Welcome to the Park Road blog - where we share thoughts and commentary on topics ranging from faith, to current events, to life at Park Road. We invite you to be part of the conversation.
But something has changed. I believe this. I believe that we are about to engage in a critically important, and extremely difficult, national conversation about the racial injustices inherent in our society. I am not afraid of the conversation that is coming. And it is coming – and all churches need to be involved in it. It’s too important, and the integrity of our faith will require it.
It is the job of all parents to teach their children about faith. And those who are members of churches have chosen to tackle that job in community,. I believe that is the best decision you could have made. And I wonder, when your children graduate, will you be able to list all these things in which your children have participated that have helped to guide and mold them into faithful disciples? I hope so. Parenting is the most important job you will ever have.
Participation in a healthy faith community connects us with a greater good – the greatest good – and that is God’s care for all living beings. There must be some truth to the old adage about there being “no atheists in foxholes.” When life’s toughest issues come our way, most people, in one way or another, begin to reflect on what would have to be called “spiritual” things. A good Church helps us engage that conversation throughout life.
We face a basic choice in how we live our lives: will we live out of humility and grace and be fundamentally welcoming, accepting, open to all, or will our fundamental disposition be one of judgment, exclusion, alienation?
I don’t need to understand you to accept you. I can only hope you will offer me the same grace.
“Extending protections” is not about understanding the transgender person. I cannot claim that understanding – just as I do not understand being a woman, or being poor, or being black. That lack of understanding, though, does not lead me to assume the right to discriminate. And those protections do not depend on my approval or agreement with your life choices – my personal approval, my party’s approval, my church’s approval – because our nation declared independence for ALL.
