Tom Adams
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In just a few short years, my whole way of life has become intimately connected to technology to determine where I go and what I do, to know and even control the routes I take. I avoid going to a certain store when I find online that they don’t have a needed item in stock. I never have to wonder if someone tried to call me as it is all recorded. I don’t even have to own a car thanks to rideshare options.
I was not born a Catholic. I was raised with no religious tradition and I didn’t get baptized into the Catholic faith until I was 48. I was born with a female gender identity but because I was identified male at birth. I didn’t come to live as a woman until I was 40. So resurrection, transfiguration and epiphany (the revealing of that which has always been true) were part of my lived experience before I began to understand those words in a faith tradition experience.
As the Thanksgiving festivities wind down, I find myself increasingly disturbed by the seeming reversal in attitudes and actions relative to racial justice and equity in the United States. Just a year ago, over half of American voters wanted a return to healing our race wounds and learning to live and love one another.
Contemplation. As a faithful Christian in a world where the politicized face of Christianity doesn’t always reflect my viewpoint, I seek to publicly share the values I hold dear as a follower of Christ. In this post, I want to share some reflections on what I consider the fundamental basis for my Christian faith: love.
I don’t think much about how faith has driven my 40-year involvement in community development and social justice work. But indeed, faith is what keeps me going.
As I reflected on our new topic – the connection between faith and loving others and working for social justice – I realized my thoughts on this topic mirror what my niece Meredith Heneghan posted here about faith more generally: “To have faith is to have faith, and that’s really it.”
girls Catholic high school I attended. I took a Biblical Studies class with Sister Linda, a witty, straight-talking nun with a thick Boston accent and refreshingly pragmatic approach to teaching the Bible.
Last night I was up late. It could have been the cortado I’d had in the afternoon, but the recent headlines about Haiti, Afghanistan, relentless fires in California, the Delta variant, and all the forgotten ills still afflicting our human family abroad and at home could have also been contributing factors. It was two in the morning. I played song after song on the piano until eventually, melodies I had not played before began to fill the room. This is amazing, I thought. I imagined people who had passed on as inspiring the prayers my fingers were sending into the world from that out-of-tune instrument. And, like anyone would do at three in the morning, I began to wonder if there wasn’t some mystical meaning to the name “YAMAHA” in front of me. My exhaustion eventually pushed me off the bench and onto the couch.
A video and a year of attention made possible what previously seemed impossible – holding police officers accountable for deaths of Black people caught in a racially biased society and criminal justice system.
The first such area that comes to mind is the idea of the role of government. We have a government because there are things that only a government of all the people can do. Think of national defense, a national currency or national rules regulating commerce between different areas.
Tom Adams writes and speaks on topics vital to the intersection of our personal lives with our community and global lives. He has for decades been engaged in and written about nonprofit leadership and transitions, spirituality and spiritual growth, how we each contribute to a more just and equitable world and recovery from addictions and the Twelve Step recovery movement.