Recent comments by presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann have stirred up the discussion about gay marriage once again. While speaking to a group of high school…
15
Jan
2012
Jonathan Brink
The Author
Jonathan Brink
I am the Senior Editor at Provoketive. I am the author of the recently published, Discovering the God Imagination. I also serve as Senior Editor for Civitas Press, a boutique publishing firm specializing in inspiring and redemptive ideas. I am developing a new model for publishing and seek to create new opportunities for fresh and creative voices.
Occasionally, I speak on issues of justice, postmodern theology, and living a life in the way of Jesus. I leads workshops on The Practice of Love and Exploring a Postmodern Gospel at BeADisciple.com.
I am a son, a husband, and a father. I live in Folsom, Ca, with my beautiful wife and amazing three children.
Parker Palmer explores the power of the human heart to stand up to injustice.
Those movements were fomented by folks who had every external form of power taken away from then. They had no status, they had no standing, they had no leverage. What they did was to access the only source of power that no one can take away from us, and that’s the power of the human heart…the power of the soul, the power of identity and integrity.
I think of about this sometimes as the Rosa Parks decision, or the Rosa Parks moment in life, where an apparently powerless person, an ordinary citizen say, “I hold a truth on the inside that has power. And the truth is that I’m a full human being with all the rights and privileges pertaining there unto. And I’m no longer going to collaborate with a system that treats me as less than a full human being.
How does this statement speak to you?
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Interesting piece.
I think the ‘Rosa Parks’ moments, or the Mahatma Ghandi moments can eventually break through in decent (not perfect) societies.
But the human heart and will has a much tougher time in a brutal society led by truly evil people.
One wonders how many Rosa Parks, or Ghandis were snuffed out by the Mao’s, Stalins , Hitlers, and Pol Pots of the world.
As my pastor says, “In this world there is no rest, no peace, and no victory”. Not lasting, anyway.
Thanks, very much.
Steve, I think that’s what makes the human heart idea so powerful. For every sense of oppression there is an equally powerful story of courage. In sitting on that seat, Rosa Parks created an idea that was more powerful than her oppressors. But it took someone to first speak it out loud for others to hear it.