A tweet from a local prophet got me thinking today. To offer a little context, there’s been a consistent effort to persuade Governor Bill Lee to behave like an equal among his constituents in Tennessee since the beginning of our pandemic. In partnership with our legislature’s Republican majority, his office ordered the Tennessee Highway Patrol to stand guard against citizens waiting to speak to him outside the Tennessee State Capitol at all hours and confiscate their supplies. When they kept declining to disperse (and I’ll mention that I occasionally joined them), Governor Lee and our legislature eventually changed our law to criminalize nonviolent protest outside our Capitol at night. In short, Governor Lee’s fear of conversation with particular Black people appears to have cost Tennesseans millions of dollars in THP overtime and a special legislative session which made us all less free. One of the most publicly prominent leaders of that effort was/is local prophet Justin Jones. This is his response to the call to stop asking Governor Lee to meet with Black leaders and/or remove the white supremacist terror idol outside his office and/or issue a statewide mask mandate and instead pray following news that his wife, Maria Lee (who I consider a friend), has now contracted COVID.
"The Beyondist Personality often charges others with being hysterical or hyperpartisan or filled with rage while insinuating that a frenzy is a-foot on "Both sides," but never—See how this works?—ones own thinking or doing."
This is an excellent synopsis. So much hides in the word "extreme." It's like calling something "big," which is always a relative descriptor (is it big to a child, to an ant, to a galaxy?). The middle, or the beyondist, is just as extreme when viewed from any number of vantage points.
Thankful for the witness of both y'all.
Not thankful for the photo at the top #nightmares
"The Beyondist Personality often charges others with being hysterical or hyperpartisan or filled with rage while insinuating that a frenzy is a-foot on "Both sides," but never—See how this works?—ones own thinking or doing."
This is an excellent synopsis. So much hides in the word "extreme." It's like calling something "big," which is always a relative descriptor (is it big to a child, to an ant, to a galaxy?). The middle, or the beyondist, is just as extreme when viewed from any number of vantage points.