{"id":22706,"date":"2023-08-02T09:15:20","date_gmt":"2023-08-02T13:15:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=22706"},"modified":"2023-08-02T09:30:28","modified_gmt":"2023-08-02T13:30:28","slug":"22706","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=22706","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-embed-handler wp-block-embed-embed-handler wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"White Flag Warrior - Flobots (with lyrics)\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/axjLaEkicvY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Beloved Community<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nonviolence educator Kazu Haga writes that a commitment to nonviolence requires us to heal any division between ourselves and those we consider \u201cother\u201d:<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When we talk about building a world where all people can achieve justice and fulfill our potential as human beings, we really mean all people<em>.<\/em>\u00a0That is Dr. [Martin Luther] King\u2019s vision of \u201cBeloved Community,\u201d where all people can live in peace. Beloved Community is an acknowledgment that the <strong>only way for a peace to ever be sustainable, the only way that our people can always be safe, is if all people are free.\u2026\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Building Beloved Community is <strong>not about loving the people who are easy to love. It is about cultivating love for those that are difficult to love.<\/strong>\u00a0<em>Those people\u00a0<\/em>over there. The\u00a0<em>others.\u00a0<\/em>Those who root for the Los Angeles Lakers [<em>DM team: Haga is a passionate Boston Celtics fan<\/em>]. The people who voted for\u00a0<em>that guy.\u00a0<\/em>The people who work in the very systems that are destroying our communities. The corrupt corporate CEO. The foreign dictator responsible for countless deaths.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you are not struggling to love people, if you are not trying to build understanding with those you disagree with, then you are not really doing the work of building Beloved Community. The work of building Beloved Community is understanding that we\u2019re not trying to win\u00a0<em>over\u00a0<\/em>people, but to\u00a0<em>win people over.\u00a0<\/em>Historically, winning a war has meant defeating the opponent. There is a clear winner and a clear loser&#8230;.<strong> But in nonviolence, there is no real victory until everyone is on the same side.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr. King once wrote, \u201c<strong>The aftermath of nonviolence is the creation of the beloved community, while the aftermath of violence is tragic bitterness.<\/strong>\u201d [1] <strong>While violence may be effective in temporarily keeping us safe from harm, it can never create relationships. Violence can never heal the harm that has been done. Violence can never bring about reconciliation. Violence can never create Beloved Community. Only love can do that. [2<\/strong>]\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Father Thomas Keating (1923\u20132018) saw love and peacemaking as inextricable from one another and from God.&nbsp;<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We\u2019re all like localized vibrations of the infinite goodness of God\u2019s presence. Love is our very nature. Love is our first, middle, and last name. Love is all; not [love as] sentimentality, but love that is self-forgetful and free of self-interest.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is also marvelously exemplified in Gandhi\u2019s life and work. <strong>He never tried to win anything. He just tried to show love, <\/strong>and that\u2019s what\u00a0<em>ahimsa\u00a0<\/em>really means. It\u2019s not just a negative. Nonviolence doesn\u2019t capture its meaning.<strong> It means to show love tirelessly, no matter what happens. That\u2019s the meaning of turning the other cheek. <\/strong>Once in a while you have to defend somebody, <strong>but it means you\u2019re always willing to suffer first for the cause\u2014that is to say, for communion with your enemies.<\/strong> <strong>If you overcome your enemies, you\u2019ve failed. If you make your enemies your partners, God has succeeded. [<\/strong>3]\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is from a book that might be helpful<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This movement is bold, red, spray-painted letters prophetically confronting the Church\u2019s infatuation with separation and retribution, a beautifully obnoxious sign declaring, \u201cWake up! Wake up to the image and likeness of God with us, God within us. Repent!\u201d We are in the midst of a great repentance, a re-forming, a de-, and re-construction, a changing of the way we think, a re-aligning with the kindness of God revealed through Christ\u2019s reconciling work of the cross. This movement is a messy, passionate, obnoxious, authentic search for certainty; for the Greater Love Cornerstone so many within the church have rejected. It\u2019s a crude, impudent, and offensive declaration that there is no death love hasn\u2019t defeated, no hell love hasn\u2019t invaded, no delusion love hasn\u2019t infiltrated, no darkness love hasn\u2019t illuminated\u2014there is nothing that separates us from reconciling love. Dear church, this 2000-year-old Deconstruction Movement is part of the reformation we\u2019ve longed for, the revival we\u2019ve prayed for, the billion-soul harvest the church has prophesied, a people in search of Kindness. It\u2019s a repentance movement full of sons and daughters growing sure in love\u2014and fathers and mothers growing confident in reconciliation. Dear church, welcome to the revolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Clark, Jason. Leaving and Finding Jesus (p. 65). A Family Story. Kindle Edition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Beloved Community Nonviolence educator Kazu Haga writes that a commitment to nonviolence requires us to heal any division between ourselves and those we consider \u201cother\u201d:&nbsp; When we talk about building a world where all people can achieve justice and fulfill our potential as human beings, we really mean all people.\u00a0That is Dr. [Martin Luther] [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22706"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22706"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22706\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22711,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22706\/revisions\/22711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}