I’m so glad that the Repentance Project, the Racial Reconciliation Group, and Coracle have been offering a book study this fall on Jemar Tisby’s The Spirit of Justice.  Participation has been robust and the conversations have been rich.  Jemar has a lot of important stuff to say, and he says a lot of it on his Substack “Footnotes”, I highly recommend subscribing.

One of his posts is “The Communities We All Long For”, and of course it leads to the language of “The Beloved Community” Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke so often about.  That vision is still one worth pursuing, that we continue to pursue.  Jemar writes:

We are more similar than we are different.

While the specific contours of a lovely day-in-the-life may differ from person to person, the basic principles remain constant.

As human beings we are wired for community and connection. We seek safety and fulfillment. Crave choices and opportunity.

Who wouldn’t want to live in a community where we are not only polite to our neighbors, but actually know and trust them? Where all are welcome.

Don’t we all want employers who value our humanity and provide enough resources for us to work full-time and not have to worry about making ends meet?

We want schools where our children receive instruction from highly-trained and caring educators in an environment safe from violence in all its forms.

We want elected officials who take solemnly their responsibility to represent their constituents—all of them.

This is not a perfect society.

As Coretta Scott King described the Beloved Community:

I am not talking about a utopian dream of a perfect society in which everyone lives together without conflict…

To me, the Beloved Community is a realistic vision of an achievable society, one in which problems and conflict exist, but are resolved peacefully and without bitterness.

In the Beloved Community, caring and compassion drive political policies that support the worldwide elimination of poverty and hunger and all forms of bigotry and violence.

Whether you call it the Beloved Community, the redemptive community (James Lawson), or the misión integral (C. René Padilla)—there are common threads that run through all visions of a better society.