I love this post but I question your faith in every person’s innate “goodness.” If this is true, wouldn’t it curb/temper the excesses of our present politics that denies the humanity of certain people? Immigrants. Black and brown people. Poor people. I’d be relieved to see a way out of this.
Thank you Geraldine. I don't mean to suggest that the goodness inside each of us always prevails against our less desirable tendencies. Unfortunately, people's worst impulses can and often do win out. That is part of the brokenness I refer to in the second principle. There will always be a struggle between the better and worse angels of our nature, to paraphrase Lincoln. And the distinction between those who act to prevent and alleviate human suffering and those who don't is the point of Jesus' parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25.
I love this post but I question your faith in every person’s innate “goodness.” If this is true, wouldn’t it curb/temper the excesses of our present politics that denies the humanity of certain people? Immigrants. Black and brown people. Poor people. I’d be relieved to see a way out of this.
Thank you Geraldine. I don't mean to suggest that the goodness inside each of us always prevails against our less desirable tendencies. Unfortunately, people's worst impulses can and often do win out. That is part of the brokenness I refer to in the second principle. There will always be a struggle between the better and worse angels of our nature, to paraphrase Lincoln. And the distinction between those who act to prevent and alleviate human suffering and those who don't is the point of Jesus' parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25.