Comments on: Activists in Hindsight

By: Steve Hayes

Steve Hayes — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 03:20:15 +0000

Speaking the truth to power is tough, but the difficulty decreases with distance not only in time, but also in space.

For that lone guy in front of the tanks it was really tough, because he was there.

But most Americans are not there, and perhaps need to speak the truth to power closer to home — not Tianamnen Square or Tibet, but Guantanamo Bay.

Say I, who am not in America.

By: Rachel H. Evans

Rachel H. Evans — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 23:37:39 +0000

I think about this often. I try to remember that there were a lot of good people (including a lot of good church people) who completely ignored the Civil Rights Movement, women’s suffrage, abolition, Indian removal, etc. I want to believe that had I lived ten, fifteen, or twenty decades ago, I would have stood up for what was right, but I’m not sure that I would have had the insight…or the guts.

However, I’m glad to see that someone else struggles with this. My husband always says that simply asking these kinds of questions is a good start to doing the right thing.

Sometimes I wonder if my generation’s biggest regret will be the evangelical treatment of the gay community in America. While international issues are hugely important (I think of Tibet, Darfur, and the fact that 39,000 children die every day from diseases we have cures for), I think we are most responsible for domestic injustice, and especially for injustice within the Church.

Thanks for the post!

By: mel

mel — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 15:14:10 +0000

But would be really have been on “the side of good” if we had lived in those eras?

That is a question that has troubled me for a long time. I want to believe that I would have been one of those who stood up for justice, that we all would have been, but I am not so sure.

So many of us abdicate personal responsibility and ignore our complicity in systems of injustice, pinning the blame on government and corporations. They are also responsible, but I fear that too many of us would rather be blind.

By: Minstrel Ayreon

Minstrel Ayreon — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 04:01:52 +0000

I, for one, am tired of the excuses made for China. Because of their power, they are coddled–yet our country never would’ve done that for one second with the old Soviet Union. How did we allow ourselves to get so entangled with their economy, in the first place?

Sadly, though, I do not believe we would actually DO anything as a society unless something forced our hand. If recall after recall and offense after offense doesn’t do it…it seems to me we would not change unless our government passed a trade embargo, or at the VERY least a major corporation like Wal-Mart (the latter of which I doubt would ever do it).

By: Lori

Lori — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 03:51:10 +0000

Very thought prevoking. These are things I am wrestling with as well.