JENNIFER O'NEILL
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From: Bruce S.
Date: Friday, August 4, 2006, 12:50 PM
Subject: Jennifer O'Neill
Reply to: 256073
ID: 253656

Thanks, Desiree, I appreciate your comments.

I suppose that in my response -- I would be careful about the language I use, and the way I place people into categories...

For me -- it doesn't matter where I hear a voice of love or truth. It only matters that I hear it, that I recognize it, that I respond.

So, yes, I would probably be like you, in that I personally do not often find something truly of value to me, something truly helpful, on that TBN network. Sometimes I love their music, sometimes I love their spirit, sometimes I love their message. There are "beautiful souls of light" who speak through that framework, or who accept and trust that ideology or way of understanding.

I myself do not want to close off to those people. I do not expect or hope that the world can be made over into the image of some single ideology, or that we will all agree on some doctrine or some theology. Indeed, our very differences are vitalizing, and creative. We need contending and alternative voices.

But what I do expect and hope for -- is that people will listen to each other -- that they will learn to hear, across the borders and boundaries of expectations and assumptions -- that I as a person will begin to understand YOU as a person -- not in terms of the image or model I build of you, or the interpretation I create of you -- but you as you are, you as you speak to me, you in the words you choose, for the reasons that are right for you.

I tried to say in my message -- that I heard something special in her voice. Who cares what channel it was on? I would call any reaction to that alone something like "prejudice". Sorry.

What is important today -- is that we hear the voice of love, and learn to recognize it. Shall we justify closing off to one another because people across some border, on the other side of some fence, don't fit some pre-conceived model we may have of what everybody is supposed to look like?

Today, we need a creative and imaginative response, that builds relationships across the boundaries of traditional uncertainties.

We must learn to recognize the voice of love and trust, wherever it is found. And if we want to build a world that is safe for all of us, and for all our children -- we must build unity with these voices, with these "other" perspectives, that we have not yet learned to understand, who speak for reasons we have not yet grasped, in languages we don't yet know...

So -- who is to say who is in this GTW group? What is "progressive"?

Is "love" progressive? Is "truth" progressive? Are "kindness and compassion" progressive? Is "wisdom" progressive?

I would hope so.

And I credit Jennifer O'Neil with the breadth of soul and understanding, to reach across these boundaries, to "speak the language of the other" -- to "do in Rome as the Romans do". That, to me, speaks of greatness of spirit, of depth of heart. These are certainly virtues I hope to see in our emerging new leadership.

Thanks for your comment.

:)

love,

------ On 8/4/06, Desiree Gruber wrote ------

Yikes!!! Bruce, I am spiritual as well, but TBN is a fundamentalist Christian network. The teachings on that network are frequently about women submitting to men and other oppressive ideologies for women. I'm sure Jennifer is a wonderful woman, but I wouldn't want someone who finds Trinity Broadcasting as an appropriate forum for her message to be leading a group of progressive women.

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