Chrisitan Changemakers

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by Lee Lennon3 views·Updated Nov 21, 2020
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Final Project Class Summary Sources: - The Bible - Principles of Catholic Social Teaching - Elizabeth Johnson, “Mary of Nazareth, Friend of God and Prophet” - Bryan Massingale, “The Challenge of Idolatry for LGBTI Ministry” - Stephen Pope, "A Step Along the Way" - Martin Luther King, "Strength to Love" and "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" - Gregory Boyle, "Tattoos on the Heart" - Bryan Stevenson, "Just Mercy" - Fresh Air, "Sister Helen Prejean" - "They Killed Sister Dorothy" - Pope Francis, "Laudato Si" - Wangari Maathai, "Nobel Lecture" - Greta Thunberg, "Speech at UN Climate Change COP24 Conference" - Kidder, "Mountains Beyond Mountains"

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  1. Hey, folks.
  2. So Thanksgiving is coming up, which likely means spending time
  3. with our beloved families, and that may or may not
  4. include a healthy dose of conservative relatives after the way
  5. this year is gone or likely be allowed to talk
  6. about. So I would like to give you a taste
  7. of what we learned in Christian change makers this year.
  8. Essentially, we tackled a wide range of social justice issues
  9. from a Christian perspective and looked at some of the
  10. people that have made a meaningful impact in those areas.
  11. Regardless of your beliefs, likely be something to learn, even
  12. if it's just examples to bring to the dinner table.
  13. First off, we have the theological foundations that support modern
  14. social justice.
  15. Now Jesus was the O.
  16. G. When it comes to change making, and there's a
  17. lot that we can learn from his teachings even today,
  18. these three Gospels tell the story of his life from
  19. a few different perspectives.
  20. Stories like this first one where Jesus Woody with the
  21. sick and the sinners rather than with the well on
  22. the wealthy, because they needed his health.
  23. Next time someone asks why there is an immense history
  24. month or a straight history month or they bring up
  25. all lives matter.
  26. You can tell them this story to maybe lay the
  27. groundwork for a change of heart.
  28. Second, we have this saying, which means that it's wrong
  29. to judge others without seeing the faults in ourselves.
  30. Another great story is that of the Good Samaritan.
  31. This one is about loving your neighbor as you love
  32. yourself. Who is your neighbor?
  33. Everyone at two, all in said it was easy now.
  34. More recently, we have the updated principles of Catholic social
  35. teaching, these areas that the Catholic Church has identified as
  36. being core values that should guide actions and beliefs as
  37. supported and justified by the lessons within the Bible.
  38. Moving on, We have gender justice.
  39. Now this section is all about the girls in the
  40. gays. First off imagery of Mary of Nazareth for a
  41. long time was meant to represent the feminine side of
  42. God has not only having masculine traits but also being
  43. nurturing and gentle.
  44. Of course, positive traits should not be gender exclusive.
  45. That's that's an important thing to emphasize, however, recently her
  46. human side is being more and more acknowledged, so hopefully
  47. women will increasingly be able to identify themselves with her
  48. struggle. Next up, we have Brian Massengale.
  49. Now he is a gay priest that fully believes that
  50. all people are created in the image of God, um,
  51. which prevents God from being single undefinable.
  52. In this way, it's a sort of blasphemy to ascribe
  53. any single identity to God, particularly any which is hardly
  54. representative of a huge portion of humanity.
  55. Sure, um, this one is a little bit more difficult
  56. to wrestle with, because it's impossible to ignore that women
  57. are not equal within the church.
  58. But there a lot of people trying to change that.
  59. And there is a place for you, whoever you may
  60. be and wherever you may be, and then to look
  61. at some of those relevant principles from the other list.
  62. Um, just some more things that will fuel to the
  63. fire in a good way.
  64. Of course, next step will be talking about racial justice.
  65. This one's been a heated topic this year, so we're
  66. gonna look back at the civil rights movement and our
  67. exemplar from that era, Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.
  68. From him.
  69. I would like to point you in the direction of
  70. his letter from a Birmingham jail, which was directed at
  71. white clergymen from many different religious sects, is a particular
  72. portion where he calls out the white moderate.
