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Jul 6, 2022Liked by Samuel D. James

A third alternative is that possibly there are a large number of us who do hold these 24 beliefs together. And, though not a "silent majority" but still a significant group, we can find each other and build resilient communities with each other. This blog and all your followers are an example of people who hold these views.

Better yet, maybe we don't try and find a voice amongst the polarization of the internet, but look to build real life communities in our own geographical locations. Call my Pollyanna, I guess. But I think it's still a real possibility.

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Jul 6, 2022Liked by Samuel D. James

AMEN! We live in tragic times....

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Dude. 100%.

I tried to express this all a couple of years ago in a long essay that nobody seemed to understand: the fact that - ala. Chesterton's "Orthodoxy" - intellectual and spiritual sanity is found in holding oneself that place of perfect tension between apparently opposing, but in fact fundamentally reconcilable propositions, i.e. paradox. And that this space of sanity, is also the space of humour, in the sense of humility in the face of the recognition of the internal incongruities of our tribe, and of our own selves.

Your list is precisely what I was trying to express. Our "tribe" wants us to choose one or another of the propositions, to resolve the tension through choice of one or the other. This is often presented as "courageous". i.e. you have to "choose a side". In reality, the courage is found in refusing to accept reductions that conform reality to our narrow loyalties, and instead seeking to conform our minds to reality as it truly is, in all its glorious complexity.

Write more on this theme.

https://johnjalsevac.substack.com/p/the-humorlessness-of-our-politics-is-driving-us-mad

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Catching up. Yes, there is a place for us. I’m going to sound out-of-touch but that place is God’s Kingdom. We’re His people. I pray daily against the heresies abounding in the White American Evangelical spaces. IMO, our best bet is to be who we are on-line and disassociate from tribalism yet stay stalwart. I once had a writer comment on a twitter post of mine that I was a “real Christian.” I had no idea that he even read my tweets. I say that only to say this: People are looking at us and hungry for genuine faith expressions that don’t fit neatly into categories. The gospel doesn’t either.

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