Guidance
Rev. Sam Harrelson, BA, MDiv, MAR
(PhD, Ecology, Religion and Spirituality, ongoing)
Spartanburg, South Carolina, USA
https://samharrelson.com/about-sam-harrelson/
Rev. Clare Morgan, BFA, MDiv
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
https://www.thecathedral.ca/users/the-rev-clare-morgan–79
Rev. Alisdair Smith, M.A.
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
https://www.thecathedral.ca/users/the-rev-alisdair-smith
Artist
Kristina Luu
https://www.kristinaluu.com/about
Writer
Matthew Klippenstein
Average everyman.
Our world is bounded by science, so miracles don’t move me. But moral clarity does. And some of the teachings of the world’s traditions are pregnant with moral clarity. They ask us to deliver it into the world. Usually we can’t, with our limits and frailties. Sometimes we can, and our conscience soars.
Teachings don’t have to be exactly factually accurate, to bear transformative truth. Whether the Parable of the Good Samaritan was told five hundred times or none, whether it was perfectly transcribed or paraphrased, its transformative truth is unblemished. It points to a life beyond the biased barrier of “Us” versus “Them”. Other traditions surely teach the same, in different words. They are fingers pointing at the moon, each unique in its own way. Each with partisans too busy bickering their finger is better, to take in the moon it points to.
We all live lives ruled by compromises. Sometimes — maybe not often — we do as our conscience compels. This is one such time for me. May there be others.
May we build a world without outgroups.