Discernment is a word most understand and desire. One might say a cousin to wisdom; God given insights beyond knowledge itself.
Human imagination, on the other hand is at best creative and at worst, fantasy. When driven by religion, man's attempt at moral behavior, raw imagination can be tragic long term.
Spirtual imagination (think little "s"), is a product of religion, that when fueled by passion and untamed zeal is the enemy of wisdom and discernment. Imagination looks at external situations and attempts to design a better way. That sounds positive, but without true spiritual discernment, one can create systems that when institutionalized, are then internalized by institutional adherents. Fantasy becomes our reality.
I share all this given where Christendom seems to have taken us in America. As one writer says, as far back as Constantine, we replaced the Christ with power and politics, justified colonization, even genocide, adopted slavery as scriptural and now bear the pain of all our spiritural fantasies.
Those systems are now failing us as the fruit of our unrighteous imagination comes full circle, after generations of denial and human suffering.
The good news is that we can now see our error, the first necessity for true change and long term transformation. Now the challenge is the energy to prayerfully walk together toward a new day, one that will demand the release of many long held convictions, generationally reinforced by our institutions.
A journey treacherous without true discernment.
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