A Concise Theology of Love.: Death Row Ruminations (Keith LaMar & Jeff Hood)
This concise theology of love was constructed by The Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood (Dean, The New Theology School) after a recent night of dialogue/conversation with Ohio Death Row philosopher, Keith LaMar. Of particular consequence, is Hood’s consistent interaction with Lamar’s slogan, “Love is the only freedom.”
Let’s reset. Let’s breathe. Let’s love.
There is a need to breathe.
What does love look like? Visualize. Love.
There is a need to think.
Love comes to us in the earliest of places. Love comes to us in our villages. No matter where we move or where we go…love is there. We take our villages with us. Love is community. Love is acceptance. Love is us.
There is no love without us.
Love is a place for us all to begin. Love is a place to build a community. Has such a place ever existed? It can. We are all connected. We are all responsible for each other. Your child is my child. Your mother is my mother. Your hope is my hope. The beginning of the loving community is to realize such things…and work to make them more real every day. Our realist reality is love…everything else is fake.
There is nothing real besides love.
Love is the only freedom. Love is our only freedom from the fake. Love is not easily achieved but it is always better than the alternative…denying truth. When we choose to other people we are choosing to deny who they are…their truth. That’s why we got so much hate in this world…so many prisons. The goal of love is to be free and to make others free. Love is freedom’s oxygen. Without love there is no ability to breathe. So, it makes sense that it is also true that love and freedom are one and the same. So, when you have love you have freedom. That’s why nobody can imprison you…you’re always the one who imprisons yourself. Our primary desire must always be to cling to our only freedom…our love.
There is no way out without love.
There is freedom in learning to love yourself…perhaps that’s where all freedom begins…or ends. The problem is that we got so many people running around talking about love and freedom who have never taken the time to think about love and freedom. How can you talk about love and freedom when you spend every day talking about hate and bondage? Love is freedom from the hate and bondage within.
There is no way in without love.
Love is also change. In fact, it speaks to our stamina with regards to change. Do we love enough to work to find the truth? Do we love enough to work to uncover the truth? Do we love enough to work to be the truth? Do we love enough to change? Do we love enough to fight for freedom…for love?
There is no way without love.
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