New Cornerstones
Friday, October 23, 2026
Joanna Arellano-Gonzalez, co-founder of the Coalition for Spiritual & Public Leadership, reflects on the influence of empire thinking:
John Dominic Crossan, in God and Empire, names the four cornerstones of empire as political, economic, military, and ideological power. While the first three subject marginalized people to crushing realities, ideological power is the most nefarious. It shapes, controls, and distorts the minds and spirits of both oppressor and oppressed….
We have been indoctrinated by the forces the American Empire rests upon—taught to value profit over people and individualism over interdependence. Embodying these values leads to greater disembodiment of God’s love. Our Inner Empire must be dismantled and rebuilt so we can respond with fiercer clarity and love as Christians.
The four cornerstones of the Inner Empire are supremacy, privilege, hatred, and fear. These four cornerstones lead to the dehumanization of others and the self.
Supremacy captures the belief in our own inherent superiority over others. Privilege points to unearned advantages we protect or ignore at the expense of others. Hatred names active hostility toward others (or parts of ourselves). Lastly, fear fuels self-protection. When we fear losing control, status, or safety, we build walls inside ourselves, like the walls of Jericho, impenetrable to danger, but also impenetrable to authentic love.
Knowing that these cornerstones corrode the soul, what can restore the soul?
In Matthew 21:42, Jesus quotes a Psalm from his Hebrew tradition that says, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone” (Psalm 118:22). Arellano-Gonzalez writes:
Jesus … embodies the cornerstones and models that we need in our daily lives. We need to follow his blueprint.
We can rebuild our foundation with the four cornerstones of humility, responsibility, compassion, and connection. These four practices help restore our sense of humanity toward others and ourselves….
Humility allows us to see one another as equal, with deep reverence and openness to all and the environment. It reminds us we are stardust amongst the infinite cosmos.
Responsibility teaches us to be accountable for our actions and stewards of one another and the land.
Compassion promotes empathy, love, and benevolence, which help us tap into God’s tenderness for the world.
Connection is the strongest cornerstone. It teaches us about radical solidarity, belonging, and courage. Connection invites us to action. We recognize that when one injustice happens against one group of people, it happens to us all because of our sacred interconnectedness.
Have the courage to shake the foundations of your spiritual world. When you examine and create awareness around your entitlement, your privilege, and your position of power in communities, you can ultimately rediscover your true understanding of self, others, God, and the planet.
To create the world we want to see, we need to start with ourselves. We must dismantle the Inner Empires we’ve built—brick by brick, belief by belief. The empire within must fall so that solidarity, justice, and love can rise. (Editorial addition by Ray Watson: But can we do that work ourselves in our own strength without starting with the foundational relationship with the Cornerstone, Jesus? I need Jesus to help me because I am not capable in my own strength/weakness. I must seek first the relationship that is foundational to all others. Hold me, Abba. Mold me with your love so I can love…)
Reference:
Joanna Arellano-Gonzalez, “Dismantling Your Inner Empire,” the Mendicant, (Center for Action and Contemplation), Fall, 2025.
Image credit and inspiration: Bradley Pritchard Jones, untitled (detail), 2023, photo, Ynys Llanddwyn, Wales. Unsplash. Click here to enlarge image. Like old stones slowly returning to the hillside, the structures of empire fade while the way of Jesus, rooted like the land itself, remains.
| John Chaffee’s Five On Friday, 10-23-2026 |
1.
“Do not let me hear
Of the wisdom of old men, but rather of their folly,
Their fear of fear and frenzy, their fear of possession,
Of belonging to another, or to others, or to God.”
– T.S. Eliot in The Four Quartets
How interesting…
T.S. Eliot calls it “folly” to fear belonging to someone, to others, or to God.
I guess some might avoid belonging to a person because it is hard to have someone who constantly mirrors back to you how you’re experienced in the world.
I guess some might avoid belonging to a group because it will involve some degree of conformity and accountability. It requires agreed-upon practices, habits, and interactions. This isn’t all bad. Think of the Ten Commandments. I wouldn’t want to be part of a community that doesn’t at least hold up a basic moral standard.
I guess some might avoid belonging to God because it means they’re no longer the final moral authority over their lives. I don’t remember who said it; perhaps it was Lawrence Kohlberg, but the statement goes, “One does not achieve moral maturation until they bend the knee to something larger than themselves.”
What folly there is in not belonging.
2.
“It is dangerous to make everybody go forward by the same road, and worse to measure others by oneself.”
– Ignatius of Loyola, Founder of the Jesuit Order
Everyone’s path is different.
No one’s path is exactly the same as someone else’s.
There is no point in comparing our journey with someone else’s.
3.
“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, Author of Jesus and the Disinherited
This is brilliant. Howard Thurman was a titan of insight and wisdom.
This past week, I taught my college students about the Biblical Prophets. It was a riveting conversation.
What made it so interesting?
Well, I hope I expanded their understanding of the Prophets.
Previously, I think most students saw the Prophets as people who announced doom and gloom for anyone who didn’t turn back and follow Yahweh’s ways.
Taking cues from Abraham Joshua Heschel, I said, “The Prophets exist to resensitize a desensitized world to injustice. To the Prophets, minor infractions are utter desolations, because even minor sins crack the foundation of everything, and after a time, even minor cracks can build up to the wholesale collapse of an entire society. The Prophets constantly rail against the structures that are for how they might crush, oppress, and sacrifice people beneath their status quo.”
I probably should mention that this class was held within the Philly prison system. All of my students are inmates. 2/3 of my students are not even Christian… AND YET, I would say they have a powerfully strong understanding of morality and justice.
When class ended, two students said our class on the Prophets was their favorite class so far this semester.
Howard Thurman was absolutely prophetic when he said the above quote.
4.
“Those who would know much, and love little, will ever remain at but the beginning of a godly life.”
– Mechthild of Magdeburg, 13th Century German Mystic
This one hits right at the core of my self-understanding as an Enneagram 5.
Enneagram 5s, when they are asleep to themselves and on autopilot, often shift to talking about information rather than being vulnerable. Enneagram 5s are more likely to live in their heads and less likely to live in their bodies or hearts.
Spiritual maturity is not in knowing much, but in loving much.
5.
“When people cease to care, people die.”
– Brian McLaren, Author of The Last Voyage
Brian McLaren is releasing a science fiction trilogy. It is a new genre for him, but I find it quite interesting.
The basic premise is that Earth is on the verge of collapse, or, more likely, is already coming up against its own Armageddon because of the greed of oligarchs, the abuse of the environment, and rampant dehumanization of people into consumers. As a result, a contingent was chosen to go and populate Mars. The whole story is a powerful way to ask, “If we could start over, what kind of world could we create?”
The book is neither utopian nor dystopian, but it asks the hopeful question of what is possible moving forward.
In one chapter, it touches on the topic of suicide, saying that suicide is statistically a much higher cause of death than all armed conflict, war, and natural disasters combined. After looking it up myself, I was surprised to find out this is true in our real world today.
Then, one of the characters says the line above… “When people cease to care, people die.” When apathy takes over, lives are lost. Since this is the case, we must fight apathy at all times and do our best to care.
