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Secret No More
Jequa has a secret follower. You remember Jequa… the computerized doll we
acquired last spring. When Jequa became part of our program, I gave him an
email address and put his photo on our website, inviting folks to take him
seriously as a teacher. Someone apparently has done just that. This morning
I got an email indicating that Jequa has a secret follower. Seriously.
Just what does a secret follower do, we might wonder... Are they like private
investigators paid to spy, to follow at a distance, close enough to
glean a few details and damning evidence, but distant enough never to be
noticed? (That is apparently not the case, or he/she would have noticed
Jequa is a cute-but-not-so-cuddly computer.) Are they more like groupies,
getting a buzz from the association with someone famous? (No again; the
only buzz is more like a burp or some other simulated bodily function.)
Anyway, either one of those is way different from disciples, not at
all secret, but following closely enough to get the whole picture, closely
enough to be moved, closely enough to be changed. Jequa's secret follower is
on a dead-end street. Jequa is still a doll – programmed to need attention.
He needs to be fed, diapered, rocked, pampered and held. His computer makes
a notation if he is shaken, placed on this stomach, ignored. He has no
independent thoughts or passions or revolutionary slogans. What’s to follow?
Whatever our faith practice, there is likely someone or something
beckoning us to follow – Jesus, Torah, Muhammad and others. In this
political season, there are folks asking us to follow them. Ideas,
slogans, passions abound. Do we know enough? Are we following closely enough
to know? Do our faith and our politics call us in two different directions?
Hard as we may try to separate church from state and vice versa, faith
questions and political questions are not really easily separated. It's the
tension of our lives. UrbanSpirit is dedicated to reconciling the two -- or
bringing the tension into the open. No secrets here, just open conversation
about things of immense importance.
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