The Sustainist

Discerning the Truth

Unless we have videos from various angles that recorded what happened between Michael Brown and Darren Wilson on August 8, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri, we will never know what the factual truth of what happened.  In the adversarial atmosphere of the court of law, where it was all about winning or losing, indict or not indict, it was even harder to discern the truth.  So, with the grand jury’s decision not to indict Darren Wilson after hearing mountains of evidence, we ended where we started, with people polarized with even stronger emotions.

If the US court is not the place to discern the truth, where do we go to find truth? As the media release evidence from the grand jury hearing, we can decide for ourselves what the truth might be.  In the end, we are still left with our different experiences, which are also part of the truth of this event.  How can we, as a people with very different perspectives and experiences, recover wellness as a community?

First, we must respect our own experiences and take time to go deeper in understanding why we reached the way we did to this event.  Here are some suggested questions for reflection:

What were my reactions to the event where Darren Wilson shot Michael Brown?

• When I first heard about it? As more information was released through media?
• During the initial protest?
• During the grand jury hearing
• After the grand jury’s announcement?

How did my reactions connect with my past experiences of race and the justice system?

• Personally?
• My family?
• My ethnic/racial group?
• My neighborhood/community?

How do I frame and share my perspective with others so that they can hear and understand?

What do I need to do to prepare myself so I can hear others accurately to achieve understanding and not necessarily agree with them?

I invite my readers to gather with others, including those who have different perspectives, and using the questions above, engage the group in meaning dialogue.  And at the end, reflect on the questions:  Having heard each other’s perspective, what will we do to move toward wellness as a community?

Upcoming Opportunities to Study with The Sustainist and learn more about Holy Conferencing: January 19-23, 2015 Chicago, IL Gracious Leadership Training I and II Community Transformation I (Offered by the Doctor of Ministry program of Bexley-Seabury Seminary) February 13-14, 2015 Oakland, CA Gracious Leadership Training I KI Catalyst (Facilitator) Training (for Gracious Leadership I only) March 19-24, 2015 Los Angeles, CA Gracious Leadership Training Holy Currencies: Creating Sustainable Missional Ministries KI Catalyst (Facilitator) Training April 21-25, 2015 Sewanee, TN Gracious Leadership Training Missional Ministries in the Grace Margin (Register with Sewanee School of Theology, Beecken Center) July 20-25, 2015 Los Angeles, CA Gracious Leadership Training Holy Currencies: Creating Sustainable Missional Ministries KI Catalyst (Facilitator) Training Register at:  www.kscopeinstitute.org

Reflection Questions for 1st Sunday of Advent (Year B) Isaiah 64:1-9    What does it mean for God not to hide her/his face from us? Psalm 80:1-7, 16-18    How does God show the light of his/her countenance on us? 1 Corinthians 1:3-9   How does the Grace of God prepare you for the end time? Mark 13:24-37   As stewards of this creation, how do we stay awake?

Eric H. F. Law
Kaleidoscope Institute
For competent leadership in a diverse changing world
www.kscopeinstitute.org

Mutual Invitation with Positive Review

Mutual Invitation with Positive Review

Guest blogger: Katy Dickinson  

I was excited to meet Rev. Eric H. F. Law (Founder and Executive Director of the Kaleidoscope Institute) today at the annual convention of the Episcopal Diocese of El Camino Real in Salinas, California. Rev. Law is the developer of Mutual Invitation, a popular and effective method for inclusive communication between a variety of people. He was interested to see the “Mutual Invitation with Positive Review” diagram I created for reference by the Everwise Women’s Group this week. So, I am posting it here.

Mutual Invitation was designed for multi-cultural settings where it is important for all voices to be considered. It encourages sharing of power and careful listening to both the reserved and the talkative members of a group. Mutual Invitation works best for groups of 6 to 12 people and only when there is time available to listen to all views.

In this diagram, I combined Rev. Law’s Mutual Invitation method with something I am calling Positive Review. This is a way to consider a proposal (or a job candidate, or idea – something complex) in a balanced way.  I did not create either method but have used both, and find that they also work well together.  In my earlier blog post Why Ideas are Killed, I quoted Charles Kettering:

Man is so constituted as to see what is wrong with a new thing – not what is right. To verify this, you have but to submit a new idea to a committee. They will obliterate ninety per cent of rightness for the sake of ten per cent of wrongness. The possibilities a new idea opens up are not visualized because not one man in a thousand has imagination.

I find that the Positive Review method keeps a group from savaging something new – because it is easier to be negative.  That is, Positive Review allows people time to understand benefits well before turning to disadvantages. Using Mutual Invitation and Positive Review together takes time to process but is an effective combined method of giving a balanced, inclusive, review to a complex subject.

Upcoming Opportunities to Study with The Sustainist and learn more about Holy Conferencing: January 19-23, 2015 Chicago, IL Gracious Leadership Training I and II Community Transformation I (Offered by the Doctor of Ministry program of Bexley-Seabury Seminary) February 13-14, 2015 Oakland, CA Gracious Leadership Training I KI Catalyst (Facilitator) Training (for Gracious Leadership I only) March 19-24, 2015 Los Angeles, CA Gracious Leadership Training Holy Currencies: Creating Sustainable Missional Ministries KI Catalyst (Facilitator) Training April 21-25, 2015 Sewanee, TN Gracious Leadership Training Missional Ministries in the Grace Margin (Register with Sewanee School of Theology, Beecken Center) July 20-25, 2015 Los Angeles, CA Gracious Leadership Training Holy Currencies: Creating Sustainable Missional Ministries KI Catalyst (Facilitator) Training Register at:  www.kscopeinstitute.org

Last Sunday After Pentecost (Year A) Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24    What does this text teach you about your relationship with God? Psalm 100    What does this psalm way to you about wellness? Ephesians 1:15-23   What does it mean to have the eyes of your heart enlightened? Matthew 25:31-46   How does Jesus’ words speak you about wholeness in community?

