No Questions Asked

“In my life, I have received this big, engulfing, no-questions-asked love. From old church ladies who winced at my blue hair but loved me anyway; from my ‘Do we have to talk about feelings?’ little brother when I was shattered into depressed, weeping shards on the kitchen floor and he sat beside me…I am broken yet beloved. In all the moments when I needed love but didn’t deserve it, hadn’t earned it, couldn’t appreciate it—love enveloped me, a bounty without end.” -Kate Landis, from Stubborn Grace: Faith, Mental Illness, and Demanding a Blessing

When have you received no-questions-asked love?

Love and the Carceral State

The dominant U.S. culture justifies its addiction to mass incarceration by asking us to believe that people have forfeited their worthiness and dignity when they do something wrong (or are blamed for having done something). A culture of love asks us to open our hearts to the humanity of those imprisoned.

Can you imagine a society that is not dependent on mass incarceration? What would need to change to make it a reality?

Love Transcending Barriers

Systems of power and oppression rely on the separation of humanity to replicate themselves. Every “us” needs a “them” to oppose and be superior to. Practicing love as the central part of our faith asks us to transcend these barriers: borders, identities, and prison walls.

How have you witnessed love transcend human-made barriers?