Lincoln during the deeply depressing Civil War.<\/p>\n

I believe our country is in another deeply depressing time. For some, depression brings out excessive anger toward others \u2013 projecting personal pain onto people not \u201clike us.\u201d For others, depression is inwardly directed, leading to despair for self, for others, for our country.<\/p>\n

As I read Palmer\u2019s insights about Lincoln\u2019s own fight with depression, I silently heard the plaintive sounds of John Williams\u2019 exceptional soundtrack for the very powerful movie simply called \u201cLincoln.<\/em>\u201d Its melancholy yet strangely hopeful sounds echoed in me as I reflected on Lincoln\u2019s struggle with his own spirit and the national spirit.<\/p>\n

Palmer quotes poet Theodore Roethke: \u201cIn a dark time, the eye begins to see.\u201d In my recent dark times, I\u2019m driven to let my spirit\u2019s eye seek the truth-pieces I live with, deep within my heart, my soul.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t want to hate anybody, especially the political leaders I vehemently disagree with. Nor do I want to hate Christian leaders and followers I consider to be so wrong in their allegiances.<\/p>\n

Yet in our current cultural climate, it\u2019s hard not to hate, isn\u2019t it. When that happens, it\u2019s time to find the courage to step into the darkness within our own hearts. It\u2019s time to sort out which beliefs we hold are true to our faith, and which ones are merely convenient to our biases and fears.<\/p>\n

Palmer\u2019s insight into how Lincoln entered that darkness might be instructive to you, as it is for me:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026Because he knew dark and light intimately \u2013 knew them as inseparable elements of everything human \u2013 he refused to split North and South into \u2018good guys\u2019 and \u2018bad guys\u2019, a split that might have taken us closer to the national version of suicide.\u201d<\/p>\n

We currently live in a time when nationally, and often personally, we live with closed hearts, with broken hearts. We hurt, and hurting others seems to be the only way we think we have to deal with that hurt. But that just isn\u2019t reality!<\/p>\n

Our faith traditions teach us — the deepest values of being human teach us — about broken-open hearts. Blocking ourselves off ourselves emotionally and spiritually usually results in isolating ourselves from the deepest joys and the deepest loves we are capable of experiencing.<\/p>\n

This is true in our searches for healthy interpersonal relationships. It\u2019s also true in our search for political health. The external search is nourished by the broken-open heart.<\/p>\n

\n

The Rev. Paul Graves serves as the chair for the\u00a0<\/i>Council on Older Adult Ministries<\/a><\/strong> for the Pacific Northwest Conference of The United Methodist Church.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“I don\u2019t want to hate anybody, especially the political leaders I vehemently disagree with,” writes the Rev. Paul Graves. Reflecting on a cultural climate “where it’s hard not to hate,” Graves suggests that our faith offers us a better path than hate or despair if we risk opening our hearts to the world around us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":18263,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,502,142],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-18260","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-conversation","8":"category-nurturing-elders","9":"category-older-adult-ministries"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/sky-open-fb.jpg?fit=1200%2C627&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2l75j-4Kw","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18260"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18264,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18260\/revisions\/18264"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}