JR. Forasteros - September 6, 2020
Artefacts: Monuments
All systems are comprised of physical artefacts. As we begin our exploration of systemic racism in America, we investigate the Confederate monuments we're removing all over the country. How should persons of faith understand this issue, and more importantly: how does that illuminate how the artefacts in our daily lives are racialized too?
From Series: "Faith & Race"
It seems as though everyone is talking about Race these days. That can be a difficult conversation for people of faith - especially if we want to do more than feel better. What does it look like for a people of faith to resist systemic racism? During this series, we'll explore how racism is systemic and what a faith-filled response can look like. Join us for a month of justice work!
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Today’s about Ghost stories. Though they appear in many forms, the quintessential ghost story involves the spirit of a dead person who’s stayed around (usually a haunted house) because they have unfinished business. Maybe they have to deliver a message or ensure proper burial or get revenge. Whatever the case, once their business is complete, they leave into the afterlife.
Unlike our previous two monsters, today we’re not ghosts. Rather, to quote Peter Rollins,
We are the haunted houses. — Peter Rollins
We move through life collecting hurts, wounds and scars, evidence of pain inflicted on us by other people. Some may be slight, exaggerated in our heads – maybe someone who cuts us off or says something cruel or who causes us harm by accident. Others could be huge, life-altering. A spouse who left. An abuser. And there’s a whole range of hurts between.
Whatever their source, however legitimate or not, these people, these hurts don’t just exit our lives.
We carry them around with us, in our heads and in our souls. They haunt us, returning again and again out of the ether to drag us through the past, to relive history, to reopen old wounds.
The problem is we don’t know what these ghosts want. We don’t know how to resolve their business and get them to leave us. We can’t escape their haunting – especially if the person who hurt you is still a part of your life.
