Love is action
I ran across this quote while catching up on some reading today. It’s by Carter Heyward, an Episcopal theologian that I’m not familiar with, but a list of her published writings can be accessed here.
“Love, like truth and beauty, is concrete. Love is not fundamentally a sweet feeling; not, at heart, a matter of sentiment, attachment, or being ‘drawn toward.’ Love is active, effective, a matter of making reciprocal and mutually beneficial relations with one’s friends and enemies.
“Love creates righteousness, or justice, here on earth. To make love is to make justice. As advocates and activists for justice know, loving involves struggle, resistance, risk. People working on behalf of women, blacks, lesbians and gay men, the aging, the poor in this country and elsewhere know that making justice is not a warm, fuzzy experience. I think also that sexual lovers and good friends know that the most compelling relationships demand hard work, patience, and a willingness to endure tensions and anxiety in creating mutually empowering bonds.
“For this reason loving involves commitment. We are not automatic lovers of self, others, world, or God. Love does not just happen. We are not love machines, puppets on the strings of a deity called ‘love.’ Love is a choice—not simply, or necessarily, a rational choice, but rather a willingness to be present to others without pretense or guile. Love is a conversion to humanity—a willingness to participate with others in the healing of a broken world and broken lives. Love is the choice to experience life as a member of the human family, a partner in the dance of life, rather than as an alien in the world or as a deity above the world, aloof and apart from human flesh.” –Carter Heyward, in Our Passion for Justice
I found this quote at Women’s Space today. It’s been an interesting place to check out. Sadly finding that some battles I thought were decided (like if a woman says “no” it means “no” and not “do it anyway, I’m a whore”) apparently are still being argued .
Anyway, what did I start talking about? Oh, yes. Love is action. Hollywood, fairy tales and Disney would all have us believe “love” is all about sweet feelings of mushyness combined with big teary eyes and a swelling heart. This gets particularly problematic when you bandy about phrases like “God is love.” Using this amorphous warm-fuzzy definition pretty much makes the whole Evangelical bent of “Jesus is my boyfriend” make sense. It explains it, but doesn’t excuse it.
However, when you use “love” to mean an actual action that builds up, supports or otherwise helps the “other,” then I get excited about “God is love.” It means a whole different, way more dangerous thing. “Love your neighbor.” “Love your enemies.” “Love yourself.”
Crap, that could change the world!
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A year ago (or longer) on This Journey…
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Cat Empire - Sly 2007
blogging letterman pt 2 2007
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A year ago (or longer) on This Journey…
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Cat Empire - Sly 2007
blogging letterman pt 2 2007
— — —
A year ago (or longer) on This Journey…
-
Cat Empire - Sly 2007
blogging letterman pt 2 2007
