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d88067a And in 1513, the Spanish government created a kind of Miranda rights-style document that was to be read (in Spanish--incomprehensible to the indigenous peoples!) to those about to be conquered. It was the summary of the Gospel as they understood it; it was their core message, their "good news," the metanarrative that legitimized their white Christian supremacy: On the part of the King, Don Fernando, and of Dona Juana I, his daughter, Queen .. Brian D. McLaren
6a82c7a Wake up and smell the coffee Is your cup half full or empty? Billie Eilish
2250df8 I]t takes a bad woman to be a good godmother. Billie Holiday
ef60b70 The people of Hispaniola had their lives unjustly and savagely taken by professed Jesus followers, and they were not, as we all know, the only ones to meet such a fate. Millions of their Indigenous sisters and brothers on Turtle Island were killed at the hands of other Europeans, as nation after imperial nation, bearing Christ on their lips and crosses on their military standards, followed suit.21 Brian D. McLaren
e69676f As the Navajo and Christian activist Mark Charles explains, when citizens of the thirteen British colonies composed the Declaration of Independence, among their complaints against King George was that he didn't allow them to apply the Doctrine of Discovery to the people of the lands to their west.22 The Declaration described the indigenous peoples as "merciless Indian savages," clearly not counted among the "all men" whom God supposedly "cr.. Brian D. McLaren
2294d7a When physical genocide ran its course, cultural genocide followed, reflected in the "compassionate" counsel of Captain Richard Henry Pratt: "A great general has said that the only good Indian is a dead one. In a sense, I agree with the sentiment, but only in this: that all the Indian there is in the race should be dead. Kill the Indian in him, and save the man." Then" Brian D. McLaren
54fc1cb Americans until 1924. States like Arizona and New Mexico found ways to continue restricting voting rights until 1948, just as several southern states continue to do in this century to African Americans. Brian D. McLaren
dcfad18 If more Christians today summon the courage to take seriously the dark sides of our history, we will wake up to the degree to which our religion still interprets the Bible exactly as our misguided ancestors did.28 (No, we don't draw exactly the same conclusions, but we have neither acknowledged nor rejected the method of reading the Bible that made those unacceptable interpretations acceptable.) If we face our past, we will see how many pow.. Brian D. McLaren
e02e338 Fasting is] a way of making sure we haven't let the rhythms of the everyday put us to sleep, a way to make sure that our habits have not become addictions... Brian D. McLaren
807c202 Some people--and I pray I will be one of them--never forget what it was like, which enables them to mentor people of any age. Brian D. McLaren
dc2b328 the kind of person who wants to participate in the healing of the world is very different from the kind of person who wants to leave this world behind so she can go to a better one. Brian D. McLaren
67b3ce4 I'm raising the question of whether focusing on the afterlife beyond history can unintentionally but tragically lead to the abandonment of this earth and this life. Brian D. McLaren
d6de556 So if God is forgotten, we want to join God in being forgotten. So if God is rejected and opposed and misunderstood and misrepresented, we want to suffer each indignity and sorrow with God. Brian D. McLaren
08ea95a We hate those times of weakness, but I can see why life would be engineered to bring us to them; without them, we might never learn what faith is at all. Someone has said that you never know if your faith is real until it is all you have left. Brian D. McLaren
673f800 our relationships with God go through similar phases sometimes. We aren't comfortable with each other. The conversation doesn't flow as well. We aren't sure we can trust as before -- or we aren't sure we can be trusted as before. At those tough times, I have learned that there is a lot to be said for just hanging in there. For keeping on going to church. For saying your prayers. For keeping the communication lines open. For sustaining your .. Brian D. McLaren
d38f512 With Sir Isaac Newton's laws of physics, and God being seen as the powerful machine operator who perfectly controls the machine through these orderly laws, we end up with the opposite problem, the very opposite of the ancient situation. Now, instead of chaos reigning and us wondering if there's any order, order reigns supreme, and we wonder if there's any freedom. Brian D. McLaren
e36cd62 Enter faith, and a whole new factor enters the equation. Words like "impossible" seem out of place. Despair and cynicism feel like insults to God. Hope grows, and love, and therefore motivation to care, to give, to act, to try, to dream, to risk." Brian D. McLaren
ad60f27 I do know this about pride: pride is tiring, a cruel task-master, a complicator, a destroyer. Humility, in contrast, relaxes, refreshes, relieves, simplifies, renews. To the degree that becoming childlike includes becoming humble, humility releases childlike play, laughter, sleep, smiles, fun. Our pride forces us to take ourselves so seriously, which leads us to take others less seriously and God less seriously still. Brian D. McLaren
