What makes us human? The Thing.

Mother and Child – Egon Schiele, 1914

A quick thought:

One way to think about injustice (what Christians often call “sin”) is as what happens when we deny what is intractable, insistent, human: violence/sexuality. One way to think about the “conversions” of both Saint Paul and Saint Augustine is as types of fleeing from one or another of those things or “the thing.”

What would happen if we started where Ibram Kendi does in Stamped from the Beginning, with the refreshing assumption that nothing is wrong with us? In this context, what would happen if we acknowledged, soberly and honestly, “the thing” that makes us human and that can’t be redeemed?

If we held space open for honest talk about “the thing,” would we be(come) both more human and less unjust?

One way to parse the difference between the two, major U.S. political parties is that the Democrats hide “the thing” (denying any hostility, tension, horror in and among the multitude) and the Republicans flaunt it (denying the possibility of hope and joy in and among the multitude).

Or, the thing for Democrats is hostility, tension, horror in and among the multitude (i.e., Trump) and the thing for (MAGA) Republicans is hope and joy in and among the multitude (i.e., Harris).

What’s possible when we honestly talk about what REALLY disturbs us?