[Tension & Renewal - X]
Our first encounter with religious truth—our first “conversion,” if you will—creates in us a deep need to align ourselves with big T truth. We change our habits, distance ourselves from our vices, and disassociate with sources (and people) of toxicity.
It’s natural that as we take seriously our new understanding of this Truth we judge the world by its tenants. This is why most religious people I know are also the most committed to a harsh justice system, clear moral boundaries enforced in schools and public spaces, and the most public in their opinions about how decrepit the world has become.
At some point we experience a second “conversion." Our moral superiority melts. The confidence we have in retributive justice and upholding moral standards softens. And we begin to see our first reactions to the decrepit world was merely a reactive coping mechanism to our own inner decrepit state. That which triggers us "out there" is a mirror for what we wrestle with "in here.”
Spiritual renewal like the latter is gentle, patient, and self-reflective. It holds an increasing amount of space for others. Not a gavel.
