The Extremism we can't seem to grasp

From the beginning men used God to justify the unjustifiable.”

― Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses

Extremes to the right and to the left of any political dispute are always wrong.”

― Dwight D. Eisenhower

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I have been thinking today about extremism

In general I am against it

Political

Religious

I am against food fanaticism (sorry)

In general I am for the middle way

which is an old an honored path

it is not that there is no place for extreme

Jesus was extreme

and called for an extreme way of life

servanthood

death of ego

sacrificial giving

unconditional love

a difficult way for sure

and what have we done with his call to be

“ordinary radicals” (Shane Claiborne)?

we have moved to

extreme hate

exclusion

judgment

extreme enmeshment with the cultural status quo

we have even decided that greed is OK

many of those who say they follow Jesus

are now willing to follow a person who is the antithesis of all Jesus stood for

extremely

Those who would be progressive followers of Jesus have now become

as pious and rigid as those they just

we do not handle extremism well, and

it appears that we are willing to adopt any form of extremism except one

extreme love

Oh beloved one

deliver us from ourselves