Liberation is the path to power.
In fact, the biggest cause of despair
among the unemployed isn’t a lack of money but a lack of hope. Unemployed
people are more likely to follow someone who gives them hope than someone who
offers them money. When you have hope – even just a shred of it – you start
feeling self-efficacy. (Eric Hoffer, The True Believer: Thoughts on the
Nature of Mass Movements, )
This would be why the highest rate of suicides is white working class men out of work. They have lost hope. You
want to understand why Donald Trump is surging. Look at the those who,
powerless, are attracted to his power. Somewhere beneath his outrageous hubris,
is the promise of power and liberation.
Learning and liberation go hand in hand. Why learning and liberation? Because I think it takes learning to be
liberated. It takes spiritual education, or what we now call faith formation,
to liberate ourselves from the consumerist mentality that we are a part of. The
learning takes many forms here; from the
small group ministry to spiritual practice to engaged social justice
initiatives. In order to be liberated we need to become learners.
With Grace and Grit, John
