domination is diminutive

Domination cannot exist in any social situation where a love ethic prevails. . . . When love is present the desire to dominate and exercise power cannot rule the day. All the great social movements for freedom and justice in our society have promoted a love ethic. Concern for the collective good of our nation, city, or neighbor rooted in the values of love makes us all seek to nurture and protect that good. If all public policy was created in the spirit of love, we would not have to worry about unemployment, homelessness, schools failing to teach children, or addiction. . . .

 

To live our lives based on the principles of a love ethic (showing care, respect, knowledge, integrity, and the will to cooperate), we have to be courageous. Learning how to face our fears is one way we embrace love. Our fear may not go away, but it will not stand in the way.

 

bell hooks, All about Love: New Visions (William Morrow: 2000), 87–88, 94, 98, 101

 

I pray that out of glorious riches God may strengthen you with power through the Spirit... I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,  may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. 

                                 Paul  (Ephesians 3)

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let me go on the record

this faith I hold

this desire to live life by walking the way of Jesus

filled by

comforted by

guided by

empowered by

the Spirit, the active presence of the Sacred in me

 

is not about winning

it is not about power

it is not about wealth

it is above all else, no about domination

 

for some domination is the answer to everything

gain control, grab hold of the power

and you make good things happen for yourself

 

from that position of domination

you can create wealth

you can be safe and secure

you can manipulate and control others

 

its good to be king/queen/despot/president

 

but domination

is not the way of Jesus

 

it is the way of repression

minimization, marginalization

and abuse

 

for those for whom domination is the key,

it consumes

making them cruel, dishonest, hurtful

 

once they have a little they want more

and once  they have it, they cannot let it

and will destroy all, even themselves, to stay

dominant

 

power corrupts, but absolute power corrupts absolutely

as the saying goes

 

for Jesus it is all about love

love of neighbor

love for the poor, the wounded, the ill

the widow and the orphan

 

love for the collective

for the common good

 

a love that seeks to nurture and protect

those things that lead to the common good

for all

 

for Jesus there is power

but it is the power of love, the power of service

the power of compassion

the power of generosity

 

domination has power

but that power is always short lived and destructive

leading eventually to yet another fall

in a long line of many falls in human history

 

we are living in the middle of such a fall in America!

 

but love, that is where the real power lies

the power to lift up

to transform

the power to draw the reality of the Kingdom of God into being

 

love is not safe

for love is never safe

 

but to live our lives based on love

to show care

to offer respect

to live with integrity

and to work together for the common good

 

that is how we change the world

that is how we make America, and every other nation

great

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Gloria Jean Watkins (born September 25, 1952), better known by her pen name bell hooks, is an American author, professor, feminist, and social activist. The name "bell hooks" is borrowed from her maternal great-grandmother, Bell Blair Hooks.