our theology of sex and gender does not reflect the actual world that God has created for us.
I agree—God’s truth isn’t perfectly defined by human studies, and rather than studying the love and embracement of God, we often instead focus on the more historical and cultural aspects that influence our attitudes.
trajectory of human sexual flourishing as one that maintains a critical openness to how researchers have been able to shed light on sex and gender identity over time
Something I feel like that occurs so often within the church is that people expect a perfect preservation of tradition and philosophy. Realistically, traditions change. The interpretations and hermeneutics of the Bible differ from place to place and over time, tradition transforms. To be accepting of others, regardless of their gender, sex, identity, etc, is to love everyone just as you love yourself—something Jesus spent his life teaching, and what is essential to living under the image of God. In my opinion, there is no room for hate. It’s essential we embrace everyone, as we are all created by God.
How can we reciprocate the gifts of the Earth?
This raises further important questions: in a world that is being depleted of its resources, how much of a change can me and my generation make to preserve it for the next?
refusing to be complicit with the forces of ecological destruction.
I wish this was more heavily enforced in all areas of education and business. The natural environment we live in needs to be preserved for future generations, but with the trajectory of consumption at this rate, I’m not only curious, but worried, for what the earth might look like for the future generations to come. How might we go about better informing people on how to preserve the earth?
Western economies and institutions enmesh us all in a profoundly dishonorable harvest.
I couldn’t agree more. In today’s current state of economic development, I feel as if many industrialized countries, such as the US, place so much emphasis on extracting resources from the earth, but then put little effort into the replenishment of the raw materials they take.
your gratitude has motive force in the world
This is a really powerful statement—the idea that our gratitude not only influences our own personal happiness, but also the force we put out into the world. This raises a question: how does this sense of gratitude between humans and the natural world impact our interactions with nature?
he gratitude flows toward our plant elders and radiates to the rain, to the sunshine
This is a statement I deeply resonate with. The connection between the natural world and gratitude is something I agree with. The idea that gratitude flows naturally throughout the entire earth , and that we must show appreciation for the nourishment and abundance the planet provides us with.
wrath of God
Something that came to mind: wrath is stated to be one of the seven deadly sins, yet it’s something that is claimed to be experienced by God. What is the difference between the wrath we (humans) experience, and the wrath god has?
fearful danger you are in: it is a great furnace of wrath
I usually wouldn’t associate God with anger and disgust as previously stated. Usually, I’ve spent my life only associating God with love, peace, etc… I feel like the people that Jonathan Edwards delivered this sermon must have had great fear instilled upon them.
no means within reach that can be any security to them
This concept of there being a lack of hope for those who sin and disgrace the words of God is something I struggle to believe—I prefer to hold the notion that there is hope for everyone, regardless of their character, and that anyone can seek redemption from their shortcomings
Such bridging ministries must be nurtured and encouraged. The Church long ago recognized the importance of such links by establishing the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, in which some of the world’s leading scientists meet together regularly to discuss their researches and to convey to the larger community where the directions of discovery are tending.
Something I feel is encouraged universally in many religions is a sense of peace, harmony, and love among all. By integrating science into religion and vice versa, people are able to not only find common ground, but advance in both scientific discovery and advancements in the church.
Unity involves the drive of the human mind towards understanding and the desire of the human spirit for love. When human beings seek to understand the multiplicities that surround them, when they seek to make sense of experience, they do so by bringing many factors into a common vision. Understanding is achieved when many data are unified by a common structure. The one illuminates the many: it makes sense of the whole. Simple multiplicity is chaos; an insight, a single model, can give that chaos structure and draw it into intelligibility.
So often people believe that in order to show their faith and loyalty to their set of beliefs, they must look through a singular lens centered around their own set of beliefs. Although showing loyalty to one’s values and faith are extremely essential to finding purpose in life, the act of ignoring other perspectives (religion ignoring science and vice versa) only creates further disharmony and division in the world. This only creates future dissatisfaction and conflict.
But most days, if you’re aware enough to give yourself a choice, you can choose to look differently at this fat, dead-eyed, over-made-up lady who just screamed at her kid in the checkout line. Maybe she’s not usually like this. Maybe she’s been up three straight nights holding the hand of a husband who is dying of bone cancer.
Oftentimes, we get so caught up in our own internal dialogue that we completely neglect the actual truth to many situations. The only pair of eyes we see through are our own, and if we rely on the ‘default thinking’ discussed in this speech, we never take the effort or time to see through any other field of vision.
Everyone here has done this, of course. But it hasn’t yet been part of you graduates’ actual life routine, day after week after month after year.
I found this passage to be extremely heavy in weight. Although we learn many essential principles, values, and morals in our secondary education, something very few of us get the chance to fully understand the impact of adulthood at such a young age. We often become so droned out by our own internal dialogue and the monotonous flow of everyday life that we completely lose sight and memory of the initial whimsy we all had before entering secondary education.