  73. These are the people that support the rights of marginalized
  74. people, but would rather let UM, civil rights movement happened
  75. on its own time and development happened on its own
  76. time. Um, now, he said that that is presumptuous, and
  77. it is unfair to expect marginalized people to be patient.
  78. And also the change happens from action.
  79. Sometimes a retweet just isn't enough.
  80. Now intersectionality is a relatively new term that describes the
  81. effect of multiple identities defining a person at the same
  82. time because everyone is multifaceted.
  83. A za results, sometimes of oppression, are harder to see
  84. because they affect a combination of identities.
  85. So keep your eyes open.
  86. And there's some of those principles from that list that
  87. support the justice for, um, different races.
  88. Next up, we'll be talking about criminal justice.
  89. Now, these three air some amazing modern people to give
  90. you an idea of how modern Gregory Boyle still gives
  91. talks to schools, and Bryan Stevenson is still a lawyer
  92. Now, Father Boyle is the founder and director of Homeboy
  93. Industries, which works to rehabilitate gang members, primarily in L.
  94. A. His book tells a story that is equal parts
  95. heartwarming and heartbreaking.
  96. It truly emphasizes that all people are human and equally
  97. deserving of the same love and opportunities as everyone else.
  98. It brings us back to that Bible story from before
  99. Everyone is your neighbor.
  100. Now Bryan Stevenson is a lawyer who is a fierce
  101. opponent of the death penalty.
  102. He's represented numerous people on death row, including an innocent
  103. man who was held for six years.
  104. He also advocated the elimination of a life sentence without
  105. parole for convicted minors, which he even pushed through the
  106. Supreme Court.
  107. Um, this all stems from incarceration system that considers the
  108. conviction to be a win instead of a failure by
  109. society. Now, Sister Helen Prejean was a witness to several
  110. death or executions just to bear witness and to hold
  111. company with the dignity of the dying and was a
  112. harsh critic of the death penalty.
  113. Their stories are amazing.
  114. I would highly recommend looking into them further and then,
  115. of course, relevant principles coming from Catholic teachings.
  116. Next up will be looking a little bit of climate
  117. justice. Now, Sister Dorothy a staying was a fierce advocate
  118. for climate rights and of the poor in Brazil and
  119. the Amazon rainforest.
  120. And then I'm sure you've heard of Greta Thornburg.
  121. Um, Wangari Mathai was a environmental advocate from Kenya and
  122. actually the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace
  123. Prize for her activism there.
  124. And even Pope Francis put something out on climate justice
  125. about trusting the science behind it.
  126. So feel free to bring that one up at the
  127. dinner table this Thanksgiving.
  128. There's a relevant principles there, too, Um, to include care
  129. for creation, environmental justice.
  130. That is something that is highly valued.
  131. Oh, lastly, we have poverty and public health.
  132. So Paul Farmer was a doctor to the poor and
  133. Haiti, history is told by Tracy Kidder's book Mountains Beyond
  134. Mountains. This is another eye opening story about the injustice
  135. towards the poor, particularly in access to health care.
  136. The next three, Oscar Romero, Dorothy Day and Mother Teresa
  137. all showed incredible solidarity with the poor, choosing to live
  138. in challenging conditions to bear, witness and support impoverished peoples.
  139. They put themselves in the line advocating for better conditions
  140. and treatment often for groups of people more concerned with
  141. their own wealth.
  142. The relevant principles here again, uh, preferential option for the
  143. poor and violent role does come.
  144. Come in here.
  145. It's well now with a final call for action.
  146. Have solidarity with the people that are struggling.
  147. Don't expect changed habits happen on its own.
  148. Take a stance To quote Hamilton, If you stand for
  149. nothing, what will you fall for?
  150. Um also show compassion for everyone because everyone is your
  151. neighbor, even people that are vastly different from you.
  152. And yeah, that includes your relatives, that air being kind
  153. of conservative this Thanksgiving and also bear witness to injustice.
  154. We can't let it slide by unnoticed and unacknowledged.
  155. Thank you for your time.
  156. Sources will be in the description.
  157. I'd really recommend checking a few of them out these
  158. air really meaningful stories that can open your eyes to
  159. a lot of ideas you've never confronted before.
  160. Happy holidays.