Tom Adams
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While early voting is well underway in some places, there is still time to make a difference in the 2024 election. Faith teaches us that Big Spirit will work all this craziness out. Action is faith’s beloved sister and seems to go with faith.
Our local community newspaper, the Greenbelt News Review, had a fictional story last week about the 2024 elections When Choosing the Lesser of Two Evils Makes Sense. The writer describes the dilemma of the person who doesn’t like either candidate. After some reflection, the person decided the best way t was to not vote at all.
This week’s post is about how a small enterprise built on hope and shared commitments can endure and continue to do good. I recently relearned this lesson by attending the 50th anniversary of Neighborhood Housing Services of Baltimore (NHS), an organization where I had the privilege of serving as its first executive director fifty years ago.
I’ve been writing recently about how faith and values lead me to certain actions as a voting citizen of the US. This post shares some lessons and observations on this topic and raises some questions to consider. The September 10 Presidential debate made real one more time the difference between an anti-immigrant, fear-based message, and a message of hope and inclusion. There is a lot at stake this election.
We are all walkers. Sometime during our first year on this earth, we took our first steps. Now I doubt that anyone of us remembers those first tentative steps on our own two feet. But I bet our parents remembered them and took pride in watching us teeter along. It’s what we did when we witnessed our children’s first steps. Walking defines us as a species. We are the species that stands up and walks.
The Spirit is moving in amazing ways in America these days. Watching the Democratic National Convention last week was like attending a summer revival and a national retreat on why living from faith, hope and love lead to joy! I have been away at the beach and was planning to take this week off and share a post a friend wrote that seems so relevant to our national discourse and election. Instead, I was so moved by my experience of the convention that I want to try to express my notions on what follows this amazing show of unity and love.
When I started writing about Christian Nationalism a few months ago, I felt shy and awkward about the topic. I didn’t want to self-identify as a Christian given the misuse of the term, and I wasn’t sure the topic was that important. Today I am convinced it is a topic vital for our nation’s future. This week’s post is a reflection on how and why my perspective changed
Editor’s Note: Last week I wrote about the challenges I see in responding to the threat White Christian Nationalism presents to our democracy. This week, a friend and retired Lutheran pastor Mark Docken, provides a thoughtful explanation of why understanding and responding to Christian Nationalism is complex and important.
A few months ago, guest contributor A. Adar Ayira wrote about keeping the faith in an age of white (supremacist) Christianity. She described the organized actions of Christian-led white supremacists and the threat to people of color and racial equality. She concluded by observing the absence of a visible opposition from white Christians who disagree with how the teachings and values of Jesus are being distorted. She pointed out that white people tend to rely on Black and non-Black people of color to lead the pushback.
For a while I have been gently reflecting on the connection between faith and our desire and commitment to live together in love and community. For me, the shift from despair to hope about the 2024 election campaigns is a great relief. America is certainly proving to be a free society where everyone is entitled to their opinion. Having lived seven decades, I appreciate the ups and downs will continue. With that in mind, today’s post is about “acting as if”.
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.