Thanks Katy! For me, I think of self love as self care; internal efforts we make to tend to our souls and lives so that we can live the life God has called us to live. I think of self interest as focusing on the needs of me, myself and I, and not thinking about those of my neighbors; a self-orientation that doesn’t ask much of myself. I think of the distinction as the travelers that passed the injured person by rather than the good samaritan who stopped, tended to his needs and gave of his own time and resources to bring God’s care and healing. I’m curious how you’d define the distinction between self serving and self love!

Thanks Chris. Yes I agree that so much of Christianity is self-oriented; a personal gospel about meeting my needs, rather than a gospel that seeks to address systems and structures that are set up so only some of us might flourish. It’s a both-and gospel – Jesus came to bring both personal and social transformation. I think in our guardrails / litmus test above, we are hoping to offer personal and systemic questions so folks can lean into both sides/angles of the transformative work of the gospel.

Thanks so much Brigid! I appreciate your encouragement in wanting to be a part of a community like this; come on over to Boston and you can join us 🙂

Thanks Kassandra! I do hope that it’s true that once we see what is broken we will work for change. I fear that the way we ‘diagnose’ brokenness can lead us to work to change that is actually counterproductive (i.e. those that are seeking to reduce national debt by improving government efficiency but actually causing greater wealth inequity). I am hoping to offer systems questions above as I think when we see the bigger picture this can be mitigated.