Friday, January 23, 2009

Faith, Hope, Love

I really like the connections that are created in the blogosphere. I'm part of a community of faith where most of the folks aren't all that into this stuff, and originally I started this blog with the idea those that were would check it out. To date that hasn't happened.

But I will blog here nonetheless. I'm so full of hope for the future after the inauguration. How about you? Will the naysayers and fearmongers be able to overcome, or will hope and optimism win out? My children have asked me during bleak times "Are we gonna be ok, Mom?" Sometimes this is a personal question, encompassing only their small corner of the world; other times it is a concern for the entire planet, for all creation. It's the latter that gives me hope, because if they are concerned about something outside themselves, as are others, there is a reason to believe that faith can win over fear.

In the response to the closing of American detention centers in Guantanamo and the secret centers elsewhere, fear tells us that we might be opening Pandora's box as we relocate and release these detainees. Fear tells us that we can breach our values of justice for all for the sake of our security. Yet without the upholding of justice there is no security, because we will eventually turn into the very people we are afraid of. Total security can only be had at the expense of liberty. I pray that we are never so afraid that we succumb to the illusion that we can have both.

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