I stopped by Pendle Hill in early September to help them set up their social networking system and interviewed with Shirley Dodson for their September newsletter. The interview came out quite well.
Shirley was a patient and deep listener, asking questions like How did your musical ministry develop and What do you see Quakerism offering to the world? Take a look:
Have you ever judged someone for being too judgmental?
It’s funny how the obvious irony of it doesn’t prevent me from that attitude. I have to catch myself.
In 2005, I was walking around the streets of Coimbra hating the people around me for destroying our natural world and for not caring for our animal neighbors. Cars’ exhaust, concrete, construction workers, folks in business suits… I convicted them all of neglect and hatred and I despised them for it. I sentenced total strangers to angry looks and disregarded their humanity because of their sins.
…until it occurred to me that our neglect and objectification of the natural world comes out of our own pain and brokenness. My actively hating someone will cause them to feel hated — which will cause more pain — which will cause them to act out of their brokenness — which will cause more destruction.
I vowed to stop contributing to the problem.