Values and Collective Action: Crafting a More Equitable World Through Community Morality

Ideals are peaceful. History is violent. It is a Halloween day, halloween special episode that I am excited to bring to you Because I'm in a different location. I'm standing on the balcony actually, sitting on the balcony of my hotel room in Mexico probably can hear the birds chirping in the waves dashing Behind me. I'm here not only for some R&R with the family before a time of Reflection, and I have been doing a lot of reflecting. Particularly, I've been thinking a lot about my value system and my podcast, this words to change podcast. I've been thinking about why it is that you know we do what we do, why should it matter to you, our audience, and why should you Listen? What value are we adding to you? So today I want to delve deep into the heart of Content, values, why they are significant and how embracing these value systems can usher in a new world for your life, and not only a new world for your life, but the world around you, because our value systems are our guiding principles. They are an important vision that I have really For making the world a more compassionate place and a more just place for anyone. So I just want to say it is very important that your faith, your personal growth and spirituality has an impact on the world around you, and so everyone wants to be treated fairly. I thought about that while out here. It's so funny oh man, look, I'm watching the sunrise right now but it's so funny that you start thinking about these things when you quiet your mind and quiet yourself down. And so these are the things that really bubble to the surface, and so let's get into it. I and so that of that culture and that community. And so in order for you to participate in that, well, you had to have the economic means by which one could not only have a sacrifice purchase, one, whether animal, to sacrifice in the temple, but they had to be able to provide enough to the priests who worked there, right. And so when Jesus went into the temple and turned over the tables of the money changers, right, that was his way of challenging the system of injustice. Why? Because if you could not afford the animals to sacrifice an animal, then you were on the outskirts of participating in the economic system of the temple. And so this is a movement toward challenging the social injustice of the state. This is one example, but that really speaks to the potential of collective action when we all see that there are things that need to be different, should change, in order to benefit not just a certain group of people, but to benefit people in general, all people right. When we come together in collective action in order to create a more equitable system and equitable world, it has a benefit on everyone. And so I'll give you a real life example. When we come together and say, hey, listen, that needs to be fair housing practice for low income families, or you can't redline families because what you're doing is you're pushing them out of. One of the easiest ways to build wealth or to come out of poverty is to own and property, land and real estate and being able to pass that from generation to generation. So when you come together and create laws or create or help to create laws or push to create these kinds of judicial systems and economic systems to benefit everyone, well, guess what? That's the collective action you're making to make the world a better place, to make it a more fair place economically for everyone. And that's really you and I participating with Jesus said. The prophet Amos said let justice roll down like a mighty stream In the gospel it talks about. God requires justice, fairness and equity, and that's why it's important. It was one famous person who said evil persist in the world when good people do nothing. God is not going to come down from heaven, so to speak, and begin changing the way the world works. No, it's going to take people who have vested interests and seeing the world be a better place, actually participate in doing good work in the world, to equal the playing field. Now, when I say equal the playing field, I'm not talking about the economic redistribution or taking people's money and giving it to other people. That is an argument on the tax system. And if we're really, if we're not careful, we can begin to. This is what I don't want you to do to place what I'm saying to you within a political framework. Now, there is, there is sort of a political framework around community that is organic to ancient, biblical and ancient communities, very, very different from the individualistic approach we have in the West. And if you go to the Middle East and some of these countries, that by which our religious understandings and faith grew from, these are very communal kinds of places. These are socially organizations and spaces, right, these, these places around the world, really focus on not individual morality but collective morality, and so that's not the same argument for socialism, absolutely not, because that's a loaded phrase, right, that gets tied with communism and all kinds of thinking which I really think is a fear tactic in order to get you to not think about how what you do affects other people. So an example of using our wealth collectively to help other people, which you know we really need to think that through Biblically. It's definitely a point in a place, right, we talked about that. God, for instance, told the children of Israel when they fought the battle in AI and they lost the battle to a very small and seemingly easy to conquer community. This is in Joshua, chapter 8. So God, the Lord, told Joshua you have sinned. Joshua said no, we haven't. He said, yes, you have. And not only have you sinned, the whole nation has sinned. And come to find out that when God told the children of Israel and the Joshua's leadership to conquer the land of AI, he said don't take anything with you. One of the individuals had taken something. When God told the children of Israel during the battle