From 11/8/17….. Everything has changed since this post…
“Connecting with others helps us live out our faith as we allow God’s love to bring us together as one body of Christ. Embrace the opportunity to connect through prayer, community, generosity and outreach.” (From UMC)
A lofty thought….one that requires those in the “connection” to actually share common definitions of “community”, “generosity” and “outreach”. And also to agree what “God’s love” means and allow that to be the common uniting factor instead exalting individuals’ preferences, agendas, biases, and assumed superiority in knowing what it means, dismissing others in the process. Individuals’ expectations of “God’s love” are so diverse as to make the concept more divisive than uniting without an agreed-upon foundational understanding of “God” and “love”.
If “love” is defined by feel-good acceptance, affirmation, and celebration of everyone’s preferred identity and lifestyle to some and it is selflessness, sacrifice, and service for the good of all, and especially the least, last, and lost to others, the basis for connecting erodes”
Words and the concepts they communicate are important.