Dear Engaged Spirituality Family,
Please join us for Engaged Spirituality on
Sunday March 26, April 23 & May 28 at 10:30 AM PST
We will discuss the interview of Brandon Terry on the Ezra Klein podcast - “A Revelatory Tour of Martin Luther King, Jr’s Forgotten Teaching.”
Link to podcast:
Brandon Terry is the John L. Loeb associate professor of social sciences at Harvard, where he specializes in Black political thought. He is the co-editor of “To Shape a New World: Essays on the Political Philosophy of Martin Luther King, Jr.,” the editor of “Fifty Years Since MLK,” and the author of numerous popular and academic articles on King’s political thought. His work is committed to rescuing the nuances of Dr. King’s philosophies and forcing a confrontation with what King actually said and believed, rather than what he’s come to represent.
A transcript of this podcast is attached as well as a document that lists 13 topics for this podcast. Both word and pdf versions are attached.
For our last discussion on May 28:
Olivia, Ellen, and Melvin have contacted me and chosen the following 2 topics from this interview to discuss at that meeting:
#13. Emotion and More Productive Political Engagement
#8. Nonviolence Theological and Philosophical
The podcast discussion for sections 13 and 8 are attached.
Olivia and Ellen have provided the following questions for section 13:
Brandon Terry shares that "one of King's deepest, deepest commitments" was to "do things that will somehow disarm, disrupt, dispel...fears." Also "a King-inspired political philosophy...is to think about how we transform the recalcitrant nature of today's political anger...."
1. How do we disarm, disrupt, dispel fears that have been perpetuated in American culture for years in order to make progress towards political questions that matter?
2. How do we dissolve the forms of illegitimate and ill-founded anger by turning affects against themselves in order to transform them into something different?
3. How do we transform the recalcitrant nature of today’s political anger and fear.
4. How do we channel fear and anger into forms of constructive politics to point towards a more just future so that we can move forward as communities and as a nation?
5. How do each of us reshape for the better the emotional politics and emotional structure:
a. Of ourselves
b. Of the people I’m in conflict with
c. Of the bystanders or watchers of that conflict?
Kathryn has provided some insights for Section #13
“By first ‘Connecting with the awe and wonder that leads us to the moments of our high resolve…as potential rebels in a society in need of rebels.
Secondly: ‘Able to see no stranger and to see all others as connected to ourselves…each person… each being…is a part of us that we do not yet know.’
‘Those who understand this are blessed.’”
Here is the Zoom Link for May 28:
Meeting ID: 884 9259 5156
Passcode: 079750
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Meeting ID: 884 9259 5156
Passcode: 079750
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kdiCXa1k8r
I am so happy to have Kevin Anderson co-host our sessions for this podcast!!!
Take care,
Eileen
PS Because it received the most votes, we will begin reading The Inward Journey by Howard Thurman for our next Engaged Spirituality session.
For a new or used copy: https://www.abebooks.com/book-search/title/for-the-inward-journey-the-writings-of-howard-thurman/
Previously:
For Sunday April 23:
From our original 13 discussion topics, we have chosen topics 6, 7 and 10 for our April discussion. Here are some things to think about for each of those topics:
6. Nonviolence of Spirit
· *How are the challenges we face collectively, across race and gender, such as climate change/crisis/collapse, different from those that politically marginalized groups (e.g., poor, racially minoritized people, sexual minorities) face?
· How might these differences render the question of non-violence more or less relevant?
· How has anger been used in your own life as a catalyst for positive social change?
· Are there instances where professionally or socially it sort of "spiraled out" or escalated -- and what lessons did you learn from that?
7. King the Man/Confronting People in Public/ Building An Alternative Community
· What alternative communities have you been a part of and how have those positively contributed to spiritual growth and/or social awareness
10. King's Economic Thought
· How do you define dignity?
· How central is an awareness of dignity, attending to the dignity of all, to your spiritual growth?
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