{"id":18955,"date":"2020-06-12T08:56:46","date_gmt":"2020-06-12T12:56:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=18955"},"modified":"2020-06-12T10:13:28","modified_gmt":"2020-06-12T14:13:28","slug":"public-action-and-contemplation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=18955","title":{"rendered":"Public Action and Contemplation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Contemplation and Racism<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Public\nAction and Contemplation<\/strong><br>\nFriday, \u202fJune 12, 2020<\/p>\n\n\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gYUJjsgd96k\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n<p><em>I\nwas in the seminary when the Civil Rights movement transformed the political\nand cultural landscape of the United States. While I was more an observer than\nan active participant, I witnessed the courage and faith of the activists, not\nyet realizing that contemplation was often its source. Today Dr. Barbara Holmes\ndescribes the contemplative dimension present in the marching feet of civil\nrights activists.&nbsp; &nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\ncivil rights marches of the 1960s were contemplative\u2014sometimes silent,\nsometimes drenched with song, but always contemplative. This may mean within\nthe context of a desperate quest for justice that while weary feet traversed\nwell-worn streets, hearts leaped into the lap of God. While children were\nescorted into schools by national guardsmen, the song \u201cJesus Loves Me\u201d became\nan anthem of faith in the face of contradictory evidence. You cannot face\nGerman shepherds and fire hoses with your own resources; there must be God and\nstillness at the very center of your being. . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Like\na spiritual earthquake, the resolve of the marchers affirmed the faith of\nforemothers and forefathers. Each step was a reclamation of the hope unborn.\nEach marcher embodied the communal affirmation of already\/not yet sacred\nspaces. . . . The sacred act of walking together toward justice was usually\npreceded by a pre-march meeting that began with a prayer service, where\npreaching, singing, and exhortation prepared the people to move toward the hope\nthey all held. This hope was carefully explicated by the leadership as a\nfulfillment of God\u2019s promises. As a consequence, the movement that spilled from\nthe churches to the streets was a ritual enactment of a communal faith journey\ntoward the <em>basileia <\/em>[realm] of God. . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\nend result was that a purportedly Christian nation was forced to view its black\ncitizens as a prototype of the suffering God, absorbing violence into their own\nbodies without retaliation. By contrast, stalwart defenders of the old order\nfound themselves before God . . . with fire hoses, whips, and ropes in their\nhands. The crisis created by contemplative justice-seeking guaranteed the\neventual end of overt practices of domination, for domination could not\nwithstand the steady gaze of the inner eye of thousands of awakened people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The killing of George Floyd reminds us that cries for justice and equity continue today; awakened hearts and active bodies are needed to join the cause. Holmes affirms new, creative approaches today in the Movement for Black Lives and other groups led by young people, women, and people of color. I, Richard\u2014like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.\u2014believe that \u201cthe arc of the universe bends toward justice,\u201d [1]<\/em>\u00a0<em>but it depends upon our participation. What is your work to do today to bend the universe a little more towards justice?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"318\" src=\"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Screen-Shot-2020-06-12-at-10.00.36-AM-500x318.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-18958\" srcset=\"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Screen-Shot-2020-06-12-at-10.00.36-AM-500x318.png 500w, https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Screen-Shot-2020-06-12-at-10.00.36-AM-300x191.png 300w, https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Screen-Shot-2020-06-12-at-10.00.36-AM-768x489.png 768w, https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Screen-Shot-2020-06-12-at-10.00.36-AM.png 1674w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Contemplation and Racism Public Action and Contemplation Friday, \u202fJune 12, 2020 I was in the seminary when the Civil Rights movement transformed the political and cultural landscape of the United States. While I was more an observer than an active participant, I witnessed the courage and faith of the activists, not yet realizing that contemplation [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18955"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18955"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18959,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18955\/revisions\/18959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}