'UBUNTU' in the Xhosa culture means: "I am because we are"…

An anthropologist proposed a game to the kids in an African tribe. He put a basket full of fruit near a tree and told the kids that who ever got there first won the sweet fruits. When he told them to run they all took each others hands and ran together, then sat together enjoying their treats. When he asked them why they had run like that as one could have had all the fruits for himself they said: ''UBUNTU, how can one of us be happy if all the other ones are sad?''

'UBUNTU' in the Xhosa culture means: "I am because we are"

In a Western culture where religion and faith become just another commodity that we own, possess and consume, the term Ubuntu is a huge challenge as to what it means to have a faith and how that faith impedes, impacts and informs us as humans within humanity as a citizins. In many ways what it is we believe as individual holders of truth is irrelevant if that truth has no positive, loving impact on us as citizins and as a result a positive loving impact upon the communities we act in as a citizin. The true test of how these views hold us and us them in community is when we are confronted with those who oppose us and or who stand in opposition to what it is we hold. Such complex inter-plays of ethics, faith, morals and values are not always straightforward or simple but are vital in creating an existence that can live together in harmony for the future and generations to come. The acts in many parlaiments regarding same sex marriage, future concerns of the reduction of food and water and the destruction of natural resources are just some of the complex issues and discussions that will test the views we hold and how we act as citizins in community. How can one of us be happy if all the other ones are sad?

Jesus in Disneyland by David Lyon

p43 Beliefs and practices that once were sealed within an institutional form now flow freely over foremerly policed boundaries. p47 Modernity made a lot of the mind, especially as a means of controlling and regulating the body, but in a postmodernizing world, the body itself becomes a site of consumption, of controversy, and of conflict. What Lyon suggests on p43 is what I would consider the conditions for the expansion of knowledge and epistemology. Although orthodoxy may provide a superficial sense of confidence and security, it does not allow experience and epistemology through reflection and enquiry to continue to shape and reconfigure habitus and praxis (by implication). What the postmodern condition allows or gives permission to, is to venture beyond the boundaries of orthodoxy (defined and set by people relative to a context and motivation therefore calling into question the very understanding of orthodoxy) and explore other ways of being, seeing and knowing. It is an epoch in time which could lead to a new reconfiguration of belief and faith. Related to this permission giving is the context in which this new exploration can take place in that it is not focussed around the mind solely but incorporates the body as well. The holistic exploration beyond boundaries is where we now found debates regarding the human genome and same sex marriage.

come on, it is good!

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Compassion

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s30ZKjNfRlU
I have met too many people hurt, rejected, struggling and broken who do not fit the stereo-type the conservative church would have you believe but people with tears in their eyes shattered by the words spoken in judgement. I heard a good friend say once, 'God aint gonna judge you for being too kind and compassionate...rather for not being enough'