{"id":3781,"date":"2015-06-26T08:50:44","date_gmt":"2015-06-26T15:50:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/?p=3781"},"modified":"2015-06-26T08:50:44","modified_gmt":"2015-06-26T15:50:44","slug":"a-good-week-for-progress-and-the-power-of-whats-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/2015\/06\/a-good-week-for-progress-and-the-power-of-whats-next\/","title":{"rendered":"A Good Week For Progress, and the Power of “What’s Next”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Can we just take a moment and count the ways in which this has been a week of good news?<\/p>\n

Especially since it followed a week of such heartbreak and tragedy\u2026 \u00a0\"running\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Sometimes the good news wins the newsfeed, and you just want to savor it. So let\u2019s talk about how the Supreme Court said \u201cYes\u201d to Affordable Care <\/a>. After years of legislators acting like 2-year-olds in a fight over the last cookie, the right to access medical care when you are sick, without having to sell your house and declare bankruptcy, is now the law; a basic human right in America.<\/p>\n

And then let\u2019s talk about how the state of South Carolina is finally making a move to remove symbols of hate and violence from state property.<\/a> Before some folks start whining about free speech, let\u2019s just remember that nobody is saying YOU, your own backward self, cannot hang the flag from your front porch if you want to. But leaders on both sides of a deeply divided aisle agree\u2013this is not a part of our collective history to be celebrated. And anything that hurts so many people, so deeply, should not be proudly displayed by government entities.<\/p>\n

And THEN\u2013as though the Supreme Court\u00a0said, \u2018Hey, this country needs a break from all the NRA\/Sam Brownback\/Donald-Trump-Mightbeournextpresident moments of despair. So let\u2019s go ahead and throw them a bone and legalize\u00a0Marriage Equality.\u00a0<\/a>\u2018<\/em><\/p>\n

And there was much rejoicing.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

It seems as though we\u2019ve been hacking away at this for several years now\u2026 Small victories and signs of hope here and there until finally, this ruling should seem anti-climactic. But it doesn\u2019t. It very much feels like a very big day that we will celebrate for a long dang time. For those who have been writing\/preaching\/marching\/teaching equality for years, this feels like permission to\u00a0rest for a brief moment\u2026\u00a0Before we start planning all the FABULOUS WEDDINGS.<\/p>\n

Still\u2013I can\u2019t help but think \u2018what\u2019s next?\u201d In the wake of all this progress and that which, for most of us, seems like a season of tremendous hope\u2013what is the next horrible thing we can expect for those who DON\u2019T see this as good news?<\/p>\n

Klan rallies in public squares? Continued refusal by states to expand medicaid?<\/p>\n

A thousand subtle ways of legalizing discrimination of LGBT folks, in the name of\u00a0\u2018freedom of relgion?\u2019<\/p>\n

We\u00a0know it\u2019s coming. The last, violent death cries of those who want to see certain groups of people \u2018kept in their place,\u2019 and will fight to the death for the sanctification of their own privilege\u2026<\/p>\n

The truth is, those people will do what they will do, and maybe we can\u2019t stop it. But as we celebrate good news today, maybe the better\/more productive question might be, \u201cwhat\u2019s next, FOR US?\u201d For the self-proclaimed voices of progress and equity? Where is the next space for forward-motion, the next invitation making the world look a little more like the kingdom of God?<\/p>\n

So yes, we take a moment\u2013maybe a big long moment, maybe all weekend\u2013to celebrate today. (EVEN THOUGH the vote passed so narrowly<\/a>, I want to go write a STRONGLY WORDED EMAIL to some entitled dudes in robes). But then, we will take all this new freedom and harness it for the next fight, the next hopeful word, the next big discussion on the human interest scene.<\/p>\n

What is your next frontier? For me, it is time to finally\u00a0find\u00a0the chink in the armor of the NRA. It is time to recognize that guns DO kill people\u2013and in our country they kill appalling masses of people. Time to say that \u2018freedom\u2019 does not feel like freedom when we are teaching lock-down, live shooter drills to 1st graders.<\/p>\n

The next big thing is dialogue about race, privilege and violence.\u00a0Matters\u00a0that cannot be legislated or \u2018fixed\u2019 with yes and no votes\u2026 but can be transformed through honest and faithful discourse, all the same.<\/p>\n

Or how about taking a swing at issues of economic injustice; frozen minimum wages, zero taxation on corporations, and the gross acquisition that we celebrate as gospel in this country. Are we finally ready to place some boundaries on the systems that supposedly amount to\u00a0prosperity\u2026but only at the expense of the most vulnerable?<\/p>\n

We have to ask these questions in a rare moment when we witness that progress is not just possible\u2026it\u2019s inevitable. The only thing slowing it down is apprehensive silence.<\/p>\n

When you think about your \u2018what\u2019s next\u2019\u2013whether it is guns or the economy or something that is near and dear to your own heart\u2013remember this day. Remember this day when you get tired, or frustrated, and you are tempted to wallow in the smallness of your voice. Remember this week when you think it is hopeless.\u00a0Good news is coming.\u00a0<\/em>Keep saying what\u2019s true, keep pushing boundaries, keep speaking for the least of these, and we will have more days like this. We will have more good weeks in the newsfeed.<\/p>\n

Remember that a few decades ago, black children could not go to school with white children. Nobody thought they could talk about that.<\/p>\n

