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{"id":3577,"date":"2016-05-12T09:04:50","date_gmt":"2016-05-12T14:04:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/teachingnonviolentatonement\/?p=3577"},"modified":"2016-05-12T09:04:50","modified_gmt":"2016-05-12T14:04:50","slug":"a-coal-miner-turned-prophet-speaking-truth-to-hillary-clinton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/teachingnonviolentatonement\/2016\/05\/a-coal-miner-turned-prophet-speaking-truth-to-hillary-clinton\/","title":{"rendered":"A Coal Miner Turned Prophet: Speaking Truth to Hillary Clinton"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"Clinton$ <\/a>Hillary Clinton has been harshly criticized for this statement she made during a CNN Town Hall discussion, \u201cWe\u2019re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.\u201d<\/p>\n

The comment has been used against Clinton in an attempt to show that she doesn\u2019t care about coal miners. It has plagued her candidacy, especially in West Virginia where the economy is largely dependent upon coal.<\/p>\n

Politifact<\/a> rightly asserts that the statement has been taken out of context. Clinton actually claimed,<\/p>\n

I\u2019m the only candidate which has a policy about how to bring economic opportunity using clean renewable energy as the key into coal country. Because we\u2019re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business, right? And were\u2019 going to make it clear that we don\u2019t want to forget those people \u2026 We\u2019ve got to move away from coal and all other fossil fuels, but I don\u2019t want to move away from the people who did the best they could to produce the energy that we relied on.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

It should come as no surprise that Clinton was taken out of context. Unfortunately, that happens to politicians on a routine basis in our hyper partisan soundbite culture.<\/p>\n

But the sound bite came to a head last week when registered Republican\u00a0Bo Copely<\/a>, a West Virginian miner who recently lost his job, confronted Clinton during a round table discussion. Looking Clinton in the eyes, Copely handed her pictures of his family as he tearfully expressed his grief about losing his job \u2013<\/p>\n

When you make comments like, \u2018We\u2019re gonna put a lot of coal miners out of jobs,\u2019 these are the kinds of people you are affecting \u2026 This is my family, and now my hope is in God. That\u2019s my future.<\/em><\/p>\n

It would be easy to accuse Copely of taking Clinton\u2019s words out of context, but something else important happened during this confrontation.<\/p>\n

Many of us on the left and the right have been struggling with how to be a prophetic voice during this heated political season. It\u2019s a misunderstanding of the prophet to think they are primarily interested in seeing into the future. Rather, the primary role of the prophet is to speak truth to power. And the truth that the prophets speak is the truth of the victim.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s also a misunderstanding to think that prophets are full of divine rage. Many modern-day-wanna-be-prophets simply channel their anger against their political opponents. But rarely does that rage ever bring someone to repentance.<\/p>\n

Bo Copely is the kind of prophet that we need. He didn\u2019t attack Clinton with divine wrath; rather, he came to her with tearful vulnerability.<\/p>\n

And to her credit, Copely\u2019s vulnerability broke Clinton\u2019s heart. She listened attentively to Copely. She did defend her statement as being taken out of context, but she didn\u2019t get defensive. Instead, she empathized with him.<\/p>\n

I think Clinton\u2019s reaction had a lot to do with the way Copely confronted her. It\u2019s precisely because he didn\u2019t attack Clinton that she was able to listen to him, and even\u00a0apologize<\/a> for her remark.<\/p>\n

We need more prophets like Bo Copely. We need people to transform our anger into a vulnerability. Because it\u2019s that vulnerability that speaks truth to power in a way that those in power will be able to listen.<\/p>\n

Image: Bo Copely talking with Hillary Clinton. Screenshot from YouTube.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Stay in the loop! Like Teaching Nonviolent Atonement on Facebook!<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"