Tonight's 40 pages of my " Losing Moses on the Freeway" reading covered the commandments about honoring parents, murder and adultry...heavy stuff and much of it powerful but not blogable. However, this one passage, about his now deceased father, jumped out at me for a variety of reasons. His father was an Episcopal priest in Upperstate NY who took an early (but unpopular stand) in support of MLK, civil rights and much more...... so I'll share this with you:
"My father gave me freedom. He taught me that to make a moral choice means taking a risk, even as it means losing status with the institutions you work for, or losing status within your community. It can mean suffering the censure of people you care about. But when we care too much about our image and our status, when we need the label of the institutions we work for, including the church, to define our worth and identity, when we allow these things to become the ultimate source of meaning in our lives, we worship idols. We allow idols to determine what we say and how we act, how we make moral choices, how we live. Fearing the wrath of the idol we remain silent in the face of injustice or perhaps carry out injustice. We give up our freedom."
I find myself agreeing with this....and finding affirmation and comfort in it. Each time I read it, it grabs me again. I think I will be mulling it over for a while. Choosing justice over silence is indeed costly....even as it is freeing.
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