Remember that a few weeks ago, that symbol of \u201csouthern pride\u201d in the ownership of other humans flew over government buildings.<\/p>\n

Remember the\u00a0run-up to the election years when talking about healthcare got\u00a0you laughed off the stage.<\/p>\n

Remember how just yesterday\u2013just yesterday\u2013gay people could not marry who they loved.<\/p>\n

Do you remember that? It was not so long ago.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll remember, so we don\u2019t forget. We\u2019ll remember, so we don\u2019t tread that dark path backwards into our own history. But then we\u2019ll look ahead, because that\u2019s what progress is. We will look up the road, and we will keep moving. Because sometimes, when we feel our voice is small\u2013\u2018what\u2019s\u2019 and \u00a0\u2018next\u2019 are the most powerful words in our lexicon.<\/p>\n

#lovewins #always #hallelujah<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Can we just take a moment and count the ways in which this has been a week of good news? Especially since it followed a week of such heartbreak and tragedy\u2026 \u00a0 Sometimes the good news wins the newsfeed, and you just want to savor it. So let\u2019s talk about how the Supreme Court said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1154,"featured_media":3782,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nA Good Week For Progress, and the Power of "What's Next"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Can we just take a moment and count the ways in which this has been a week of good news? Especially since it followed a week of such heartbreak and\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/2015\/06\/a-good-week-for-progress-and-the-power-of-whats-next\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Good Week For Progress, and the Power of "What's Next"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Can we just take a moment and count the ways in which this has been a week of good news? Especially since it followed a week of such heartbreak and\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/2015\/06\/a-good-week-for-progress-and-the-power-of-whats-next\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Irreverin\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-06-26T15:50:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/333\/2015\/06\/running-e1435333102715.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"411\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Erin Wathen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Erin Wathen\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/2015\/06\/a-good-week-for-progress-and-the-power-of-whats-next\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/2015\/06\/a-good-week-for-progress-and-the-power-of-whats-next\/\",\"name\":\"A Good Week For Progress, and the Power of \\\"What's Next\\\"\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-06-26T15:50:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-06-26T15:50:44+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/#\/schema\/person\/d952aeacf2fb5d80629d6718167a6013\"},\"description\":\"Can we just take a moment and count the ways in which this has been a week of good news? Especially since it followed a week of such heartbreak and\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/2015\/06\/a-good-week-for-progress-and-the-power-of-whats-next\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/2015\/06\/a-good-week-for-progress-and-the-power-of-whats-next\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/2015\/06\/a-good-week-for-progress-and-the-power-of-whats-next\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"A Good Week For Progress, and the Power of “What’s Next”\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/\",\"name\":\"Irreverin\",\"description\":\"Seeking the sacred in family, culture, politics, and sometimes, even ministry.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/#\/schema\/person\/d952aeacf2fb5d80629d6718167a6013\",\"name\":\"Erin Wathen\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b74f7ca70483103d7b13738306adccf4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b74f7ca70483103d7b13738306adccf4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Erin Wathen\"},\"description\":\"Rev. Erin Wathen is a published author, a Certified Nonprofit Professional, and an ordained pastor in the Christian Church, (Disciples of Christ). She lives in Louisville with her husband and two children.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/author\/erinwathen\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A Good Week For Progress, and the Power of \"What's Next\"","description":"Can we just take a moment and count the ways in which this has been a week of good news? Especially since it followed a week of such heartbreak and","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/2015\/06\/a-good-week-for-progress-and-the-power-of-whats-next\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A Good Week For Progress, and the Power of \"What's Next\"","og_description":"Can we just take a moment and count the ways in which this has been a week of good news? Especially since it followed a week of such heartbreak and","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/2015\/06\/a-good-week-for-progress-and-the-power-of-whats-next\/","og_site_name":"Irreverin","article_published_time":"2015-06-26T15:50:44+00:00","og_image":[{"width":600,"height":411,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/333\/2015\/06\/running-e1435333102715.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Erin Wathen","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Erin Wathen","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/2015\/06\/a-good-week-for-progress-and-the-power-of-whats-next\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/2015\/06\/a-good-week-for-progress-and-the-power-of-whats-next\/","name":"A Good Week For Progress, and the Power of \"What's Next\"","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-06-26T15:50:44+00:00","dateModified":"2015-06-26T15:50:44+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/#\/schema\/person\/d952aeacf2fb5d80629d6718167a6013"},"description":"Can we just take a moment and count the ways in which this has been a week of good news? Especially since it followed a week of such heartbreak and","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/2015\/06\/a-good-week-for-progress-and-the-power-of-whats-next\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/2015\/06\/a-good-week-for-progress-and-the-power-of-whats-next\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/2015\/06\/a-good-week-for-progress-and-the-power-of-whats-next\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A Good Week For Progress, and the Power of “What’s Next”"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/","name":"Irreverin","description":"Seeking the sacred in family, culture, politics, and sometimes, even ministry.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/#\/schema\/person\/d952aeacf2fb5d80629d6718167a6013","name":"Erin Wathen","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b74f7ca70483103d7b13738306adccf4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b74f7ca70483103d7b13738306adccf4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Erin Wathen"},"description":"Rev. Erin Wathen is a published author, a Certified Nonprofit Professional, and an ordained pastor in the Christian Church, (Disciples of Christ). She lives in Louisville with her husband and two children.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/author\/erinwathen\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1154"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}