15944ab No two people on earth are alike, and it's got to be that way in music or it isn't music. Billie Holiday
2baa2b1 Being able to know and feel what Karl knows and feels... that no matter what, I am God's, and God is mine... that we have a connection; we have a relationship. Faith in your life brings God in your life. Brian D. McLaren
bda5c3b God unleashes history in the beginning. God helps the baby to stand in the beginning. But God is also out ahead, calling history homeward across the field or across the room. God doesn't force it. Sometimes history responds, or some parts of history respond, but others resist or rebel. But God keeps calling. Brian D. McLaren
c75c811 seeing history in this new way-not just being pushed from the past, or even engineered in the present, but being pulled, invited, called, into the future, which keeps coming to us as a gift. Brian D. McLaren
ebba4cd Cause-effect looks back and asks, "What caused this?" Purpose looks up or ahead, and asks, "And why was it caused? For what purpose? For what end?" Cause-effect looks for a force pushing events from behind. Purpose looks for a pattern or design or intention or meaning pulling events from ahead, guiding them from above, enriching them from within." Brian D. McLaren
47df56f Roman throats like the Zealots. Instead, if a Roman soldier backhands you with a blow Brian D. McLaren
f2f8465 Instead, it was a Christianity engaged with modernity (and postmodernity) -- grappling with its issues, sensitive to its questions and concerns, aware of its spiritual vacuum, in vital dialogue with its artistic and intellectual leaders. It was a "third-way" faith seeking to steer a course that would avoid defensive retreat and isolation on the one hand and capitulation and sellout on the other." Brian D. McLaren
08c24dc I don't think we should give up on ritual. I don't think we should give up on any possible means of experiencing God. Brian D. McLaren
30e455e We are not scholars researching an ancient Chinese emperor -- a matter of objectivity and disinterestedness; we are sons and daughters who want to get to know our father -- someone with whom we have an essential relationship. Brian D. McLaren
ae6a76c My concern is that by making heaven after this life the destination of our way, we are spiritually forming people who run away from fire, disease, and the violence of our world. Brian D. McLaren
9f5a2f3 He had what we often lack -- the maturity to see that faith isn't something you either have or don't have, but something that ebbs and flows in the life and soul of every individual. Doubt isn't the opposite of faith. It is an element of faith. Where there is absolute certainty, there can be no room for faith. Brian D. McLaren
c454941 he encouraged them to explore their doubts, ask their questions, and express themselves honestly. Many people crave certainty. They don't want to have to think, agonize, or grapple with life's difficult questions for themselves. Instead they want dogma. They want guaranteed answers. Brian D. McLaren
77ef30a I so wish people had seen it your way, but I think too many of us have read the story to say it gives European white males carte blanche to play God over creation; so `having dominion' gives them a license to pollute and exploit. Brian D. McLaren
dd48a37 These emerging Christian leaders realize that if their message isn't good news for the poor, a message of liberation for the oppressed, it isn't the same message Jesus proclaimed. Brian D. McLaren
28114ae For me, Carol, we can't be faithful to God unless we're faithful to the facts, faithful to the data if you will. And so, instead of hiding from evolution, I think we'd be more faithful to God to look it right in the eye and learn from it. Brian D. McLaren
99e449c the only viable response to religious hostility is love, empathy, compassion, understanding--not more hostility. (What could be more pathetic than a hostile fight against hostility?) Brian D. McLaren
406b719 Church!" she cried. "Why would I ever go there? I was already feeling terrible about myself. They'd just make me feel worse." Brian D. McLaren
e9a8eac God is not the tribal deity of one group of "chosen" people. God is not for us and against all others. God is for us and for them, too. God loves everyone everywhere, no exceptions." -- Brian D. McLaren
c566a19 The cross calls humanity to stop trying to make God's kingdom happen through coercion and force, which are always self-defeating in the end, and instead, to welcome it through self-sacrifice and vulnerability. Brian D. McLaren
5b6e5e9 I guess you could say that the Bible is a book that doesn't try to tell you what to think. Instead, it trys to teach you how to think. It stretches your thinking; it challenges you to think bigger and harder than you ever have. Brian D. McLaren
e3575e6 Somebody once said we never know what is enough until we know what's more than enough. Billie Holiday
b525d56 I've been told that nobody sings the word "hunger" like I do. Or the word "love." Billie Holiday
420a3d3 I'm always making a comeback but nobody ever tells me where I've been. Billie Holiday
53433fb I fell in love with the right person, a person I know and who knows me. Billy Crystal
a4a83cd Oprah: Is there a muscle you use for performing?Billy: Yes -- my brain. Billy Crystal
c8d14cd Commitment to great causes makes great men. Billy Graham