Welcome to Critical Conversations, a weekly blog and resource website (thadams.com) I am launching today. It becomes more obvious every day that we need to connect with each other across our differences if our communities and world will ever heal. My intention in these weekly posts and at our website is to encourage exploration of conversations vital to the intersection of personal and community life: love, spirituality, leadership, recovery, and justice. Too often these topics get siloed and ignored. To rebuild our lives and communities, our spirits and values will need to lead the way. Thanks for checking out this resource and sharing it with friends and colleagues who might find the resources on these topics and weekly posts of interest. (Friends can go to https://thadams.com/about/ to sign up.)

Connecting with people who are or think differently than us requires both desire and skill. In this and future posts, we will explore both why we need each other and practical ways people like you are learning how to connect more broadly and deeply.

There are many differences that keep us divided. They are quite apparent in our explosive political dialogue and our too often mutual disdain and misunderstanding. Today I will explore a less charged example – what motivates us to act and opportunities to cross barriers there. 

What moves any of us to action about racial inequities or other injustices?  Early in my work life, I participated in a study of grass roots leadership by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation which looked at what motivated grassroots leaders. A Minnesota researcher, Dr. Jeanne L. Campbell, led and co-authored Grassroots Leadership Development: Workbook for Aspiring or Current Grassroots Leaders and the companion report Grassroots Leaders: Growing Healthy and Sustainable Communities. This study concluded leaders may have multiple drivers or motivators, but most have a primary motivator. Campbell found that a third of the people studied saw their faith as a primary motivator for action, another third was driven by a desire to serve, and another third was motivated by a deep commitment to social justice and activism.

For those driven by faith, their beliefs made it imperative to take action. Think of your Jewish friends who take Micah’s mandate in the Old Testament seriously: “Do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God.” Or, more simply, for people of other faiths or none: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

The third of the respondents who were motivated by a desire to serve grew up in families and cultures that taught giving back and stepping up for service—and so they do. Think about the thousands who volunteer in hospitals, soup kitchens and halfway houses. Think about Dr. Bob Smith, the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, who, in his last speech before his death, said: “Remember let’s not louse this [Alcoholics Anonymous] up. … Love and service is our code. And we all know what love and service are.” Those familiar with A.A. and other Twelve Step programs recognize the connection between recovery from addiction and giving back through service. “Service works when all else fails,” wrote the other A.A. co-founder, Bill Wilson.

The final third in this study were motivated by a passion for justice and social action. They grew up in families which were inclined to work for social justice or they were exposed to it at some impactful point in their lives. Working for justice and change is like breathing for these folks. Think about Dorothy Day, John Lewis, Cesar Chavez, or the people who have camped out opposite the White House to protest nuclear armament for years. These leaders cannot NOT take action.

Like many people, my life has been touched by all three drivers – faith, service and action for change. When I scratch a little deeper at my motivations, I am driven mostly by a desire to give service. I see a need and I wonder what I might do to help address it. When there is innovation and creativity involved in problem-solving, I am most engaged. I like starting initiatives to change something. And if I can write and be reflective or persuasive in the process of service, that makes it even more rewarding.

Since George Floyd’s murder, I have been praying to discern better what is mine to do to work for racial justice. I am convinced that it is my job to encourage everyone I know, and particularly my white friends and acquaintances, to ask themselves what is theirs to do to make our communities more racially just and equitable.

Like many, I have experimented with doing things way outside my comfort zone, like showing up at a bridge over a major highway once a week with Black Lives Matter signs and encouraging others to join me. I get it that someone honking their horn in support isn’t going to change America. That desire for change, however, can and will fuel change, if we don’t forget about racial justice and go back to sleepy pessimism.

For many reasons, it is easy to put ourselves and each other into categories and not communicate.  Churches in the 1960s and 70s led the movement for social change. Today, most faith leaders are not in front. Polarization over abortion and social issues has tended to divide those driven by faith and those driven by a desire for justice.

Activists can have a hard time understanding and accepting people oriented to serve and vice versa. Yet the people feeding the hungry need activism to change policies that cause hunger.

Similarly, racial injustices in our police and prison system, in our educational systems, in our health care systems, in our job opportunities and income, and in where we live and how we build wealth and security – none of these will change without a coming together of those on fire for change because of their  faith, their desire to serve or drive to take action  for social justice.

We need each other. We can do much better in getting past our differences to work for liberty and justice for all. To do better, we need to understand our own motives, respect the motives of others. That allows us to come together to do individually and collectively what is ours to do.