Now this is more like it. Sam Sawyer, SJ, an executive editor at America, weighs in with a fresh point of view on the Sanders / Wilkinson / Red Hen kerfuffle.
In an article entitled "Would Jesus eat with Sarah Sanders?", Fr. Sawyer notes that
someone pointed out that who eats with whom was “literally the paradigmatic ethical enforcement of the New Testament.”Sawyer goes on to make a provocative point:
The way Jesus used table fellowship in the Gospels was morally transformative—but by inclusion, not by exclusion. He ate with tax collectors and sinners, whom the Pharisees turned away from their tables, making these meals signs of hope “not only regarding God’s kingdom but also regarding the kinds of persons who might participate in it.” Rather than demanding change as the price of admission to the meal, Jesus used the meal to enact the change that marks the kingdom of God he came to announce.He also makes a cogent point about civility:
If civility is used to call for passivity in the face of injustice, then it becomes part of the problem. But if civility serves as a kind of guardrail, pushing us to look for better methods of protest and witness, it may be very valuable.... and then he suggests how the civility exhibited by both Wilkinson and Sanders might have been put in service to "a more radical and more courageous transgression of social norms" - but I don't want to give away all the good stuff here. Please do read Sawyer's article and let me know if it has cast a new light on the issue for you. It has for me.
"By all accounts, before it hit social media, the encounter between the owner and Ms. Sanders proceeded respectfully on both sides." (Sanders)
ReplyDeleteThat's right. Blame the media. Families being separated by proclamation of the Attorney General and by the Muslim Travel Ban, which is OK because it includes non-Muslims and is done in the name of [all genuflect] National Security, but the Media are promoting inciviity. That's what's not OK.
Got it.
BTW, how did the media find out?
The media found out because it spread on social media after Ms. Sanders tweeted the story to her loyal twitter fans.
DeleteMy understanding is that it first went viral on social media because a restaurant employee had taken a smartphone photo of the restaurant's kitchen whiteboard, stating that they had "86'd" Sarah Huckabee Sanders. The employee posted the photo to his Facebook page, and somehow it went viral from there. Sanders stated that she tweeted something about the incident because reporters, who had seen the photo, were starting to pester her about it.
DeleteI'd like to think that Jesus would be too busy at the border with the children to make it to the Red Hen to kibbitz with Sarah. She is less like a tax collector and more like Pilate's PR person. Looking for signs of hope, incumbent corporate democrat Crowley was defeated by democratic socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Will she win the general election? Can this movement counteract the new resurgence of racism, fear and dullard nationalism?
ReplyDelete"Can this movement counteract the new resurgence of racism, fear and dullard nationalism?" It is to be hoped. Here (in May) Kara Eastman won against Brad Ashford, who is less progressive, to be the Democratic candidate for our state's 2nd district. She said, "I'm running because our community needs someone to stop the assault on public education, cuts to health care...and the elimination of EPA programs that protect kids from lead poisoning." Too bad she isn't in my district. We'll see how she does against the incumbent, Don Bacon, in the fall. He is trying to make the race, "...but abortion!" because he doesn't have anything useful to say about the other issues. So far she is refusing to engage in that argument.
DeleteIt looks like progressives had a good day Tuesday night.
I saw Ocasia-Cortez interviewed on corporate CNN. I think it was Bernie and Warren who opened up the conversation and is extending further.
DeleteMake that "Herod's PR person". Herod had a child abuse problem but Sarah would have dutifully defended him.
ReplyDeleteStanley: I'd like to think that Jesus would be too busy at the border with the children to make it to the Red Hen to kibbitz with Sarah. She is less like a tax collector and more like Pilate's PR person.
ReplyDeleteExactly.