Commitments Large and Small<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Thorn Coyle has a new essay on her blog titled \u201cTheologies of Justice\u201d where she discusses some of the Catholics she\u2019s worked with and their deep\" \/>\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\/johnbeckett\/2011\/03\/commitments-large-and-small.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Commitments Large and Small\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Thorn Coyle has a new essay on her blog titled \u201cTheologies of Justice\u201d where she discusses some of the Catholics she\u2019s worked with and their deep\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/03\/commitments-large-and-small.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-03-25T20:53:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/03\/commitments-large-and-small.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/03\/commitments-large-and-small.html\",\"name\":\"Commitments Large and Small\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-03-25T20:53:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-03-25T20:53:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad\"},\"description\":\"Thorn Coyle has a new essay on her blog titled \u201cTheologies of Justice\u201d where she discusses some of the Catholics she\u2019s worked with and their deep\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/03\/commitments-large-and-small.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/03\/commitments-large-and-small.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/03\/commitments-large-and-small.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Commitments Large and Small\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/\",\"name\":\"John Beckett\",\"description\":\"Musings of a Druid, Pagan, and Unitarian Universalist.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad\",\"name\":\"John Beckett\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"John Beckett\"},\"description\":\"I grew up in Tennessee with the woods right outside my back door. Wandering through them gave me a sense of connection to Nature and to a certain Forest God. I\u2019m a Druid graduate of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, the Coordinating Officer of the Denton Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans and a former Vice President of CUUPS Continental. I\u2019ve been writing, speaking, teaching, and leading public rituals for the past eleven years. I live in the Dallas \u2013 Fort Worth area and I earn my keep as an engineer.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/author\/johnbeckett\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Commitments Large and Small","description":"Thorn Coyle has a new essay on her blog titled \u201cTheologies of Justice\u201d where she discusses some of the Catholics she\u2019s worked with and their deep","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\/johnbeckett\/2011\/03\/commitments-large-and-small.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Commitments Large and Small","og_description":"Thorn Coyle has a new essay on her blog titled \u201cTheologies of Justice\u201d where she discusses some of the Catholics she\u2019s worked with and their deep","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/03\/commitments-large-and-small.html","og_site_name":"John Beckett","article_published_time":"2011-03-25T20:53:00+00:00","author":"John Beckett","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"John Beckett","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/03\/commitments-large-and-small.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/03\/commitments-large-and-small.html","name":"Commitments Large and Small","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-03-25T20:53:00+00:00","dateModified":"2011-03-25T20:53:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad"},"description":"Thorn Coyle has a new essay on her blog titled \u201cTheologies of Justice\u201d where she discusses some of the Catholics she\u2019s worked with and their deep","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/03\/commitments-large-and-small.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/03\/commitments-large-and-small.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/03\/commitments-large-and-small.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Commitments Large and Small"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/","name":"John Beckett","description":"Musings of a Druid, Pagan, and Unitarian Universalist.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad","name":"John Beckett","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"John Beckett"},"description":"I grew up in Tennessee with the woods right outside my back door. Wandering through them gave me a sense of connection to Nature and to a certain Forest God. I\u2019m a Druid graduate of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, the Coordinating Officer of the Denton Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans and a former Vice President of CUUPS Continental. I\u2019ve been writing, speaking, teaching, and leading public rituals for the past eleven years. I live in the Dallas \u2013 Fort Worth area and I earn my keep as an engineer.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/author\/johnbeckett"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1129"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":283,"date":"2011-03-25T20:53:00","date_gmt":"2011-03-25T20:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/03\/commitments-large-and-small\/"},"modified":"2011-03-25T20:53:00","modified_gmt":"2011-03-25T20:53:00","slug":"commitments-large-and-small","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/03\/commitments-large-and-small.html","title":{"rendered":"Commitments Large and Small"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Thorn Coyle has a new essay on her blog titled \u201cTheologies of Justice<\/a>\u201d where she discusses some of the Catholics she\u2019s worked with and their deep commitment to social justice. She references Archbishop Oscar Romero<\/a>, who was assassinated 30 years ago in El Salvador, as well as priests and nuns who have gone to jail in this country for protesting nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n

Many of the comments on Thorn\u2019s blog emphasize that Paganism doesn\u2019t need martyrs \u2013 a position I\u2019m inclined to agree with. A few martyrs can inspire a movement \u2013 a lot of martyrs can literally kill it. But the real question isn\u2019t about martyrdom. <\/p>\n

The real question is what inspires us to deep, sacrificial commitment? <\/p>\n

The Catholics Thorn mentions didn\u2019t wake up one morning and decide \u201cI think stopping nuclear weapons is so important I have to do whatever it takes to end them, even if that means going to jail.\u201d That level of commitment started years before, and it started small. It grew with practice, and caused the practitioners to order their lives in such a way that extreme action became a real possibility. <\/p>\n

A few years, a few injuries and more than a few pounds ago, I used to run \u2013 I ran a marathon in 1999 and another in 2003. You don\u2019t wake up one morning and decide to run a marathon. You train for it. Depending on your beginning level of fitness, you may train for a full year for one race. Running 26 miles is a challenge even for elite athletes, but if you train both hard and smart, almost anyone can do it.<\/p>\n

At least with a marathon you\u2019ve got a fixed date to plan for. Spiritual challenges tend to pop up with little advance notice. If you haven\u2019t trained, if you haven\u2019t practiced, you won\u2019t be ready to respond as you\u2019d like to respond. <\/p>\n

What small steps are you taking now? Spiritual practice? Community involvement? Mindful living? Devotion to our goddesses, gods, and ancestors? Devotion to the Earth and to the whole Universe? <\/p>\n

There is a need to articulate the theologies Thorn mentions, theologies that will inspire us to deep commitments. But the deep commitments will never be made if we don\u2019t first make ordinary commitments right here right now.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"