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Breaking through oppression
Some people have lived such oppressed lives that their true selves have become completely unreachable to them. They need help to break through their oppression. Henri J. M. Nouwen, The Inner Voice of...
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Of bikes, poems in the dark and sex strikes
Fifty Shades of Feminism, edited by Lisa Appignanesi, Rachel Holmes and Susie Orbach, proves to be a fascinating collection of fifty brief reflections by an intriguing mix of voices: poets and...
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What I oppose and what I reject
… what I oppose and what I reject: discrimination and oppression, homophobia and patriarchy, injustice and violence, force and empire. Thus John Dominic Crossan, God and Empire: Jesus Against Rome,...
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To choose freely
What all women deserve is to be able to choose freely the lives they want to lead, free of oppression and exploitation, filled with opportunity to be who they want to be. It is all about human rights....
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No longer
There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. Thus Galatians 3:28. As Ulrich Duchrow notes, in his...
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A double bind
Following up a friend’s recommendation, I am currently reading Barbara Glasson’s A Spirituality of Survival: Enabling a Response to Trauma and Abuse, a book that I am finding increasingly insightful,...
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A way to flourish
I believe in a gospel that calls us to ‘life in all its fullness’. This is not just divine wishful thinking but the call to live our lives on top of oppression and abuse and enable others to do the...
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Not obliged to submit
Some further thoughts from Barbara Glasson’s A Spirituality of Survival: Enabling a Response to Trauma and Abuse: Relationships should never be traps; they should hold and not bind. […] abuse is about...
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Ubuntu
Desmond Tutu, commenting on someone who has ubuntu, says: This means they are generous, hospitable, friendly, caring, and compassionate. They share what they have. It also means my humanity is caught...
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Recognition, misrecognition or non-recognition
… our identity is partly shaped by recognition or its absence, often by the misrecognition of others, and so a person or group of people can suffer real damage, real distortion, if the people or...
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The marks of oppression
As the oppressors dehumanize others and violate their rights, they themselves also become dehumanized. … Once a situation of violence and oppression has been established, it engenders an entire way of...
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God takes sides
God is a God who takes sides. God is God of the oppressed; God enters into their difficult, suffering situations to set things right. God is a God who is concerned to move people from slavery to...
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God’s kingdom of justice, of peace, of laughter, of joy, of caring, of...
Some quotes from Desmond Tutu’s God Has a Dream: A Vision of Hope for Our Time. On ‘a deep reverence’ for this world: … all is ultimately holy ground and we should figuratively take off our shoes for...
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The marks of the beast
The marks offered them sure and peaceful sleep, a way to acquire prestige and a thousand unnecessary things. To continue along this path, they had to harden themselves against the Lamb and against His...
View ArticleAnger points to life
Fire is often used to portray anger. Anger burns and blazes. It inflames the human heart. But it can also be a subtle presence. It can turn totally inward and become depression. It can also hide under...
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What is sacred in democracy
Whenever the political climate becomes racist, totalitarian or based on the notion of unity through community, the role of democrats everywhere is no longer to support the preferences of the majority...
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