We don’t have to buy into the enmity that we see in so much of our national discourse. We don’t have to allow others to mold our feelings and opinions. John Philip Newell, the poet, peacemaker, minister and scholar, offers us a different vision, an alternative vision, a vision that may seem wildly at odds with the reality we experience these days, but a vision that is within our reach if we so choose.
He says, “We live in a moment of grace. Through the hedges of our divisions we are beginning to glimpse again the beauty of life’s oneness. We are beginning to hear, in a way that humanity has never heard before, the essential harmony that lies at the heart of the universe. And we are beginning to understand, amidst the horror and suffering of our divisions, that we will be well to the extent that we move back into relationship with one another, whether as individuals and families or as nations and species…”
Our faith traditions call us to move back into relationship with one another, to speak the truth in love, and to respect the dignity of everyone.
Fr. Ted Howard, Boulder County Interfaith Leaders Caucus