Sadly, we do a much better job of making people feel guilty than we do of delivering them from the guilt we create. We need to confess this and change our ways.
Interpretation
We often make others feel guilty without helping them overcome that guilt, and it's essential to acknowledge this behavior and strive for change.
This quote by Tony Campolo highlights the human tendency to impose guilt on others while neglecting to support them in overcoming that emotion. It calls for self-reflection and indicates a need for change in our behavior towards others; instead of fostering feelings of guilt, we should aim to provide understanding and forgiveness, acknowledging our role in the emotional struggles of those around us.
In practice
In a discussion about personal growth and relationships, this quote can highlight the importance of supporting others rather than making them feel guilty.
When in fact we live in a society that makes life hell for gays and lesbians, this community has got to stand up and say, ‘We’re on your side as you struggle for dignity,’ and, ‘Yes, we will defy anybody who says otherwise, even if we have to go to Disneyland to prove it.’
Your past is important but it is not nearly as important to your present as the way you see your future.
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Those issues are biblical issues: to care for the sick, to feed the hungry, to stand up for the oppressed. I contend that if the evangelical community became more biblical, everything would change.
I don't know how your theology works, but if Jesus has a choice between stained glass windows and feeding starving kids in Haiti, I have a feeling he'd choose the starving kids in Haiti.
Jesus never says to the poor: ‘come find the church’, but he says to those of us in the church: ‘go into the world and find the poor, hungry, homeless, imprisoned.
The kingdom of heaven is worth infinitely more than the cost of discipleship, and those who know where the treasure lies joyfully abandon everything else to secure it.
Much of our waking experience is but a dream in the daylight.
Thus let me live, unseen, unknown, Thus unlamented let me die, Steal from the world, and not a stone Tell where I lie.
Wealth should come like manna from heaven, unearned and uncalled for. Money should be like grace -- a gift. It is not worth sweating and scheming for.
Be The Peace You Wish To See In The World!
Allegories are, in the realm of thought, what ruins are in the realm of things.
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