Eric H. F. Law
Kaleidoscope Institute
For competent leadership in a diverse changing world
www.kscopeinstitute.org

Post Election Truth Event

When we win, our instinct is to celebrate, to announce the good news to others or even gloat about it.  In a political election, like the one that the United States just completed this week, the winners usually received the most votes.  With the majority support, the winner and the winning party might be tempted to do whatever they want discounting the needs of the losers – the minorities. 

Throughout history in the world, the winners of a political battle not only ignored the needs of the losers, they often went further in persecuting the losers in order to suppress any possible future revolts.  Not so with a democratic society like the United States of America. The founders of the United States knew that if the winner of an election persecuted and ignored the needs of the minority groups, it is no better than any other dictatorial or totalitarian government.  What makes a democratic government different is that it continues to honor the rights of the losers, the minority, even though they have lost. 

This is why the Bills of Rights were such important amendments to the U.S. Constitution. The right to have “freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. . . . [and the]  right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures,” were not written for the powerful in a democratic government because anyone or group that has power already has the right to speak their mind without fear of persecution.   They already have the right to publish anything they want without the fear of being censored.   They already have the right to ensure their own privacy, especially when power comes with money.  The Bills of Rights were written to protect those who are powerless, the minority, the losers of elections.  Even though they have lost, they still have the right to speak and write about their experiences, the right to assemble, the right to petition the government, without the fear of persecution and retaliation.

How do these rights of the minorities impact the victors of a democratic election?   By all means, the winners should celebrate and make known their victory to others.  However, a winner in a democratic government must also take the responsibility to protect the rights of the ones who have lost – the minority.  The best way to do that is to listen. This listening cannot be a hollow gesture to appease the dissenting voice.  For this to work, the goal of this listening is to achieve understanding.  Achieving understanding does not mean one has to agree with everything that the other shares.  The discipline of listening will increase the sensitivity of those who are in power as they make decisions for the whole.

The responsibility of the losers of an election is to take some time to reflect on the experience of being the minority.  Take time to understand why the winner and his/her party were capturing the support of so many people.  Again, you do not have to agree but need to understand it.  Take the time to discern, given what happened, what needs and concerns are significant and important to you and your group.  Then find ways to articulate your needs as an individual and as a community knowing that the losers still have the rights to speak, to publish, to assemble and to petition.  

Our tendency, as losers, is to immediately start planning for retaliation–to make the winners’ lives difficult.  In some places, this impulse to retaliate may include violence. If we do that, we are no better than those who employ terrorist attacks on the majority because they do not get what they want. We must find ways to work out our differences with non-violent civility.     In a democratic society, we must remember that the losers’ rights are still intact and that these rights will continue to give us channels to voice our concerns and needs.

Before we arrive at any constructive decision, we must have understanding.  And understanding requires that the powerless groups to be able to articulate their needs in constructive ways while the powerful are able to listen.  The common bond that holds us together is that we agreed to be part of a society that values each person or group’s rights. 

I propose the following truth event for communities that have both winners and losers after an election:

1. Invite participants to affirm the Respectful Communication Guidelines.

2. Read the Preamble and the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America.

3. Invite participants to consider the following questions.

• How did the results of the election impact my life?

Answer one of the following:

• As part of the winning party of this election, what are my responsibilities?
• As part of the losing party of this election, what are my concerns and needs?

1. Invite the losers of this election to sit in a circle in the middle of the room.  Invite the rest to sit in an outer circle.
2. Using Mutual Invitation, invite members of the inner circle to share their reflections on their questions.
3. After the inner circle has shared, invite a moment of silence.
4. Invite the member of the outer circle to switch seats with the inner circle.
5. Using Mutual Invitation, invite members of the winning party to share their reflections on their questions.
6. When everyone has shared, invite participants to consider completing and sharing the sentences:
   1. I noticed . . .
   2. I wonder . . .
   3. End the gathering by asking participants to complete and share the sentence:
      1. Democracy is  . . .

Upcoming Opportunities to Study with The Sustainist and learn more about Holy Conferencing: November 16-20, 2014 Memphis, TN Holy Currencies: Creating Sustainable Missional Ministries January 19-23, 2015 Chicago, IL Gracious Leadership Training I and II Community Transformation I (Offered by the Doctor of Ministry program of Bexley-Seabury Seminary) February 13-14, 2015 Oakland, CA Gracious Leadership Training I KI Catalyst (Facilitator) Training (for Gracious Leadership I only) March 19-24, 2015 Los Angeles, CA Gracious Leadership Training Holy Currencies: Creating Sustainable Missional Ministries KI Catalyst (Facilitator) Training April 21-25, 2015 Sewanee, TN Gracious Leadership Training Missional Ministries in the Grace Margin (Register with Sewanee School of Theology, Beecken Center) July 20-25, 2015 Los Angeles, CA Gracious Leadership Training Holy Currencies: Creating Sustainable Missional Ministries KI Catalyst (Facilitator) Training Register at:  www.kscopeinstitute.org

Reflection Questions for Proper 27 (Year A) Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25    What is the process for making a covenant? Psalm 78:1-7    What did you learn from the last generation that you would pass on to the next? Wisdom of Solomon 6:12-16   How do you love wisdom? Amos 5:18-24   What does it mean for justice to roll down like waters? 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18   How are these words encouraging to you today? Matthew 25:1-3   What might cause you to miss entering into God’s Realm?

Eric H. F. Law
Kaleidoscope Institute
For competent leadership in a diverse changing world
www.kscopeinstitute.org