Posts in theology of suffering
No hay lugar en la posada; Más que oraciones por las madres de Gaza

Un bebé, dentro de un útero, esperando nacer. Dos padres, solteros, buscando algún lugar, porque María sentía que su cuerpo se contraía. Mientras el imperio no lanzaba bombas sobre Mary, peligrosos soldados del imperio acechaban, hablando de la urgencia y la necesidad de una ubicación, para ella y el bebé.

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No room at the inn; More than prayers for Gazan mothers

A Western perspective on Advent focuses on individualism – reinforces existing structures; it ignores the reality of social structures, reducing structural problems to personal problems. Mary couldn’t find a place to give birth. Yes, the villagers were selfish, but the system also made it normal to perpetrate against an oppressed people, even a mother in active labor.

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plantation politics of “little norway," and rise up

“If people don't vote, everything stays the same. You can protest until the sky turns yellow or the moon turns blue, and it's not going to change anything if you don't vote.”

Delores Huerta

Latina American labor leader and civil rights activist

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Third of July, and the Fourth of July - Remembering Stonechild Chiefstick

Not Buffalo, or Irvine, Uvalde, or Jayland Walker’s story will shock us enough to change. The paddles which electrify our hearts, aren’t built for centuries of hardened callouses.

A painful peeling must begin to dig at the crust which keeps us from feeling the pain of our scars and our perpetration of violence. May we find pause, this July 4th – to create intentional anti-racist communities which feel and see and hear.

May we remember Stonechild Chiefstick.

Because, his life matters.

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a third way - to bear witness

Wisdom is grounded in embodied knowing, holding complexity without losing conviction. We must imagine a third way.

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Hope is... by Eliza Cortes Bast

Hope is,

Hope is a spark.

Shooting out from my fingers,

Pow, pow, pow!

Hitting the powder on the ground,

Blasting like fireworks to the dark.

It screams,

I (boom) am (crash) here (pow).

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Faith, Hope and the Election by Tracy Johnson
Hope in Light of Faith and the 2020 Election by Vanessa Sadler

On one hand hope fuels me to meet creative deadlines, stirred by the notion that my words will fall on ears to hear and eyes to see. Hope ignites passion to sit with clients who are filled with rumblings of despair as they look over the debris of trauma in their lives. Hope gives birth to desire and longing for repaired relationships.

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Fighting to Hope by Tiffany Davis

2020 is covered by a dark cloud of hopelessness. A cloud that threatens to suffocate us. A cloud that shows no signs of dissipating.

This overwhelming presence of hopelessness continues to creep toward us and pound on the door to our mind, body, and soul wanting us to give up and let it come pouring in.

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I hope...... by Krishon Allen

I hope you would see me

Before a hashtag precedes my name

Before my face is a mural on a brick façade

I hope you would see me

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A Series: In Defense of Hope

How will hope hold the complexity of systems, people, polarized political parties, governments, estranged friends – faith communities divided? Is hope light enough to find goodness and heavy enough to sit in despair? Will hope provide for the hopeless without asking me or them to live in fantasy?

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A Weak Theology of Suffering

Jesus stood in front of the donkey, got on it, no scars yet and they all cheered as he entered the city. I cannot watch the live feed of Facebook without wondering if I am another onlooker, or observer, cheering for the next great moment of harm in someone’s life.

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