I recently received an email from Pastor Troy Jackson who directs a sister organization in Ohio around issues of faith and justice that reflects on the spirit that we should be doing justice with. It was in line with so much with the heart of OCCV that I asked him if we could share it with you all:
I read “Switch” by Chip & Dan Heath over the past few weeks (they also wrote “Made to Stick“), and one of their key assessments of how Change happens is that any change rooted in negative emotion (anger, frustration, bitterness) is unlikely to result in a persevering movement that extends beyond one particular goal. Instead, a call for change rooted in hope, possibility, joy, and even Kingdom is much more sustainable. Compare this to Alinsky, agitation, anger as the key to change, and look at how social movements often disintegrate after a particular campaign. Anyway, I think there is something big in what is different about Faith rooted community organizing, in that we organize based on who/what we are for rather than simply who/what we are against. We are driven by grace, mercy, love, and the fruit of the spirit, not anger, bitterness, and constant agitation.