of AI to not take any items with you. In other words, I want you to destroy everything. Now we're not going to talk about the war mongering in that verse and text, but the point is it was a collective, that individuals activity, that individuals actions affected the entire community. That's an example of how communal values, how these communities, function in ancient, near east and ancient societies. Well, morality for me is about action, and I'm an existentialist in some sense, and what that means is that I believe that what people believe to be true is what they act out, not what they say. So, again, we're talking about communal values and how when we an example would be in modern day times is that when we decide to ensure that that not only we have fair housing, but other people in our communities have access to that, that's an example. When we ensure that there's fair representation from, you know, not just one group of people in society, but for all people right. When you are proponent, that people have the right and freedom to be the who they are right, and that that the state should not, you know, judge that or make an accusation, so to speak, against that. These are examples of how, when we live our lives, we're not only living for ourselves, but we are also ensuring that the community around us All this so cool bird is this came right here and set. One of them is red, one is brown, but anyway, I Digress but just a beautiful and watching the sunrise at the same time. So, but yeah. So this is, this is what we mean by community values, right, this is how we make the world a better place through community value. So Let me begin to bring this to a close, because I know I've been gone for almost 15 minutes, which is a max for me, and so I want to want you to think about and I want to invite you to explore these values, values that are very, very important, you know. Values of peace, right. Values of resiliency, values of fairness for everyone, right. Values of Making the world a better place by, first, through individual change. As you change, then the world begins to change around you, for the changes you experience internally moves out into other people. So our value systems of spiritual growth, personal growth leading to Social change, right? So these are important, these matters. I want to invite you to think about how you can participate In these kind of value systems as my audience. I want you to know. This is why we do what we do. So, if you want to know, you know what, what platforms are available for you to Explore these value systems, so some resources that I read or look at and working with for many years. Richard wars, a famous Catholic priest, has become very foundational and Helping or proliferating these kind of these, this kind of teaching again. And then Richard war I Think his last name is spelled Ro hr, I think it's spelled something like that you can also look at soul journey on Twitter. So if you go to Twitter and just type in soul journey, that's another platform, information platform that takes the Bible from Another, that looks at Bible interpretation from another direction, and and that's what I'm interested in I'm interested in us taking the scripture and looking at it from a Direction that benefits not just my own personal life but also those around us. That's that's a very, very important way To look at scripture, and so I want to invite you To think about how your value systems are impacting the world around you. I want you to think about how this podcast is helping you do that Through our stories, through the people we interview, through their ups and downs. They have religious faith, their life experiences. When you hear me interview, we interview people on the podcast. These are the stories of people who Maybe have experienced with religion, have gone through a transformation and come out on the other side of it, and some of them come out very strong in their faith, very, even more committed to their particular interpretation of Bible and how that works itself out in the world. Others, when they come out, their viewpoint is quite a bit different than what they had originally thought or the way that they were raised, and so these are the people that we're bringing to you so that you can get an idea of really put flesh and flesh on bones with these interviews and with the whole value system that we are a proponent of. So, again, I want to encourage you to explore these value systems, look at the platforms that I encourage you to, and then share your own experience. Please feel free to share your experience with us, share your experience with other people, engage with us on our Words for Change private group. Just type in Words for Change on Facebook, join the group and participate when we put different posts and information out there for you to consider just another way of engaging. So, just to recap, I want us to stay true to our value system. Right? How personal and social trans, how personal growth leads to transform the societies around us, can become a catalyst for changing societies around us, okay, and when we lift to or very close or live up to our value systems, those value systems that can have a tremendous impact on the world around us. So, once again, I just want to thank you for indulging me here in listening and being a faithful listener and follower on a weekly basis, and now we're going out every Tuesday and we're doing our very best to stick to that schedule. And so I want to thank all of you who take time to engage with the podcast and, if it's helping you at all, please feel free to subscribe, share and then encourage other people to participate as well. So I want to thank you so much for your time. I want to thank you so much for listening to the podcast and enjoy you to continue engaging with the podcast, because I want to hear from you, enjoy and include yourself in this insightful discussion. And, hey, we're going to sign off until our next episode next week. Thank you so much for listening. Talk to you soon. Bye, bye, you, you, you.