Comfort and Joy and Challenge
Dear Friends in Christ:
Kenneth Leech, a priest of the Church of England, has written several excellent books on spirituality. He has also written about racism in Great Britain. Fr. Leech was once approached by a woman who said that it was too bad that people got him, the writer on spirituality, confused with that other Kenneth Leech. There is, of course, only one Kenneth Leech, a man of deep spirituality who is an active advocate for racial justice.
Christians often fall into the trap of divorcing spirituality from social action. Those of us who were activists in the 1960s and 1970s discovered that without a disciplined life of prayer our activism would become hollow and legalistic. We needed to be refreshed by our communion with God and to have our activism shaped by God's vision of a just world. But just as there is the danger of activism that isn't grounded in prayer, so there is also the danger of prayer that does not lead to action. Our prayer should disturb us, stir us up, prompt us to seek solutions to our world's problems. God loves this world and calls us to love it as well.
We discover as we engage in activism that is grounded in prayer that our solutions to the world's problems are always imperfect, partial. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't pursue them, but it means that we should always be open to new ways to address a problem, always expecting God to correct us and lead us into better courses of action. Realizing that our solutions are partial can also lead to see that our approach to a problem is not the only Christian approach. We can, after all, come to different conclusions about what ought to be done about poverty or racism or the threat of war. Christians can disagree without being disagreeable.
Several years ago, in a number of communities in this country, activists on both sides of the abortion debate came together for discussion of the issue. Their aim was not to try to win others over to their position but to understand how others had come to the positions they held on this very divisive issue. Their aim was to move beyond name-calling to serious and respectful dialog. In those discussions, the activists often discovered shared values, common ground, and in some communities began working together to translate their shared values into action.
I became an activist during high school because I believed - and still believe - that that was what God wanted me to do. Although the issues have changed some in the past forty years, I remain an activist, convinced that there is still work for me to do as God works to establish shalom - justice and peace - in the world. I invite you to join me in seeking ways to solve at least some of the world's problems. I invite you to pray and to let your prayer lead you to action. I invite you to engage in serious discussion of the issues that face us. And I invite you to challenge me whenever I fall into the trap of believing that my agenda must be God's agenda.
Your brother and priest,
Daniel
