Lessons from Minnesota (1 week)
Thread 1. Do not murder people. 2. Do not abet murder. 3. Do not have a history of killings by police. 4. Do not have a history of rendering people unconscious with neck restraints 5. If someone does commit murder, cry out for justice.
6. Do elect thoughtful, collaborative, compassionate public officials. If some leaders speak without compassion, minimize their responsibilities. In crisis, update 3 times a day. 7. Protests and demonstrations may be unpleasant for those who are not used to being inconvenienced.
8. Protests and demonstrations are best when led by people with a history of integrity and compassion. They know how to protest in symbolically powerful, spectacular ways without violence, looting and arson. They understand the web of interconnected issues that need challenging.
9. Local, state, and National Guard will initially have difficulty coordinating their efforts. 10. They may initially need to allow some property damage (strip malls, fast food restaurants, liquor stores, big box stores) in order to prioritize saving lives and crucial locations.
11. It is impossible to stop looting and arson if any of these are true:
(a) there are thousands more trouble-makers than law enforcement,
(b) there is a general sense that police deserve to be humbled rather than be cooperated with,
(c) politicians ignore legitimate demands.
12. If the general public get angry at the looters and arsonists and decide to protect their businesses and homes, politicians act reasonably, good activists direct protesters, and outside law enforcement act compassionately, looting and arson may slow.
13. Law enforcement need to avoid hitting media. Media need to communicate clearly who they are. Media need to try to avoid getting caught in the middle and interfering with law enforcement operations. 14. Rubber bullets are very dangerous to eyes. Wear eye protection.
15. Curfew *may* help to slow looting and arson but only if public despises looters and arson more than government. 16. Even after order resumes, government officials will still need to be responsive to wise protesters and avoid brutality or rage may burst out again.
17. Learn about how to wash out tear gas and pepper spray. 18. Local media (newspaper, radio, TV news, TV news online streaming, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram) are very important. In a crisis, the public are desperate for accurate and the most recent information.
19. Government officials need to go to great effort to affirm and coordinate generous, sacrificial efforts to protect property, clean up, and provide supplies to the hurting by the general public. Yes, it is less messy to just have government do it, but public support is crucial.
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"Leadership" is often an incoherent field of study. Often it's anecdotal. "Here's what I did to ... win the game ... make a lot of money ... win the war ... win an election."
But below I sketch a few conceptual foundations of Leadership and note their practical value. 👇
Properly, Leadership is a subdiscipline of Ethics (how to live well), which is a subdiscipline of Philosophy.
Within Christianity, Leadership is also properly a subdiscipline of Ethics (how to live well with the presupposition God has spoken in Scripture and in Jesus Christ), which is a subdiscipline of Theology.
Number of independent members of the board at Samaritan's Purse. 9 of 16 in 2020. They lost 3 independent members and added another family member since the previous year in 2019.
- 79% of Americans are comfortable with a female pastor, but only 39% of evangelicals.
- 72.8% of evangelicals are fine with a woman preaching on Sunday morning.
- 3% of evangelical congregations and 30% of mainline congregations have a female senior pastor.
See sources below.
According to a 2016 Barna survey,
79% of Americans would be comfortable with a female priest or pastor. barna.com/research/ameri…
But only 39% of evangelicals would be.
Only 13.5% of U.S. congregations in 2018-2019 had a female as the head or senior clergyperson.
Or slicing the data differently, only 7.4% of U.S. attendees attend a congregation with a female as the head or senior clergyperson.
Thread of comments on books from 2019-2021 on women and Christianity. They are all worth reading.
Books on: famous women leaders, practical support for women, biblical description, history of masculine militarism, bad sex in Christian marriages, and the history of patriarchy.
The Preacher's Wife: The Precarious Power of Evangelical Women Celebrities
October 1, 2019
by Kate Bowler @KatecBowler
History of prominent women leaders in American Christianity.
Better Together: How Women and Men Can Heal the Divide and Work Together to Transform the Future
February 11, 2020
by Danielle Strickland @djstrickland
These pieces are revealing. For them, Christianity is using any means necessary to rally people to make America more like 1980's white Christianity. It is not humbly reading the Bible together so as to learn how to act like Jesus.
They did in their youth read the Bible and became convinced about what it was saying to American culture. And now they are in a position of power to rally people to that. But did we stop reading the Bible afresh? Is Christian political coercion of non-Christians the right goal?
Is not the political witness of Christians primarily one of example, of love, of integrity, and sharing of the hope that there is a God who is bringing a kingdom of love? Yes, advocate in the public sphere for the common good. Be salt and light. But still act like Jesus!