Building the beloved community
January 1st, 2018
The Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke of the beloved community—a community where all are welcome and where human dignity and worth are the main criteria.
The beloved community is a place where everyone is valued and every gift appreciated. Not only are differences in people accepted. Differences are needed, wanted, and highly valued.
We treat each other as founders of, planners in and major donors to this community of love and respect.
The beloved community receives people wherever they are with reverence. The people who make up the beloved community build mutual trust and interdependence.
No one is left out in the beloved community. We all look for ways to accommodate one another. We seek to bridge the gaps. We learn to excel as bridge-builders, as peace-makers and as peace-keepers.
Citizens of the beloved community believe in the inherent good of our neighbors. We really treat everyone else as we would want to be treated were roles reversed. We stand up for the human rights of those around and within us.
Beloved community members are intentional and deliberate in our understanding of others, listening more than we talk, of truly hearing what our neighbors are saying (and sometimes of what they are not saying).
What are some other characteristics of the beloved community?
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