In our February 8, 2025 Second Saturday Conversation we talked about the language of our faith. I suggest the language of faith is human language about human experience and possibility. The language of faith requires sympathy, empathy and imagination. Without those qualities, as I quoted Walt Whitman, we “walk to our own funeral.”
I noted the vision of the gospel of Luke (4:16) and the vision from Emma Lazarus’s poem The New Colossus. A world of oppression and inhumanity can be otherwise. Both visions share the same spirit of generosity, kindness and care. The operations of our current administration is the antithesis of such visions.
The title of this session: In this desert of language we find ourselves in a match struck in darkness. The vision from the Hebrew Bible and New Testament and the vision of our America is a light in darkness. A flame. That will not be extinguished because we will not let it.
There is encouragement in this session. The Second Saturday Conversation community shared deeply and offered practical steps we can take as citizens to demonstrate our concerns and our hopes for our country and its humanitarian efforts for our world.
Watch this session. Continue the conversation in your own communities. Do not lose heart. We are committed to walking with sympathy, empathy, imagination.
Quoting again from Walt Whitman, “…Now I wash the gum from your eyes, You must habit yourself to the dazzle of the light and of every moment of your life. Long have you timidly waded holding a plank by the shore, Now I will you to be a bold swimmer, To jump off in the midst of the sea, rise again….”
Our next Second Saturday Conversation, March 8, we will have a special guest: Robin Meyers. The title of his conversation is “Excuse Me? Interrupting on Behalf of Justice.”