Samara Powers - Articulate Ramble

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Guest Spot on Revolutionary Prophecy

Podcast "Revolutionary Prophecy" invites Samara to speak on CPE, seminary, transformation, and prophetic spiritual care

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8. Epilogue, Fractal Five: Visitation by a Paradox

In the throes of labor with my first child and in that deeply meditative state that only childbirth has ever evoked in me, I seemed to perceive a presence in the room that I have since lovingly and jokingly referred to as “The Cosmic Placenta.” In my mind, it appeared

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7. Fractal Four: Climate Hospitableness...The End?

Theologian Constance Wise said that “the tension between stability and novelty is one of the most important concepts in process thought.”[1] I have applied that idea using brown’s fractal concept to three major staging areas: personal, interpersonal or proximal communal, and distal communal. The fourth level, the global

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6. Fractal Three: The Distal Community (or, Collaborating for Change)

Social psychologist and researcher Jonathan Haidt gave a TED Talk in 2008 that proved to be a defining moment in my shift toward understanding the relationship between individuals, trust, polarization, and politics. Called “The Moral Roots of Liberals and Conservatives,”[1] the Talk offered accessible metrics about the various moral

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5. Fractal Two: The Proximal Community (or, Hospitality At Home)

The next iteration of complexity involves understanding yourself within a small, proximal system, such as families of origin and choice. This increased relational complexity necessitates skill-building with respect to power dynamics, impact and accountability (however the family system defines it) to foster harmony and continued hospitality. Given the foibles of

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4. Fractal One: Hospitality Within

I have experienced polarization within myself, identifying as an outlier in multiple contexts: Financially, affectionally, with regards to gender, health, and ability/disability, and neurologically. In every case, I felt as if I were perpetually caught between worlds – not fully female, but with enough passing-privilege to be not fully non-binary,

Text of the poem "Small Kindnesses" by Danusha Lameris, readable here: https://www.danushalameris.com/poems

3.The Ministry of Small Things, A Methodology

There are several interconnecting staging areas of concern where polarization can take root, ranging from personal, to interpersonal, to sociopolitical/communal, to global. These areas can be reconciled with each other via adrienne marie brown’s conceptualization of the fractal nature of existence[1] as described in her book Emergent

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2. The Redemption of Hospitality

How can we recover our understanding of difference, not as dangerous and destructive, but as a sustainable, relational cycle of excitative tension intended to facilitate life in all its complex expressions? Polarization is, at its heart, a high-amplitude crisis of inhospitableness. This has reflected in the macrocosm as a fundamental

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1. The Crisis of Polarization

This is the first installment in a multi-part series on the constructive theology behind a "Ministry of Small Things." In 2016, Business Insider published research results investigating the trends in voting practices of the House of Representatives over a 60-year period. The decreasing levels of bipartisan cooperation and