Comments on: Welcome: Gift giving or justice making?

By: chutney

chutney — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 22:43:32 +0000

I’m not sure I can say which side of that is true welcoming and which isn’t, but point taken. I was just bragging on you today for taking that tack with it: what if I find out I like the person I’m about to welcome?

By: 4alarm

4alarm — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 20:28:47 +0000

sorry i’m a little late to this party, but catching up on my blog-reading hasn’t made it to the top of my queue in a while. anyway.

what about the selfish welcomers? the ones of us who do it because we assume that we’re likely going to get something good from the stranger? both the merciful and the just versions as you’ve described them are kind of condescending. all the energy is traveling from the welcomer to the stranger.

i concede that they definitely predominate, but there is no room in the dichotomy for true welcoming. i’m all for people being nice whatever their motivation, but true welcoming isn’t about the gift i’m giving to the stranger. it’s about the gift that i anticipate the stranger giving to me. like your toonces and her belly rubs.

By: Dhiro

Dhiro — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 22:01:37 +0000

I think this typology is useful, but what came straight to mind is the Bible passage that puts justice and mercy side by side and demands both in humility, Micah 6:8.

The answer to many a paradox is “Both/And”.

By: chutney

chutney — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 16:39:08 +0000

Well, that’s the great strength and great weakness of typologies—simplification. I tend to think in models, so I love a good typology.

I don’t think it’s a matter of getting 25 or any other organization on board. It’s a matter of putting into practice wherever it’s practical. And then the folks doing it will have to make it clear that they expect the same of others.

I think it’s probably already in practice in many congregations, where mercy welcome comes more naturally. The trick is to make welcome a clear expectation, correcting people who cross lines, whether that’s on a one-to-one level or an organizational level.

If the folks who make that a clear expectation are already walking the walk, then it will be tough to say no to them. But people who live lives of welcome can have a hard time demanding welcome.

By: anonymous

anonymous — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 14:09:40 +0000

I appreciate your efforts to reconcile justice with mercy; indeed, efforts such as yours are what UUism needs to grow and thrive.

The problem with making a comparative analysis of justice and mercy is that I find it makes a little bit too much sense. You’re right, Chutney, no one doubts that– but when you run up against an ingrained, institutionalized form of militancy which entertains no notions of such crucial concepts as irony and reverse-racism then there’s no amount of fighting that will make them see the light. Their eyes are closed and so are their minds.

Getting 25 Beacon Street and C*UUYAN and FUUSE folks to get on the bandwagon is going to be tough going. I understand you went to your first GA this past June. I challenge you to at some point attend a national con like Opus or ConCentric and see what you’re really up against.