Thread by @dianabutlerbass

I've been in the most interesting places in the last month.

Green Lake, WI. Stayed at the historic Christian conference center where MLK once preached. On the way there, my UMC hosts shared stories about the crises in dairy country, the negative impacts of the tariffs, and the immigration round-ups in their state.

Youngstown, OH. Spoke at the Episcopal church, which is not only a church but a full-on social service provider in a city w/more problems than I ever imagined possible - a for-profit prison, closed factories, collapsed housing stock, food dessert, struggling schools, you name it.

Tulsa, OK. There, I was with UCCs, Disciples & PCUSA folks. People are engaged with race and history - facing up to the horrible past of the Tulsa massacre and the pain of keeping secrets thru generations.

Moscow, ID. I spoke at a lovely ELCA church, open and accepting. The town (which was really neat!) is under huge political pressures from a Christian Reconstructionist church & college who are literally running a slate of candidates to take over the city council.

4 remarkable places with great (but often small) congregations struggling w/some of America's biggest challenges - collapse of family farms, corporate ag, Trump tariffs; hollowing out of industrial heartland, globalization; race, violence, and history; extremist religious right.

I've been struck by the kindness and courage of many people I met who are, against tremendous odds, living out God's love & justice. Lots of heart. More imagination than you might guess. And persistence, even while their own churches are in decline & struggling financially.

There are really good people out there.

Really good.

Notice: All "red" states.

I feel like I'm running for president! I've heard so many stories of fears and hopes and challenges.

I realized how much we all need each other. If we're going to face all these problems. We're really going to need a new political vision, new love for one another.

I met a lot of GOP folks who are deeply angry at Trump (that's been a surprise!). We had real convos about politics. No yelling, mutual sadness mostly.

Except that one guy who nearly clobbered me w/a copy of GRATEFUL bcause he mad that I'd gone to the Women's March.

Oh well.

Anyway, America is still out there. In big cities, in small towns, in the prairies, at the foothills of great mountains. All its creative courage, and people who care. Seems to me like a dam of something is about to break - compassion? Turning toward one another again?

I kind of feel patriotic. In good ways. I'm carrying these people in my heart. There's something happening. I promise.

I sensed the bad stuff in the lead-up to 2016 (a lot of you remember me talking about it, preaching on it). But that's not what I'm getting now. I'm coming away from all this with a sense of courage. Courage. Not really hope. But courage. And that's good.

Something nearly broke my heart with goodness singing "A Mighty Fortress" this morning with the Idaho Lutherans. Something grace-filled, wise, grounded. But joyful. Accepting. Looking forward.

The lovely church, the good people, the big skies.

The words were a bit diff than my Episcopal hymnal:

"Though hordes fo devils fill the land/all threatening to devour us/we tremble not, unmoved we stand/they cannot over power us."

They meant it when they sang it.

Courage.

And, then, as we ended worship, these words in song:

"We are called to act with justice/we are called to love tenderly/we are called to serve one another/to walk humbly with God."

They meant that, too.

I hadn't felt so completely, genuinely hopeful in a long time.