Podcasts have become an important medium for conversations and sharing of experiences and ideas. Phil Amerson is effectively using podcasts to bring people together in conversation on important issues and challenges. Phil’s “Be & Do” introduces the mission and vision of “Belonging Exchange” podcast in which he reflects on faith and life in conversations with friends. I was honored to participate in this week’s segment.
The conversation focuses on experiences which I share in the book, “Shifting Margins: From Fear and Exclusion to Love and Belonging.”
.We live during a time when fear and exclusion dominate the agenda of prominent political and religious leaders. Bullying, fraud, greed, deception, cruelty, and violence are increasingly normalized and acceptable behaviors and policies.
.As I understand the Christian Gospel, God’s vision for the world is LOVE AND BELONGING for ALL! Shifting from threatening and excluding those deemed as “the other” toward God’s mission of compassion, justice, hospitality, and peace/shalom is the priority challenge of our time.
Let’s join together in countering bullying, hatred, and exclusion with acts of kindness, mercy, and justice! Phil Amerson helps us focus on what really matters, being and doing that which fosters belonging to one another and to God.
As I continue my daily reading of the Sermon on the Mount and reflections on its resonance and dissonance in my daily experience, I share this story about my friend, Dr. Bill Holmes. While war rages in Ukraine and elsewhere, Bill was presented with the Muslim Americans for Compassion award “In recognition of service to compassion, promoting peace, and interfaith harmony.”
As the media is filled with news of violence and war as the way to lasting peace, Bill Holmes contributes to peace through compassion, non-violence pursuit of justice, and promoting interfaith harmony.
Bill is a highly regarded pediatric neurologist and an ordained Baptist hospital chaplain. Our friendship was forged through shared grief as we journeyed with our late spouses in their dementia. He is one in whom I see the Beatitudes and Sermon on the Mount validated and at work as a counter to hatred, division, and violence normalized in the modern world.
With his permission, I share Bill’s response to receiving the award. His brief statement captures his deep commitment to justice and compassion which are at the heart of Jesus’ “inaugural sermon” in Matthew’s Gospel.
Remarks to Muslim Americans for Compassion and the 15th Annual Interfaith Iftar Dinner after receiving an award “In recognition of service to compassion, promoting peace, and interfaith harmony.” March 6, 2025
I stand here this evening wondering why I, of all people, should get an award for peacemaking. If my mother were alive today, she would be astounded.
Jeremiah of ancient times cried “Peace! Peace! But there is no peace.” Patrick Henry borrowed those words a few thousand years later to let his country men know that the battle against tyranny was already here.
We all long for peace within our hearts and souls and peace in the community around us.
But there is a pre-requisite to peace: First there MUST BE JUSTICE. Where there is justice, all in the community have what is needed for dignity, freedom, health, joy, and security.
There can be no justice when this group or that is singled out and treated harshly. Nor can there be justice when the safety and health of our children and grandchildren are being threatened.
We cannot have peace whileignoring injustice.
Where there is no justice, peace becomes a mirage.
Please know this: Hate and fear are the parents of injustice.
Furthermore, without justice and lasting peace, we might well lose hope.
It is now our task to somehow bring hope, even in the midst of despair that might befall as we see the scales tipping toward injustice all around us.
Thanks for listening— As-Salamu alaykum, Peace be with you.
Peace, my friends, will always be tenuous, will always be fragile, and must be protected like a newborn baby.
Shifting Margins 