URBANarmy

A bit of today's daily dose of Rohr... "Prophets, by their very nature, cannot be at the center of any social structure. Rather, they are “on the edge of the inside.” They cannot be fully insiders, but they cannot throw rocks from outside either. They must be educated inside the system, knowing and living the rules, before they can critique what is non- essential or not so important. Jesus did this masterfully (see Matthew 5:17-48). This is what Martin Luther King, Jr. taught the United States, what Gandhi taught British-occupied India, and what Nelson Mandela taught South Africa. Only with great respect for and understanding of the rules can a prophet know how to properly break those very same rules—for the sake of a greater purpose and value. A prophet critiques a system by quoting its own documents, constitutions, heroes, and Scriptures against its present practice. This is their secret: systems are best unlocked from inside." One of the most common complaints I h...

Richard Rohr points out "Simone Weil and others have said that the very nature of spiritual truth is that it is paradoxical. Christianity should have known this ... [however] ... The church has taught people doctrines, but has not always taught the proper mind with which to understand them."  "...many people who formerly called themselves Christians have “thrown out the baby with the bathwater,” rejecting Christianity with the same dualistic, all-or-nothing thinking that immature religion taught them in the first place." Richard Rohr