The Internet Home of Matt Boswell, Quaker Pastor and Christian Spirituality Scholar
“God loves you.” It is assumed, I think, when these words are spoken or printed, that this is the message we most need to hear. The answer to our core question. The solution to our fundamental problem. And it’s a great message. But not the most important one.
Continue reading “Why “God Loves You” is Decent News but Not the Best”
I find it can be difficult to be right here, right now.
Can you relate?
Virtues are habits of character that enable us to attain our most sacred or important goals. Jesus—the spark, the energizer, and the exemplar of the Christian tradition—has given Christians a goal: love (Mk 12:30-31). I believe Christians ought to cultivate virtues because they are the way to love: they are the character qualities that equip us and sustain us as we regularly and increasingly fulfill our human responsibility to one another.
Among many of the virtues Christians would do well to cultivate, presence is one of the most important.
“They can’t do that; I have a right…”
Replace “they” with an enemy, substitute the encroachment of your choice for “that”, and finish the sentence how you like. This template for a common lament can be enfleshed in myriad ways. Many of which do not seem to mirror the way of Jesus.
It’s not that Christians should not care about others’ safety, freedom, or dignity. But the language of rights, while potentially a mechanism for care and protection and respect and arguably a legal necessity, is too often co-opted by persons speaking out of a sense of entitlement, self-centeredness, and anxiety. Christians can do better.
Continue reading “Why Christians Should Speak Less About Rights”